ridin'°nct dream

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  "That's mine!" The little girl squeals, running after the boys who has stolen her candy cane.

  The boy snickers, fleeing away. Their exclamations and shouts fill the air and Jisung panics, shifting his attention from her to him.

  The chase looks like a whole bloody war to his eyes- starring the damsel in distress and a petty thief.

  A hand holding his arm comforts. "Calm down. They're just playing."

  "Playing?" Jisung asks with wide eyes. "Then, why is she shouting and threatening to kick him? She won't, right? They won't get hurt, right?"

  His panic allows Saehyun to figure out how his childhood was- not that she didn't know before. It was easy to guess by how protective and timid he is around the kids' parents.

  "No, they won't. All you have to do is just make sure things don't go out-of-hand. If they start pulling on the candy, not wanting to let one another have it then, pacify them. Make a deal and tell them to reconcile.
  "Advice them and sometimes, you can even tell fun stories with morals so they'll remember it better."

  As if fate is teasing them, the two kids abruptly get into am argument, each pulling on the sweet like in tug of war.
 
  Jisung quickly rushes to them, genuinely afraid that they'll throw fists and bust a tooth out.

  Saehyun watches with a smile on her face, hugging herself as she admires the male who's crouched down while he holds the kids' shoulders.

  He turns from the girl to the boy then, back to the girl, advising and holding the candy cane in between them.

  "Look, you can just, uh, maybe, share it," Jisung suggests nervously and shows them the length of the candy cane.
"We can break them equally and one of you take one part each."

  "Okay. But I want the one with a curve," the boy says and the girl whines.

  "But I wanted that one too!"

  Saehyun who's watching the scene unfold, recalls an old memory.

  "Alright. You can only choose one toy each, okay? No more than that," the sisters' mother tells and the three little girls excitedly rush around the toy store.

  "We can only pick one," Jinae states when she bumps into Saehyun in one of the alleys, holding two toy boxes in hand.

  Saehyun nods, sighing with a sad pout. "But I want the two of them..."

  "Saehyun! Jinae! Are you done picking?" Their mother shouts from the counter and with a heavy heart, little Saehyun leaves one box and reluctantly chooses one only.

  She lifts the box up to her mother who starts to look around. "Where's Jinae?"

  "I'm here!" The youngest pops up and waddles to them before passing a toy to her mother.

  Sae's eyes spot the change of choice. "Oh? But this is the other one that I wanted... You picked something else, though."

  Jinae gives a toothy grin, radiating with innocence and sincerity. "It's okay! You wanted this one, right? It doesn't matter what the toy is because as long we play together, it'll still be fun!"

  "See? Sharing is caring. Next time, don't fight because then, you'll get upset and your parents will be too. And you don't wanna see them sad, do you?" Jisung asks the kids who shake their heads.

  He pats their hair with the most gentle of touch, scared he'll actually break them.

  They run for lunch with their halves of candy cane according to their rock-paper-scissors result, reconciled.

  And Jisung thought that would be the last of his problems until he sees Saehyun with eyes lustrous with hot tears and flushes cheeks and nose.

  "Saehyun-ah, w-what's wrong?" He asks, holding her arms gently and boring his eyes into his in hopes he can probably see what's the matter.

  "I miss her," she says in a soft, airy whisper and Jisung's heart feels a stab right through it- feeling the pain from Jinae's loss again as well as feeling hopeless, knowing that he can't really do anything for Saehyun about it. 

  So instead, his arms wrap around her tiny figure, transferring warmth and affection- filling up the hollowness she feels.

  He says nothing, not a single word and only stays with her for as long as she likes and feels the tears drip down his own cheeks- embrace tightening around her.