It’s fishy

Jaejoong heard the door of her workroom moving with a creak. Well she kept it open for that reason- so she’d know when he needs her. She didn’t look away from her work station though, simply waiting while fixing the sleeve on the mannequin.

Sure enough, a little being collided into her leg and giggled. She smiled hearing the ringing laughter though her pants were threatening to fall by the pulling on them.

It wasn’t urgent or anything. Just the person pulling them loved when his mother wore palazzos.

A skirt which is a trouser. A trouser which isn’t a skirt. And they look like the curtains he loves hanging off and better than that, he can run around them and between them and twist the hem of them.

Jaejoong would rather have her just turned two-year old hang off her palazzo instead of the drapes. Who knows what accident could happen (but it does, in Yunho’s office but that’s much later).

It was when the waistline of her pants slid halfway down her did she pull her leg away from the little hands.

“NAAAAW!” Changmin clawed at the pants again wanting to play a little more. He did grab them and pulled with a little too much force and Jaejoong had to hold her waistband before they go completely off.

It’s good that she’s wearing a long tank top, even better she’s alone at home with Changmin, and great that Yunho is in Naples for business.

The last time she wore palazzos, Changmin had pulled them really low and she couldn’t straighten it right away because her hands were coated with dough she was kneading for kimchi pancakes. Yunho had waltzed in and pinched her right in front of Changmin. And then he thought it is okay to pinch his mother’s while sitting on a shopping cart in a supermarket. It’s good that he has the babies’ short term memory or it would be a hassle trying to stop his Tarzan habit and pinching habit.

“Minnie, stop!” Jaejoong tugged her pant away from his hand and Changmin pouted. That lasted two seconds because the boy was back to his mother’s leg, only this time he was hugging the leg clad in the flowy trouser.

“Shleepyyy~!” Changmin slurred against the fabric.

Jaejoong glanced at clock on the table. It’s past 8 pm. Changmin is usually fed by now and sleeping. But she was so lost in work that she forgot to eat and feed her child.

Jaejoong picked Changmin up and the boy immediately snuggled in the crook of her neck. “Hey….” She whispered, “don’t you want to eat something first?”

“hmm…tummy want foo….” Jaejoong had to peek to make sure he wasn’t sleeptalking, but the toddler was really too sleepy to talk properly.

She carried him to the living room and got a large sippy cup full of milk. Changmin was probably going to doze off if she tried to feed him his porridge. So she decided to give him some easy-to-have food.

Jaejoong sat cross-legged on the couch with Changmin in her lap. While he drank slowly, Jaejoong got her phone and did a few things before a voice was heard from it.

“hey munchkin, still having dinner?” Changmin blinked at the image of his father in that small screen and then gave a gap-toothed grin. “Aw! There’s one tooth less there champ.” Yunho teased. He can’t really see Changmin’s teeth through the video call but he likes to tease Changmin like that.

“Aniyo~! Minnie has new tooth.” Changmin countered loudly. He swatted his hand at Jaejoong telling her to speak. “Tell Daddy! Tell daddy!”

“Yes daddy! Minnie’s growing a new one.” Jaejoong fluffed up Changmin’s ego a bit and the parents laughed when Changmin exhaled through his nose as a show of pride.

“Is that so? Minnie’s growing up now. He’ll be too old to play with his daddy.” Changmin shook his head immediately. “But you will, you're already up past bedtime. My Minnie is in his rebel phase. Huhu~!” Yunho made a show of crying and Changmin panicked.

“Daddy no cry! Minnie and daddy play lego and go to park and eat hambu-bu…”

“Hamburger.” Jaejoong supplied.

“Hambuglah!” Changmin said cheerily.

“really? Jeongmal?” Yunho fake sniffed.

“Yuss!” Changmin said happily.

“Why are up anyway?” Yunho was worried for a moment. He thought something had happened and was playing around with Changmin just to check if he’s fine.

“It’s my fault. He was having a Pororo marathon and I was working and lost track of time.” Jaejoong mouthed a sorry when Yunho gave his I-told-you-not-to-overwork look. “I’m giving him a light dinner because he’s sleepy.”

“You should eat. It’s breakfast time here. So I’ll go down now and you call me once you finished eating.”

“Okay.” Jaejoong nuzzled Changmin, “say good night to daddy.”

“Goo’ night daddy.” Changmin waved at him.

“Sweet dreams baby. Love you both.” Yunho gave them flying kisses before the screen went blank.

Changmin by then had finished his milk and Jaejoong took the bottle from him. “You want to sleep in your crib or in the bed?”

“With Mama.” Changmin buried his face under Jaejoong’s chin. “So Mama not alone.”

“My baby is so sweet.” Jaejoong went to the kitchen to put the sipper back. She smiled feeling the small mouth yawn against the throat. Changmin was too tired to even close his mouth. But unexpectedly, Changmin put his hand on her cheek and squeezed it.

“mama?”

“Yeah?”

“Can Minnie have pet?”

“err…”

Jaejoong doesn’t know what brought this on but she’s more afraid of disappointing her son. you see, the Kims have some kind of pet repellent. Animals are fine with them, but refuse to be petted by them.

Hankyung once got a kitten for Heechul and the thing had some competition with the Mother-Diva on how could be the cattiest. The cat was never seen after two days.

Seunggi’s got his pet dog from his parents’ once who was fine until little Junsu cried and the dog started howling. Junsu did have a voice that could upset dogs. But the dog didn’t like Heechul either, something of the woman resembling a cat in its eyes and the dog was sent back to Seunggi’s parents.

Yoona and Junsu were chased by a goose with the mental behaviour of a bull and the same day, Jaejoong was stinkbombed by a ladybug she thought cute.

Hankyung tried to improve the girls’ relationship with animals and got Jaejoong and Junsu trained, grown-up dogs. The two canines were far too big and somehow bossy only to the two girls and dragged them around. One would think the girls were bound by the leash and not the dogs.

The latest one was before Jaejoong and Yunho married. Yunho introduced her to his husky that lived with his father’s family in the Jungs’ Gwangju mansion. Jaejoong felt like the mistress in the husky’s and Yunho’s ‘marriage’ seeing the dog growl whenever she was within 3 feet of Yunho.         

“Mama?” Jaejoong was jolted back to her ‘pet-less’ existence by Changmin’s voice. without thinking, she put her hand inside her dining table centre-piece and got one of the smooth, bluish white pebbles. “Here’s your pet.” The ideal pet, Jaejoong thought. Nothing can beat a rock.

The pebble was small but in the toddler’s hands it looked about the size of his fist. But even Changmin can’t be fooled, at least not that easily. Jaejoong knows he’s too young for the ‘WTF’ look but he’s totally giving the ‘WTF’ look.

“MAMA!” was the indignant voice.

“Fine! We’ll see tomorrow.” Jaejoong came around. She has to find some animal which won’t be hostile to her, and if Changmin’s her blood, he needs a friendly pet too.

But Changmin was satisfied by the answer and he put his head back against Jaejoong’s neck. Since he was content, he fell asleep immediately but his mother was still thinking.

Jaejoong’s eyes fell on her dining table’s centrepiece- white pebbles and small artificial flowers in a fish bowl and she got an idea.

~~~

Jaejoong looked around the huge store.

Too many animals, 90% of them appearing to glare at her.

Changmin’s eyes though were sparkling seeing the variety of choices for pets.

“Are you sure about this?” Jaejoong turned to Yoochun who spoke, “I can take Min and you could sit in the car’s….safety.” Oh Yoochun has heard about Jaejoong’s incident with Yunho’s husky. He knows Taepoong as a friendly dog so Jaejoong must really have some repellent in her blood if she can rile up such a sweet dog.

“I want to see too. You might end up getting something to my house that’s going to pee all over my clothes.” Jaejoong grumbled and passed Changmin to him, “but just take him in case I get mauled by a cat or something.”

“Got it.” Yoochun took Changmin with a grunt. He rarely carries him, so the boy always felt heavy.

The three of them entered the pet store and Jaejoong couldn’t contain her gasp when she saw it had two more floors. “You weren’t kidding when you said it’s huge.”

“Yup! Yunho and I used to come here when we were 10 and pretend we owned every pet here. This floor has the assorted pets, fowl, reptiles, rodents, the likes. Canines upstairs and cats above that. Don’t get surprised but there’s the basement too. You’ll find your fishes there.”

“Fishy!” Changmin chirped, remembering what they are here for. Yoochun chuckled, “Yeah, you're going to get your own aquarium!” Yoochun high-fived Changmin.

“All right, let’s go.” Jaejoong pushed Yoochun towards the stairs that went to the basement. “And Yoochun, no telling Yunho. It’s a surprise.”

“My lips are sealed.” Yoochun announced.

“Mama! Mama! Lookie!” Changmin pointed to the side and the adults looked wondering what he’s saying. “For aunty Su! Ducky for Aunty Su!” and the adults started laughing. Sure enough, Changmin had spotted the ducklings that remind him of his duckbutt aunt.

But it was actually a reminder to Jaejoong from her little man. While they were waiting for Yoochun to come and pick them up, Changmin had requested a fish that was like their family, so they could be happy together. He started off with a duck for Junsu but Jaejoong can’t get a duck. She doesn’t have a pond for it in her apartment.

“Hey, how about one of these guys?” Jaejoong looked to her left where Yoochun pointed and flinched.

Who would put a giant tank of catfish right at the entrance of the basement?

“Ummm…” Changmin whimpered at the sight of those scary fish and snuggled closer to an oblivious Yoochun.

Jaejoong went closer to the edge of the tank and flinched when one dark tail whipped out of the surface of the water and splashed a little. She’s an avid viewer of Monster Fish on NatGeo channel and half the time the ‘monster’ is a catfish. “Eep!” Jaejoong nearly wet her pants (palazzos again) seeing the mean, almost sinister eyes of one particular catfish. It was huge, almost Changmin’s size and Jaejoong dreaded ever seeing a Changmin-shaped protrusion in that mean fish’s body.

“Aniyooo~!” Jaejoong saw Changmin shrieking when Yoochun was holding him too close to the tank for fun.

Jaejoong reached over and smack Yoochun upside his head and took her son. “Why don’t you just tie him over a pool of sharks.” Jaejoong huffed and walked ahead with Changmin.

“You say that now but he’s probably going to team up with his grandmother and do that to us one day.” Yoochun hollered and got some questionably stairs from other customers for that comment.

“Mama that! Mama that!” Jaejoong took Changmin to where he pointed. The boy plastered his face and palms on the glass and made awe-filled noises.

“it’s angelfish.” Jaejoong said reading the name on the bottom of the tank. Changmin was looking at the white ones. There were the colourful and black and white ones on the each side of that tank.

“Angel? Like mama?” Jaejoong mentally grinned like a Cheshire cat but put on a