Sunset at Hamdeok

Chapter 25

Perhaps her father had learnt so much from his past mistakes, he started to act warmer toward his daughter. He didn't even go to his office just to accompany Tiffany sightseeing around Busan.

"Appa, you must eat more. You're getting skinnier." Tiffany put a scarf around her father's neck. "It's almost winter, be sure to wear thick clothes."

"Fany ah, you are the one who must eat more. Look at you."

Tiffany smiled. She knew she had lost some weight. It was one of the symptoms of leukemia she suffered from. "Don't worry about me, Appa. I just don't want to look fat. That's why I am on a diet these days." She lied.

"Nonsense. Why are you even on a diet? You are perfect...." Her father frowned. "Are you sick? You look so pale."

"Appa," Tiffany clung to her father's arm to distract him. "Do you often remember eomma?"

That father and daughter started to take a stroll.

"Everyday."

"Why don't you get remarried? I bet there's a lot of women who wish to be your wife. You need someone who can take care of you."

"Can't you take care of me? I'm your only father."

Tiffany smiled. "But you need a wife. And I.... "

"And you're going to marry someone and have your own family." Her father stopped walking. "Tell me about your boyfriend. Is he really a good man?"

"Yes, he is. He is the best man I've ever known." Tiffany smiled as Taehyung's face loomed over in her mind. "He is so sweet and does everything he can to make me happy. He makes me his heaven and earth. And his love is so amazing that I can't be much happier than I am right now."

"When I first saw that young man, I knew he was really kind." Tiffany's father tried to remember a teenager he had seen at the hospital more than nine years ago. Last night, Tiffany had told her father about Kim Taehyung and how he meant to her and their lives.

"It is a destiny that you must meet him." Her father tapped Tiffany's hand. "If you love him and he loves you back, and if he treats you well, there's no reason for me not to be happy. Tell your boyfriend that I give you my blessing. Take him to Busan. I really want to talk to him."

"Appa, thank you...." Tiffany hugged her father. She felt so happy.

"I want to know when this Kim Taehyung will marry my daughter. I won't let him use you just to have some fun."

"Don't worry,  Appa. Taehyung is not fooling around with me."

"I'm glad he is not." Tiffany's father held her hand. "Hwang Tiffany, everyday I pray that you will get a man who is much better than your own appa. I can never forgive myself for losing your mother. If time could be turned back, I would give anything just to see your mother again. I really want to hold her hand and tell her that I really love her and I am so grateful that she chose to marry and become a wife of this stupid man." Tiffany's father started to sob. He had hidden his true feelings, his regrets and pains all alone.

"Appa," Tiffany's tears began to gather, "eomma knows that very well. Eomma knows how much you love her."

That old man nodded. "I know she knows about it, I just wish I had a chance to say it to her. Time is so precious, you cannot get it back once it's lost."

"Appa," Tiffany swallowed her tears, "I love Appa so much. Please take care of yourself once I return to Seoul. Please send me more letters. Appa must send me emails everyday and tell me about your activities. I will call you by phone everyday. Taehyung and I will talk to you so you won't be lonely anymore. And Appa have to find a good woman to marry."

"Fany," her father looked at her, "Appa can find someone who will take care of me. But if I marry someone just to avoid a loneliness, I will only deceive her and fool her. She will know that I can't forget your mother. And whoever becomes my wife will find out that she will only be the third person in my life. Who wants to live like that?"

"Appa,"

"Appa is not getting any younger. I'm just living my life waiting for the time to meet your mother again. But you still have a long way to go. Don't worry about your Appa. I've been doing well all these years."

Tiffany hugged her father with a thousand apologetic feelings in her heart. She could no longer contain her tears. She had abandoned and neglected her own father when he needed her the most. She hadn't even realized how much that old man struggled to fight his sorrows and loneliness while his only daughter shunned him out of her life. And now after they had talked from heart to heart, that man would only lose her again... And this time was for ever.....

"Appa, please forgive me. Please forgive me, Appa....."

After three days in Busan, Tiffany bid a farewell to her father. She kept holding his old hand until the train took her away from him. And Tiffany tried hard to fight the tears that kept rolling down. She had told her father to visit her in Seoul. And that man promised he would. "Tell your boyfriend to propose to you. I am waiting for the day to walk you to the altar."

Tiffany could only nod even though the dream for that day started to recede away.

Her phone rang. It was the tenth times that day Taehyung called her by phone. He kept asking where her train was. "You're really spoiled, Taehyungie." Tiffany pretended to be angry at him. "You must learn how to live alone when I'm not there."

"Ya, just come quick. I don't want to learn how to live alone. I don't plan to live alone, you hear me, Tiffany Hwang?"

Tiffany suddenly bursted into tears even though she was giggling. "What you need is a maid, Taehyungie, not a girlfriend."

"What I need is a wife." Taehyung pouted. "Come back quickly. I need my wife to be here right now. I don't want to hug your bolster and pillow anymore. I want to hug you. The real you."

Tiffany was chocked on her own tears. "Don't use my pillow as your bolster."

"Then come to me quickly."

"And how am I supposed to do that? I am not the one who's running this train."

Taehyung laughed. "I really feel like sending you a private jet plane right now."

"You are broke, Kim Taehyung. You can't afford a private jet."

"Ugh, those words really stabbed me on the chest. It hurts." Taehyung pretended he was dying.

And Tiffany just couldn't stop laughing. And when she hung up her phone. She felt something warm flowing down her nose. She touched it.

It was fresh blood. Her nose bled heavily. Tiffany hastily rummaged her purse to find a kleenex. She wiped and cleaned the blood off her nose. But it kept flowing out.

When her train finally reached Seoul Station, Tiffany made sure her nosebleed had stopped. The blood had stained her denim jacket. Tiffany took it off, folded it, and stuffed it into her bag. She couldn't let Taehyung see it.

And when she got off the train, Taehyung had been waiting for her. That handsome man quickly took her luggage and put it on the ground. He hugged that woman so tightly.

"I missed you so much that I was almost catching the next train to Busan if you didn't come back more quickly." He whispered.

Tiffany could only smiled so tenderly. "And I missed you like crazy, Taehyungie...."[]

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