The sun was high up in the sky, shining brightly as if it was in tune with the happiness that was set for the day. The birds were chirping, the wind was breezing lightly, the clouds were out to provide a bit of shade in the nice, sunny day.

It was a perfect day to celebrate the occasion, and Mi Young knew just what she needed to do to make the day extra special for her eomma.

Mi Young entered slowly and lightly padded across the room, slightly dragging her favorite blankie with her as she approached her appa’s side of the bed. She put her blankie beside her appa and made sure to be extra careful and quiet when she climbed up.

“Appa,” she called softly, placing her small hand on his cheek and tapping it continuously to rouse him from sleep.

She waited for any reaction from her appa, but he only grunted in his sleep and turned away from her to snuggle closer to her eomma. 

She reached for her father’s shoulder and pulled him towards her with all her might. “Appa, wake up,” she tried again, this time sitting right on his chest and poking both his cheeks.

Her appa only continued sleeping, seemingly unbothered with Mi Young’s poking. She huffed in annoyance.

“Appa,” she tried calling again louder but not enough to wake her eomma too.

Nothing.

“Appa~.”

She only got snores for that one.

“Kim Jong Kook!” she whispered screamed in his ear this time.

Nothing again.

When her appa still didn’t wake up, she resorted to her last option: she forced her appa’s eyes open with her own fingers. She tried to muffle her laughter when she saw how funny he looked. But fortunately, this was an effective waking tactic because now, her appa was finally awake.

“Oh, Mi Young-ie, you’re awake,” her appa said in his rough morning voice. “What are you doing up so early, gongjunim?”

“Appa, I want to make my surprise for eomma for Mother’s Day today,” Mi Young made sure to whisper it since her eomma was literally sleeping right beside them.

Her appa woke up more at the mention of the day’s occasion. It was Mother’s Day, and he completely forgot about it!

“Appa, I know you’re panicking because you probably forgot about it,” she told him as if she had been reading his mind, “but appa, you have to help me because I don’t know how to cook.” Mi Young put on her best pout to further convince her appa.

Her appa chuckled lightly before finally standing up and taking Mi Young into his arms, “Kaja then, gongjunim. Your planned breakfast isn’t going to cook itself.”

And together they walked downstairs to prepare the special Mother’s Day breakfast that Mi Young wants to gift to her mother.

—

Jong Kook watched on as his daughter insisted in mixing the pancake batter herself, chuckling lightly when some of it got on her pajama sleeves and she huffed out in annoyance when she noticed them.

“Appa,” Mi Young pouted at him and Jong Kook only chuckled more as she lift her arms up at him.

“Demanding aren’t you, gongjunim?” Jong Kook teased while folding her sleeves up to get it out of the way.

Mi Young smiled cheekily at him, “Gomawo, appa!”

Jong Kook rolled his eyes fondly and stepped back to let her continue mixing, only coming to interfere when she got some of it on to the counter top because she miscalculated how much she should move the whisk. Once she was clean and was back to her previous activity, Jong Kook left her to her own devices and sat down on a nearby chair while still keeping an eye on her.

While he watched her, he pondered at how fast his little girl grew up; it was as if it was only yesterday that he brought her and Ji Hyo home from the hospital after a grueling 22-hour labor. He was thankful that she came to this world with no complications, but he also felt sorry for his wife because she was in so much pain just to give birth to Mi Young, and he couldn’t do anything to take even some of it away. Now, his little girl was 6 years old, growing up so full of life and happiness, and she was already cooking her first Mother’s Day breakfast, insisting on doing it with little to no help from her father.

“Hey appa,” Mi Young’s voice broke him out of his reverie. “I’m done mixing it. Can we cook it now?”

Jong Kook stood up and went closer to her, “Of course, Mi Young-ie. Come on then.”

He picked Mi Young up from her place on the counter and perched her up on his hip, his other hand grabbing the bowl of batter and placing it beside the pan that he prepared beforehand.

“What do we do first when we cook pancakes, Mi Young-ie?” Jong Kook liked asking his daughter these kind of questions because it got her involved in the cooking process and it taught her how to do it herself for when she could actually do it in the future.

“We put butter on the pan, appa!” Mi Young answered gleefully, reaching down to grab the small bowl of pre-cut butter and showing it to Jong Kook.

“Very good, gongjunim. Now, pour it on to the pan,” Jong Kook instructed.

He watched as she carefully poured the butter, with her tongue out and her eyes squinted narrowly in concentration which reminded Jong Kook so much of when Ji Hyo does it out of habit too. She really was her mother’s daughter.

He grabbed the pan’s handle and turned it lightly from side to side to let the butter spread across the surface.

When it was done, Jong Kook asked Mi Young another question, “Now, what’s next, Mi Young-ie?”

“We...pour the pancake mix now?” she answered unsurely. “And let it cook?”

“Spot on, gongjunim,” he assured her, holding up his thumb up.

They got to cooking the batter, and soon, there was a fresh stack of five pancakes on a plate on the counter, with a smiley face whose eyes were made of two small pieces of butter and a smile formed from chocolate chips, all courtesy of Mi Young. Around the pancakes were cut up strawberries and blueberries, and a small puddle of chocolate syrup because the father and daughter duo knew how Ji Hyo preferred tha