The right choice

'Grandma!' Yoni runs in her grandma's arms as quick at she enters the house. She really missed to be here.

'Grandma missed you, little cookie!' Mrs.Kwon hugs tightly her granddaughter. Jiyong looks at them and then goes to the couch, letting his body fall down.

It's been some days and now Yoni feels better. Tonight, his parents asked him to come with her for having dinner at their place.

'What's up son?' His father sits beside him and observes Jiyong dreamly expresion.

'I'm invisible for omma now, appa.' Jiyong scoffs and Mr. Kwon chuckles at him. Jiyong can tell it, his parents love Yoni and she loves them as well. He never saw his daughter laughing like this and smiling when she's with him at his home.

'Ah, Jiyong.. Did you come here too? I didn't know.' Mrs. Kwon jokes, still holding Yoni's little hand.

'Don't worry Ji, I told you she will see you someday.'

'I hope it's a joke, appa.'

'Well, since you decided to come, how about to go with your father and sit for dinner?' Mrs. Kwon says to him and without even letting him answer, she turns her full attention to Yoni again. 'Let's go sweetie. I've prepared all your favourite dishes.' and she leads the way to the table, helping Yoni to sit on the chair.

'I wonder when you'll prepare my all favourite dishes for one dinner too..' Jiyong says again to his mom, smiling lightly. Actually, it's not bothering him, but it is kind of surprising him that his daughter looks so happy.

'Stop being silly, Jiyong..' his mother rolls her eyes like she always does, making him smiles again.

During the dinner, his gaze never leaves his daughter who is sitting in front of him. Sometimes, she has a hard time using the chopsticks but she doesn't give up and still trying to hold them correctly. What Jiyong doesn't know is that Yoni is actually nervous to have him here... He never eats with her, and before living with him, when his parents invited him to dinner, he barely looked at her, acting like she wasn't there.

'When is the competition, Yoni-ah?' Mr. Kwon asked her.

'This Friday, grandpa. I will run faster than the other time.'

Now Jiyong remembers, Yoni loves to participate to running competitions. And how Youngbae told him, she always wins.

'Be careful, honey. We don't want you to get injured.'

'No, it's okay. I can do it.'

Ambitious.. She's ambitious, like her mother.When the dinner was over, Jiyong quickly stands up and goes up to the roof. Why hurts him this much to watch his daughter without mixing memories of Chaerin? He was silent, just listening to their conversations. And he knows, there's a lot of things about Yoni that he never realized. He didn't know what's her favourite dish, or her favourite sport. And now that he knows, he can't stop thinking about Chaerin.

He puts a cigarette out and smoke it, trying to calm himself down. 

Mrs. Kwon watched carefully her son and she knows that something is wrong. 

'Have I done something wrong?' Yoni asks her grandmother. Watching her daddy leaving like this made her wonder is something is wrong with her.

'Of course not.. I'm sure that daddy is just tired. Finish your dessert, grandma will be right back.' after caressing the girl's head, Mrs. Kwon went to the roof, knowing that Jiyong is here. And she was right.He was here, watching the lights of the houses and the black starts. 

'Omma..' Jiyong softly whispers, feeling her presence behind him.

'What's wrong Jiyong? Why do you have to act like this?' she's not scolding him, she only wants him to let out what's bothering him.

'It hurts to look at her. She remembers me a lot of Chaerin. She's like her, I swear that sometimes she says the same words as her.'

'This is nothing bad, stop being this cold to her.. You only make her feel bad about nothing.'

Jiyong keeps silent waiting for whatever his mother wants to tell him.

'We need to talk seriously about it.. I didn't want to say it to you but..'

'I'll take responsibility omma, don't worry about it.'

His mother sighs.. She knows that Jiyong is trying to take responsibility of his daughter, but it's not Yoni who she wants to talk about.

'Have you ever thought.. What will you do if Chaerin will never be back?'

What? Jiyong turns his head to look at his mother.. He can't believe it.. No, he doesn't want to believe it.

'You're still young.. You can't close your life like this.'

'Chaerin is not dead!' Jiyong almost shouts this time. His feelings are exploding like fireworks.. and it hurts him even more.

'Jiyong, let's be realistic now. You know that I want her to be here as much as you. If she was still staying at the public hospital she would have been declared dead time ago..'

'She is still breathing.. I heard it myself, she is still alive. Her heart is beating.'

His tears are falling now uncontrollably. When he decided to move her to the private clinic, he felt her weak breath.. and the beats of her heart. How in the earth wanted those doctors to declare her as dead? She's not...

'The doctors of the private clinic are attending her only because you pay them.. Last time I went there, they say that she would stay there forever and nothing will happen.. They don't give her any chance, her situation was the same for the last three years.'

'She's breathing...' Jiyong loses his words now. His mother feels his pain but he will have to move on someday. She starts to caress his back, comforting him.

'This is not enough, Jiyong.. We'll have to accept that maybe there's no way to see Chaerin again.' 

'I can't let her go so easily. She's not dead!' Not only his eyes are crying, but his soul too.. Chaerin is the love of his life, the only woman he wants to be with.

The truth is always hard to be accepted. Deep inside he has still a hope that maybe she will recover. 

'They've said.. She might die in a few years if her condition won't show any progress.' 

It's too hard for him to think about it right now.

'This is why I told you to keep your daughter close. She's the only thing you've got from Chaerin now.'

Jiyong lifts her head and cleans his tears when he feels another pair of eyes watching them from the door which was half open. It was Yoni.. did she hear their conversation? No, this can't be.
Yoni gets scared when she sees her father walking towards her. She let fall down a glass when her grandpa went to bathroom and cut her little hand, then she decided to go after her grandma to ask for help but then she found them talking. The girl knew that they was talking about her mom and she just stayed quiet listening to them.

'What have you heard?' Jiyong kneels down in front of her and asks roughly, looking at her with his strong gaze.

Before she could say anything, he speaks again.. this time, raising his voice.

'Tell me! What have you heard?'

'Daddy..' she feels like crying now. Seeing her father like this is really scaring her. Mrs. Kwon approaches them, making Jiyong to stand up.

'Jiyong stop! You're scaring her!'

'Why are you here?' ignoring his mother and his daughter's tears, he still asking when he saw the cut on her hand and the blood getting out.

'Go down to the living room, sweetie.' her grandma tells her and Yoni only nods and runs leaving the room. 

'Are you out of your mind? How can you shout at her like this? She's only a child..' 

'I don't want her to think that her mother can be dead..' Jiyong exhales, trying to calm himself down again. 

'This might be the truth..' Now his mother is angry at him.

'Look, Yoni believes that Chaerin will come back someday. She keeps her memories too close. Knowing that she may never be able to see her, will destroy her inside.' Jiyong tries to explain.. If this fact is painful for him, for Yoni will be even more painful..

'I have a last question for you Jiyong.. and think about it before opening your big mouth. Do you regret having Yoni?'

'What?'

Now, Jiyong is speechless.. Her question is strong enough. But, does him regret? He used to think that if Chaerin hadn't get pregnant, she would have been here now by his side. But.. they couldn't know what is going to happen. Then, Chaerin refused to abort their baby. He used to think.. it would be better for her to never get pregnant.
But does him regret having a daughter?
He thinks again.. like her mother said, she's the only thing he has from Chaerin, aside from the memories. But after this, Yoni comes into his mind. Her eyes, her smile, her soft voice, the sound of her little steps... 

'No, I don't.'

*****

'I met Jiyong some days ago.' Minzy tells Dara when they are on her house, talking about stuff. Dara puts out her cup of tea and looks at her cousin. 'He wasn't look so good..' 

'I meet him everyday. I tell you, since Chaerin fell into the comatose everything changed. Trust me, every single thing.' Dara says knowing how hard was for everybody to accept the fact that their friend is not with her anymore. 

'He's acting cold to everyone, especially to his daughter. I remember when she was born, Bae was telling him every day to go and see his baby but nothing.' 

'I'm sorry to hear that.. I understand him, you know, losing his love like this.. But this girl needs her father now.' 

Dara nods at her, knowing that Yoni had a hard time dealing with the world which was confused to her. The babies come to an age when they need parents. And if they don't have them close, they start to ask where are they. Then the feeli