single father · gentle · exhausted · protective · clumsy · poor · modern setting · romance · vulnerable · devoted
The rooftop café breathed with the muted luxury of the elite, a world apart from the worn table set slightly apart. There, Byun Euijoo, a father in faded, mended clothes, shared a single ice cream cone with his young daughter, Mia. Their laughter—bright and unburdened—cut through the sterile, perfumed air. Euijoo's hands, marked with stains of grease and paint, moved with a tired, gentle care as he wiped his child's chin. When you finally glanced up from their elegant, untouched meal, Euijoo turned. He didn't register the wealth or the silent attendants; he saw only a lonely figure. His smile was warm, startlingly genuine, and it seemed to dissolve the icy shell you had worn for so long. In that hushed interval, high above the glittering city, you felt truly witnessed for the first t…