“How did Jake make you feel before?” asked Lacey.

I fidgeted in the plush seat, fixing my gaze on the dolls that were sitting by the window. Umma and Jake put me in therapy, and this session Jake was supposed to be here too for the first time.

“He talked to me like I was dumb,” I said. “It made me feel sad.”

“Did it make you feel unimportant?”

I snuck a quick glance at Jake, who was staring at me and switched my gaze back at the dolls, especially the one with red hair. I had red hair now too. I didn’t want to blonde anymore. It made me look so innocent.

“Yeah.”

“Oh buddy-“

“Jake, it’s not your turn to speak,” said Lacey.

“See this is what I mean,” I said grumpily. “I hate it when you call me names like that. I want you to call me Taemin. My name is Taemin!”

Jake looked stunned. “Okay. I didn’t know you didn’t like that. Why didn’t you just tell me before?”

I stayed silent, staring at my shoes now. Ever since that day with Mr. Choi, I didn’t like talking that much anymore.

“Jake, are you going to change that? Taemin just told us that you make him feel unimportant. What are you going to do?”

“Um,” said Jake. “I’d do whatever you want me to, Taemin. You are one of the most important people in my life. I try to care for you, but you don’t want me to.”

“No you don’t,” I said moodily. “You wouldn’t even call me your step son or anything that day in the supermarket.”

Jake sighed. “I knew it. Taemin, I was trying not to push boundaries… but if you want me to call you my stepson, I’d be happy to.”

“Jake also has something else he wants to ask you, doesn’t he?” prompted Lacey, smiling at Jake.

“Yeah, um,” said Jake as he wiped his hands on his jeans.  “You don’t have to think about this now, and don’t feel bad if you don’t want to, but you know, I was thinking…that I want to adopt you. You don’t have to change your last name or anything you can just be a hyphen like Lee-Gatman or something.”

I couldn’t stop staring at Jake now, my mouth hanging open. His knee was going up and down as he talked to me. He looked nervous.

“Do you really want to do that?” I whispered. “But… you don’t… you know. Love me.”

“Bud- I mean Taemin,” he said softly. “I really keep trying to show you that I do, but you don’t want to see it.”

“I didn’t know that,” I said, shocked.

“Well, now you do,” Jake said. “And I’m still working on it. If you want to work on it too.”

“Okay,” I blurted out.

“Okay to working on it?” asked Jake.

“Okay you can adopt me,” I said quickly. “If you still want to.”

All of a sudden Jake started smiling, hugging me to him tightly as I shyly hugged him back. I had never hugged Jake before, and it made me feel better.

“Of course I still want to,” he laughed as he messed up my hair.

“Congratulations!” said Lacey. “Why don’t you guys go celebrate?”

Jake took me to a Korean restaurant and surprised me with how he knew how to pronounce the words not so badly and use chopsticks.

And as we sat there, me watching him trying to mix up his food, I wondered why it had been so hard to get to this point.  Mr. Choi had broken me so much, and Lacey had said it might be a long time before I was okay again. Mr. Choi had really broken me. He had sawn me in half.

But I guess Jake was now the one to have to nail me back together. Dads do those sort of things, right?

Because finally, finally I had a dad. Even if he was annoying. Which I guess Dads are supposed to be. 

And I don’t feel that different anymore.

A/N

I'm so sorry that this story was probably a lot more anticlimatical than you thought!  I hope you enjoyed reading it nonetheless, and please check out my other stories, they're a lot longer!