Flashing, colorful mobile caught Sunny’s attention as she passed through the toys section. Like a little child, she stared at those fancy balls and poked them with her hands. A smile was carved on her face when she saw the baby toy span once again. She surely must have seen these stuffs when she was an infant, she thought, but as she grew up she had never touched them again. So it was all interesting for her – the toys, the cradle, the baby walker, the milk bottles, and of course the diapers.

The petite woman was paying attention to a milk bottle with a bunny cap on the top of it when she felt a finger tickling her waist. Turning around, she found Taeyeon giggling as if she had done something silly.

“What?”

“You sure seem more excited than I do” The other shorty replied. “Maybe you were not that happy when you were a kid”

“Yaah” Sunny chuckled. “My father and mother bought me a lot of toys, you know. It’s just… It’s been a while since I saw these things so… so they look cute”

“You can buy one of these for yourself” Taeyeon laughed as she took one of the bunny bottles.

“Yeah, right” Sunny put the one in her hand back to its place. “Then I will sleep on the cradle as well and the next thing you find in the morning is that it will be all crashed into pieces”

“You giant baby”

“Yes, and I’m not the right baby to be concerned about right now. Have you got all the stuffs needed?”

“Yes I have. I’ll have them paid first”

“Sure, I’ll wait here”

Soon after her girlfriend was out of sight, Sunny took a deep breath as her hands were busy searching something in her bag. It had been the nth time she made sure the little red box was still inside but this time she pulled it out instead of just looking at it. After having carefully opened it, the woman looked at her left and right, checking if Kim Taeyeon was still not around.

She exhaled deeply once her eyes caught the blinding reflection of the shiny diamond ring. She forced close the box once more as she kept mentally supporting herself. Her two eyes were closed as uttered prayers. Then, afraid that the woman she loved would get back to her soon, she decided to put the ring back inside the bag.

“I am finished” Just like what she had predicted, Taeyeon was already behind her again not long after the ring was once again hidden.

“Let’s go for lunch then” Sunny gave her a nervous smile before leading their ways outside the shop.

Although her lover’s sudden anxiety left her confused a little bit, Taeyeon tailed behind Sunny as they made their way to a quiet restaurant there. Not wanting to hurry things, Sunny decided to let both of them finish the meals. She was dying inside, however, and her hands were frequently rubbing against each other. Her mind was busy preparing every perfect word she could say. Not to mention, Taeyeon’s lovely stare directed at her once in every few minutes gave her another additional mini heart-attacks.

Minutes passed, and it was time for the waitress to deliver their two cups of patbingsoo. Knowing she could waste no longer time, the shorter woman commenced on taking the hidden object from her bag as her eyes made sure Taeyeon was still busy with her dessert.

“God, the patbingsoo here is sooo nice. I have never tasted any as yummy as this” Taeyeon commented; she scooped the food continuously without bothering to look at the one sitting opposite her.

“Taengoo” Sunny called her with her nickname.

“Hmm?”

“I… I want to say something”

“Yeah?”

“But… probably you need to finish that first. You seem to enjoy it so much”

“That’s okay I can still talk while savoring this” Taeyeon responded; her eyes still did not meet Sunny’s. “What is it?”

“Hmm, okay” She was about to finally reveal the box. She just realized she had been spinning it in her hand as they spoke. “So, actually I…”

“Uh-huh?”

“I really want to make it official between two of us so I-“

Before the sentence was finished, the ringing sound could be heard from Sunny’s cellphone. After muttering ‘sorry’ to Taeyeon, she took out the gadget only to find an unknown number on her screen.

“Hello?”

“Hello, am I speaking to Ms. Lee?” A woman’s voice could be heard.

“Yes, you are. May I know who’s this?”

“I am from Seoul Central Hospital. Mrs. Park requested me to call you”

Sunny furrowed her eyebrows. “Hyomin?”

Taeyeon stopped munching right away.

“Yes, she asked my help to call you”

“Did something happen?”

“Mrs. Park has been hospitalized since one week ago. She asked me to tell you that she would like you to come here”

“Alright” Sunny gulped. “Please tell her I’ll be there as soon as possible”

“Thank you. I think she’ll be glad to hear that” The caller said. “Thank you for your time, Ms. Lee”

Putting down her phone on the table, Sunny let out a deep sigh. Even from her face, Taeyeon knew something must have happened.

“What happened?” She grabbed Sunny’s hand and intertwined their fingers.

Once she looked at the comforting face of the lady in front of her, Sunny calmed down a bit. She rubbed the fingers that enveloped her hand.

“Hyomin is in hospital again” She finally answered. “It’s weird, though. Last time she told me she’d got better”

“We need to be there soon, don’t we?”

Sunny wanted to continue what she had started. She still wanted to take out the ring right then and spilled out everything she had prepared. But if something had happened or would happen to her best friend because of her absence, she would never forgive herself for not being there on time. So she looked straight at Taeyeon and nodded.

* * *

The heart-monitoring system kept beeping every second as the pale-faced woman smiled at her daughter. Hara was busy paying attention to the doves passing by the room’s window. The mother then noticed the water bottle on the desk was still full of water.

“Hara-yah…” Unable to speak loudly, she called her daughter in a low volume.

Hara did turn at her, although the girl did not get off the chair right away.

“You have to drink a lot. C’mon, drink your water”

“I just drank a few minutes ago” The little girl diverted her attention to somewhere outside the window again, even though the birds had gone.

“Hara, listen to mom please…”

“Yeah, Hara. You should listen to your mom”

Both of them were quite shocked due to a voice coming from the door. Spotting her ex-girlfriend standing there, Hyomin’s expression brightened up. Sunny walked toward Hara soon after she stepped inside before dragging her down the chair.

“You shouldn’t make your mother sadder when she is sick, you know” Sunny started scolding her.

“But I don’t want to keep drinking and drinking! I will keep going to the toilet later!” The kid forcefully released her hand from Sunny’s grip.

“Then what about I ask you to?”

Knowing the familiar voice, Hara found Taeyeon kneeling in front of her with a smile. She then bounced happily on the floor.

“Auntie Taeyeon is back!” She yelled. “Auntie Taeyeon is back!”

“Yes, yes, I am back. Now listen to your mom, Auntie Sunny, and me. Okay?” Seeing the sincere happiness of the girl somehow made Taeyeon smile too. She then took Hara’s hand gently and brought her to where the water bottle was placed. As if she could feel a bond with the woman, Hara obeyed right away and used the straw to drink the water.

“As expected, I need you two to control my own daughter” Hyomin laughed, but soon after the laughter was followed by coughs.

“What happened?” Sunny grabbed a chair and sat right next to the bed.

“Well… It just comes back. I don’t know why”

“You know, you can always ask my help. I don’t mind taking care of Hara again”

“Regarding that…” Hyomin took a quick peek at Taeyeon and her own child. Making sure her voice was soft enough to not be heard by her daughter, she continued. “Sunny, she can’t know about this. Hara can’t hear about this”

Overhearing the conversation, Taeyeon looked at them with determined eyes. “I’ll take her outside somewhere. You two can talk”

Although she was hesitant at first, Sunny stood up nevertheless and approached Taeyeon. She put her hand on the latter’s cheek. “Is it okay?”

The latter gave her a comforting smile. “Don’t worry. It’s okay”

“Thank you” Sunny replied the smile before coming back to her seat.

“Hara-yah, you want some cakes? Auntie will buy you the cakes in the restaurant downstairs. Then we can walk in the park”

“I don’t want cakes!” Hara rejected, but her eyes sparkled upon the mention of ‘park’. “I want the bubble blower they sell downstairs so I can play bubbles at the park!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll buy that for you” Taeyeon took the child’s hand once again. “Let’s go then. Okay?”

“Alright! Yeaaay!” Hara stepped alongside the woman joyfully outside the room.

Once the door was shut tightly and the room was filled with silence, the two women left in the room stared at each other for a while.

“So…” Sunny began. “What actually happened?”

Hyomin did not answer at first. Gulping, she let the silence fill in once again as sadness transformed into tears in her eyes. It did not take long for her to drop those tears.

“Hyomin-ah…” The one sitting on the chair rubbed her hand softly.

“I may not survive this time, Sunny” Hyomin closed her eyes. “I may not survive”

“What do you mean you may not survive?” Sunny could feel her heart beating faster. “You had got better last time! What happened actually!?”

“I’m sorry. I lied to you, saying that I’ve got better and all. But the truth is, I had never got better”

The sentence hit Sunny hard. She stared blankly at the other woman before finally opening up again. “Why…?”

“Because at that time I know you got a lot of problems for yourself” Hyomin managed to stop her tears for a while. “If I hadn’t said that that time, you would have not let me take Hara. And if you had not let me take Hara, you would have been stressed even more”

“Why…” Sunny placed her elbows on the bed’s edge and rubbed her face with her palms in frustration. “Why, Hyominnie. Why…”

“Sunny…” Although it was a bit difficult, the woman on the bed managed to move her hand to grab Sunny’s. “Sunny… Look at me”

She made Sunny uncover her face only to find tears on it.

“Sunny, don’t cry” She smiled. “You have always been the stronger one between us. Remember when you made the boy who once wanted to hit on me cry?”

The reminiscence was meant to cheer her best friend up, but instead, Sunny cried even more. “I should’ve been with you more often. I should’ve helped you more often. But I was too focused on myself…”

“No, you were not. You were fighting for the woman you love. You’re not selfish” Hyomin her hands. “And I’m happy that you two are together again now. Seeing Hara obey you and her, I am really happy and relieved”

Not replying anything, Sunny dried her wet cheeks with her sleeves.

“Sunny, do you want to help me for one last time?”

The shorter woman nodded involuntarily. “What is it?”

“I cannot find any other person in this world who could love Hara as you and Taeyeon could – not even Hara’s very own father” Hyomin sighed before locking her gaze with the other woman’s once again. “Sunny, would you please take care of Hara if… if I cannot make it?”

Sunny went silence upon the request. She looked deeply into Hyomin’s eyes and could feel all kinds of negative feelings in them – sadness, hopelessness, and despair. But at the same time, through Hyomin’s eyes she also knew that the ill woman wanted to pass her all the things she would have had if she still had time – hope, love and affection for her daughter.

* * *

“Whoaaa Auntie Sunny’s house is full of new stuffs!” Hara shouted as she made her way inside the house like a boss. “New sofa, new TV, new dinner table!”

“That’s not new sofa, honey. I just fixed the holes and changed the cover” Sunny answered in the middle of going back and forth from Taeyeon’s car to the living room, bringing in all the baby stuffs they bought today. Once she found Taeyeon bringing the cradle parts in one big plastic bag, she grabbed them right away in panic. “Yah! You’re not supposed to carry heavy stuffs!”

“Okay, hubby, okay!” Taeyeon chuckled as she passed all the other plastic bags left. “Here, carry them all in one go”

“Wha- Okay! Who said I couldn’t carry all of them one at a time?” The woman with the shorter hair had her chin up.

It made Taeyeon laugh. “I was just kidding. I’ll help Hara take her shower and put her in pajama”

“Now that sounds like what a mother does”

The longer-haired woman shook her head in disbelief upon the statement. She went ‘tsk tsk’ and sneered playfully at Sunny. “Okay, father, okay!”

Should Sunny call it lucky, Hara fell asleep quickly due to the long day at the hospital earlier. She did bother Taeyeon to read stories for her again as usual, but in the end it just took three short pages of Peterpan to bring her to the dream land.

Sunny had just finished her shower when she opened Hara’s room door to find her lover the sleeping toddler’s hair. The sight warmed up her heart; she bit her lips remembering that they would soon build a family together just like this. Speaking of which, she got reminded of the cancelled proposal this afternoon. She then walked inside and put her hand on Taeyeon’s shoulder, making her turn around.

“She’s safe and sound” Sunny whispered. “And I want to have my time with you”

Taeyeon smiled at what she said before following Sunny to her bedroom. Laying herself on the big bed, Taeyeon let out a long, heavy breath.

“This is quite a long day”

“It is indeed” Sunny soon positioned herself on the top of the latter. Without doubts, she placed her unique curved lips on her girlfriend’s small, pinkish one. In attempt to deepen the kiss, Taeyeon pulled Sunny by her cheeks before sneaking her tongue inside Sunny’s mouth.

“These days you don’t even wait for me to enter first” The one on top commented after separating the lips for a while.

“Oh why should I” Not caring about what her loved one would think, Taeyeon glued their lips for one more time and let their tongues meet once again.

After a few minutes or so of their making-out session, Sunny decided to break the kiss. Knowing that Taeyeon would complain, she quickly opened up to explain.

“I have something to say”

“You have had something to say since this afternoon”

“No, it’s what I have wanted to say ever since I started dating you” Jumping out of the bed, Sunny took the hidden box from her bag for one more time. She gave it a deep look for a split second and inhaled deeply, hoping that nothing would interrupt her this time. So she turned around – with the red object still hidden behind her back – then got back to where Taeyeon was waiting patiently for her with cute puppy eyes.

She kneeled down right beside the bed. Curious after witnessing Sunny’s sudden action, Taeyeon used her hands to help her sit up. Once she managed to sit, she found Sunny reaching out her hand. There was something on it – it was a golden ring with a shiny blinding diamond.

“Kim Taeyeon” Sunny called her; their eyes met naturally and Taeyeon could find the sincerity right from Sunny’s deepest heart. “Would you be mine forever?”

Surprised beyond words, Taeyeon could not help but to gasp a bit. Tears ran down her face as her own eyes kept their places on the ring. Among a thousand things Sunny could have wanted to say since they started dating, she had wanted to say this. Wasn’t this a little bit too fast? Shouldn’t this be done after the little one was born? Had she known Sunny that deep as well as her family?

But then, she remembered the first time they met. She remembered every single thing she had gone through with the woman starting that time. She recalled the hardships they handled when she was still running away from her family, the sadness and despair she went through when her family took her away from Sunny and the things she said and Sunny did to get her parents’ heart. After all those things, could there be anything scarier in the future that they could not overcome together?

A while ago, she still had this doubt for Sunny. A while ago, she was still unsure whether they would be able to be together. A while ago, she still rejected Sunny’s love due to her family’s pressure. But now there they were – in Sunny’s house, with Sunny kneeling without doubts in front of her after all they had been through. So without any more doubts, without being scared anymore like she used to be, she lingered her arms around Sunny’s neck.

“Yes I would”

The chapter after this will be the last chapter. Thank you for still reading this fic~ ^^