Weekends are a lost luxury for Hye Kyo, who from adolescence to adulthood spends most of her time dealing with people in the showbiz industry. Yes, she has some real friends but to bond with them requires thorough planning of her hectic schedule. But, her weekends for the last 10 months are made up of crooning over her little dogs, marvelling at her couple friends relationship, clinking a glass of wine with Ellen Park as she tells her old stories about her son. And of course there’s Joong Ki himself. Who makes her breakfast in his boxers while she sits on the side and watches, who walks with her in the park, and goes furniture shopping with her. And who wakes up sleepy and eager for cuddles in the morning.

The weekend is about to descend upon them again and she and Joong Ki find themselves in her own house surrounded by people. Hye Kyo isn't entirely sure how hers and Joong Ki's friends became friends with each other, but here they all are, wrapped up in a particularly loud game of Scrabble.

She knows the game is over when In Sung can’t form a word from his set of letter tiles, leaving only she, Joong Ki and Kwang Soo in the game. She easily composed a word out of her tiles and she knows the word will triple her score and is clearly the winner, but it's only when Joong Ki yawns hugely that Hye Kyo concedes the game to be over.

“Ugh, thank god,” Joong Ki groans, throwing his tiles down. “I'm beat.”

Hye Kyo raises her eyebrows. “You'd better be awake tomorrow.”

Joong Ki groan again and throws his arms over his face. She definitely doesn't stare at the way his t-shirt rides up and reveals a strip of skin above the hem of his jeans.

“What's tomorrow?” Ellen asks.

Hye Kyo drags her eyes away from Joong Ki's belly - I mean really - and starts collecting the tiles off the table. “Lunch with my dad’s.”

“Oh.”

Hye Kyo wishes Ellen could be more subtle about her balking and look-exchanging when Joong Ki is right there.

“What do you mean 'oh'?” he says, his voice raising a tenor.

“Nothing,” Ellen says hastily, trying to cover her mistake.

“Ani. That wasn't nothing.” He points at them both accusingly. “You were doing the manager knowing looking thing. You know something I don't.”

“Well, let's put it this way, Joong Ki ssi,” Kwang Soo offers when neither Hye Kyo nor Ellen give any explanation. “There's probably a reason you've been dating the Goddess for ten months now and have yet to meet her dad.”

Hye Kyo wants to strangle him. She settles for a fierce glare and is mildly satisfied when Kwang Soo flinches just a little.

Ellen clears . “It's going to be fine, Joong Ki. Lee Jun and Eun Ha are lovely.”

Her words are not untrue, but Hye Kyo still squirms uncomfortably. She's only going through with this upon her mother's request. Her mom, encourages her to introduce Joong Ki to his father so as not to leave her father behind of everything regarding her life. Joong Ki, on the other hand, (thankfully) didn’t asked her about the absence of her father.

“Well, we should get home,” In Sung says.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hye Kyo puts the last of the glasses and dishes in the dishwasher and returns to the living room where Joong Ki is clearing up the remnants of the scrabble game. She walks past him, dropping her hand to his shoulder briefly.

“I’m gonna have a shower before bed, okay.”

"Yeah, sure."

The hot water slowly unwinds her aching muscles from a week of working, but Hye Kyo’s mind is left troubled with the worries of tomorrow. She has barely spoken to her dad since time immemorial. What if tomorrow ends in an awkward hi’s and hello’s and she ends up hurting him with accusing words for leaving her and her mother? What if his new family won’t accept her?

When she realises that the hot water will do nothing to wash her anxiety away, she steps out of the shower. She rubs her hair with a towel and make a bun, and then pulls a large towel around her body. Hye Kyo wipes a circle in the steamed up mirror as she brushes her teeth and watches as her reflection slowly fades from view.

In the bedroom, Joong Ki is already in his pyjamas, propped up on pillows, on top of the covers. She ask him to stay in her house a night before their actual visit.

“Everything okay?” she asks of his frowning face.

“Hm?” He looks up at her slowly as she crosses to the bed.

“You’re worried about tomorrow,” she guesses.

Joong Ki stares at her a moment before nodding. “So are you.”

She considers him. “For different reasons I think.”

He crawls over and reaches for her, tugging her against his body and onto the mattress. Her towel slips a little, but she makes no move to recover it as Joong Ki rolls them over so that her head is against the pillows and rolls off of her as she shifts so that they are lying side by side, noses inches apart. He holds onto her waist through the towel.

"Why is it hard to meet up with your father?" he asks. "You’ve never really told me."

Hye Kyo hesitates. It’s a difficult question to answer and she wants him to understand because she can tell that he wants to understand.

Hye Kyo sighs. “It’s… my step-mother, and my dad and just that whole house. I haven’t seen them since 5 years ago and I’m not sure if I’m ready to. He has another family, secretly and my mom felt betrayed after that.  My mom, she was only with my father for a little while, long enough for me to understand. We’ve never been a family.”

Joong Ki frowns. “I didn’t know that. I’m sorry.”

Hye Kyo shrugs. “Some people never meant to last. Maybe that’s the reason why I was skeptical about falling in love.”

Joong Ki kissed her forehead before giving her a tender smile. “I hope I changed your mind about falling in love.”

Hye Kyo stifle a laugh as she shakes her head on the pillow. “You were never that bad – and you were never blatantly cruel to me, so maybe I’d go live with you.”

“Good girl. I’ll hold you to that” He said with a playful smile. Hye Kyo laugh so hard before settling herself in his embrace, thinking of a very good night with his man.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joong Ki keeps fixing his cuffs.

Hye Kyo told him to dress smart-casual so he dallied in front of the wardrobe for five minutes until she ordered him to sit down on the bed and let her pick something for him. Dark blue jeans and a white button down. He’s been messing with the sleeves ever since he pu