“Haru! Everything is ready to make hamburgers! Do you want to help?” Hyukjae called from the open-plan modern kitchen where he was putting all the ingredients on the counter.

Hyukjae came back from his business trip the previous day and had asked the cleaning lady, who was in charge of him at his family mansion when he was a child, to put Haru’s room back in order, to air it and change the bed sheets for Tororo one’s, his daughter’s favorite. Then finally she had to make sure that everything was supplied in the apartment except for…the refrigerator.

One of the things Haru loved to do was grocery shopping because she could supervise everything that was bought and also add two or three (or ten) articles in the shopping cart….Something that Hyukjae totally loathed and was done by his old cleaning lady. But it was an opportunity for him to have a bonding time with his daughter. He loved hearing her tinkling laugh through the maze of the store when he would throw to her the packages of candies and instant noodles.

That reminded him there were a time, not long ago, when he was playful and careless as well.

Therefore, right after she arrived in the morning and had put her luggages in her room colored in pastel tones, the father and daughter went to the supermarket, with the shopping cart (and Haru standing in it like a true captain in a mission) ready to deal with the sections of the store.

And the first thing they bought was all that were needed to cook hamburgers, like every time Haru come at her daddy’s. It became their « tradition ».

Hyukjae didn’t know how to cook. In fact he has never learnt (and the little he tried had turned into a catastrophe) and he had never needed to. Born in a rich family, he always had someone to serve him and, later, someone else was enjoying concocting lovely little meals for him. Of course, Donghae had never been a cooking chef but he has always been dedicated and made sure that Hyukjae and later Haru were always full.

But since two years, he couldn’t enjoy anymore delicious homemade meals so he had to content himself with restaurants more or less famous (when he was working) and delivered food (when he was home). That was his routine.

However, he wanted to make efforts when Haru came over. So even if hamburgers were far from being a meal of quality cuisine, it was at least something they could do together. And that was the most important.

Hyukjae called his daughter again who came from her bedroom jogging happily with a book about London in hands.

Hyukjae was traveling around the world for business and he never failed to bring gifts to his daughter from each one of his trips. He started with plushies when she was a baby, then when he noticed her adoration for snow, he would bring her small snow globes, often about a landscape or a cartoon character. The little girl was always amazed looking at the falling snow. And since Haru became old enough to turn pages, comment images and even read (that she did quite early), her father did his best to bring her books about the city or the country he was visiting in order to satisfy her overflowing curiosity. But the book was always accompanied with a snow globe (because Haru was collecting them, because wooow a bit of snow during summer was pretty cool and it was nice in her room you know?).

Moreover, when Haru learnt the meaning of her name in Japanese (it means « spring ») when her parents explained to her why she was named Haru, she thought she should have been named Fuyu (winter in Japanese) because of her love for snow.

But like her fathers, she found Haru prettier and more harmonious.

Also, she felt so proud of the story behind the choice of her name.

The tiny girl had trouble getting on the bar chair because of her small height so Hyukjae walked around the counter to help her. Haru thanked him with a big smile when her father tenderly ruffled her hair before going back to the stove. She put her book aside while looking with envy at the ingredients on the kitchen counter. Her daddy gave her the hamburger buns, the cheese and tomatoes already cut.

He took care of the steaks while chatting with her, trying to catch up the month he was not with his princess. They had a lot of things to discuss about.

“How about your presentation on the volcanos? What did the teacher say about it?”

“Seriously Daddy, what do you think?”

Hyukjae took his eyes off the frying pan and quirked his eyebrows towards his daughter who was wearing a huge proud grin on her face.

“You got a gold star, right?”

The gold star was the best reward students could get thank to their school work or thanks to their behavior. And Haru kinda had a subscription to it. Since she was advanced for a girl of her age, she passed her class program easily and was a very active student.

“Daddy, I even had a silver star. Do you realize? A silver star!!! We only get it when we are one grade higher” she exclaimed excited, clapping her hands

He immediately left the stove to take his daughter in his arms and give her a big hug.

“That’s my girl! I’m so so so proud of you sweetheart!!” the blond man congratulated her while kissing the crown of her head many times, making the little girl laugh.

“Daddy, I should share my star with you, you helped me a lot for the project and you explained everything to me.”

“And you understood everything the first time!” Hyukjae answered, pecking the tip of her impish nose. “I’m always happy to help you darling. Daddy must have been proud of you!”

Haru separated from her father’s loving hold and answered with a small pout:

“Daddy Hae had his eyes all wet and teary when I brought my star home. I even thought he was going to chock me with his hugs!! And he didn’t stop sniffling!! We put the star on the fridge and… ah wait!!”

Haru jumped from her high stool and ran to her room.

Hyukjae had a little smile when the sensibility of his ex-lover who was always highly sensitive when it come to their daughter, was mentioned. He had always taken things to heart and Hyukjae could perfectly imagine the scene, Donghae being all emotional about the silver star.

He felt a twinge of sadness when thinking about it.

In the past, Donghae always sent him messages, sometimes (often) meaningless, to share little moments with him, full with pride, joy or just sweet moments about things regarding Haru. There had been a time when just for that silver star reward, the brown-haired man would have flooded his email box or his kakaotalk, all hyper and excited, using capital letters, with a whole whack of hearts and emoticons to express how their daughter was amazing and perfect and “Oh Hyuk, a silver medal, this is awesome, our daughter is a genius!! We will have to put it on top of the Christmas tree. Not Haru of course huh! But the star!!” And hyukjae would have rolled his eyes just for the record on how silly his husband sounded but huge grin would have betrayed his fondness.

But that was before.

When they still were a family.

He snapped out of his thoughts when a shiny and glittery grey cardboard was agitated before his eyes (or at le