He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

2 Samuel 12:22-23

Minho laughed slightly in contempt as Yunkyeom asked Naeun to leave the table and go and play. Naeun looked up at her father uncertainly, but he nodded at her with encouragement.

"It won't take long." He assured her tenderly.

"Come on sweetheart."  Minho's mother, Sooyoung and little Naeun left the dining room after dinner, leaving the two men sitting there.

Sooyoung trusted her father-in-law. He always knew what to do. And today too, she was sure, he would get Minho back on track. No matter how derailed her husband was, his father had always guided him back.

The sombre notes of a classical melody played softly in the dining room. Whatever his father wanted to throw at him this time, Minho would remain unaffected. It was one of the last times his father would make him feel small.

Yunkyeom remembered how desperate Sooyoung sounded when she had called him. He knew how much she loved his son. And even though Minho had shown her nothing but utter callousness in recent years, Sooyoung's love was still as strong as it had been then.

Just like when she came to him as a girl with her father. She asked him to become Minho's wife. She promised to do everything to make him happy. The love in her eyes was relentless and she would love him forever. Yunkyeom knew that his son needed a strong woman by his side. He was without direction and he himself would not always be able to stand by Minho's side.

Sooyoung had had a vision for the world and for the future from an early age. Sooyoung would be able to give Minho the guidance he needed when he died one day.

Calmly, Yunkyeom's voice interrupted the thicket of tense mood after a few moments.

"I don't know what's gotten into you." He began slowly.

Minho looked into the void. He took the lighter from his trouser pockets and began to tap it gently on the table in tune with the music. Not for much longer, he told himself over and over again.

"Whether it's a mid-life crisis or you're just bored. But this has to stop Minho." Anger rose in Yunkyeom when his son did not reply.

"God, what's wrong with you?" Sternness overtook his voice, but still Minho stared into nothing. Yunkyeom pounded his fist on the table.

"Aren't you going to say anything about it?" Minho paused, the lighter in his hand clenched tightly into his fist. With a serious look, he turned to his father.

"You're right." Minho said quietly, but in a firm, unwavering voice.

"What?" his father did not understand what Minho meant.

"You are right. This has to stop." Repeated Minho seriously.

Now Yunkyeom was the one who remained silent. His son had never looked at him like that before. What was it? It took Yunkyeom a moment to realise. At first he thought it was fearlessness, but there was more.

"And it will stop, I will make sure of that."

And as Minho's voice sounded so cold and sinister his father realised what it was in Minho's gaze. It was ruthlessness in all its completion of form. Not even with the sharks in the business world had he seen such an icy look as he had just seen in his son.

"I will leave her." Minho had to smile bitterly.

He wanted to feast his eyes on his father's aghast face, but he couldn't. He realised that his father was nothing more than an old, bitter man. All Minho felt for him at that moment was pity. Perhaps his father thought he had failed. Maybe he himself could never live the life he wanted. Maybe his father was Minho's own future if he chose to stay. And Minho didn't want that. He didn't want to be an empty shell of his father. If he had to sacrifice his family for his happiness, he would, because until now he had sacrificed his happiness for his family and he realised what he had always known. It had not been worth it. Now it was his turn.

"What are you talking about?" Yunkyeom tried to compose himself.

"Get a hold of yourself!" he hoisted through his teeth.

"I'm doing that right now." Minho assured him, piercing his father with his gaze.

"You're not going to do that. This conversation is over!" Yunkyeom stood up from the table as if everything had been said and his suit jacket stresse