Work Text:
********
“Papa! I want to write my letter to Santa!”
Ji Woo came running into the kitchen, where Jinhwan was making dinner. She had a piece of paper and a crayon clutched in her fist. He looked down at her from the stove.
“Do you want to write it, or do you want me to?”
“I don’t write good, Papa.”
“Write well. It’s ok, you can draw pictures.” Jinwhan smoothed the hair on her head that was sticking up. She was always a whirlwind.
Ji Woo pondered that. “No, Santa might not know. I want you to write.”
Jinhwan turned back to the stove. “Ask Daddy then, unless you want to wait until after I’ve made dinner.”
“Daddy writes messy.”
“Those are your choices, baby girl.”
Just like Bobby, Ji Woo didn’t like to wait for anything. She tore off back down the hallway towards the home studio. “Daddy!”
She stopped at the closed door. Daddy had told her she wasn’t supposed to go in when the door was closed. Because he was making sick beats. Ji Woo still didn’t get what that meant, but she knew if she made Daddy angry, he wouldn’t write Santa, and then she wouldn’t get what she wanted for Christmas. But if she didn’t ask him, she wouldn’t get her letter for Santa written anyway. Ugh.
Hesitantly, she tapped on the door. “Daddy,” she whispered as loud as she could, “can you write my Santa letter?”
She heard movement in the room, and then the door opened.
“You actually knocked? It’s a Christmas miracle.” Bobby bent down and scooped his daughter up.
“Daddy, Imma good girl.” Ji Woo planted a kiss on his cheek. “Tell Santa.” She shoved the paper at him.
“He knows if you’ve been bad or good, it’s in the song.” Bobby sat back at his desk, with her on his lap.
She nodded. “Okay. Then I want to tell him what I want for Christmas.”
Bobby raised an eyebrow at her. “You mean you’d like to ask him for things that you may or may not get, based on how good you were and how hard it is for his elves to make, right?”
“No Daddy. I want to tell him what I want.”
Bobby didn’t know whether to scold her for being spoiled or praise her for being a woman who knew what she wanted and didn’t take no for an answer. Parenting was hard.
“Okay well let’s see what you want first.” He took the crayon and paper from her.
“Dear Santa,” he wrote. Then he waited for Ji Woo to dictate.
“Dear Santa,” she picked up. “For Christmas, I want Papa to know how much Daddy loves him, because sometimes I think he forgets.”
Shocked, Bobby stopped writing and looked at his daughter. “Why would you say that, Princess?”
She shrugged. “I see him look at you, Daddy, when you don’t see. And sometimes he looks sad. He likes it when you kiss him, and hug him. Don’t you like that too?”
Bobby nodded.
“Then you should do it more. He’ll be happier. Tell Santa.” Ji Woo pointed at the paper. Bobby was still shocked, so he just scribbled without commenting. Ji Woo frowned.
“I told Papa you write messy.”
“Is that all you want in the letter?”
She shook her head. “Tell Santa I want Daddy to know how much Papa loves him, because he don’t think he’s good enough.” Ji Woo whispered in Bobby’s ear, “Papa told me he waited a long time for you. Why would he do that if you were no good?”
Bobby’s hand was shaking, so he gave up pretending to write. “I don’t know. I never did know.”
She patted his cheek. “‘Cause you’re special. He said so. To Uncle Bin. I’m not sure if I was supposed to hear that.” She shrugged, not at all bothered by her eavesdropping.
Bobby wrapped his arms around his little girl. “You’re pretty special too. How’d I get so lucky?”
“You must have been very, very good, Daddy.”
“Not by a long shot, Princess.” He dropped a kiss on her head to hide the knot in his throat. He cleared it, then picked up the crayon.
“I think you already got that last thing, so what else do you want? More crayons? Or how about a play castle?”
She shook her head. “I already got lots of stuff. I just want one more thing.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready to hear this.”
“I want all my ‘KON uncles to come for Christmas and play with me and do whatever I want for the whole entire day.”
Bobby grinned so hard, his eyes disappeared, and he picked up the crayon to scribble it down. “Perfect. That’s what they get for being on the Naughty List.”
**********