“Are you sure you can handle it?” Kang Mo Yeon put the hairbrush down on the vanity table and turned in her seat. “Maybe I should take the day off instead.”

Yoo Shi Jin lay in their bed, on his side, trying to read a book. Without even bothering to look up, he flipped a page and said, “We’ve already had this conversation. A thousand times over. I’ll be fine.”

“But—”

“You can’t take the day off anyway, you have to present at that conference tomorrow.”

“I can ask someone else to do it.”

“No, you can’t. And you know that. That’s why, from the beginning, we agreed I’d stay home tomorrow.”

“Then maybe I should tell my mom she should stay home tomorrow.”

“And ruin her plans?”

“I know, but—”

Shi Jin finally looked up from his book. “Yeobo, your mother does so much for us and rarely asks for anything.”

“That’s because she doesn’t have to when she has my credit card,” Mo Yeon pointed out.

Shi Jin gave his wife The Look. “She’s just asking for one day. One day to attend her high school reunion. I think we can do that for her; she deserves a break after all.”

“Maybe she could take Da Eun with her.”

“Would you want to take your daughter with you to your high school reunion? Be reasonable.”

“I know, you’re right. It’s just—”

Shi Jin snapped his book shut and sat up. “I can take care of Da Eun by myself tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’ve saved you from land mines, a car hanging off a cliff, and an arms dealer. And that’s not even the tip of the iceberg with what I’ve done at the department store. You don’t think I can handle one little girl by myself?”

“She’s not just any little girl,” Mo Yeon reminded him. “She’s Da Eun.”

#####

Yoo Da Eun was the younger of Yoo Shi Jin and Kang Mo Yeon’s two children. She was also the only girl between theirs and Seo Dae Young’s family, to whom they were very close. As a consequence, Da Eun was frequently spoiled even if she technically wasn’t the youngest child in the group. That honor belonged to Seo Dae Young’s youngest son. Within her own family, however, she was definitely the baby and she had everyone from older brother to parents and grandparents wrapped around her little finger. Da Eun knew it too.

Which was why, the next morning, when she wanted to wear her pink party dress to the playground and her father wouldn’t let her, she was not pleased.

“Da Eun-ah, think about it,” Shi Jin began. “What do you like to do at the playground? You like to play on the swings, right? And then there’s the slide! Oh, you love the slide. You also love the jungle gym. I remember the last time I took you to the playground, you were doing all sorts of flippy things around the jungle gym bars.” Shi Jin did some flippy finger motions to demonstrate what he was talking about. “Now imagine doing all that in your pink party dress. Your new pink party dress. Does that even make sense?”

Da Eun was sitting on the floor of the room she shared with her brother with her arms crossed, but at her father’s question, she scooted her bum around until her back was turned completely against him. She wasn’t even going to pretend to be interested in anything he had to say.

Shi Jin sighed. Now what?

“Da Eun, it’s not that I don’t want to let you wear your pink party dress. It’s just . . . think of what your eomma would say.” Yup, that’s right. They’d been going at it for half an hour already and Shi Jin was not above throwing his wife under the bus at this point. “Eomma would not be happy if she came home and found your dress dirty from the playground. She’d probably be mad. Do you want eomma to be mad? Shi Jin shook his shoulders in horror and pretended to be frightened. “Eomma is scary when she’s mad!”

But when even that failed to elicit a response from Da Eun, Shi Jin couldn’t help but be impressed. She was really good at this silent treatment stuff. He’d been responsible for training men who hadn’t been able to stay motionless or keep their silence for this long (and they’d been promptly weeded out of the Special Forces team, as a result).

It was time to try something new.

Shi Jin crouched to ground level and asked, “Da Eun-ah, can you tell appa why you want to wear your pink party dress so much?”

“Because it’s pretty,” she answered eventually.

Shi Jin nodded his head, as if giving the idea some thought. “That’s true. I can understand that. It is a very pretty dress,” he agreed. “But what if we wore it on a different day, for a different occasion? Like, one more suitable for a party dress?”

“But I want to wear it today.”

Shi Jin hung his head. They were back to square one.

Finally, an idea came to him. “I’ve got it. How about this? What if instead of wearing your pink party dress to the playground this morning, we save it for you to wear at home this afternoon?”

“But I want other people to be able to see my pretty dress!”

“And . . . they will!” Shi Jin said hurriedly, thinking on his feet. “We’ll throw a tea party with all your favorite stuffed animals in attendance. Won’t that be fun? It’ll be like a tea party with the princess. You’ll be the princess, I’ll be your servant, and all your stuffed animals the guests.”

Da Eun finally looked over her shoulder, giving the idea some consideration. “We can really have a tea party?”

“Of course!”

“Yaaaaaay!” Da Eun leapt to her feet and started jumping up and down. “We’re going to have a tea party!”

His success finally secured, Shi Jin rushed to get Da Eun dressed before she changed her mind again. He stood up and grabbed the outfit his mother-in-law had thoughtfully prepared the night before, and said, “Okay, now let’s put on this shirt and these pants so we can go to the playground.”

But the minute Da Eun put on her clothes, she sat back down again.

“Why?” Shi Jin practically whined. “What’s wrong now?”

“My hair.”

“Right. Your hair.” Da Eun’s long black hair hung in a tangled mess down her back, and he remembered now that either his wife or mother-in-law would always brush Da Eun’s hair and do something with it. But what could he do? He was no hairdresser.

“How about a ponytail?” Shi Jin offered finally. It was the only thing he was marginally skilled in, having helped Mo Yeon wear her hair in a ponytail on more than one occasion.

Da Eun shook her head. “I want braids today.”

“Of course she does,” Shi Jin thought to himself. To Da Eun he said, “Da Eun-ah, let’s not be like this, hm? Appa only knows how to do ponytails. Appa doesn’t know how to braid hair. Can’t you wear your hair in a ponytail today? Or how about pigtails? I bet I could figure out how to do pigtails.” After all, pigtails were just two ponytails, weren’t they?

“I. Want. A. Braid,” Da Eun repeated.

Sensing his daughter was on the verge of another breakdown, Shi Jin gave up and decided to finally call in the cavalry. He stepped out of the room and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. Punching in a number, he waited for the other person to pick up. When she finally did, Shi Jin spoke hurriedly. “Don’t ask questions, don’t make fun, and definitely don’t tell my wife I’m calling you, but how do you braid hair?”

On the opposite end of the line, Yoon Myung Joo asked, “Are you asking me as my sunbae or my superior?”

“Right now, as your neighborhood oppa.”

Myung Joo laughed. “How’s it going taking care of Da Eun for the day?”

“How’d you know about that?”

“Mo Yeon told me about it last time we talked. She worried about whether you’d be able to handle it.”

“And what did you say about it?”

“Why don’t you ask her what I said?”

“Forget I even asked, I don’t know why I bothered. Are you going to tell me how to braid hair or what?”

Myung Joo laughed again. “Let me talk to Da Eun.”

“Why?”

“Just let me talk to her.”

Holding the phone away his ear, Shi Jin looked at it and shrugged his shoulders before walking back into the bedroom. “Da Eun-ah, here you go.” He handed her the phone. “It’s your keun eomma.”

“Keun eomma, anyonghaseyo,” Da Eun spoke politely into the phone. Then she didn’t say anything more for a few minutes until she finally said, “Alright, good-bye,” and handed the phone back to her father. “Appa, a ponytail would be okay.”

“Really? Great! Appa will be back in just a minute,” he told her. Then he stepped out of the room again to ask Myung Joo, “What did you say to her?”

“That’s between me and Da Eun, and you owe me big time for this favor.”

“Yah, isn’t the Army’s motto, ‘A Strong Friend, Republic of Korea Army’? That means you should be helping me out at a time like this. Comrade to comrade. Friend to friend.”

Myung Joo laughed once more, clearly enjoying having the upper hand. “Whatever. Go see to your daughter. I promise to not tell your wife for now.” She deliberately left the threat hanging in the air before clicking off, causing Shi Jin to bear his teeth at the phone before tucking it back into his pocket and getting back to his daughter.

With practiced hands, Shi Jin had Da Eun’s hair in a ponytail in record time. He even managed to add a bow to the ponytail, which had pleased her to no end. Shi Jin breathed a sigh of relief.

The morning was half over, but finally, they were headed for the playground.

#####

They’d been at the playground for no more than forty-five minutes and already Shi Jin was exhausted. He’d pushed Da Eun on the swings until she tired of that, rode the seesaw with her a few times until he pleaded that his legs were too long to be comfortable, and helped her down the slide a couple of times too. Now he was pushing her on the little merry-go-round and really, what he wanted to do was go sit on a bench and rest.

He almost cried for joy when other children finally showed up at the playground and Da Eun had instant playmates other than him. As she ran off to play with the other boys and girls, Shi Jin made a beeline for the bench under the shade. He sat down and started fanning himself with his hands. It was nice to finally have a break. Some of the mothers who’d accompanied their children to the playground walked past and Shi Jin nodded his head politely in their direction. He kept to himself though, and kept one eye on Da Eun at all times as well. Right now she was having fun climbing the jungle gym with some other little girls and boys. When she looked back at him and waved, he returned the wave with a smile.

Just then his phone rang. Shi Jin looked at the read out and grimaced. “That didn’t take long,” he said by way of greeting. Across the line, Seo Dae Young laughed. “Did Myung Joo call you as soon as she hung up the phone on me, or something?”

“Probably.”

“I suppose you’re now calling to make fun of me.”

“Most definitely.”

“Yah, you’re supposed to be my friend.”

“And as your friend I would never dare to miss an opportunity like this.” When Shi Jin growled in response, Dae Young continued. “So how is it going? Do you need the Alpha Team to come save you?”

“Wah, this morning has been no joke.” Shi Jin started with this morning’s wardrobe fiasco before moving on to the hair fiasco. He then finished with a rundown of all the activities he’d been forced to participate in at the playground. “I don’t get it,” he told his friend. “We spend half our time in physical training. We’ve engaged in physical combat; outrun explosives, rocket fire, and gunfire; and climbed into places no person should ever have a reason to climb into. Yet, how is that one hour at a playground is more exhausting than all those other things?”

Before his friend could provide him with an answer, Shi Jin remembered his daughter. He looked up from his conversation but Da Eun was nowhere in sight. He stood up, scanning the peripheries of the playground, but still no Da Eun. “Da Eun-ah!” he yelled.

“What’s the matter?” Dae Young asked.

“It’s Da Eun. I don’t see her.”

“What? That’s impossible. Where could she have gone?”

“I don’t know. I have to go.”

“Do you want me to come help look for her?”

“No, I’m sure she’s somewhere nearby, but thanks. I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

Hanging up quickly, Shi Jin started walking around the playground. It wasn’t that big and she couldn’t have gone far, wherever she was, but the more area he covered, the more nervous he got. Da Eun still wasn’t anywhere to be found. He stopped a mother walking past and, giving a description of his daughter’s clothes, asked if she’d seen Da Eun. The mother shook her head no, so Shi Jin thanked her for her time and kept looking.

“Da Eun-ah! Where are you?!”

He finally found her just outside the gates of the playground. “Da Eun-ah!” He placed his hands on his hips and let out the breath he’d been holding in. He shuddered to think of the phone call he would’ve had to make to his wife if he hadn’t been able to find her.

Da Eun looked up from where she was crouched over the sidewa