All Bets Are Off

Chapter 14

She never should've gone here. Everytime she sees Donghae, she ends up being pissed. She was muttering under her breath when she stopped short, the old man from earlier standing morosely near the elevator, waiting for it to open. He saw her coming and she bowed her head in apology.

"I am so sorry sir," she said. "I didn't mean to shut the door in your face."

The old man smiled kindly. "That's okay." The door opened and they both stepped in. Dara glanced at the old man at the corner of her eye as they rode the elevator in silence. Who is he and why does Donghae look so angry when he saw him?

"Are you Donghae's helper?" The old man suddenly asked and Dara scowled before she can stop herself.

"No," Dara said. Does she really look like someone's maid? She took a note of what she is wearing in the elevator mirror. Does wearing a tatterred jeans and baggy pants constitutes a maid's clothing?

The old man looked embarassed for asking such question. "I'm sorry," he said. The elevator dinged signaling they reached the ground floor and they stepped out but before Dara could bow her head again to bid him good bye, the old man asked her again, "You're a friend of Donghae's then?"

It took a minute before Dara could answer. "More or less." More like less than more.

The old man looked at her as if he's reluctant to say something before finally deciding to. "If... if it's not too much to ask.... Is it okay if... you could bring this... to him?" He held out the plastic bag he was carrying.

Dara glanced at it then back at the old man in disbelief. Is he really asking her to go back up just to give this to Donghae?

"It's his favorite," the old man said. "He had always been asking me to cook this for him... when he was younger...."

Dara took the bag frowning at seeing the haunted look in the old man's eyes.

Eyes which looks like a carbon copy of Donghae's.

"You're his father!" She exclaimed as the realization dawned on her.

The man smiled sadly. "I haven't been for so many years. If... if I can.... If you can just tell him to...remind him to eat healthily and... fishes... they keep the brain healthy..." He bowed his head. "Thank you." He turned and walked off before Dara can say anything. She just watched him walked off, his shoulders dropped and a flash of longing suddenly hit her before she could stop it. She stood there for a minute before turning to ride the elevator and back to Donghae's unit.

She had the sudden flashback of watching her father's back when he walked off after bringing her to a restaurant to eat when she was in highschool. When he had dropped her off at school, she could remember the haunted look in his eyes too, which she had never really understood then, before news reached them that night that his father was sent to the hospital because of a heart attack and declared dead the next morning. It was after the burial that she realized her father must've been worried about how to tell them they already lost everything without castigating him of his choices. It had hurt her, made her angry even, that he died worrying about what they, his family, would think of him instead of sharing his burden. Keeping it all inside him while she, her brother, her mother, spend all the money on senseless things. Money which was no longer theirs.

There were times when she had even thought her father died because of them. Other times, she asked herself if they were really too shallow that her father made himself think they would leave him if he told them their source of income has been depleted.

Families should share problems. Work out the kinks. Talk to figure out how to solve the problem as a whole. That's why they're called family.

She snapped herself out of her reverie when she arrived back at Donghae's floor. She walked over to his door again and pressed the doorbell. The door opened after a moment with Donghae frowning on the other side. Dara didn't wait for him to ask but she nudged him out of the way and entered his home walking straight to the table and placing the plastic bag there.