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Hwang Bo Wook

"Bubberfly bubterfly, fly to um… fly to me! Yellow butterfly, white bubberfly, dance and dance and – and, um…"

"And come to me," Wook sang softly, finishing Yoon's song. He clicked on his mouse and exhaled loudly as a new page opened on his screen.

Aside from the staff and the father-daughter pair, the house lacked its usual family. Soo had decided it was time she and Mi got haircuts, so she had picked Mi up after school ended to treat them both to two hours of 'Mommy and Mi time'.

Left alone with Yoon, Wook had first chased her around the house, playing hide-and-seek until he grew too tired to keep up with his tiny tornado of a child. Yoon had already almost knocked Soo's favorite painting from a wall, so Wook had ended their game before he could pull his back or before Yoon could destroy millions in paintings.

So, they retreated from invisible monsters and set up shop in his office. Supplied with high-speed wifi, juice boxes, Mr. Dinosaur, and snacks, both father and daughter were content to wait for Mommy and Mi to come and chase the monsters away.

While Wook looked things up on his computer, Yoon sat on his lap and colored on his legal pads, before jumping down to run to the small fridge in the corner of the room and grab one of the snacks Wook kept for his girls when they played in his office.

Leaning down to pick Yoon up when she returned, Wook pulled her back onto his lap and scooted his chair in so she could continue coloring. He accepted the juice box almost chucked at him and chuckled before poking the straw into the hole and setting it onto his desk beside Mr. Dinosaur, Yoon's plastic T-rex. "Careful not to spill, okay?"

"Thank you," Yoon said before leaning close to the straw to take a sip. Wook tipped his head forward and kissed his daughter's soft hair as she scribbled with his fountain pens. He made a note to send an e-mail to his assistant to order more pens; everyone in the house knew well of his daughter's affinity for breaking them.

Clicking on another site, Wook sighed and stared at techniques used for piercings, grimacing at the explanation given that stabbing a needle through one's ear was much safer than using a gun.

"Yoonie, do you think your sister would be happy if I let her get her ears pierced for her birthday?" he asked his youngest daughter. She leaned back against his chest and swung her legs, the balls of her tiny feet ramming into his shins. She drank her juice and stared at his screen.

"Ouchie," she replied.

"Why do little girls want pierced ears. I would have made her a soccer field in the backyard." He muttered to himself, already concocting ways to convince Mi that a backyard soccer field was a much better idea than getting one's ears pierced.

Sighing, he leaned forward and bumped his nose against the single bun Soo had pulled Yoon's hair into. Yoon kept singing, muddling words and forgetting phrases as she went along, but persevering, nonetheless, to the end of the song.

"Daddy," she said, presenting her work to him. Wook raised his eyebrows at the yellow legal pad covered in scribbles, discerning a pair of dot eyes and a wobbly mouth amid strange lines. "Cat."

He pressed a kiss to her soft forehead and agreed. "Beautiful. You'll be the next Picasso."

"Yoonie Pibabo."

"How about Hwang Bo Pablo?" Wook asked, chuckling as she scrunched her nose and stuck her tongue out. "Don't want to change your name to Pablo?"

Before Yoon could respond, Wook glanced upward at the sound of a knock on the door. He wondered if Soo had arrived home. "Yes?" he called.

The door opened and Chae Ryung stepped in, her expression apprehensive. Wook raised an eyebrow before smiling as Yoon popped up from his lap, declared, "Nanny!" and ran to hug Chae Ryung's legs.

His smile faded when Chae Ryung cleared her throat and asked if she could speak to him in private. She leaned down to gently pull Yoon from her legs and Wook agreed, calling out to his daughter.

"Hwang Bo Yoon, can you go see if Daddy's phone is downstairs?" he asked. "Also, Daddy wants the tablet on the big table. Can you grab it for me? I'll give you a prize if you bring them."

Unknowing of the fact that both tablet and phone were currently on his desk, Yoon eagerly nodded her head. She rushed over to him to grab her juice and her dinosaur before darting out of the office and slamming the door behind her.

Wook looked at Chae Ryung as she approached his desk. He gazed at her conflicted face and noticed the way her hands wrung her black skirt. The nanny was nervous, and Wook suddenly wondered if she was about to quit.

Sharing her jittery emotions, Wook realized that if Chae Ryung quit, the house would not function. With him and Soo both being busy with work, the girls' equally hectic schedules, and a staff that required managing, there was a reason he and Soo spared no expense when giving Chae Ryung presents during holidays. Dealing with an entire house's staff was hard enough, but two young children on top of that was just a hassle.

If she threatened to quit, Wook would immediately use the back-up plan he and Soo had concocted in the early years of Chae Ryung's tenure. She would receive one of Soo's Birkins for not quitting, a raise for her troubles, and first-class tickets for two to any location she wanted when the holidays came.

"How can I help you?" he asked, leaning in. Wook offered Chae Ryung a smile as she cleared her throat and took a breath before visibly steeling her nerves and lifting her chin to look at him. He took one look at her new expression and Wook's smile faded as he realized Chae Ryung did not come to him with the intention of quitting; she had something to give to him.

"I have information regarding Mrs. Hae that I think would be of great interest to you."

Resting his chin over his laced fingers, Wook narrowed his eyes at the nanny, whose confident voice vastly contrasted her previous demeanor. "Do you, now?"

She stood with an increased authority – as if she was the one in charge. Wook's anger flared at the slight smirk on her face. "I think it's in your best interest to know this, and because it would severely damage the relationship I have with Mrs. Hae, I'd like collateral of equal worth for this information."

Blackmail. If Wook was not practiced in maintaining a straight face, he would have scoffed. Who did Kim Chae Ryung think she was, blackmailing one of the most powerful men in the country about his wife – one of the richest women in the country.

"What exactly do you want from me in exchange for this vital information?" he asked, constantly scanning her for any sign of weakness. He would have preferred to keep the governess until Mi was at least in middle school or high school, but an act like this would not go unpunished. Wook raised his eyebrows and gently smiled, urging Chae Ryung to continue.

"I'd like you to connect me with your political party and allow me to work beneath you at the Blue House," Chae Ryung declared. Wook did not even blink at the young woman's overambitious demand. "If I reveal this information, Mrs. Hae will not trust me, and I may lose my job."

Should have just asked for one of Soo's Birkins.

"And why would I concede to your demands? Is your information so important that I need to free up a space at my campaign offices and insert you somewhere?"

Chae Ryung looked taken aback and Wook took her momentary weakness to run over the things she could know about Soo in his mind.

If Soo was sick, she would tell him. If she was in legal trouble, she would tell him. If she was in financial trouble, she would tell him. If she was going to divorce him, she would tell him. If anything was wrong with her, she would tell him. He knew because he would do the same for his wife.

Which left…

"Are you here to tell me my wife is cheating on me?" Wook asked. His voice never fell and never rose, remaining placid and soft. His job was to deal with liars and crooks. Blackmail was not something new to him and Wook knew when his opponent was a novice in the art of the lie. He eyed Chae Ryung as she blinked rapidly. Her body stiffened through her facade and Wook's mouth pressed into a fine line. Gotcha.

Unmasked rage threatened to spill out from his body as he fought to control himself. Wook could not lose his temper in front of Chae Ryung, but even the idea of his wife's infidelity—however unbelievable it might be—made his hands tremble in anger.

A single look at the nanny that still sat before him helped Wook push his emotions down for the time being and maintain a calm face. Too used to working in a field where emotion meant defeat, he masked his disappointment in his wife in order to first deal with Chae Ryung. Soo might be cheating, but his employee had just tried to blackmail him, and there needed to be consequences. She needed to know never to proposition him again.

"Unfortunately, that's not new information. Perhaps you should get better bargaining chips before you come to me and try to place yourself between my wife and I.

"Soo and I will discuss your actions today. If you don't have any relevant information, you're dismissed. Return to work, Chae Ryung."

She tucked her tail between her legs as he spoke. Wook knew resounding defeat when he saw it, and he sighed as Chae Ryung slowly bowed to him, her eyes wide as she realized the gravity of her failure and tried to read his response. But Wook was too adept at keeping face for her to pierce through him.

The door shut behind her, and as soon as he was alone, Wook leaned back in his seat and heaved a sigh, disappointment clawing at his heart. He pulled the hat of his hoodie over his head and covered his eyes as his sigh turned into an elongated groan.

"Hwang Bo Wook, you hypocrite," he muttered to himself. "What, you're allowed to cheat, but your wife can't?"

His voice was still, but his heart ached and his eyes itched as he realized how Soo must have felt the day he knelt in front of her and confessed that he had cheated on her so many years ago.

Perhaps it was because he had broken up with Si Yeon, or because he had discovered a newfound love for his wife, but the idea of her sharing a bed with another man made him feel sick. His head hurt at the thought and his heart panged with sadness. And if Chae Ryung knew who it was, chances were, Soo had brought him to their home.

But what hurt more than the fact that his wife was cheating was that she was happy with her new man. Wook knew her change in demeanor, her clothing, and the happy smiles she continuously wore were never for him. He had lied to himself, believing his wife would forever stay loyal, but the walls were crumbling on the facade he had built to shelter his own affair. He had cheated, and so had Hae Soo.

He stood from his seat as his once bottled anger exploded when Chae Ryung's footsteps faded away. Wook made no sound as he grasped the metal pencil cup he kept by his monitor and hurled it into the door, leaving a visible dent in the dark wood. Pens and pencils scattered all over his office and the cup clattered to the floor, forever unusable.

But it was not enough. Nothing but anger remained, and Wook refused to concede that his infidelity had been the root cause of all this happening. This was not his fault; this was hers.

But is it, though?

"Is this why you didn't want to have sex anymore, Hae Soo?" he asked into the air.

He forgave her.

The news of her cheating was a hot knife to the chest, but Wook was in no place to demand an apology or a divorce. He hated the thought of being away from Hae Soo.

He did not stop to think about who it might be. No matter how easy or hard it was to find her lover, Wook refused to do so. The mere thought of another man touching his wife and making her laugh and smile the way he could not was infuriating, but Wook would not concede defeat to the other man.

What he wanted the most at the moment was to move on. He would move on from Si Yeon, and he would try to fight to gain Soo's trust again. He acknowledged how terrible of a husband he was and sought to fix himself. He would let Soo cheat. Wook wondered if she had found out about Si Yeon, if this was her way of fighting back.

Wook resolved to win her back. She was his woman – not any other man's. She would forever only be his.

It would not be easy to repair the damaged relationship between him and Soo, but Wook had hope. He loved Hae Soo, and he hoped that deep down, she still loved him as well.

Kneeling onto the floor of his office, Wook began collecting the pens and pencils that lay around, some still rolling at the sudden assault.

When Wook walked downstairs, he put on a smile when he heard his wife telling Mi to find him and show him her new haircut. Yoon scampered past him to find her sister, and Wook followed in her wake.

But before he could even look at the children, he saw his wife.

Dressed in a light coat, she brushed something off of her new, wavy hair and tossed her handbag onto the sofa, removing her furs as she accepted Yoon's hug.

"Hello, beautiful," Wook murmured as he approached his wife. He wrapped an arm around Soo and leaned close to her, touching her new hairstyle as she smiled and greeted him.

"Wook, are you okay?" she asked, her voice dropping to avoid their children's ears. Wook had no idea how he looked, but when Soo touched his cheek, he offered her a confused look in place of the glare he wanted to give her. "Have you been crying?"

"My friend… his mother passed away yesterday," he muttered, remembering a text one of his elementary school friends had sent to him. It was not a lie, but it was also not the truth, and Wook nodded when Soo's expression grew sad.

"Was it Chang Ho? Geon Hee?" she asked. "His mother is in the hospital, isn't she? We sent her flowers."

Shaking his head, Wook gazed at his wife's lovely face. Her soft hand continued caressing his cheek with the gentlest of touches and he remembered too easily why he fell in love with the woman before him.

"It was a friend from elementary school – you wouldn't know him."

"Are you okay?"

He paused before he could lie and say he was alright. Instead, he sighed and wrapped his arms around Soo, holding his wife and wondering how – even after she had cheated and lied to him – she was still so familiar.

Her arms went around his waist and Wook inhaled the smell of hair products on her, hugging her as he thought about Chae Ryung's actions. "I need to speak to you in private," he murmured to her before pulling away.

After a round of examining Mi's newly shortened hair, and tossing Yoon onto the sofa, Wook walked with Soo into their bedroom.

He followed his wife into her closet as she took her jacket off and hung it. "We need to talk," he said quietly. Soo turned to face him and Wook looked down at his wife as she pulled a sweater over her shirt. "Chae Ryung came to my office today. She tried to blackmail me with information about you."

Unwittingly, his worst suspicions were confirmed. Hae Soo's body locked up and her already large eyes widened further as her pink lips parted in shock.

Too obvious, darling. There's no chance Chae Ryung is lying, is there?

"What did she say?" Soo whispered, her voice dropping as if she expected Chae Ryung to be listening in on their conversation. Wook shook his head.

He knew that telling his wife of his knowledge would give her an excuse to ask for a divorce. Giving her that chance would all but murder his opportunities to win her back.

"I didn't hear anything," he said. "She said it was about you and that it would ruin her relationship with you if she told me, so she wanted a job at my campaign offices instead. Hae Soo, is there anything I should know?"

He leaned in to gaze at her as she continued dressing. Constricting pants were replaced with loose sweats, and warm socks covered her feet as she avoided his eyes. "No, I don't think so," she said, her voice calm and level.

She almost made him want to believe her.

"Alright," he replied, crossing his arms. "But we need to deal with Chae Ryung. She tried to use you. I don't want that kind of person in our house, but-"

"But she's been our nanny since Mi was born," Soo interjected. Wook nodded at her words.

Soo had finished dressing, but they remained in her closet, and Wook took a seat on the small bench she kept inside. "I was going to fire her on the spot, but we need her. She's integral to the house and our kid has anxiety. What if it comes back if Chae Ryung leaves? So… what now?"

His wife groaned and covered her eyes with her hands, leaning back against her mirror as she rubbed her temples. "The last time we talked to the doctor, she said Mi's anxiety is almost completely gone… and I don't want to fire her either; it would be a hassle to hire another nanny, and one of us would have to be home when the girls are until we hire a new one… Wook, I think we need to give her a second chance."

Wook heaved a sigh as he pressed his elbows to his knees and clasped his hands together, vetting their options. Firing Chae Ryung would mean he and Soo would have to alter their schedules to be around the children during the strange periods of time between classes and after-school activities.

"Well, you are the biggest advocate for second chances, aren't you?" Wook said with a chuckle. "You're right, though. We should keep her around and let her continue to work. She's proven her usefulness… and to punish her?"

Soo's shoulders rose and fell as she huffed. "I'll speak to our accountant about docking her pay. And I think we can do away with any outstanding gifts to her for the next couple of holidays."

They left Soo's closet and Wook glanced over his wife as she checked her reflection in the mirror, her frown resting on a blemish on her neck. Wook leaned forward to press his front to Soo's back, acting instinctively to press a kiss to her skin and breathe in her floral scent.

Before either could continue speaking, Wook turned his head when the bedroom door slammed open and a sobbing mess of three-year-old angst tumbled into the room, making for her mother. Yoon sat on the floor beside Wook and Soo's feet, tears and snot dribbling down her face as she held two pieces of Mr. Dinosaur's body out towards them, her hiccupping wails bringing both parents' attention straight down to her.

Wook let go of Soo as she knelt in front of Yoon and pulled their little girl off the floor, telling her to stand. "Hwang Bo Yoon, hush, why are you crying?" she asked. Soo used her hands to wipe their daughter's eyes and nose. "Tell Mommy what happened."

Wook smiled as he watched his wife wait for their daughter to catch her breath. Yoon's shoulders shook as she struggled to form words through her cries.

While Yoon took the necessary breaths to be able to speak, Soo wiped her hand onto a tissue from her makeup stand. Her attention returned to their daughter, and Wook leaned against the vanity as Soo gently rubbed Yoon's chest and slowly nodded her head.

"Mis – Mis-" Yoon let out, her shoulders shaking as she rubbed her eyes and held the toy out to Soo. "Mister – Di – Mister Dino – stairs – he fell!"

Wook swallowed deeply to prevent Yoon from seeing his adoring smile. When she finally managed to tell Soo that her dinosaur had fallen down the stairs, Soo picked the sniffling girl into her arms. Wook took his cue to take the toy from Yoon's hands and search Soo's makeup counter for the glue they kept around for situations like these.

"Daddy, fix him," Yoon called from where she sat on Soo's lap, her hands fisted into Soo's shirt. Wook joined Soo and Yoon on the bed and laid the broken T-rex out before them, uncapping the glue bottle and chuckling.

"Daddy's going to fix your dinosaur all better, okay?" he asked, patting his blubbering daughter's head. Yoon whimpered against Soo. Her mother's hands wiped her eyes again and Wook sighed as he put glue on the dinosaur's tail before sticking the green plastic back onto its body.

The procedure was simple and clean. No anesthesia was needed, and when Mr. Dinosaur looked normal again, Wook looked at the patient's family and wondered how 'dinosaur surgeon' had become one of the job descriptions of 'father'.

"Alright, Ms. Hwang Bo. Mr. Dinosaur will stay here for the night, and tomorrow you can come get him and he'll be all better, alright?"

Yoon nodded and Wook chuckled before glancing at his wife as she smiled and hugged their baby girl. "Can Daddy have a kiss for fixing Mr. Dinosaur?"

He pecked his daughter's little lips and smiled at her, poking her squishy cheeks. "Hwang Bos don't cry, remember?"

"Rebember," Yoon echoed before returning to Soo's lap to cuddle against her mother.

Wook shook his head and turned when another child walked up beside the bed and clambered onto it, plopping herself down onto his lap. Wook set the dinosaur aside to hug Mi, chuckling when she said she could not find the family anywhere.

Holding his oldest daughter and looking at his wife cradling their youngest, Wook decided that they could become normal once more. He was done cheating, and he was done being a shitty husband.

Not wanting to be hypocritical, he closed his eyes to Soo's infidelity and let her have her way the same way she had for him. They were equals, and that was why they had married – no matter how much they denied it, they were parts of a whole that mirrored each other.

When Wook looked at his wife again, she was still the vision he had married. She never hated him, never found comfort in another man. Instead, she was the same girl he had fallen for when he saw her walking through the law firm he had worked at. And now, they had two daughters to prove their love for each other.

Wook wanted to do well by Hae Soo and knew that one day, she would also make that choice for him. He would wait for her.