Seohyun threw a sly grin at him before running up the stairs. Yonghwa watched with interest before following her up. He grinned in understanding.
Earlier, the minute Seohyun told him that Minhyuk and Jungshin were going to take Hana out shopping, he already knew. She had been hinting to him to imagine the time they would have to themselves later without Hana's presence. It was crystal clear, he just knew.
A few hours before that, he noticed her changing their bed sheets to a wonderful gold colour (which was his favourite), with soft paddings. They had used it once during their wedding. And a few days ago, he saw her buying some sweet-scented candles and she had them placed on her dressing table.
Eversince Hana entered their lives, they had very little time to themselves. Every hour and every minute of their lives was all about Hana. Every morning, the moment they opened their eyes, the first person they would look for was Hana. Every night before bed, the last person they had to bid goodnight to was Hana. In short, Hana was their everything, until recently when MBC decided to play a re-run of their ever popular program, We Got Married starring a few popular idol couples which included them, the YongSeo couple.
The moment Yonghwa and Seohyun started to watch themselves again in the program, they were suddenly missing each other. Even though they were just a few centimetres apart, they longed for each other badly. Of course, Hana was always there, right in between them.
So Seohyun, being the smart one as always, had arranged a day for Jungshin and Minhyuk to take Hana out for a few hours for a shopping spree. And being the forever doting uncles to Hana, they had readily accepted the offer. And the moment Jungshin, Minhyuk and Hana were gone, Seohyun suddenly changed herself to be a flirtatious and seductive goddess causing Yonghwa to gape in response.
And at that point of time, he was running up the steps towards the second level, in order to catch up with Seohyun. He heard her laugh, almost similar to the melodious sounds of bells. Yonghwa stopped running as he sniffed the air. Indeed, Seohyun had lighted up the scented candles and Yonghwa thought he had never felt so stimulated before.
"Are you coming or not?" Seohyun's voice echoed down the corridor. Yonghwa turned around to find her but she was nowhere to be seen.
"Of course I'm coming. Where are you?" Yonghwa asked as a grin escaped from his lips.
"Find me!" Seohyun giggled as she quickly placed a sleep mask over Yonghwa's head from behind him to cover his eyes. Yonghwa was taken aback and quickly stretched out his hands behind to reach for Seohyun's body but she was fast enough to get away from him. "Don't remove the mask! If not, no treat for you later!" Seohyun warned.
"Ahrasso my dear goddess." Yonghwa answered obediently. "But how do you expect me to find you when I'm blind-folded like this?"
"Use your instict." Seohyun shrugged before giggling again.
"I have good sense of hearing." Yonghwa told her. "You'll never get away from me."
"We'll see!" Seohyun exclaimed.
Yonghwa could sense Seohyun was lingering around somewhere so near to him. At times, he could feel her soft gown at the edge of his fingertips. He knew she was teasing him and he knew just how to tease her the same way she had done to him. Finally, after a few minutes of blind man's play, Yonghwa got hold of Seohyun. He had managed to catch a whiff of her perfume and without wasting anymore time, he quickly hugged her from the back.
The moment she was safely in his arms, Yonghwa quickly ripped the sleep mask off his eyes. He stared at the beautiful woman in front of him, his wife whom he had missed so much. He buried his face into her hair to capture that scent of her which he had admired for the past few years.
"Yonghwa-ya..." Seohyun whispered his name with closed eyes the moment she felt his lips running down the back of her neck towards her bare shoulders.
"You drive me crazy you know that?" Yonghwa murmured in between kisses. Seohyun turned hurriedly in his embrace to fully face him, before pressing her lips onto his. Yonghwa willingly opened up his mouth when he felt her tongue prodding his lips. Yonghwa deepened the kiss drawing a low moan from Seohyun. Slowly he moved to kiss her neck, prompting Seohyun to move back slowly until they reached the bed where Yonghwa gently laid her down.
Yonghwa felt hypnotised. The combined fragrance of Seohyun's hair and perfume was exhilarating. He slowly licked the length of her neck with the tip of his tongue, causing her to audibly exhale the hot air of her lungs through her mouth.
"I love you so much, Yonghwa-ya..." Seohyun breathed.
"I love you too, so much!" Yonghwa murmured huskily. Each seconds passed with loads of romance, with the pair allowing themselves to get tangled up and never wanting to let go of each other anytime soon. Yonghwa moved up to kiss Seohyun's lips again when the phone rang. Yonghwa cursed but never leaving his lips off Seohyun's lips.
"Phone!" Seohyun gasped. "Need to answer it!"
Yonghwa reluctantly let Seohyun free from his grasp to allow her to answer the phone which was just located on the night stand beside the bed. He watched as Seohyun answered the phone with her flushed face and her unruly hair. He grinned. He thought she never looked as beautiful before.
"BO?!" Seohyun screeched causing Yonghwa to jump up at once. A worried and scared look was emerging across her face which made Yonghwa felt a bit disturbed.
"HOW LONG HAD SHE BEEN MISSING?" Yonghwa heard her asked the person on the other line.
"Who's missing?" Yonghwa tried asking but Seohyun ignored him plainly.
"YOU'VE BEEN OUT NOT MORE THAN AN HOUR! HOW COULD YOU LOSE HER?" Seohyun continued shouting with tears running down her cheeks before pushing the phone towards Yonghwa.
Yonghwa watched as Seohyun climbed off the bed before heading towards their closet to change into something decent. Yonghwa seemed to have guessed what had happened actually but he decided to be cool and asked for more information with the person on the line.
"Yeobosaeyo?" Yonghwa said.
"Hyung! Hyung! I'm so sorry! We lost her! I mean, we're really really sorry!" Jungshin's voice was on the urge of crying. "Minhyuk's looking for her now. I'm doing the same thing as we're talking!"
"Where are the two of you now?" Yonghwa asked, closing his eyes as he tried to keep his temper in check.
"W-We're at the park, near to your house." Jungshin answered obediently.
"I'll be there soon. You two had better be ready. She's going to eat the both of you alive." Yonghwa informed with a growl. "And I'm not joking about this."
Yonghwa quickly stood up to get dressed. He walked over to Seohyun who was crying hysterically to calm her down. He was feeling troubled as well but he could not show that side of him to her. He needed to be strong for the both of them.
"Yonghwa-ya, what are we going to do? Uri Hana! They lost her!" Seohyun cried as she buried her face into Yonghwa's soothing embrace.
"We'll find her. I promise."
******
Yonghwa and Seohyun met Jungshin near the entrance of the park. Before anyone realised it, Seohyun was already attacking Jungshin's chest with her hittings. Jungshin just stood there accepting the beatings without much of a defence. He felt wronged towards his friend. He knew he should be more alert. Yonghwa was the one who pulled Seohyun back and coaxed her to calm down.
"Hitting Jungshin isn't going to help us find Hana. Let's look for her together! The park is quite big, she's around her somewhere, trust me!" Seohyun just nodded her head weakly as she allowed Yonghwa to pull her hand so that they could look for Hana.
Halfway through the park, they saw Minhyuk who was running towards them. He had tears in his eyes and he was not able to say out anything the moment he saw Yonghwa and Seohyun. The only thing he was able to mumble was the words of forgiveness. He felt extremely wronged.
"Just help me look out for her." Yonghwa said, shaking his head.
"Hana-ya!" Seohyun cried as her eyes looked left and right, making sure not to miss any spots.
"Hana! Appa's here!" Yonghwa called out helplessly.
"Hana! Omma's here as well!" Seohyun exclaimed. "Let's go home now!"
On the other side of the park, Jungshin was also searching very hard. His spirits was low and he just felt the energy ran out of him. If he was not so careless earlier, Hana would surely still be safe, playing in front of him. He and Minhyuk were busy buying some ice cream from the ice cream stand earlier that they did not realized Hana slipping away slowly from them. It was the most stupidest thing they had done. Thinking about it again just made Jungshin even more angry at himself.
******
Somewhere in the park, a young toddler at around the age of two was wondering alone in the park. She was squealing happily before breaking out into a run towards the thing which had attracted her attention, the lake. She clapped her hands excitedly the moment she saw the ducks swimming by. She was feeling a bit too fascinated with the excitement around as she walked slowly towards the lake, oblivious to the danger of it.
******
"I want my daughter now!" Seohyun whined as fresh tears rolled down her cheeks again. "I need her in my arms now!"
"I know, I know. I want her too." Yonghwa sighed. He continued walking through the park with Seohyun close beside him, his arms wrapping her small frame protectively.
"The lake!" Seohyun mentioned suddenly as she turned to look up at Yonghwa. "She might be at the lake! She loves watching the ducks! Oh no! The lake! It's too dangerous for her! She could..."
Without waiting for Seohyun to end her sentence, Yonghwa quickly sped off towards the direction of the lake. And like what Seohyun had mentioned earlier, Hana loved watching the ducks swimming in the lake and there were high chances of her being there. The most important thing now was, not only Hana loves watching the ducks, she also loves pretending to be a duck too and would always tried to get to the lake for a 'swim'. Yonghwa shook his head, not wanting to imagine his daughter in the lake at all. He ran as fast as he could, all the while chanting some prayers to keep his daughter safe, always.
He stopped the moment he reached the lake. Although he was panting hard, trying to catch his breath, he quickly scanned through the perimeter of the lake to see if he could spot any kinds of small movements of a toddler. Seohyun arrived shortly after, panting as well. She did the same thing like what Yonghwa was doing, looking around cautiously.
"HANA!" Seohyun screamed as she pointed towards a weird looking green bush which was moving towards the lake across from them.
Yonghwa was high on alert now. He realised that the green bush was actually his daughter crawling and true enough she was heading towards the lake. Yonghwa jumped and sprinted towards Hana who was getting closer to the water. As he continued to run, Yonghwa thought the lake was definitely huge and he moaned thinking that he might not be able to reach her on time.
"HANA! ANDWAE!" Yonghwa could hear Seohyun screaming behind him. He knew she was scared. He was scared too, for this concerned Hana's life, their beloved Hana.
Suddenly, Yonghwa saw a figure approaching his daughter. Without waiting for another second, the stranger lifted Hana up and hugged her tight. Yonghwa heaved a sigh of relief. He clutched his heart tight, feeling his heart beat stabilized itself. Seohyun ran past him. The only important thing at that moment was her Hana. She needed to hug her daughter first.
******
Jungshin heard Hana's name being called from a distance. And he was sure that the voice belonged to Seohyun. He looked ahead to see that he was approaching the park's lake which was always famous for its ducks. As he neared the lake, he saw Yonghwa and Seohyun across from it. He found it a bit weird as they were suddenly running towards something, but he was not sure what.
"ShinShin chingoo!"
Jungshin looked up fast when he heard the squeal. He knew that squeal perfectly well enough and he was sure the owner of that squeal was somewhere near him.
"ShinShin chingoo!"
Jungshin heard it again and looked towards the place where the sound came from. Jungshin nearly fainted when he saw Hana in a crawling position just in front of the lake. She threw him a toothy grin while nodding her head excitedly.
Jungshin gulped. Then he did what he knew he was supposed to do. He leapt forward, half running before grabbing hold of Hana's tiny body and hugged her tight. He could not believe how close she was to the water who knows how deep it could get.
"Hana! I'm so sorry!" Jungshin said as he planted a kiss on top of Hana's forehead.
"Omma's here!" Hana squealed causing Jungshin to jump in response. He turned to see a crying Seohyun holding out her arms. He reluctantly passed an over-excited Hana over to Seohyun.
"My baby!" Seohyun cried, embracing her daughter tightly, without failing to drop heavy wet kisses all around Hana's face.
Jungshin watched the mother-daughter reunion in silence. Then he felt himself being pushed to the side as Yonghwa entered the scene. Jungshin watched as Yonghwa pulled both his wife and daughter into his arms, hugging them tight. He planted a soft lingering kiss on his daughter's head. Jungshin bit his lips when he noticed his hyung had tears in his eyes as well. Jungshin sighed dejectedly as he took the cue to leave.
"ShinShin chingoo?" Hana called out as she emerged her tiny head from her parents' embrace.
"Jungshin-ah, thank you so much." Seohyun said softly with a tender smile. "And I'm sorry for getting all violent earlier. I was just angry."
"Aniya. It's my fault. Minhyuk and I should have been more alert." Jungshin replied with his head bent down.
"We could have made the same mistake too." Yonghwa interrupted. "Thank you Jungshin, really really thank you."
"Hyung, I'm really sorry about what had happened." Jungshin said. "I promise you, this incident will never repeat itself. I swear!"
"Hyung!" Minhyuk called out as he ran towards his friends. He spotted Hana at once and smiled instantly. "Thank God she's alright!"
"Well, the thing was she almost went for a swim out in the lake." Jungshin told him.
"BO?" Minhyuk was stunned unable to believe what Jungshin had just told him.
"Let's just go home first. I’m sure all of us need the rest." Yonghwa said as he gestured for Jungshin and Minhyuk to follow him to his car. They sighed as they knew Yonghwa will be giving them a long talk later on.
******
"What I don't understand is, I thought you two are supposed to bring her for a shopping spree, but how come you ended up in the park?" Yonghwa asked his two dongsaengs with a slight frown.
Jungshin and Minhyuk were sitted across from him and Seohyun in the living room. Hana was busy playing with her cooking set just on the floor beside them. Seohyun was not going to let her play alone in her nursery anytime soon.
"Well, we thought of taking some fresh air first before heading off to Dongdaemun." Jungshin explained. "Since you mentioned before Hana loves the park so much, we thought we'd give a special treat."
"Aigoo!" Yonghwa sighed, rubbing his forehead. "How did you lose her then?"
"Well, um, we were queuing up to get an ice cream for her. When we turned around, she was just poof! Gone!" Minhyuk said, exaggerating some sound effects.
"The two of you are so never bringing her out ever again." Yonghwa concluded earning some exasperated sighs from Jungshin and Minhyuk.
"But hyung, we promise we will be more careful next time!" Jungshin pleaded.
"Yeah hyung! We'll be more alert next time!" Minhyuk added.
"I'm sorry. It has never been my decicion to make. It's hers." Yonghwa pointed to Seohyun who had an uncertain smile on her lips.
"I've made up my decision and I won't change it." Seohyun said. "But it's not like I'm never allowing you two to meet her forever. You can come and see her and play with her, but only indoors."
"As long as I can see her, it does not matter to me even if it's just indoor!" Jungshin grinned as he crept down the couch and headed towards Hana who was busy playing. She gave a wide smile the moment she saw Jungshin approaching.
"Drink!" Hana squealed as she offered a pink plastic cup to Jungshin to drink. Jungshin accepted the cup gratefully and pretended to drink the contents. Minhyuk joined in the fun soon enough and the three of them had a pretend tea-party drink.
On the other side, Yonghwa and Seohyun huddled together in an embrace as they watched their daughter continued to play with her two favourite uncles, Jungshin and Minhyuk. They both knew that Jungshin and Minhyuk loved Hana very much and they had never meant for the incident earlier to happen. They were sure the two men had learnt from their mistakes as well. Jungshin and Minhyuk, they were the ones they could trust, they were the best uncles for Hana, and trustworthy friends for them.
"What's that smell?" Jungshin asked suddenly as he sniffed around. Minhyuk, Yonghwa and Seohyun did the same.
Hana just copied their actions and kept saying, "Mm… Nice smell! So nice!"
"OMMO! I left the scented candles burning!" Seohyun exclaimed before running up the steps with Yonghwa following closely behind.
"I doubt they're going to come down anytime soon." Jungshin said with a sly grin.
"I think so too." Minhyuk replied with a smirk.
"Me too!" Hana added with a squeal causing Jungshin and Minhyuk to laugh.
