The Tiger King (Chaelisa)

23| Do-over

Rosé giggled as she watched her daughter in her hand-held mirror. The little girl had her cheeks puffed up in concentration as she tugged on her mother's hair, attempting to plait it. Currently she held fistfuls of fiery strands, her eyes almost crossed with effort.

"I keep messing up!" she whined, pouting. "How do you even do them on yourself, Mom?"

"It's okay sweetie, it took me a while before I got the hang of it too. Patience is key," Rosé said fondly, hoping the knots being tangled up in her hair wouldn't require scissors.

"Does aunty know how to do plaits? She told me she could show me once."

"Jisoo?" Rosé chuckled. "If your aunt knows how to do plaits, I'll eat two avocados for breakfast tomorrow."

Her daughter giggled. "For real?"

"No, of course not," Rosé shuddered, "avocados are..." she pulled a face, making her daughter snicker. "But I'm confident she doesn't know how, so I'll win," she added smugly.

"Avocados are the best!"

"Noooooo!" Rosé gasped, horrified. "You're not my daughter! Where is she? Where is she? Out with it!"

Rosé ended up chasing the hysterical girl who ran into her room and jumped on the bed, with Rosé following suit and tickling her hard. Startled out of her peaceful nap, Bori leapt off  the bed with a miffed meow.

"Who are you?" Rosé demanded, as the girl squealed. "We don't love avocados in this house!"

"Mommy stop, stop! I'm sorry! I hate avocados! I love MANGOS!"

"Now that's more like it!" Rosé sat back in satisfaction. As she did so, she caught sight of the alarm clock. "Oh, it's almost time. Sorry, sweetie, gotta get ready for the next client."

"Aww already?" her daughter clung to her, "but I wanted to keep plaiting."  She pouted, making her bottom lip jut out as she looked at her mother with pleading, puppy-eyes.  

Rosé shook her head in amusement. "I haven't forgotten your homework. Don't for a second think you're off the hook, young lady."

"But it's so boring!"

Her mother climbed off the bed. "I can try help you afterwards, but I have to go now. If you manage to finish all your exercises, you can have an extra helping of ice-cream later, how about that?"

Her daughter dutifully went to rummage in her school bag and took out her textbooks, settling down to work with a determined expression—she was going to get that ice-cream for sure.

Rosé smiled to see the little head bent studiously over her desk. 

"I'll make some snacks later," she called from the door, "make sure to stand up and stretch every now and then, okay? I don't want you to be getting scoliosis this early in life."

She closed the door and walked down the hall to enter the studio, which was housed in separate section of the apartment, adjacent to their living quarters.

Rosé cleared up the area and put aside the equipment used for the previous pilates session before she had to stop to fetch her daughter from school. They had gotten sidetracked when they started plaiting each other's hair.

It looked to be a good day today. 

The weather was crisp and not too cold—the first hints of spring after the harsh winter were slowly becoming more apparent with each passing day, like the cherry blossoms that were gradually flowering. 

She adored those little pink flowers floating down around them like pink snow, and frequently took her daughter to watch the trees blooming at the park on weekends. Jisoo would join them, although the older girl preferred the trees when they were decked out in lush, vibrant greenery. They spent many an afternoon chasing after Jisoo's beloved pet, a white Maltese named Dalgom while Jisoo sat by reading, since she hated running.