Sungjong’s father eyed the nurse who just came out from her patient’s room and walked away from them. He then looked at Myungsoo who was kneeling in front of him, asking for his forgiveness, and randomly blurted out permission to marry his elder son. He let out a small chuckled.

With a soft voice, he called out the young man. “Myungsoo-yah, get up, son. Come sit next to me and we shall have a proper discussion.”

Myungsoo was too afraid to face up Sungjong’s father. He even trembled a little. 

Why would uncle be so nice to him? Why he wouldn’t punch him? Scold him? He deserves all the hate in this world throws at him! Is this a trap? It must be it! He is going to die young!

“My, my, am I that scary that you can’t even meet my eyes? What did Sungjong ever tell you about me, huh? It’s okay, you can stop kneeling and sit with me right now before I really become mad at you,” Mr. Lee was obviously kidding but Myungsoo was quick on his steps and took a seat next to Sungjong’s father.

“My apologies, uncle,” Myungsoo said immediately.
Mr. Lee chuckled a bit and took one of Myungsoo’s hand in his. “So, you’re the baby daddy?”

“Ye—yes, yes I am. I never thought it would turned out like this. It was never our plan.”

“Do you serious with Sungjong, Myungsoo?”

“Yes I am!” Myungsoo answered without hesitation.

“How you know you are, son? Sorry, I’m not trying to pry but it seems like you and Sungjong aren’t in a good term, judging how he screamed at your face before. If I’m going to be honest here, Sungjong looks like he doesn’t want to be with you, so how you’re going to marry him? Even lets say Sungjong’s mum and I gave our blessing and permission to you, who are you going to marry at this rate?”

Mr. Lee’s gaze was kind of intense and it made Myungsoo nervous. This was harder than telling Sungjong he was the father. Myungsoo cursed himself for ever getting into a mess like this. “I.. I hurt him, in so many possible ways, and it is understandable that he hates me. But I’m gonna change that! I’ll be so good to him and the baby and you and auntie and Sunkyu; I promise.”

“Don’t promise me, son, promise Sungjong. Me and Sungjong’s mum and his little brother is the least of your worries to be frank. How I’m going to marry my son to someone who he obviously uncomfortable with? That would be cruel of me. Just like you, Sungjong’s happiness is my priority too. Do tell me, Myungsoo, what do you think of marriage?”

“It’s based of love?”

Sungjong’s father cleared out his throat a bit. “Let me break this one to you. Marriage is not solely about love. It’s love and many more. Sometimes love could be the last thing on the list. Marriage is partnership, companionship, and mutual help and comfort and trust and responsibilities. I think your parents would be agree with me saying it’s not always pleasant because marriage cost you. You lose a part of yourself within the glory of it. You exchange a little bit of who you are for a little bit of who your spouse is. You learn to give and take. You learn to let go of things that don’t really matter.” 

Mr. Lee sighed before continued, “Before marriage, you can’t really comprehend the strong feelings going anywhere but higher. Then one day, you realize that feelings can’t really be trusted because some days you feel you may not even like each other. Feelings come, but feeling also go. Marriage is constantly choosing to love, to give and to serve because of the commitment you have made. It’s choosing the other instead of choosing yourself. That’s the very definition of love in it’s truest form; love isn’t just a feeling, it’s a series of decisions. So I ask you, Kim Myungsoo, are you ready for it?”

“I had to,” Myungsoo answered with a small voice.

“You had to? Why you really want to marry Sungjong? What makes you decided to marry him?”

“Aside from the fact that I love him so much, at this point I don’t want to think about future without being together with Sungjong because to me it’s not sound so right - I want our baby to have its father, too.”

“Oh, son, even if Sungjong is pregnant right now, he isn’t a girl if you have forgotten.”

“I mean-I mean its other father. Sungjong can get called as appa, while kid can call me papa or daddy or father or whatever he or she likes, I just--,”

“I know, I know, I understand that, son, I was just playing with you.” Mr. Lee’s laughter was warm and ensuring and it made Myungsoo calm a little but unfortunately he was this close to cry. Because he was scared and nervous and he kind of lost himself, his mind - oh well.

“Another quick question, Myungsoo, do your parents know about this? The whole things; between you and Sungjong, Sungjong being pregnant, your decision to marry him; do they aware any of these?”

Myungsoo avoided Mr. Lee’s eyes. “No. They know nothing. They have no clue about everything that happened. Except my little brother, Moonsoo,” he said honestly, wiping at his eyes. He hated not being able in control of his emotions. “I guess things were moving too fast and I don’t have enough time to grasp them. We--we kind of had this thing before the concert and I don’t know… something went wrong. I was.. I wasn’t thinking through. It’s true what Sungjong said about me, I ruined him. I shouldn’t have done that. I need him to know that I deadly serious to make this up to him.”

Mr. Lee looked at Myungsoo earnestly and said, “Son, calm down, okay. It seems to me you need to sort out a few things first. Make it right to Sungjong, no matter how long it may takes, how hard it’s going to be. After that, explain this to your parents. Do these two perfectly, then come to me again, we’ll talk about this together again. Maybe that time with my wife too, but I know you got the idea.”

“Yes, sir!”

“But you know what, if my wife and I had taught both Sungjong and his brother right, he would be understand the truest meaning of forgiveness. The biggest lesson is that true forgiveness comes not because the person standing before you is deserving. Rather, it comes out of a heart that understands how much we’ve been forgiven though we, too, were undeserving. He is a good, nice kid, Sungjong is, so rest ensure Myungsoo. You guys need a nice talk together.”

Myungsoo laughed nervously while rubbing his neck, “Well, I do wonder how to get to the talk without it turns completely wild to screaming and cursing and ends up archiving nothing.”

Mr. Lee let out a laugh, “That son, I trust you to figure it out yourself. Technically, this is like the tip of the iceberg for marriage. Best of luck!” he patted Myungsoo’s shoulder a few times before they shared a laugh and a hug. Myungsoo never thought talking with Sungjong’s dad would be this pleasant and encouraging.

Mr. Lee made a mistake before, for being misjudged and misunderstanding of his own son when he first found out Sungjong was pregnant. That was really bad example of happy family. He learned his lessons, he won’t do it twice. It was going to be a bumpy road from now on, but at least he can promise that it would be less miserable with his support and