Dahyun's POV
People say facing the truth will set you free. That admitting the pain, staring it down, will somehow ease the weight you've carried for so long. But I don't know if I believe that. Pain isn't something that can be forgotten. And for people like me, with fathers like mine, facing the past feels like walking back into a wound that never quite healed.
---
The door opened slowly, revealing a man with eyes that mirrored hers. Kim Byung Chul stood there, looking older and somehow smaller than she remembered. It was as though time itself had worn him down, just as his absence had worn away at her.
"Dahyun," he said, almost like a whisper.
The years of hurt bubbled up, and for a moment, she was a little girl again, waiting on the front steps for him to come back, holding onto her mother's hand. She blinked, pushing those memories back, forcing herself to stand tall.
"Don't look at me like that," she managed, her voice trembling despite her efforts to stay calm. "You don't get to look at me like I'm someone you know."
Byung Chul seemed to flinch, but he didn't look away. "I know I made mistakes. I didn't expect... I never thought you'd-"
"What, show up here?" she cut him off, a cold laugh escaping her lips. "What did you think? That I'd just let you vanish and pretend you never existed?"
Her father's eyes softened with regret. "I thought... I thought it would be easier."
Dahyun let out a bitter laugh, her voice breaking as the words spilled out. "Easier? You think it's been easy for me? You left, and you think that makes everything easier?"
She looked away, swallowing hard as the ache in her chest expanded. "Holidays hurt," she whispered, her gaze falling to the floor. "I watch other people with their fathers and wonder why I wasn't good enough. Why you couldn't stay."
For a long moment, there was silence. Byung Chul's face fell, and for the first time, he looked lost, as though seeing the pain he had left behind in her was something he'd never imagined.
"Dahyun, it wasn't about you," he said softly. "I left because... I wasn't. I'm not... I wasn't enough for your mother. I wasn't the one she needed. I'm not the person she wants to be with"
"And why didn't you fight harder. If not for your relationship with mom, then for me. Why didn't you?"
She clenched her fists, the anger and hurt warring within her. "You're telling me you left because of mom? so you ran away, and I had to grow up without a father. Mom had to raise me alone. And every holiday, every birthday, I had to sit there and pretend it didn't matter that you were gone."
She closed her eyes, taking a shaky breath. "Do you know what that's like? To sit there in silence and wonder if you even deserved a father? If you were worth staying for?"
He opened his mouth, then closed it, words failing him. The weight of her pain settled between them, thick and unyielding.
"I tried to make peace with it," she continued. "Told myself it didn't matter. That I was better off without you. But then... then I see you here, standing in front of me like nothing happened, like it's all okay. And it's not. None of it is okay."
Byung Chul looked down, shame coloring his features. "I can't change the past, Dahyun. I know I failed you. And I know saying sorry isn't enough... but I am. I'm so sorry."
Dahyun's lip quivered as she watched the man who was supposed to be her father stand before her, broken, but not broken enough to change what he had done.
"You were supposed to be there," she whispered. "For every holiday, every hurt, every moment I felt like I was alone. You were supposed to be my family, and you just... you left. I had to become someone you'd never know because you weren't there."
Byung Chul stepped forward, his hand reaching out, but she stepped back, a tear slipping down her cheek. "I don't need you to try to fix this," she said, her voice barely audible. "I just... I needed you to know."
With that, she turned, the ache in her chest a little lighter, but not gone. It would never be gone.
---
They say facing the truth sets you free, that it gives you closure. But as I walk away from him, all I feel is empty. There are no words that can fill the spaces he left, no apology that can undo the years without him.
The past has a way of haunting us, of holding on when we least expect it. But maybe... maybe walking away from him, knowing he heard the truth, is enough. Maybe facing the pain was the first step to leaving it behind.
