Lowkey
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{{ Written by Stephanie N }}
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《《 All Rights Reserved 》》
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Three | Friends
I had been at the company for a while longer now. The NCT members had remembered the times I came into clean the practice room and would take their break during those times.
They were especially fond of Taehyun and vice versa. The guys had started bringing toys for him to play while he was there. They left a toy treasure chest in the corner of their room just for Taehyun to store the toys here.
"Taehyun-ah!" Taeil said when he was the first one to notice us walking in to do our job.
"Wah, a small baby." Jisung said as he towered over most of the members there. The NCT Dream members were there to visit their 127 members. Dream had never met me or Taehyunie.
I let Taehyun out of his seat and placed him on the ground. He ran like a baby did as his diaper butt moved with him.
"Ah, so cute." Jaemin said as he smiled. He stuck his hand out to shake Taehyun's hand.
"Tae." Taehyun said as he placed his free hand on his chest. He recognized that there were some members here that he hadn't seen before.
"Oh my god, he's the baby that the guys talk about. The one that likes to introduce himself." Jeno said with an eye smile.
As all of the members sat around playing with Taehyun whenever he found them interesting, I cleaned the room quickly.
"Seomin, do you want to come over at our dorm later?" Mark asked me. "We're having a barbeque cookout. The older members are cooking it."
Mark had been hanging out with me mostly. He had often been at my place to keep us company and also to cure his boredom of just having his members around all the time.
"What's the occasion? Or are you guys just really hungry for Korean barbeque?" I asked.
"We have to make a video about what we do at home and try to make it look like we actually do this. I mean, we do, but only if we don't have anything else to do. The dorm lady usually cooks our food for us unless the older guys get hungry at night." Mark said.
I nodded. "Okay, what floor?" I asked him.
"I'll just come down to get you and bring you guys up." Mark said. He decided to help clean the counters to lessen my work load before some of the guys decided to help clean the mirror. I was left to mop the floor because there was only one mop that I had.
"Guys, don't do a sloppy job or I'll get fired." I reminded them because the head of the employees did sometimes do random checks of rooms at different times of the day to see how good they were being cleaned.
"We know." Haechan said.
"Who did the scuff marks on the floor? Whose shoes did this?" I asked them since one of the marks wasn't coming off. I really had to dig the mop against the floor for it to come off.
There was silence as the members looked at each other. They didn't want to admit it was them or didn't know it was them.
"It's fine. I got it out." I said after no one responded. They looked guilty but suspicious of each other.
"Mama." Taehyun said as he walked towards me. He had been playing with the the Dream members.
I placed the mop back on the cart before taking off my gloves. When he saw that I didn't have the gloves on, he grabbed two of my finger and pulled me along with him.
"Look." He said as he pointed to a phone on the floor. It had a kids show on it that had the famous red fuzzy body and white round eyes. The cartoon moved with the puppeteers that weren't shown on the show.
"Wow." I said pretending to be amazed. "Do you like that show? Mommy can put it on the TV at home. Would you like that?"
Taehyun grinned happily as he nodded. "Yes, mama." He answered me before wrapping his arms around my legs and hugged me from his height.
Renjun picked up his phone and placed it on the bench so that Taehyun wasn't hunched over it.
I scooted Taehyun back to not ruin his eyesight and sat him down. He seemed very interested in the show and mesmerized by the red puppet with his big yellow bird friend and blue fuzzy friend with the big round nose.
"He's a really tiny baby. The way he sits and stares. He's cute." Jisung said before his massive hand carefully patted Taehyun's head as if his hand would accidentally crush Taehyun.
"You are also a baby." Chenle said.
Jisung just gave a closed lipped smile before retracting his hand away from Taehyun.
"Food is here." Yuta announced. Their manager brought in door before he left to wherever he needed to be.
Yuta carried over the many bags with the help of Johnny. They started gathering around the center of the room as they laid the food out.
They had fried rice, pizza, and lasagna in the containers. Taeyong cut up the lasagna in good sizes for easy taking.
"Seomin, Taehyun. Come eat." Jeno said as he guided Taehyun to the food. Taehyun broke his gaze from Renjun's phone and noticed the food.
"Mum mum." Taehyun said happily before patting his belly. The guys laughed at his gesture before giving him food first.
"What do you want to eat?" I asked him. He looked around at the food in front of him and decided on lasagna.
Taeyong got a slice out and handed a paper plate to him with a plastic fork. "Enjoy, Taehyunie." He said.
Taehyun picked up the fork and jabbed the pasta, but he wasn't sure how to cut it himself to get the part to separate from the whole lasagna slice.
I took the fork from him and slices the lasagna into bite sized portions for him to easily get them with the fork. Once I did that, he easily ate the lasagna.
"Yummy?" I asked him. He nodded with a mouth full of lasagna, or what looked like it because his chubby cheeks made it hard to decipher if it was food pockets or just his cheeks.
"So you're our age?" Renjun asked me when everyone had gotten their food. I had just gotten a slice of pizza.
I nodded. "I am." I replied.
"Yo, dude, is your WiFi okay?" Mark said. He was viewing Johnny's laptop since Johnny was editing the next Johnny's Communication Center video that featured Mark in it.
"I don't know. It's SM's wifi, not my wifi. Maybe I should just disconnect from the SM building and use my hotspot from my phone." Johnny said.
At this point, everyone was listening to their conversation. "SM is a multi-million dollar company and the wifi sucks." Haechan said while shaking his head.
Jaemin cooed at Taehyun as he got a napkin to wipe my child's face. "Ah, you eat very well." Jaemin said as the lasagna sauce was all around Taehyun's mouth.
Taehyun continued chewing, unfazed by Jaemin holding his face to clean him up. Jaemin dotted on him some more since he especially liked little babies.
Taehyun then grabbed a clean paper towel before getting on all fours to push himself off of the ground. When he stood up, he walked over to me and pressed the napkin against my lip.
"Mama." He said.
"Thank you, baby. You're taking care of mommy?" I asked him before removing the napkin from my mouth. The napkin was clean afterwards because there was nothing on my mouth, but it was the thought that counts.
He giggled as he gave me a hug for no reason. He seemed pleased that he had learned that taking care of others was another way to show affection.
"He's really smart and caring." Chenle said as the guys watched the whole thing.
"Are you finished, Taehyunie?" I asked. His plate was empty of the lasagna slice that I had given him. "Do you want more?"
"Done, mama." He said shortly.
"Okay, baby. Can you put the plate and fork in the trashcan?" I asked him. I pointed to the big trashcan that they had normally in the room for the trash people to come by and collect.
He bent over to pick up the plate and fork before holding it with both hands. He walked slowly over to the trash because he was afraid the fork would fall off.
When he returned with empty hands, I opened a water bottle for him. He took a couple of big gulps before turning his head away.
He decided to sit on my lap before trying to lift my shirt up. I stopped him when the shirt was barely lifted. "Mama." He said to show that he wanted some breast milk.
I shook my head. "I'm sorry, but you're a big boy now. You can eat solid food. You don't need to drink from mommy." I said as I ran my hand through his hair before rubbing his back to comfort him.
He had a look of sadness before leaning his head against my chest and wrapping his arms around me.
I felt bad, but he needed to wean off of breast milk because he was getting bigger now.
"Does he want cow's milk instead? Can he drink that to be happy again?" Jaehyun asked as he stood up. He dusted the back of his pants, waiting for my response.
I nodded. "He can, but he's never had cow's milk before. I don't know if he'll be deceived by it." I said.
Jaehyun walked out for a moment before returning a few minutes later with a little bottle of white milk.
"Taehyunie, do you want to try this milk? It's from cows." I said. He lifted his head to see what I was talking about.
"Do you know what cow's say?" Jaehyun asked him as he handed the milk to Taehyun. Taehyun took it without knowing what it was.
"Moo." Taehyunie mooed like a cow. He deepened his voice to match the cow imitations.
The guys died laughing from the way he said it. I opened the cold bottle for Taehyun. I was slightly cautious because he had always had my breast milk that was warm due to it coming out of my body directly.
This milk bottle was from cows and refrigerated. The taste and temperature was different than what he was used to.
I held the bottle to his lips, and he took a sip. His body shivered from the cold milk, and his face slightly scrunched up from the taste.
The milk wasn't expired or anything, but he was thrown off by the first time experience.
"Do you like it?" I asked him as I waited for his response. He didn't reply nor look at me in the eyes until he finally shook his head no.
"Is it different from mommy?" I asked him curiously. He often didn't look me in the eyes if he didn't like something. It meant that he didn't want to be mean by saying he didn't enjoy it, but it was clear on his face that he was not happy.
He nodded with a scowl on his face to show that it was different. "No mama." He said slowly with his palm turned upright sassily with his elbow bent and close to his body frame. It looked like he was trying to tell me 'what was that mess you just put me through'.
I kissed his head while chuckling. "You'll have to get used to it. It's what people drink when they grow up." I said.
"Yo, did you see that hand?" Mark said while laughing. He imitated Taehyun's sass. "He's got an attitude."
"I don't know where he got it from. I don't do any of that hand movements." I said, amused by Taehyun's personality.
Taehyun stayed in my lap for comfort. He kept his head in my shoulder as he slouched in my embrace.
With a full stomach and a comfy spot, he eventually fell asleep as the guys talked.
I moved him carefully in my arms so that he was laying down instead. He looked a bit big in my arms now, but I was glad he was growing.
I heard a click of a camera which made me look up. Johnny had his professional camera out and aimed at me and Taehyunie.
"I'll send you the photo to you later. I'll also print out a photo for you to frame or have it printed on a canvas so you don't need a frame." Johnny said after reviewing the photo.
Jungwoo looked over at his camera. "Cute." He said in approval of the photo.
"Seomin, you're coming over later right?" Doyoung asked. When I nodded, he continued. "What's his favorite snacks?"
"Taehyunie likes those cookies with chocolate inside. They're the ones with the panda design on the outside of the cookie while the cookie has a panda face shape." I said immediately.
"Ah, they're in every Korean store. That's easy to find." Taeil said.
"He also likes icecream if he wants something super sweet." I said. "Especially the icecream stick where it's vanilla on the inside and coated with a solid chocolate. It's messy though."
"It's okay if he gets messy. He's a little kid." Haechan said.
"Mm." Taehyun groaned lightly in his sleep before he rolled on his side to face me. His arm reached out to clung around my stomach.
He hugged me in his sleep as he rested his head against my arm. His mouth was slightly open which made his cheeks seem more round.
"He has baby shoes." Jisung said. He was still stuck on Taehyun being way small than he was. Jisung stuck his hand out to measure in comparison to his massive sized hand.
"He's big now." I said. "He used to be so tiny. I kind of miss those days where he could be easily picked up."
"He sure is a cute kid." Renjun said with his eyes on Taehyun. "Very aware of people and his interactions."
The break went on before I needed to go back to work. I shook Taehyun awake, otherwise he wouldn't sleep at night if he napped too long.
"Ma--" Taehyun said before pausing to stretch a little. He gave a little yawn before looking up at me. "Mama." He said with a poker face.
"Mm? Taehyunie, do you sleep well in mommy's arms?" I asked him happily. My energy transferred over to him and he gave me a cute little smile.
He placed his hands over his mouth before moving it towards me a little for a little blowing kiss. He repeatedly moved his hand against his mouth to show me repeated kisses or what he was trying to do.
"Thank you, Taehyunie. Mommy loves you a lot too." I said before sitting him up and kissing his soft cheeks.
He laid there comfortably without moving. His hands were up near his ear in a relaxed posture.
"Mommy and you need to go back to work. We need to clean the rooms again, okay?" I told him.
I held him in my arms as I stood up with the strength of my legs and core. His tiny hands gripped my shirt before relaxing again.
I placed him in the cart where he held onto the kid's steering wheel. "Bye bye." He waved to the members.
The members automatically smiled and waved adoringly to him. "See you later, Taehyun-ah. You'll come to our house." Taeyong said to him.
Taehyun looked up at me to confirm what Taeyong said. I nodded. "We'll play with them later at his house." I said before Taehyun seemed happier.
I pushed the cart out as Taehyun smiled. He seemed to understand what was being said and was enjoying the fact that he'd be able to be with the guys besides break time.
The day went on without us seeing NCT members again during our work shift. They usually practiced certain hours of the day before leaving for the studio recordings.
"Mama." Taehyun said to catch my attention. He looked around the empty training room from a fews hours later.
"The guys are busy working too, Taehyunie. We will see them in a little bit." I said after checking the time on my phone.
I quickly cleaned everything before clocking out for the day. I took off all of the equipment and removed Taehyun's kids face mask.
"Let's go home and get changed. We will go to their house after." I said to him.
He walked all the way until the elevator of our dormitory. "Up. Mama. Up." He said with his hands up.
"Does the elevator give you a funny feeling in your tummy?" I chuckled before picking him up.
I carried him during the elevator ride and brought him inside of our own dorm. I placed him down, and we got changed.
I changed out of my work outfit and into a plain shirt and light blue jeans. I put Taehyun into a new shirt to feel fresh. I kept his pants the same because he didn't dirty them.
"Mama." He said as he pointed at my shirt and then looked down at his own shirt.
"Oh?" I said. "We're matching color tee shirts, Taehyunie."
He giggled from my shock before someone knocked on my door. "No." Taehyun said as he stayed put. "Tae, no."
"That's right my baby. Only mommy answers the door." I said before looking through the peephole before opening it.
"Hey." Mark said when I answered. His eyes drifted from me to Taehyunie before holding his hand out.
"Wanna go little buddy?" Mark asked him. Taehyun immediately and happily ran over to hold his hand.
"Stranger danger Taehyunie. Do you remember that?" I asked him.
Taehyun seemed conflicted before staring up at Mark. His little pointer finger lifted towards Mark like he was saying "but it's Mark".
"I know. I know. Mark is okay but if you don't know them, do not go with them." I said while taking this moment to remind him of the dangers with other people. "Mommy will be sad if you go with a stranger."
He nodded before he pursed his lips towards me. I leaned down, and he kissed my cheek.
"I love you so much, Taehyunie." I said before standing up again.
"Come on." Mark said softly as he guided Taehyun to the elevator. Taehyun let out a little whine of elevator hatred.
"Up." He told Mark.
Mark leaned down to pick him up and carried him in the elevator. Taehyun leaned his head against Mark's neck and shoulder.
Mark placed a hand on Taehyun's back and comforted him when the elevator moved.
"Ah, he's so cute." Mark said when he got off the elevator with Taehyun in his arms. "He's scared of the elevator."
"Yeah, I know." I said. "He makes me carry him every single time."
"Taehyunie, this is our dorm. The guys and me." Mark said as he excitedly told Taehyun so he'd feel okay.
Taehyun lifted his head and looked at the dorm. Mark unlocked the door before letting Taehyun down.
"Hi." Everyone said since they heard the door open and the living room was right at the entrance. Mark and I both took off our shoes.
Taehyun plopped down to unstrap his shoes before tugging them off. He then pushed his hands off the floor so he'd stand up.
Taehyun waved to the guys before curiously walking towards them. He looked at the room around him, taking in the members residency.
"WayV will stop by as well. Dreamies are already here plus the other part of 127 dorm mates." Mark said.
I nodded. "I've seen WayV around, but I have not officially met them or talked to them." I said.
"It'll be fine. They might be awkward around you but it's okay." Mark said.
I ended up helping Doyoung placing ice cubes in plastic red party cups. The drinks were in the fridge but to be really cold, ice was needed.
Jaehyun had picked up Taehyun and brought him to the outer patio where they were grilling meat. Taehyun wasn't allowed to walk around by himself while the members grilled because he could burn himself.
A little while of Taehyun greeting the guys on the patio, Jaehyun let him go inside to escape the smoke from the grill.
"Mama." Taehyun said to me as he found me. He wrapped his fingers around my hand before giving a little tug.
"Yes, Taehyunie?" I asked after finishing my tasks. Doyoung let me go and so Taehyun pulled me over to a side of the room where Jeno and Jaemin were.
Taehyun pulled me down so I was squatting low to the ground before he was content with where I was.
Taehyun squatted down so that his diaper butt was nearly touching the ground, but his feet were giving him balance. His hands were clasped together and resting on top of his knees, cutely.
He was squatting down in front of a little camera the guys had. The camera was square shaped and in a flip phone style, but the camera was very wide and the lens was at the edge. The screen was up so Taehyunie could see himself in it.
Taehyun looked up at me before pointing at it. "Cool." He said before giving me a look of amazement.
"Yeah, you can see yourself Taehyunie. The camera looks different than the usual ones you see, doesn't it?" I said while running my hand through his hair at the back of his head.
His head tilted to see the screen better and he looked so cute sitting like that too.
Renjun found Taeyong's sunglasses nearby and placed them carefully on Taehyunie. Taehyunie looked at himself in the camera screen with sunglasses for the first time.
He let out a little laugh of amusement before lifting his head up and looking around. The sunglasses were tinted so everything he was seeing was darker than it actually was.
When he had enough, he took it off before handing it to Jeno. Jeno placed it on the TV stand where it originally was.
"Is it okay that we put him in the video? We need to blur your face because you are an SM staff, but he can be seen with parental permission." Jaemin asked me.
"Um, won't fans recognize him if they see us walking around at work?" I asked. "I don't know about that. I want to keep him protected."
Jeno nodded. "That's okay. We will tell our editor and not put it in the video. We can send you that clip instead so you can remember this moment." He said before picking the camera up that was still recording.
Jeno recorded a message for the editor to not put Taehyun and me in the video for privacy as a SM staff member.
I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I looked up to see Mark. He motioned for me to follow him to the kitchen.
"These are the snacks that Taehyunie likes right?" Mark showed me some snacks inside of the grocery bag that was on the counter.
There was the chocolate filled snack with a panda on the front. There was also icecream that he liked.
I nodded. "Perfect."
Mark placed the multiple icecream sticks in the freezer so that it wouldn't melt. "Okay, I wasn't sure but this was the only thing I saw with the description you gave Doyoung." He said.
"It's fine. If it wasn't the right one, Taehyun wouldn't even deny it. He's considerate of people giving him gifts, especially if it's snacks." I said.
He chuckled before placing the chocolate snack on the counter and putting the grocery bag inside of the designated drawer.
"So," I said to start off my sentence.
Mark faced me as he leaned against the counter, his crossed against his chest. "So." He said.
Although he was just leaning against the counter with his hoodie over his head with skinny jeans, he looked incredible from where I was.
"I feel like I should pay you guys back for the snacks."
"No, it's fine. We probably get paid more than you." He shook his head while chuckling.
"Mama." I heard behind me. I turned around to see Taehyun waddling towards us before he let out a little whine.
"What's wrong Taehyunie?" I asked him as I squatted to be his height. He stood close to me, and I ran my hand up and down his back.
"Mum mum." He said while rubbing his eyes before patting his stomach.
"You're hungry?" Mark said before standing up straight. "Let me go see if they have a little meat already grilled."
Taehyun wrapped his arms around me so I picked him up and brought him out to everyone else.
"Meat for Taehyunie?" Taeyong said from afar with his grilling tongs and glove in his hand. "Of course. Let him eat first."
Mark came back with a plate of grilled barbeque. Jeno came over with a knife and fork for me to cut it for Taehyun.
I cut it quickly before giving Taehyun the fork. Mark offered him a little bread roll so that it wasn't just meat. Taehyun reached out for the bread with his mouth stuffed with a piece of food.
"He sounds so cute when he says mama or mum mum for when he's hungry. It's so innocent sounding." Mark said with a smile on his face as he watched Taehyun eat.
"I probably hear you guys calling him cute a hundred times a day." I said before leaning down to give Taehyunie a kiss on his full chipmunk cheeks.
"You're so cute, Taehyunie. Do you know that?" Doyoung asked Taehyun.
Taehyun nodded while chewing which made everyone laugh. "Tae. Cute." Taehyun said after he swallowed his food. He then pointed to me then himself and said," Mama. Tae."
I laughed. "Mommy tells you you're cute so you know it?" I interpreted his words.
Taehyun nodded. "Yes, mama."
"Wow. His words don't make sense but when you say what he's saying, he's got all the key parts down. Tae, cute, mama, Tae." Doyoung said while chuckling.
"Food is all ready. The meat is nicely barbequed." Taeyong said as he held a plate of meat. Jaehyun, Taeil, Yuta, and Johnny trailed behind him with their own plate of meat as well because they were helping him grill out there. They were also grilling for a ton of people.
"WayV is in the house." Ten said as he entered first. The other guys appeared before they noticed me and Taehyun.
"This is Seomin and Taehyun. They're SM staff members." Johnny told them when they got quiet.
"Ah, hi." YangYang said.
I said hi back to them and made Taehyun wave. Taehyun didn't even bother introducing himself because he was eating the bread and meat.
"Do you want some grilled corn?" Jaehyun asked as he chopped a piece of corn on a cob and gave him a smaller size. Jaehyun placed the corn on his plate because it was hot.
"Be careful. It's hot." Jaehyun said to him before handing out plates to everyone.
"Everyone, let's eat." Taeil said.
I stood up with my plate and waited to get some food. "Go ahead." Jungwoo said when he saw me near him.
"Yeah, go first. Guest are first." Yuta said.
The guys calmly waited until I was done getting my plate before the wildness started happening. Arms were everywhere, over each other to grab what they wanted.
When a few managed to complete their plate, less people were crowded over there.
"Mama." Taehyun said worriedly when the crowd had gotten chaotic. He pointed at the guys and looked at me.
"I know, baby. I know. It's okay. They're just hungry. No one is getting hurt in there." I explained to him. He looked away unsurely, but he continued eating.
When he finished, he handed me the plate and fork. "Done." He said happily. The guys had all finished getting their food at this point and started eating.
"Oh? You're finished?" Mark said before he put his plate down on the ground since we were all sitting on the floor.
Mark stood up and quickly walked to the kitchen. He appeared with the cookies and icecream.
Taehyun's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but grin. Mark handed him both and sat down with his food.
"Mama." Taehyun said amazed by the snacks. He showed me them before urging me to open the icecream first.
"Did you say thank you?" I asked him while opening the icecream first since it would melt.
Taehyun turned around to face the guys and bowed his head to them before facing me quickly.
The guys smiled at his actions as they watched him. I handed Taehyun the stick before handing his plate back so it would drip on the plate.
He plopped down next to me with a cushioned diaper butt. He bit into the icecream and shivered.
"Mama?" He asked me. He turned to face me and held out the icecream for me to take a bite.
"It's okay. You eat it, Taehyunie." I said adoring his thoughtfulness. I watched him eat with gusto and the icecream eventually dripping down his chin.
Taeyong took out some wet wipes that were meant for the skin and gentle enough for the face. He bent over and wiped Taehyun's chin, who was unbothered as he munched on the icecream.
"When I have a kid, I want a baby like Taehyun." Mark announced. The guys nodded in agreement.
I patted Taehyun's head before sighing in content. I mumbled to Taehyun for him to only hear. He smiled brightly at me when he heard me.
"My lovely baby boy."