"What a lovely meeting of father and his daughter, isn't it?" Suddenly a voice spoke near from the door, with a little hint of banter.
Dea tilted her head after hearing that.
Choi Chun-ja was standing by the doorframe, casually leaning against the wooden door. Her black hair was perfectly trimmed and her face was covered with light makeup. It looked like she just returned from her usual evening shopping. She looked at her with mock sweetness and smiled at her husband with more honey.
"How are you, Mum?" she asked politely in order to not make the situation awkward.
"I'm fine, sweetie," she spoke. "You didn't say... that you would be coming home."
"Thought I should come to see Dad."
Chun-ja smiled at her statement and observed her outfit carefully. "Aren't your clothes more getting.... boyish, Choi Dea? You are a grownup woman, you should stick to women's clothing style, right?"
Dea didn't smile at her back and replied in a normal tone, "I like myself this way."
Chun-ja inhaled sharply and managed to keep her forceful smile. "Oh, right."
Dong-hyun glanced at his daughter and his wife, understanding where the situation was going. He spoke, "Let's have dinner, shall we?" he looked at his daughter. "Little Dea, you've come home after two months. You can't go back without dinner, okay?"
Dea nodded her head. "Okay."
After an hour, three of them sat around the dining table while Wandara began to serve the delicious courses of food. Chun-ja was really missing her daughter, she also called her earlier. Though Joo-eun had refused and said that she wouldn't come home to have dinner. It was a year ago when she moved out from their house and rented a two-storey building due to her father. Joo-eun had been so angry that her father had handed her the top position of their company to Dea, not to her.
Dong-hyun glanced at his wife, "Chun-ja, did you tell Joo-eun to come home?"
"I did. I insisted, too," she replied and casted a glance at Dea. "But Eun refused to come."
Dea cleared her throat uncomfortably. If her mother had talked with Joo-eun, that meant she wouldn't have forgotten to spill the news of their business downfall.
"Did she say something else?" Dea hesitantly asked, looking down at her plate.
Chun-ja smiled brightly and continued to chew a piece of meat as if she just found a huge culprit.
"Of course, she did. Um... give me a second to remember that," she simulated to recall from her brain. "Eun said.... you went to see her this evening, didn't you? Did something happen between you two? I don't know, she seemed angry when she mentioned you," she retorted thoughtfully.
Dong-hyun turned to his daughter. "Little Dea, did you visit Joo-eun? Anything happened?"
Choi Dea was moving her food by the fork absentmindedly, though she was feeling hungry at the smell. She briefly thought of making a lie, since she didn't want her father to know about the business loss till now. But he would know about that eventually one way or another or from someone else.
"Dad..." she looked up at him nervously. "I didn't tell you something."
"What is it?" Dong-hyun scowled.
She inhaled deeply and noticed Chun-ja's victory smile all over her face. Dea put down the fork on the plate and began to tell her father about what had happened in the company for the next five minutes. She also said that she didn't tell him before because she didn't want him to worry.
Dong-hyun kept silent after hearing this while her wife kept moving her chopsticks one bowl to another, it seemed like Chun-ja was extremely hungry. At the other side, Dea kept brushing her palms together under the table and tried to keep her expression neutral. She would do that to every person in the world, but when it came to her father, it became hard.
'Is Dad angry at me?' she thought.
"Are the videos deleted?" he asked after a while and take a sip of water.
Choi Dea checked about that with her colleagues earlier, so she nodded slowly.
"Did you speak with Jae-hwa? What the latest news of our stock share?"
"It's.... stable now. It's going to increase."
Dong-hyun sighed and put his hands on his knees, trying to shake the stiff legs. "What a time has come! The company I built with my own hand, lost my sleep day after day, missed my meal even though I was starving; now I don't seem to know a damn about what the hell is happening to my company! Because... because I'm a cripple and nobody cares about me anymore!" he retorted with grief and self-loathing.
Dea felt oddly sad inside her chest when she heard him saying this. She felt crumpled there where her inner emotions were, she let out a sigh of regret.
'I should have told him sooner.'
"I'm sorry, Dad," she whispered.
Chun-ja stopped eating and moved to her husband, brushing his arm softly. "Dong-hyun! You shouldn't have said that about yourself, that's a sin. Nobody thinks that about you, do you know how many people adore you for the good works you have done. So don't say that to yourself, okay? You know I care about you," then she turned to Dea. "And you, Choi Dea! Is something wrong with you? Why didn't you tell him earlier, huh? It's his company, he bloody made him, thus he deserves to know everything! Why did you make him say that word? Are you still a child, eh?"
She regretted it. She glanced at her father and briskly stood up from the chair.
Dong-hyun stared up. "Where are you going before finish your food?"
Chun-ja snorted beside him.
Dea didn't look into his eyes, she just stared blankly at the plates, taking a few steps backwards from the table.
She suddenly bowed her head to them.
"I apologize, Dad and Mum," she spoke simply before she left the room. She passed the stairs hurriedly and crossed her arms across her chest, she needed to leave. She needed to leave that house before she burst into tears for the second time in the same day.
"Little Dea, wait!" Dong-hyun called out, then looked at his wife with urgency. "Chun-ja, why don't you stop her? She's leaving?"
His wife continued to brush his arm gently, trying to calm him down. She sighed hearing the buzzing sound of the front gate and tilted her head to him.
"Dong-hyun, just let her leave."