a/n: late to the party, but you know what they say, better late than never. happy wenrene day, everyone! this story just feels a little special to me which is why i haven't uploaded it in my one-shot collection (also, the title doesn't begin with the letter "i" unlike the ones in "she keeps me warm"). hope y'all will like it.

bunny ears doubled my heartbeat

one-shot

***

Love doesn’t let you know it’s coming.

And seven year-old Joohyun certainly did not anticipate to find it at a grocery store.

“Fany? Tiffany!”

“Oh my God, Taeyeon! Hi!”

“It’s been ages!”

“Oh, how I’ve missed you.”

Joohyun watches her mother envelope this Tiffany woman into a bone-crushing hug, the two adults squealing like excited school girls at a carnival. She thought women in their thirties would be behaving differently, her mother usually poised around other adults, but Joohyun learns that there are particular behaviors that simply do not grow out of age.

She silently stands by their shopping cart, her small frame obscured by her mother’s towering body. She could barely register the fragments of their animated conversation, obviously uninterested with the contents of their chatter. Her mom has promised to buy her Peppero today, and it’s the sole thing she has been craving for the entirety of running their errand.

“Mooom!” A little girl in a white hoodie runs into the aisle, whining to the woman Joohyun’s mother is talking to. She’s a few inches shorter than Joohyun, maybe younger than her too. “I can’t reach the jellies!” She juts her lower lip into a frown.

“Fany, don’t tell me this is Wannie?” Joohyun hears her mom coo at the little girl.

The little girl looks up, her frown dissolving. Her lips then stretch themselves into a toothy grin that displays her pearly whites with a tooth missing on the bottom row. She bows politely. “Hello, nice to meet you. I’m Seungwan and I’m five.”

She’s two years younger than me, Joohyun thinks, and she distractedly twiddles with the sleeve of her shirt.

“What a cutie!” Joohyun’s mother lightly pinches at the little girl’s plump cheek. “I’m your Auntie Taeyeon, your mommy’s friend from high school.”

“Seungwan’s definitely grown, but she still my baby.” Seungwan’s mother bends down to kiss the crown of her head.

Seungwan probably dislikes the endearment, harrumphing at the statement. Joohyun can sympathize with her annoyance. She wouldn’t have liked being called a baby either. Luckily, the title of the family’s doted baby has been handed down to Joohyun’s three year-old sister, Sooyoung.

“I’m not a baby anymore.” Seungwan huffs.

“Of course, you aren’t.” The woman’s eyes land behind Joohyun’s mother, and Joohyun shrinks further to conceal herself, gripping the hem of her mother’s sundress tighter in her clenched fists. “And is that Joohyun I see?”

Joohyun doesn’t fare well with strangers. She becomes overwhelmed with befriending new people, and more often than not, she would retreat to the comfort of her shell. It would take several meetings for her to be at ease with a person so she buries her face on her mother’s back.

“Come and say hi to your Auntie Tiffany and Seungwan.” Her mother gently coaxes her from her hiding spot, pulling her to the front. Joohyun relents because she doesn’t have it in her to be disrespectful despite her increasing shyness. The woman and her daughter eye her somewhat expectantly, gauging for some sort of a response.

Joohyun gazes at them warily.

She doesn’t say anything.

“Aww, aren’t you a pretty little lady.” Auntie Tiffany has a friendly voice that partially soothes the tension on Joohyun’s tense posture. It helps that the woman isn’t forceful, understanding of her silence and hesitance. She glances at her mother. “The last time I saw her, I was still pregnant with Johnny.”

Seungwan tugs on her mother’s arm, head cocked to the side. “Mommy, is this unnie mute?”

“Wannie! That’s not very nice.” Aunt Tiffany’s eyes enlarge themselves into saucers, while Joohyun remains unfazed. Kids have always said how quiet she can be. But Aunt Tiffany is utterly aghast by her daughter’s comment, extending her apology to Joohyun’s mother. “I’m sorry about that. This child seriously lacks some filter.”

Seungwan stares at Joohyun in curiosity, burning holes into her skull, lips quirked at one corner as if she’s thinking deeply. About what she could be thinking of? Joohyun doesn’t know.

Her mother kindly shakes her head at Seungwan, and Joohyun feels her fingers threading through her hair, combing her nerves away. “Joohyun is a little shy. She’ll warm up soon.” Seungwan nods at that, and their mothers continue to catch up with one another, the women wheeling their carts out of the condiments aisle as the two children follow their lead. “Are you headed somewhere after? We should have lunch at the restaurant you’d gorge yourself in!”

“I haven’t been there since college!”

The adults go do their adult thing, reminiscing about their youthful years, bespeaking of their past shenanigans with childlike enthusiasm. Joohyun still has the Peppero at the back of her mind. She hopes her mother wouldn’t be so holed up in their chitchat that she forgets her promise to her.

A sudden poke on the shoulder makes Joohyun jump.

“Hey.”

She turns around to Seungwan who has her index finger pointing downwards to the ground. “Your shoelaces.”

Peering at her shoes, Joohyun scowls at the knots of her laces being undone. Both of their mothers have moved forward to the next aisle. There are a number of people shopping at the store, and she doesn’t want to attract any unwanted attention by screaming for her mom. She will just have to soldier on with a shoe having untied laces.

But Seungwan is crouched on the floor, her head shooting up to face Joohyun when the older girl attempts to lift a leg to walk.

“Don’t move.” Seungwan tells her. She has her laces in between her fingertips, looping one end over the other, then draws them together in a tight knot. She makes two little teardrop-shaped hoops from each end of the laces. “Bunny ears aaand there!” She hops onto her feet and beams at Joohyun.

Her shoelaces are now nicely tied.

“You can tie shoelaces?”

“Wow you talk!”

“I can talk.”

“You should talk more.” To Joohyun’s surprise, Seungwan grabs her hand, and the older girl is ushered to resume walking to their mothers. Joohyun is caught off guard by the warmth of their linked hands, never before shown by this kind of friendliness on the get-go. “How old are you?”

“Seven.”

“You don’t know how to tie your shoelaces?”

“No…” The insecurity oozes from Joohyun’s timid voice. She hasn’t grappled with the technique yet, fumbling around the intersections she makes until they’re a mess of weaves and she becomes tired from trying. She had seen kids at school making fun of someone who didn’t know how. Witnessing the teasing catapults her to expect for Seungwan to do likewise.

But once again, to her surprise, Seungwan doesn’t mock her inability. Instead she squeezes Joohyun’s hand in hers in a wordless reassurance.

“I’ll teach you.”

The younger girl then drags Joohyun closer to their mothers, their sneakers squeaking against the tiled flooring of the grocery store, halting their steps when they fully approach the adults. A pitter-patter of beats ring within Joohyun’s eardrums.

“Auntie Tae! Auntie Tae!”

Joohyun’s mother takes a gander at the girls, her eyebrows raising at their joined hands. She must be equally surprised at how quick Seungwan has gotten Joohyun to be in the handholding phase of their premature friendship. Joohyun can’t seem to complain about it, strangely enjoying the presence of a newfound friend. The ba-dump in her chest could be indicating her early fondness for the younger girl.

“I’m gonna teach Joohyun-unnie how to tie her shoelaces!”

“Why thank you, Seungwan. Hope you don’t mind being patient with Joohyun.”

“I’ll wait forever and ever if I have to!”

Joohyun’s cheeks mysteriously reddens as she glances at Seungwan incredulously.

“Gosh, where did you even get that, you greasy child?” Auntie Tiffany laughs at the declaration, ruffling her daughter’s hair.

After fifteen tries, encouraging smiles and a barrage of giggles in the restaurant playpen, Joohyun proudly demonstrates to the adults her newly acquired skill, receiving a round of applause from her audience. She embraces the younger girl in gratitude, and she learns that bunny ears weren’t the only thing Seungwan taught her that day.

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