“YERIM!”

Wendy banged her knee jumping up from the table she was using as a makeshift office. She ran, slipping and sliding down their wood floors toward the loud and possibly enraged voice of her wife.

“Joohyun, baby, what’s going on?” she panted as she swung around the doorway into their daughter’s room.

Joohyun was suspiciously still, standing in the centre of the room and looking forlornly at the wall next to Yeri’s toddler bed.

Wendy followed her gaze and saw tiny Yerim, paintbrush in hand, cowering in the corner of the bedspread next to her impromptu wall mural.

Every piece of the wall that Yeri could reach was covered in wet paint. Truly, it was amazing how much was affected given her tiny stature. It was every colour that Yerim must have had in her art drawer. There was no discernable design, other than perhaps the obvious use of as many colours as possible, most mushed into the next and appearing varying shades of an unpleasant brown.

Joohyun was now distinctly shaking as she processed the damage to their daughter’s room. When they had been waiting to adopt Yeri, Joohyun had taken it upon herself to paint the child’s room, claiming it was a motherly duty. Wendy remembered Joohyun working long into the night to ensure everything was as perfect as she wanted it to be. And now her labour of love had been overwritten by their little girl.

Yerim was always more scared of Joohyun’s discipline than Wendy’s. Hence the toddler currently trying to squish as much of her tiny body as possible into the stuffed animal pile at the end of her bed.

Wendy looked between her two girls and figured she had better step in. Softly, she pulled Joohyun into her body, trying to comfort her wife. When she felt Joohyun loosen a little, she murmured, “I’ll handle this baby. I’ve made tea in the kitchen if you would like to go get some”, gently steering her wife toward the door.

Joohyun actually went without fuss, which surprised Wendy, who then rounded on tiny Yerim. The little girl was only visible by her incriminatingly paint covered hand, sticking out beside the oversize teddy bear she had used for cover.

Wendy sat down on the edge of the tiny bed, and began, “Yerim, we need to talk darling…”

 Joohyun was exceptionally happy. It was Friday night, she and Wendy were both home at a reasonable hour, and the family was altogether in the kitchen cooking their supper. While she grilled meats, Wendy was trying to show Yeri how to safely cut up the vegetables. It was going as well as could be expected with a 5 year old wielding a (safety) knife.

“Yeri remember what I said about your fingertips!” Wendy was chiding anxiously from behind Joohyun, who simply snorted. She had been listening to Wendy fret over Yeri for the past 10 minutes, from the handling of the knife to the shape of the cut vegetable pieces.

Eventually, they were ready to assemble the meats and vegetables into the soup broth. Wendy was letting Yeri dump in the seasonings, and the little girl was b with glee at playing chef. Usually, Wendy pre-measured such things so Yeri could simply drop the whole amount into the soup safely. It seemed today was the next step in Yeri’s culinary education, however. Wendy was allowing Yeri to pour from the seasoning containers directly.

Joohyun placed the cuts of meat into the liquid which was lowly simmering. Wendy dropped the veggies in as Yeri began to dash some garlic powder into the broth. Like the little copycat she was, she kept sampling the broth like her moms did as she added the ingredients. However, no one was stirring the whole pot and Yeri felt the broth lacked taste.

From the corner of her eye, Joohyun saw Yeri widen the opening of the container. What happened next seemed to all occur in slow motion, and she was just in time to watch the catastrophe unfold. She saw Wendy take notice. She saw the entire contents of ground garlic drop silently through the air, into the pot, and into their broth. She saw Wendy’s mouth open in a strangled scream, and Yeri’s in a devilish grin, pleased with her handiwork. She saw the ruin of their meal but all she could do was laugh.

Joohyun cackled as they all observed the soaking lump of garlic powder in their pot. Yeri began to join her mom, and eventually Wendy laughed too.

“Happy Birthday dear Yeriiii…. Happy Birthday to youuuuu!”

Wendy and Joohyun sang to their daughter, presenting her with a homemade cake that Yeri had actually decorated after pestering her mothers long enough. It was covered in purple icing and something that vaguely resembled a unicorn.

A few of her school friends had come over for her party (Yeri had managed to make many friends in her first year at the performing arts school, no surprise to her moms).

They served the cake, the kids ran around the living area, and Yeri received some lovely purple themed presents from her friends.

After, Wendy tucked Yeri into bed, exhausted from a day of activities which centred on her. As they cleaned up in the evening, Joohyun entered the kitchen and found Wendy snacking on a different cake than the leftover birthday cake they had made together for Yerim.

“What’s this, love?” Joohyun asked, pointing to the lovely but tiny cake.

“I made you a carrot cake, so that you could have some cake today too,” her wife responded, smiling wide.

“Hey! Then why are you here alone in the kitchen, eating a cake you made for me?” Joohyun asked, acting shocked and affronted.

“Because I knew if I did, you would be sure to find me and we could share it together,” Wendy chuckled.

Scoffing, Joohyun served herself a piece, looking dreamily at her exhausted wife who had managed to bake a whole other dessert just for her. Exhausted as they were from watching over Yeri and her posse all afternoon, Joohyun found enough energy to scoop some icing from her cake and swiftly paste it onto her wife’s nose.

Wendy almost grunted in surprised response, causing Joohyun to laugh as she took off around the kitchen island before the younger woman could catch up to her. Eventually she did though, and Joohyun ended up with icing on her forehead.

Joohyun retaliated quickly, swirling around in Wendy’s grip and landing some icing just above Wendy’s lip.

“No fair!” Wendy whined, “I’m all out of ammo!”

Joohyun simply sunk into her wife in laughter, relaxing into her embrace as their game came to an end. They swayed together in their kitchen, enjoying each other’s company. Eventually, Joohyun looked up again, chuckling at the icing still there on her wife's face.

Softly, she leaned in to ‘help’ Wendy clean off the icing, gently taking her wife’s upper lip between her own and pulling the icing into her own mouth. Wendy followed up with a proper kiss, and they made out in the kitchen for a couple of minutes before admitting how tired they really were.

“I love you, Bae Joohyun,” Wendy whispered.

“I love you too, Son Seungwan,” Joohyun smiled back.

Wendy ran quickly through the parking garage next to Yeri’s school. She was late to meet her wife, who had already arrived with their daughter for the semester parent meeting. Wendy couldn’t stand disappointing her wife, and so despite her high heels, she ran as fast as possible toward the school doors.

Thankfully only 5 minutes late, she was able to catch the end of the crowd entering the school auditorium. She quickly spotted Joohyun, as she was waiting to the side of the door with Yeri and not yet seated.

“Hi! Thank you for waiting!” Wendy rushed over to pick up Yeri in a big squeezing hug, more to annoy the feisty girl than anything.

“Mooooomm!” Yeri whined, while Wendy ignored her daughter’s squirming.

 “Hello darling,” Joohyun smiled, taking Wendy’s free hand as she put Yerim down and they sat together for the yearly introductions.

The auditorium was filled with well-to-do parents and their children, giving off a stuffy vibe at an event meant to bring the school community together. As Wendy sat through the speeches of mildly interesting people, she absentmindedly kept rubbing her thumb gently over the back of Joohyun’s slim hand.

From behind, she heard a loud cough. Wendy leaned closer to her wife to avoid whatever was going on with the woman behind their seats. As the speeches began to drag on, Wendy brought her wife’s hand to her lips for a sweet kiss. Joohyun looked over to her, smiling, though Wendy was distracted again when the woman behind her loudly cleared .

As the principal finally dismissed everyone from the auditorium to visit the children’s classrooms, Wendy quickly stood up, eager to leave the dusty space. She wrapped her arm around Joohyun as they exited their seats, Yeri bouncing along in front. Before they could take one step out into the main aisle, the woman from the row behind their seats pushed in front of Yeri, pointedly looking back at Joohyun and mumbling, “Disgusting”.

Wendy connected the dots between the loud, seemingly intentional coughing and this woman’s remark. She also observed, following behind the woman, the girl that Yeri had fought at school when she first started. Wendy felt Joohyun clench her hands, and she could sense the oncoming storm. Typically, Joohyun chose to not engage with hateful comments, but she could never let things pass in situations when Yeri was involved.

In a cold but calm voice, Joohyun asked “What did you just say, ma’am?”

Traffic began to back up around the pair of families as Joohyun entered a face-off with this disapproving mother.

The woman wouldn’t physically face Joohyun, simply turning her head backward and stating more clearly, “I said, it’s disgusting you two women together.”

The woman tried to advance, but enough people had overheard the altercation that the crowd wasn’t really moving, most nearby parents and children watching the exchange with wide eyes.

Wendy didn’t know what Joohyun would do. Joohyun never totally lost it, her anger was always quiet and deadly scary. However, they were beginning to make a spectacle and Yeri loved this school. It would be a shame for some parental drama to create a hostile environment for their daughter.

Joohyun straightened up, placed her hands on Yeri’s shoulders, and began to steer them forward through the crowd and out of the auditorium. As she moved, she stated, almost unemotionally, “The only disgusting thing here is the hate you are teaching your daughter.”

Wendy followed quickly, adding “Please leave our family alone, or we will have to take stronger action,” and she gave the woman a disapproving glare.

Everyone let them pass and no one said a thing the rest of the evening about the incident, including Yeri. However, she came home the next day from school, brandishing a piece of paper.

“What’s this Yeri?” Wendy asked, as Joohyun gathered with them on the couch.

“I don’t know, I thought the school always emailed important stuff but they asked us to bring home this paper to our parents. Mission accomplished!” Yeri yelled as she the paper onto her mom’s lap and took off to her bedroom.

Joohyun read over Wendy’s shoulder, realizing the page informed parents of a school code of conduct that applied to the children and parents. Surprisingly progressive, it specifically mentioned the expectation to tolerate and support couples like Joohyun and Wendy.

The next week, Yeri informed her moms that the girl who harassed her about having two moms had transferred to another school. Joohyun and Wendy smiled, and Wendy joined the parent association for the performing arts academy.

-------------------------

Author note:

Thank you everyone who has been wonderful and nice in the comments. I give you this bonus content that I would call "Wives and Child-raising". Also I'm on Twitter these days, so come say hi if you like (@What_UpWithYou) <3