A Heart To Heal (BL)

[E] Purity's Epilogue

Little legs bounced on the bed happily. They belonged to a little girl, who used to go by the name Park Naeun. However, since her adoption, she had changed her surname to Nakanishi-Ryu.

"Appa!"She giggled and tumbled into Jaehwan's arms. Her father yawned and hugged her good morning. It had been a year since they had welcomed Naeun to their small family. They adopted her last year from Korea, per Jaehwan's request. She had been left at the orphanage since she was a baby.

Luckily for her, at the tender age of 5, Aki and Jaehwan were ready to accept her as their daughter. Naeun's a bright child, just like her Papa. She could comprehend languages very well and picked up on Japanese and English very quickly. However, she still preferred to converse in Korean most of the time and both of them respected it.

It would be easier to transition her to speaking Japanese by a slower gradient of change as compared to forcing her to give up Korean completely in favour of a language she barely knew. Anyway, Aki was also getting better with Korean so there wouldn't be any language barriers to begin with. It was all smooth sailing from here.

Playing with her locks of dark hair, Aki scooted closer on the bed so that he could hug both of them. "Ohayou, my darlings~"He mumbled, still half asleep. Pecking Jaehwan on the forehead and Naeun on cheek, he smiled as he could feel his daughter playing with his hair. "Papa, you have to wake up!"She whispered, twirling one of Aki's curls with her finger. Sitting up, Aki kissed his daughter on the cheek. "Yeah, I have to leave for work in the evening. Stay with Appa first. I'll get breakfast ready,".

She snuggled up to Jaehwan, happy. "Thank you, Papa!". Jaehwan held their daughter close to him. "Naeun-ah, did you know that Papa has to go to work tonight?". Flicking her hair back, Naeun's small hands drummed on her father's chest. "But he'll be home the next day right?".

Shaking his head, Jaehwan held her precious hands. "No, he'll be leaving for about 2 weeks to a month. Papa works hard for us, Naeun,". Tears began welling up in her eyes. "No...Papa shouldn't go! Papa can't go..."She whined, crying on the bed.

"Naeun-ah, he'll be home when work is over. Don't worry...You still have Appa and Tteok. Papa isn't leaving forever,". Wiping her tears, Jaehwan got out of bed to take her hairbrush that sat on the bedside table. "Besides, you get to follow Appa to work tomorrow. Are you ready, Naeun?".

"Mmhm!".

Brushing her hair as carefully as he could, she let her father work his way through her hair until Aki returned with their breakfast. "여보, today I made 호박죽. I made it with some of the leftover chicken stock from when we were making stew last week,". Picking Naeun out of Jaehwan's arms, he tied her hair up, accesorising her with a cute cat headband.

"Have you brushed your teeth, Naeun? If you haven't, please go and wash up,". She waddled to the bathroom obediently, tucking a stray hair behind her ears. "Appa, Papa, I'm going to wash my face,". Jaehwan wanted to follow her into the bathroom to make sure she would be alright. "There's a step stool for you to use, Naeun. Do you need any help?".

Shaking her head, the dragging of her step stool could be heard against the tiled bathroom floor and she left the door ajar. Aki dragged Jaehwan back into bed, tucking him in. "How's my 여보? Did you sleep well, darling?"He whispered, pecking him on the cheek. Pulling a bed table over Jaehwan's lap, he served Jaehwan breakfast in bed.

"I slept well 여보~ Thank you for breakfast,"He giggled and returned the kiss. "You made pumpkin porridge? That's nice of you,". Aki shrugged and smooched his husband on the lips. "It's all part of introducing her to new foods. We need to make sure her palette is diverse,". Pinching Jaehwan's cheek, Aki smiled.