I do the same to leave the table but notice that she is waiting for me to lead the way, so I walk forward and stretch my hand out to tell her to hold it, and she intertwines our fingers.

Now that we are leaving the restaurant, I get my phone out to read the text Joonha sent me.

< the power went out in the house, what do I do?;-; ]

[ turn it back on >

< you're a funny dad:) ]

[ I know. Before you do this, make sure you're not the one who caused this. If you're not, just push the button with a red mark on it, nothing else >

< it happened a few minutes after I plugged two fans on the same power trip in my room ]

[ why did you put two fans? Just unplug it and turn all the lights off before turning the power back on >

< for Choco, he's on the bed while I'm on my chair and it's hot, he needs fresh air too ]

[ 😐 He doesn't need a fan, dummy >

< how do you know, have you asked him if he doesn't like some cold air? ]

[ it's not hot enough for him to need one >

< well, I still know he likes it ]

[ but the power doesn't, so you use only one fan in your room >

< yeah:< ]

I put my phone in my pocket to not be focused on anything other than y/n, and I look at her as we are walking on the bridge. "What nicknames do you like the most?" I randomly ask, willing to get to know more about certain preferences. "I love when you call me 'sweetheart' and your little girl a lot, but I love 'baby' too, 'babe', 'babygirl', and many others. I just love it more when I don't expect it and that it comes from you," she does not hide anything at all. "But what about you?"

"Honestly, there aren't any nicknames that I don't like, I feel the same way as you do about it, I love it when it naturally comes from you," I tell her what I think, and she glances down at the planks of the bridge. "Not any? Really?"

"Yes, I cannot think of any nicknames I'd dislike hearing from you," I shrug, not having a single one on my mind. "Sure?"

This insistence provokes some confusion and surprise, and I stare at her, wondering what she means by that. "Yes, sure. Why so doubtful? Is there a nickname you want to call me but feel too shy?"

"No...I just feel like you haven't thought about all types of nicknames," she makes it obvious she wants to let one out, so I spur her to do so. "Tell me the one you think of then. I'll tell you how it makes me feel," I check where I am going since we are close to the end of the bridge, and she grins. "I never called you by your name though, but I like calling you Mister Jeon."

"I love it too," I do not even keep it to myself, feeling like I have played enough to let go and let her know more about some of my weaknesses. "Oh, I'll keep calling you that then, but what about honey?"

"Oh, I love honey so much too," I smile at the sound of her saying it, and I turn to the right to head towards the beach. "And daddy?"

I lick my lips and unconsciously bite them. "You're teasing me now, uh?"

"What? I'm not!" she denies it with some fake shock, and I laugh. "Sure, you do love acting all innocent," I do not answer the question yet, seeing how fidgety she became after I did not let this go unnoticed. "I'm not even doing that...You're lying..." she looks straight before her, but I keep all my attention over her. "Hm, whatever you say, I love this nickname too."

My reply gets her to dart her eyes up as if she was not expecting this, but I pretend to not think much of this, despite the way this makes me feel to be called like that by her.

"Anyway," I drift this to another topic, feeling like this was the nickname she had on her mind this whole time. "This is where I wanted to go with you," I stop in front of the stairs that go down to the sand. "I wanted to have a walk here. Talk with you, get to know a bit more about each other...It was important to me."

"I always hoped to do something like that, so you have no idea how happy I am, truly," she expresses some sincere emotions that do not contradict her words, and I feel the relief spread through my body. "Well, let's walk on the sand then. I'm just going to take my shoes and socks off because walking with dress shoes in the sand is not the easiest thing to do," I do as I said, and she does it as well, probably knowing she will be more comfortable without them. We both take hold of them to not leave anything here, and I let her go first. We go down the stairs and reach the sand together, and I take her hand again to have a slow walk towards the water.

"So, there was a thing I wanted to talk about with you," I do not remain silent for too long and broach the matter I have been concerned about since this morning. "Tell me."

"I want to know how you feel about the relationship I have with my ex-wife. It is not something I like to talk about since I find it disrespectful to bring ex-partners up when you're dating someone new, but this is important to me because I want to know how you feel about it, and what might make you feel uncomfortable or hurt," I do not fear to talk it out, taking this seriously. She keeps her eyes low to watch her steps, and she shrugs. "I don't know. I don't like to give my opinion about it because I don't have anything to say about it since you were married and had a baby together. I don't have a word to say about it."

"What are you talking about? You do have a word to say about it, your opinion is very important. I wouldn't want us to argue because we didn't have this talk beforehand. You can tell me, there's nothing wrong about feeling uncomfortable, I just want to talk about it with you right away and make sure there won't be any misunderstanding in the future," I correct her words to not let her think that. "I'm still unsure about that kind of stuff...so it's difficult for me to not be jealous or fearful, but I'll never say anything about it because I know I'm the problem. I'm just not used to it, and my last experience did not help at all."

"What do you mean by 'fearful'?" I point this out, and she gazes up at the waves some feet before us. "Feeling like I'm not as good as your wife was, or that you'll always unwittingly compare me to her...I don't know, it's just dumb."

"It's not dumb," I reassure her, making sure she knows I understand her. "It's completely normal. I was very jealous when I was young, and I would always believe that other guys were better than me so that no girls would ever want to date me, but as I matured up, I understood that you'll always be a special person for someone, and if that someone loves you, no matter how many other men or women they could have, they won't care about anyone but you because you're the one they want, you're the one they're attracted to, the one they fell for, that they want to spend time and share many things with. So, I don't want you to have such thoughts and fears on your mind, alright? My ex-wife and I divorced because we didn't love each other anymore, we had no feelings for each other anymore, so none of us ever thought about going back with each other. It's been six years, and since it ended well, there is no bitterness, I don't hope for anything to go back to what it was back then because I'm happy with the way my life is going right now, and I don't miss the past at all. We're just friends, I respect her husband and do not feel any jealousy at all. So, I want you to know that if I'm here with you right now, it's because I fell in love with you and want something with you. I think about you a lot, you make me feel good, you make me smile, you're a beautiful woman, I care about you, and you mean the world to me, so no, I'll never compare you to her, and no one is better. I do not compare anyone. Alright?"

She smiles and nods to me without seeming to mean it, but I do not go too far with this, knowing that some sentences will not be enough to solve the problem that has been caged inside of her for a long time.

"It will take time, but we'll do this together so that you do not have to be fearful anymore," I brush my thumb over her skin to give her as much comfort as I can with physical contact, and she inches closer to my body to have my arm against her chest. "It means a lot to me."

I lift her hand up and kiss the back of it, and we smile at each other.

"What about you though? Are there things you don't feel comfortable with? The fact that I'm very close to Moosaeng is alright for you, or you don't really like it?" she cares about my stance as well, but I frown at her. "Moosaeng?"

"My boss," she identifies him, and I get it. "Oh, okay. I never heard his name before, but I'm fine with it. I'll just need to meet him to get to know him. You're like a daughter to him anyway, nothing more, right?" I ask for confirmation, and she nods to me. "I am. He knows about my stepmother since the beginning, so he's always been there to take care of me."

"Then I'm totally fine with your relationship, he's a very meaningful person to you, so I don't want this relationship to be ruined," I do not take a very dim view of their closeness. I am way too aware of how significant a father figure can be when your parents never treated you like you deserved it. "I'm relieved."

"I heard you talk about the box you got from your house the other day though, and you don't have to tell me more about this topic if you're not ready or okay, but I keep on wondering about what happened in the past with your parents," I look at her, with apprehension, hoping for this to not hurt her. "Well, all I remember is what my aunt, who's not here anymore, said in a letter, it was before I was going to look for my father. It said that my father first left me when I was around four years old, so I stayed with my mom for a few years, but she then left me as well, but the reasons were never told. So I lived with a friend whose parents were alright with me staying there, and I started working to earn money, and meanwhile, I was looking for my dad. Then when I was sixteen, I found him, he was with Harin, he married her, and we lived in the house she now owns for three years, and he left again. We never talked about his departure at all, I couldn't do it, but he left again without saying anything..." she explains, with a heavy heart, and all the words that Harin said some time ago about the reason why her father left her comes back to my mind.

She did not lie about the time when she met her. What if she was not lying about anything for once?

"This had never been alright with you and Harin, right?" I slow down the pace at which we are going, warmly holding her hand in mine to keep her close. "It never did because I never liked her. She's never been a good person, and I could see it right in the beginning. I'm not gonna lie, I was disappointed to know that my dad was dating such a person, but I thought he'd just made a mistake."

"Has he never showed you any type of affection at all?" the pain felt in my chest does not fade the more we are going further. "I don't remember any at all, but I guess I was too young for that. It's just that I've never found any pictures or videos of me when I was younger, not a single one. Then, when I found him again, he never expressed any sadness or regret as if he did not care..."

"But you still love him and want to see him again, don't you?" I keep my eyes over her, her look never raising from the sand. She nods, woefully, and a sigh full of empathy runs out of my lungs. "I'm so sorry to know you had to go through all that, you don't deserve any of it. The ones who did that to you are horrible people," I tighten my hold on her hand, feeling genuinely hurt and upset. "It's fine. Don't worry," she fakes a smile and gazes up at me. "I'm happy here, with you."

Her soft words give me delight, and I stop us to step in front of her, drop my shoes on the sand, and take her in my arms. She does the same to hold me, and I close my eyes, brush my lips past her ear, and kiss it. "I'll always do my best to be there for you. I'll make sure you're always happy, and even if you're going through a hard time, we'll go through it together," I speak in her ear while running my fingers through her hair, and I feel her grip my shirt. "I'm happy to be with you...You always find the right words...You're an amazing person."

I smile against her skin and whisper a few more words to her. "You're an amazing person too."

40 minutes later...

I step into the house after y/n passed before me, and I lock the door, feeling pretty tired. We both leave our shoes on the floor, and I gaze down at y/n's dress but pass behind her and touch her hip to move forward and drop my keys on the console table. "What are you going to do after taking a shower?" I ask her in a low voice and brush past her again while she is remaining still and nod minding anything I do. "Probably draw then sleep, and you?"

"Read then sleep as well," I smile but grip the back of the chair in front of me to make eye contact with her. "Are you going to draw in your bedroom?" I do not straightforwardly ask for her to be with me. "I don't know, depends if you're in yours or here."

"Why?" I do not get the meaning of this. "Well, if you're in your bed, I assume you wanna be alone to read and—"

"I don't," I state without letting her finish her sentence. "I'd love to have you with me. Like this, I'd be able to see you draw for once," I smile and see her lips curve up. "It's going to make me nervous if you watch me do it."

"I find it so soothing to look at someone draw though, and there's no need to be nervous. You draw so well, it will always look amazing in the end," I contradict the lies I do not believe in. "You'll teach me some tips on how to draw certain details, so I'm fine with it as long as you don't judge."

"I'd never judge what you do, and you know that already," I get my hands off the chair to stick them in my pockets, and she confirms. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

"I'll wait for you on the bed. I'm just going to check on Joonha," I do not forget about my son, and she understands and heads towards her room, so I walk up the stairs to make sure my son is doing alright.

I knock on his door, but in a quiet manner so that I do not wake him up if he is sleeping. After a few seconds, he opens it, with his headset on. "Hey, we just came back home. Are you okay?"

"I am, and you? How did it go?" he goes back to his chair to pause his game, so I walk inside and close the door. "Good. It was great, we talked a lot at the beach, she ate well and seemed happy, so I'm relieved."

"And it's already over? What is she doing right now?" he peeks down at his phone at the sound of a notification. "She's taking a shower, so I wanted to come here a little before doing so and getting into bed."

"Hm," he expresses some kind of disappointment as if he expected more, making me chuckle. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's the second date, and it's only ten, so you shouldn't be here. She's probably hoping for you to spend more time alone with her, you know..." he acts like he knows more than I do about women, and I smile at him, uncontrollably. "Are you trying to teach me how to take care of a woman?"

"I'm not, but if you know more than I do, you wouldn't take too long here. I mean, it's maybe just me, but if I came back home from my second date with my girl, she wouldn't be in a shower all alone at this right moment," he attempts to conceal a smirk that lifted a corner of his lips up, and he glances at his computer screen to avoid my look.

I cannot believe my son dared to say that to me.

"Keep playing your games, little boy," I laugh and open the door to leave. "Have a good night, I love you," I take one last look at him, and he tells me the same words, with a smile on his face, so I leave him alone and go downstairs to make fast to shower and be there for y/n.

•••

10:50 pm.

I get out of the bathroom after applying the products on my face, and I close the door but lay my eyes on y/n, who is lying down on her flat on my bed, drawing in her book, with the cat ears and choker on that she came here with to tease me.

She does not turn around, so I run my eyes up and down her body to have a better look at her black romper with pink hearts on it, and I step forward to hover over her but see her react to this sudden closeness.

She gazes up at me and smiles. "What?"

"Nothing, you can continue," I do not move away, and she looks down at her drawing but does not use her pencil. We both do the same, but since she seems uncomfortable about me watching her draw, I press a kiss on her temple and get off of her to lie down on my side of the bed. I place my pillows in front of the headboard to rest my back on them, and I grab my book, my glasses, put them on, and go back to the page I was but feel y/n's stare on me.

I peek at her to know what is going on, and she does not flee away. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I brush my hair back, and she silently brings her attention back to her drawing. "I don't like being ignored," I do not accept this behavior, willing to know what made her do this.

She does not listen but grins, playing a game she should not even start with me.

Not liking the way she refuses to give me an answer, I drop my book down and cup her face to direct her head towards me. "I don't like waiting either," I smile so that she knows I am not being serious. "What do you want me to say? I didn't do anything."

"Yes, you did. You stared at me and looked away when I asked you why you were. So tell me what that meant," I brush my fingers away from her jawline. "Right now."

She pokes her lips with the top of her pencil and taunts me, not saying a single word. "Alright then," I grab her book and close it to put it on my nightstand. "That's mine now."

"Hey, give me that," she gets up on her knees, but I shake my head and move my book up to read. "Come on, or I take your book too," she warns me, and I scoff at how cute she sounds. "Why are you laughing? It's not a joke," she leans forth to inch closer, but I pretend not to hear anything.

"Don't act like a baby, otherwise, I do worse, and make you lose your mind, Mister Jeon," she threatens me again, but with a good time, so I resist and wait for the outcome but cannot help smiling.

"Mister Jeon," she bends over and tries to lift my arm up to sneak underneath, but she does not manage to do it, so she goes right behind my book and raises my arms up to slide over my torso but make me laugh. Once she gets what she wants, she reaches out for her book, but I catch her wrist and pull it down. "Don't even think about it."

She giggles but makes another attempt with her other, so I let go of my book and seize both of her wrists and hold them down. "What are you trying to do, uh? You know I can keep you here if I want to."

"No, you can't," she provokes me and barely moves, indirectly showing me that she loves being in this position. "Since when are you so bratty with me? You're getting a little too ill-mannered," I stick her arms behind her back and hold her still, and now that she is sitting astride me, I make sure my forearms push down on her thighs.

"You're making me do it. This is your fault," she puts the blame on me, and I stare into her eyes but apply some pressure on her lower back to draw her face even closer to mine. "Are you sure I'm the one who started this?" I maintain eye contact that seems too intense for her from this near. She glances down at my lips to not have to stand my steady gaze, and she nods.

She is not even trying to move at all, she is obviously loving this as much as I do. "I do not think so though. The only thing I remember is how much of a bad girl you were being a few minutes ago."

"This isn't true," she nervously giggles and goes forward to hide her face in the crook of my neck. "You're lying," I whisper in her ear, and she slightly pushes her hips up against me to go higher, and I let her move her arms to wrap them around my neck. My hands not holding her wrists anymore, I glide them up her thighs and hips and put one arm around her to learn forth and get my book. I drop it over her sketch one and hug her.

"I freed myself easily," she teases me about how weak I became as soon as she touched me, and I do not even deny it. "You did, but you're still in my arms, and let me tell you that it won't be easy to leave them."

"Well, I'm not planning on doing it, so it's fine," she moves back to lock eyes, and I stare through her soul to connect mine to hers. "You're not? And why is that? You don't mind being stuck with me?"

"I don't mind at all, you can keep me here for as long as you want," she lowers her voice and makes it even more soothing to the ear, speaking in such a soft way that I could listen to her voice and peacefully fall asleep to the sound of it. "This is very tempting. You make me want to keep you with me for a very long time."

She smiles but looks down at my lips. "I'd love it."

"I'd love it too," I send her the same hints with a glance at her rosy lips, and we do this a few times, letting the other make a move. "Is there something on them?" I do not avoid the matter that makes both of our hearts beat faster. "What?" she feigns ignorance and expresses some coyness. "My lips. Is there something on them that you're looking so much?"

She nervously toys with my shirt and shakes her head. "No, unfortunately."

"What does that mean?" I pull her closer with my arms around her body, and the tip of her nose bumps into mine, getting her to drop her eyes on my lips and never look up again. "I don't know...something."

Having enough hints to make sure she does give me her consent, I peek down at her lips and press mine on them in a delicate manner.