facade / the boyz sunwoo

thirty six.

in her pain of losing her mother, she forgot that her father also lost the love of his life.

"i– forgive me, shiho. i know i have been a horrible dad for you. i caused you to suffer so much, to the point that you are taking pills on your own. i– i'm such a failure."

"...you know?" her teary eyes wide in astonishment.

mr. im wiped his tears too, nodded and smiled weakly at his daughter. "you are my daughter, shiho. i always cared about you and your whereabouts. when i heard that you went to the psychiatrist last week, i felt like someone just slapped me awake. you become like this because of me. it was all my fault–"

"d-dad." shiho called out, "it's not entirely your fault. it's because of me. i was too broken inside, thus i ruined myself. i–i'm sorry." her head hung down in regret as tears fell again.

"shhh. come here, shiho." mr. im, the one who had turned heartless over the last few years, approached his daughter and pulled her into his embrace, soothing her like a father he is, "it's fine, everything will be fine, shiho. i'm sorry too."

feeling the warmth of her father's embrace, shiho cried harder. it was as if all her pent up feelings, her hurt and pains, her deepest misery all came to the surface. finally, she got back her father.

the two father-daughter pair were drowned in emotion. once they were calmer, mr. im spoke again, "shiho, if you really want to be a ballerina, i will support you. but please, i ask you to no longer hold on to your mom's wish. it's time for you to live for yourself. i know your mom would want you to do the same too."

shiho looked up to her father, gave him a smile and nodded.

i will live my life for myself from now on.

–

"sunwoo, i forgive my dad."

"you do?"

"emm. we resolved our conflicts earlier. we cried, apologized and hugged."

"are you happy now?"

shiho nods, "yeah. i decided to put everything behind. i want to start anew, forget all the pain and just continue living happily from now on."

"that's good to hear. you've done well, shiho."

"thank you, sunwoo. it's because of you that i can change to be a better person."

"it's nothing, no need to thank me."

it was quiet for a moment as shiho pondered over something. deciding to just spill her thoughts, she spoke again "...sunwoo, can i ask you a question?"

"what is it?"

"why don't you deny it when sanha and soojung found out about our fake relationship?"

sunwoo was taken aback by that question. "well, i don't want our lie to be exposed. if i deny it, eric and hyunjoon will get suspicious and would continue to pester me about it. so i thought it would be less hassle if i just let them misunderstand." he tried to explain.

"oh." shiho sounded disappointed that sunwoo almost doubted his ear.

"why?"

"nothing. i just thought you are not denying it because..."

"because what?" sunwoo gulped. for some reasons, he felt as if he was about to be exposed by her.

"because you want it to be real?" shiho guessed hesitantly.

bulls eye. sunwoo sucked in a breathe. damn, was he that obvious? "eiii what are you saying?" he tried to dismiss the topic with a laugh.

"as i thought, i'm the only one who wants it." she sighed to herself, sounding relatively sad.

"w-what?" sunwoo was really doubting his ear at this point. or maybe he was dreaming? maybe it was shiho who somehow hit her head somewhere and now was speaking nonsense.

"hey sunwoo, why don't we just date for real?"