ACT X | SCENE XLIX

❝COLD NOODLES❞

PLACING THE BOOK on the coffee table, yoongi leaned back with a heavy breath. "that was hard, wasn't it?" he glanced at the six-year-old lying next to him, imitating him. "mm-mm, it was fun!" she replied. he turned to look at her, brows raised. "really? learning english isn't hard?"

beaming at him, haneul shook her head. "you make learning fun." she told him. "wow, my head will be too big for my body at this rate." he remarked with a grin at her words, "it's already rounder than before."

haneul giggled, eyes roaming his face. and he could instantly tell that she was trying to see if his head had, in deed, grown bigger. amusement glinted in his eyes.

"do you have any homework?" he asked after a moment of silence. "i've done them all. but you can check them! especially math. rian usually checks but i want you to." she answered. "okay, then. go bring them, let me see." he sat up once more. jumping up on her feet, haneul waddled her way out of the living room.

once she disappeared down the hall, yoongi pushed up the sleeve of his sweater, glancing down at the face of his watch. they'd been reading and translating for over an hour, which meant rian had been able to catch an extra hour of sleep. and if the exhaustion on her face was anything to go by, she needed far more than that.

the little girl returned with her yellow backpack in tow just then. he looked up at her, warm smile ghosting across his lips as he helped her place the bag on the floor so she could comfortably sit down. he watched as she unzipped the bag and pulled out her books. she carefully placed them into neat stacks of textbooks and notebooks, and his brows arched curiously at the action. "why are you doing that?"

she glanced at him, at the books and back at him again. "because you keep your books in your house like this. you kept the story books like this too." she answered easily, eyes blinking. his lips parted  and shut without any sound leaving them. he was only just truly realising just how impressionable children were. and he reminded himself that he had to watch how he acted around haneul. she seemed to imitate even the most trivial things simply because, 'daddy does it.'

but a small smile crawled across his face. "have you been arranging all your books like this since then?" he asked. she nodded without hesitation. chuckling, he reached a hand out and patted her hair softly. "only copy the good things." he whispered. again she nodded. "now let's look over your homework." he picked up the first notebook in the small stack.

passing it over to her, he let her show him what she'd done. together, they studied her answers and made a few corrections. and as they went along, yoongi found that there were barely any to be made. haneul had done a pretty good job on her own. she did admit that rian had supervised a bit and kept her in check but for the most part, she let her do them on her own.

yoongi combed his fingers through his hair once they were done. he quietly observed as she returned her books to her backpack and zipped it up once more, noticing there was a little yellow notebook that she hadn't touched earlier tucked inside. but he decided not to ask.

"hm," he glanced at the time. another hour had somehow gone by. "are you hungry?" he inquired. haneul bobbed her head as she pushed her backpack to the side. "should we order something? what do you like?"

she tapped her index finger against her chin, lips pursed, eyes staring heavenward in thought. "i like carrot cake!" she answered seconds later. a grin danced across yoongi's lips. "oh? why?" he asked. "mummy used to make it for me all the time." she beamed. then she was leaning closer, expression serious as she cupped her mouth and lowered her voice. "because she doesn't burn it." she whispered.

a chuckle of amusement slipped past yoongi's lips at that, shaking his head at the little girl's antics. "so your mum isn't a good cook, huh?" he said. she shook her head, crossing her hands in an x for emphasis. "what about rian?" he found himself asking.

"hm..." the little girl hummed, pouting her lips and glancing upwards. "what are you thinking about so seriously?" he grinned, one brow arching in question. "she's not bad. but she's not good at everything too." she finally answered. "i see." he nodded, though he didn't fully understand what she meant.

"well, i'll buy you a carrot cake next time." he brought them back to their previous discussion and she beamed brightly at his promise. "but today, what would you like to eat? something rian would be okay with you having." he added the last bit, not wanting to feed her something her guardian may not approve of. after all, rian would know better what would be okay for haneul to eat and what wouldn't.

"chicken!" she finally declared. he arched a sceptical brow at that, not certain if rian would really be keen on that. clearly catching on to the doubtful look on his face, haneul's lips pursed in a pout. "it's true. rian eats chicken with uncle seokie, uncle nurse tae and aunty nurse mi. and they let me eat some before i have to go to bed." she stated, looking offended that he thought she might be lying. yoongi chuckled lightly, believing her and finding the mildly indignant look on her face adorable. he patted her hair softly, grasping the image of late night hangouts with rian and her friends.

a small grin plumped her cheeks when she saw he believed her words. "she likes cold noodles too." she said after another moment of thought. "from the noodles restaurant down the street." she pointed in the apparent direction of the restaurant. "i like it too." she confessed. "should we go get that? do you know the way?" he asked with a grin.

her hair bounced as she nodded enthusiastically. "alright then." he got on his feet, offering her his hand. beaming, she took it and he helped her up. "let's go tell rian first." he added, not wanting the woman to wake up and panic after finding the house empty. "okay!" haneul chirped happily, leading the way to rian's bedroom.

yoongi knocked against the closed door carefully and silently waited. next to him, haneul was excitedly hopping in place. it took a few moments before the door finally opened to reveal a still sleepy rian. the corners of yoongi's lips quirked up at the sight of her. her eyes were droopy and even though she had clearly made an effort to pat her hair down, blonde strands still stuck out here and there. she rubbed at her eyes before looking up at him. "yes," she mumbled out.

"haneul and i are going to the noodle restaurant to get some cold noodles. i thought you might like some." he said, trying not to let his amusement at her momentary disorientation show.

"oh, let me get cleaned up. i'll go with you." she answered, seeming to wake up a bit. "i thought you might like to get a bit more rest. haneul says she knows the way." he told her. rian's gaze shifted to the little girl who was curiously glancing between them with doe eyes. "she is good with directions. and i guess a little extra bit of sleep wouldn't hurt." she conceded with a tilt of her head.

"if anything happens, you know where i live and work." he said lightly in an attempt at a joke. but in her half-asleep state, she appeared to take his comment quite seriously. she looked him dead in the eye, no hint of amusement in her voice, the sincerity in her gaze taking him completely by surprise.

"i trust you."

🌻🌻🌻

hi, butterflies! how are y'all doing? sorry for the long wait. it wasn't supposed to take this long to update this but plans change ig. hopefully, i'll pick this up at full speed again in the near future. i miss yoongi, rian and haneul whenever i'm not writing them. take care of yourselves, stay safe and be kind! 💛