Citrus

Chapter 18+

"S-seonsaengnim?" Jeongyeon muttered as she saw the man standing in front of the door while smiling at her.

"Huh? Seonsaengnim?" Nayeon confusedly asked and looked at Jeongyeon.

The man put his hand on top of Nayeon's head and smiled wider. "I told you to stop calling me that, Jeongyeon-ah. I'm not a teacher anymore. You should start calling me "Appa".

"What the— you're Jeongyeon's father!?"  Nayeon exclamimed. "So that means, you're also my appa!?" She excitedly asked observing Mr. Yoo's face as he smiled.

Mr. Yoo has a short brown hair with white streaks, indicating that he is in his forties. He also has a trimmed beard, but not that thick. His eyes and nose were the same as Jeongyeon's, and his skin was tanned, maybe because he travels a lot.

"Nice meeting you, Nayeon-ah!" He said as he looked at Nayeon. Nayeon smiled back at him and glanced at Jeongyeon.

If appa is back home, then Jeongyeon won't have to work so hard anymore, right?

Mr. Yoo picked up the huge gift from the floor and approached Jeongyeon, who was still standing in the entrance of the living room and not looking at her father. Nayeon just observed their interaction.

Speaking of, they weren't getting along too well, weren't they?

As he was near his daughter, Jeongyeon suddenly excused herself and walked away, ignoring the presence of her father. "What the— hey!" Nayeon followed her and held Jeongyeon's arm as she tried to stop her. "Hold on a sec!" Jeongyeon stopped looked at Nayeon, confused on what her unnie is up to.

Alright! Here goes nothing! "You know, appa, Jeongyeon is really amazing! She's already our student council president when she was at her first year at the academy! She's smart and popular, too!" Nayeon smiled as she praised Jeongyeon. She held her arm tightly, not knowing Jeongyeon was embarrassed about what she's telling their father. "Plus, she's been working hard while grandfather is out so that you can inherit the—"

"Stop it, unnie!" Jeongyeon shouted as soon as she heard the word'inherit' and yanked Nayeon's hand away, giving shivers to her spine.

"J-Jeongyeon?" She nervously muttered as she faced Jeongyeon.

"I'm not going back to the academy." Their father said, making the two girls look at him. His face was now plastered with seriousness.

Upon hearing it, Jeongyeon couldn't stop her tears and sobbed as she ran inside their shared room and locked the door. Nayeon ran after her and tried to convince her to open up  by knocking on the door hard, but there's no use.

"Jeongyeon? Jeongyeon, please open up!" Nayeon worriedly said. She looked at Mr. Yoo while her face was plastered with an apologetic look. Their father could do nothing but look down and scratch his head, knowing that he failed his daughter.

After a few minutes, Jeongyeon was still not opening the door, so Nayeon decided to invite Mr. Yoo to sit in the living room. Nayeon felt really bad and regretted what she said in the last part. "I guess I said something I shouldn't have. I'm sorry."

"No, sweetie. I should be the one who should apologize for getting you tangled up in this." He said as he unwrapped the gift that was supposed to be done by Jeongyeon, revealing a huge sized dark brown teddy bear with a baby blue ribbon tied on its neck. He stood up and went to the kitchen to place the stuffed toy on one of the chairs. He looked at Nayeon and smiled. "We'll need to give it a name." Nayeon stared at him. Silence engulfed the house until a stomach growled. "Ah, I'm hungry. Wanna go buy dinner?" Nayeon nodded and followed her father out.