Daehyun just had a shower and he was still wearing his white bathrobe. His mind was occupied with your name; Han Jinae. How would he solve things with you? How would he tell you the truth, the hidden feelings and everything?

All of sudden, his mind went back to his encounter with a man which he guessed was around his father’s age at a coffee shop.

Daehyun was staring at his hot espresso when a shade appeared in front of him.

“Mind if I sit here, young man?” the man asked.

Daehyun looked up to find an elder man in a coat as he was holding a cup of white coffee on his right hand and a briefcase on his left hand. He eyed his surrounding to find there were plenty of empty tables but shrugged it off, “Just sit.”

The man quickly sat on the seat in front of Daehyun and put his briefcase on the seat next to him. He sipped down his drink before putting it on the table. His eyes wandered to Daehyun’s cup.

“Haven’t drinking your coffee yet? It might get cold if you don’t finish it by now,” he told him.

Daehyun; who was busy thinking about his current problem glanced for a second at the man. The man who saw him not doing anything knocked on the table to get Daehyun’s attention.

Daehyun’s expression turned into a frown as he looked at the man in front of him, “What is it?”

“Drink your coffee while it’s still hot,” he reminded Daehyun once again.

Exasperated, Daehyun took the drink and gulped it down in one-shot before putting the cup back on the table with a loud sound. He didn’t even spare a look at the man as he looked at the window next to them.

The man let out a fatherly chuckle as he asked, “Do I annoy you that much, son?”

“I guess you know better,” Daehyun scoffed lightly.

“It seems like you’re having a big problem, am I right?” he tried to converse with the young male.

“So what if I have one? It’s not like I’m bothering you with my problem,” there came Daehyun’s unfriendly reply.

“To be quite honest, it does disturb me to see your nuisance face.”

“Then don’t even look at my face.”

The elder laughed again and shook his head, “You’re still young and have a long way to go, son. Why do you even bother yourself to be thinking about things? At your age, I didn’t even have time to think about problems and all I did was enjoying my teens age because I knew, once I grew up as an adult, I would be facing so many problems in life than I was having during my adolescence.”

“You don’t understand what kind of problem I’m having right now,” Daehyun huffed.

“Is it about family, study or friendship? You can tell me if you want to. I’ll be a good listener and adviser,” he smiled at Daehyun.

Daehyun didn’t feel so happy with what he suggested, “Don’t try to play a psychiatrist now,” he grunted.

That earned another laugh from the man, “No, I’m not. I’m just trying to play the role of a father. You know, I have a daughter at home and I guess she has the same age with you,” his face turned brighter as he remembered his own daughter.

The word ‘father’ just gave a mad impact at Daehyun. He started to think of his own father, ‘My father won’t be playing his role as a father well, just no. He doesn’t even have time to listen to me, what a disgrace. And why is this man acting so nice towards me? I feel like we have some sort of connection with him. Whoever his daughter is, she must be a proud daughter to have such a responsible father.’

“Hey, young man! Do you feel like sharing it or not?” he snapped three of his fingers in front of Daehyun’s face when he noticed he was dozing off.

Daehyun bat his eyelids at the man. He didn’t know why but the man seemed trustworthy so he decided to tell him, “Can you advise me well?”

The man nodded his head, “I’ll try my best, son.”

Daehyun began his story, “I’ve made the girl that I love despise me. I know everything happens is totally my fault and I can’t blame her for anything but why is she always avoiding me whenever I’m trying to talk to her? It has been days and she doesn’t even bother to look at me anymore, try to talk to me. Back then, I was the cold one but it seems like everything has twisted. She begins to lose her brightness and she has becoming a completely different person. She is acting so cold nowadays, not just to me, but her best friend and everyone around.”

“What exactly happens?” the man asked after Daehyun stopped for a while.

“I don’t know where to begin with this,” Daehyun thought.

“Just begin with whatever you feel comfortable to tell,” he suggested.

“I… I lied to her. I’ve made a big lie which I shouldn’t do in the first place,” and his story continued about him being a cold person to everyone around, including her; about his being his disguised warrior just to protect her; also about his half-sibling who also loved the same girl and everything which he could tell.

Once Daehyun had finished his story, the man gave him some piece of advice, “You do realize that you shouldn’t lie to her, right? And I know now you’ve regretted it since she found out about you being her secret warrior on the wrong time and when you were not ready to tell at all, in conclusion, in an unexpected way. Some things happen out of our willing and some things happen unexpectedly but it can be either good or a bad one,”

“About this, I think the first thing that you need to do is to gain her attention so you can tell her from your perspective about why did you lie; why didn’t you want to know and everything. From what I understood, whenever she avoided you, you easily gave up and didn’t stop her and if you continue to act that way, things will be bottled up forever and the truth won’t come out,”

“As a man, you should stop lying to the girl that you love. She deserves to know and trust me, I think she’ll accept it sooner or later since you said she is such an angel, right? She might be hating you or she might not but it depends on the condition. I don’t think she actually hates you, but I think she needs time to think about this. She has to be apart from the world in a while because she wants to think what’s the best for her and finds out why this happens, why that happens, what should she do and everything. She is stuck between the voice of her heart and her mind,”

“So I don’t think you should be worrying so much. If you can keep up things well, then you won’t be having another problem if you tell her. For now, all you need to do is to tell. Tell her the main reason why you lied, tell her about your feelings! You should let everything out in once. If she doesn’t want to listen, make her listen to you but in a soft way,” he put a stop to his advice.

Daehyun felt impressed by the man’s advice for him. He was glad that he told him about his problems; at least he had a very good listener and adviser. “Thank you so much for the advice. I really appreciate it. At first, I didn’t think that you’d be such a great adviser.”

The man formed a small smile on his face as he replied, “My pleasure, young man. As someone who has been in every difficult situation, I think I should spare some of my advice to a youth like you sometimes. Well, it’s getting late now. I think my daughter has reached home already so I’ll be going now. I have a good time listening to your story and I hope you can solve your problems well. And good luck on confessing to her!” the man stood up from his seat as he patted Daehyun’s back for a few times before smiling for the one last time at the young man and taking his leave.

Daehyun smiled as his ears turned its colour to red. He was glad to meet a man that he thought was annoying but actually, he was capable of giving such great advices.

He threw himself on the bed and still had that lingering smile on his good-looking face.

“Go for it, Jung Daehyun!” he cheered for himself for the first time.