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Pat pat.
The little legs tottered, making his way confidently.
On his chubby hand, there was a bouquet of fresh flowers.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" A teenage voice came from behind him.
Baek Cheon turned around and saw his eldest brother before hiding the flowers behind him.
"Hmm? What is that?"
Jin Geumryong reached behind that little dumpling and took the flowers.
"Flowers? For who?" He asked while ignoring the grabby paw trying to take back those flowers.
"No!" Baek Cheon protested.
After a while struggling in futile engagement with his eldest, he realized he was too short to reach even Jin Geumryong"s waist.
His wide, crystal-clear eyes started to moisten before bursting into tears.
"Waaaaaa"
"What the—"
"Hey, hey, stop it. Dong Ryong. Men aren"t supposed to cry easily."
Jin Geumryong started to annoy and pick up the boy before coddling him amidst the bawling.
"It"s my fault, okay? Hmm?" He coaxed.
"Shushh shushhh, let me take you to your second brother, hmm?" He asked.
The tears stopped abruptly.
Baek Cheon’s eyes started glimmering.
"Eun-ge?"
"Huh?" Geumryong cocked up one of his eyebrows.
"Eun?"
"Oh, you mean Eunryong? Yes, yes, him. Do you want to?"
He snuggled into Jin Geumryong"s neck before replying, "Uhn, uhm."
Eun for Eunryong, Jin Geumryong mumbled.
Then what about me? He pondered.
"Xiao Didi, who am I?" He asked that
"Uhm?" Baek Cheon tilted his head.
"What do you call me?" Jin Geumryong rephrased his question.
"Ge?" Baek Cheon asked.
"Ge? Just ge?" Jin Geumryong pondered whether to put down this little dumpling or not.
"Da-ge!" Baek Cheon tugged at his headband.
Jin Geumryong didn"t know whether to laugh or cry before pinching those mochi cheeks.
"Okay, let go of my headband." He started to peel the paw off of his headband.
Later, in Eunryong’s room, the three brothers sat around the table, starting their dinner.
Geumryong busied himself by wiping that smudge of osmanthus cake on that baby face.
"Hehe," Baek Cheon laughed.
"It is yummy, little brother?" Jin Eunryong asked.
"Uhm, uhn," he replied with a mouthfull.
"Tsk, where"s your manner speaking with mouthfull food?" Jin Geumryong complained while continuing to wipe that paw of Baek Cheon after.
Eunryong chuckled at that sight, "Brother. Just admit you adore him."
"Hmph, what nonsense are you spouting?" Jin Geumryong finished wiping that little paw.
"Ryong-ah," Eunryong softly called.
"Unh?" Baek Cheon raised his head.
"Let"s put the cake aside and eat rice first, or else you"ll get hungry later in the middle of the night, hmm?"
Eunryong reached out to take away the plate full of cake.
Those small, round eyes started to moisten.
Jin Geumryong, who was already familiar with this pattern, immediately said,"No, no, don"t cry."
He glanced at Eunryong"s indifferent face.
"Seriously? I"ve tried so hard to stop his crying earlier, and you just make him cry at the next moment."
"What? Do you want to wake up at night and make meals for him?" He replied nonchalantly.
"Cheon-ah, later you can eat the cake, but first eat the rice, emm?"
"Nu-uh," he shook his head and started to reach for the plate.
"No, we"ll eat this later." Jin Geumryong grabbed that plate faster than he ever did.
Baek Cheon’s moist eyes turned into a glare. That chubby cheek puffed into an angry red.
"Wow," Eunryong gasped.
"This is the first time he showed that kind of expression."
"Hahahahahahahahahahaha, just a moment with you, and he already picked up the bad habits."
"Stop laughing and help me, won"t you?" Geumryong nearly lost his shit.
"Ah, what about the flowers?" He remembered.
"Flowers, Ryong-ah!"
"Uhn?" Baek Cheon tilted his small head.
"The one you want to give to Eun-ge."
"Eun-ge?"
"It"s you," Geumryong replied without sparing him a glance.
"Oh," those chubby hands started to rummage his pocket and took out a not-so-fresh flower from it.
"Da-ge," he gave it to Geumryong.
Eunryong gasped dramatically.
"I thought he was supposed to give it to me."
"Technically, he didn"t say it was for you," Jin Geumryong said.
"Ryong-ah-"
"Uhn uh, cakey,"
"Huh," both of the brothers were taken back.
"Thish and that," that little mochi pointed to the flowers and the osmanthus cake repeatedly.
"Hahahahaha," he wants to exchange it with the cake.
"What a brilliant boy!" Eunryong laughed
Again, Jin Geumryong doesn"t know whether to laugh or cry.
After a long time of push and pull with a little mochi called Jin Dong Ryong, the two of them can finally enjoy their dinner with compromise by setting aside two pieces of osmanthus cake, especially for little Dong Ryong.
However, not long after he began to eat, that boy started to doze off, letting the floor have all his dinner.
"Jin Dong Ryong," Jin Geumryong called in a reprimand tone.
"Uh," Baek Cheon perked up upon his name and blinked dumbly.
Eunryong smiled fondly at that sight before walking over to his little brother.
"It seems it is already our little star bedtime," he hugged that small body and lulled him back to sleep.
Eunryong"s soft voice is pleasant to the ear, making Baek Cheon drift off in no time.
"Sleep well, my little star~~"
"Your brother always-"
The senerade slowly became more faint over time.
"Noooooo," the screamed jolted Baek Cheon awake.
Just a minute more, and he"ll be gone, lulled by the sweet memories of the time.
A vast blue sky presented itself before his eyes.
He struggled to breathe, admist the acrid scent of smoke and blood stains. The sound of blades clashing slowly crashed into his own ears.
His lower body felt numb, not that he thought there was anything left below his waist after being blown off by Cheon Ma earlier.
His own blood pool created a warm bath for him.
He glanced at Jin Geumryong, who tried his best to assist Soso with the medical aids.
There"s no use. You should just leave me from the very beginning, Baek Cheon monologue.
This is war. One isn"t supposed to let their guard down easily.
He weakly tugged his brother"s sleeve.
"Ru… n…-
-qu.. ic.kly…," Even blurting those short sentences drained him.
Jin Geumryong played deaf to Baek Cheon’s plea.
"Da-ge.."
At those calls, he tried his best not to waver.
"Ta..ke.. Soso.. an..d.-
"I get it. I get it. So, I just tried to save your breath, Dong Ryong."
"I"m here so—" his sentence being halted by his own upon watching the already still body without breath.
The blood continued to ooze out without control.
The sky remained blue.