#and then she moves and dislodges the baby and i have to rinse and repeat

[anyonghalimaw]

guess who became an impromptu cat midwife against his will

[astrofireworks]

Sometimes you don't fall in love with someone at first sight. Sometimes it happens over a period of weeks, months, years; sometimes it happens over and over again.

Alternatively: Vivi Swore She Wouldn't Write Angst Anymore but Here She Is, After Watching Hyunsik’s Swimming MV, Full of Regrets (ok there isn’t any angst in this first part thank god it was too long so i chopped it i swear)

Eunwoo's parents making month-long annual trips every school holiday to Eunwoo's mum's hometown by the sea 

Baby!Eunwoo gurgling and laughing when wet by sea spray 

One year old Eunwoo holding a smol crab in his hands, eyes wide in awe

Two year old Eunwoo making smol footprints with his dad in the sand 

Three year old Eunwoo stacking rocks and happily talking to himself 

Four year old Eunwoo sticking his feet in the sea and squealing loudly for his mum to pick him up because it's cold, mama it's cold 

Five year old Eunwoo holding his brother's hand and clutching a fish and beaming at the camera 

And it's on this sixth trip that Eunwoo's mum winds a silver chain around Eunwoo's neck and brings him to a neighbourhood jewellery store 

It isn't so much of a jewellery store as a trinket shop that happens to carve sea glass beads

Eunwoo’s mum gets a new one every year and only swaps it out when she heads back to her hometown, almost like a renewal of sorts, as if telling the sea and the sky that she'll keep them in her heart and she promises, promises, promises that she'll come back the next year 

And even if Eunwoo and his brother don't grow up with their feet in saltwater and sea breeze in their hair, she wants them to have at least something that reminds them of her own home 

So every year she intends to bring Eunwoo and his brother to the store to let them pick out colours they like and swap out the previous year's charm for a new one

And so Eunwoo is five when he stumbles into the shop for the first time 

He's entranced by tinkly windchimes and odd-shaped mirrors, hands wandering over soft cushions and old silver boxes, surrounded musty wood-lacquer smell and a stronger, overriding smell of the sea 

Eunwoo stopping by a quaint little mirror 

Eunwoo blinking because this doesn't seem like a mirror 

Those aren't his eyes and that isn't his hair 

And when he reaches out a hand his not-reflection blinks and moves out of the way 

Eunwoo blinks

Eunwoo: "you're not a reflection" 

Not-Reflection, blinking back: 

Eunwoo, stretching his finger 

Not-Reflection squeaking and scuttling off 

Eunwoo, jumping back slightly and scrambling to find his mum 

And he sees Not-Reflection sat down on a glass counter, small chubby arms wrapped around a woman's neck and head tilted so he can monitor Eunwoo out the corner of his eye 

Eunwoo raising a hand to say hi 

Not-Reflection ducking his head and burying his nose in the woman's shoulder 

Eunwoo's mum cooing: "awww he's shy, isn't he? Eunwoo was like that last year too" 

And suddenly the two women are talking like old friends, gesturing and using Big Words and stuff until the woman lets Not-Reflection down to the floor

The woman: "Go make friends, Binnie!" 

Cue Binnie peeking out from behind the glass counter, big eyes blinking at Eunwoo 

Eunwoo doesn't know what to do????? 

Eunwoo: "Binnie? Hi?" 

Binnie peeking at Eunwoo: 

He raises a hand in greeting like his teacher taught him and Binnie immediately ducks back behind the counter 

Eunwoo pouting until he notices Binnie poking his head out again 

Rinse and repeat until Eunwoo notices Binnie starting to giggle each time he pokes his head out 

Oh

They're playing hide & seek 

Eunwoo grinning because he's good at this!! 

Except his mum is calling for him and asking him to choose a bead 

Bin pouting because does this mean he can't play with his new friend anymore?

Eunwoo's mum setting his brother down on the glass counter and letting him point at random beads and babble 

Bin's mum lowering a tray of beads to the floor so Eunwoo and Bin can kneel over it and pick

Eunwoo carefully scrutinising the beads before settling on a cloudy white one 

Bin beaming and shaking out a thin black corn from under Binnie's shirt because look !!! 

The same!!!! 

Binnie & Eunwoo can match!!!! 

Eunwoo's mum laughing 

Eunwoo leaving his mum to discuss with Bin's mum how she wants the number 6 carved on the bead since it's Eunwoo's sixth year visiting in favour of poking Bin's cheek 

Very squish, Eunwoo approves 

Bin looks mildly offended before prodding Eunwoo's too 

Eunwoo, giggling a little before offering a slightly garbled: "my name's Eunwoo!!" 

Bin, with his finger still buried in Eunwoo's cheek: "Eu Noo?" 

Do you remember when Bin used to tag his 달콩 photos with 으누 instead of 은우 I'm so weak

Eunwoo, gently dislodging said finger: "Eunwoo!" 

And as his mother's taught him to greet new friends, Bin reaches up to Eunwoo on his tippy toes and presses a sticky kiss to Eunwoo's cheek 

Eunwoo blinking 

Eunwoo breaking out into a smile 

And this is how Bin ends up stuck to Eunwoo's side the rest of Eunwoo's visit 

Down to the wooden-plank pier? 

Bin's trailing behind Eunwoo, talking Eunwoo's ear off about how that one time he saw a bird as huge as a monster fly down and scoop chips from his dad's open hand 

At the candy store? 

Bin pointing out different candies he really likes and Eunwoo using his extra height to scoop more of them to shove in a bag 

In Bin's mum's shop? 

Eunwoo's reading aloud to an increasingly sleepy Bin until Bin's cheeks squish against Eunwoo's shoulder and Eunwoo dozes off too 

In Eunwoo's grandpa's garden?

 Eunwoo's pointing out different plants and giving them random names like "the Terminator" and "Butt" and Bin’s laughing like it's the funniest thing he's heard in ages 

Eating snacks? 

Eunwoo's counting the number of marshmallows Bin can stuff in his cheeks without them bursting and Bin's giggling because Eunwoo looks so focussed 

Both of them yelling in dismay when all this gooey, pink marshmallowey gunk starts spewing from Bin's mouth as a result of him giggling 

The month winding up way too soon and all of a sudden Eunwoo's mum's packing up Eunwoo's stuff into luggage bags 

And when the day comes for Eunwoo to leave their mums promise to stay in touch and Bin's looking at Eunwoo like he doesn't understand the concept of a year 

Bin: "How long's that?" 

Eunwoo, thoughtfully: "Long." 

Bin, suddenly fiercely hugging this boy with bright eyes and beautiful smile who ran his fingers over boxes and sauntered into Bin's life 

Eunwoo being slightly stunned but smiling and hugging him back because he’ll miss his friend 

But it’s okay!! He’ll see him in a year and that’s really all that matters

Except they don’t really know how long a year is

Bin, two days after Eunwoo left for the city: “Ma, when’s Eunwoo coming back?”

Bin, three days after Eunwoo left: “Is a year up yet?”

Bin, four days after Eunwoo left, picking at his fingernails and refusing to look up: “Why isn’t Eunwoo coming back?”

Bin’s mum answer’s always: “Eunwoo’s coming back in a year, baby” but Bin never knows how much that is 

Bin, rolling on the ground: “Is a year up yet?”

Bin, face squished against the glass counter as his little feet kick the air: “Has it been a year yet?”

Bin, rubbing the pale white stone around his neck: “It’s been a week and Eunwoo isn’t back yet, when’s he coming back?”

Until one day Bin’s mum hands him a calendar and a marker and tells him to cross off the days and once he makes it through an entire calendar, he’ll see Eunwoo again 

And of course Bin starts on it right away 

He crosses off every single box every single day for a month 

And then promptly loses his marker and forgets all about it 

Because Eunwoo or not, life as a four year old goes on and Bin has things to see and places to explore 

Until a year rolls around and Bin’s curled up on the sofa in his family shop tinkering around with some wind chimes 

And a boy with a white sea glass bead on a silver chain barrels into the shop, yelling: “BIN!!” 

And just like this, Bin and Eunwoo fall back into place, side by side, hand-in-hand, running around and falling asleep and eating and yelling and playing hide and seek and doing dumb things

Bin: “I dare you to eat sand.”

Eunwoo:

Bin:

Eunwoo:

Bin: “no actually you’re right don’t do it”

Eunwoo picking a pale blue sea glass bead and Bin picking an exact same one and both of them staring curiously as Bin’s mum snaps a magnifying glass on and starts carving a small 7 on Eunwoo’s bead’s smooth surface

Eunwoo smoothly sliding Bin’s bead onto his black cord and looping it around his neck and tucking it into his shirt 

Bin’s chubby fingers sliding Eunwoo’s piece on Eunwoo’s chain and Bin beaming with pride when he hands it back to Eunwoo 

And this time, when Bin sees Eunwoo off, he presses a small glass vial, half-filled with sand and topped with seawater (prepared by Bin’s mum under Very Careful Supervision by Binnie himself), so “when you go back to city life you’ll still think of me!”

Eunwoo throwing his arms around Bin and laughing because look!!! his friend made a thing!!!!!!!

And there it stays, on Eunwoo’s windowsill in the city 

Eunwoo looking up from where he’s playing on the floor when sunlight streams through his window and the seawater makes the light dance 

Eunwoo lying on the ground and squinting at the shadows and rainbows the bottle casts

Eunwoo adjusting him position on the ground and watching sunlight filter through the bottle on his windowsill right onto his hands 

Eunwoo watching the water ripple sometimes when a door bangs somewhere in their apartment and pretending it’s the same way his best friend’s eyes sparkle when he’s talking about something he loves

Eunwoo sometimes pulling the bottle from his windowsill and feeling its soft, small weight in his palm

Eunwoo pretending that here, this is it, this is an adequate replacement for him holding his best friend’s hand, going around with sand beneath their feet and salt in their hair and cheeks flushed red from laughing

Eunwoo smiling because yeah, he just got back from holiday but suddenly he’s really looking forward to the trip next year again

see i told you there wasn’t any angst (yet)