Kim Minjun prided himself on being a man of principle once upon a time.

He had never been rebellious even in his youth, had always abided by all the rules and upon growing up to take a position of authority, he had expected others around him to do the same.

His brother, Chansung, had always been the opposite of him. And it hadn’t really been a surprise when the guy had gotten involved with the wrong kind of people and left the house after dropping out from high school. Minjun hadn’t believed it when he had heard his parents talk about it at first. But his suspicions had been confirmed soon after his father’s death.

He had received a bit of a ‘warning’, in the form of his brother coming to meet him for the first time in years, when he had been trying to finalize a deal for his newly formed company. It had hurt Minjun deeply. Chansung, no matter how vicious or evil, was still his family, his only sibling. Seeing him after so many years, both of them now grown men, Minjun had been as pained by his brother’s aloofness and cold behavior as he been relieved to see him. Chansung very sweetly asked him to not sign a particular deal, because it affected ‘business’, and when he had declined, he had received some very clear warnings in form of losses to his business (that was barely afloat after his father’s death) that piled up one after the other.

Things had very rapidly escalated when Minjun got into a not so accidental car crash, which had spared his life but not much else. It had taught him that your loved ones, sometimes, could be your undoing.

And a few weeks back, when he had to contact Chansung, against his better judgement, for his daughter’s happiness, he got reminded of that life lesson.

After the accident, Chansung had repeatedly come to apologize, telling everyone it was never something he intended, it just got out of hand before he could control it. The family had ostracized him nevertheless, demanding that Minjun sue Chansung no matter what.

But Minjun hadn’t. He had hardened himself, and decided that it was better to have Chansung on his side than against him. That was when, perhaps, he had truly given up on his brother, and also on his own self and conscience. His family hadn’t been able to cast him out though, the way they had done with Chansung. And soon enough they had stopped badgering him about it altogether.

They hadn’t seen much of each other over the years, apart from the few times Chansung had asked Minjun not to sign deals that affected his underground business in the area, or when Minjun had requested Chansung for some ‘favours’. There was no filial piety between them, and it no longer bothered Minjun.

When he had called Chansung after some years last month, he had felt nothing, no remorse or longing, asking his brother to dispatch some of his ‘resources’ as a favor.

The only time Minjun remembered feeling not numb after the hurt he had received at the hands of his brother was when he had found Jiwon. He hadn’t thought it was possible to love someone as much as he did his wife, but he had been proven wrong the day that his only daughter had been born. He had felt like his heart was going to combust with happiness as he had held the delicate little being in his arms, and for those few minutes, he had forgotten who he was, what he had done, how he had come so far, how much he had lost. His own self had been reduced to a dot, as his whole world seemed to have been radiating from the little angelic female and that was when he had truly, utterly, fallen in love.

But her mother’s death days after Nayeon’s birth had been a staggering blow, something that had overshadowed all the happiness and wonder that came with the birth of a new being. And he’d given up too quickly, started to lose himself in work.

Having to leave Nayeon to the mercy of care-taker maids for days on end when he had to go abroad for business, and with the time his work demanded in general, he had never realized how quickly she’d grown up. Grown up to hate him, grown up to be distant and irritant. And rebellious. The one thing he had prided himself on never being, his only child had grown up to be an epitome of it.

No matter how much he loved her, he had never had enough time to show it to her. And he regretted it so much, but it was too late now. No matter what he did to please her, how much money and material things he provided, he couldn’t get her to love him back. And unlike the numbness that had come once before with the blow of losing his brother, he hadn’t been able to shut his feelings off this time.

He had never dared to scold her for any of the worst things she did in high school, all the dating scandals with the kind of guys he flinched upon seeing, he had let her do it all, despite the bad publicity it brought. Because a foolish part of him thought it would soften her heart towards him, if she thought of him as a liberal parent.

Their interactions since she had become a teenager had been reduced to her showing back up from high school on Fridays at his office, looking bored, and then going home with him in his car. And even that was a mercy that he had accepted greedily. Their conversations had becoming more and more dull, the generation gap increasing every day and Minjun still didn’t have enough time to sit down and talk everything out with her.

Until a month ago.

She had shown up from High School at his office, and as usual was lounging in the waiting area outside his office till he came out and she had to suffer through the car journey home, when for first time in a long time, she had shown up in his office looking bewildered.

“Who was that?”

“Who?”, Minjun had croaked out after the pleasant surprise of his daughter coming into his office had faded.

“The woman who just left your office, and the guy with her…?”, She had asked, a little breathlessly.

“That was Mrs. Do Minjee who left my office”, He had responded with a raised brow, wondering what interest his daughter could have in the woman. “Why do you ask?”

“Uhh…”, She had seemed a little uncertain. “Nothing, just…..asking”

And that night, for the first time in he didn’t know how many years, Minjun had found his daughter in his bedroom. He’d been reading the newspaper (he liked reading it at night instead of in the morning), and his heart had thudded in anticipation as she’d wandered in and taken a seat across from him on his bed.

“Dad”, She had started guardedly. “There’s something I need to ask of you”

“Go on, what is it?”, He imagined it must be something big, like a visit to the Artic, for her to have come to talk to him personally and prepared himself. He would give her anything she needed.

“You remember the guy who came with the woman I asked you about earlier today? I…”, She paused looking down. “I love him”

To say that he was shocked was an understatement. Bashfulness had never been Nayeon’s forte, and neither had he expected it of her, but for her to confess something like this to his face, it had to be really serious.

“Dad? Please say something”, He found her looking at him with concern.

“Huh?”, He thought for a minute. “Do you want to marry him?”

Her eyes widened for a minute, and she blushed (he’d never seen his daughter blush). “Is that….is that possible?”

Her response had surprised him further. He’d expected her to laugh and call him old-fashioned, tell him that she just wanted to court him, but apparently things were very serious. He didn’t want to set her up on dates anyway, dates that provided no reassurance of a serious relationship, and Nayeon had already had many such experiences.

“Maybe, let me think about it”, He’d have to think of the possibilities. In this day and age, it was going to be no mean feat, he knew that much.

“Really? Thankyou so much, Dad!”, Her eyes had almost teared up when she’d hugged him. Minjun had wanted to cry tears of happiness himself at the physical affection, he’d missed it for so long.

And that night he’d decided that he would make the sky and the earth meet if he had to, but he would make sure his daughter got what she wanted. It was pathetic how low he’d been ready to stoop, but he would have done more if it meant his daughter was happy.

And things between them had improved so much since Kyungsoo had entered into the equation. She now made sure to dine with him every day, to share about her activities with him, tell him what universities she was thinking of applying to and everything in between.

It was all Minjun had ever wanted, for his daughter to acknowledge and love him back, and he told himself the same thing to sleep every night.

It’s all worth it.

_

real_pcy created the group ‘Operation: Save Kyungsoo’

ChenChen: How subtle.

Real_pcy: Thanks Jongdae.

Real-pcy: So the plan is to woo Nayeon, let’s see how long she holds out to our charms. I mean she can’t seriously be in love with Kyungsoo, can she? This whole thing is a farce! We need to make it into a solid reason, enough to stop the wedding. So Baekhyun and Jongin are you both up for it?

Baeklight: Why us?

Real_pcy: Because you both are the resident playboys of our group J

Kai_zzz: Well a cripple doesn’t make for a very attractive flirt

Suhorang: You’re not a cripple Jongin, stop being so pessimistic. It’s just a leg injury, give it a few months.

Kai_zzz: Whatever. The point is, I’m not very capable of ‘chasing’ after her right now.

Real_pcy: Baekhyun, you’ll do it though, right?

Real_pcy: Baekhyun?

ChenChen: Think he’s asleep. Poor guy’s tired, let’s just tell him tomorrow.

Real_pcy: Fine, we need back up though. Whose up for it?

Xiu-BaoZi: Why don’t you do it?

Real-pcy: I’m on Mrs. Do duty.

ChenChen: I’ll do that instead, since I can’t be seen wooing her.

ChenChen: In case you’re all wondering why I can’t do it….

Real-pcy: Oh stop it! We all already know you’re coming with Luna sunbae! Might as well write it on your forehead!

ChenChen: Hehe

Real-pcy: But in case I’m subdued….who else is there?

Suhorang: I’m coming with Irene! The Kims know the Baes.

Xiu-BaoZi: I’m engaged!

Real-pcy: Sehun? Are you seriously going to pretend you’re not there?

Oohsehun: Yes.

Kai_zzz: Leave him. What will he do? Do you know how long it took him to ask Yeri out? And she lives in his house!

Oohsehun: Well not nearly as long as it took you to reject Soojung noona!

Real-pcy: Kids this is not the time to fight, we have a bigger goal to achieve!

Lay_sheep: I’ll do it!

Real-pcy: Really?

Lay_sheep: Sure! How hard can it be?

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