Puppy Love & Butterfly Wings

            “I’m so glad you’re spending time with me Unnie!” YunHee beamed, enjoying the wind in her hair as ChoMin pushed her on the swing. “You’re the best!”

            “Awww,” ChoMin puffed proudly at YunHee’s words. “You’re the best dongsaeng I ever had!!!” she cried, stopping the swing to hug the adorably cute girl.

            “How did I ever get looped into this?” JaeJoong asked from his hiding spot underneath a bush. ChoMin had called him for help and was roped into helping her help TaeHyun. He removed a twig in his hair as he fidgeted in his cramp position.

            “Shhh, Hyung!” TaeHyun whispered loudly, placing his right index finger to his mouth. “We’re going to get caught!”

            “Aish, don’t ‘shush’ your hyung!” JaeJoong whispered back, pinching TaeHyun’s ear.

            “Aigoo! Aigoo!”

ChoMin shook her head at the bush the two hid in. It was a good thing YunHee was too preoccupied with the swing to notice two loud voices coming from a rustling bush. “So much for being inconspicuous,” she mumbled, pushing YunHee on the swing. “YunHee-ah, I’m just wondering…What is the one thing you want the most?”

            “I don’t know,” YunHee shrugged, “There’s a lot of things I want. Like the new Barbie at the mall! So many pretty dresseses! Ooh ooh ooh!!! I want Pretty Oppa too! He’s so hot! Aniyo, I want ice cream with sprinkles!”

ChoMin chuckled, “Ok, that’s all nice. But I’m talking about what is the one thing you want in the whole wide world?”

            “Hmmm,” YunHee thought, stopping the momentum of the swing by digging her shoes in the sand, “I guess…I would want butterfly wings. Yeah! Pretty butterfly wings with a lot of colors, like the rainbow! And Pink and glitters!”

            “Did you hear that hyung?!” TaeHyun said excitedly, crawling out of the bush. “I have an idea.” As soon as he was free, TaeHyun ran towards the side of the huge apartment building and was out of sight.

JaeJoong looked after him, crawling out of the bush with less ease. He dusted off the dirt from his clothes and hair, hating the fact that he got so dirty. But what did he expect? He just rolled around in the dirt. He checked the time on his cell phone, realizing that they hadn’t ate lunch yet. He walked to the playground, intending to take ChoMin back to the apartment so that they could finally eat.

            “Pretty Oppa!” YunHee yelled, flying off the swing and dashing towards JaeJoong.

            “YunHee-ah, you got so big!” With a big smile, JaeJoong engulfed the young girl in a great big hug.

            “Oppa! Oppa! C’mon, let’s play with Unnie!” YunHee smiled, pulling on JaeJoong. When she got closer to where ChoMin was at, she let go of his hand and rushed ahead to ChoMin.

            “ChoMin unnie, we can finally play with my Pretty Oppa,” YunHee said, pulling ChoMin’s hand to get her closer to JaeJoong.

            “Uh, YunHee-ah –” JaeJoong began, intending to tell her that he couldn’t play with her but ChoMin beat him to it.

            “Actually honey, we need to go already,” ChoMin began, squatting down to YunHee’s eye level, “How about we play in a little bit, hmm?”

            “Neh,” YunHee said sadly, her head was bent down and her foot kicked lightly at the sand.

            “How about you play with TaeHyunnie?” JaeJoong suggested, ruffling his little dongsaeng’s head fondly, “I bet he would love to play with you.”

            “Araso,” YunHee beamed, excited at the idea, “I’ll go find him! Annyonghikaseyo!” she waved goodbye as she ran off in one direction.

The two left behind shrugged and made their own way back to the apartment to eat with YunHo.

ChoMin heaved the foul smelling plastic bag full of trash into the big green garbage disposal, glad that it was out of her hands. The one thing she hated the most was throwing out the garbage, on the count of her nose getting irritated by the slightest bad odor. Scrunching her face in disgust, she stuffed her hands into her pockets and began her trek back up to the apartment. Rounding the corner, passed the benches that sat on either side of the side walk, passed the tennis and basketball courts that filled up with young and old alike, passed the glimmering slide and the tall monkey bars - sat a little boy, sitting dejectedly on the swing with his head bent downward. He sniffled sadly.

            “TaeHyunnie?”

The little boy with permanently messy hair craned his head up at the sound of his name being called, furiously wiping his nose clean with the back of his hand. He stared at ChoMin with resentment as he snapped his head away and crossed his arms.

            “What do you want?”

            “TaeHyun-ah,” ChoMin said, sitting down in the empty swing next to his, “What’s wrong sweetie?”

            “I’m not a sweetie!” TaeHyun burst out, “Don’t call me that.”

            “Miene. I won’t then,” ChoMin said carefully. Knowing children, they could be easily angered so she’d have to be cautious in what she said. “But won’t you tell me what’s bothering you?”

            “Nothing…” TaeHyun mumbled, kicking the dirt with feet. “Leave me alone. I don’t wanna talk to anyone.”

            “C’mon, telling me would make you feel better,” she coaxed, “Is it about YunHee? Did something happen between you two?”

            “I did what you said,” he started, “She wanted butterfly wings, so I catched a butterfly. But when I gave it to her, she started getting mad at me and said I was a meanie. But I didn’t mean to! It was stupid and it died in my hand!”

            “Oh, TaeHyun-ah…It’s not your fault,” ChoMin reassured, swinging idly back and forth on the swing. “You didn’t know, and I’m sure she will forget about it soon.”

            “Aniyo! She doesn’t like me anymore. She’s doesn’t want to be my friend anymore,” TaeHyun said sadly.

ChoMin smiled, getting an idea. She was sure she had some materials up in the apartment and some time before she would start dinner. Hopping off the swing, she glanced right at TaeHyun with a huge smile on her face, confidence emitting from her eyes.

            “Come with me and I’ll help you.” She looked at the skeptical look on his face, but still pulled on his arm to stand him up. “But you’re going to have to work, araso?”

YunHee sat on the cool brown sand, the shadow of the tree looming over her. She crinkled her toes as the sand wedged itself in between them and tickled her; her hands carefully scooped some of the brown dust and let it run through in between her small fingers. She sighed, noticing the birds crowing as they passed the sinking sun at the horizon.

            “Pabo, pabo, TaeHyun pabo…” she mumbled underneath her breath, “Why did he have to hurt the little baby butterfly?”

She continued running her hand through the grains of sand when she heard the soft footsteps of someone approaching.

            “YunHee-ah?”

YunHee turned to the source of the voice and frowned, “What do you want, Yim TaeHyun?”

            “I-I…uh…” TaeHyun stuttered, his eyes shifting back and forth between a bush near by and YunHee’s expecting face.

If YunHee were to turn around and squint at the bush to her right, she would be able to see the crouched figures of ChoMin and JaeJoong waiting earnestly as the scene unfolded.

ChoMin bit her lip in suspense; aside from wanting to stretch her numbing limbs, she wanted to see TaeHyun to give YunHee the present he made.

            “What’s taking him so long?” ChoMin whispered anxiously to JaeJoong. “Maybe I should go over there and nudge him along.”

            “Ah, ChoMin-shi,” JaeJoong shook his head at the impatient girl next to him, “just let them be, you’ve been nosy enough. He’ll do it when he’s ready.” He turned his attention back to the two kids they spied on. JaeJoong waited a couple of moments to see if there was any progress before getting restless. “Aish, what’s taking him so long? Maybe we should go over there…”

ChoMin snorted in an unladylike manner, “And I thought I was being the nosy-body here,” she mumbled to herself with a dead-pan expression.

            “Shush!” JaeJoong whispered loudly, suddenly straightening up for a better look, “Look! He’s giving her the wings!”

They both watched silently as YunHee’s eyes grew large with first shock, then a look of pure joy when she received the cloth butterfly wings, adorned with sparkly pink glitter sequence and gems. They watched YunHee jumped on TaeHyun giving him a big hug, both toppling over onto the soft sand, and then surprised all three of them by planting a soft kiss on his right cheek. The two 6 year olds left the sandbox, holding each other’s hand – one blushing beet red and the other gushing over the new wings.

ChoMin sighed with content as she watched the two in puppy love leaving the playground. It was so sweet that she couldn’t help feel a twinge of jealously. It was cute how those two little children found one another; so cute that she almost felt sorry for herself since she was still single despite living with 4 hot guys, excluding her cousin. Noticing she was the only one left in the bush, she carelessly crawled out of her hiding space.

            “ShiOUCH-crap!” she cussed in English, lightly the place where a stray branch nicked her on the left cheek.

            “What’s wrong?!” JaeJoong asked worriedly, staring down at ChoMin’s crouched position. “Here, give me your hand,” he said, extending his gorgeous hands out to ChoMin. Too preoccupied with her cut, ChoMin gladly took his hand without fangirling over it.

            “A branch nicked me while I was getting out,” she said, allowing JaeJoong to pull her up from the ground. “Is it red?”

            “Let me see,” JaeJoong insisted with concern. His soft delicate hands scooped up ChoMin’s cheeks, turning her head to the right as he inspected the cut. ChoMin blushed, aware of their close proximity and his cool hands gently cupping her face. “It is red,” JaeJoong deduced, “but it’s not bleeding – ChoMin-sshi! Are you getting a fever too? You’re all flushed!”

            “Ummm…ani…” ChoMin cleared nervously, lowering her gaze to his feet as she fidgeted. “I-It’s because you still have your hands on my cheeks…”

            “Muh?” JaeJoong asked, not really catching what she had just. But then the little gears in his head began to turn as he processed her words. Upon realizing the positions of his hands, he quickly retracted them and laughed nervously, jamming his hands inside his pockets. “I-I think we should go back inside now,” he said with a slight blush on his cheeks.

The two collected themselves and began heading back to the apartment. The sun began setting deeper into the horizon, the warm hues of pinks and oranges creating an idealistic atmosphere.

            “JaeJoong-sshi?” ChoMin asked, breaking the silence.

            “Um?”

            “I was wondering,” she began with a smile, “if we could watch a movie together this Saturday.”

JaeJoong’s heart skipped a beat at her offer. Watching a movie? With ChoMin? Together? The idea didn’t sound bad at all; on the contrary, it would’ve been kind of…nice.

            “But don’t worry!” ChoMin added quickly, noticing the look that JaeJoong gave her. “With the others as well,” she said with a smile.

JaeJoong returned the smile warmly as they continued their walk. They only managed a few more steps towards their destination before JaeJoong realized something that slipped his memory earlier.

            “Oh wait!” he exclaimed, stopping abruptly. ChoMin turned around, her warm smile slipping into an inquisitive look.

            “Muh?”

JaeJoong looked down at ChoMin with a hint of regret. “I don’t think we can have that movie night after all…”

            “Huh? Wae?”

He sighed, scratching his cheek as he looked away, “Because we’re leaving for Prague tomorrow night.”

            “WHAT?!” ChoMin cried, her face in total and unwavering shock, “How come nobody told me this?!??” She pointed an accusing finger at JaeJoong, “How come you didn’t tell me this?!”

JaeJoong backed away a few steps with his hands in front of him. “Miene?” he chuckled lightly.

            “Omo! I need to start baking sweets for you guys to take. No no no, first I need start your packing  - Oh great! I need to make sure - ” ChoMin began mumbling, shifting from English to Korean every now and then. She continued to list all the things she would have to prepare for their leaving as she stalked back towards the apartment in her own world, leaving JaeJoong behind to shake his head with a smile.

Here you go! A nice sort of fluffy filler-ish chapter. Aren’t the little kids cute? I wish I could find my one true love that early on, but yeah… the story of YunHee and TaeYeon is inspired by my aunt and uncle’s love story. They fell in love when they were their age, except no butterflies, wings, and the help of some really HOT DELICIOUS Y Korean singer. XD I felt that I needed these last two chapters as a sort of breather for my readers. Something light to chew on instead of the heavy chapters before and the future chapters to come.

Comments and new readers are loved, so SPREAD THE LOVE! But nothing beats the love I have for my faithful readers. Fighting!

Until Next Time!
~Asian_Innocence