Yunho was invited to give a talk about the inner workings of a magazine, so who better than to get the Editor-in-Chief of South Korea’s top selling magazine right?

Yunho didn’t want to, so he told his Creative Director, Park Yoochun, to do so on his behalf. Unfortunately, Yoochun had a funeral to attend at the last minute so Yunho couldn’t escape anymore.

While preparing breakfast for Sumire and himself that morning, his eyebrow twitched.

Yunho stopped whatever he was doing.

This had never happened before.

He wasn’t some superstitious person but he couldn’t help but feel that something bad was bound to happen today. Plus, his special all-knowing senses were tingling, putting him on red alert mode.

‘It has got to be something to do with the talk,’ Yunho thought.

He finished cooking the stir fried noodles and called for Sumire to help herself to it while he went to check on the PowerPoint slides he had prepared the night before for today’s talk in front of about 300 attending students.

The slides were in 3 thumb drives, in case one broke down or something like that. Yunho placed them into his briefcase. A minute later, he went back to inspect that they were still in there or not.

‘I’m developing OCD,’ Yunho muttered as he walked into the kitchen to have breakfast.

‘The noodles are great, Daddy!’ Sumire beamed when Yunho walked past her to enter the kitchen.

Yunho nodded at her before going into the kitchen to scoop his share and then proceeded to sit beside her at the dining table.

‘Teach me to cook okay? My school holidays are coming!’ Sumire told Yunho.

Yunho nodded silently.

‘What’s wrong?’ Sumire frowned.

‘Just… having troubled thoughts.’ Yunho confessed with a sigh.

‘Aww, poor Daddy! When I’m down, I eat lollipops!’ Sumire jumped off the seat and ran into the kitchen.

She reappeared with a bunch of different flavoured lollipops and placed them at the side of Yunho’s plate.

‘Are you trying to make me diabetic?’ Yunho muttered.

‘Nope! I just want to cheer you up!’ Sumire gave Yunho a warm smile before taking her plate and chopsticks into the kitchen to wash them.

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‘Your talk was extremely eye opening and in depth, Mr. Jung. Thank you for taking precious time out to address our Journalism students today!’ One of the university professors shook hands with Yunho.

‘It was not a problem at all. I’m glad to be here today,’ Yunho lied professionally.

The professor patted Yunho’s back before walking off to talk to another one of the invited guest speakers that morning.

‘Mr. Jung!’ Yunho heard a voice call out and he his heel.

He studied her familiar face but couldn’t put the name to it- which was extremely normal for Yunho as had always been bad with names.

‘Please refresh my memories,’ Yunho looked at the student.

‘It’s o-only been a week since I came to your house for dinner, Mr. Jung. I’m Y-Young Mi.’ She smiled shyly.

‘Oh, 5 right? Good morning to you.’ Yunho bowed slightly.

Young Mi bowed back, ‘Good morning.’

‘I’ve seen your portfolio,’ Yunho began, ‘You’ll do well for your finals.’

Young Mi blushed even harder, ‘Thank you so much, Mr. Jung.’

‘Send in your resume and an updated writing portfolio, if applicable, to me once you graduate,’ Yunho informed Young Mi, ‘You’ll be a great addition to Blitz. I’ll be heading back to the office now, so you have yourself a good day ahead.’

‘You too, Mr. Jung!’ Young Mi smiled and waved.

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‘This cannot be happening,’ Yunho groaned when he saw another familiar face while he queued up with Sumire to get her new art supplies for school from a bookshop downtown.

‘Hey, Yunho! Hi!’ The familiar face beamed as she walked briskly over to him.

It was the girl he met at the birthday party about 2 weeks before.

‘Who’s that?’ Sumire nudged her Daddy and whispered.

‘Just someone I talked to at a party,’ Yunho whispered back and then greeted Drunk girl, ‘Good evening.’

‘Don’t need to be so formal, Yunho!’ Drunk girl playfully slapped Yunho’s arm and he winced inwardly.

‘Don’t hit people like that!’ Sumire gave Drunk girl an angry pout.

‘Oh…’ Drunk girl studied Sumire and then looked up at Yunho and then back to the kid, ‘Your child, Yunho?’

‘I’m her guardian, but I’m a father figure in her eyes.’ Yunho replied.

‘I see…’ Drunk girl smiled, ‘Ate dinner yet?’

Yunho was about to answer but Sumire beat him to it, ‘We’re going to eat after we get my art stuff but you’re not invited.’

Drunk girl was gobsmacked and fell silent. 

Yunho had never felt so proud of Sumire until now.

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‘Can we eat jajangmyeon?’ Sumire asked when they were both fastening their seatbelts in the car.

‘You can have anything you want,’ Yunho replied.

‘Then can we eat ice cream after that?’

Yunho started driving, ‘Sure.’

‘Then frozen yoghurt after ice cream?’ Sumire beamed.

‘If you can still eat, then of course.’

‘Wow, you sure are generous today.’

Yunho hummed in agreement.

‘Daddy, I don’t like the way that woman looked at you just now…’ Sumire pouted.

‘Why not?’ Yunho asked amusedly.

‘I’m not sharing you with anyone!’ Sumire crossed her arms over her chest.

Yunho looked at her in surprise and when his focus was back on the road, he slammed the breaks suddenly because he only noticed the red light at the very last second.

‘Jealous much?’ Yunho raised an eyebrow at the kiddo.

‘Very much,’ Sumire nodded vehemently.

‘I don’t like her either.’

‘Yay!’ Sumire’s bright smile was back on her face, ‘She looked like… wait, Jaejoong taught me a phrase last week… She looked like she wanted to jump you just now.’

‘Couldn’t have said it better myself,’ Yunho gave a small smile.

10 minutes later, Yunho and Sumire got out of the car to enter a famous jajangmyeon store. It was packed to the brim so they had to wait about 15 minutes before they could get a table.

‘Serving for 2, sir?’ The waiter asked Yunho.

‘Yes, please.’ Yunho nodded.

‘It’ll take about 20 minutes to prepare because we’re packed tonight, sir.’

‘I understand,’ Yunho nodded again.

The waiter apologised and headed into the kitchen.

‘Jung Yunho, you forgotten me already, huh!?’

Yunho cursed in his head as he turned to his left to greet the voice.

This was one of the few rare people who’s name he could never forget.

‘Hong. Su. Min.’ Yunho did his best to not utter the dreaded name though gritted teeth and with clenched fists.

‘Fancy finding you here in a non-fancy restaurant, rich boy,’ Su Min smirked.

‘Likewise, Gold-digger,’ Yunho drawled.

‘Gold-digger?’ Sumire questioned, ‘Her job is digging for gold?’

‘She digs from rich men’s pockets. It’s like being a pickpocket, only deadlier.’ Yunho explained.

‘Evil !’ Sumire cursed and Yunho’s eyes went wide.

‘Watch your mouth.’ Yunho warned.

‘But she really is evil, Daddy!’ Sumire pouted angrily at the woman sitting at the table beside theirs.

‘Oh, wow! You’re a father? You’re… married?’ She scoffed.

‘No.’

‘Never knew you were capable of hit and run, Jung.’

‘I didn’t.’ Yunho didn’t owe her an explanation anyway.

‘Must be Jaejoong’s then. How’s he doing these days? Single like yourself?’ She taunted.

‘It’s not Jaejoong’s either. And for your information, in which I would more than gladly rub in your face, he’s been dating an extremely wonderful woman for almost a year now. I might be single, but I’ve got enough company to last a lifetime,’ Yunho looked at Sumire before turning back to Su Min.

Su Min had to take a while to calm herself down before she plastered a fake smile on her face, ‘Is that so? I wonder what will happen if I appear in Jaejoong’s life once more…’

‘You’ll never have a chance,’ Yunho said matter-of-factly, ‘Go dig elsewhere.’

‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, Jung.’ Su Min stood up, prepared to leave the place.

‘You obviously haven’t seen my other side yet, Su Min.’ Yunho’s deadly glare sent Su Min walking briskly towards the exit. 

Yunho downed the entire glass of water on the table.

With trembling hands, Sumire took the jug from the side of the table and refilled Yunho’s cup.

‘I’m s-sorry for my l-language just now, D-Daddy,’ Sumire stammered.

Yunho looked up at Sumire and she let out a fearful squeak.

‘You can pick up anything from Jaejoong except the bad words, okay?’ Yunho told Sumire.

She nodded with her head down ashamedly.

‘Daddy, don’t be angry…’

‘I’m not.’ Yunho sighed and looked elsewhere.

The food finally came and the two ate in silence.

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‘C-can I ask…’ Sumire faltered when Yunho was tucking her into bed.

‘Sure.’ Yunho sat at her bedside.

‘That woman just now… who was she? And how does she know both Daddy and Jaejoong?’

‘This would make a scary bedtime story, but are you up for it?’ Yunho asked.

Sumire thought for a while before nodding timidly.

‘Okay,’ Yunho gestured for Sumire to scoot over and she shot him a questioning gaze but did it anyway.

Sumire smiled when Yunho laid beside her under the blankets. Feeling courageous, Sumire reached out to hold her Daddy’s hand.

Yunho looked sideways at Sumire for a second before looking back up at the sky blue ceiling.

‘That woman just now was Hong Su Min and she’s the same age as Jaejoong. She’s now a serial Gold-digger and I heard she’s already made her millions though that. She went to the same middle and high school as Jaejoong. They were actually close friends because they both loved knitting and sewing and stuff so their friendship started from there. She didn’t come from a well to do family. They were struggling to make ends meet, so she had to work part time after school hours to earn her own allowance. She came to our house a couple of times for project work and I noticed that she would always watch me whenever I was around. Jaejoong later told me that she had a crush on me.

‘Jaejoong decided to be matchmaker and urged her so she came confessing to me one day. I rejected her of course, but she never gave up and I also never gave in.’

Sumire sniggered.

‘I guess her deep desire to overcome her family’s financial situation caused her to make use of Jaejoong, since our family’s… doing well. I knew she was never interested in Jaejoong, not that he wasn’t good looking, I’ll even admit that he really is, but it does take a really rare talent to actually fall in love with his character as well. She began to woo him. Jaejoong’s totally clueless when it comes to love, which is the exact same situation as me. So when his best friend confessed to him, he came to me of course, because we always tell each other anything and everything. 

‘I told Jaejoong that it was some kind of trap. You must know that they were only 15 then, and Jaejoong kind of confused the friendship kind of love with love love. He claimed he had feelings for her but I doubted it. Jaejoong and I got into an argument, he said I didn’t understand her and that I only wanted to break his best friend’s heart further by making him reject her as well. I never felt so misunderstood in my life. My heart literally broke because it was the first time Jaejoong and I had ever experienced a cold war. Sure we had arguments before but it was settled within minutes, but that… that was one unforgettable and heated fight.

‘Jaejoong decided to date her. I knew he didn’t really see her as a lover… he probably just felt pity for her because I was being ‘heartless and cruel’ so he decided to take on the responsibility to help her get over me. I guess she actually had a conscience so a week later, she called for a break up. Jaejoong wasn’t exactly devastated but he felt betrayed. She claimed she had liked him but look what happened… What’s worse was that Jaejoong then saw her with a guy on the streets the very next day acting rather intimately. Who knew such a sweet person like Su Min could turn overnight into someone so desperate… Jaejoong began to lose trust in people because he thought he knew Su Min well… He slowly kept stuff to himself and was always suspicious of the people around him, and surprisingly, even me…

‘Jaejoong only had 2 friends in his entire lifetime, Yoochun and Su Min… Seeing a side of Su Min he never knew… Everything added up and he eventually fell into a kind of ‘soulless’ state… the incident broke him in more ways than one.

‘You must also know that Jaejoong wasn’t too well liked during his school days. Apart from his unique character, his flamboyant style and worshipping of fashion made others in school label him... girly… or even worse… crooked. That’s why no one went near him, except for Su Min and Yoochun, but that’s because of their personal backgrounds as well.

‘Losing a close buddy who was like his soul mate also made him lose his way in life.

‘I wanted to kill Su Min for pulling off such a ridiculous stunt on Jaejoong.’

Sumire kept quiet for a while, needing time to absorb everything.   

‘Do you want to know the reason why Jaejoong eats... weirdly?’

Sumire gulped but nodded slowly.

‘I told you Jaejoong wasn’t functioning too properly after the incident right?’ Yunho turned to look at Sumire.

She nodded again.

‘I know Jaejoong always says that he’s on a strict diet and stuff… But during that worst period of his life, he also starved himself. His sudden low self esteem caused it. He battled mild depression and became underweight. He then developed an eating disorder… it was so severe that he had to stay in a hospital for months, with tubes stuck down his throat and having to undergo though tons of check ups and counselling. He still has problems when it comes to his own diet now… but I can see that he’s improving slowly nowadays… thanks to Latecomer.’ 

Sumire managed a small smile.

‘I bet you've notice that Jaejoong’s really egoistic and acts like he’s perfect and all right? He needs to do it to reassure himself… his psychiatrist encourages it actually,’ Yunho laughed, ‘And now it’s become a big part of his character.’

Sumire thought for a while before she spoke, ‘Daddy, thank you for telling me this… secret story… I never knew Jaejoong… he… he went through so much…’

‘I know,’ Yunho propped himself up against the headboard and patted Sumire’s head, ‘Time to sleep now.’

‘Okay, Daddy.’ Sumire nodded.

‘Good night,’ Yunho got out of the bed.

Sumire reached out to tug at Yunho’s hand.

‘Yes?’ Yunho turned to look down at her.

‘Kiss me good night? If you don’t… I’ll fall into depression,’ Sumire gave a mischievous grin.

‘You horrible child,’ Yunho frowned and walked towards the door.

‘Fine,’ Sumire sulked, ‘Good night.’

The lights went out.

Footsteps approached Sumire's bed and her heart began to race.

‘I can only do this,’ Yunho’s deep voice resounded throughout the room and Sumire felt her Daddy’s strong yet warm arms wrap around her waist.

Although the hug only lasted a couple of seconds, it felt like eternity as her heart warmed up and tears began to trickle down her cheeks.

‘T-thank you,’ Sumire cried tears of joy as silently as she possibly could.

Yunho cleared his throat and walked out, closing the door softly behind him.

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