“Jinyoung? Is this your d-d-daughter?” You managed to get out.

He stood up as he carried the little girl in his arms. The way his eyes were fixed on her and the way his lips curved up said it all, "Yes, this is my daughter Sarang." His eyes studied his daughter’s features as if he still couldn't believe something so amazing could ever exist. Anyone could see that he was an utter fool for his daughter.

“You’re Halabeoji’s grandson??” Still trying to process all the new information. Usually it wasn't not big deal, people have kids, people have families, but because it was Jinyoung, for some reason it was hard to swallow.

“Yes, this is my grandson” Halabeoji smiled and gave loving pats to Jinyoung’s shoulder.

“Daddy!” Sarang interrupted, “She read ‘Rainbow Fish’ to me! Remember that book? You and mommy used to read it to me all the time?”

Memories of last night hit you, He’s married? But he danced with you. You felt a panic in your chest, did you dance with a married man last night?

“Y-you’re married?” You attempted to sound calm and cool. He switched his attention from his daughter to you.

“Oh no, Sarang’s mom and I separated a few years ago.” He answered quickly.

Ugh, why did you even ask that? You shouldn’t care anyways. You didn't care actually. You didn't.

“Daddy are we going to the park? Papa said he’s going too!” Sarang wrapped her little arms around her dad’s neck and bounced excitedly in his hold.

“Yeah it’s a nice day out and I need some fresh air, instead of being cooped up in this dusty bookstore.” said the elder man.

“Nora, would you like to join us?” Jinyoung asked you with a smile.

Yeah... no. That’s not going to happen. You needed to get away from this. You needed to clear your mind and sort your feelings, even though you had no feelings. Definitely not going.

“Mmmm N--"

“Come!” Sarang wiggled out of Jinyoung’s arm and walked over to you. She placed her tiny hands in yours and started pulling you, “Let’s go!” as she led everyone out the door.

---

You wanted to go to the bookstore to quietly distract yourself from any thoughts of Jinyoung, but there you sat on the blanket, at a park full of noisy kids and next to Jinyoung. You didn't even like kids. What is happening? you thought to yourself. You were in a total daze of confusion. Within 24 hours you did things you’d never ever do. Your thoughts were madly running around trying to figure out your emotions.

Jinyoung has a kid. You didn't like kids. But why would that even matter to you? It’s not like you wanted to be in a relationship with him anyways, right? Just that morning you thought you had to break the news to him that nothing further was going to happen between you two, but here he was chilling as if last night never happened and that irked you, that irked you a lot, but you have no reasons to be irked.

Jinyoung spoke up, breaking you from your thoughts. “She looks like me huh?” He asked without taking his eyes of Sarang on the playground with his grandfather.

“You can’t even deny that she’s not yours even if you wanted to.” You replied truthfully.

“What happened between you and her mom, if you don’t mind me asking?” As soon as you asked the question, a strange feeling of wanting to know and not wanting to know came over you.

“Mmm… We started dating third year of High School. We were in our first year of college when she got pregnant. We’ve talked about kids and marriage before,” a sudden pang hit your chest, “but we didn’t plan on doing all that until we were settled into our career. We both wanted to keep her. We knew it would be a challenge, but to us there were no other options. However when Sarang was 1, we were both busy with work, school and taking turns taking care of Sarang, we barely saw each other so naturally we just grew apart.”

“Where is her mom now?” you asked out of curiosity.

“She received a really good internship in England for the summer. So Halabeoji agreed to help me with Sarang until she comes back.”

“Oh, that’s sweet of Halabeoji. It seems like you and her mom are on good terms, so that’s cool, you don’t see that a lot with separated parents.”

“Yeah, even though we separated when Sarang was still a baby, we agreed to try our best not to have Sarang be affected negatively by us not being together. Also, because of our love for Sarang and that we’re both understanding people, it made it easier to remain good friends.”

You couldn’t say anything, so you just nod. For the first time since you met Jinyoung, that was the most he’d ever shared with you. It’s like seeing him in a new light, a brighter light. Each time he looked at his daughter or spoke of her, his face just glowed.

A smile formed when you saw Sarang giggling and running happily towards you guys as Halabeoji followed behind her. Just then, she tripped and lurched forward, her hands shot out to stop her fall and landed on her knees. You two bolted up instantly and ran to her. Before you both reached her, she hopped back up and as if the fall didn’t faze her and kept her smile.

“Sarang! Are you OK?!” Jinyoung gasped as you both lowered yourselves to her level.

“I’m OK Daddy!” She replied with an assuring smile.

Jinyoung clicked his tongue, “Aww, My Saran