Wheein rocks on the balls of her feet, nervously scratching against the thick cloth of her jean overalls as she watched the people scuttle about the living room. She thinks she knows all of the men and women in the room, their faces certainly spark a sort of familiarity though she could only name a good handful. They all seem to know her though, having called her by name when they first saw her hanging around the corners or hiding behind her mama’s legs. Some even gave her lollies which she had happily pocketed after bashfully saying her thanks.

Still, Wheein hung around the walls and hid in corners, too bashful to come out. She settled for watching the party for a little bit, trying to see how many people she could actually put a name to the face.

The first that her eyes caught was her aunt Irene sitting on the couch, a very pretty glass in her hand half-filled with some sort of red juice that came from a bottle her mama usually hid at the highest shelf. Aunty Irene was a frequent visitor to their little home. She was the designated babysitter for Wheein when both her parents’ works required them to stay in office for longer lengths of time. It was a regular occurrence for the woman to quiz the three year old things that were way over her level of comprehension, like the multiplication table or how to read the analogue clock. However, getting an answer right was quite rewarding- coming in the form of candies and ice cream treats- and who was Wheein to deny her sugar craving.

Sitting beside her, animatedly chattering with her hands swinging around her was auntie Wendy. Wheein liked her auntie Wendy the best, though she knows not to say so outright, especially with auntie Irene around. The woman often sneaks her biscuits and sweets when no one was looking and was more than happy to play along with Wheein when she visited. She asked lesser, simpler questions, which the three year old was glad not to strain her brain trying to figure out answers.

Also present, sitting as another group, were her weird aunts Hani, LE, and Solji. She didn’t understand them most of the time. They were the type to fight and argue on a daily basis, but they were almost always together so Wheein thinks their fights are like her parents. They had massive fights and made up just as easily. They also speak funny with her sometimes, mostly her aunt Hani, but she’s fun to be around so Wheein doesn’t mind.

The last she could properly identify was weird uncle Heechul fluttering between the other guests as if he was the host of the party. Her parents told her not to believe everything uncle Heechul says because he tells half-lies. Wheein doesn’t understand how people can tell half-lies. Her mommy tells her half-lies aren’t full out lies and have truth to them. Wheein thinks people can’t tell half-lies because lying is lying. You can’t say you have an apple but not have an apple. Even a little bit of apple is still an apple so it’s not a lie. When Wheein tells her teacher this she only laughs and says she’ll understand when she’s older. Wheein argues that she is older. She is older than when she was last year. Her teacher laughs harder so Wheein stops asking her.

Adults are weird, Wheein decides, but still, she was excited to be one herself. They were weird, but they were also cool and were allowed to do things she was told not to. She continues her silent observation, sticking close to the corner so she could make a quick exit in case the other guest decides to turn their attention to her.

She was not the most trusting three year old.

“Wheein-ah, are you done? Can we play now?” Wheein snaps out of her observation, her round, chocolate brown eyes falling to her chubby cheeked best friend. Hyejin had her lips pursed into a pout, obviously not having fun with all the adults trying to talk over each other. She complains softly about the lack of a fun song playing, rolling her eyes exaggeratedly as she makes a show of exactly how boring she found adult parties. Wheein thinks it is a bit dull, but since it’s not her birthday party she wouldn’t complain. At least her mommy let her invite a few friends over to play with.

She gives the room one last scan, making sure her mama still hadn’t come back from whatever it was she said she needed to go to the grocery for. Wheein happily takes Hyejin’s outstretched hand and together they head to her room.

As soon as they enter Wheein finds Seulgi comfortably sitting on the floor, a serious look on her face as she fills in the colouring book in front of her. Wheein had always liked filling in colouring books and was about to sound her thoughts, but Hyejin seems to have other ideas as she feels the tugging on their linked hands.

Wheein shuts , moving her gaze to Hyejin staring off to something in front of her. She follows the direction Hyejin was looking at to the small plastic table she had proudly put together all by herself (under her mama’s silent supervision), filled with the tea party set Wheein had gotten as a prize for the star on her workbook. The four plastic seats that came with the table were occupied by Jeonghwa and Hyerin with a couple of stuff toys that, Wheein has no doubt, would soon be replaced by Hyejin and herself.

Hyejin nudges her side and, after sharing a quick wordless conversation, Wheein lifts a hand up, motioning a few quick flicks of her wrist exactly as she’s seen time and time again. There was a slight tingle at the tips of her fingers that almost made Wheein giggle as the magic coursed through her. She watched carefully as the Teddy bear and the unicorn doll slowly lift their heads, black, beady eyes meeting hers before they slink out of the chairs they were occupying, dragging their cotton stuffed bodies to the small pile gathered at one corner of the room.

“Wheein, that’s rude!” Jeonghwa complains while Hyerin looks on with wide eyed excitement, waving goodbye to the retreating dolls.

Hyejin crosses her arms, bottom lip jutting out as she shakes her head. “Wheein and I want to play too.”

Jeonghwa crosses her arms over her chest and scowl, not at all pleased. “But you can’t just make Teddy and Uni go because you want to play.”

Hyejin puffs her chest upwards, trying to look bigger though everyone in playschool knows Jeonghwa was easily taller than her by a finger. The disadvantage never bothered Hyejin and she pressed forth with her attitude. “You want to fight me?”

“Wheein, can you make them dance too?”

Wheein doesn’t break her focus until the two dolls fall in a lifeless heap and the fluid flow of energy abated from coursing through her skin. It has always amazed her how easy magic came to her. Hyejin had always whined how she couldn’t do the same things Wheein could, though Wheein disagrees with the thought. When Hyejin sang, whatever it may be, Wheein always found herself unable to think, much less even look away. Whenever Hyejin sang, Wheein feels like she has no control of her body, and all she can think about is Hyejin. She thinks that’s even more amazing than wriggling her fingers and making her stuff toys walk around.

Shaking the last few tingles in her fingers, Wheein chews her bottom lip absently as she checks the reaction of her peers. Hyejin had already sat at the vacated seat, ignoring the glares Jeonghwa was giving her while Hyerin was pretending to fill another cup for Hyejin. Seulgi hadn’t bothered to look up, but when Wheein spots the open doorway she tenses.

Her mommy had forbade her from using magic without either her or mama present. It was their family’s little secret after all.

Nervously gripping the ends of her shirt, Wheein padded to the door, poking her head out to check if anyone had seen. She stood still, ignoring her squabbling friends, watching for anyone lurking around the corner. Still a little wary she shut the door completely, practicing a bit more caution as her parents have often told her.

“Wheein, come play.” Hyejin’s call snaps her out of her thoughts. Her ears perked, her earlier wariness forgotten at the thought of playtime and she grinned toothily. She cheers loudly, laughing as her own loudness startled Seulgi out of her colouring daze. Wheein grabs Seulgi by her hand and pulls her to the vacated chair around the small table.

Wheein stops scooping ice cream into at the sound of her mama calling out to her. She perks up from the small circle of friends surrounding the pint of ice cream, a wide, gummy smile pulling at her cheeks as she scrambles to get up, dropping her spoon on the table, ice cream forgotten. She charges up to the woman with a shocking blonde head of hair, shooting her small body towards the open arms of the woman with a loud squeal. “Mama!”

“Ough! Baby girl you’re getting a little heavy.” Moonbyul complains as she lifts the girl up so she could comfortably settle the weight against her hips. Moonbyul chuckles as she gently wipes the bits of left over chocolate cream on her daughter’s chin. “And I see you and your friends have found the ice cream.” She gives Wheein a disproving look, though Wheein knows her mama isn’t really mad.

“Uncle Hee gave Wheeinie the ice cream because we’re all good girls.” Wheein explains grinning. She happily wraps her arms around her mama’s neck, nuzzling her head under the woman’s chin. She could smell a mix of her parent’s shared apple shampoo and the unmistakable smell of dog. “Mama, you smell like Daebak.”

A kiss was pressed firmly against Wheein’s forehead and when Moonbyul pulled back she lifted her head to give her mama a responding kiss to her chin. “Yeah, well Daebak was being a naughty boy. I think our resident pupper misses you!”

Wheein bounces against Moonbyul’s waist at the thought of playing with the excitable puppy. Her eyes glimmer with excitement and joy as her small hands come up to cup the sides of Moonbyul’s face, squishing her cheeks a little in the process. “Can we go see Daebak?”

“Maybe later baby. You know Hyejin is allergic. You don’t want Hyejin to get sick, do you?”

Wheein pouts as she shakes her head, her arms dropping to her side. She loved the energetic little fluff ball like a brother, but she would be very sad if Hyejin got sick because of Deabak. “No.. I’ll play with Daebak later.”

“Atta girl.” Moonbyul chuckles, coming down to her knees to set Wheein back on her feet. She combs the little strands of baby hair from Wheein’s face, lovingly giving her pinkish cheeks a quick pinch. “Mommy’s opening presents for the baby. I think now is the best time for us to give mommy and baby their present.”

Wheein lets out a small gasp, eyes widening with excitement as she grips Moonbyul’s hand with all of her strength. “I wanna give! I wanna give!” Wheein bounces on her toes, twisting around with a little too much force, her eyes searching the room for the hiding place of the gift she had picked. She and her mama had secretly gone out weeks before to look for gifts for the baby’s party. It had taken a lot of effort for her not to run to her mommy with the gift in hand. But today was the day.

The moment her eyes fell on the closed closet door she dashed over, swinging the door wide open and pulled the clutter of jackets and pants she had thrown over the gift wrapped present. She held it over her head, proudly showing her mama how she’d kept it untouched after promising she wouldn’t even look at it until the day the party came.

She doesn’t wait for Moonbyul’s signal and Wheein rushes back out to the throng of people gathered in their living room, forgetting for the time being that she was shy.

“Mommy! Look! Look! Mama and I got the baby something!” Wheein announces loudly, waving the present she held over her head as she squeezed past the last obstructing leg. She stops short from her excitement, the warnings of being careful around the large baby bump of her mommy’s tummy ringing in her head. She hops on her spot instead, gift still raised and obscuring half of her laughing mommy’s face from her view. It’s only when Moonbyul takes the gift from her could she see the tears running down Solar’s flushed face and Wheein’s smile turns into a worried frown.

“Mommy, why? Are you hurt?” She approaches carefully, gently placing her small hands over the spot she thinks she last felt her little sibling. There’s a resounding aww from the small audience gathered around them and Wheein, snapping out of her excitement, shirks closer to her mommy’s side, remembering to be her usual shy self. Solar’s fingers card through Wheein’s short, curly locks as she rubs away the tears with the other.

“No baby. Mommy’s just too happy.”

“Then why are you crying?” Wheein mutters, lifting her head just enough so her vision is only focused on her mommy’s pretty face.

“Oh, baby, they’re tears of joy. It’s like when mama tickles you a little too much and you start tearing up.”

“Ohh..” Wheein hums, tilting her head sideways to hide her face from the guests while pressing her ear to better hear the muffled heartbeats of her sibling. She doesn’t understand, but she’d let it go this time. She’s much to comfortable where she is that she doesn’t mind the noises the other adults were making.

By the time everyone has gone home Wheein can barely keep her eyes open. She rubbed at them, hoping to stay up a little bit longer. But being cradled in her mommy’s arms, listening to the steady hums as she walks back and forth was quickly putting Wheein to sleep. She hadn’t had her mommy carry her since they found out about the baby, but for whatever reason that day, her mommy had wanted to carry her as soon as the first yawn took over Wheein’s restlessness.

Wheein hadn’t thought she’d miss being carried by her mommy. She had her fill when her mama carried her whenever she got too tired when they were out. Plus, Wheein was a big girl, she didn’t need to be carried as much, even though she still secretly liked being put on the shopping cart stroller or when her mama put her over her shoulders. She was a big girl. But she couldn’t deny she felt very comfortable where she was.

She yawned again, humming when she felt her mommy’s hand holding the back of her head. She nestled her face into the nook of her mommy’s neck, wrapping her arms a little tighter around her mommy as her eyes were feeling too heavy to keep open. She could hear her mama talking softly, but she was feeling fuzzy all over all she could feel was her mommy’s warmth and the kisses they press on her forehead.

This was also a sort of magic, Wheein thinks, because Wheein is sure there is nowhere else she could feel as safe, warm, and well-loved as she is in her mothers’ embrace. And she thinks that's amazing.

~~~

A/N: Babies are just too precious. Wheein is just too precious. Writing a baby Wheein fic is.. ´͈ ᵕ `͈ ♡°◌̊