“Is the dragon guarding the castle? But dragons are villains, right?”
Grant’s daughter, Phoebe, asked with curiosity. Angela nodded and added an explanation.
“This dragon is a good dragon. So, it’s the princess’s guardian knight. What happened was, the king—Princess Diane’s dad—once saved the dragon. So the dragon decided to protect the royal palace.”
“I know, I saw it in a book.”
Phoebe nodded in agreement, and Angela’s eyes suddenly sparkled.
“A book? Which book?”
“Children of November!”
Phoebe said eagerly as if she had been waiting for this moment and quickly added,
“That’s my favorite book right now. It’s a fairy tale published by my dad’s company. The princess there is also named Diane. There’s a guardian dragon, and its name is...”
“Todd!”
They shouted almost simultaneously and then burst into giggles.
“You know it too?”
“Of course!”
Sharing this connection, Phoebe excitedly said, and Angela nodded enthusiastically.
“That’s the book our daddy wrote. That man is my daddy.”
“Really? For real?”
“Really!”
“Wow!”
Phoebe’s eyes grew as wide as her mouth. Proud and beaming, Angela straightened her chest, and Phoebe continued asking.
“Really? Your daddy wrote that book?”
“Yeah!”
“Daddy!”
As Angela nodded vigorously, Phoebe suddenly called out to Grant and ran toward him. Surprised, Angela blinked as Phoebe rushed to Grant, who was sitting in the living room talking.
“Daddy, daddy!”
“Oh my.”
Grant instinctively picked up his daughter and looked at her in puzzlement. Phoebe asked excitedly,
“Daddy, really? Is this where Children of November was written?”
Her raised voice startled Grant, who glanced awkwardly at Yujin.
“Well, um, it wasn’t written here... right?”
“Yeah, no.”
Yujin answered awkwardly.
“It was written somewhere else.”
“Instead, this is the person who wrote it.”
Quickly changing the subject, Grant turned Phoebe’s body toward Yujin. Seeing the sudden situation, Yujin smiled awkwardly, and Phoebe exclaimed again in awe. Seeing that, Angela suddenly stood up and clung to Yujin’s leg. Looking down at the child curiously, Yujin noticed Angela’s gaze was fixed on Phoebe. Was it a child’s jealousy? Angela had never acted like that before, but perhaps she hadn’t had the luxury until now. Until now, Angela had been doing her best to imitate adults, and maybe only now was she finally able to act spoiled. Thinking that, Yujin felt even more sorry for his daughter. He deliberately lifted Angela onto his lap and looked at Grant.
“Angela helped me a lot while I was writing. I got a lot of inspiration from my daughter.”
Angela looked up at Yujin as if hearing this for the first time. “Really?” When Yujin smiled, as if she could read his thoughts, Angela’s face brightened instantly. Holding his daughter tightly, Yujin embraced her strongly again. Watching this quietly, Phoebe whispered something to Grant. Grant nodded shortly and, smiling at Yujin’s puzzled expression, asked,
“Author, my daughter wants to take a picture with you. Would that be alright?”
“A picture?”
Surprised by the unexpected request, Yujin was momentarily flustered. He wasn’t used to taking pictures, and this was the first time for something like this. Grant continued.
“She wants to take a photo with her new friend—three of you together. Is that okay, Angie?”
Phoebe looked at Angela expectantly. Angela’s initial wariness immediately melted away at the pure kindness.
“Sure!”
She quickly nodded but added a condition.
“But we have to take one too, on Daddy’s phone.”
Angela didn’t have a cellphone, and Yujin only had a prepaid phone. He thought they could just send the pictures by email and then delete them right away and nodded.
“Alright then, let’s take the pictures.”
Grant took Phoebe’s phone and snapped a photo of the three of them, then took another with Yujin’s phone.
“Send me the pictures. You don’t have a phone? You have email, right?”
Seeing the child skillfully tapping on the phone, Yujin quickly answered,
“Not yet. I’ll get one for you later, Angie.”
“Okay.”
Angela nodded. Yujin thought he should get Angie a phone once their situation improved. He watched her mood carefully, but luckily, she seemed happy. He gently stroked his daughter’s head as Grant spoke.
“Is there anything else you need? Just let me know anytime, and I’ll send it right away.”
“Thank you just for saying that. I’m fine for now.”
After exchanging the usual pleasantries, Yujin felt a bit embarrassed.
“Well, if you don’t mind, maybe you could join us for a meal...”
Formally inviting them to dinner, Phoebe answered before Grant.
“No, I can’t. Mom is waiting.”
Angela looked at Phoebe, who spoke clearly.
“We planned to have dinner together. Sorry, Angie.”
That would have been the end, but just as Yujin was about to wrap up the greetings, Phoebe suddenly asked,
“When is your mom coming? Do you eat dinner with your mom too?”
“Huh?”
Angela was momentarily flustered by the sudden question and stammered. Yujin was just as surprised. Grant quickly stepped in to manage the situation.
“Phoebe, you shouldn’t ask that.”
“Why not?”
The child didn’t understand the adult’s words and tilted her head, looking at Angela again.
“Oh, you have Daddy instead of Mommy, right?”
Phoebe puffed out her chest proudly and added,
“I learned at kindergarten that there are lots of different couples in the world: Daddy and Papa, Daddy and Mommy, Mommy and Mom.”
Realizing she finally had a chance to use what she learned, the child couldn’t hide her joy and kept asking.
“So? Is your other parent a Papa? Mommy? Mom? Which one?”
“Phoebe.”
Seeing Yujin and Angela frozen and unsure what to do, Grant hurriedly interrupted.
“Let’s go now. Your mom is waiting.”
“But—”
“Come on, Phoebe. Author, we’ll be going then. Take care, Angie. See you again.”
Grant literally fled the house hurriedly. Yujin pushed the child into the car and stood by the window, watching him quickly leave.
After the lightning-fast situation ended, silence fell. Angela and Yujin often found themselves alone like this, but this time was different. Feeling a tense unease, Yujin glanced subtly at Angela.
She was pressed against the window, staring off into the distance. What if Angela asked about Papa? Until now, the child had never asked such a question. Of course, he knew the day would inevitably come. But not now. It was too soon. Though he had been aware the day would come, Yujin was completely unprepared.
“Angie, shall we eat dinner too? What do you want?”
Hastily changing the subject to avoid reality, Yujin was aware of his cowardice but had no choice. He was about to retreat to the kitchen when Angela stopped him.
“Daddy.”
“Yeah?”
Startled, he turned around, and Angela still looked out the window as she asked,
“My Papa is dead, right?”
“...What?”
Yujin blinked in surprise. Only then did he realize why Angela had never asked about Papa before. The child thought Papa was dead.
“He’s not. He’s alive.”
“Angie...”
Yujin opened his mouth but could not speak. Tense silence filled the living room.
“Hmm hmm hmm, hmm hmm hmm.”
Grant sighed softly at the child humming. Thinking back on the earlier events, he felt a chill run down his spine. Kids really don’t know what they might do. Anyway, relieved to have escaped the crisis, he relaxed his shoulders and glanced at Phoebe’s phone screen.
“What are you doing? Sending photos to Angie?”
“Daddy has one, but Angie doesn’t have ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) a phone, so how can she send them?”
“Oh, right.”
Remembering with a teasing smile from his daughter’s rebuke, Grant asked again,
“So what are you doing now?”
“Just...”
Phoebe quickly tapped the keyboard and answered,
“I’m bragging that I made a new friend.”
“Author’s identity is a secret. You can’t say you met the author.”
“I know. Dad told me a few times.”
Pouting, Phoebe thought to herself, ‘As long as I don’t say “Children of November” author, it’s fine.’
Satisfied, she pressed the upload button. A new photo appeared on Phoebe’s account: a picture of Yujin and Angela with herself, tagged ‘My new friend,’ ‘Angela,’ ‘Yujin,’ and ‘What’s your relationship with Dad? lol.’
