Minji's POV

"Why is there a fort here?" I asked Seungho.

We went back to his place after he was discharged. He was physically okay but we had no idea about his mental state. The girls who harmed him were caught by the police. The company wanted to press charges against them but Seungho did not want it.

'If my daughter did something wrong, I hope she will be forgiven too.'; That's all he said.

"Ask Minki." He patted her head.

"Come!!!" She grabbed my hand and pulled me along.

She pulled me into the fort and handed me her teddy bear.

"Who is this?" I asked her.

"Taddy!" She giggled.

"Then where is Daddy?" I asked her.

She looked at me, shrugged her shoulders and went to busy herself with something else. Seungho smiled at me and walked off.

"I'll be back, sweetie." I kissed Minki on her forehead before going after Seungho.

"Lucky~" I hugged him from behind.

"Hmm?" He tightened my arms around his waist.

"You okay?" I asked, resting my cheek against his back.

"Yea~" He mumbled.

"Darling, perhaps we have not contacted each other for two years, but nothing has changed, you know. I hope I can still be someone you can trust." I said.

"Why wouldn't I trust you?" He asked, turning to face me.

"I don't know. You seem like you have a lot inside." I said.

"I'm sorry." He apologized.

"I don't want an apology from you. You did nothing wrong." I said.

"I think I'm just tired." He sighed, sitting down on the bed.

"Do you want to take a few days off and just go spend time with yourself?" I asked.

"I can't just go." He laughed.

"Actually you can. I'll take care of Minki, so you don't have to worry. And your manager said that if you needed time to heal, you could take a few days, right?" I said.

"I don't know." He sighed.

"Maaaaaaaaaaaaa!! Ummaaaaaaaaaaaa!!" Minki yelled.

"Go on. She's calling for you." He said.

"Sweetie, hold on!" I yelled back.

"Just go." He said.

"But you..?" I asked.

"What about me?" He asked.

"Umma~" Minki peeked her head into the room.

"Yes, sweetie?" I asked, gesturing her to come over.

She came over and climbed onto my lap.

"Play~" She said.

"How about you play with Daddy?" I asked.

She pouted and shook her head.

"Why not, sweetie?" I asked.

Seungho tried to touch her hair but she pushed his hand away.

"Hey, sweetie. You cannot do that." I said.

She threw a tantrum and tried to tug me away.

"Go, go." Seungho said.

"Rest or something, okay?" I kissed him on his cheek before going off with Minki.

I took her downstairs for a walk.

"Minki ah~" I called out.

She looked at me with her big eyes. I carried her up and she snuggled her face into my neck.

"Why do you treat Daddy like this, hmm?" I asked.

She looked down, not saying anything.

"Do you know how much Daddy loves you?" I asked.

"Mmm~" She played with my hair.

"Daddy is very sad at the fact Minki is so mean to him, you know. And Daddy is not well now, he needs Minki to make him happy. Be nice to Daddy, would you, hmm?" I tickled her.

She giggled and tried to push my hand away but I kept tickling her.

"Promise me you'll be a nice girl to Daddy and I'll stop." I said.

She kept laughing and moving around. I stopped eventually, afraid that I would drop her. On the way back, I bought her ice cream.

"Shall we buy one for Daddy too?" I asked.

She thought for awhile before pointing to a vanilla cone.

"You think Daddy would like this?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Okay, let's buy this then." I said, paying for the ice cream.

When we headed back, Seungho was asleep on the couch. Before I could stop Minki from waking him up, she ran towards him and tapped his cheek with the ice cream, startling him.

"Ahh cold~" He cupped his cheeks.

Minki laughed and handed him the cone of ice cream.

"For me?" He asked, sitting up.

Minki said nothing, except push the ice cream closer to him.

"Thank you." He smiled widely, taking the cone from her.

"Does this ice cream taste extremely sweet?" I .

"Yea." He chuckled, on the ice cream.

"I have been meaning to ask you this, but how is it that Minki recognizes me?" I asked.

"You're her mother. Of course she'll recognize you." He said.

"Come on, Lucky." I said.

"Haha alright. One day she found a photo of us, she kept staring at it. I told her who you were." He said.

"You taught her how to call Umma?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Then why didn't you teach her how to call you Daddy or Appa?" I asked.

"Because I wanted her to call you first." He said quietly.

"Awww~ Lucky~" I rested my head on his shoulder while we watch our Minki play.

"Do you happen to sleep here with her?" I asked.

"How do you know?" He looked surprised.

"It ain't difficult to tell. Your bed has nothing but the mattress." I said.

"Haa.. She used to sleep on the bed with me, but one night she couldn't sleep because she got scared by those girls when I took her out. She cried all night, so I built this fort for her to try coax her. Who knows it became her permanent bed." He said.

"And you sleep on the hard floor just to accompany her despite your bad back. How can you call yourself a terrible father like this?" I asked.

"This is nothing." He mumbled.

"It's everything, darling." I kissed his cheek.

***
Minki walked around the house, as thou looking for something.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" I asked.

She pouted at me and continued what she was looking for.

"Did you lost something?" I asked.

"Where... Where..." She kept mumbling.

"Sweetie, what are you looking for?" I asked again.

"Deedee!!!" She pouted.

"Deedee? What's that?" I asked, looking around.

"Deedeeeeeeee!!" She kept whining.

"Are you looking for Daddy?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Deedee!!" She said.

"Oh my god." I laughed.

Seungho took my advice and headed to Busan by himself to relax. He was reluctant to leave but I shooed him away. The other boys were supportive of the idea of him going away too. He needed to rest.

"Aigoo my sweetie, you're looking for Daddy? You miss him?" I asked, pulling her onto my lap.

She played with my fingers, not answering me.

"Daddy went on vacation because he is tired. Do you want me to call him? Perhaps you can ask him to come back?" I asked.

"Deedee~" She rested her head against my shoulder and kicked the air.

"Do you want me to call him or not?" I asked.

She nodded once.

I reached for my phone and dialed Seungho's number.

"Lucky~" I called out when he answered.

"Hi, love. Is everything okay?" He asked.

There was the sound of strong wind in his background, as thou he was out at sea.

"Are you out at sea?" I asked.

"Yea! I went fishing!" He said excitedly.

"We have a problem here, Lucky." I said.

"What's wrong?" He sounded worried.

"Go on, tell him." I put the phone on loud speaker and handed it to Minki.

"Hello? Hello?" Seungho called out.

"Deedeeeeeee!!!" Minki whined.

"What?" Seungho asked, sounding stunned.

"Deeedeeee!! Where....?" She asked.

"What did you say, sweetheart?" Seungho asked, almost laughing.

"Ask Daddy to come home." I whispered into Minki's ear.

"Deedee!! Come home!!" Minki said.

"NOW!!" She added.

Seungho was a laughing mess over the line. I took the phone back from Minki.

"Have you gone mad?" I asked.

"YES!!!" He laughed.

"Be careful not to fall into the sea." I .

"You know what, I'm coming home now!" He said.

"Now!?" I asked.

"Why? You don't want me home?" He asked.

"Not that, but are you sure you are rested enough? It's only the third day of your five day vacation." I said.

"I'm so energetic now! I'll call you later, love. I need to ask the captain to turn back. Tell Minki Daddy will see her later!" He ended the call.

"Look at the power you have on your Daddy, sweetie." I kissed her.

She grinned at me.

"I know you love your Daddy too. Don't hide it and make him upset. Show it to him, okay?" I said.

She smiled at me and snuggled into my arms.

"Sweetie, how about we go to the mart to buy stuff and cook Daddy a meal?" I asked.

She jumped off my lap, ran to her fort to grab her Teddy Bear and ran to the door.

"Wait! Mummy's not ready!" I laughed at her cute actions.

After we came back from the supermarket, she sat on the countertop, watching me cook. Occasionally, I caught her looking at the door.

"Daddy said he'll be back, so he would be." I assured her.

She hugged her Teddy Bear, pouting at me.

"Come, try this." I fed her some corn.

"Nice?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Do you think Daddy would like this?" I asked.

She nodded too.

I continued to cook and she continued to watch. Just as I was about done, we heard someone key in the passcode to the door. Minki and I looked at each other and smiled.

"Let's surprise Daddy." I said, carrying her up to hide.

"Shhh~" I held her close as we hid.

"I'm home!!!" Seungho yelled excitedly, tossing his bag to the side as he removed his shoes.

"Where are you girls?" He asked, looking around.

He pouted to himself as he took out his phone.

"Go surprise him." I whispered to Minki as I put her down.

Minki looked at me.

"Go~" I gestured.

She ran towards Seungho and hugged his legs from behind.

"OMO!!" Seungho dropped his phone in surprise.

"Sweetheart!" He smiled widely, not bothering about his phone at all.

"Deedee!!" She smiled.

"Call me again~" He carried her up.

"Deedee deedee deedee!!" She giggled.

"Aigoo I love you so much!" He squeezed her.

"I am non existence already, am I?" I asked, leaning against the wall.

"Noooooooo~" He came over to kiss me on my cheek.

***
"Are you that happy?" I .

He was giggling to himself as he pat Minki to sleep.

"I am." He admitted.

"Come on. She's asleep already." I said, pulling him away.

We shifted the fort to the room so he could have the bed back. At first he was afraid she would be unhappy about it, but fortunately she was not.

"Wait~~" He said.

"Can't you at least give me a bit of your attention? I miss you too, you know." I pretended to be angry.

"Aww, don't be angry." He climbed into bed, hugging me tightly.

"Don't touch me." I elbowed his chest.

"Aww no~ I want to touch you." He said.

"That sounded wrong." I said.

"I know. Eww~" He made weird faces at me.

"How was your vacation?" I asked, lying in his arms.

"Boring without you guys. But the moment she called...." He started giggling again.

"Let me ask you a question." I said.

"Ask." He said, twirling my hair.

"Were you happier when Minki called you Deedee or when I agreed to be with you?" I asked.

"Huh? Ayeee don't ask things like that!" He pouted.

"Why not?" I asked.

"It's... it's the same level of happiness!" He said.

"Don't lie." I .

"You don't trust me." He sighed.

"Because it is an obvious lie." I said.

"It's not, okay. I... I am very happy during both occasion." He said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yea, yea. Stop asking." He frowned.

"Okay, okay. I was just teasing you." I said.

"Don't tease me on that." He said.

"Okay, another question then." I said.

"What?" He asked.

"Are you happier when I came back or when Minki called you Deedee?" I asked.

"Minji ahhh!!" He frowned.

I laughed at his whining. I miss teasing him so much.

***

Minki: Deedee!! Come home!!