“The stars look like they're so close, you could reach out and touch them. But you can't. Sometimes things look a lot closer than they are.” 
― Kami Garcia

5 Years Later.

“Kim ByulHee ! You better wake up now or I’ll get the water bucket ~” Chen called as he flipped the last egg he was frying in the frying pan. After making sure that the sunny-side up was cooked well to his liking, he transfered the egg into a plate and turned off the stove.

He took the plates that contained the breakfast he just made and brought them to the table. He placed the bacons, sausages, and eggs nicely on the dining table and also his and ByulHee’s plate. He even poured some orange juice into two glasses and placed them nicely on the table too.

He crossed his arms before nodding in satisfaction as he looked at the breakfast he prepared with a proud smile. The meal was a simple one but they were his daughter’s favorites. According to ByulHee, she had always loved her daddy’s cooking and despite the food was simple, she still loved them because her daddy cooked for her. 

Chen’s eyes then went to the empty seats and realized that his dear daughter was still curling herself up in bed, way deep in her slumber. He looked at the clock on the wall and shook his head with a sigh. “She is going to be late.” Chen said and walked towards ByulHee’s room.

He opened the door and yes, he was right. ByulHee was still sleeping oh-so soundly on her bed. Her hand was tugging on her blankets while her other hand was hugging her star-shaped plushie that Chen bought for her years ago.

Chen shook his head and walked towards ByulHee’s bed. “ByulHee-ah.” Chen called as he shook his daughter’s shoulder. “Hmm...” Was only ByulHee’s reply. She grabbed the comforter and covered her face with it.

“You’re going to be late, ByulHee. I’ve made breakfast. You don’t want to be late on your first day of school right ?” Chen asked as he kept on shaking ByulHee’s shoulder. He knew that way ByulHee will get irritated and she will wake up straight away.

“I don’t wanna go to school today.” ByulHee mumbled with eyes closed as she turned away from her father. Chen sighed again and tried to think of a way to get ByulHee out of her bed pronto. A smile then was plastered on his face as an idea crossed his mind.

With arms akimbo, he said playfully, “Well, if you don’t wake up now, you’ll definitely be late for school which means there is no point of going anymore if you’re late, isn’t it ? Hmm ... looks like we’ll have to cancel our stargazing tonight ~”

ByulHee immediately sat on her bed and looked at her father in disbelief, “You don’t mean that, right daddy ?” She asked with her eyes widened. Chen kept on holding back the urge of wanting to smile but he just kept on putting his poker face instead. His last words successfully managed to catch his daughter’s attention finally.

Chen simply lifted his shoulders and pretended to nod lazily. “Well ... we made a promise, didn’t we ? We will only star-gaze if you promise to be a good girl like going to school, do your homework, and things like that. You remember right ?”

ByulHee frowned very deeply at her father and slowly nodded her head in agreement. True, she and her father had made a promise a few years back that Chen will only allow her to star-gaze if only she promised to be a good girl and do as Chen told.

You might be wondering what was so special about this star-gazing thing to ByulHee. Actually, star-gazing was ByulHee’s favorite activity with her father. Every night or so, Chen will always bring her to a small playground nearby and the both of them will sit on the open field while looking at the stars together. Especially during the times when they were missing SuBin. The playground was chilly and windy at night that it was nice to just sit there. Chen often showed her the constellations on the sky and sometimes they would make some of their own. But ByulHee’s favorite part was when Chen would often repeat about his love story with SuBin, which was what ByulHee always loved to hear.

They always lied on the ground with the grass as their pillow under the ocean of stars and Chen would tell her all about his life with SuBin. Starting from how they met, how he tried to win SuBin’s heart until the last day of SuBin’s breath.

ByulHee will listen to every word of it until she slowly fell asleep. Chen’s story never bored her and she smiled all the time when Chen was bringing up the story again and again.

Now, back to the current situation, once ByulHee realized that her father really meant what he said, ByulHee quickly got up from her bed and entered the bathroom to wash up. Chen smiled a little before he left ByulHee’s room, knowing that his trick was successful. ByulHee was the girl that would do anything just to star-gaze at night and nothing can come through her way.

He went and took his seat at the dining table and after a few minutes, ByulHee appeared and quickly took the empty seat across her father. She grinned widely as Chen placed the breakfast he made on ByulHee’s plate. Her eyes widened in excitement and she clapped her hands happily before she started to eat her breakfast.

Chen only smiled and shook his head with his daughter’s attitude and joined her eating breakfast. It always amazed him how ByulHee always loved his food even though they were plain and simple. Let it be breakfast, sometimes lunch or even dinner. Since there were only the both of them in the house Chen didn’t cook anything fancy and just made do with what he had in the kitchen. He, in fact, felt very grateful that ByulHee was easy to be fed and ate everything he gave her.

“Daddy, can I go to your place after school ?” ByulHee asked as she munched on her sausage. Her eyes were sparkling and showed so much hope in her question to Chen. Her daddy raised one of his eyebrows and nodded his head with a smile. “Yeah, of course. But you’ve been to my place almost all the time. Don’t you have any friends to hang out with ?”

ByulHee shrugged and poked on her bacon. Her face no longer showed any interest in the conversation anymore when they touched about her ‘friends’. “I don’t want to hang out with them. I’d rather be at your place.” She simply answered and ate the whole piece of bacon.

Chen sighed a little before looking at his daughter with a sad smile, “You should hang out more with them, ByulHee. They’re girls and I’m sure there must be girls’ things that you will want to talk about. Surely you don’t prefer to talk about them with your old man here. Right ?”

ByulHee made a face at her daddy’s statement and crossed her arms. “Well, I’m sorry but I beg to differ. I’d rather talk to you then talking to them. Besides, what is there to talk about with just ‘girls’ ? I tell you everything and you seem to be fine with it.” ByulHee was determined with what she said and there seemed to be no hesitation in her voice.

True enough, she told Chen everything and there was nothing about her that Chen didn’t know. ByulHee had no secrets with Chen unlike some other children who did.

Chen was about to say something back but ByulHee cut him off with full of her last spoon of egg, “And if you think I should mingle with them just because I don’t really have any female influence in my life, well don’t forget we have Jung Ahjuma who lives next door. She has basically taught me everything I need to know about girls stuff. So I don’t need friends for that.”

Chen sighed and raised his hands in defeat. He knew he would never win an arguement with ByulHee. His daughter always had something to say in return, let it be logical or not. But most of the time, ByulHee twisted her words so well that sometimes Chen thought it was logical enough. Until he realized that he was trolled by his own daughter.