AMIN
A child's cry bursts out from the living room.
"Tae, for heaven's sake." I sigh as I leave the kitchen in a rush, apron still wrapped around my waist. And of course he's there, looking up at me like a deer caught in headlights with his arms squeezing the flailing girl.
"I told you to stop, didn't I?"
Taehyung pouts.
Haeri wriggles out of her father's chest, running straight to me.
"Mama! He surprised me from the back and wouldn't stop hugging me!"
"It's because he loves you too much." I murmur, but she pushes her lips together and pads back over to the toy box.
She flicks her finger towards him.
"Well, I forgive you this one time, Papa. But do it again and no dinner for you!"
I burst into laughter.
With a basket full of toys, she shuffles into the small tent set into the corner of the living room. And I'm still smiling as she zips up the tent flap shut.
"No one loves me."
I turn to Taehyung, not able to believe what he'd just said. He leans back into the couch, pitiful expression on his face.
"...what did you just say?"
He glances up at me, eyes only widening when he sees my furrowed brows.
"Noona, I—"
One hand on my waist, I lift up his chin with a single finger. "Don't say things like that, hm? What does that make me?"
He pulls me onto his lap.
"You know I don't mean those things."
Taehyung unravels the knot of the apron in the back with slender fingers, dropping it to the ground. He initiates a fierce kiss onto my lips, and I'm about to kiss back when I realize that the four-year old girl is still within hearing range inside the tent.
I push on his chest with urgent hands.
"Wait. She..."
"She's asleep." He whispers, and I blink. "You can hear her sleeping."
And only when he tells me do I hear the soft snores of the child through the thin tent.
"Come, Noona." He smiles faintly, lifting me off of his lap and into his body as he stands.
His innocent smile turns devilish.
"We have about an hour until she wakes up."
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My lips are still swollen as I walk Haeri down the baby aisle of the store, holding her hand tight to mine. She needed clothes for spring— and she was growing, so quickly.
Taehyung was at work, busy with the changing seasons.
"Come here, love." I say, unhooking a white cherry dress from the hangar and holding it up to her body. "How do you like this one?"
Grabbing the dress with her plump hands, she waddles in front of the small mirror. I watch her with adoration as she turns in different angles, large eyes fixed at herself.
She giggles.
"Mama, I like this one a lot."
She bounces over to the cashier, getting on her tiptoes so that she could scan the tag.
"Alright, love." I say, searching for my card. And it's less than ten seconds that I turn around to pay for the dress.
When I turn back, Haeri is gone.
My gaze chills with shock.
"...Haeri?"
She had to be here— somewhere near. I immediately rush out of the cashier line, heart racing with terror when I don't see her in any of the small aisles.
Please.
This couldn't be.
I instantly find the store manager when I don't find the little girl after half a minute. My breath is uneven, now that another prospect had entered my mind.
What if someone had taken her?
"My child is missing. Can you sound out the speaker?" I say, talking so fast that my words slur out. "Her name is Haeri. A small girl, in a white dress."
The woman nods. And soon the loud sound of a speaker echoes through the entire store, with my daughter's name.
"If anyone sees a child in a white dress, please bring her to the front desk..."
Cold sweat covers my forehead.
And I wait anxiously, clasping my freezing hands together. But I can only wait so long until I go to search for her again myself, telling the manager to please hold onto her if someone did find her.
She isn't in the toy aisle. Not in the sweets aisle, either.
Child kidnapping.
I'd seen it only on the news, but now I find myself shaking uncontrollably in the corner of the store, phone clutched in trembling hands.
I call Taehyung.
But I immediately end it right after pressing green, eyes wide.
He's working.
I was only calling him for comfort, and that was ridiculous. Telling him about this might bring back the asthma he'd healed over two straight year of oxygen therapy, or it would end up dragging him here when he was busy at the company.
My head hurts.
And the pressure in my chest gets worse when I come back to the front desk, to find that no one had brought her yet.
Then my phone rings.
Taehyung.
I think of ignoring it. But I possibly can't, and I answer with unsteady fingers with eyes still sweeping through the store.
"Noona."
His deep, gentle voice comes through on the other side. Usually I'd find comfort in this, but this time my heart crashes harder into my chest.
Do I tell him?
"You called. Is anything the matter?"
He's twenty minutes away by car, Amin. And he said this morning that he had an important conference today.
But I know that the thing that I'm most worrying about is the returning of his asthma.
"I-I'm fine." I murmur, starting to pace around again through the massive store. "I called accidentally, Tae. I'm sorry."
Please.
But we'd been together for over five years.
His voice turns tense.
"What's wrong?" He whispers, and slowly I feel my breathing crumble back into unevenness. "Tell me. Is it Haeri? Are you okay, Noona?"
"Where are you now."
Words spill out of me in a messy waterfall. I never acted like this— completely out of composure, tone so unstable that every word shook.
And he understands the severity of the situation.
"I'll be there in fifteen."
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How much time had passed?
The shade of my face is the shade of ash as I stand in the middle of the center, outside of the store. I should be thinking— but my head is too cloudy with panic even to breathe.
By now, I'm convinced someone had taken her.
Suddenly, arms wrap around my frozen shoulders. And Taehyung pulls me roughly to his chest, voice unsteady.
"Noona— Noona."
"Is she still missing?"
I nod. Against my back I can feel his chest— his heart. He's breathing so fast.
Then I hear a voice I don't expect to hear.
"Is that where you saw her last?"
Jungkook?
My eyes widen in surprise when I see Jungkook and Shilla, both of them still in bodyguard suits. They looked like they'd been pulled from work, and I instantly turn to my husband.
He winces.
"They caught me when I tried to leave."
"There's nothing better than a bodyguard to track someone down." Shilla tells me comfortingly, but I'm too shaken as I nod to Jungkook's question.
"We'll search the store, then. You two can try searching this area in the plaza." He says, pulling Shilla back inside the store I'd come out from.
And Taehyung. He's almost as ashen as I am.
"Maybe she went searching for candy." He says, and I can tell he's trying to keep his voice calm for my sake. "Or toys. Dod you try the ice cream parlor, Noona?"
I shake my head.
He kisses me swiftly, hand tight against mine.
"We'll find her."
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Nowhere.
I feel myself slowly shatter as every place we visit turns up empty. We'd even alerted the security here, to keep a look out for a small girl with a cherry dress.
Then my phone rings.
Shilla.
I immediately answer, voice thick.
"Hello?"
"Amin— can you come back to the store?"
"We found her."
And the world crashes down in relief. I can see the same expression cross Taehyung's face when I tell him, a breath of weak laughter escaping his lips.
"Let's go."
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"You two look terrible." Shilla comments when she sees us rush to meet her in the aisle full of dolls and stuffed animals. And my eyes sweep around anxiously— I'd checked this aisle, earlier.
"Where is she?"
She points at Jungkook. And Jungkook steps aside, to reveal a small foot poking out of the plush beanbag that had been shoved deep amongst the other ones in the row.
I can't believe my eyes.
Haeri is asleep, curled up inside the cozy cushions of the beanbag. No wonder I'd missed her— she was almost hidden from the outside view.
Taehyung lifts her out, arms tightening around her small figure. He presses a gentle kiss on her forehead, voice still low with worry.
"Silly child. Your mother will teach you not to sleep in places like these."
I would.
My legs were still weak from all that I'd gone through the last half hour, thinking a million scenarios that could've happened to my daughter.
It was so ridiculous, that she'd been sleeping peacefully while tucked away in a beanbag all this time. How had she even found this little place in the beginning?
Then gentle fingers touch my cheek.
"Noona. Are you alright?"
"Tae."
I look up, nodding dazedly into his concerned expression. His eyes are soft, large hand wrapping around the curve of my waist. His other arm holds up the tiny girl, still fast asleep against his chest.
"Everything is fine."
"She just needed some sleep, that's all."
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SHILLA
I can still remember the deathly look on both of their faces.
"I think," I mumble to Jungkook, tapping him on the shoulder. "It's gotta be a lot of stress taking care of a child."
"Of course." He says, eyes fixed down on a book. He was being boring, again. "A child is a lot of work, Shilla. They're so unpredictable."
Exactly.
"Yeah. So that's why I was thinking maybe we should have a child later on, when we have less work to do in the company." I say in a suggesting tone. "You know?"
His eyes flicker.
"Worry about marriage before a child." He murmurs, clasping my chin with two slender fingers. "Don't get too ahead of yourself."
I tip my head. "Doesn't it technically count if we're getting married in a week?"
And Jungkook presses his lips together, like he's actually thinking about what I'd said.
"No. We can worry about a child after we're married." He concludes, and I laugh under my breath when he shifts his sleeves back down to his wrist. "Go get a jacket, Shilla. It's getting cold."
It was pretty chilly in the living room.
"Well, maybe I don't really need to." I say as I lie down on my side on the couch, after sliding the book from his hands and throwing it far, far away.
Then I drop my head on his lap, curling up in a good position to stay warm.
He laughs lowly, when he sees the crumpled book on the edge of the glass table.
"Do you need attention?"
"Yeah. I'm an attention-seeker." I say blandly, kicking the book away further with the tip of my feet. "What are you doing instead of entertaining me?"
"Entertainment?" Laughing again, he presses a kiss on my forehead. "What kind of entertainment would you like?"
I giggle. The laughter fades real quick from his face when I make the motion of drinking, my eyes in silly winks.
"I wanna see you drunk, Jungkook." I say, shifting my head on his lap with a devilish smile. "I want you all over me, blushing like an idiot. You know what I mean?"
He raises a brow when I tap at his cheek, still giggling.
"Stop."
And my eyes widen when he suddenly bends, kissing me up on my exposed throat to my lips.
And I can't make a single noise, until he pauses after noticing the stunned look in both my eyes.
He draws away, expression fully amused.
"It's just a week until wedding night."
"I'll make sure that you are entertained then, Shilla."
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