Five months later

May 2015

He was patiently waiting inside the coffee shop, sipping on his drink while looking through the glass window next to him, enjoying the simple scenery displayed in front of him. He looked at the time on his wristwatch and made a countdown to how many minutes were left before meeting her.

He didn’t know why he decided to come early, but he did and the wait was making him more anxious.

He didn’t know why he accepted this foolish idea coming from his friend, but now that he did, it was too late to back out, which left him no choice into meeting the mysterious woman.

With the sun of spring shining straight through the window, it blinded him for a moment, making him place his arm in front of his eyes to block the light. Feeling uncomfortable, he was about to change seats and find another table when the bell, that was hung by the door, rang, meaning that a new customer had arrived. Out of reflex, he turned around and spotted a young woman curiously looking around. His eyes wandered from the grey hat she was wearing on top of her blond hair down to her white long sleeves shirt, and to the dark blue skirt she was wearing, revealing a beautiful pair of legs that made his gaze linger a little bit too long.

From the physical description he had received from his friend, he new that the newcomer was his blind date. He fixed his jacket as he got up from his seat and prepared himself mentally. Just then, the woman in question turned her head towards him and a smile grew on her face when she recognized him from the jacket he was wearing – since it was agreed that they would do a color match – and from the greeting he did by waving his hand.

She rushed her steps towards him, her timid smile still plastered across her lips.

“I’m not late, am I?”

“Ah, no, don’t worry. I was here a little bit early.”

She chuckled at his reply and properly greeted him with a quick bow, before extending her arm for a handshake. “I’m Hyemi. Park Hyemi. It’s nice to finally meet you, hmm, Byunghee, right?”

“Yes, Jung Byunghee. It’s nice to meet you too.”

They stayed like this for a moment, sudden awkwardness in between them before Byunghee invited her to take a seat. “Hmm, if the sun bothers you, we can find another table-”

“Oh, it’s okay. I don’t mind it at all!” Her smile left him to stare at her for a moment, blown away by how beautiful she looked right now. She sat down at his previous seat while he took the chair from across the small round table, leaving him in the comfort of the shadow while Hyemi was enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun that came across of her. Another quiet moment flew between them before she decided to break the ice with a piece of information she had received from her friend.

“So~ hmm, Lina told me that you work in the music industry?”

“A-ah, yea.” A shy smile appeared on his face, his arm lifted up as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m a music producer part time and whenever the opportunity presents itself, I give myself a chance on musicals.”

“I guess that makes you a busy man, Byunghee-shi?”

“No, not really… And from the way you asked, I guess it’s a good thing?”

She lightly chuckled at his words as her mind walked down on memory lane, leaving a faint thud inside her heart. “I guess… yea…” He noticed the sudden change in her facial expression and wondered if he had done something wrong. “Is everything okay?”

“Huh? Oh, hmm, yea, sorry about that.”

“I hope that you weren’t forced to meet me here… I don’t want to be an inconvenience of some sort-”

“D-don’t be silly. I’m glad we are doing this.”

“Good, because I’m pleased as well.” She tilted her head up and caught onto his warm smile, creating a sudden jump inside her chest, and as contagious as it was, she smiled back at him. Slowly, they were starting to warm up to each other as their conversation was smoothly flowing between the two, talking from one subject before jumping onto the next. In the back of their minds, they were both happy to have given this blind date a chance, knowing that their pasts experiences weren’t so great, hence the hesitancy in this new step.

He eventually got up from his seat, deciding to go get another round of his drink. “I’m going to go get something to drink, do you want anything?”

“Hmm, an iced coffee would be nice please.”

“Iced coffee it is then~”

“Thanks.”

Just as he had walked away, Hyemi turned her head towards the window and choked on her own breath the moment her eyes landed on the small figure of Matilda. The girl was staring right back at her, her eyes showing anger as she stood frozen in her school uniform with her arms by the sides of her body, her hands into fists.

The woman quickly snapped her head on the other side, hoping that the little girl’s presence was just her imagination. She closed her eyes and took in a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down from the jumping speck of nerves that rushed across her body.

“U-Unnie…” The little girl’s voice showed so much sorrow, but the moment Hyemi opened her eyes, she could also see the disappointment that she was being stared with. “M-Matilda, what a-are you doing here?”

Just then, Byunghee had come back with two drinks in his hands. Placing them down on the table as he took his seat, his eyes shifted between the unknown little girl to his date, and could sense some kind of tension.

“Hyemi? Who is hmm… Is she your d-daughter?”

“Huh? Oh God, no, n-no, she’s hmm, i-it-it’s complicated.”

“She used to date my dad before she broke his heart.” The spite in her voice caught Hyemi by total surprise as her head turned back to Matilda with a gasp escaping while Byunghee was choking on his sip of coffee from the glare the stranger was giving him. “Matilda!”

“What? It’s true! And because of you, he’s worse than before! I don’t even see him anymore! It’s all your fault! You need to come back and fix it!”

“I-I’m not coming back. Sweetie, things just didn’t work out… We shouldn’t force things like this.”

“But daddy loved you! And you loved him too! How can you just leave like that?!”

“Matilda, please-”

“No!”

A sigh out, Hyemi looked back at Byunghee with an apologetic look on her face as she got up from her seat. “Can you just give me a moment with her? I promise I won’t be long.”

“Of course! Go ahead, I’ll wait.”

“I’m so sorry for this.”

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it.” She hesitated for a moment without looking away from him. She was about to speak up when Matilda had suddenly grabbed her wrist with full force, dragging the woman towards the restroom.

Once they were inside, the girl let go and turned back with her face still showing deep discontent.

“Is he your new boyfriend?”

“No, he’s not. It’s our first date…”

“What about dad? Was he not good enough for you?”

“Hilda, sweetheart, I told you already. Things just didn’t work out in the end-”

“You’re lying. You were happy with him! And he was happy with you! Just leave the other one and come back, please. Daddy, misses you… He doesn’t say it but I know he does, please come back.”

The despair coming from her was breaking Hyemi’s heart.

Breaking up with Changsun was one of the hardest thing she had to face and even after five months it still left an aftertaste; she knew that the moment she had the words leaving , the ending was going to get ugly and it did. What made it worse was finding out that he was falling in love with her; she couldn’t return his feelings and thus, took this chance to say that it wasn’t going to work out. She knew how heart broken he was because of the look in his eyes and it was devastating her as much, but she didn’t want to be the reason his life would be ruined, especially if her presence was also going to affect his daughter.

“Matilda, please. It’s been five months already… You have to let it go.”

“No! I’m not letting it go! You can’t do this to us!”

She crouched down to the girl’s eye level, taking her hands in hers as she softly voiced out her words. “You have to understand that relationships between adults are more complicated than what you think. Love isn’t enough sweetie, there’s so much more to it than just that.”

She pried her hands away from Hyemi’s grasp as she stepped backwards, a pout across her lips, her eyes blurring her vision from tears that were about to fall. She quickly pulled out from her backpack the fairytale book and threw on the ground, surprising Hyemi.

But what scarred her the most was the hatred in the girl’s voice.

“I hate you and I hate that stupid book! I knew fairy tales didn’t exist! And it’s all your fault!”

Hyemi was left in shock, Matilda dashed out of the restroom and ran away with her tears finally slipping down her cheeks. The sudden burst of the young one caught Byunghee’s attention, his head turning to the back to see that Hyemi hasn’t come out just yet. He frowned and got up from his seat, walking to the back, and gently knocked on the door. Leaning his ears against it, he could hear faint cries. Taking a chance, he opened the door and found his date sitting on the floor as she quietly sobbed.

Though he didn’t know the woman, the sight was breaking his heart.

He joined her as he took a seat by her side and placed his arm around her shoulders, bringing her closer against his chest for consolation. She settled comfortably in his embrace, gripping with one hand onto his shirt as she hid her face in the crook of his neck without stopping her tears.

He let her be, giving her the time to pour out her emotions.

He was gently caressing her back and tried to soothe her with comforting words, hoping that he could heal whatever heartache she was feeling at the moment.