MAKNAE [twd]

【102】

"There's my beautiful girl," Dad smiles, "I missed you."

I hop down from the final step on the stairs, kicking my shoes off, setting my backpack on the ground, and crossing my arms with a frown.

"Yah, who put this look on my girl's face? Who do I have to talk to?" he asks, kneeling down in front of me.

He hums, pulling me closer by my sides so I could look at him. I pucker my lips and pull them back in, scrunching my nose.

"Why did you and mom break up?"

Dad's eyes turn confused- not angry like I'd worried they would.

"Baby, what is bringing that up?" he questions softly.

I go quiet again, now regretting that I'd walked into the apartment with a frown.

The door opens behind me, Angela quickly shoving her shoes off, leaning down to kiss dad's cheek before she rushes through the room.

"Yah, where are you running to?" dad calls after her.

"Interview!" she shouts from the other room.

Dad chuckles under his breath, shaking his head before turning his attention back to me, "My sweet girl, can you talk to me? Tell me what's wrong so I can make it better.."

My crying had subsided for the most part, though I still laid on the hard floor where Negan left me.

In any other situation, I would be looking for a weapon to use as defense. But, I knew he wasn't coming back for me. Sherry would be the one to walk through the doors any second now and bring me to Doctor Carson's brother so we could all go see whatever show Negan was planning to put on next.

I'd spent the last few days since Glenn's death in pain. Now, here on Negan's floor with the picture of Glenn's body in arm reach, I only felt numb.

I hardly blinked, my mouth dry, and my body nearly one with the floor as I hadn't moved.

Numb.. I couldn't feel a thing.

Dad.. Why can't you be here? Why can't you fix this like you did everything else?

I look to dad's eyes, sighing before reaching to my backpack. Unzipping it, Dad places his hands in his lap patiently, waiting to see what I was doing. I pull my folder out, flipping through the papers until I find the right one and hand it to him.

He gives me a smile before looking down to the paper and reading over it.

"Family tree.." he repeats with troubled eyes.

The project was to find pictures of our family, as far back as we could, and put the family tree together in a presentation to show the class. I knew it wouldn't be hard to put it together, mom was in touch as much as she could through the time zones that challenged us. Even though she was so far away, she still put the effort in.

"Suhyun said that mine will look weird because you and mom aren't together," I mutter, picking at the strap of my backpack.

Dad sets the paper to the floor, opening his arms wide. I drop the strap in favor of climbing into his lap and resting my head on his chest.

"You know that your mom and I love you, Hana. More than anything in the world. You four kids are the reason we were and are so happy. But, sometimes, when you're our age.. Life gets.. Hard.. And when life gets hard, you have to make choices to make sure you're happy. And in your mom and I's case, we had to think about ourselves as well as the four of you."