"Dad? I-it's really you!" I quickly ran into his arms and gave a huge hug, not believing that we were actually touching because it had been so long since I'd last seen him in person. "I missed you so much!"

Dad embraced the hug as well, wrapping me in his strong protective arms that I missed being in. He kissed my temple before saying, "I missed you too, sport."

Ah, sport. I will always be fond of that nickname. 

I sobbed from excitement and an overwhelming feeling of happiness. I was elated to have my dad around. I couldn't even remember exactly when the last time I saw him had been, but that didn't matter. What mattered was the fact that my father had taken the time to surprise me with a visit on my birthday. I thought dating Minho was the best birthday gift today, but I think seeing my dad definitely tops the cake. 

I felt him loosen his hold and I took that as an opportunity to turn around to Daddy and Jonghyun with a big grin on my face. I sniffed and wiped my eyes before ecstatically saying, "Daddy, can you believe Dad is here?! Were you two in on this?" I joked, but my laughter died down as I saw the solemn look of despair on his face. 

My confusion only strengthened. I thought that maybe he was acting all weird to distract me and give Dad a chance to surprise me, but Daddy still looks sad. 

He disconnected eye contact to look pass me before gasping and  tearing up even more into Jonghyun's chest. I slowly turned around curious as to what Daddy saw. 

When I turned to look at Dad, I finally noticed that there were two people standing behind him. One was a woman and the other was a little girl. 

"Um...Dad?"

Before he could respond, the little girl ran up to me excitedly with a smile on her face and hugged my legs screaming, "Big brother!"

What? Who is this little girl? I know for a fact that I don't have a sister. And who is this woman standing behind my dad? 

"What-"

"Honey, go inside and play with the rest of the children. I'm sure you want cake," Dad interrupted to talk softly to this girl as he unattached her from my legs. 

Her eyes widened ecstatically. "Cake?" 

Dad gave her a smile. Not just any smile. He gave her the same endearing smile he used to give me when I was a child, when he was in my life more often than not. What is the connection with this little girl?

He nodded. "Yes, cake. Now go inside sweetie."

"Ok, daddy! Let's go, mommy!" 

And I froze. Daddy? Did she just call my dad daddy? No way can this be right. What kind of ery is this? Not only that. She also called this woman, the one standing too close the Dad, mommy. If she called the woman mommy and Dad daddy, then that must mean....... 

No. I refuse to believe- 

The little girl grabbed the woman's hand, her mommy, and dragged her inside of the house.

There was a dead silence as the woman and child disappeared into the house. No one knew what to say. No one even knew how to initiate a conversation right now. All that could be heard was the quiet sobs of Daddy crying into Jonghyun's chest. 

That was until Dad sighed, grabbing everyone's attention. "Taemin, let's talk in private-"

"Who was that woman? Who was that child and why did she call you daddy? Better yet, why did she call me her brother?"

"Son, it's about time you learned the truth, the real truth.....about the divorce."
 
My heart rate quickened, but this time it wasn't because of my infatuation with Minho. No. It was because I was afraid of the truth. Ever since the divorce, I had always wanted to know why my perfect family became not-so-perfect. My parents would always say they'll tell me when I'm older. Daddy would always say it's best that I wait for Dad to tell me. 

Now that the time has come, I'm scared. Not scared because I can't handle the truth, but scared because I think I may have already figured it out, and I don't want Dad to confirm it. Honestly, anything would be ok to hear about why the divorce failed: they fell out of love, they lost touch, one of them got into drugs, even if it was Jonghyun's fault. I could handle any of those situations as long as Dad doesn't say what it is that I'm thinking. 

Anything, but that. 

Dad continued, "I was waiting for a time I thought you were old enough to handle the truth. Kibum and I's situation isn't something a kid should be told. However, you're 16 now so..... Please let's just talk in private." 

I noticed his eyes darting passed me and that's when I finally realized it wasn't just us, Daddy, and Jonghyun present. It was my Jongin, Minho, my uncle, and my grandparents, who were looking at Dad with venom in their eyes. Now that I think about it, ever since the divorce, my grandparents and uncle have never spoken as highly about Dad as they used to. Did it have to do with the divorce?

I was so confused about the situation that I didn't even care who was around. I just wanted to know right then and there what the hell was going on. 

"No," I said firmly looking my dad in the eyes. "Tell me right here, right now.  I don't care who's listening. I just need to know, Dad."

"Taemin, please. This isn't the place-"

"Who was that woman?" I asked adamantly. "Why did that little girl call you daddy and me her big brother?" Dad went silent and it pissed me off because I was becoming very frustrated. "Just tell me! Say it right now!" My voice wavered. 

I usually don't yell at my dad because he has so much more authority over me than Daddy, but I was beginning to feel really antsy. 

My tears built up as I started to connect the dots in my head. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. I just needed to hear him say it because when he says it, then it's real. When he says it, my life as I know it is over. 

Before Dad could respond, I heard Daddy mumble in his sobs, "Why are you doing this, Jinki? This will break him. Why did you have to tell him this on his birthday?!" Daddy became more irate as he continued to talk as tears streamed down his face. 

"Kibum-"

"I can't ing stand you!" He interrupted Dad as he got out of Jonghyun's arms. "Why the are you doing this to our son?!" Jonghyun quickly grabbed ahold of Daddy with full force as he tried to escape Jonghyun's arms to charge at Dad. 

Dad quickly defended himself. "I'm sorry, Kibum, but he'd have to find out sooner than later. I thought that this would have been the best birthday gift he could receive. He'd been asking about the divorce ever since it happened, and now he'll get his answers. I just thought 16 was a great age to know-"

I interrupted, "Know what? Everyone keeps tiptoeing around the subject. Just tell me already, Dad. You can start with that lady. Who is she?"

He sighed, "I really don't think we should start the conversation this way."

I repeated with my arms crossed. "Who is she?"

"My wife."

There it was again. That dead silence that could make a person second-guess if they were deaf. 

His wife? Wife as in woman? Wife as in a female? What? I am so utterly confused. Last time I checked, Dad liked men. , he even married one. 

I let out a sarcastic chuckle. "You've got to be kidding me. Am I on Punk'd? You guys are so funny. Oh, I get it! You guys are pulling a birthday prank on me. Ok, you guys can stop now. Jokes over. " When I was met with silence, I softly asked Dad, "You are joking, right?"

"I'm not, Taemin. She's my wife."

"B-but, Dad.....this doesn't make any sense. You're gay. What are you saying-"

"It's complicated, Tae. I know, but that's why I wanted to talk about this when I thought you were mature enough to understand my situation. Also, that little girl, she's-"

"Don't. Don't you dare say what I think you're about to say. Please, don't!" Tears pooled into my eyes. "I'm your child, Dad. I'm your only child!"

"Taemin, she's your sister. She's six years old and-"

"Wait, what?" 

Six years old? My parents divorced about six years ago when I was 10. Now I'm sixteen with a six-year-old sister? This can't be right. It can't be because if I add up this up correctly, that little girl must have been born around the time Dad and Daddy were still married. 

But, that's not right. Dad is perfect. He's always been perfect. He would've never done anything to hurt Daddy in any way. He would've never did what I'm thinking he did....right?

As I connected the dots, my whole world came crashing down. I whispered. "You cheated." When he said nothing, it only further proved myself right. I yelled, "You're a liar and a cheat! You cheated on Daddy with a ing woman!" 

That had been the first time ever in my life that I'd cursed at my dad. He looked as if he wanted to comment on that, but I continued irately.

"Is this why you guys divorced? Because you cheated and got some woman knocked up? Huh? You know, I used to look up to you. You were my idol, Dad. You were the man I wanted to be when I grew up. When you and Daddy were together, you made everything seem so perfect. I thought my life was perfect. I thought you were perfect! I used to blame Jonghyun, day in and day out, for the divorce because I thought he was the cause of it. I thought he somehow swept Daddy off of his feet and caused him to leave you. But no! It was really your fault!"

My outburst seemed to throw everyone off guard, even myself, but I was livid and unapologetic. 

"Taemin, I-"

"And you really have the ing audacity to actually show up to my birthday party with the woman you cheated on Daddy with! Oh, wait it gets better. Not only did you do that, but you also felt the need to show up with your ing love child?! My so-called sister?!"

"Son, it wasn't my intention to upset you. And please stop cursing at me. I'm still your father and you're being disrespectful," he finished with a scolding finger. 

Oh, that got me. 

"You wanna talk about disrespect?! How about the fact that I haven't seen you in lord knows how long just to have you come back and throw this into my face? In the past months, I've only spoken to you through Skype and phone calls."

"Taemin, do you not think that this has been eating me up too?! It kills me to be away from you. It kills me even more knowing that I kept this secret from you for this long."

I scoffed, "Oh, and you expect me to believe that? Right now, I don't even know if I can believe anything you're saying. This whole time that you've been gone, were you really even at work? Were you really traveling so much that you couldn't see me? Or were you just over somewhere with your family playing daddy?"

"What?! No-"

I quickly cut him off as more tears collected in my eyes. "It makes perfect sense. I saw how you looked at that girl, my 'sister'. You love her and that woman way more than you could ever love me."

He reached out to hug me, but I pulled away, "That's not true, son."

"Then what is?! Where were you this whole time, Dad? Were you really working? Were you really traveling between countries for business trips? Or were you lying to me, saying you were at business meetings, but were really at home enjoying yourself with your new family?"

It was silent again, Jonghyun breaking the silence by saying, "Tell him the truth, Jinki. We've already been caught up in this mess for far too long. There is no sense in hiding anything from him anymore."

Dad sighed before looking at me again. "Yes and no. Yes, it's been true that I've been traveling for business meetings. We have many meetings in different countries as you already know, but something that I haven't told you is, yes,  I've been with my family as well. They usually tag along with me most of the time during my trips."

And just like that, any last hope that I had that my dad was still a good man was gone. He was no longer the adorable dad that could do no wrong. He was now the that turned my life around for the worst. 

" you." 

It came out quicker than I could catch it. It seemed to catch everyone off guard more than myself, the only sound being the gasp that came from my granny. And at that, I unleashed my anger one everyone I felt were involved and knew of this situation. 

" all of you! You all knew about this, didn't you? You knew about this secret family, the reason for the divorce, and all of the lies. Every last one of you knew of it and didn't tell me!" I yelled at the family members who were around, those only being my granny, uncle, parents, and Jonghyun. 

I looked at Daddy with the most hurt in my eyes. I whispered, "You, of all people, are the last person I thought would keep something like this away from me."

At that moment, I remembered that Minho and Jongin were still there. I glanced at Minho with tears in my eyes. I really hated for him to see me like this, so broken and weak. For s sake, we had just made our relationship official and now, this mess happened. 

Daddy quickly walked up to me, "I'm sorry, baby. I'm so sorry. I just didn't want to tell you without your dad present-"

"No, you just didn't want to ruin this perfect image of Dad that I had in my mind all my life. You knew about this situation all along and left me out of the loop. You're just as bad as him."

"Taemin, it's a long complicated story which is why I wasn't ready for you to find out yet-"

"So you would've just let me go about life naively believing that my dad is some angel?!"

"Taemin," this time it was my uncle Siwon speaking, "Please don't blame this on Kibum. He was just looking out for your best interest. Let's not forget that he was the victim. He was the one cheated on by your scumbag of a father-"

"What was that?!" Dad asked defensively. 

My uncle lightly pushed me out of the way to get in my dad's face. "You know damn well what I'm talking about. You know, you really have some ing nerve to show up here to little Taemin's birthday with this ! How did you think this was going to go?!"

"Hey, this is none of your business, Siwon."

"Anything involving my brother and nephew is my business. Honestly, you should be praising the ground Kibum walks on because he's the reason why I haven't kicked your already for what you did to this family-"

"You have no idea what's going on so I suggest you shut your damn mouth-"

Was I always this blind to the animosity that has been going on in my family?

"You know what? I'm kind of glad you ed up because my brother was able to find Jonghyun, a real man, who truly loves him. Not some pansy man who was too much of a to leave Kibum before things got too complicated. Seriously, you should've just stayed out of his life-"

"Hey! I loved Kibum with all of my life and I still do. I would die for this man! You think I don't know what I did was ed up?! I know it was. I beat myself up everyday that I'm reminded of it. And trust me, you're not the only one who's happy he found Jonghyun. I've even told him that myself. Jonghyun was able to love Kibum the way I wish I'd been able to. I agree that I was not the best man for him, but don't you ever in your ing life say I never loved Kibum!"

Uncle Siwon scoffed, "You sure have a funny way of showing it!"

"Kibum and I have had a long conversation about the situation-"

"The situation being your uality? The situation being the fact that you led my brother to believe that you were all for him, then out of the blue, you not only cheat on him, but you cheat on him with a woman? What, were you pretending be fully gay to make Kibum like you more?"

Dad grimaced, "Like I said, me and Kibum discussed this long ago and he understands my situation."

"Siwon," Daddy got my uncle's attention. "Just please stop. This is a sensitive topic for him and we are straying away from the real issue."

That only seemed to piss him off. "A sensitive topic for him? Kibummie, why are you still taking up for this ?! You know I've never liked him to begin with, but I put up with him for you. Then look at what happened, he left you with a broken heart. Mom and Dad thought he was a perfect son-in-law, but I always knew something was off. We fought so much back then because of this man, because you always chose him over me. Now you're telling me that even after this huge issue, you're still choosing him over me?!"

"I'm not choosing anyone, Siwon-"

"Could've fooled me."

"Siwon," Jonghyun piped in as he rubbed Daddy's lower back to calm him. "Please, Kibum's very fragile right now. He's been crying since before Jinki arrived."

"No offense, Jonghyun, but I'm trying to get answers. No one likes to talk, so I guess I gotta force answers out of people. Back to Jinki-"

"I'm done talking to you," my dad said as he tried to brush past my uncle get to me. 

However, my uncle pulled him back roughly my his shoulder. In turn, Dad roughly pushed my uncle away from him. Things were escalating quickly and when I saw a balled fist in the air, I just couldn't take it anymore. 

I was fed up with everything, and as the gathered tears poured onto my cheeks, I screamed, "JUST STOP IT! All of you! I hate this family, I hate my life, and I hate that I was even adopted!"

With that, I pushed myself passed Jongin and Minho, who were at the door entrance, and ran into the house. I ran passed the guests, who were confused on what was going on, all the way until I reached my room upstairs, quickly slamming and locking the door. Not even three seconds later, I heard pounding at my door, my name being the main sound leaving everyone's lips who were on the other side. 

I sat to the floor, trying to block out the pleas as tears streamed down my face. I cried more than I've ever cried in my entire life. 

What was my life? It was a lie. All of it. I honestly have no idea what my dad tried to accomplish today because everything turned to s. Maybe if I had listened like he asked to, I wouldn't be as confused as I am now. Though I got the gist of the problem, that being my dad cheated on Daddy, I'm still confused on his reasoning. 

At the moment, I don't care. All I can think about is the hurt and pain brought on by today. The only person I can think of wanting by my side is Minho. 

I cried even more thinking about his reaction to the situation. I could only hope that I hadn't chased him away with my messed up family. If he did leave me, who could blame him? 

My family's ed. 

My life is ed. 

I'm ed. 

Woo! I know it's a lot of drama and probably some confusion. I promise the situation with Kibum and Jinki will be explain thoroughly later on in the story, so no worries! Trust me, Jinki had a reason for bringing his wife and child with him for the big reveal, but like I said, things will be explain after the initial shock. 

Please leave comments ^.~