“Are you sure the ingredients are all here?” Mr. Jung asked the servants in the kitchen.

“Yes—sir.”

“Ok. You can leave now—I’ll handle this. It’s been a long time since I last cooked for Jessie—” he smiled.

As the servant left, she saw Jessica standing at the door, wondering whether or not to go into the kitchen to lend a hand.

“Miss—”

“Shh—” she whispered. She felt delighted as she stared at her clumsy dad whirling around wondering what’s the next step.

“Ouch—” she saw her dad biting his finger.

“Dad are you okay?” a sudden voice appearance of Jessica surprised her dad. She took his fingers up and had a close look. “Dad your finger’s bleeding—” When she realized her dad wasn’t answering anything, she looked up and noticed her dad was studying her, smiling.

“Why are you staring at me like that—It’s not funny.”

“Your expression is like a clown.” Her dad joked.

“Dad—”

He laughed. “You know I was joking, right?” He softly pulled her daughter over and gave her a hug. “It’s just that—my..baby girl has grown up and I hadn’t even realized that. I’m sorry Jessie—I wasn’t supposed to—”

Jessica broke it. “Dad—stop saying things like that—you know I wouldn’t be mad at you..it’s just that Aunt Nicole….” She stopped, trying to find words to continue.

“I understand Jessie—let’s not talk about things like that shall we?” he rubbed her shoulders. “Would you mind to assist me? I—uhh.”, he paused and looked at the mess at the table, “I can’t seem to do this alone.” He smiled shyly.

“Sure—”

“Do you remember the days when you kept nudging me and asked me to make you omelets? At that age, kids normally ate cookies or like something with cute packages. But you demanded for sandwiches, omelets, fries—” her dad stated.

“You like to make me embarrassed, don’t you?” Jessica laughed. “I remember when I poured the drinking water all over your head when you carried me when I was like, five—” Jessica cracked up.

“How would I forget that?”

Flashback

“Daddy? Why is your hair standing up?” little Jessica looked at her dad’s hair curiously when he carried her in his arms.

“I applied gel on my hair, sweetheart—” [ Let’s imagine her dad was a hot guy back then, :) ]

“I don’t like it—I don’t.” she shook her head like a little princess. “Can I make it flat?”

“What?”

Little mischievous Jessica poured the water in her bottle on her dad’s head, and laughing non-stop when she saw her dad’s look. Her dad let her down, “Jessie—” “Yes?” replied her with a kiddy tone. “How dare you do that to me?” he playfully chased after Jessica. Sweet moments they had.

End of Flashback

“Maybe we should do more things like we used to—” Jessica continued.

Mr. Jung glanced at her daughter and suddenly, he felt the presence of warmth. The warmth that he tried to get back before the relationship between her daughter and him changed. “As long as you want—” he answered.

/

“Oh food!” Sooyoung immediately ran over when she saw Jessica and her dad came in their direction. “Let me help you.” Instead, she wasn’t really helping; she was just smelling at it all the way.

“Yah Choi Sooyoung! Behave yourself!” yelled Taeyeon from the table.

“It looks good—” stated Yuri.

“Of course—I did help—”

“What did you help?” asked Yuri sarcastically.

“Uhh—slicing the beef and—mashing up the potatoes.”

“You called that “help”? Everyone can do it!”  added Hyoyeon.

“Yah you guys!”

Mr. Jung laughed. He loved watching them messing around and make his house feel affable.

/

“Mom—Don’t—don’t leave me—” Jessica was sleep talking when her dad walked pass her room. Since her door wasn’t closed and locked, he stepped into her room and sat by her side.

“Mom—”  he heard Jessica kept repeating the words. He wiped her sweat away and gave a peck on her forehead. He went back to his own room and sat on the couch which was facing out the window, as the moonlight shone through the glass and brightened the room. He put on his spectacles and looked at the family photo they took thirteen years ago, when Jessica was five and when Krystal was just two. They were on a vacation in California, they all looked overjoyed in the picture. And he thought it was just perfect—before everything changed.

Flashback

“Hayden, let’s bring Jess and Krys to the beach this weekend, shall we? Jess had been nagging me the whole day—” asked Mr. Jung as he came out from the bathroom. He took a step near and saw his wife checking through his cellphone.

“What is this?” She yelled with tears.

He snatched it back and realized it was a message from Nicole—a picture message which both of them were kissing.

“Hayden—I was. .I was just drunk. I was totally stressed that night! I’d been all day stressed out and when I came home we quarreled about unimportant issues—that annoyed me so I—went to the pub and I really didn’t know this was taken. I—”

“Stop it, Dav. Save it up—” she waved her hands up, “It’s enough—I’m leaving.”

“I didn’t keep in touch with her ever since then, Hayden—I’m sorry!” no matter how he showed her his guilt, his wife never seemed to take a look at him.

“I’m leaving with Krystal—” she said ill-temperedly.

“What are you talking about? Stop!” he grabbed her hands tightly and forced her to  look at him. “I told you I’m sorry! There’s no next time! Why are you knocking this family down? What about Jessie—”

“You were the one who destroyed us. You!” she screamed. “I trusted you. I did. And this is what I got at the end?” She held back, trying to calm herself down, “As for Jessie—I hope you take good care of her.”

/

“Dad—when is mom coming back? Where did she bring Krystal to? Dad?” asked little Jessica with her cute puppy eyes on.

“Jessie—” he turned his head back to look at his daughter since he was giving her a piggyback ride. “She’ll be back soon—she’s just busy over her work—”

“It’d been long—I haven’t seen Krystal for a long time too—”

“1, 2, 3! Let’s take off!” he tried to break up the topic by carrying Jessica on his arms and headed quickly to her room, he could sense that she was screaming and laughing happily at the same time. “One more time daddy!”

I’m sorry Jess. I’m not a good dad. Let’s hope you wouldn’t hate me when you found out everything.  He thought in his heart.

/

“Let go—Jessica’s coming back from school.” He tried to break the hug, looking annoyed.

“Dad! Why are you doing?” a 10-year-old Jessica was in dismay and couldn’t believe what she just saw. “I hate you!” she ran into her room and swiped everything from her table; threw the things her dad bought her, started sobbing between her knees as she sat on the floor and leaned against the wall.

End of Flashback

People just couldn’t travel back to the time they wanted. He thought.

/

Jessica was at class alone without her friends around.

To: Yuri

Why haven’t you guys arrived school? You kept me waiting!

She grabbed her phone and began to text. Within a second, her phone vibrated.

From: Yuri

Yah we’re coming! Just a minute okay? We’re walking towards our class now so be quiet! Stop nagging! (Sooyoung)

As she was laughing at what her friend typed, she heard footsteps. “I need to talk to you.” said Donghae. “Now.” He went over to Jessica’s place and gripped her hand, and led her to the schoolyard. “Yah let me go!” No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shove off his muscular hand.

“Isn’t that Sica?” Sunny pointed at them from a distance.

“So what do you want?” asked Jessica.

“3 minutes. Just 3 minutes. I need to explain to you.”

“Fine.”

“That annoying girl was actually my ex. And yes, that means we’re already over. I don’t know why she’d been acting like that! She’s just—nuts!” he groaned. “I warned her once so I’m sure that she wouldn’t dare to touch a single hair of you anymore.”

Jessica chuckled under her breath when she saw Donghae’s expression—that anxious look, that eagerness to try to make things out.

“Why are you explaining this to me? I’m not your girlfriend or—”

“Because I love you okay? I love you!” he wasn’t aware that he actually raised his volume and attracted other students. “I love you Sica! You get me?”