It was a beautiful day.

When I say beautiful, I mean there was snow everywhere glittering in the scarce sunlight. It was the perfect environment for lunatics or kids that enjoyed their snowmen. With the mild weather, I had no idea why there was suddenly a massive amount of snow at our doorstep. Daesung spent the entire morning cleaning it up, so we could get out of the cottage without a problem.

Yuri also spent the day cooking. She had gotten quite good at it every since she started her herb medicine program. She met up with elders and sick kids on a daily basis. Every time someone needed help, Yuri was there and they all screamed witchcraft at first, before asking for help. Yuri assured them no devil was at hand, just a reaper with fast wings and a strong will.

Because of Jung Min’s tenacious nature, he didn’t leave Yuri alone for one second. As for me, he finally accepted I’m no longer his small girl, but a woman in her 20s... 500s... okay, maybe more? I’m not sure. Anyway, a human being that knew her way around.

So everybody thought one such day will go without a hassle.

Wrong. Oh, we were so wrong.

“YOU LITTLE RASCAL, COME BACK HERE!” Yuri’s voice shook the cottage as she ran like a crazy woman down the hallway. I lowered my drink and watched her flew by the table and outside. I got up and rushed after her.

“...Yuri? Are you okay?”

She was crouched with her back turned. Slowly, she got up and finally faced me. Her annoyed expression said it all. Between her arms stood a child, soon to be four, with some basil stuck between his fingers. He grinned from ear to ear and dangled his legs.

“Changmin!” I mumbled and came to pick the child from Yuri. The boy waved the basil and cried out as he crawled in my arms.

“Want to help glandma!!!”

Yuri’s mouth twitched.

“Now, now, don’t call her grandma. Call her Yuri, okay? Mistress Yuri if you can... but maybe that should be later.”

“Yuli?”

“Yuri.” She corrected.

“GLANDMA YULI!” he screamed in my ear.

Yep, definitely his kid... no doubt about that.

His and nuts did their job.

---

The road back to the mountain had been abrupt. For some reason, the Queen demanded to close an entire railway. We had to go around and that took us one extra week. By the time I arrived, I was seriously annoyed and still had a lot to go. Maybe it was because I could relax afterwards and let Yuri take care of me that the baby came to our world healthy and wealthy in energy.

I broke Daesung's bones while in labor, but that was another story. 

Jung Min didn’t even touch him for a few months because his soul was too strong and it might have burnt him off. It tempted me to name him ‘Hyung-soo’ after we saw it was a boy, but Daesung freaked and told me that under no circumstance were we going to name the kid after him. Yuri searched through books and proposed some more, including Voldemort which was a little farfetched. I tried to combine names at one point... Soo Dae, Dae Soo, Yu Dae, Yu Soo, Soo Yoo, Soo Min, Min Soo...

Jung Min scoffed from his potted carrots and shouted ‘Changmin’ out of the blue.

I liked it a lot. I didn’t even wait for Daesung’s opinion.

And that’s how our beautiful gem got its name.

Needless to say, he was a little prick. He got the worse out of me and Daesung: big mouth, huge energy, good appetite and a love for mischief. It was the fifth time that week when he sneaked inside Yuri’s bedroom and stole one of her herbs. Well, at least his looks were darn fine. He was one cute, bubbly kiddo and Jung Min was wrong. Our genes mixed well enough. I was curious on how he’ll look when he’ll get older, but also didn’t want to know because Daesung and Yuri would have aged by then, while I and Jung Min would remain the same.

It was really strange, no matter how much I went around it. I just couldn’t figure it out why I stayed the same.

At least Changmin grew and that was good. He pouted while watching the snow outside. I could see from the way he hopped on spot and kept turning to see if we were watching him that he really wanted to go outside.

I figured out that snow was his doing.

Because, you see, Changmin had this... okay, I’m not even sure if it’s his fault, but every time he wished really hard on something, it would happen. That’s how in the middle of summer, it suddenly snowed last year while we were visiting the rice fields. This time, the period and locations fit and as much as I would have loved to let him have some fun, he hadn’t been feeling well lately and I was afraid he might have caught a cold.

Taking the youngster away from the window, I helped him penguin walk to the table. We shared a chair together, ate a little and waited for Daesung to come back from the city which finally got bigger around the train station. It was great for us because we could get some stuff we couldn’t before and sending Jung Min to and fro could become tiresome for the reaper.

Daesung also found his old camera. I wasn’t curious to see how horrible I turned out in them, but Daesung insisted on buying new film and taking one family portrait together. So he was probably late, waiting after the other photos to be developed.

“Changmin, does your head still hurt?”

The kid nodded with doe eyes and I couldn’t help nickname him Bambi.

“Hults...” he knocked at his head and grinned.

“It’s okay. Yuri will give you something soon and it should be all fine~”

Changmin smiled, reassured by his dear mother.

Then again, I was freaking out. He had the same headache the day before... when the first snowflakes fell.

Well, I’ll be damned.

My finger lit up with white energy as I tapped his forehead.

“Oh...” his eyes widened. “No hults...”

“It doesn’t hurt anymore, now does it?”

Changmin grinned and nodded again.

I sighed.

That poor kiddo was already using his abilities... it was too early.

Way too early.

“Alright! Who wants stew?!” Yuri proudly announced. Changmin covered his mouth. I agreed with the kid and got up.

“Ah, we’re going outside to play, if that’s okay with you!”

Yuri glared, snorted and then left us alone. I rushed Changmin to the door, so we could dress properly for the weather and then enjoy ourselves in the snow Changmin so much wanted for that special day.