Crash Landing On You - These Are The Days

Strike One Match In The Dark

Not everyone can be with them on Christmas Eve. So they have one tradition, their only set-in-stone one, to honour them.

Se Ri wasn't sure when it happened. She wasn't the type of person who was particularly attached to any particular holiday. But somewhere between the chaos of her crash landing in North Korea and meeting Jeong Hyeok, Christmas became something important to her and Jeong Hyeok.

There were a lot of good things tied up with Christmas.

The first time she said 'I love you' to Jeong Hyeok, despite being captured by unknown men who happened to be Jeong Hyeok's father subordinate. She laughed at that memory. That scary old man was now her warm father in law.

They made a lot of memories over the years.

It made her smile as she looked at the latest picture Jeong Hyeok's sent from their home, little Da Eun tangled up in the ribbons he liked to use to wrap up gifts. It would be their third Christmas with their daughter, a gift Se Ri valued above everything else.

The most unexpected -in the best way- of her gifts.

Good luck with that. I'll be home soon.

She wrote back to her husband - her husband, dear God. It was still kind of threw her for a loop. She'd promised to be home early today because it was Christmas Eve and that meant a lot to her and Jeong Hyeok.

Work can always wait. And she turned off her computer.

The living room of their house was exactly the chaos Se Ri had gleaned from the picture. There was wrapping paper everywhere and it certainly looked like all the ribbon had been unravelled. Se Ri found mirth bubbling up in her throat, otherwise, she thought she might have a mental breakdown. She's relaxed since giving birth - because Da Eun came with so much stuff - but this level of chaos still made her tense, edgy and dizzy.

"Hey, Honey. You're home."

She found Jeong Hyeok's head over the edge of the couch and he looked at least a little guilty. He got at least five different colours of ribbon wrapped around his neck and honestly, she was a little terrified to circle the couch and got her first glimpse of her daughter.

"Mama!"

Well. She couldn't deny that. Nor that the picture of her daughter as she rounded the edge of the couch made her outright grin. "Did you find the ribbons, Butterflake?

The ribbons were trailing behind her daughter, really, silver and gold, red and green, blue and white. Still, Se Ri caught her daughter easily, lifted her into the air just to hear her giggle. Da Eun snuggled easily into her shoulder as Se Ri shifted her grip, support her against her hip.

"I miss you, Mama."

Da Eun smiled at her mother, just a small thing, but one so full of everything that little girl had brought to Se Ri's life. Not that it had been empty before. Well, it was empty before Jeong Hyeok. Da Eun was a pure ray of sunshine, and since she was born, Se Ri's heart was always full of love.

Se Ri looked up when Jeong Hyeok trailed a hand down her arm, smiled at him too because of his face. He did this whenever he saw his wife and his daughter together.

"We've eaten." He said. "Leftovers in the fridge. I can clean her up."

He could and he would, but Se Ri could multitask. One of many things Se Ri realized after motherhood claimed her was that she was a very talented multitasker. She could do several things at the same, which was unimaginable before she had a daughter.

So she nodded to the living room. "How about you clean that up, Captain Christmas?" she teased, wiped at a green smudge. There had been a picture of that too, decorated with food colouring icing. They've had a busy day. "I'll untangle the kid."