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 Friday night 11:00 P.M 

Mina & Nayeon's Bedroom.

“Babe, can I ask you a question?” Nayeon faced her girlfriend. For the past twenty minutes, she had been working up the courage to pose a certain thought that had been biting her brain. 

“You just asked one,” Mina answered indifferently, eyes never leaving her phone screen. 

Nayeon threw a hand up in frustration. She really ought to have expected Mina's almost rehearsed replies by now. "It's a serious question this time."

"And I will give a serious answer."

Mina made an alarming noise once she saw her screen flash red. She registered the direction of her attacker on PUBG and unleashed a full magazine into his body. She was ready to turn and kill another attacker but felt her phone ripped from her loosened grip.

"A serious question deserves serious attention," Nayeon scolded.  

Mina clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Well, you have that now," she kicked their fluffy blanket with her feet and faced Nayeon, "shoot away." 

"What do you think about having a kid?" 

"They're noisy, expensive, stressful, and can never learn how to knock on their parent's door," Mina answered in one breath.

"Knock on doors? I thought you would give me a serious answer?

"What do you mean? Look-" Just as Nayeon's eyes traveled to their bedroom door per Mina's advice; Chaewon barged in, draped in a mint green shower towel.

 "Has anybody seen my phone charger?" 

"Did you check under the kitchen table?" Mina replied with a raised eyebrow.

Chaewon's mouth formed a small "o", realizing she hadn't thought to check under there.

 Per her nature of wanting to have the last word, Chaewon stood a second longer trying to think of a snarky reply. Conceding that the longer she stayed, the more time it gave Mina to have a counter reply ready for her; she opted for a quick goodnight and re-closed their door.

"See?" Mina turned back to face her girlfriend with a satisfied smirk, "now can I have my phone back?"

Nayeon ignored the request; She was too busy admiring her girlfriend's uncanny motherly instinct. "You would make the best mother."

"I doubt it," Mina replied with a short snort.

"Look at the way you knew Chaewon was about to open the door without knocking," Nayeon countered.

"That's only because I heard her footsteps in the hallway. They sound like a giant crashing over skyscrapers!"

"But who else thinks to pay attention to footsteps?" 

Mina's face contorted, not understanding Nayeon's reasoning. "Maybe people who are wary of a burglar breaking in?"

"So you would make a great dad!"

thump, thump, thump. This time Nayeon had picked up the slight creak of wood and was ready for when their door flew open again.

"Did you check behind the couch?" Nayeon offered with a gummy smile. 

Chaewon's eyebrows creased as she considered this possibility. formed the same “o”, said goodnight, and exited again.

The couple made amused eye contact.

"YoU WoUlD MaKe A gReaT dAd," Mina mocked Nayeon's earlier compliment.

"Mother. Actually," Nayeon corrected. Mina rolled her eyes, "does it matter?"

"In bed it does."

"Ew, don't say that." Out of the couple’s many ual kinks, and trust me, there were plenty of them. Catcalling in bed was not one of them. At least for Mina, it wasn't. Sometimes, she even preferred if her girlfriend would stay silent in their lovemaking.

Looking upon her girlfriend now, Mina could tell Nayeon wasn't satisfied with how the conversation went. "Goodnight, babe." Nayeon sighed as she turned off the desk lamp on her side of the bed.

Mina released a small growl as she watched her girlfriend sink into her pillow and turned to face the wall. Why does she always give in like this?

Rolling through their king-sized bed until she made it to Nayeon's side. The Japanese girl wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and left a small kiss on the back of her neck. 

"...Do you want a kid?" Mina whispered softly.

Nayeon turned to face Mina. "I don't know. Maybe it's just because I keep seeing all my friends post about their kids and stuff, it made me want to have one too. I'm over it now, I think dealing with Chaewon is enough for us. Speaking of which, here she comes again."

thud, thud, thud.

"No, we don't know where it is," they both answered in the same monotone voice.

Because Nayeon had turned off the lamp, they couldn't already see that Chaewon had the charger in her hand. The younger girl’s excited smile turned into a soft pout. "Jeez, I just wanted to say I found it and to tell you guys good night," 

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That night, Nayeon slept with a large grin on her face; The universe of dreams had overcome her with its lucid and powerful effect.

Somewhere below Nayeon, she could hear the faint cry of a newborn singing into her ears. Her face was drenched and covered in a mix of tears and sweat. The reason, not yet comprehended.

And then, she saw him. Mina had joined her from the end of the hospital bed to show the bundle of joy she had pushed out. Her girlfriend was also covered in sweat but had gloves and her regular medical fatigue. For some reason, whenever she dreamt of this exact scenario, it was always her giving birth and never Mina. Maybe it was because she liked the idea of Mina being the operator that helped her give birth(even though that wasn't Mina's preoccupation). This way it saved the embarrassment for if she accidentally peed herself, or worse, pushed out something a little more solid.

Nayeon held the child within her sweaty arms now. She had wiped the fog of tears that blinded her. It didn't take much effort to first notice the strange organ between the legs meaning it was her son. On closer look, she now realized he had her nose while also having the same mole on top of his bridge like Mina. His lips were slim like both of theirs. But most importantly, his eyes were deep and twinkled like Chaewon's. He was everything Nayeon could have asked for.

All around her, a steady applaud of approval grew from all the nurses. They each took the time to congratulate Mina and Nayeon and then compliment how cute the newborn was.

"You better watch out, he's going to be a player with those eyes." Nayeon’s face grew in color when she recognized the sweet sound of a voice she had not heard in a very long time. 

"Watch it!” Soyeon carefully rearranged Nayeon’s hand positioning to support the newborn’s neck. “My nephew needs to grow to be strong like his aunt.” Both Nayeon and Soyeon shared a sisterly laugh.

“I miss you.” Nayeon couldn’t help but shed a lone tear while staring into her younger sister's deep eyes. She had no idea how Soyeon was there at the moment. She had thought her younger sister had truly passed away three years ago from an incurable illness, yet here she was; Congratulating her on giving birth. 

“I know you do,” Soyeon answered plainly. Her younger sister always had that sly and snarky side to her which Nayeon had forgotten. 

Soyeon looked at Nayeon now with a devious smirk, “By the way unnie, you should watch out for your face." 

"My face?" Nayeon rotated her head quizzically. "Why my face?"

And then it hit her, literally.

Nayeon's eyes sprung open once she registered the pain from Mina's palm slamming into . 

She blinked a few times and with a drawn sigh, realized it had all been a dream. 

Sliding her girlfriend's sleeping hand off her face and then tucking it under the blanket. Nayeon looked up to their alarm clock and read that it was 7:00 A.M. Mina would wake up in about an hour to get ready for work, so there was little point in trying to catch any more shut-eye now.

Tiptoeing her way off the mattress. Nayeon hopped like a tiny snow bunny towards the door. No matter how loud her girlfriend snored, it only took the slightest movement or noise to disturb her slumber.

Once she had successfully made it into the hallway, she gave a spine breaking stretch. Her vivid dream of both giving birth and seeing Soyeon was starting to haunt her and she tried her best to shrug off any more thought of it.

"Might as well walk Hoo at this rate." On-call, their new tiny brown dachshund strutted his way through the hallway towards herself.

if Hoo could raise an eyebrow, that was exactly what he would have done as Nayeon picked him up and began cradling him in her arms. "I'm not a baby human." Hoo seemed to be telling her. Nayeon always had this funny sensation she could understand when animals would talk to her

"Let's go for a walk." She whispered to him. This would be a good way to forget her previous dream.

Nayeon made her way to the stairway downstairs. She paused briefly at the adjacent bedroom door. She could hear the faint trace of Chaewon laughing, followed by Yena's husky voice through a phone call. Hoo looked up to make eye contact with Nayeon. Do those two ever sleep?

After heading downstairs, Nayeon attached Hoo's leash and draped herself in a light coat. Before they left, she rummaged through the backside of a kitchen cabinet where she always hid something in particular. 

She celebrated with a sly smirk as her hand gripped around a rectangular object. Taking the carton of cigarettes out, she jiggled the carton, confused why it felt so empty. She could have sworn there were at least 6-7 sticks last time she opened it. 

"Hmm." Nayeon unfolded the carton. She first registered the same lighter she always used. There was one stick of white wrapped tobacco and another green stick which she realized was a folded sticky note. Unraveling the sticky note now led her to a small note written by her girlfriend.

"We left this one last stick here. We know you only smoke when you’re stressed but it’s unhealthy. Besides, I should be your stress reliever anyways : ). " Mina had signed with a large heart. Below the writing, were three drawn arrows signed with Chaewon's name as well.

"Well then." Nayeon sighed into the empty kitchen. Hoo began nudging the back of her ankle with his nose as if to remind her he was there too.

"I never liked the smell of cigarettes anyway."

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After thirty minutes, Nayeon had concluded her early morning stroll with Hoo. she had stopped briefly at Mina’s favorite bakery and bought her girlfriend some pastries she could eat for breakfast. As she passed the local 7/11 on her way back to her neighborhood, she thought about buying another carton of Marlboro cigarettes. A quick disapproving look from Hoo dismissed any notion, and so they had rounded the final stretch of their walk with only the pastries in hand.

As Nayeon made her way back into the house, she gave a puzzled expression once she got the whiff of something cooking in the kitchen. She followed the aroma and caught her girlfriend in the middle of scooping two bowls of rice.

"Don't you have work today?" Nayeon dropped the bag of pastries onto their kitchen table. Usually, by now Mina would have showered and been preparing her morning coffee before heading to the hospital.

"I decided to take the day off." Mina recognized the text on the plastic bag and made her way to check its content after giving Hoo his morning rubdown. "You know me so well!" Mina leaned over to kiss Nayeon after she saw a box full of her favorite raspberry danish treats. 

“Is something wrong, babe? You looked stressed.” Mina wrapped her arms around Nayeon’s shoulders.

“It’s nothing, just had another bad dream,” Nayeon answered confidently, but her girlfriend only strengthened her hold. “I know you always have nightmares and get anxious around this time of the year, but remember I'm here for you and I love you always,” Mina whispered softly into Nayeon’s ear. October was an important month for the couple, especially for Nayeon. It was the month of their anniversary which was in two weeks, but it was also the same month of something else, neither of them liked to talk about. 

"Should we tell Chaewon to come down? you know how much she loves breakfast." Nayeon broke her embrace from Mina and began preparing the table.

"When I opened the door to check in on her, she was just falling asleep. I could hear Yena snoring from her phone." Mina rolled her eyes. "They see each other almost every day, what the hell do they even talk about at night?" 

Nayeon shrugged her shoulders indifferently.

"....Were we like that when we first dated?" The veteran couple made eye contact across the table over their steaming bowls of rice. Each one of them reflected over the vast span of memories they held of each other.

It was strange to think they had been dating for almost four years now. To think this all started with Nayeon crashing Mina's freshman orientation and now they were practically married but in name. 

"Yeah, there's no way we're that bad." Nayeon decided the food in front of her had waited long enough. Mina shook off her thoughts about marriage and agreed as well.

After eating breakfast, the couple had moved upstairs to share a long and steamy shower together. It defeated any general purpose of showering. Both of them being the complete opposite of clean. 

Once they had finished. They decided they would carry on and dust down and reorganize the common areas of their house; the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and so forth. With all the noise they had made, Chaewon never woke up once. 

It was around noon when the couple decided they should get out of the house and soak the last remnant of the summer sun. Already in the air, they could smell the slightest trace of an autumn wind tailing along.

Walking hand in hand now...well, hand, DOG, then hand. The couple made their way through a local park they usually met up with Momo and her puppy Boo.

The latter two wouldn't be there today as Momo was the reason why Mina got the day off. It had felt like forever since the two had been on a genuine date. The summer fair didn’t count in Nayeon's book, and anytime they went somewhere else, Chaewon had tagged along. For how much Mina gave Chaewon hell and complained when Chaewon would go with them to the movies or out to eat. It was secretly always Mina in the first place that told the younger girl to join them. Mina would never admit it but she never felt quite complete without the presence of both Nayeon and Chaewon with her at all times. It very well resembled the same motherly instinct Mina denied having with so much persistence.

"Babe, do you hear that?" Nayeon felt Mina's fingers unravel from her hand. She followed Mina as they both traced the faint whine of a baby crying some distance off. They had walked off the main path towards a small playground to the side before the crying had stopped.

"There's nobody here." Nayeon scratched the top of her scalp. She was sure the crying had come from this direction 

Below her, Hoo began tugging on his leash.

"Go for it." Nayeon allowed the slack necessary from Hoo's leash. The puppy began zigzagging around the area while sniffing the ground below him. They followed Hoo until he led them to a bench on the far side of the playground.

"Where the hell's the parents?" Nayeon noticed the agitated and extreme mother-like tone in Mina's voice as they approached a lone baby carriage.

On closer look into the carriage, they both saw a tiny toddler that must not have been more than 11 months old. There was a small bottle of milk to the baby's side which he or she could not reach and was most likely the cause of the earlier cry.

"Someone left a letter here." Mina had noticed a white envelope to the baby's side and picked it up now.

"Yah, do you think somebody abandoned the baby here?" Nayeon looked at her girlfriend with some bewilderment.

"Better not have," Mina said with gritted teeth. "Only one way to check though." Just as Mina was making her way of ripping the seal off the envelope, a strong gust surged through the surrounding trees and caught the girls off guard. Mina's hair flew around in the open air and blinded her. By the time the strange wind had left them, the envelope was long gone from her hand.

"You're ing kidding me." Nayeon began pacing around the playground trying to find where it went. She checked around the swings and the low hanging bushes but saw no sight of the white envelope. 

Nayeon in a last-ditch effort, crouched in front of Hoo and waved her fingers at him to go off. "Here's your chance to shine Hoo."

The shaggy dog turned his head as if to show his confusion. "That's beyond me."

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Giving up on their search. Hoo and Nayeon returned to the bench empty-handed

"Now are you a boy or a girl?" Nayeon hovered her face barely a centimeter off the baby's face. The baby became agitated by Nayeon’s sudden proximity. He/she was about to release a shrieking whine before Mina kicked Nayeon away. 

"It's obviously a boy." Mina hissed. She had concluded feeding the baby and was beginning to pat his back in an effort to burp him.

"Well, how do you know that huh?" Nayeon fired back while bouncing on her strong leg. She was sure Mina had just fractured one of her ankles. 

"I looked into his diaper and saw his willy, duh." Mina glared up at her girlfriend. 

"Isn't that kinda child abuse to check a random baby's diaper without asking?" Nayeon fibbed innocently.

"Oh, sorry. Next time I'll ask him for his consent and await a response" Nayeon realized how stupid she sounded and decided to keep shut.

Hoo threw a bark in alarm. Somebody was approaching them. 

"This is such a cute baby." An old and frail man had walked up and began pinching the baby's cheek. For some reason, Mina did not like the idea of a stranger touching the baby and moved him away defensively.

"Oh, I apologize. I have seven grandchildren at home and I'm used to treating them like such." The old man sensed he had overstepped his boundary and held up a friendly hand in apology.

"That's okay," Mina said with a small grin. Her smile grew wider as she heard the satisfying rumble of a burp release from the baby.

"Ahhh, you must be his mother, what's this little fellows name hmm?"

"Minhyun! Im Minhyun." Nayeon confessed before Mina could say anything. Mina turned to face Nayeon with a raised eyebrow. "Im Minhyun?" She repeated with teeth clenched.

"What a beautiful name! How are you related to this child." The old man seemed to only now realize Nayeon had been standing there. 

"I'm the mother actually. Well...we both are." Nayeon pointed to both Mina and herself. "Science has come a long way hasn't it?"

"It sure has." The old man gasped. "Now that you mention it, he does have your nose." 

“Wait really?” N