The door buzzed and Taeyong groaned. "Don't they know it's a pajama day?"
He rolled off her, picking up her pants and handing them to her. "Sorry about that. We can try again after I get rid of whoever is trying to disturb us."
Nari unhooked her leg from the back of the couch. "Let's move it to a bed. This couch isn't big enough for the two of us."
He grinned at her and answered the intercom.
Taeyong listened, furrowing his eyebrows at Nari, then said, "The doorman says your father is here. "
A sick feeling washed over Nari and she blanked her face before Taeyong could see. She sat up, shaking her head. "Don't let him up."
He raised an eyebrow, watching her closely.
She shook her head again. "Don't let him up."
Taeyong told the doorman not to let her father up, then leaned against the wall and said, "Well?"
Nari shoved her legs into her pants. She should have foreseen this. But she hadn't heard from her father in ten years. Wasn't sure he would recognize her name, even if she was his daughter. Wasn't sure he would care, if he did recognize it.
Looks like he had and did. And wherever her father smelled big money, that's where he went.
She looked up to find Taeyong still watching her.
She said on a long sigh, "He's a con man. With a smile so pure, you'll think he's an angel. Or a prophet. He's done that one before. Started his own religion. Convinced hundreds of people he was a prophet sent from God to take their money."

"I take it you don't have a good relationship."
She smiled slightly. "You could put it that way." She stopped smiling. "I'm sorry. I didn't think this would bring you to his attention. I didn't think of him at all. It's been a long time since I've talked to him."
Taeyong wandered to the wine chiller, taking out a bottle and saying casually, "Ten years?"
She looked down, didn't say anything.
He brought over two glasses filled with a deep, dark red and said, "Not a charming hopeless crush who didn't love you back. Your father."
Taeyong held on to the glass when she tried to take it, forcing her to look at him. Forcing her to smile and laugh so she wouldn't cry.
A father who didn't love his own daughter.
When Taeyong sat down next to her, she stood up and walked towards the window, pretending to look outside.
She said, "He's handsome and charming. And can make anybody, man or woman, think they are the most important person in the world. He did it to my mother, left her pregnant with me. Did it to me when I tracked him down."
Nari remembered what it felt like to be her father's most important person. She remembered what it felt like to be the two of them against the world.
And she remembered what it felt like to realize it had never been the two of them, it had only ever been him against everyone else. She had only been a weapon in his arsenal. Maybe his best weapon, but still only a tool he used to get what he wanted.

She took a sip and said, "He can see inside anybody and know what they want, what they'll give for it. How much they'll give for it."
Taeyong said softly, "What did you give up to be loved by him?"
She felt him behind her, his heat warming her back, and she looked at him over her shoulder. His jaw was clenched, a look of pure disgust on his face.
She shook her head. "Not that."
She turned toward him, taking his hand, looking down at his long fingers. Running her finger along the trimmed nails, the golden hair on his knuckles.
She said, "I wanted to be loved by him. I wanted to be his daughter."
The first time she'd seen him, she'd known he was her father. Honey-golden hair, hazel eyes, and a radiant glow about him. As if he knew something you didn't. And it was good.
She forced herself to look up and meet Taeyong's eyes. "And he wanted to see if he could turn me into him. He wanted a little mini-me." She smiled wryly. "I looked just like him, there wasn't any doubt I was his. He'd taken one look at me and then just smiled. Like I'd been the gift he'd been waiting for."
Taeyong blinked, a dawning realization covering his face. "He's why you're such a good salesman."
She laughed humorlessly. "I learned at his feet. Trained at his compound every year to see who wanted what we were selling, how much they wanted it. I used everything I had to wring every last penny from them."

He raised one eyebrow. "Forgive me, but I've seen you close a deal. You don't use anything but the facts. And their greed. You don't give them anything, sometimes not even a smile."
He made her laugh and she leaned against him, the knot in her stomach loosening a little.
"I got tired of selling myself. Of giving anything they wanted to get them to fork over a check." She shook her head. "They don't get me. They don't even get to see who I am. I'm not part of the deal."
"I am constantly surprised that works. All of my other top sellers are quite personable." He ran a finger along , tracing the small frown that still lurked there. "You shouldn't be successful at sales."
Nari rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. You try taking money for a theoretical promise of heaven. Selling a tangible investment that they can moan or celebrate over every day? Cake."
He laughed and squeezed her. He murmured, "You said you didn't still love him."
She pulled back and looked out the window again. "I don't."
"He's your father."
"It took a long time for me to realize that he's not. He's a donor. Nothing more than that."
Being a father implied some sort of emotion, some sort of care for his child above his own needs. There was none of that with her father.
Taeyong grunted. "We don't get to choose who our parents are. We can only choose who we want to be. And I can safely say you've learned to use your power for good."

She turned back to him and let him put his arms around her, let him pull her close. She said, "I can see what you want."
She could. She could see everything that he wanted.
Taeyong said, "Because that's hard to figure out with me pressed up against you?"
She shook her head. "Not that." She whispered, "Take me shopping."
He pulled back and looked at her suspiciously. "You're just trying to distract me."
"Maybe. And maybe I need new clothes."
He looked down at her pajamas, then cursed. "I feel like I can't miss this opportunity."
One corner of kicked up.