“Hera-yah! Come set the table!”

“Okay!!”

There’s a different kind of warmth in the small apartment with Hera’s father scurrying around to make a warm, homemade dinner for the girls. With her wet hair wrapped in a towel, Hera comes dashing into the kitchen where Seulgi readily hands her a stack of plates and bowls to begin setting the table. Within minutes all four of them are seated around the small table that is filled to the brink with endless homecook dishes.

“Ahjusshi…” Seulgi slowly looks up at Hera’s father. “Why out of all the things she takes after you, why did she miss out on this…?”

“Yah,” Hera hisses bitterly. “I can cook!”

“You count nearly burnt eggs as cooking?” Wendy joins with a sour expression and Hera sighs.

“Let’s just eat, shall we?”

A low chuckle erupts from her dad and after saying grace, he quickly ushers the three girls to dig in.

After dinner, Seulgi and Wendy took over the cleaning to allow Hera to spend some time with her father. She brews them each a fresh cup of tea before settling outside on the balcony to enjoy their tiny view.

“So how did the internship go?”

Hera curls up into her blanket and shrugs. “It went better than I’d ever thought it’d go. I met a lot of good people, Dad, a lot of good people who believed in me. Dad,” she sits up excitedly and he turns to her. “Taeyeon’s new album that’s coming out soon, I did it! She personally asked me to design everything.”

A large proud smile grows across his aging face. “I’m so proud of you my daughter. I’m so proud of the person you’ve become. Sometimes, I wonder if your mother and I did the right thing by sending you away to study abroad all those years. We missed out on so much of your life…”

Hera frowns. “I learned so much. Being abroad opened my eyes to so many things I wouldn’t have been able to see or learn if I was here. I met amazing people, learned a bunch of languages and now I’m capable of doing anything on my own. Eventually, you and mom would have to let me go and grow up on my own anyways.”

“Still,” he groans. “As your father, I’m sure there were times where you were scared, hungry or lonely and we weren’t able to be there for you.” He sighs and slowly takes a sip of his tea. “Now, you’re off to another country for another year… Aigoo.”

Hera looks down on her tea before gently setting it on the table between them. “Dad, after London, I’ve been thinking about moving back home… what do you say about that?”

He turns to her briefly then takes a sip of his tea. “Stay in Seoul,” he replies which surprises her. “You’ll find a better job here.”

“But you were just saying how we never saw one another!” Hera exclaims as her father tries to dismiss her off.

“Of course your mother and I would love for you to move back,” he begins to explain. “But realistically, you’ll have better opportunities here in Seoul. As much as I want us to live together, your mother and I just don’t want to live in Seoul. After you get a nice job, your mother and I are going to retire and move to where I can wake up every morning to watch the sunrise over the mountains.”

“Urgh,” Hera groans. “You’re not making any sense. Daejeon already has mountains.”

Her dad heaves a sigh. “Just stay in Seoul.”

“Fine,” she grumbles and reaches over to grab her cup of tea.

As the night grows deeper, the father and daughter continues filling one another in on the things they’ve missed out. Lots of laughter erupts whenever he talks about the newer taekwondo students and everything turns to awe when Hera goes into details about her internship at the infamous SM Entertainment. When she brings up Baekhyun, Hera’s heart begins to react the usual way it does whenever he comes up but this time it’s a bit different. She looks at her father seated next to her and a part of her heart aches because he let her love Eun and that was the reason she left him so soon.

“Dad,” Hera shifts herself so she’s facing her dad. “Do you believe in previous lives?”

He shoots her a strange brow. “Why are you suddenly asking me that?”

She shrugs. “Do you?”

He coughs then straightens up a bit. “I don’t know. I mean as a person, you naturally wonder every once in a while.”

Hera smiles a little. “Dad, I think I know what you were in your past life.”

Her father shoots her another strange look. “What’s going on in that crazy head of yours?”

She snickers and tugs her blanket closer to her. “No, seriously. I had a dream and it was extremely vivid. Dad, you did something amazing in your past life.”

Although Hera knows he’s a bit flabergasted by her bringing up past lives and what not, he still lets her continue. “What did I do? Did I save a country or something?”

Hera’s smile grows and his look turns stranger. “You discovered and established a country alongside King Taejo. You were his right hand man. You were a fearless war general.”

“Really?” He asks, intrigued yet still not convinced but Hera didn’t need him to be. “What else?”

“I saw myself too,” she adds and he quickly looks to her. “I was your daughter. I grew up on the battlefield, learning the best of the best when it came to martial arts. I was a stubborn little thing.”

He grunts. “You still are.”

She laughs quietly although her heart is aching. He’s smiling at the thought of being a war general in his past life but he has no idea about the amount of pain and suffering she brought upon him.

“What did you eat that got you to have such a crazy dream?” He teases, causing Hera to snap out of her thoughts. He snickers and she can’t help but laugh along.

“I wonder the same thing,” she laughs lightheartedly. “Either way, I’m pretty sure I have the greatest dad in the world.”

“Of course!” He exclaims so confidently it makes Hera laugh.

Even if to him now, the past is all but some crazy dream Hera created with her crazy head, it makes her feel better knowing that she at least told him of how great of a person he truly was and still is. She won’t tell him about the pain she put him through because he shouldn’t have had to go through that in the first place. As a parent, you shouldn’t be burying your child.

The following morning after Hera had filled her father’s car up to the brim with all her junk, they decided to stop by the SM building so she could give him a personal tour of the place before heading back to Daejeon. As they make their way through the aesthetic building, Hera can tell her father is proud of her whenever she points to a project she helped create during her short time as an internship.

She was debating about whether to show him the recording studios or not when a group of familiar voices catches her attention. When she looks up she notices the group of producers and engineers proceeding their way from the meeting rooms and she immediately spots the shorty among them. It doesn’t take long for him to notice her either but she quickly notices his attention diverting to the person next to her and the expression on his face becomes unreadable. While everyone turns the corner towards the elevators, Baekhyun remains frozen in place until Chanyeol calls for him.

“Go ahead,” Baekhyun simply says and instead of turning the corner, he walks right up to Hera and her father.

“D-dad,” Hera quickly turns to her father and pats him gently on the shoulder to bring his attention to Baekhyun. “This is Byun PD, the producer I was telling you about who helped me get the position.”

“Nice to meet you,” Baekhyun quickly greets with a deep bow when he comes to a stop before the two. “I’m Producer Byun Baekhyun. Hera was my intern for about a month before she was moved to the creative department.”

“Ah,” her father nods with a strange expression overtaking his face as he takes a deeper look at Baekhyun. It’s like… they’ve met before. “I heard, Hera said nothing but great things about you and I’m thankful for what you did.”

Baekhyun shakes his head gently with his eyes so tender it causes Hera’s heart to ache. Of course he recognized her father immediately, how could he not. His expression is a mixture of awe and respect but also shame and guilt. He’s so ashamed of himself for not being able to protect Soondeok that he just wants to bend down on his knees and ask for forgiveness. In the end, it was because of him that lead to the short life of his precious daughter.

“She’s extremely talented,” Baekhyun begins warmly. “It felt regretful to keep her cooped up in the studio. You should be very proud of her.”

Hera would normally gush at his comments but there’s an underlining to his words that only they understand.

Hera’s father looks from her to Baekhyun with a soft smile. “I am.”

The meeting was short but already, Hera’s father can’t stop thinking about Baekhyun and for some reason, he’s unsure about him. Although Hera only has praises for the producer, a part of him can’t seem to pinpoint why a Baekhyun feels so familiar and it doesn’t take a genius to know that Hera is head over heels i