Citrus

Chapter 20

Jeongyeon was sitting down on her grandfather's swivel chair while holding a picture frame while facing the glass window at the back of the table. Her knees were folded on her chest as she stared at the picture of her father, and her grandfather and herself. Mr. Yoo and the chairman's expression is serious while the nine year old Jeongyeon was smiling.  As she stared at her father's face at the picture, she remembered the day when her father brought her a gift as an apology for not coming to their Parent's Day at the academy.

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"What is this, seonsaengnim?" Young Jeongyeon asked her father. She had received a small white box wrapped in a light green ribbon from her father eight years ago.

"This is my token of apology since I couldn't make it to your Parent's Day last time." He smiled slightly as he gestured young Jeongyeon to open his gift for her. Young Jeongyeon smiled widely as she held the tiny light brown teddy bear on her hand.

"You kept eyeing it when we went to the amusement park, right? I don't know what to get then I remembered that."

"Thank you, seonsaengnim!" Jeongyeon exclaimed as she smiled more widely.

"Oh right, we need to give it a name! What do you think?" Mr. Yoo scratched his neck as he looked at his daughter fondly.

"A name?" Jeongyeon pouts as she thinks of a name while staring at her little teddy bear. "Ah, I know! Bear!" She excitedly exclaimed and chuckled.

"Hm... maybe some other time." Mr. Yoo also chuckled because of his daughter's cuteness and ruffled her hair.

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Jeongyeon puts the picture frame down and hugged her knees as she closed her eyes tightly, preventing herself from crying. She heard the announcement but she didn't care, until...

"... students who are still on the campu—huh? H-hey! What are you do—"

"Jeongyeon-ah, listen!"

Jeongyeon immediately recognized the voice. Her eyes shot open and got her head up when she heard Nayeon's voice on the announcement. "I've seen how hard you work for your father and this academy! You've done a great job, Jeongyeon-ah! So don't blame yourself anymore!" Jeongyeon got teary-eyed when she heard such words from her unnie. "You've pushed yourself enough for someone else's sake!" Nayeon took a deep breath before continuing. The announcers can't do anything but to stand on the side while looking at Nayeon weirdly. "Jeongyeon-ah, let's go see your appa off! I'll be waiting for you!"

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After her unexpected announcement, she headed to the locker and was surprised to see Jihyo there.

"Good grief! I can't believe that's what you're up to! You know very well that you may be expelled for this reckless stunt, Im Nayeon!" They were now in good terms (not really), but Jihyo was now practically scolding Nayeon for doing such thing since, she can't admit it but, she's worried. "God, unnie, I'm telling you this for your own—"

"Nayeon unnie." Nayeon and Jihyo immediately turned back to see Jeongyeon who was catching her breath, obviously because she ran four floors from the chairman's office.

"President!" Jihyo exclaimed.

Nayeon smiled at her and didn't waste any time to grabbed Jeongyeon's wrist and pulled her to run, again. They left Jihyo there with a satisfied smile. Jihyo knows how Jeongyeon admires and loves her father and thanks to Nayeon, she's now going to face him, properly this time. She shrugged it off when she called Nayeon 'unnie' earlier and went back to packing her things from her locker.