Broken Hearts And Dreams

Chapter 7

Aera let out a heavy breath as she looked around the park. It was already late at night and she was still there to collect her thoughts. She was not ready to tell her papa about tonight, but she was sure her dad would've told  her papa what happened.

Confirming her thoughts, her phone rang. She fished out her phone from her bag and answered the call.

"Papa?"

"Aera? Dad told me what happened. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Where are you?"

"I'm at the park. I'll be back soon,"

"Do you want me to pick you up?"

"It's okay, papa. I'll just walk home."

"Are you sure, honey? It's already late right now,"

"I'll be fine, papa. See you later, love you."

"Love you too, princess. Be safe and call me if anything happens."

"Okay, papa." She hung up the call.

She stood up from the bench and started her journey to her home. Minutes later, she arrived in front of her doorstep. She took out her keys and insert the right one into the door and opened it. Upon entering the house, she saw her papa watching the tv, back facing her. She immediately ran to him and attacked him with a hug.

Wonwoo was surprised, but he put his hands around her and soothe her back as she started to let out sobs.

"Cry all you want, baby. You have been through a lot tonight," she cried harder when he kissed the crown of her head.

"I'm sorry, papa. I didn't know what to do, I was ready to forgive dad, but that had to happen and I just lost it. I'm sorry, papa. I know you asked me to keep the incident a secret, but I told dad about it. I was mad, papa. How could he do that to you?" She vented.

Wonwoo broke off the hug and held her shoulders, "Hey, hey. Baby, it' okay. Papa is not hurt anymore, okay? Papa is fine now. Papa has moved on already, I already accept the fact that we're not gonna be together anymore. Shouldn't you be happy, sweetie? You've always wanted a sibling, right?"

Aera shook her head, "Not anymore."

She leaned onto her papa as her eyelids felt heavy. He noticed that she was sleepy and sang her a lullaby until she fell asleep.

"Are you sure about this, hyung?" Seokmin asked Wonwoo.

The both of them were at Seokmin's house, Wonwoo had something he needed to tell him. Wonwoo had come to Seokmin's house at the morning with his daughter, but she was in Hansol's room as they needed some privacy to talk.

Jisoo entered the living room with a tray of tea, he placed the tray down on the table and took a seat beside Seokmin.

"Yes, Seokmin. If we stay here longer, she will only be more hurt. At least this way she can take her time to heal."

"Does she know?"

"Not yet, I'm planning to tell her tonight," Wonwoo frowned.

"How long are you planning to stay there?" Jisoo asked.

"I don't know... 3 years, maybe?" He was unsure.

"That long?"

"I don't know, Seokmin. I am not sure too. I don't know when we will be back."

"What about your work, hyung? You can't just leave it. It took you years to build that company."

"You can take it over, Seokmin. Besides, I have a branch there."

"Me?" Seokmin pointed to himself.

"Yes, you." Wonwoo nodded.

"I-I don't think so, hyung. I mean I'm already comfortable being the vice president. I don't think I can be a good CEO like you."

"Of course you can. I know you can because I've seen how you work before, and I must say you are excellent at what you do,"

"I'll think about it, hyung." Seokmin sighed and leaned onto the sofa.

"Sure." Wonwoo said as he took a sip of the lukewarm tea Jisoo just made.

"When are you leaving?"

"Next week," Wonwoo replied as he looked at the couple in front of him.

"That's so soon, hyung," Wonwoo just shrugged.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Aera asked her cousin, who was playing a game on his phone.

"What do you mean?" Hansol's eyebrows furrowed.

"I mean, they must be talking about something private that they sent us to your room." Aera reasoned.

"You're right," he put his phone down, his brain thinking hard to figure out about their conversation. "So... how was the dinner last night?"

Aera's breath hitched and her eyes went wide for a moment, it almost made Hansol guilty for asking her that. She stayed silent for a while, scaring him a bit.

"Hey, Aera? You don't have to answer if you don't want to," he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Uncle Jeonghan's pregnant." She said bitterly.

"Wait, what?! Then what happened? Are you okay?" Hansol asked frantically.

"I kind of lost it and left them in the middle of dinner. Then dad chased me outside and he said I was being rude. And he asked me why was I being like this and I just told him about papa." Aera cried as Hansol hugged.

"My poor cousin, you must've been hurt a lot," he rubbed her back.

"But, I'm fine now." She broke off the hug and wiped her tears.

"Are you sure?"

"I think, I need to move on. Though I'm not sure when can I really forgive dad now. I don't know, it still hurts, Hansol. I don't know what to do, I feel like I just want to move to another country with papa and build a new life, where dad doesn't exist. That way, papa and I would be happy."