“No, I want that revised. Get with our corporate lawyer if we can get anyway around it. Yes. Thank you.” Dara hung up before she answered another call that is on hold on line 2. “Dara speaking. Yes, Mr. Chen. I am reviewing the files for our Tokyo location. Can I get back to you on it by tomorrow, at the latest? Thank you.” She hung up only to see her secretary’s line beeping.. She closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh before oressing the speaker to answer. “Yes?”

“Ms. Dara, Mr. So is on line 3?”

“Tell him I’m on a meeting and will call him later at 2. Or make that 4,” Dara instructed before pressing the speaker off to end the call. She leaned in her chair to get some rest for a second before turning her attention back at her computer again. She should have been used to this by now since it has already been a month but it’s still overwhelming her. Her father’s job is definitely not a joke.

Her secretary’s line beeped again and she pressed to answer. “Yes.”

“Chairman is on line 1 Ms. Park.”

Dara paused before rolling her eyes in exasperation. She pressed line 1 to answer. “Dad, why’re you calling through my secretary?”

“Is that anyway to greet your sick father?”

“Only when the sick father is being a pest,” Dara answered.

Her dad grumbled. “You’re not answering your phone. I already called 5 times.”

Dara took her phone from her pocket and realized she had turned it off on silent. Ooops.

“How’re you holding up?” her dad asked her.

“Dad,” Dara said wryly. “I have been here for a month and you are still asking that.”

“I’m kinda worried about you,” her dad answered. “I don’t think it’s the right time to be sent to the hospital.”

“No time is the right time to be hospitalized dad,” Dara said. “Just get youself better. I already promised you I’ll take care of this company and I won’t let you down. Did you see the reports I sent Carswell? We are up by 5% on sales.”

She could only hear her dad sigh and know that he felt sorry for ing the position to her so suddenly when he had suffered another attack last month. She had rushed to the hospital when Carswell told her the Chairman was found slumped on the floor pale and barely breathing. His condition stabilized the day after he was in the hospital but he was unconscious for nearly 4 days. The doctor had told Dara that the Chairman can no longer handle stress and one last attack could mean his death. Without thinking twice, she had submitted her resignation on WinKon and packed all her things. Her station manager isn’t glad to see her go, especially just after her promotion, but he understood. She felt lonely leaving all the people she had gotten friends with working under the Station but her father needs her now.

When her father had woken up, she announced that she is already starting to work for Park industries with Carswell’s guidance and for her father to get well sooner so her position in the company would be official.

“Don’t worry about me dad,” Dara said with a fond smile. “You had let me do the things I want to do ever since I’m little and I’m really grateful that you had given me five years to work on my own and it means a lot to me. Get yourself better okay so you can get your things in your office and I can move in. The one they gave me is too small and stuffy Your office is a lot nicer.”

Her dad chuckled. “I’m already better.”

“Say that when I can see you walking again,” Dara said with a scowl. Seeing her father in the hospital looking thinner and thinner each day is making her heart twist into knots and it’s difficult because she had to pretend everything is fine and cheery for her while she looks at him. She could remember the face of her once-bulky father, her hero when she was a child, her frenemy in highschool, her everything in her life wash away into a skinny sickly-looking 70 year-old man. Her dad is too young to rot into a withered, shrunken man. “Or when you can eat without the support of an IV.”

“I did this morning,” her dad said.

“And will Carswell tell me the exact same thing?” Dara asked with raised brow.

“Of course,” her dad answered without any hesitation. “He’s loyal to me.”

“He’s loyal to me, dad. I’m the one he’s answering to now. He told me you only took one sip, one sip of your soup and then you asked the nurse to take it away because you’re not hungry and then you slept.”

“Aish,” her dad grumbled under his breath. “What happens to loyalty nowadays.”

“Carswell loves you like a father too so he’s worried,” Dara said. “And he’s telling on you because you never listen to him. Pssh. Why he thinks you listen to me is beyond me though.”

She heard a female voice on the background and her father’s annoyed sigh. “Listen to what the doctor says, dad,” Dara said sternly knowing it was the nurse to give him the vitamins and medicines.

“She isn’t the doctor,” her father whined like a child.

“Yes, but she is doing what the doctor ordered her to do,” Dara said. There was a knock on her door and she looked up to see her secretary peering in reminding her of a meeting she is supposed to be in. “Oh, dad, I have a meeting. Gotta go. I’ll see you later, okay?” But of course she needed to remind her dad to be an obedient patient. “Listen to the nurses okay. It’s either that or I will be the one nursing you and you wouldn’t want me watching your every move.” She could hear her dad mubling, probably to the nurse and she doubt if he even heard her empty threat but she smiled as she hung up and gathered her folders for the Presentation.

The meeting was grueling with a lot of comments that are subtly attacking her knowledge in the business but she only nodded. She knew some of the people in that table, if not all, is against the idea of her taking over what her dad left. She couldn’t blame them though. She is just the daughter of Denny Park who only trained for a week before settling in ordering people around. She is nothing to them and their respect is simply a show out of their respect to the ailing chairman. She had no doubts too that they are thinking they are better than her.

Well, she would show them. She had walked out of that meeting, her face red, as she had been embarrassed when they asked her if she even read the previous contracts their clients had made to come up with the change she is trying to impose. She did of course, but obviously, they want her to scrutinize each word before making and justifying that decision. She wanted to yell at them that the company’s sales had gone up, even Carswell had congratulated her, what are they ing about but she knew they would think it is just a show of tantrum by the spoiled Park princess who is playing King at the moment so she just walked out of there after thanking them for their time. They will not see her backing down.

It had been like that since she started anyway, and these men who thinks they’re better than her—and doesn’t refrain from telling her so— doesn’t know that they are the exact reason she’s going to do well. You just wait.

Carswell is always beside her in every important meetings, providing guidance and goes to the hospital after to check on her dad. She was comforted by his presence at least. He’s like an uncle to her. She had only met some of her dad’s relatives and her mom but they were to snotty in her opinion. Carswell is like a doting uncle that lets you do whatever you want just because he’s fond of you.

Or probably because he was paid to be.

But it doesn’t matter anyway. Like what her father said, Carswell is loyal to the Park family. And she needed someone loyal in another battle she is to embark on.

After stopping by for coffee, she went to the hospital for her dad. He found her talking to Carswell, no doubt interrogating him for the meeting his daughter had earlier.

“Hey dad,” she said closing the door behind her.

“I am firing them tomorrow,” her dad announced.

She knew that was what her father would say. That’s what he always say everytime she gets roasted in a meeting. “And again, you can’t. They’re mostly what makes up Park Industries and besides....” She shrugged. “… I really didn’t read their previous contract. Or the one for the Songs. I think he’s one of your biggest customer. And I didn’t even know.” She sat down on the chair next to her father’s bed.

“Songs contract is at my desk. Have someone get that for you,” her dad said.

“I’ll get it tomorrow.” She narrowed her eyes when she saw the empty bowl of soup. “Did you finish all of it or did you threw it?”

“I finished all of it,” her dad said proudly.

Dara looked at Carswell for confirmation and he nodded with a smile before exiting the room.

“When can I leave this damned hospital?” her father started complaining. “I’m already fine.”

“You’re fine when the doctor says you’re already fine,” Dara answered.

“I can rest in my own bed—“

“I’d feel more assured if you would have a lot of nurses and doctors looking after you,” Dara interrupted taking a hold of his hand. “I can’t lose you, dad. I can’t.”

The look of distress on her face made her dad sigh in defeat. “You won’t lose me. It’s just a heart attack.”

“Dad, you were seconds away from a . It’s lucky that Carswell found you in time,” Dara pressed her dad’s hand beseechingly. “So dad, please. Get better. I want… I want to see you really fat… I want that… stomach bouncing each time you walk and I would have something to tease you over. I want to see you all red and… cheery and… scolding me for things. I want to hear you shouting at me again….”

“You were laughing over my stomach?” Her dad repeated ominously.

Dara nodded slowly.

Her dad just gave her a dry expression before sighing loudly. “You always make fun of my fats.”

“And now you’re skinnier than me,” Dara said. “I can’t tease you anymore.” She pouted. “Give me my fun back, dad.”

Her dad muttered under his breath and Dara grinned before kissing her dad at the top of his head. “I saw Jaejoong earlier.”

His dad’s face brightened. “You did?”

Jaejoong is the son of his friend, the owner of an Oil Company. He had been ecstatic when they had dated but he didn’t speak to her for a week when he heard they broke up. Jaejoong is the son that he never had, Dara supposed, and what better way to have him than get his daughter to marry him? Sadly, it really didn’t end to what he expected.

“Yep. He looked really good,” Dara said.

“And?” Her dad asked. “Is he dating anyone?”

Dara chuckled. “Yes, he is. But if you promised to be out of this hospital by next week, I will steal him away from his girl and marry him right in front of you. How’s that?”

Her dad scowled at her teasing before huffing. “He’s a man any father would want for his daughter.”

“He is,” Dara agreed. “And only a fool would let him slip off through her fingers. Sadly, your daughter is one and you can’t do anything about it because you have always indulged her.” She arranged her dad’s blankets.