After the encounter, the weekend passed and now it was back to Monday morning, the weekly routine taking back its course with Matilda being dropped off in front of the school gate by her father, before he was making his way to work.

After last night he decided that it would be a good idea if he took his personal car and drove his daughter to school, something they haven’t done in a long time, which obviously left Matilda in a happy mood for the rest of the day.

As for Hyemi, she was in a rush as she ran to her car that was parked in the underground garage of the building, since she was already late for her morning shift. Looking at the clock, she didn’t have time to stop to pick up a quick breakfast, so she simply decided to make her way straight to work.

This is where the ‘bump’ happened.

Of course, since she was in a rush, she didn’t have time to get properly dressed up, which lead her to finish up the task with every red light on the street.

With one last red light before turning on the street corner to the library, it quickly turned green while she was still trying to put her blazer on, cursing inwardly for her lack of luck. Just for a second, she was looking down and that’s when she felt a shake.

Shooting her head back up, she gasped at the sight, leaving her to panic even more.

She jumped out of the car, quickening her step towards the front of her car that was lightly smashed up with the back of the car that was in front of her.

“Crap. Damn it!” Running her fingers through her blond-light orange messy hair, she saw the other person coming out of its car and quickly recognized him as Matilda’s father. She cursed at herself again as she saw his surprised look before walking up to her. “I’m so sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going! I-I’ll pay for the damage, all of it!”

“It’s Hyemi, right?”

“Y-yes… I’m sorry for hitting you. I’m late for w-work and-”

“It’s okay, the insurance well cover for it-”

“I don’t have insurance…”

“Then let me take care of it.”

“I can’t let you do that. I’m at fault here, I take full responsibility for the damages.”

“What damages? It’s just a scratch-”

“That I will repair, I promise!”

Changsun sighed through a faint amused smile appearing on his lips. He took a look at their cars before glancing down at his wristwatch and lifting his head back up to look at a worry some Hyemi. “How about this then? Buy me breakfast and we’ll call it even. It will give me the chance to know more about my daughter’s new friend.”

Speechless, she stared at the man while trying to muster a response to his invitation. She looked down her own watch and sighed, noticing that she was going to be late either way. Looking back up at him, she accepted the offer. “But… how about your job?”

“I’m the boss; I’ll just call my secretary to let her know about this and that I will be late. It’s no problem.”

“Are you sure?”

“If I wasn’t, I would’ve left already… Let’s take our cars to the closest garage for reparation and we’ll use this free time for breakfast.”

She was looking at him, trying to form words on the tip of her tongue but all she could do was hastily nod her head, agreeing to his request. The sight made him smile, a light chuckle coming out from the way she had her eyes on him, appearing slightly shy. “It’s settled then! I know a place that is just a few blocks away from here, it should just take us a few minutes to arrive.”

“O-kay, I’ll be right behind you.”

Climbing back inside their respective cars, Hyemi followed Joon to their destination and once they arrived, he had jumped out of his car to greet one of the workers, explaining to him the situation. One quick handshake and Changsun was back walking to Hyemi, letting her know that they will fix the cars right away. “H-huh? How did you do that?”

“I know the guy. I just have to do him a favor in return, don’t worry about it. Shall we go?”

“H-hmm, yea, sure…”

Strapping her bag on her shoulder, she crossed her arms over her chest, making it seem like she was hugging herself and started walking by Changsun’s side, his hands in his pants pocket as he was looking down on the ground, no words escaping out of their mouths.

The air between them was tense and awkward but soon changed at the sight of a young girl, around Matilda’s age, who was walking the opposite way while holding onto her mother’s hand on one side with her father’s on the other, while carrying a lively conversation with the young one giggling in happiness.

A warm smile spread across Hyemi’s face, following the little girl with her eyes until it made her head turn to the back before looking back in front of her, a sigh coming out of . Changsun noticed her action as he watched her from the corner of his eyes, a discreet affectionate smile appearing across his lips. “How is Matilda doing?”

“Good, good. She really likes you.”

“Really?”

“Mhmm. The library became her new favorite place just because you work there.” He curled his lips into a smile as a soft chuckle came out, his head turned to look at Hyemi who was looking in front of her, not hiding her grin. “She’s a sweet girl… and pretty insightful too for someone her age. She is a year younger than she is suppose to be for school, right?”

“Mhmm. The funny thing is, she was the one that wanted to go.”

“How did that happen?” Just as he was about to answer, they came across a coffee shop and decided to wait here until their cars were fixed. Taking their seats after settling their orders, Changsun looked up at Hyemi as she fixed her morning coffee the way she liked with her milk and sugar. His eyes warmed up at his view as he saw how focused she seemed to be on having the right taste for her drink.

She glanced up at the man, suddenly stopping what she was doing as she felt her cheeks heat up, blushing at his gaze.

Changsun chuckled, leaving Hyemi to see the dimples on his cheeks, something she found quite adorable for a man his age. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare, you just looked so focused with that coffee.”

“Y-yea, hmm, I only like my coffee if there’s milk and sugar… especially sugar. I like it sweet.” A slight curl up from one corner of her lips, the man nodded at the new information, looking down his own drink before taking in a small sip.

“As for Matilda, the reason why she wanted to go to school so early was because she said that she was bored with kindergarten.”

“You must’ve been proud to see her being enthusiastic about, well… going to school~”

“I was but at the same time I got worried about it.”

“Why?”

“Because it meant that she wanted to grow up. I like having Matilda as my little girl. I guess I’m just not ready to see her grow up.”

“I don’t think you’re the only parent that feels this way.” The faint frown on his face as he spoke about his daughter made her reach out for his hand that was resting on the table, out of instinct, while she was softly gazing at him, giving him reassurance.

He lifted his head up to her, suddenly feeling the pace of his beating heart go up a notch, just like the other night when he first met her. Realizing that their hands were touching, she quickly pulled away while she mumbled an apology, breaking away from his stare. “I-I’m sorry-”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“Because I was being inappropriate towards a married man, that’s why.”

“I’m not married though.”

“O-oh? W-what happened to Mrs. Lee?”

“We divorced a few years back.”

“I’m sorry to hear about that… How about Matilda?”

“It was hard at first but since it was done in an amicable way, she didn’t seem to have suffered as much.”

“I doubt that though.”

“How come?”

“Because I’ve been there too. No matter what are the reasons for separation or no matter how it was done, it’s always the biggest blow to the child… My parents got divorced when I was around eight years old. It was done amicably too but it didn’t change the fact that my mom and dad weren’t together anymore, that the whole perfect family image was gone the moment they decided to live apart.” She had her eyes on the surface of her cup of coffee the whole time she was speaking, her words softly coming out of .

Changsun looked at her with certain sadness in his eyes, putting all ears to her backstory. He had the chance to live a perfectly normal childhood and felt his heart torn when he had to separate from his wife, ending the fantasy of wanting a marriage just like his parents. Even though he married very young, he only thought that his ‘forever’ would last longer.

“It was hard to cope with it. Jumping from one house to the other was becoming exhausting and because of that I never really did much anymore. I locked myself up in my bedroom, either at my mom’s or at my dad’s, and buried myself with books. Mostly fairytales… They gave me hope that one day I’ll get to have a happily ever after, that maybe I’ll be part of the rule and not the exception.”

A serene silence settled around them as she ended her sentence. With a deep sigh out of , the expression on her face showed him the longing she was feeling; he felt a slight ache in his heart and remembered about the little girl on the street walking between her parents and the stare she was giving them.

It was his turn to reassure her.

“You’ll have that happily ever after, don’t worry.”

She tried to hide her blush by giggling lightly, speaking back to him. “It looks like Matilda’s fantasies are rubbing off on you.”

“Well, I should thank that fairytale book you lent to her last week.”

“O-oh, yea. I almost forgot about that.”

“How did you know that she would like something like this?”

“She’s a six years old girl. Every little girl has that phase with the princess and the knight in shining armor living there happily ever after. It’s normal.”

“And I bet you speak of personal experience?” The playful smirk appearing on his lips made her bite her own as she shook her head from the intention behind his words. “Maybe I am~”

He was about to reply when his phone suddenly went off. Answering it, Changsun let Hyemi know that their cars were ready, which meant that their little breakfast free time was already over. Once they walked back to the garage, they bid goodbye and went off their opposite way with the man back to his office and Hyemi back to her place, taking this chance of a ‘day off’ to advance in her studies for her night classes later today.

Back to little Matilda, her day was finally over and this time she wasn’t waiting for her father to pick her up but for her mother, who was more punctual than her ex-husband.

As she stepped out of the building, Matilda quickly spotted her mother; a smile spread across her face, she ran to the woman as she happily greeted her with a bear hug, the woman responding back as she tightly held onto her daughter.

“How was your day sweetie?”

“It was okay. Nothing special happened.”

“That is school for you~”

Taking a hold of her hand, Matilda followed her mother to the car, letting her daughter climb in the back seat before she made her way to the front, turning on the ignition before driving off to their place. “How is your father?”

“He’s good… Still works a lot though…”

From the review mirror, the lady looked back in front of her, mumbling words that her daughter couldn’t hear. “I guess things never change…” A short sigh out of , she glanced back up at Matilda with a blooming smile across her face earning the same gesture from the little girl. “How about we get pizza before going back home, hmm? I want you to tell me everything that you did last week, okay? Your father doesn’t tell me anything anymore~”

“Yes! I have so much to tell you mom!”

The sudden excitement on the little girl’s face made her mother’s beam grow wider, never tired of seeing that genuine grin on Matilda’s face.