He sneaked into Euna’s room later that night, but he took the opposite corner that their daughter was sandwiched between them. Yonghwa watched Seohyun protectively hugging Euna; despite her even breathing there was this hint of tension on her face even if she was sleeping. He hated the feeling that he was putting that on her beautiful face. He tried to reach out and embrace them both but he decided to keep his distance.

After that movie night, the world seemed to turn downhill for him. Seohyun caught on and he realized that it was really hard to keep something like this from her. If you only knew. He kept repeating that over and over in his head every time she would ignore him or deliberately passed him by. Yonghwa tried to reach out but he knew that there was no way Seohyun would let him off with a pass. She turned into one cold stone and he holds the power to thaw her but he will not just go to that easiest path. 

It was true—he had been neglecting her and it was finally dawning on him that this won’t be an easy feat but in the end, it would all be for her. Yonghwa fell asleep filled with the thought of that one day.

The familiar little whimpers woke him up easily like an automatic alarm. When Yonghwa sat up, he noticed that Seohyun was covered with the thick sheets so he carefully moved closer to the little girl who was now kicking her blanket off and crying softly.  He shushed her gently before it could wake her mother by soothing his hand on her arm.

“Appa’s here… ” Yonghwa pushed back the hair that was covering her face and whispered, “Come on, sweetheart.”

“Apppaaaa….” Euna croaked and tried to open her eyes.

Scooping her gently, he continued to murmur, “Shhh… Umma’s still sleeping. Come here…” Euna wrapped her arms around his shoulders then he carried her to the master bedroom to let her go back to sleep. 

Moments later, Yonghwa realized that he too has fallen asleep and when he opened his eyes, he found his daughter sitting up and looking around unfocused. “Good morning, sweetheart,” he smiled when Euna turned to him and dropped her face on his chest. Chuckling softly, he tapped her back, “Still sleeping?”

“Hmmm…” Euna mumbled shaking her head, “Umma, where?”

Yonghwa snickered realizing that she didn’t notice when he took her in the other room, “In your room—sleeping. We didn’t want to wake her.”

“’Kay…”

“Wanna go to the park with Appa?”

Her face lifted and she stared at him with those wide sleepy eyes, “Umma too?”

“She’s tired,” Yonghwa shook his head, “We should let her sleep some more.”

“’Kay…” Euna said again while she snuggled back on his chest.

Yonghwa chuckled and tried to push her off, “Get up now so we can wash and change.”

“Euna’s hungry…”

 “We’ll eat breakfast outside…”

Euna lifted herself up and grinned, “Let’s buy Umma breakfast too, ‘kay?”

“Sure, sweetheart,” he sighed because he knew Seohyun won’t be there anymore when they get home.

When Euna was in the bathroom, he sneaked back into their little girl’s room and sat on the edge of the mattress laid on the floor. Seohyun’s head was the only visible part of her body so he bended down and kissed her forehead then spoke softly, “Baby…”

Her even breathing was an enough response for Yonghwa to think that she was still sleeping. He kissed her again, this time on the side of her lips and ran a hand where her arm should be inside the sheets. For one moment, Yonghwa just sat there and watched her sleep praying for her to just forgive him. Brushing some strands off her cheek, he whispered tenderly hoping that she was just pretending to be asleep, “Just wait a little bit more, Hyun… just a little bit.”

But she was barely conscious of course, he would feel it if she was faking it. With heavy heart, he stood and found Euna by the doorway watching him. He smiled and walked to her, “How long have you been here?”

The little girl just shrugged and spread her arms, “Carry me, Appa…”

“Okay,” he chuckled softly as he picked her up and closed the door softly behind him.

~~~

“You’re driving her further away.”

Yonghwa winced with the sting of those words and the older woman was right so he nodded listlessly, “I know… I’m most afraid now that she might break up with me.”

Taeyeon laughed on the other line, “Then you should really be afraid.”

“Did she tell you that she would?” His eyes were focused on his little girl mutilating a panda-shaped pancake while making a monster sound but his mind whirled around with that single terrifying thought.

“Imma gonna eat your legs ‘cause I’m Monster Euna!” Euna roared unaware of her father’s dilemma.

“She didn’t need to. It’s written all over her face.”

“Now I think this isn’t a good idea,” he sighed because he had been seeing that face Taeyeon was talking about for the past weeks now.

“Hmmm… a year ago this was a good idea…” Taeyeon stressed on the other end of the line.

“Should I just stick to the conventional?”

“I suggest you stick to the plan. It’ll be worth it, you’ll see…”

It’ll be worth it. Yonghwa repeated that to himself, “I feel like I’m torturing her.”

Taeyeon let out another soft laugh, “You are but don’t worry, she’ll get what she wants in the end. Anyway, I have to go. Call me when you have the details.”

He nodded to himself, “I will. Thanks again for all the help.”

After Taeyeon hang up, he put his phone beside his plate and smiled at Euna who was then sipping her milk exaggeratingly loud. If her mom was around, she would surely get a good scolding. He smiled to himself, “Sweetheart, manners please.”

Euna gave him a cheeky smile. That settled for a couple of minutes that he even started with the bulgogi and rice in front of him. He needed to distract the little girl for a couple of hours until he was sure that Seohyun has left. It broke his heart to think that she was leaving with a heavy feeling and all because of something huge he was not telling her.

“Are you sad, Appa?”

His thoughts were halted with that question by her wide-eyed little panda. Yonghwa chuckled reaching out to wipe the sides of daughter’s lips, “No… I’m with Euna, how can Appa be sad?” The little girl just shrugged so he asked, “Do you think Appa is sad?”

“Uh-huh…” Euna nodded while scooping a dollop of honey and dropping the gooey liquid on her plate.

“Why is that?”

“Cause my mommy doesn’t smile at you…”

Yonghwa pushed his own plate and rested his arms on the table, “She doesn’t?”

“Uh-huh… she looks like this,” Euna made face and giggled when her appa laughed out loud.

“Okay, point taken,” Yonghwa muttered after laughing too hard. After all, Euna’s imitation of her mommy’s frown was just spot on. He now realized that the trouble his elaborate plan was creating was as clear as the morning sky that even their five year old innocent kid noticed. There was really no perfect time to go with it than the soonest so Yonghwa decided to extract every help he could get. Clearing his throat, he started, “Euna, I have a secret to tell you.”

“A secret?!” The little girl’s eyes widened.

He nodded, “Yeah, and umma doesn’t know about this— Umma shouldn’t know about this, so it’s only Euna and Appa.” The way his daughter’s eyes focused on him as if waiting for the real deal to be revealed was telling him it was a good idea to put her on his side. All he needed was to keep her excited about it so he furrowed his brows and looked at her seriously as if he was talking to a f