“Thank you for taking in my daughter for a while,” dad said, bowing in front of Mrs. Min.

She covered a forced laugh with a hand and waved him off. “Mijoo is already family to us so it’s no problem. I am glad to have her again with us since it has been such a long time when I last saw her anyway.”

I smiled, feeling this kind of irony pass through my mind that here I was with the person who had fathered me and my friend’s mother, and yet the one who had thought of me as family was the person I was not blood-related with. Not dad. Not my own father.

Dad smiled back, that stretch on his lips struggling to look genuine.

“Oh, isn’t that right? Perhaps one of these days if Mijoo decides to stay with me for good, you’ll get to see her more often.” I cringed at the thought of what dad said. Was he really planning to convince me to stay with him?

Another thought crossed my mind after dad broached the prospect of me living with him. Was he really planning to take me away from mom like how I heard her telling Mr. Oh before? I shook my head at the idea. Now that I was truly upset with dad that I felt like I would rather rot in the province than live with an uncaring father. Was he even pleased to see me? That I was actually here to attend his wedding? I thought of how he forgot to pick me up at the station and how he didn’t even think of calling me in a day, and not even wondering where his precious daughter was; and all I could say more was how did he even think he was any better than my mother?

“Oh,” Mrs. Min was bewildered by my father’s choice of words. She might have tried to hide it but I knew she was curious, too, as to what my dad meant. “Are you going to take her in?”

That made a broad smile occupy his lips. “Right. Wouldn’t that be great if I have her back with me here in Seoul?” He smiled down at me, placing his arm around my shoulder as if it was the most natural for him to do.

I felt a little annoyed he was acting weirdly, like he was only pretending. That whatever he said was for show and that even his touch wasn’t meant to be genuine and fatherly. I peeled his hand off, not really liking how much he was trying so hard to placate me and fix the situation. This was not how I wanted it to be.

“Here I would be able to support her well financially. She can go to a good private school and choose the career she wanted. She can attend parties she like and we can spend more time together. Wouldn’t that be great? You would surely like it better with appa, Mijoo-ah. Plus, you can hang out with Yoonji more.”

I had tuned him out, not wanting to hear his nonsense. Yoonji had looked at me with sympathy on her face. She knew I was having a hard time hearing what my father was saying. That was clearly not I wanted. I didn’t need his money. I didn’t need to receive anything from him but his love. I just wanted my father back.

But why it seemed this man couldn’t get that?

Yoonji and I hugged, saying a temporary goodbye to each other afterwards. Dad had given me a brief time to bid them farewell that though I didn’t want to part so soon from my best friend and her family, I was pulled by the hand by my father. He told me to get inside his car and strapped me on the passenger’s seat. He asked me if I was hungry but I stayed silent. I was mad at him. And he knew it. That he pulled away from me with a sigh.

We drove away, with him doing a one way conversation with me. I didn’t want to answer. He didn’t deserve to hear me.

“Have you been well?”

I nodded.

“How’s your mother? Is she doing well?”

I clenched my fists on my lap at the question. I couldn’t take it anymore. Why was he acting as if nothing really happened? “You should probably hear the answer from her.”

Dad stopped asking after hearing those harsh words from me. I knew it was rude to talk back like I did, to speak with spite though this was our reunion after such a long time, but I couldn’t keep it in anymore that if he ever spoke again inside the car I might have had told him even awful things to make him realize what kind of a father and man he was. How terrible he was in fulfilling his responsibilities. And how I was beginning to realize how mistaken I was of the feelings I still had left for this person.

The whole ride was filled with tensed silence. Not a word was heard. He might have looked at me from time to time, but I had my eyes closed. I, truthfully, didn’t want to look at him at all. I was just glad that being tired was a simple excuse to pretend I was sleeping and he could not initiate another insensible conversation.

The time we arrived at his new residence, it was already seven in the evening. The sky was already dark but the building we had stopped in front of was all lit up in full glory. The place was huge and grandiose that I couldn’t help but scoff. Of course, he wouldn’t let the new woman stay anywhere that was not pretty or expensive. Daddy always liked to impress. But the funny thing was that he had found a home in the middle of Gangnam where most likely there would be bars and KTVs to hang out in. This was the famous district for privileged teenagers that I could not help but mockingly ask myself, was dad growing up backwards? Why would he want such a noisy place?

This professor was slowly making me think I was with the wrong person. Who was he? What did he do to my real father?

“We’re almost there,” dad said while smiling down at me.

I nonchalantly nodded, not caring wherever he was going to take me. He had pressed on the twentieth floor button inside the elevator of the condominium building we just rode and I was just waiting for the next ping so I could get out without waiting for him. And when it actually happened I heard him telling me the directions to his slick new home from behind. I didn’t really need it, though, since mom had practically gotten the room number written down for me beforehand. How could dad be stupid to not even remember giving the directions to his home to mom, expecting us to get there by ourselves, previously?

Reaching this door at the end of the hallway at the twentieth floor with the room number combination 207 I knew I was at the right place where hell would probably break loose. I released a shaky breath as I continued to stare at the numbers, somehow wondering whether I should ring the door bell now or wait for dad to punch the code for us.

However, being a little impatient, I pressed the doorbell in the end without waiting for dad’s instructions. I knew that I was up for no good, but I was really keen on surprising myself. I wanted to see the woman who ruined my family first thing when I stepped here without being taught how to act in front of her just because she was my dad’s fiancée. I knew I didn’t have to be polite. I just wanted to know how she looked and engrave her face in memory so I would never forget the person I was slowly growing more hate for.

“Mijoo, how could you have not waited for your aging father?!” it sounded like dad was trying to joke, but I didn’t take the bait. I was not up for friendl