With Ears to See

“A-Austin…! How did you…?!”
I watched as Kellin maneuvered through the house, utter shock written on his face.

“I saved up so that we could buy it back. It’s about time we moved out of the apartment.”
“Austin…”

I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around him, resting my chin on top of his shoulder.

“Everything is still here…! How did you manage to…?”
“No one else decided to buy the house. It couldn’t bother people who didn’t live there so it was left for the time being.”

He turned to face me, tears welling up in his eyes.

“This…This is amazing, Austin!”
“I’m glad you say so.”

I was about to kiss him, but was interrupted by my cellphone ringing in my pocket.
I pulled it out and answered it.

“Hello…?”
“Ai-yah! Where are you two?! You’re going to be late for dinner and I will not have that! Do you understand me?!”
“R-Right! We’ll be there as soon as possible!”

I hung up before she could say anything else.

“Mei-Xing?”
“Yeah, she’s pissed that we’re late, so let’s get going.”

x x x

“Rock, Paper, Scissors for who has to knock on the door.”
“Fine…”

We did so, and of course, I lost.
I reluctantly knocked on the door and waited for an answer.

The door opened and I was greeted by a flying wooden spoon to my chest.
“Ow…! Okay, I might have deserved that.”

Mei-Xing nodded with her arms crossed over her chest as we stepped inside.

Two loud pairs of feet hit the ground and Kellin and I knew what to prepare for.

“Mommy! Daddy!”
Andrew wrapped his arms around Kellin’s legs while Autumn tried to tackle me.

“You two didn’t cause any trouble while we were gone, did you?” I questioned as I picked Autumn up.
“No! We got to help Grandma and Grandpa cook today!” Andrew answered, still clinging onto Kellin’s legs.

“They insisted that we make dumplings tonight and so they helped. So young and already so talented.”
Autumn giggled at Mei-Xing’s statement while Andrew blushed.

“The table is already set, so let’s go eat, shall we?”

Kellin and I nodded in agreement before we all headed to the dining room.
Halfway into dinner, I couldn’t help but take in the scene in front of me.

My lovely husband, sitting next to me laughing at a horrible joke Haneul made. My two, wonderful children, trying to teach each other how to use chopsticks. Haneul and Mei-Xing cracking jokes and picking on each other.

I sighed in content and smiled.

Our family.

x x x

We were back home, and Andrew and Autumn were asleep in their room.
Meanwhile, Kellin and I were curled up in bed, simply kissing and whispering sweet nothings to each other.

Another kiss to his neck, another giggle from him.
He draped an arm over my chest and snuggled closer to me.

“I can’t believe I’m back home. I didn’t care much about it…only when I actually found my way back here every once in a while. Now that I can see, now that I have a family…I’m really glad to be back here.”

He pressed a kiss to my cheek as he traced the pattern of a tattoo on my chest with his finger.

“We should go to sleep. Autumn has a soccer game tomorrow and Andrew’s art class is after that.”
“We should, but…”

I moved us so that I was hovering over him.

“We can always have a little fun beforehand.”
I smirked as Kellin rolled his eyes at me.

“We can’t be too loud, and you can’t complain about getting up the in the morning. Deal?”
I crashed my lips against his, unable to hold back.

“Deal.”

One kiss after another. Discarded clothes all over the room.
My strained groans and Kellin’s small whimpers filled the atmosphere in the room.

Soon after, we were sticky and sweaty, but we were too tired to even think about moving.

Kellin curled up next to me and rested his head on my chest as I wrapped an arm around him.
“Now we can go to bed.”
He only scoffed.

We both tensed up when we heard two small giggles coming from outside the door.

Kellin propped himself up with his elbows.

“Andrew? Autumn?”
A squeak and their footsteps followed soon afterwards.

“Oh no…”
Kellin buried his face into the pillow and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I think Mei-Xing got to them…”
I hummed in agreement, pulling Kellin into my arms.

“We’ll worry about that in the morning. I want to sleep now…”
“Yeah…I’m really tired, thanks to a certain someone.”

I smiled and kissed his forehead.

“I love you, Kellin.”
“I love you too, Austin.”

I had a small feeling that I forgot something.
Then it struck me.

Tomorrow’s also the anniversary of when we first met.

I was about to speak again, but stopped when I heard small snores coming from him.
I’ll tell him in the morning, if we decide to wake up, that is.

I smiled and closed my eyes, feeling sleep start to take over.