ONE AND ONLY ONE

People are gathering in a certain big house with black and white outfit. They look sad and gloomy. Some people are chatting to each other talking about the just died young man. He is young, very young, just 15 years old and he left the world in a tragic accident.

“Oppa...!!”

A girl cries over her so called oppa again and again. Her clothes wet already but she doesn’t mind one bit. She caresses the coffin and keeps crying.

“Jaejoong~sshi.... please calm down your daughter” an old woman speaks to another middle aged man and the later nods. She pitied the girl who cried her eyes out for an hour already.

He walks to the coffin and bends down to his daughter level. He makes her to face him and he smiles warmly.

“Sulli~ah….” He says gently and that just make her cries even more.

He hugs the fragile 14 years old girl into his embrace and kisses her top of head, “Stop crying baby…. Your Taemin oppa won’t be happy if she sees you like this….” He caresses his daughter hair and that somehow makes the girl calm a bit.

“Let’s move from here so they can bring Taemin to his rest” the girl just nodded in her father’s embrace and walks limply with him.

He sat them both on the couch far away from the mourning area. He holds his only daughter tightly in his embrace and keeps saying things to calm her.

“Believe me baby…. Your boyfriend will be happy in heaven. Your Taemin oppa is a good person” he makes her sees his face while saying that.

The girl shook his head weakly, “I love him so much appa….” She can’t control her tears anymore and cries again in her father’s embrace.

“Here….” He makes her face him again, “Listen to me Kim Sulli…. I know what you feel. I knew it very well. Move on baby…. I don’t ask you to move on immediately, take your time, I know it will be hard for you, but you’re alive and you have to live your life. I’m here to support you, your oppa is also there to cheer you up”

Sulli hugs her appa again and mumbles that she will try.

A month after Taemin’s death, finally Sulli is willing to go out from her hiding place, which is their family cottage in Busan. Jaejoong sent her there to make her calm. He is continuously driving from Seoul to Busan everyday to accompany his only daughter and makes sure that she is alright. Sulli feels uneasy to her father and finally after a month long, she asks her father to leave Busan, back to Seoul, back to her school.

“Is everything ready?” Jaejoong asks the girl who sits in the balcony facing the sea.

“Ne appa….” She smiles to her father and walks towards him.

“I miss this smile so much~~” Jaejoong pinches Sulli’s cheeks and the girl just laughs.

“Kajja..!!” He drags the girl’s arm to their Bentley and the employee bid them goodbye.

The drive to Seoul is quite. Jaejoong is focusing on the road while humming his favorite song, STILL. Sulli, on other hand, is watching his appa the whole time. In her eyes, her father is still the same Kim Jaejoong she knew years ago since she could remember. Even in his 40 years old, he doesn’t age at all. He is still the same flawless, beautiful and cheerful Jaejoong. She wonders how he can be this happy being a single daddy raising a daughter alone.

 “Appa….”

“Yes, baby?”

“Is it hard?”

Jaejoong frowns but still focusing on the road, “What is it?”

“Raising me alone”

He smiles and then sowed down the car. He looks at his daughter with that sweet smile and then shook his head.

“Nope! Not at all! It was the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life~ ^^ ”

Sulli smiles to him too, “Why don’t you want to marry again?”

Jaejoong just laughs on his girl’s question, “I live once, I fall in love once, I marry once, and then I die, also once”

“No way you’ll die twice appa!” she hits her father playfully on his arm.

“Oww!! You grew stronger my little girl. I should stop feeding you with milk! Look! You almost reach my height already. Aish….” Jaejoong rubs his arm and pouts.

“Appa~~” Sulli whines and rubs his appa’s arm, “It is not that hurt!”

“You tell me!” he raises his hand to hit his daughter’s arm but when he sees the girl closes her eyes he can’t help but giggles.

“Yah!!” she upset and pouts her lips just like Jaejoong.

Jaejoong laughs looking at his child once again, “You beautiful thing, stop pouting, you remind me of someone”

“I know…. It is umma, right?”

Jaejoong shook his head and still not looking at Sulli. She frowns and tittles her head.

“Eh? So who is it?” she asks, “You said you fall in love once and you also marry once, right?”

Jaejoong smiles, “Did I tell you that it has to be one person?”

Sulli widened his already big eyes and stares at his father, “You marry umma out of love?”

Jaejoong shook his head, “Not totally”

When Sulli want to ask more, the car stopped and she realizes that they are in front of their mansion.

Jaejoong looks at his daughter and smiles, “We’ll talk inside” and he exits from the car followed by Sulli tailing him from behind.

“Come to my private room when you’re ready putting your things” and he just walks casually to his private room leaving Sulli dumbfounded.

“He never allows anyone to enter his private room, not even umma. So he’s finally willing to share with me now?” she shrugs her shoulder and then following her father.

Once they are sitting face to face with each other, Jaejoong sighs heavily because he can feel the obvious tense between them. Sulli can’t stop looking at her surroundings. There are some photos that she believes is her father in teenager version. He looks really happy in the arms of another man. Not only one, but many of those.

“So….?” Sulli tries to break the ice and it seems worked, “I don’t know the guy over there,” she points to the biggest photo behind Jaejoong. It is a man framed in expensive wood. His smile, somehow reminds her to someone.

“Maybe it is just about the time you know” he smiles to her daughter, “He used to be my lover”

Sulli widened her eyes. No way!! Lover?!! Her ears must be deceiving her! “No….”

“Yes Sulli, that person is the one I fall in love with. The one and only one who stays in my heart. Jung Yunho”

Sulli shook her head in disbelieve, “Jung?!

“Yes…. Jung Yunho, brother of Jung Jihye, your mother” he closes his eyes to prevent himself from crying, “I did tell you that I know how you feel when you lost Taemin right? I said that not because I’m your father and I’m the one that understand about you so much, no…. I said that because I experienced it before. It is even worse than yours”

Sulli just sits there. Her heart crushed into pieces looking at the tears on her father’s face. As long as she remembers, her father never once cries in front of her. She thought that her father is a strong person, but there he is crying pathetically. She walks closer and hugs her father.

“Tell me appa….”