16: Daycare

Many Lifetimes in a Moment of Time
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"No! I'm not finished!" A little girl holds tightly onto a coloring book.

 

"But you aren't using the right colors Seungwan!" Another little girl, a little taller than the first, grips the other edge.

 

The two are in a desperate battle over the shared coloring book. Seungwan had picked up the book since no one else was playing with it, but once the room caught wind that she was coloring in it, suddenly the coloring book was no longer an ignored item.

 

Their tug of war resulted in each other spinning in circles trying to gain leverage. Unfortunately, the shuffling feet ended up knocking down Seungwan's favorite crayon box and a few extra steps broke a few of the crayons. The power balance was even until Seungwan got distracted by the destruction of her beloved coloring utensils. Her grip failed her and due to the speed of their spinning, Seungwan flew backward and flew to the ground, scratching her knee.

 

"I can't believe you were coloring Elsa's hair green." Her rival disappearing without caring for Seungwan's current status or the crayons she just destroyed.

 

Seungwan wanted to cry. She was going to cry. She was just robbed, her possession was damaged and her knee hurt really badly. Tears pooled in her eyes and she was sniffling, but she remembered her what her daycare teacher asked of her.

 

Seungwan was the oldest child signed up at this daycare despite also being one of the smallest. She also had been going there for half her life, three years, so Mrs. Kwon asked Seungwan to be her little helper and to be a good example for the other kids. When Mrs. Kwon asked her of this, her eyes widened and shined at the new responsibility given to her.

 

So instead of crying, she began to clean up the mess that was made during their squabble. It was a little hard as her vision was blurred from her tears and she was still sniffling. She felt a prick at her heart every time she saw another crayon snapped in half, but soon enough the 128 crayons were returned to their rightful place. Some broken pieces are thrown away.

 

As she finished up, she saw Mrs. Kwon on her knees talking to a girl she didn't recognize. No other adults were in sight, so she must have been dropped off and new. Seungwan wiped away her tears with the back of her forearm, picked up her crayon box, and walked to the girl with a sense of responsibility.

 

Mrs. Kwon could see Seungwan walking over with a smile. "That is Seungwan, she is my little helper." Mrs. Kwon said in a loud enough voice to encourage Seungwan and hint to her she is doing the right thing.

 

Seungwan was always told to smile when meeting someone new, so she put on the best smile she could before reaching the pair. "Hello, Mrs. Kwon."

 

"Hi there, Seungwan. Were you just coloring?" Mrs. Kwon took notice of the crayon box Seungwan was holding, but must have missed the fight she got into.

 

Seungwan looked at the girl she fought with. She struggled to keep her smile, especially since the girl had dropped the book on the floor and was currently playing with some dolls. "Yes. Mrs. Kwon."

 

"Good for you." Mrs. Kwon ruffled Seungwan's short hair. "I would like for you to meet Sooyoung here. She is five years old."

 

"Five and a half." In reality, she was five years and two months, but with a generous rounding up, it was close enough.

 

"Sorry, five and a half."

 

"Hello Sooyoung, I'm Seungwan, I'm six. Just six." Seungwan bowed her head.

 

Once again, despite being older Sooyoung stood a solid half a head taller than Seungwan.

 

"Why are you sad?" Joy said deadpanned. 

 

Both Seungwan and Mrs. Kwon looked at Sooyoung curiously. Seungwan thought she was smiling. Mrs. Kwon could see she was smiling. What was Joy seeing?

 

"Seungwan, did something happen?"

 

Seungwan looked at Mrs. Kwon confused before shaking her head.

 

"Okay, well, can you show Sooyoung around?"

 

"Of course Mrs. Kwon!" Seungwan chirped, grabbing Sooyoung's wrist and dragging her to the cubbies.

 

"I need to put these away first."

 

Sooyoung grabbed the box before Seungwan can put it away.

 

"Hey! Those are mine!"

 

"What happened to them?" Sooyoung examined the box and saw a footprint on it. When she opened it, she saw a few half-stubs stuffed down into the supposed empty spots.

 

"They broke," Seungwan said nonchalantly.

 

"Did you break them?"

 

"No?"

 

"Did someone else?"

 

"Umm, yeah, but it's okay!" Seungwan said brightly while grabbing the crayons and putting them back. "Let me show you around!"

 

The daycare had a lot of activities for the children to do. Video games, board games, an arts and crafts corner, legos, and many more. The parents certainly hoped there was plenty of stuff to do since they were paying good money to send their children there. 

 

"And that's that! So you can do whatever you want! If you want to play the Switch, you might want to go now though, there is usually a long line."

 

"What are you going to do?"

 

Seungwan was already halfway to turning around when Sooyoung's question froze her in her spot.

 

"Oh, umm. I was going to practice my singing for show and tell today." Seungwan said shyly.

 

"Can I join you?"

 

"You don't want to watch a movie or play with the others?"

 

Sooyoung looked back and scanned the room. "Not really."

 

"Then sure!" Seungwan felt a smile grow on her face.

 

Seungwan first went to her cubby to grab her music player she got from her older sister and then dragged Sooyoung to a quiet corner of the room. There wasn't a designated area for something like this, so Seungwan sat on the floor in a mostly unused space.

 

As Seungwan was looking through her music for the song she planned on singing, she felt a weight sit right next to her, ignoring any personal space that might exist.

 

"So there is a show and tell here?" Sooyoung bent forward to look at Seungwan in the eyes who had her vision on her music player.

 

"Yep. Every Friday after lunch."

 

"I didn't bring anything though."

 

"It's okay, you don't have to do it. It's just for fun."

 

Sooyoung mouthed an "oh" before leaning on Seungwan to see what songs she is looking at. "Bo-Ah?"

 

Wendy looked at Sooyoung enthusiastically, her face much closer than she thought. "Yea! BoA! She is my favorite. Have you heard of her?"

 

"No." Wendy pouted at the unexpected answer. "But I'd like to hear her if possible."

 

It was easy to please Wendy. She nodded her head and looked for the song she planned on singing. "A… B… C… D… E… F… oh whoops, E!"

 

"Every Heart?" Joy took the earbud Wendy was offering.

 

"Yup! I'm going to sing this song. It's not the most popular, but I've already sung all the other songs… But that doesn't mean this one isn't good!"

 

Joy let her eyes glaze over so she could concentrate on the music. Her head began bobbing before she knew it.

 

"You like it!" Wendy jerked her head to animatedly celebrate the success of spreading the name of BoA, but it yanked the earbud out of Joy's ear.

 

"Hey! The song isn't done."

 

"Oh sorry!"

 

This time, Wendy managed to not pull out the earbuds, but she was positively vibrating in anticipation as she showed Joy song after song.

 

"Alright! Everyone, it's time to eat lunch, and then we will prepare for Show and Tell!" Mrs. Kwon declared to the room.

 

There was a good burst of kids who rushed towards their cubbies to grab their lunch. But a few wanted to finish what they were doing before grabbing some munchies. Joy and Wendy were the last two to move from their spot.

 

Mrs. Kwon towered over the two and an intimidating shadow covered them. The two slowly looked up at the same speed.

 

"Come on you two, it's time for lunch."

 

The two kids looked at the tables and saw everyone sitting already.

 

"Oh." Both said in unison.

 

Sooyoung was the first to stand up and dragged Seungwan to get their food and eat. There weren't too many spots open, but they managed to find a seat together. Wendy was unpacking her lunch.

 

"A peanut butter and jelly sandwich, juice, carrots, and a cookie! What do you have?" Wendy looked at Joy.

 

"I have some chicken nuggets, water, celery, and-" As Joy was placing her celery down, she spotted a hand creeping towards Wendy's cookie. "Hey!" With ninja-like reflexes, she grabbed the wrist of the nabber, but the owner of the wrist started crying. 

 

Joy's eyes trailed to the source of the notice, the body attached to the wrist she was holding. It was the smallest girl in the room.

 

"Sooyoung! It's okay!" Seungwan ran around the table to hug the little girl. "Shh, Yerim, it's okay." The girl was full-on bawling now and everyone was looking.

 

Sooyoung was also freaking out. "Yerim! I'm sorry!" Sooyoung went to the ground, lower than Yerim's standing height. With a comforting hug and an apology from the ground, the little girl calmed down before Mrs. Kwon had to step in.

 

Yerim was sniffling and rubbing her eyes while looking at the new girl. "Yerim?" Sooyoung asked and the little girl slowly nodded her head. "I'm sorry."

 

"See Yerim-ah, Sooyoung is sorry. She didn't know we trade my cookie for your fruit every day." Seungwan hinted to Sooyoung what had happened.

 

In the smallest voice, "It's okay Sooyoung-ah."

 

"You're such a good little girl!" Seungwan rubbed her nose into the girl's cheek and Yerim began laughing. "Do you want to eat with me and Sooyoung? Is that your lunch?" Wendy gestured towards and lunch box and Yerim nodded.

 

Everything went back to normal. S

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WenJSRx2
20 Upvotes and 100 Subs! My OCD thanks you all! I'm now done! And with good timing with that Weekly Idol preview! I'll see you guys later! (Probably a lot later because I have nothing new started lol)

Comments

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thisisthien
#1
Chapter 21: there's so much fluff here. i can't even. thank you WenJSRx2

- your loyal supporter
wizi1_
#2
Chapter 1: IT. ING. HURTS.
hangryeats #3
Chapter 21: this is a fantastic collection
Vicheca
#4
Chapter 9: I really love this Wenjoy collection. The scarcity of wenjoy fanfics is really depressing so a collection like this, not to mention the alluring way of writing, is a gold mine.
Gowther75 #5
Chapter 21: I don't know how many times I've read this collection and I still have the emotions that I felt when I first read this. I really love the even chapters especially the "the cursed tutor" and "take my photograph", these just toooo sweeeeettt and adorable. Thank you for writing a wenjoy story. (:
toffee_zeyer
#6
Chapter 21: Author, I'd like to thank you for sharing this WenJoy collection. There is a lack of WenJoy stories available, but this collection of yours just made up for it.

The Odd Couple stories were funny, but sweet nevertheless; while the even chapters were meaningful and genius, especially that finale which connected everything. I rarely enjoy oneshots as I feel like they were not enough to convey a full message, but this collection just proved me wrong.

I'm glad I read this.
shootroot16
#7
Chapter 12: Irene! Close your damn eyes! xD
27jenlisa16
#8
Chapter 6: thank you for writing this wenjoy collection. I just really love their pairing and how their opposite personalities complement each other well and how you write them so well. Thank you!
xiahmixtin
#9
these are all good, thanks for writing and sharing them :)
p_ha_ine
#10
Chapter 19: I found myself liking your separated stories more than the odd couple saga. I like this chapter as well.