“Do you know who her parents are?”

She nodded, but her thoughts paused. Does she really know who Tiffany’s parents were? Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t. She doesn’t know what’s true, and what’s not anymore.

“He’s – “ Her dad hesitated for a moment, just a short moment of thoughts before he continued again. “He was my partner, my best friend.” Taeyeon knew who her dad was referring to. She could sense the pain in his voice, clearly escaping through his smile. It wasn’t an easy topic to bring up.

“What happened?” What happened to him, what happened to her dad, what happened to Genius, and what happened to Tiffany? Taeyeon wanted to know everything, every single one of it.

“Have you seen the articles?”

Taeyeon nodded for the second time. She could see a corner of her dad’s lips tilted upwards, but she couldn’t quite figure out what it meant.

“Did you believe them?”

“I did.”

“Why?” Why. It was so easy to trust what a piece of paper wrote. But why didn’t it crossed Taeyeon’s mind that there is always two sides to a story.

“I – I…”

A short laughter ceased her thoughts right away.

“I’m not sure if I should be glad that my daughter believed the articles that I fabricated, just like how the public did, and not me, your dad.”

A sense of guilt flushed through her body. Why didn’t she believed in her dad? Was she too quick to judge?

She certainly did. Not once, but twice. Once towards her father, the other towards Tiffany.

“Seojun was a very capable man, a programmer, a gamer, and a businessman. He’s always keen to start something new, and that’s when we founded Genius. The road was tough but we fought alongside each other and never gave up. It took us years before bringing Genius up to where it is today. But even when we were at the top, Seojun wasn’t satisfied. He never was.”

“What was he unsatisfied with?”

Her dad sighed, a short one, but filled with disappointment. “Genius, me, his family, and most of all, his life. He was never satisfied with the amount of money he possess. He was never satisfied with the perfect family he had. He was never satisfied with being the top. He just never was.”

Money, family. He had everything, but why.

“He started embezzling money from Genius and started another business, privately, in secrecy, behind my back. He wanted a company of his own. He didn’t want to just be a co-founder. He wanted to be recognised solely for his own credits. He thought he could return the money after he became successful on his own feet. He was an ambitious, but selfish man.”

“Was he caught? For what he did?”

“No, initially. When his business failed, his confidence plummeted. That was the period I started being suspicious of him. I’ve never seen him that drunk, that haggard. He had changed since then.”

“And he wasn’t able to accept his own failure?”

“Because he hasn’t failed before, not even once. He had a perfect life, but he didn’t treasure it. When I found out about the money, I didn’t expose him. He didn’t know that he was cau