For a moment, all you could do was blink owlishly at the equally confused pair of eyes looking up at you.

It was well past midnight, and on normal days you would have been completely knocked unconscious on your side of the bed. Honestly speaking, your significant other was the lighter sleeper between the both of you. And yet here you were, having a stare off with this dog- child on top of your couch.

“Uh..” You intoned, eyes flickering to the open bedroom door. Surely your fiancé would not approve of being woken in the middle of the night on a work day just so you could make sure you weren’t hallucinating or seeing things in your sleep haze. Lowering your tone you carefully tread closer, stilling when the child curled back in instinct. The wild look in its eyes coupled with the frantic way its iris shifted from one side to the other clued you into its frightened state. The fact eased your trepidation somewhat. If it was scared of you, why should you be of it?

“H-hello.” You say softly, hoping your words wouldn’t scare it away.

It seems to understand you, its ears twitching forward as it looks right back at you. The browns of its eyes somewhat remind you of the same ones you’ve fallen in love with, hidden in the depths of sleep now.

“Hi.” You start again, lowering yourself to get within eye-level of the child. You push up your thick glasses up the bridge of your nose, looking over the child. You’re not quite sure of its gender, or even if it could speak your language, or if it would even attack you. You swallow tightly, the possibilities running through your now alert mind. Maybe this wasn’t such a hot idea, but still, there was something about its eyes that drew you in.

“Where’s your mommy?” You ask. You don’t dare make another movement, not yet. Pressing your lips together you hope it would answer you in any way.

It tilts its head to the side, seeming to think of an answer. Finally, it looks up at you, a little less reserved now. “Mo- mom-my?” It parrots in its soft, childlike voice.

Your eyes widen and a smile pulls at your lips. “Yes.” You nodded your head, glad to be able to connect with the child. “Where is your mommy?”

“Mommy..” It says again, leaning back to straddle the headrest of the couch. One of its fingers goes to its mouth, at the appendage and something in your mind clicks. You haven’t that much knowledge in children. You’ve never had to deal with them since you were the youngest in your family. The faintest memory you had of a child you had to deal with was in grade school when you played at the playground with a mix of all the school children during recess. None as young as this one seemed to be.

Your fiancé should have a better idea, having been the eldest child in her family. Whenever she visited her siblings she had often youngest sister of her having to take care of her when she was a toddler. She had shared with you how it was like when you asked about having younger siblings. Yes, she would definitely have more intimate knowledge on how to deal with this, but that would mean having to rouse her from sleep and you really didn’t want to do that.

“Do you know how old you are?” You try once again as you hold up five fingers. You doubt, just by how they looked right now, that the child was over three years, but you hoped.

Your hopes were dashed when the child confusedly holds up her own hand.

“How.” The child chimes. Definitely not over three years. Not for a regular human child anyway.

Your eyes shift up to the pair of dog-like ears twitching with every noise. You had only ever read of people like this one in fantasy books. They were children of different species, ones that you were so sure you would never encounter in this reality. They were nothing but myths, something for fantasy fanatics to have long debates about, or put into role-playing games like dungeons and dragons.

You fall back to your bottom, holding a hand to your forehead. You squeeze your eyes shut, hoping when you open them again you’d wake up in bed. Because this was absolutely crazy. It questioned everything you’ve believed to be reality.

But wasn’t this something you’ve always dreamed of? The dream of a fantasy world you used to drown yourself in when you read those fantasy books and the rare times you played those online games with your fiancé practically screaming at your side. Excitement bubbled in you and you opened your eyes, looking up at the couch.

You don’t see the child.

Pushing up to your knees you look over the couch, from one side to the other. The child doesn’t appear. You feel both relief and a sense of disappointment.

You sigh and decide not to think much more of it and push up, dusting your pyjama pants off whatever was left on your carpet. You make a mental reminder to vacuum the place tomorrow when you get the time.

“Mommy?” The childlike voice halts your action. You swivel on the balls of your feet, looking around for the source of the voice.

What you meet instead is the eyes of your confused fiancé and you freeze in your spot. “Byul.”

“Yong, what are you doing?” she asks incredulously, scratching sleepily at her stomach.

“Nothing.” You respond, hastily making your way towards her. You lean in, pressing a quick peck to her cheek, passing a quick look behind her to your room to see if the child had made their way into the room. “What are you doing up? Did I wake you?”

“No. I was feeling thirsty.” She rasps, punctuating her sentence with a quiet cough. She hadn’t been in the best of health lately. You look her over caringly, lovingly taking her hand in your own to lead her to the kitchen. You make her sit on one of the bar chairs around the kitchen island as you go in search of a glass.

“So, what were you doing?” Byulyi asks you when you pad back to her with a glass of water. She takes the glass, smiling appreciatively and downs the drink. You watch her as she finishes half of the glass and settles it on the counter.

“Nothing. I thought I heard something.” You reply, leaning back on the counter to give the place another once over. You’re still not sure if you’ve been sleepwalking all this time.

You hear her chuckle. “You? Waking up because you might’ve heard something? I thought that was my job?” She jokes, knowing how deep of a sleeper you really are. You had slept through an earthquake and woke up disoriented in the morning when you saw picture frames and various other knickknacks on the floor. “Well, if that really was true, then why were you calling out mommy in a child-like voice?”

The smile on your face drops and your eyes widen. “I- I didn’t.” So it wasn’t a dream.

“Mommy.” The child chimes. Byulyi, noticing your pursed lips, jumps off the chair in fright. She had always said she wasn’t one to scare easily, you would have laughed at her now but your eyes were too busy staring at the head popping up from in between the couch cushions. Had the child been there this whole time?

“Whose child is that?!” Byulyi hisses angrily, throwing a slap at your arm. You finch back from the sting of the attack but keep your eyes trained on the child looking curiously between the two of you.

“Unnie. Explain. Right now.” Byulyi demands. You ignore her, wrenching your arms back when she tries to pull you away. You know she would probably think you were being insolent and she would most likely sulk later, but your attention was focused on just the child now. You inch close, slow enough not to startle the young one, but not too slow that Byulyi could react fast enough to scare the child away.

“Hey there. I thought you left.” You reach a hand over, hesitating when the child looks at your outstretched hand. You only move when the child seems to reach over for your hand. Its hand is so small compared to your own, its whole hand could still just wrap around your thumb, it amazed you that beings this small even existed.

Fortunately, it seems to find you non-threatening as it continues playing with your hand. You hesitate when an idea crosses your mind. It seemed like a natural thing to do, and it certainly wasn’t the first time you’ve done it. Not to a child, but to cats and dogs, but really, there wasn’t much of a difference.

Very carefully you hook your hands underneath its armpits, pulling it up and towards your chest. It freezes, but soon its back to playing with your hand, lifting one of your fingers into the side of its mouth to chew on. You could just faintly feel small blunt teeth just coming out of its gums as it continues to gnaw on your finger.

“You’re a lot younger than I thought. Still growing your baby teeth.” You coo at it softly. You remember someone mentioning something about babies teething and their penchant for gnawing at things to relieve the ache in their mouth. “It must hurt.” It looks up at you, pulling its mouth away from your finger to give you a smile with the five baby teeth it currently had presenting something else your eyes are quickly drawn to. “And you have a cute dimple too.” You press a finger against its cheek, the child laughing and reaching for your prodding fingers.

“Unnie.” The sound of Byulyi’s voice calls you back to reality.

Right. How were you supposed to explain this?

“Uh…” You start oh so eloquently. Byuyi doesn’t look like she’s noticed as she is now staring at the pair of dog-like ears twitching delightfully.

“Are those real?” She pads softly towards you, eyes focused on the child in your arms. The child looks up, startled that Byulyi was now up close, just barely a couple of feet away. Byulyi, you think, is wise enough not to come all the way close. It was the middle of the night and the last thing they needed was anyone getting injured or a loudly wailing child.

The child tilts its head. Byulyi mirrors its action, set into a completive pout as she squints her eyes to get a clearer view. Your fiancé’s eyesight wasn’t as horrible as your own, but she was getting there if she won’t stop staring at the computer for so long.

The child fidgets in your arm, small hands around your shirt to get to a better sitting position. It looks up at you, ears moving back when it brushed against your shirt.

“Mommy.” It said, pointing at you. You stare back at it, then at your equally confused fiancé, your mouth opening and closing, perfectly imitating a fish out of water. But then the child moves its pointer finger down, now pointing at Byulyi and repeats the word. “Mommy?” It looks up at you, almost like asking for confirmation. When you don’t answer it looks to Byulyi for answers, repeating the word again.

“I- Is that the only word the kid knows?” Byulyi laughs nervously.

You shrug your shoulder. The little one peers up at you at the movement, fumbling around to get up to your shoulder where it happily hangs around your neck. It reminds you of a red panda you’d seen at the zoo with Byulyi a few months back.

“Can we keep her?”

“W-wh-what?” You sputter. You send Byulyi a flabbergasted look, but the younger woman was too busy trying to grab the little one’s attention to even see the look on your face. You sigh as you gently pry the little being from around your neck. The little one doesn’t put up much of a fight and you set it back down on the couch where it quickly flops onto the cushion like a rag doll. You’re not quite sure if that was alright, but Byulyi curiously peering at it from an arm’s length away eases your worries.

“It’s not a pet, Byul.” Not really, you think as your eyes go to the pair of doggy ears.

“I know. But what are we supposed to do? She’s got dog ears. How are we going to explain that?”

“What do you mean “explain”? To whom?”

“The government?” She looks at you, one eyebrow cocked, a hand going to the back of her neck- probably to massage the tension you were sure was settling with the middle of her brows crinkling like that. “Child services? I don’t know. If we turn her in they’re going to have questions. Besides, we obviously can’t just leave her like this.”

“Wait. Her? How would you know it’s a girl? It could be a boy for all you know.”

“Better than referring to her as it.” Byulyi snaps back. You immediately clamp up knowing there was no winning this argument.

“Well… she looks like she's cared for.. I mean..” You gesture at the baby’s mostly clean tee and pants. “She doesn’t smell or anything.”

“Then where did you pick her up from?”

“I didn’t pick her up from anywhere. I just found her there.”

“Who left her here then?”

You run a frustrated hand through your hair. Why was she asking you all these questions? As if you knew anything. It was way too early for the both of you to get into another one of your petty arguments. “I don’t know. I woke up, came out here when I heard something and found her on our couch. That’s all I know.”

Byulyi looks at you judgingly. You just shake your head, rubbing at your temples to convey your annoyance. You did not want to start this early. You could feel your eyes starting to burn as a yawn is drawn out your mouth. “Can’t we just do this in the morning?”

“Okay.” She says, going on her knees to shuffle closer to the little one. All the excitement of the night must have tired the little one out as she lazily turns her head towards Byulyi. Byulyi puts on something you fondly called her hamster smile as she carefully places one hand over the little one’s thigh, gently tapping her side to lull her to sleep. The little one blinks tiredly, opening to let out a yawn.

“Aw, is it bedtime little one?” she coos, gently scooping the little being into her arms. The little one doesn’t fight but instead snuggles into the crook of Byulyi’s arms, her little hand gripping at the loose shirt.

You almost want to rush into your room to get a camera at the cute sight. You never really thought about children, but looking at the two, it just seems right to you. You can’t help the wide smile painting your tired face as you silently watch your fiancé quietly head to your room.

You don’t say anything when she places the little one in the middle of your bed, or when she starts arranging the pillows to fence her in. You carefully return to your spot on the bed, watching the love of your life gently running her hands over the little one’s tummy. You watch until your vision blurs and your breathing evens out and you think that was such a precious sight and you don’t think you would ever forget that little image.

You’re not sure what happens when the sun rises, but you figured this mommy thing doesn’t sound so frightening after all.