I’Ll Protect My Tyrant Dad! [EN]: Chapter 131

131. Side Story 2: Finding Dad’s True Happiness (4)

2024.03.01.

I smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of my head.

“Yeah, Dad. I have the dad I love most in the world, cherished friends, and Acid, too.”

At the words ‘the dad I love most in the world,’ Dad’s lips turned upward with all their might.

I clasped Dad’s hand tightly and whispered softly.

“Dad, Mom must have loved me as much as you do.”

“Of course. Sien is the person Mom loved most in the world.”

“Then Mom must be doing well too. Watching over me from heaven!”

I smiled softly, thinking of Mom.

Dad also squeezed the hand holding mine and murmured softly.

“That’s right. Mom is probably doing well there. Watching Dad and Sien sometimes.”

“Yeah, that’s right!”

As I whispered with all my might, the sandstorm that had been raging subsided completely.

“Then, you know, Sien.”

“……Yeah?”

“Hold Dad’s hand. It’s dangerous!”

Dad said, slowly grabbing my hand.

Somehow, Dad’s appearance felt a little bitter.

“Let’s really go see Mom now.”

“Okay!”

“……Not the real Mom. To be exact, it means let’s go see the traces Mom left behind.”

‘The traces Mom left behind?’

I looked at Dad with a puzzled expression.

By choosing to turn back time, Mom’s remains had completely disappeared.

But something Mom left behind could still remain?

My heart seemed to be pounding wildly.

I was trying to find Dad’s joy in life, but somehow it felt like it had become a trip for me.

As if reading my mind, Dad subtly said.

“Sien, are you excited?”

“Yeah! But, Dad!”

“……Yeah?”

“Today is a trip for Dad. It’s a trip to find out what Dad likes, what memories Dad made in the past, and what kind of person Dad is.”

Dad knew everything about me inside and out.

That I prefer omelets to scrambled eggs, that I like food without sauce, and that I blink my eyes when I’m bored, and that my eyes sparkle when I’m excited.

But do I know Dad’s heart?

No, I didn’t.

I didn’t know what Dad liked.

My love was far less than Dad’s unconditional love.

‘I can find out about Dad from now on!’

And I will discover what Dad likes.

If there’s nothing Dad likes, I’ll make sure to create it with my own hands.

I smiled broadly, looking at Dad, who was making a very awkward expression at what I had said.

“Dad, let’s go quickly!”

***

The road I walk with Dad, full of energy.

Although it is a desert full of sand, there were strange things like cactus flowers blooming in the middle.

I opened my mouth wide, looking at the cactus.

“Dad, look at this! The cactus is huge!”

“Yeah, it is.”

Dad said it as if it wasn’t a big deal, but strangely, there was a subtle moisture in his voice.

I stopped in my tracks with a puzzled expression.

“Dad, have you seen this cactus before?”

“……Well, I don’t know.”

I urged Dad like a child.

“Tell me quickly!”

This was also out of curiosity to find out what Dad liked. As if knowing my heart, Dad added with an awkward smile.

“Well… Mom liked cactus flowers, Sien.”

“Really? Then…”

I bent my head towards the cactus.

A small flower was sprouting on the cactus.

“Why did Mom like cactus flowers?”

“Well… that’s, Sien.”

Dad muttered with an awkward smile.

“…It’s nothing special.”

“Yeah, nothing special?”

Somehow, Dad seemed to want to lie to me.

Of course, I didn’t know every single thing Dad liked in detail.

But I have the experience and intuition that I’ve had with Dad for a long time.

I raised my chin with a stern expression.

“Dad, is it okay to lie?”

Dad stomped his feet on the desert sand a few times for no reason, then pretended to be indifferent and said.

“Dad is… like a prickly cactus. So Mom likes cacti.”

“Huh, heok.”

Dad waved his hand a few times to clean up the mess and said.

“It must have been a joke. How kind is your dad? Right, Sien?”

I felt grains of sand entering through my slightly opened mouth and shuddered.

Oh my gosh, this is amazing.

To think that you can make a love confession in such a way!

‘Mom was such a romantic person.’

My love with Acid feels like nothing.

Dad’s face was soon as red as the desert sun.

“Let’s go further, Sien. Soon, we’ll find a place where I shared memories with Mom.”

At the words a place where I shared memories with Mom, my lips naturally closed.

Dad didn’t tell me exactly where it was, so I was even more excited and thrilled, like exploring an unknown area.

Holding Dad’s hand tightly, I walked step by step and thought about what Mom had said.

Dad is like a prickly cactus.

When I thought about the rumors circulating in the world, it was really true.

But…

“Dad. I know why Mom called you a cactus.”

“Yeah? What is it? Is it because Dad is just like a thorny villain?”

Dad didn’t seem to have thought deeply about cacti.

But I gestured to the large cacti placed all over the desert and murmured softly.

“No, Dad. You know what? Cacti don’t just have thorns?”

“That’s right. It doesn’t just have thorns. It also has something like a lump.”

…This is a disaster. Dad’s mood was getting worse and worse.

‘No. This is a huge project to find Dad’s joy in life!’

Of course, the project only had one member, Sien Mirmod, me.

I looked at Dad with a determined heart and added.

“Flowers bloom on cacti.”

“What?”

“To Mom, Dad is a person full of thorns, but also a person like a flower.”

At my words, Dad momentarily fumbled. It meant he almost dropped the hand holding mine.

Of course, he quickly grabbed my hand again…

“A person like a flower, you said?”

“Yeah! Dad, you’re a person like a flower!”

I smiled broadly and shook Dad’s hand.

Then, a faint line appeared on Dad’s forehead.

“Dad, I’m not that kind of person.”

I looked at Dad and quietly pursed my lips.

“No. Then, in Mom’s eyes, you were that kind of person. Like a cactus with a lot of thorns, but still a lovely person like a flower.”

Dad didn’t answer.

Instead, he blushed his earlobes and looked at the sky.

It seemed like he was a little embarrassed to have his past love life exposed to his daughter.

Even though the romantic conversation ended with Dad’s silence, I was happy.

‘Dad is really finding the emotions of that time long ago.’

It felt like Dad was finding the emotions of that time when he was happy with Mom. Somehow, my heart was even more full.

But Dad was still embarrassed, so he started to hurry.

The steps he took were so fast that I took a breath and shouted.

“Dad, you’re walking too fast!”

“…Ah, right. Sien. Let’s go quickly. We’re almost there.”

“Okay!”

Because Dad didn’t say anything more, I deliberately started walking through the desert, stomping my feet.

Walking on the warm sandy beach of the desert, I was filled with small hopes.

It meant that I had the ambitious hope that I might soon be able to find Dad’s happiness.

Unlike me, Dad was observing the surroundings intuitively.

Before I knew it, we were able to stand in front of a small wooden sign that seemed to have been hidden in the sandy desert and then revealed.

“Oh, this sign is still here?”

“Yeah? A sign?”

“Yeah, Mom and I left a sign near the temple. We were going to meet here secretly later. This is that sign.”

The sign that Dad pointed to was yellowed.

It looked like it had been made with clean wood at one time, but it was different now.

I approached the sign that Dad pointed to and murmured softly.

“It’s written here. Hello, Yuela. Did Dad write this?”

“Yeah.”

“Dad’s handwriting is terrible. It’s completely scribbled!”

Dad chuckled softly, then repeated my words through his teeth.

“Yeah, it is. Hello, Yuela… I wrote.”

Strangely, as he said that, Dad seemed to be finding more and more vitality.

I looked at the sign next to Dad and murmured softly as well.

“Hello, Yuela. No, Mom.”

Dad breathed as if his heart would burst and said once again.

“Hello, Yuela. I came with Sien. I don’t know if you’re doing well.”

As he said that, Dad seemed to be accepting his separation from Mom.

Perhaps for more than twenty years, Dad had only avoided his separation from Mom.

‘But I’m sure they loved each other.’

But I couldn’t see any traces of Mom while growing up.

Is that why?

Looking at the traces of Mom that I had encountered after a long time, Dad’s mood seemed to be changing endlessly and subtly.

I helped Dad breathe on the wildly fluctuating waves of emotion.

Quietly, while watching Dad’s expression change.

Somehow, I had that thought.

They are finally parting completely.

‘I just came to create Dad’s joy in life.’

Somehow, in this desert, I seemed to be learning about Dad’s memories.

Maybe all of this is like a farewell trip with Mom for Dad.

‘…Whatever meaning it came with, it seems like it came well.’

Dad looked down at the sign for a long time, then grabbed my hand and said.

“Let’s go, Sien.”

“…Okay.”

Holding Dad’s hand, I walked for a long time on the yellowish sandy beach without looking back.

‘Dad… I feel like he’s worried about something.’

The scorching sun began to shine on my cheeks, but that was no longer important.

The only important thing was that Dad was near the sandy beach full of gold dust, and that Dad was now reminiscing about past memories.

I glanced at Dad, who was somehow immersed in silence, and whispered softly.

“You know, Dad, I feel like I’m on a picnic with you. We did it a lot before I was five years old. In the countryside. Dad, do you remember?”

“…Yeah, I remember.”

“We were really happy then. Right?”

A smile that looked like it was drawn was already on Dad’s lips.