When I Loved You

Muyeol unlocked the door and went inside his house. Jiyoon immediately ran into his arms, as if she had been waiting for him for a long time.

“Where is Joonho?” Muyeol asked as he took his shoes off and Jiyoon gestured to him to be quiet by putting her finger over her mouth. “Where’s Joonho?” Muyeol asked as he took off his shoes.

Jiyoon put a finger over her mouth, gesturing to him to stay quiet. “He’s sleeping.”

“At this time?”

“Joonho might tell Mom everything if he found out. I’m not normally like this, but I ran around the house a lot with Joonho today. My elbows hurt so bad after crawling on the floor and playing survival games with him.”

Muyeol patted her hair and smiled gently. Jiyoon was trying to protect her first heart-fluttering experience by wisely spending her time, and Muyeol felt proud of her.

“Dad! Come quick. Come,” Jiyoon urged.

“Okay, I’ll change my clothes and come.”

“Alright. Just come to my room quietly.”

“Okay.”

Muyeol quickly changed his clothes and went up to the second floor. The door to Jiyoon’s room was wide open, and there was no space for him to step on, with all the gift wrapping and candies strewn over the place.

“I think I’m not good at this. Even after researching about it on the internet, I still can’t do it.” The rumpled gift wrappers seemed to be the results of Jiyoon’s failed attempts at wrapping the candies.

“Show Dad what you found on the internet,” said Muyeol.

Jiyoon played a video and handed her phone to Muyeol, who took a close look at it.

“How does it look?” she asked, looking a bit concerned. “Do you think you can do it?”

“I should at least try.”

As Muyeol lifted the clear bags in his hand, Jiyoon handed him the candies that she’d sorted based on their colors. He put some candies into the bags, and started folding them into a folded fan.

He made sure to keep a tight, even space between the folds, his huge hands moving here and there. Muyeol held his breath as he folded the bag, and Jiyoon, engrossed in watching him, held her breath, too. Wrapping the candies was not a serious business, yet it somehow made the two of them nervous.

Muyeol kept his hand moving to wrap the candies as he said, “Hand me the bows.”

Jiyoon quickly handed him a red bow. It wouldn’t be perfect otherwise.

With all his attention devoted to it, Muyeol successfully wrapped the candies. “How does it look?”

“Dad, have you done this before?” Jiyoon asked, amazed.

“What? Wrapping candies?”

“Yeah.”

“No, this is my first time.”

“Then, how are you so good at this?”

“I think it’s because I’ve received candies many times before.” Muyeol still remembered how he used to prepare a large shopping bag for White Day every year, and then eat all the candies he had collected for almost the entire year on his own.

Jiyoon observed the wrapped candies in detail. “This is so pretty. You’re so great, Dad. What can you not do? You’re the best!”

“Okay. Thank you for your compliments,” Muyeol said, feeling good watching his daughter be so happy over such little things. “Now then, do you want to help me?”

“How?”

“You can sort the rest of the candies by their colors. Dad will finish wrapping them.”

“Okay.”

“Let’s hurry. Like you told me, once Joonho gets up, it won’t be a secret anymore.”

For a good while, the father and daughter sat together and focused on wrapping the candies. It took a long time for them to wrap even one candy, since they both weren’t so good at it. By the time Muyeol was done folding five of them, his hands grew tired.

“How come you didn’t buy pre-wrapped candies?” Muyeol asked absent-mindedly. “It would have been more convenient.”

“I thought about it, too, but that wouldn’t show my feelings,” Jiyoon replied, still sorting the candies. “I wanted to express my feelings by wrapping the candies.”

“I see,” Muyeol said as he thought how Yiyoung had probably wrapped her candies for the same reason.

Yiyoung had said that the candies she distributed on White Day were actually meant for her own peace.