Jyuni stood in front of her mirror, criticizing herself. Everything was wrong. Her hair was too long because her fathers wouldn’t let her cut it. She looked too much Daddy. She would have killed to look like her Dada; like Hyobin. Even her younger brother Changmin was prettier than she was. It was like everyone else in her family up all the pretty and left her with Daddy’s masculine features.

 

And to make it all worse, she hated the dress she was wearing. Dada warned her that yellow wasn’t the best color for her. She was too tanned for such a pale color. Stupid cousin having to have a wedding and ruining Jyuni’s life.

 

“Jyuni? Are you ready?” Jaejoong knocked on his daughter’s door softly.

 

“No. I don’t want to go. I… Uhm, I’m not feeling well.”

 

Jaejoong hesitated before pushing the door open. He respected Jyuni’s privacy, but if she wasn’t feeling well he had to check on her. “Can I come in for a moment?”

 

“I guess…”

 

“Jyuni-Bug, what’s wrong?” Jaejoong sat on the edge of her bed. He really didn’t know how to handle his 15 year old daughter; her moods seemed to sway much too quickly. This was all very new to him.

 

“I’m not five anymore. You can stop with the Jyuni-Bug stuff.” Jyuni huffed.

 

“Okay. That doesn’t really answer the question ‘what’s wrong’, but we can work from there.”

 

“I look awful! I’m too dark, my hair my skin. I look terrible in this dress!” Jyuni wailed.

 

“Jyuni, you’re beautiful. You have your Daddy’s skin and that’s beautiful.”

 

“All my friends are pale like you. And like Hyobin. I’m ugly.” Jyuni slumped into the chair in front of her vanity table.

 

“You’re very pretty. You look a lot like your Daddy. You have my eyes though and my hair.”

 

“I hate my hair. I want to cut it. Look at me in this dress. I look stupid.”

 

Jaejoong went to Jyuni’s closet and dug through it. Shoved in the back he found it; the dress he had originally wanted her to wear. The dress was dark blue with a halter top and wide lace edging the bottom. “Change into this and then I’ll do your hair and make up. Unless you really don’t want to go. I’ll bring you back a piece of cake.”

 

Jyuni huffed and snatched the dress from Jaejoong. She changed quickly and sat back down in the chair. She hated that dress.

 

“Don’t pout, Jyuni.”

 

“I feel like it. I’m ugly.”  Jyuni’s eyes felt hot with tears. She blinked away the tears. She hated the way she looked. She hated the way she felt about herself.

 

“You look like Daddy,” Jaejoong said again. He picked up her brush and brushed his daughters hair slowly.

 

“I wish I looked like you. You’re pretty. My jaw is too strong. Can I get plastic surgery?”

 

“No. Not until you’re out of this house and living on your own. I told you, you have my eyes and my hair. Daddy’s hair is much more coarse than ours. Ours is so silky.”

 

“I have that stupid mole on my lip like Daddy too. It’s ugly.”

 

“It gives your face character.” Jaejoong tried to put his daughter at ease. She really was lovely in his eyes. The older she got the more she looked like Yunho.

 

“Can I cut my hair?” Jyuni asked hopefully.

 

“How short?” Jaejoong asked.

 

“Pixie cut?” Jyuni asked hopefully.

 

“No. We can go shoulder length. I’ll bring you to the salon tomorrow.” Jaejoong braided Jyuni’s hair and pulled up a chair. Most of the time Jaejoong complained that he had eight older sisters, but it gave him time to bond with his oldest child. He was an expert at applying make up at this point. “You know, Jyuni, you have flawless skin. I don’t know why you pile on the foundation. Just use a little bit to even out your color.”

 

“How can I be get lighter skin?”

 

“You can’t. Not really. This is genetics. You know there are women in the world who pay thousands of dollars to get skin like yours.”

 

“I don’t care.” Jyuni rested her hand on Jaejoong’s arm and sneered.

 

“Why are you so worried about this Jyuni-Bug. I mean, Jyuni. Just Jyuni.”

 

“Just something Yuri said.”

 

Jaejoong smiled knowingly. “What did Yuri say?”

 

“That boys only liked pretty, pale girls and no man could ever love such a mannish girl like me. But, Dada…” Jyuni trailed off.

 

“But what?” Jaejoong was terrified this was going to turn into ‘The Talk’. They had these conversations with Jyuni before. Where do babies come from? Proper safety. Those kinds of things. And he knew Jyuni’s school had a very thorough -ed. But he wasn’t prepared to talk about his daughter’s life. He prayed his daughter didn’t have a life. Though, he didn’t want to be hypocritical. He was younger than she was the first time he was with a man. And he did have her at 18. He tried to keep an open mind.

 

“I don’t think I like boys.”

 

“Oh thank god!” Jaejoong breathed a sigh of relief. Jyuni looked crushed. “Jyuni, don’t be sad. I thought this was going in a different direction. Why don’t you think you like boys?”

 

“There’s a new girl in school. No one really likes her, but I think she’s fascinating. She’s from America, but she’s Chinese. Her Korean is okay. I try to talk to her in English.”

 

“Does she like girls?”

 

“I don’t know. She’s a tomboy, but other than that she flirts with the boys a lot.”

 

“Well, how about we have her over for dinner? I’m sure that will be a special treat for everyone. Just don’t be upset if she doesn’t like you the way you like her.”

 

“How did you know you loved Daddy?”

 

Jaejoong was taken aback by his daughter’s question. Maybe because he never really thought about it before. Maybe because it was so long ago that he declared his feelings for Yunho.

 

“I really don’t know. I guess the moment I saw him I just knew.”

 

“How did you and Daddy meet? You guys never talk about your lives before you had me.”

 

“That’s because we don’t ever think about it, I guess.” Jaejoong caressed his daughter’s face. “Let’s see, I met your father in high school. I had skipped a crazy amount of grades and was the youngest junior in the school. I was in all the AP classes. Yunho, not so much. He stopped this guy from hitting me one day. I don’t even think he actually looked at me. He just saw a guy picking on someone smaller and younger. So, I begged my parents to let me test out of AP calculus. I hated calculus anyway. The only other class offered at that time was senior gym.”

 

“Did Daddy ask you out right away?” Jyuni smiled. She loved hearing stories of when her parents were young. They rarely talked about it.

 

“No. I had to throw myself at him, literally. We were playing basketball in class and I tripped and fell into him. I ended up with lots of bruises that year. Almost broke my wrist.”

 

“Dada, you were stupid. You always tell us not to change ourselves for a person. You’re a nerd! And you tried to be a jock.”

 

“I was stupid. But I didn’t care. And we know you are going to be stupid too. And we also know it’s okay to be stupid sometimes. Just not all the time.”

 

“So you and Daddy started dating when you were 14?”

 

“No. He made us wait until I was 16. He was 20. It was hard, because it was long distance for  a while. Then we went to Paris together.”

 

Jaejoong grew silent. This part Jyuni knew. Her Dada was only 18 when she was born. She knew she was conceived in Paris and she knew after they were married Jaejoong came home to have her. Yunho had to stay in Paris to complete his internship. She also knew it was hard for Dada at first.

 

“I’m sorry, Dada,” Jyuni whispered.

 

“For what, Jyuni-Bug?”

 

“I don’t know.” Jyuni hung her head. She didn’t know why she was sorry, but she just was. She knew her birth had been hard on Jaejoong. And she had vague memories of Jaejoong looking at her and crying.

 

“Jyuni-Bug, nothing that happened in the past was your fault. I love you so much. And I would trade you for the world. If I had the chance to go back in time, I wouldn’t change a thing.” Jaejoong wrapped his arms around Jyuni’s shoulders. “Don’t cry, my baby. You’re gonna ruin your make up.”

 

Jaejoong turned Jyuni so she could see herself in the mirror. Jyuni gasped. She didn’t know how Dada did it, but her made her look beautiful.

 

“Thanks Dada.”

 

“Jae! Jyuni! We’re gonna be late!” Yunho called up the stairs.

 

Jaejoong and Jyuni turned to each other and laughed. 

 

“Dada?”

 

“Yes, Jyuni-Bug?”

 

“You won’t tell Daddy about Amber yet, will you? I don’t think I’m ready to talk to him about it.”

 

“Of course not. This will be our secret. For now.”

 

Jyuni got more from Jaejoong than she realized. She had is eyes and his hair and his laugh.

 

And most importantly, she had his great capacity to love.

 

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I think I'm getting better at this short thing. ^__^ This one is only 1,574 words. I know this isn't excatly what everyone wanted, but I am working on a baby Jyuni and Jae story. I promise.

 

Also, I write these and post them. I tried to do basic editing, but I pretty much post these raw, so... Mistakes are made... And I'm sorry.