Innocence // STRAY KIDS' Han Jisung

seventeen

In which there's father-daughter time and phone fights.

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"I asked if you were in love."

"What?! That's insane, dad!" she chirmed. "I was just telling Soyeon my, uh, my lines for a play on Theater class."

"Don't lie to me, I know you hate standing in front of a crowd."

With a pout, she sniffled her nose and mover her chopsticks around, avoiding her father's tired eyes. "It's nothing, dad."

The man raised his eyebrow in total disbelief, "Don't you think I can tell you're lying? But, if that's how you want it to be... how have you been? Have you taken the medicine?"

"No," she hummed as she shook her head, "I just woke up and ate lunch. I was about to take it."

"Do it and come back so we can watch TV or something," he said as he untied his tie with his hand.

She hurriedly nodded and sprinted off to her room, but had to stop midway the stairs due to a sneeze. Then, she went to her room and looked for the small tube with the medicine pills and went to the bathroom for a glass of water since the kitchen was too far away. She drank it and sighed, looking at herself in the reflection with a small frown.

"What the hell is wrong with my feelings?" she muttered.

Knowing there was no way her mirror would answer her—unless there was a ghost or a spectrum inside, which was still a possibility having in thought the weird noises she once heard a few months back—, Mirae went back to the living room to meet her father, who had decided to spread his legs on the couch as if it was his bed.

"Comfy?"

"Very," he chuckled but he sat properly, still keeping his knew up in the couch. He patter the place next to him and Mirae plopped down, receiving a big tight hug from him.

She smiled in between his arms, breathing in his delightful perfume. When she was a kid, Mirae always asked her father the name of the cologne he used, as it was really pleasant and, as her father always used it, it gave her a sense of home and love. Being there in his arms just like when she was in primary, watching whatever was on the TV gave her back memories that pulled out a nostalgic smile on her lips.

"I missed this, dad," she said after a large moment of silence.

"Yeah, I did too... I miss those times when we could talk about what you did at school as if it was the biggest secret on the universe, remember? How we used to run from your sister whenever we were talking about a game you had played in school?"

She giggled and nodded, "Of course! I loved it. When we used those walkie-talkies at night when I had nightmares or when we sneaked out to buy ice cream whenever I fought with Miyoung while mom stayed playing with her and Blue."

"Ah, Blue," he smiled remembering their first dog as a family. "I remember how much you two girls cried when she died. Not even when you were hurt you shed that many tears. Even your mom and I thought we'd have to take you two to a psychologist to overcome the pain, but luckily school helped you out."

"I was devastated! Blue was the first and only animal I met in my life. She was one of my earliest memories as a baby, and when she died I felt like I had lost a sister or something... and I think Miyoung felt the same way, 'cause I remember one night we decided to stay up past out bed time she said she missed Blue just as much as she missed me when I had gotten hospitalized that time I got that digestion problem."

Her father nodded in understanding, "Yeah, I remember your mom had to work the next day and I had to be with you on that night. But, you know, the only clear thing I remember is seeing you crying out of pain and the coldness of that damn room."