His watch is showing five past eight. They can see the lights on and her father is home expecting her. They both take a deep breath as she jangles her keys to open the front door.

No sooner have they changed into the slippers by the entrance than they hear her dad calling out.

"Have you eaten? Where have you gone the last… Eo!" Jeong Do-in was not expecting to see a tall handsome man coming to his home with his daughter.

"Abeoji, there is someone I want you to meet." Tae-eul looks up at Lee Gon and then looks back at her father with a blushing smile on her face.

"My name is Lee Gon. Very nice to meet you, abeonim." She is touched to see him bow to her dad without hesitation, the whole King part be damned.

Jeong Do-in also bows in response, "Don't just stand by the door, come inside and sit down. I'm so startled to finally meet Tae-eul's boyfriend."

They follow him into the living room and sit down on the sofa.

"Your text said you were tied up for work the last couple days… Did you get everything done?" Her father has so many questions he wants to ask about her boyfriend but he's afraid to make things awkward so he decides small talk is a safe way to start.

"Um, abeoji, we have something to tell you… but please don't get too surprised." She knows there is no good way to prepare her father for what they are about to reveal to him.

From how they met to the secret of the Manpasikjeok, they were as truthful as they could. The parts they left out were those about what Lee Lim did in their two worlds, the eventual reset of history of the past 27 years, as well as the many times her father and Lee Gon had previously met in a different timeline.

Jeong Do-in has mostly kept quiet and has only interjected a couple times with simple clarifying questions. Tae-eul notices the bewildered look on her father's face.

"I know it's hard to believe, abeoji. I thought he was completely crazy at the beginning! But everything he said is true."

"Sir, you went through so much to raise your daughter… you must be shocked to find out she's dating someone from a different world." Lee Gon picks up Tae-eul's hand and locks eyes with her, "Your daughter is the most amazing person I know and I'm deeply in love with her."

He turns back towards her father, "I'd really like to have your blessing to marry her."

"Did something happen two years ago, around this time, in 2020? After you started dating?" Lee Gon and Tae-eul don't quite know what her father is getting at.

"What do you mean, abeoji?"

"You never said anything and pretended everything was fine so I didn't want to ask you… but I could tell you were sad for a long time… until last year, when you started going away every weekend. That was when I figured you might have finally gotten yourself a boyfriend. All that mattered was you seemed happier. But now you told me you have been dating for three years, so I want to know what was bothering you during that year."

"Something happened in the Kingdom of Corea in 2020 and the space between your world and mine shifted. Tae-eul and I were separated because it took me a year to find the right door to come back to her. I felt terrible to have made her wait here for that long."

Lee Gon gave a straightforward answer and Jeong Do-in could see the pain on their faces even as they recounted the experience. And that is all the confirmation he needs.

"You have my blessing. You look like a sincere and decent man, Lee Gon-ssi. I can tell how important you are to each other and you make my daughter happy." He says with a nod of approval. "But how is this going to work? Where will Tae-eul live when you get married? Is she going to be the queen? I can't believe I'm saying all this… It all sounds so… extraordinary, I'm not sure I understand."

Tae-eul and Lee Gon are delighted to have her father's support and are relieved that he has taken their "news" as well as they could have hoped.

"Abeoji, I can't ask Lee Gon to leave the Kingdom and the people he's born to lead… If I want to be with him, and not only on weekends, I'm going to have to move there."

"Tae-eul will be the Queen of Corea and we'd love for you to come live in the Kingdom with us."

"I know I'm asking for a big sacrifice, abeoji, but I don't want to leave you here by yourself. Will you please consider moving with me?" Jeong Tae-eul very rarely pleads with her father.

"My Taekwondo centre is here and people I know are here… maybe you can use that secret door and come back to visit me once in a while." Jeong Do-in counters. He has a hard enough time trying to wrap his mind around what his daughter and her future husband divulged to him, let alone making a decision to uproot the life he has had for over fifty years.

"I'm going to hand in my resignation to Chief Park tomorrow. I will have a new home and new responsibilities in the Kingdom, and I won't be coming back all the time… Mmm, what if something happens and we can't find the right door again? I don't want to not see you, abeoji." Tae-eul is becoming a bit choked up with her words and Lee Gon tightens his grip on her hand.

"Sir, maybe it'd help for you to visit the Kingdom and see for yourself... and then you can decide afterwards what you'd like to do. We're thinking perhaps you can come with us to the Kingdom tomorrow after your classes are finished."

Jeong Do-in is glad to see the King of a nation being so level-headed and respectful, and he is also secretly pleased to learn how much his daughter cares about him. "Mhmm, that is a good idea. Let me cancel classes on Thursday and I can go with you tomorrow afternoon. This is all so unexpected though…"

"There is more we should tell you about parallel worlds…" Tae-eul eyes her fiancé to assist as she is about to explain the existence of doppelgängers. Her dad will likely meet Jo Yeong and Myeong Seung-a if he is going to the Kingdom the next day…

"Do I have a counterpart in your kingdom?" Jeong Do-in tries to make sense of the information he has heard in the past five minutes.

"I asked the captain of my Royal Guards to covertly investigate for over a year but we came up with nothing. Unless we find new information later, it is safe to assume the counterparts of both you and your wife have likely passed away decades ago."

"What about Tae-eul? Does she have a counterpart there?"

"To answer your question, let's first talk about the cover story we have planned for Tae-eul…" Lee Gon goes on to outline all the details for his future father-in-law. Watching the two men she cares most about in her two worlds interact, Tae-eul is glad to see them making connection already. Perhaps Lee Gon is right – he does have a way of winning people over.

At the end of more than an hour of talking, mostly by Lee Gon and Tae-eul, her father offers them beer and soju to toast their engagement. He is surprised to see his future son-in-law mixing the two drinks exactly the same way his daughter does before handing her a glass.

"Tae-eul taught me how to mix drinks. I'm pretty good at MSD now." Lee Gon smiles bashfully. "Thank you for trusting me to take care of your daughter."

"She can be so bossy sometimes. Ah, she may be nicer to you because you're a king, but still… she can really be a handful."

"What are you talking about abeoji? I spent the whole night telling you I wouldn't leave you alone here and this is what you've got to say about me?"

…

Notes:

I'm going out on a limb here. I researched how should a man address his girlfriend's father in Korean and multiple sources suggest "abeonim". If I'm wrong - please let me know and I'll be happy to edit.

My headcanon has this as Take 2 of Lee Gon's "Meet the future Father-In-Law" scene, without the benefit of having been an acquittance. Their dynamic is something I would love to explore further, especially since Lee Gon did not grow up with a full-time father figure in his life.