Afterglow

XI. Father's Approval

Being able to experience genuine love once again after the trouble I went through not only healed my heart but also made me feel more alive. It brought me something I never felt after being broken for a couple of years. 

Despite being a mature adult, the love that Athena and I shared felt like what children have during their first love - a love that is in its purest form. We still feel embarrassed in some ways but as time passed by, the gap between our fingers vanished along with those uneasy feelings we felt. Little by little, we managed to get cool about it.

It took us more than a week to get used to what we have now. It may still not be perfect but being able to spend time with her more normally made us closer to each other. No more shameful atmosphere since we already forgot about it as we desire each other's warmth and affection. We can even now walk publicly while holding each other's hand.

If not for the promotions that I still do for my book, I would probably spend more time with her as much as I want. It's a drag but even though the book already reached a lot of sales, I still want to reach more people.

During this short period of time, I attended some TV shows and participated in some interviews. It was exhausting but I did my best to finish all of that. With the help of Gerald and guidance from Mr. Kim, I succeeded in every last of it.

One time when my schedule was free, Athena and I took the chance to visit her father and ask for his blessing. Uncle knew it already but talking to him in person was the best option I had to have him recognize me more for her daughter. He may not be that scary person, but if Athena is concerned, he gets too serious.

The first thing I did in the morning was to help her buy things and extra ingredients for her restaurants. Since she owns three of them, we bought a handful number of stuff that she'll need. It contained a huge number of meats and vegetables, a couple of condiments, and other materials she needed in the kitchen and tables.

"Was this enough? Seriously, how can you buy this much of every time alone? This is too heavy for you.", I stated.

"Of course, I can't do this much alone. I'm not a superhuman or anything like that. I always have someone in the shop to come with me for assistance. This is the only time I asked you to lend me some help.", she replied.

"You can ask me anytime though. I don't mind helping you if I don't have anything to do with it."

"This is the only time that you awake during this time of the day. I know that you spend most of your time in the evening doing your work and rest for the whole morning. Even if I want to ask you, you're in a deep slumber."

"I can't argue with that. Hahaha. Let's take our time together wisely for now since I don't have anything to do today.", I uttered to her after holding her warm hands.

It took us a while to reach her place since we dropped by her other restaurants first to deliver those ingredients and things that both of us bought. Athena talked to her managers one by one to find out what was happening in her business. It includes the reports, the budget, and many more.

While she's taking her time sweetly with her employees, I'm just waiting and unpacking things we bought from the car. It's not my first time seeing her being serious due to work, but she looked professional from every angle.