Deer Godess

15

"Sana-unnie! Sana-unnie!" Mina woke up before her friend, and was too excited to wait any more.

"Oh? Micchan!" Sana wakes up to a very jumpy little penguin and breaks out in a huge smile.

"Mama said it was a mergenchy and we came." Mina chirps happily, already dragging a still groggy Sana.

"Oh." Is all the older answers, using her little hands to rub her still tired eyes.

"Hello, you two." Momo greets them as the girls enter the kitchen. "Come and sit down, I have some cake for you."

Mina does a little cheer and rushes to sit, whilst Sana stands there, not really in the mood for cake. Momo notices and gives Mina the cake, telling her to start eating and she would take Sana-unnie to the bathroom really quick. The younger just nods and starts eating happily, but the little squirrel still doesn't look that good, so Momo takes her to wash her face, use the bathroom and have the girl breathe a little before returning. Chaeyoung was in her office when they passed it, and Momo told her wife to go look after the other girl in the dining room.

"Sacchan, do you want to tell auntie Momo what is wrong?" The woman asks once they are done.

"Micchan is here, but I don't wanna play today." Comes the shy answer.

"Why don't you two watch a movie, then?" The nurse tries. "You can talk to Micchan and maybe you will want to play later?! It's okay if you don't."

"Okay." The girl's voice is small and hesitant.

"It's alright, honey." The woman coos, hugging the girl and carrying her back to the living room.

When they do get back, Chaeyoung and Mina are still on the dining table, so Momo asks Sana if she wants to eat her cake now, the girl says no, then her auntie asks if she wants something else, and Sana asks for some apples, saying her mother would always cut apples for her when she was sad. So, apples Sana got, and she sat on her auntie's lap up until it was time for Momo to change and go to the hospital, so she could make sure Jaebum would go home that day, it was her turn.

Chaeyoung was told Sana didn't feel too well, and managed to get Mina to agree to a movie, instead of running around, it was fairly easy, she just had to say Sana-unnie wanted to watch one and the younger girl threw herself on the couch, still jumpy, but ready for the movie anyways. They went through about one and a half, and Chaeyoung left the girls to make lunch, Mina had been holding Sana's hand the entire time, looking a little worried, but the photographer had to feed them soon, so she opted not to ask.

"Sana-unnie?" Mina gets a hum and continues. "Why are you sad?"

"Mama is sick, and papa said I'm not gonna be an unnie anymore." Sana turns to find big, sparkly eyes looking at her. "Papa is sad too, but he pretends he isn't. And I don't want them to be sad anymore."

"Mommy told me to talk to the goddess if I was feeling sad and didn't have anyone to talk to."

"The goddess?" Sana's eyes sparkle with interest.

"Yeah, I write a letter for her when I'm feeling sad. Jackie Jackie oppa taught me." Mina pulls the other girl and they settle on the coffee table.

The younger one settles her friend down and runs out to the kitchen to ask their auntie for some paper and crayons. Chaeyoung laughs wholeheartedly and fetches some paper and a box of crayons for the girls. Mina spends the rest of the morning and a good part of the afternoon writing with Sana, Jackson had taught his sister how to write properly, but the older girl had parents who believed she should learn things in her own pace, so she didn't have the best her six year-old ability could offer, but it was still good enough.

It was just two days later when Jihyo was allowed to go home, although she was barred from any physical activity, and was to be off her feet as much as she could. Sana was very happy she got to see her mother again and spend more than a few minutes with her. Jaebum was still off work, but was trying to get his boss to allow him back, he needed the money from the extra hours, but everyone around the couple knew to take care of them, as they would be too stubborn to care for themselves if they had put their heads into anything. Mr Kim, Jaebum's boss, was an old man with a young heart, and loved the boy like his own son, especially after he heard the young man's story, so the paid leave continued until further notice.

Sana had been writing to the goddess ever since she learned it from Mina, and had already told the deity half her life story, Jihyo got curious that afternoon, she had been laying on the couch, trying to muster the patience to watch a movie and observing her daughter being very invested on the paper in front of her. Surely, Sana focusing on anything that required sitting still was something very out of the ordinary, so the nurse got too invested on her daughter and decided to forgo the movie completely (she was never paying attention anyways).

"SanaSana, what are you doing baby?" Jihyo coos at her little girl.

"Talking to the goddess!" The girl chirps and goes back to writing.

"Can mommy see?" The woman asks and pats the sofa for the girl to join her.

"Sure!" Sana says happily, getting up and going to sit down beside her mother.

Jihyo takes the paper that's handed to her and reads with a smile on her face while Sana snuggles beside her, making herself comfortable but still (surprisingly) taking care to not hurt her mom, to the best a six year-old could muster. The woman feels like crying a little when she reads what was written on the paper, but decides to ask the girl a few questions before the kid falls asleep on her.

"SanaSana, who taught you to do this?"

"Micchan taught me!" The girl answers happily, remembering her friend.

"Who is Micchan?"

"My friend! I met at auntie Changie and auntie Momo, she is nice." Sana lets out a little yawn, despite being excited to talk about her friend. "She told me her oppa taught her."

"That's nice, sweetie. Do you want to sleep a little with mama?" The girl nods and closes her eyes.

Jihyo goes back to reading the letter, letting her tears fall, now that the girl was asleep. Despite being in a very fragile state, she still didn't want to worry her little girl any more, she knew Sana was affected too, and was trying to not worsen the girl's condition. But seeing her kid was still hopeful, and still tried to see the bright side of things warmed her heart, maybe that was the spirit they should have.

Deer Goddess,

It's me again Sana Park Sana

Mommy told me to introduce myself properly when I meet someone

my friend Mitang told me to talk to you

I don't know if this work but I want help to make mommy and daddy be happy

My mommy got sick and daddy got very very sad I'm sad too I dunt want mommy and daddy to be sad

Can you help them be happy again?

Thank you for talking to me

Kisses

It was cute, sure there was teh pang in her heart when she saw her daughter was worried like that, but the girl had found a silver lining, and Jihyo was happy the girl wasn't just sad, she was trying to help them as well. While she was trying to get a hold of herself, Jaebum had come back from his grocery run, finding his daughter sleeping and his wife crying, obviously he got worried and started fussing. Jihyo motioned for him to calm down and stop being noisy.

"Come over here and I'll show you." The woman says, once her husband stopped making a mess.

"Why are you crying? Are you okay? Is Sana okay?"

"Calm down. We are fine. I'm crying because our daughter is the cutest, and I couldn't help myself."

"What do you mean?"

Jihyo just hands him the letter, he tears up a little too, having understood what got strong woman Park Jihyo to become a hopeless, crying mess like that.Jaebum offers a wet chuckle, kisses his wife and goes back to the grocery bags he had dropped, in his haste and goes to the kitchen to get started on their dinner. Goddess, how he loved those two...