“Do you have anything you want to eat, Dannie?” Taemin asks as he drives his car to somewhere. I look back to check Dannie on the backseat. She’s thinking about it. “Chicken? Grilled pork? Tell me.”

“Hmm… I like Grilled pork.” Dannie answers with a smile. This makes Taemin’s eyes widen in delight. I look at him beside me and he’s excited.

“Are you asking her for anything that she likes or are you asking her to like what you like?” I ask him and he only glances at me, trying hard not to be affected by my remark.

Few minutes later, we arrive at the restaurant which is only two blocks away from Seoul Shopping Centre. As Taemin hops off the car, he immediately opens the door for Dannie, so I open my own door and see them as he holds Dannie’s hand and they walk together.

Somehow, I could feel Dannie’s gladness just by looking at her brightened expression. This feeling is new to her – having a father figure to stand beside and hold her hand to lead her. Dan Mi’s husband died when Dannie was very little. I don’t think she still remembers any scene of her real father walking with her like this.

They go ahead inside and I follow, silently watching the two. It’s actually more convenient like this. Taemin being sweet and caring to Dannie means we don’t need to act towards each other that much. Though it’s really weird seeing such guy be like this over a child, I kind of understand where he’s coming from. Taemin is an orphan, and that’s an unspoken truth between us. He probably can relate to Dannie, so he knows better how to treat her, how to get her move on really fast and start a new life with us.

“Sir.” One of the staff gives a slight salute to Taemin and he only nods. I see other staff doing the same. Maybe he’s a frequent customer.

We sit on a table for three and a staff immediately hands us the menu list. Taemin gives his to Dannie. “Choose anything you like from there, sweetie.” He says and Dannie follows attentively. I can only smile behind the menu list, but that quickly hides when he looks at me. “Anything you like?”

“Let’s go for Dannie’s choice.” I say and put the menu down. She looks at the both of us, wondering if we’re sure about giving her the right to decide for what we’re going to eat. “Go. You choose for us.” I smile and though she looks a bit hesitant, she follows and starts looking over the list.

She chooses grilled pork, roasted chicken, and Spaghetti. “You like Spaghetti, right, mommy?” She looks at me and I smile. She remembers what I like and that’s so cute. “I order grilled pork for daddy.”

“And the roasted chicken?” Taemin asks.

“For the three of us.” She says.

“Well, what about what you like?”

“I like the three.” She says simply which makes the both of us chuckle slightly.

“Sure, babe, but you need to eat a lot, okay?” Taemin asks to which Dannie responds with a continuous enthusiastic nod.

While waiting for the foods to be served, someone approaches Taemin and hands him an envelope. He looks up, not getting it from the staff. “What’s this?” He asks.

“The monthly financial report, sir.”

To that, Taemin raises and eyebrow, pushes it back to the staff and sighs. “I’m here to have a meal with my family, not to spend time going over that monthly report. Do you get it?”

“Oh yes, sir, I’m sorry.” He says and quickly apologizes.

“Fine, but remind them to serve our foods immediately.” He adds and the staff goes back in panic to the kitchen. Wait… he owns this?

I am about to ask when I realize it might be weird to ask it in front of Dannie. I should know about this thing already if I’m his wife, right? However, it seems like Taemin recognizes my confusion. He turns to Dannie and smiles. “Dannie-ah, daddy owns this restaurant.”

“Really? Wow…” Dannie expresses and immediately roams her eyes around the huge restaurant. It looks simple and comfortable, but the place has some class. They offer a lot of foods as how I see it in the menu list, and they are not that pricey.

“I own this together with four other friends.” He opens up and looks at me. “One of my hyungs, Kibum hyung, is a food enthusiast and a chef. He was the one who suggested this idea, and eventually, the rest of us agreed. There are two other doctors who are also our close friends: Jinki hyung who is a psychiatrist and Minho hyung who is a surgeon. The other one, Jonghyun-hyung, is already a human rights lawyer.”

Wow. Taemin’s friends are high class people. “Kibum? A chef?” I ask when I suddenly recall that name. “Is he the one who writes on food and culinary magazines?”

He nods. “He is.”

I know his writings are always filled with details about the food. He writes well. I guess it’s because of his love for food in reality.

“Dr. Jinki and Dr. Minho are the ones who gave me snacks in the orphanage before.” Dannie recalls, too.

“Yes, darling. They are those doctors. They’re daddy’s close friends. I’ll introduce you to them one of these days, okay? You’ll like them.” He seems excited about telling Dannie about his friends.

Seriously, I think I really don’t know much about Lee Taemin at all. He’s busy with his clinic. He goes and works in a hospital, too, and then he has this business with his friends. What else does he have? I’m so curious, yeah.

The foods are served in the middle of the conversation. We all start eating, and I notice how they serve in such huge amount here. It’s not like any other luxurious restaurants which food prices are same as gold but they serve as little as a bite of chocolate ball.

We eat silently, but it’s obvious that Dannie is enjoying the food as much as I do. Taemin smiles at the sight of Dannie eating healthily. I know what he is thinking. It won’t be too hard to bring Dannie back to her healthy self. This setup will greatly help get Dannie better both physically and emotionally.

“After this, you should go shop for new clothes and things with mommy.” Taemin tells Dannie after some minutes. I figure out he’s done eating and he’s now wiping his mouth with napkin. I look at him. I believe we have an arrangement this morning that we’ll do it together with Dannie. But why is he only referring to me?

“Aren’t you going with us?” I say right away, clearing off my curiosity once and for all. He sighs, looks at me and nods as if he is forced to do it. “Something came up?”

“No. Not at all. There are just few patients who called in the office and arranged an appointment with me. I need to be there to see the kids and their parents.” He says and looks at Dannie. That time, we notice how her expression quickly changes. It’s the first time for today that we see her wearing a not so happy face. “Dannie, what’s wrong?” Taemin asks to which Dannie quickly shakes her head and tries to smile.

“Nothing, daddy.” She says and flashes another reassuring smile towards him. “You must go there because the kids need you, right? I heard from one of the ahjumma’s in the orphanage that your job is to treat sick babies and kids. So you must go to your clinic to treat them and make sure they will be well.” She says but it’s already obvious that she’s only trying to make herself feel better.

“You don’t want me to leave?”

Dannie looks at me as if trying to seek help in answering his question. I smile and added, “You want to go shopping with daddy?”

“Yes, but…” She hesitates and shakes her head. “It’s okay, mommy.”

“It’s not okay if Dannie looks disappointed.” Taemin lets out a soft chuckle and takes his phone from his pocket. “Let’s see how we can fix this.”

I look at him as he starts typing on his phone as if searching for a name, then he brings it on his ears. He’s calling someone. We wait as he converses to the person on the other line.

“Yes, hyung, can you help me?” He probably notices we are looking at him so he excuses himself and stands up to walk somewhere a bit far from us.

As I try to think about it, is he going to ask for someone to take his place in the clinic for a while? Like be a temporary doctor because he will be busy at the moment. I glance at Dannie and sees her looking at Taemin who is at a distant. She looks at him with anticipation, and as if I could read what’s going in her mind, I can actually see how she wants to be with him for today. The entire day for today, maybe.

Hmm, maybe I really feel jealous. It’s a bit disappointing knowing Dannie wants him, too. So now that Taemin appears, Dannie becomes not only dependent on me, but to Taemin as well. As I try to think about it, I really think it has something to do with her not really having a father figure on the entire 6 years of her life. This feeling of having a father is new to her, and it’s nice knowing she considers it as a good thing.

And yeah, I have to commend Taemin for doing really well today. He’s so good to her. He treats her well and always converses to her with a smile, and upon seeing Dannie’s disappointed expression, it seems that Taemin is up on doing something that will cheer her up.

And yes, it really does cheer Dannie when Taemin comes back with a good news for her. 

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