Jaejoong winces as the door slams, reaching out to steady the antique vase that threatens to fall as the walls shake. Honestly he has no idea why he even has that thing anymore- he doesn’t even like it. Plus it belonged to his first wife, and she left almost twenty years ago. Or maybe his third wife, in which case it would have been six years ago. Either way, the vase needs to go, but that’s not his biggest problem right now.

He can hear Jaejin fuming and storming around her room from the first floor, and for a moment he considers going upstairs and trying to talk to her, but decides in the end that she needs some time alone and instead flops down on the couch, rubbing his hands over his face.

“I’m too old for this,” he mutters, and it only depresses him more. It’s times like these when Jaejoong wishes he had just done as the Cassies wanted and married Yunho. At least if he’d done that, he wouldn’t have to worry about his young, innocent, too-pretty-for-her-own-good daughter running about with his genes.

Then he takes it back, because he’s not sorry that he had Jaejin, he’s just sorry that she looks like him. And he’s sorry that his daughter is a perfectly bright and responsible child, the “Mother’s friend’s daughter” that always gets mentioned. The lowest grade she ever got was a B-, and it was in Chemistry; she’s always home by 9:00, even though her official curfew is ten; she sings in the church choir and she wants to teach Sunday school when she’s older. But she’s young and naïve, and when his sixteen year old daughter – who inherited her father’s doe-eyes, baby face, porcelain skin and killer smile comes bounding downstairs in tiny shorts and a sheer tank top, what else is he supposed to do but tell her that she needs to change clothes now?

Jaejin may have inherited his looks, but she’s got her mother’s temper, and that means that she’s stubborn, hot-tempered and has to have it her way or her way. The words “No” and “Compromise” are not in her vocabulary, and the phrase “Because I said so,” does not make her happy. The conversation replays behind his eyelids like a movie.

“Daddy, I can’t put a sweater on- it’s 98 degrees outside!”

“I don’t care. Go change into something more modest.”

“’Modest!!’ It’s hot out! Do you want me to get heatstroke and die?!”

“You won’t die if you put on a t-shirt and some longer pants.”

“Mama lets me wear whatever I want.”

“Well I am not your mother, and honestly I’m not surprised that she lets you walk out like that.”

Jaejin’s eyes narrowed at that, and if he was honest it was a pretty stupid thing to say.

“Like what, Daddy? Like a ? Is that what you want to say I look like?”

“Don’t you dare try to turn me into a villain here, young lady,” he said, matching his daughters frigid tone. “You know perfectly well that that is not at all what I am trying to say, and you also know that I trust you to be responsible. It’s the rest of the world that I don’t trust.”

That’s another thing that she hates to hear, and she smacked her hand against the table. “The rest of the world is not made solely of rapists and muggers, daddy. And what happened to innocent until proven guilty? How am I supposed to get anywhere in life if I’m constantly keeping an eye out for the bad people? Why can’t the world be positive for once?!?”

“Because the world isn’t positive, because I am your father and because I said so,” he yelled, finally losing his temper. “In the time you spent arguing with me you could have been changed and been on your way. Now either you will put something else on or you will spend the rest of the day in your room.”

She glared at him, her face flushed and eyes hard and furious. Finally she her heel and stalked up the stairs.

“I wish mama was here and not you!” She screamed before she slammed the door shut.

Jaejoong bangs his head against the back of the sofa, cursing himself for losing his temper and letting the argument get out of control.

‘At least,’ he thinks to himself as he pulls his phone from his pocket, ‘If Yunho was here he would know what to do. He always seems to know what to do.’

And it’s true- he knows Yunho’s son and daughter never give him the kind of attitude that Jaejin does. But Jaejoong has no idea what his friend does differently, as Yunho is even more of a pushover than he is!

Still, Jaejoong feels like Yunho would be better at handling situations like this than he would.

“Hello?”

“Yunho, do you feel like YunJae could still be an option for us?”

Yunho laughs and Jaejoong hears a rustle of paper in the background and figures that Yunho must be working on writing another song.

“What brought this on?”

Jaejoong sighs. “I said some stupid things to Jaejin just now.”

“Oh,” Yunho says. “Oh, boy. What happened now?”

“I just…is it so wrong that I asked her to put on some different clothes? I always wind up feeling like the bad guy, or like I’ve done something wrong. It’s like living with her all over again- except I can’t divorce my daughter!”

It’s Yunho’s turn to sigh. “You’re right, it’s not wrong to ask her to change, your problem is that you say it in a way that she doesn’t like. You make it sound like she had no other choice-“

“Because she doesn’t!” Jaejoong interrupts.

“I know that, but you can’t make her feel like that! Jaejin wants things done on her terms, you have to make it seem like it’s her idea.”

“And how do I do that?”

“Suggest that the outfit might look better with a different shirt…offer to help her pick one out.”

Jaejoong snorts. “I’m her father- isn’t that the kind of thing she wants to hear from her mother?”

“You’d be surprised at how much Jaejin values your opinion,” Yunho tells him seriously. “And honestly, she expects you to know something about fashion. You were a style icon for much of your young adult life; hell you still are! In this case, having her father help her pick an outfit is not going to surprise her.”

Jaejoong stands up and paces the room. “I suppose,” he admits. “God, seriously though…why do I always screw things up with her? I know all of this, I swear! It’s just…I can never seem to remember it when it counts.”

He feels guilty now and knows he needs to go and make  things right with her, and at the same time he doesn’t want to hang up the phone. He wishes he was still 19 and still singing with TVXQ, and their problems did not involve ex-wives and difficult daughters and everything could be made better with a hug from one of his band mates.

“You’ll get it,” Yunho tells him gently. “It may take some time, but you’ll get it.”

“She’s sixteen, Yunho,” Jaejoong says, a hint of a whine in his voice. “I don’t have time. I feel like I’m losing her.”

“You aren’t,” Yunho says firmly. “Honestly, she’s more like you than you think. You both say stupid things in the heat of the moment and you don’t ever mean a word of it, and you feel horrible afterwards.”

Jaejoong manages a weak laugh. “How do you know all of this?”

“Our daughters have no secrets from each other, Jaejoong,” Yunho reminds him. “And my girl cannot keep anything to herself.”

Jaejoong knows that this is true, and he’s feeling a bit better about the whole thing. Still, he can’t help but add,

“For real, though. You ever think about YunJae? Because I feel like you’d be a better parent for Jaejin than I ever could be.”

They both laugh this time.

“Yeah, how about you take me on a date before you start talking about parenthood, buddy?” Yunho teases.

“I’ll get back to on that,” Jaejoong says lightly. “First I have to go tell my daughter that I love her.”

“Good luck,” Yunho says as they hang up.

‘Good luck’ is not something that seems to be Jaejoong’s friend. And in all honesty, he’s kind of serious about the YunJae thing. The sad truth is, even when you include the fiasco that was the lawsuit and their years apart, Yunho is probably the longest and healthiest relationship he’s ever had. Hell, it definitely is. Three divorces behind him and several more years of shared custody in front of him proves that, and he can’t say Yunho is much better off. He did confess to Jaejoong that he knew about the cancer long before he proposed to his wife, and he knew going into it that her time was limited. She died almost eleven years ago, and Yunho has said many times that she wanted him to move on and find someone to grow old with, but he hasn’t dated anyone in such a long time. Yoochun, Junsu and Changmin seem to be alright though, and he wonders how they managed to escape the relationship rollercoaster.

He stops thinking about that as he mounts the stairs and makes his way to Jaejin’s room, knocking softly.

“What?” Jaejin calls.

“Can we talk?” He asks hesitantly, not sure if her tone is annoyed or just tired. There’s a beat of silence and she sighs.

“It’s not locked.”

He pushes the door open slowly and sees his daughter seated in the middle of her bed. His heart lifts when he sees that she has indeed changed her shirt to something more modest, even if the shorts still remain.

“You look beautiful,” he tells her as he sits beside her.

“You say that even if I was wearing hobo clothes,” she says as she rolls her eyes, but her tone is light and he knows she’s teasing him.

“You’re right, I would. Because it would be true,” he says with a smile.

Jaejin wraps her arms round him and leans her head against his shoulder, and he hugs her back and kisses her forehead.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” he says.

“I don’t wish mama was here instead of you,” she says, her voice muffled and choked and he realizes with a start that she’s crying. She hasn’t cried in front of him in five years. He holds her tighter and her hair softly.

“I know, honey,” he whispers, feeling tears prick his own eyes. “I know you didn’t mean it.”

She sniffles, burying her face deeper into his chest. “I love you,” she tells him.

“I love you, too.”

She pulls away eventually, and it takes everything in him not to stop her, not to pull her back and hug her and make her stay with him for a few more minutes. Except a few more minutes is never enough time, not when you’re watching your daughter grow up seemingly overnight and change before your very eyes. How long has it been since he was able to carry her up to bed? How long ago was it that she sat in his lap and begged him for one more bedtime story? When did she stop wearing her favorite “My Little Pony” t-shirt- the one that she wore for days until he finally made her take it off and wash it? Did it happen when he wasn’t looking? Was it very sudden, or gradual? When did she hiss at him to stop holding her hand because she was old enough to cross the street by herself? When did “She’ll grow up later” turn into “Now”? She may be sixteen but she’ll always be his little girl, and he has to treasure every moment he has with her and make it last as long as he can, because one day she’ll have her own family and he’ll have those memories more often than he’ll have her.

He holds onto her hand for a minute before she wipes her eyes and says that she’s late and needs to leave. So he pushes aside his midlife crisis, hugs her one more time and lets her peck him on the cheek (He remembers when she made him be Sleeping Beauty and she had to kiss him to wake him up. Was that really twelve years ago?).

“Oh, and daddy?” She says, turning around on her way out the door and grinning at him. “I wouldn’t mind having a stepsister and stepbrother.”

He blinks at her blankly. “Huh?”

She laughs at his confusion. “You and Uncle Yunho would look really cute together, and I honestly think that it would be cool to have two dad’s.”

She winks at him and floats out the door.

Jaejoong stands in stunned silence for a full five minutes, trying to process what his daughter just said to him. Then he grabs his phone and hits redial.

“We’re going out for a drink,” he tells Yunho firmly. “I have a feeling I’m going to need a large amount of alcohol before I am able to process what my daughter just said to me.”

*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5

This is probably the scariest story I have ever written; far scarier than the .

One, because in the fight scene I basically threw in everything my parents ever said to me and then I was writing from a parent’s perspective and I was just like, “Ew, I see their point now!!” I’m thinking like an adult ><

Two, I honest to god almost started crying when I wrote the part about Jaejin growing up and Jaejoong wondering when it happened. Yeah. Nearly sobbed my eyes out.

Fun fact- I wasn’t going to give the daughter a name at first, but eventually I realized that I had to. And then I was gonna call her “Jaein,” but I kept typing “Jaejin”. After about the third time I was just like, “ it; let’s just roll with it.”

In conclusion- be nice to your parents.

PS- This ending screams of drunk YunJae to follow, doesn’t it? ;)

PPS- DON’T ASK ME TO WRITE IT.

(I might write it anyway if I’m really bored/so inclined. DON’T JUDGE ME!!!!)