“Dongwoo?” you called out desperately to your husband. He walked into the living room where you were struggling with your three year old. “Help me?” you asked when Dongjin wriggled from your arms and started running towards the hallway.

            Dongwoo easily picked up his son and immediately the boy squealed. “Appa!” he clung onto his father and giggled into his neck.

            Your husband smiled indulgently at his son. “What happened? Why does mommy sound like she’s been under torture and gone through a war?” You had sounded near tears to him. “Let’s go check on her.” Together, they returned to the living room to find you rubbing your knees and trying to clean up the mess he had made.

            “Whoa, this indeed looks like a warzone. What was going on?”

            “Your son decided to have one too many of the chocolates you bought yesterday. He was hyper and refused to eat anything I placed before him. Maybe you can do something about it.”

            Your husband grinned. He liked a challenge. Dongwoo placed Dongjin in his lap. “Okay soldier, we’re going to march the rice into our stomachs. Are we hungry?” He nodded and slowly, your toddler followed suit. “Good! So if we’re hungry, we can be monsters and om our way through the food.”

            “Om?” Dongjin repeated before laughing. “Om! Om om om!” He giggled and wriggled in Dongwoo’s lap. You settled on the couch next to them and decided to watch the father and son pair. You loved your son but sometimes, you knew that he much preferred his playful father.

            Dongwoo smiled at you. “Watch a master at work, honey.” You stuck your tongue out at him and Dongjin clapped his hands, thrilled to see you playing with them.

            You watched in fascination as your husband reached for the spoon. He scooped up rice and weaved the spoon towards your son’s mouth. “Say ah, and then use the suction force in your mouth to swoop these bad guys in. Come on!”

            “Daddy, om?” he asked. Dongwoo grinned. “Yes, om.”

            Dongwoo opened his mouth and Dongjin followed. The spoon made its way into the tiny child’s mouth and he clamped down on it with an audible, “Mmm!” His lips were sealed over the spoon and Dongwoo pretended to struggle to remove the utensil.

            “Oh no! Jang Dongjin’s mouth is completely sealed. What’s the password? Open sesame!” The child laughed and the spoon came out completely clean. You watched your son chew with satisfaction.

            Dongwoo placed the spoon down and pointed at the vegetables sitting on the plate. “Want some trees? We’re going to plant large trees in Dongjin’s stomach okay?”

            “Okay!” he squeaked. “Appa would the trees have branches?”

            “They’ll have roots and leaves and they can even talk to you if you want them to.”

            “Like in Pocahontas?” He was naming a Disney movie he had just watched.

            “Yes! And you can call the tree anything you want. Ready, go!” Dongwoo picked up a broccoli and your son wrinkled his nose.

“No brown!” he whined. “I want brown. Not green. Daddy, this is not a real tree. I don’t want to!”

            Dongwoo gamely plopped one after the other in his mouth. He chewed in an exaggerated motion and closed his eyes, smiling in bliss. You laughed out loud at your husband’s antics. He grinned at you, glad that you appreciated his gag humor.

            Dongjin opened his mouth too and said, “Ahh, tree time!” Elated at how easy it was to convince your son to eat his veggies, Dongwoo placed two in at a time. His tiny mouth worked furiously as he chewed and when he finally swallowed, he leaned against his dad’s chest.

            He blinked his eyes at you. “Mommy, thirsty.”

            You handed over the bowl of turnip soup and Dongwoo carefully spooned the hot soup for him. A dribble of the liquid trailed down his chin and Dongwoo wiped it away. “Now, if we’re going to be good soldiers, we’re going to have to eat neatly, okay?”

            Your husband fed your son more rice and finally, the entire bowl was cleared. You stood up to clear the dishes and Dongjin climbed onto the couch to watch his favorite cartoon. Dongwoo followed you into the kitchen.

            You were washing the dishes and he came up to you, wrapping his arms around your waist. “I told you when we got married that I would be the best father you’ve ever met, didn’t I?” He boasted, clearly proud of himself.

            You laughed and stepped on his foot.  “Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. You may have succeeded in this, but the next step for you is to get him to sleep. Goodness knows, your son does not value his sleeping time. He’s really missed you, you know.”

            Dongwoo nuzzled his face into your shoulder. “I know, babe. But I’ve been trying to come back more often. I was back yesterday and I plan on just commuting the extra hour to come back every day. Unless we have an early performance, I’m going to try to be back home. I know it’s rough.” He rubbed your stomach sympathetically and you giggled.

            “Euw, stop doing that. It tickles,” you squirmed and he tightened his group on you, this time digging his fingers gently into your ribs. You laughed uncontrollably. “Stop! You know how ticklish I am!”

            Dongwoo shook his hair out of his eyes and kissed your cheek. “Okay, the cartoon’s over. I think I have to get on with my second task. Getting Jang Dongjin to take a nice bath and going to sleep. You can go on without me. I’ll be back later. But I demand a reward.”

            You laughed. “I’ll be the one under the covers, waiting, then.” Dongwoo grinned and saluted you before running off to get your son.

Dongwoo daddy request!

ADKGHAD

you guys should guess my bias :P