A week passed since then and Hyemi was ignoring Changsun’s endless calls and text messages that he kept sending her since they parted on their date night. By the days, they were decreasing until she thought he had finally given up, going through her day without being bothered by the ringtone of her phone.

As for her usual meet ups with Matilda at the library, things have turned slightly awkward for the older woman but tried to move past the uncomfortable feeling; the little girl hasn’t been yet told about the date with her father and preferred to keep it that way.

With Matilda back spending the week at her father’s, the man himself has been trying to get his daughter to know more about Hyemi, trying to figure out how to ask for forgiveness for ruining their dinner; now that he had given up on calling her, he wanted to find another way to make her talk to him. He wanted a second chance and prove to her that he wasn’t all about work.

It pained him to see how their night turned out since it was one of the reason his marriage didn’t last; he didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.

It ached so that he could barely focus at work, drifting in and out during meetings or alone inside his personal office. He would sigh in frustration while messing up his dark brown hair and try to regain back his focus onto his job.

He didn’t know why it bothered him so much though. All he consciously knew was that he wanted to make it up to her, to find a way to make her disappointment go away and change her mind about him.

“Daddy?”

Lifting his head up from his paperwork on his desk back at his company, Changsun spotted his little girl standing by the entrance of his office. The mere sight made him instantly smile as he got up from his seat to welcome Matilda with a bear hug.

The little six year old ran to her father as she hugged him back with her arms tight around his neck. “How was your day sweetie?”

“Good. Do you still have work to do?”

A peck on her forehead, Changsun pulled away and showed an apologetic smile at the girl. “I don’t have much left though. You can stay on the couch if you want. Give me an hour and we can go home, okay?”

“Mhmm.” She took her seat on the sofa facing her father and took out the fairytale book from her school bag, placing it on her lap as she opened to the bookmarked page, going back to her reading. Changsun had glanced up from his desk where his eyes had landed on Matilda as she had her full focus on the book. A smile stretched from the corner of his lips watching her until he looked at the book she was holding.

He bit his lower lip, lost in thoughts once again.

He had imagined a whole turn around of that date night, where things would’ve gone smoothly and where he would’ve asked her out once more as he would bid her goodnight with a soft kiss on her cheek.

“Daddy, are you okay?”

“Huh?”

“You’ve been spacing out again…”

“O-oh, sorry.” Shaking his thoughts out, he dropped his head back down onto the papers in front of him and let out a sigh, trying to put his focus back onto his work. Matilda was still looking at her father, sensing that something was wrong. “Daddy? Why don’t we go home? You look tired…”

He gazed back up at the little girl and saw the worry in her eyes. It sent an ache in his heart as he breathed out once more before getting up from his seat and fixing his desk into order. “Home it is then~” He lightly smiled at her for reassurance leaving her to stare back at him with the corners of her lips faintly going up.

“Did you see Hyemi today?”

“Hmm, no. She started her internship today. Why?”

“I was just curious.” That’s when he remembered the part of their conversation through dinner where she had mentioned about the extra credit she needed to fill in order to fully graduate.

“Honey, did she tell you where she was going to work?”

“Hyemi! Hyemi!”

“Huh? Yea?” Just as she entered the office from the elevator, a co-worker had quickly grabbed onto the girl’s arm as she dragged her towards her desk, a glint of excitement flashing across her eyes. “Y-yah! What’s going on?”

“You got a secret admirer~”

“What are you talking about? W-wait! Slow down!”

Just then, she spotted a large bouquet filled with roses from all different colors placed on the center of her small desk with a card attached to the glass vase. At the sight, a smile quickly grew across her lips as she stepped closer to her desk, letting her fingers leave featherlike touches on the top of the flowers. “Did you see who sent them?”

“Nope. It was just the delivery man that came with this and asked for you, that’s about it.”

Spotting the card, she picked it up and opened it, revealing an unfamiliar handwriting until her eyes were reading the words, feeling an immediate tug in her heart.

‘I was stupid for acting the way I did the other night and I’m sorry for ruining what could’ve been the best night for us. Please accept this bouquet of roses as an apology and as a way to ask you for a second chance. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.’

She sat down at her desk while re-reading over and over again the words on the cards. Even after a week, she was still upset and still not over how she was easily blown off by the same man that had just sent her flowers.

From the first glance she had on him, he had instantly caught her attention.

Her heart did a leap and it caught her breathless just for a second, her eyes took in what she could see from his physical appearance in front of her. The neatly ruffled hair, the dark brown eyes gazing intently at her, the sharp yet inviting jawline making her think sinfully, the nose, the lips; she wasn’t denying that she found him attractive, which drove her mind to think of him from time to time.

After their breakfast ‘date’, she found him even more alluring and completely charming, swept away by his kindness and especially his smile – that could’ve easily brighten up a room alone – with a twinkle of happiness in his eyes and a faint dimple appearing on his right cheek.

And when he had asked her out, she couldn’t stop squealing like a typical high school girl that had just been asked out by her crush. She was nervous and excited having butterflies in the pit of her stomach through the day until the unfortunate event had happened, making her heart suddenly drop at his carelessness.

Shaking her head back to reality, she placed the letter in one of her desk drawers and pushed the vase further away for space.

She gave one glance at them and sighed, partly disappointment even though she found the gesture quite nice of him, before turning back to face her computer and started her work.

At the end of the day, Hyemi had received a surprise visit of Matilda as the little girl happily strode her way to Hyemi’s desk.

“Matilda? What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see you.”

The older woman chuckled at the simple answer of the six year old until her smile disappeared as she noticed something strange about the girl’s appearance. “Sweetie, are you okay? You don’t look so well.”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me.”

“Matilda, you look kind of pale. Are you sick?” She didn’t give her the chance to answer as she crouched down and placed the back of her hand against Matilda’s forehead and gasped at the sudden heat she felt.

“You’re burning up! Why aren’t you resting at home?”

“I was at school-”

“Your father made you go to school?!”

“I’m fine, really!” The little one just started coughing, making Hyemi even more worried about her state. “Let me take you home, okay?”

“Mhmm, okay.”

“I can’t believe your father would be so stupid to-”

“Don’t blame him, he doesn’t know.”

“Then why didn’t you tell him?” Matilda only shrugged, feeling slightly guilty for worrying Hyemi like this and having her father take the blame when he wasn’t even at fault. “Sorry…”

Another sigh came out of Hyemi as she had calmed down.

“It’s okay. Just let me take you home so you can rest, okay?”