First installment of the oneshots of this AU is up~! :) This one is taken a few years before the beginning of the story, back when Iola was still in high school

Happy Reading~!

Iola sighed as she leaned back further on the tree’s bark, gaze still staring listlessly. Her thought was interrupted when a shout sounded from below her.

“Iola!”

She started, looking down only to see her father down below at the base of the tree she was perching on, looking at her with a small smile.

“Dad?”

“What are you doing up there?”

“Uhm…nothing.”

Her father had that look in his eyes that told her he knew she was lying and Iola grimaced, preparing herself for the questioning, but then he only smiled and waved her down. “Well then, why don’t you come down? I’m getting a crick looking up like this.”

Iola laughed as she began to carefully climb down the tree. “So why don’t you just come up then?”

He frowned even as his eyes twinkling merrily. “I may be the one who taught you to climb trees, but my old limbs are not what they used to be, I regret to say.”

Iola jumped down from the lowest branch with ease, looking up to him. Her father nodded with approval before making his way to sit down at the tree’s base, patting the ground besides him in invitation.

She quickly made her way, jostling his shoulder as she plopped down on the ground, and laughed slightly when he bumped her back. They spend several minutes in silence before he cleared his throat.

“So….your mother told me you looked rather upset when you came home from school.”

Iola just shrugged, twirling some fallen leaves around with her fingers. “It was nothing.”

Her father hummed before looking up to the tree, its thick leaves giving a cool shade against the slowly dimming sunlight. Iola realized with a start that the sun was already setting, meaning she had been here for hours. That would explain her father’s presence too; he must’ve come over looking for her the moment he got home.

“How did you know I was here, anyway?”

Her father scoffed, again bumping her shoulder. “Of course I would know you’d be here; where else would you be beside on your private sanctuary?”

Iola grinned. This tree has been her special place since she was small, ever since her father brought her and her brothers to the park near their home for the first time. Located on a small hill almost at the back of the park, it lay just behind the other cluster of trees.

It wasn’t as big or as tall as the other trees, but she’d always prefer this one because the branches were thick and sturdy and it gave her easy leverage to climb higher than if she’d try it with other trees. None of her brothers shared her affinity of climbing trees, and she’d claimed this place as her own, spending many joyous afternoons at the top branches with her father as a kid.

He nudged her again now. “And I also know that you always like to come here when you have something on your mind. So….mind telling your old man what’s up?”

Iola fidgeted in her seat, fingers twirling nervously in her lap. “I….really, it’s nothing, Dad.”

She didn’t have to turn to see the expression of disbelief that was on her father’s face. “Really? Nothing’s bothering you at all?”

“…no.”

“School’s going well?”

“Yes.”

“No difficult lesson or something?”

“None.”

“What about your extracurricular clubs, nothing there?”

“No.”

Iola glanced up to see her father tapping his nose in thought, a trait she’d adopt from him.

“Is it boy trouble then, someone bothering you? Should I send your brothers to teach this guy a lesson?”

“Dad!”

Iola blanched and shuddered as her father chuckled. “No, I’m not having boy trouble! And please, don’t mention any boy near Yunho and Changmin; I still have nightmares of them launching the Spanish Inquisition on my first date.”

Her father had a fond faraway look in his eyes, an amused smile quirking his mouth. “Ah yes….that was a wonderful time.”

“Wonderful for you maybe, Dad, I’m sure that poor guy would think otherwise.”

He only shrugged easily. “Well, any boy who wants to date you should have to go through your brothers first.”

“I thought it’s the fathers who are going to threaten their daughter’s dates,” Iola grumbled.

“Oh, they do. Just that in your case, I have extra backup with your brothers as the henchmen while I’m the big boss.”

“You just want to make my dates suffers.”

“Isn’t that what any fathers would do concerning their only daughter?”

Iola rolled her eyes. “I am never going to have any serious boyfriend, am I?”

“Not until you’re at least thirty, princess,” her father quickly retorted.

Iola glared at her father while he blinked innocently back, a twitch of a smile curling at the edge of their lips. She stared some more before breaking down first, laughter erupting from her, her father’s deeper and booming laugh following soon.

“Well then, now that we’ve established that it wasn’t a boy problem, so what’s really bothering you, dear? Hmm?” Her father asked, shoulders still shook with the residue of his laugh.

Iola bit her lips in thought as she stared at him. Her father looked on kindly, eyes patient and waiting, and Iola knew she could tell him anything.

“Today at lunch with my friends,” she replied slowly. “We started talking about what we want to do in the future, what we want to be.”

Iola frowned as she remembered her earlier conversations. “My friends have a lot of goals; one said she wants to study dance, the other wants to go into arts, another one wants to be a fashion designer, things like that. And I….I just sat there quietly.”

She looked away, her cheeks heated and flushed. “As we were talking about our future dreams and goals, I realized that I don’t know what I want do in my life.”

“…I see.”

That was the only response she got from her father and a few seconds was spent in tense as Iola purposefully looked away.

“Iola, dear, look at me."

Iola tried to stall, preferring not to see the disappointment she feared to see on his face. But her father kept on cal