That Friday

"Appa?"

"Yes sweetie?" Donghae responds, fixing his hair a bit before adding another layer of gel

"Why are you all fancy?" Hyerim asks, having never seen her dad this weird

"Yeah, I'm fine... I'm just going out tonight."

"Why?"

"Because... because I'm going to have fun." Donghae smiles

"Ooh... have fun appa!"

"I will Hyerim. I got a babysitter..."

"But I'm not a baby!" Hyerim pouts

"I know sweetie," Donghae laughs and hugs her, "but I don't want you to get lonely while I go out, okay?"

"Okay..."

"I'll make dinner for you before I go, okay?"

"Okay." Hyerim giggles and kisses Donghae's cheek

"That's my girl." Donghae says and carries Hyerim to the kitchen. Donghae starts making dinner for her when he hears the doorbell ring and walks over to the door. He opens it up and lets the babysitter in "Okay, so this is Hyerim."

"Hi..." Hyerim whispers, hiding behind her dad

"Hi there." The girl smiles "I'm Sooyeon."

"Hyerim just has to be in bed by... 8 tonight. But she doesn't have any allergies or anything to worry about... and um yeah just have fun. I'll see you later. Bye sweetie."

"Bye Appa!"

---

"Hey!" Eunhyuk shouts as Donghae walks up to him "You came."

"I did." Donghae smiles "Where are we going to go?"

"Wherever you want to."

"Let's go get something to eat, if that's okay with you." Donghae suggests

"It's fine." Eunhyuk smiles softly "I'm starving!"

"Then let's go eat!" Donghae laughs and guides them to a restaurant

"So..."

"So..." Eunhyuk laughs to attempt to ease up some tension

"What are you thinking about getting?" Donghae asks

"I was hoping we could talk about more interesting things, but that works too."

"Oh! I mean... we can talk about anything..." Donghae blushes a little bit

"It's okay Donghae." Eunhyuk laughs "Let's talk about... your daughter."

"What about her?"

"She's a ball of energy."

"I know," Donghae smiles, "And that's just one of the reasons I love her so much..."

"She's really important to you..."

"Hell, she's my everything...." Donghae sighs a bit

"Oh... we don't have to talk about this if you don't want..."

"No, I'm fine with it."

"Okay..." Eunhyuk mutters, looking down

"It's okay Eunhyuk, really..."

"I know... but it seems like a sensitive subject."

"It is a bit... but I feel like I can trust you. Can I?"

"Of course."

"Well... I love Hyerim so much because her mother left us right after she was born."

"Oh... I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I didn't really love her all that much anyway, we got married because of our parents, we had Hyerim to appease them, then one day after work I open the door to my apartment and everything was gone other than the stuff to take care of her. I made a promise that day to love her no matter what happened and give her the love of two parents that she deserved."

"Wow... you're amazing."

"Thank you."

"Now I understand why you can be so protective of her."

"She was my everything when we started off, and she's my reason to work as hard as I do now."

"But still... I mean you deserve to do something that makes you happy too."

"I may not like it, but the office job gives me money so I can give Hyerim opportunites, and that alone makes me happy... I don't sound obssesive do I?" Donghae laughs softly

"No, I think you're perfectly within your rights as a parent." Eunhyuk laughs along with him

"Sorry, if this got really serious. I mean we're out to have fun, right?"

"No! I'm okay listening to your stories. I think they're interesting." Eunhyuk smiles his gummy smile "Or would you rather listen to one of my stories now?"

"I feel like I deserve one after telling you about Hyerim." Donghae smiles back

"Okay... hmm which one of my stories won't bore you to death?"

"Tell me about what made you want to be a dance teacher." Donghae suggests

"It was pretty easy, I just have always loved dance."

"And your parents were fine with it?"

"Yep. Let me go to school for dance and voila. A teacher was born."

"Fascinating." Donghae laughs

"I know, I know, next time I'll give you a better story. Something with a childhood injury that was supposed to end my dancing career, but made me rise above it and I became the best dancer in all of South Korea!"

"I'll wait for it." Donghae laughs loudly

"It's getting kinda late... I should probably go home. I'm sure Hyerim is waiting for you before she goes to sleep."

"If she's still up, I'll have to have a serious talk with her in the morning."

"Good night Donghae." Eunhyuk smiles

"Good night Eunhyuk. See you at class."

"See you later." Eunhyuk says as he walks off back to his car, leaving Donghae a bit flustered and left to get back to his own car.

---

"I'm home..." Donghae whispers as he walks into his apartment

"Oh hi." Sooyeon smiles "Don't worry she's fast asleep now."

"I can't thank you enough Jess."

"It's no problem, really. Good night Donghae."

"Good night." Donghae smiles softly and walks to Hyerim's room to check up on his daughter "Hyerim? Are you up still?"

"No..." A quiet Hyerim whispers

"I can hear you sweetie." Donghae smiles and sits on her bed "I'm home now, you can go to sleep."

"Did you have fun Appa?"

"I did. Good night sweetie." Donghae says as he kisses her head

"Night night." Hyerim yawns and quickly falls asleep. Donghae smiles and gets himself ready for bed, thinking about how Hyerim will bombard him with questions at breakfast about how the date went.