Chapter Text
Despite letting his heart take the reins over his life and prioritizing his emotions,
Jeonghan liked to think of himself as a pretty rational person.
He wasn’t the type to jump to conclusions or let his emotions cloud his judgment.
At least, that’s what he told himself.
Therefore was him developing an odd dislike towards his daughter's guitar teacher, which he hadn’t even met, quite unusual for him.
”He’s so-so cool!! He’s like.. the coolest person I’ve ever seen!” Yeon chanted, her voice vibrant and full of energy.
”He gave me so many compliments, like so many and told me he liked my plaits!” the twist-plaits he plaited into her hair swaying alongside her hops as they moved towards their apartment. He squeezed her small hand in his bigger one.
“I’m sure-”
”And he told us he started performing on stage when he was only 7 years old!” Yeon violently interrupted, her eyes glistening under the bright sun. ”I also want to start performing when I’m 7…” she pouted.
”I’m sure we can make that happen, hone-”
Jeonghan once again didn’t get to finish his sentence before she interrupted him a third time.
”And mom! He complimented me twice today! twice!!” Yeon said enthusiastically, her hops coming to a stop as she violently stomped on the pavement, pulling a very light Jeonghan backwards with a surprising strength for a six year old- back with her.
The sun hung high in a cloudless sky, bathing the neighborhood in golden light
“Wow! two times?” Jeonghan replied enthusiastically, leaving his mouth agape, “im glad you had a fun time!” he replied trying to sound supportive, his voice a little bit forced.
He couldn’t even deny the fact that he was jealous.
How was it possible for a guitar teacher who she had not even known for three days, get more praise from her than he did in 6 years?
Yeon had always been a quiet child. She hid behind Jeonghan’s leg whenever someone new spoke to her, answered questions in soft little nods or one-word replies, and preferred observing people before deciding whether she liked them.
Jeonghan, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. He could strike up a conversation with just about anyone, whether it was the cashier at the grocery store, another parent waiting outside school, or the stranger sitting next to him on the bus. If Yeon needed time to come out of her shell, Jeonghan never seemed to have one in the first place. Somehow, despite being total opposites, the two balanced each other perfectly.
Since Yeon was 6 years old she just started attending school Jeonghan was in constant worry- whether she had friends or not, whether she was getting bullied, excluded, or not fitting in with the other kids.
And to add to it all Yeon didn’t really talk about her feelings or her days and mostly answered Jeonghan with hums, nods or single words when he asked about how her days were.
When Jeonghan’s worries were at its peak, Mr cool, perfect, talented teacher entered the picture. He brought out a side from Yeon which Jeonghan thought he would never see.
With him around Yeon replied with actual sentences, happily telling him about her day, what they did, how beautiful her teacher was, how she was his favourite bla bla bla.
And the fact that this so-called guitar teacher of hers, was able to bring out this side of Yeon surprised Jeonghan to a certain degree.
“What else did you do today?” Jeonghan questioned in anticipation.
Yeon hummed.
“We practiced scar-“ Yeon retorted, then pausing. “scares?”
“Scales?” Jeonghan assented, getting an enthusiastic nod in response.
“Scales!” Yeon repeated in the same tone Jeonghan did, “he gave us different strings to play and then we had to play them in a certain way! And he told me I did best out of everyone!”
Jeonghan hummed, “I’m so proud of you, my little girl,” and with that he swooped Yeon up in his arms, her legs swinging back and forth as she giggled, poking his cheeks. And once again the wave of how much Yeon had actually grown in a few years hit him.
Yeon let her head loll against his shoulder, continuing talking about Mr. Cool, perfect and talented teacher the entire walk home, (who’s actual name was Seungcheol, or whatever, but Jeonghan prefers using his inner monologue- where he can allow himself to be a bit more controversial.)
They lived in a certainly small apartment, barely big enough for two people to live in.
Judging based on the amount of time Jeonghan worked you would guess they would have been able to afford something bigger, but in this economy, no.
Their apartment consisted of one small bathroom, a living room, an even smaller kitchen which was connected to the living room, and one bedroom- which Yeon had occupied, decorating the walls with tons of drawings, pictures of her Jeonghan, and crayons scattered across the floor and clothes everywhere.
Jeonghan slept on the couch, thankfully it was quite a big couch considering the size of their apartment and lack of decoration (well decoration that wasn’t handmade by Yeon) and the reasoning for the certainly big couch was because of thr previous owner, whom had left the couch behind in pure pity- which was heavily appreciated.
Jeonghan worked as a dance teacher, working on new choreographies for idols days on end. He enjoyed his job but sometimes it got too much. He was overworked- without a doubt. And the effects of it were pretty obvious.
He barely had enough time to eat lunch during his work days, and the 15 minute break he had to pick Yeon up and drop her off at her guitar lessons was more than too little.
Thankfully Jeonghan’s one and only bestfriend, Mingyu, sometimes helped out by dropping her off and picking her up from school.
Yeon sat on the couch watching some kind of strange cartoon on their really small tv while Jeonghan made dinner.
Well watching is a strong word considering how she wasn’t really paying attention to the show, rather she was talking about Mr. Cool, perfect and talented teacher the entire time.
She said that he was just so cool and that Jeonghan just had to meet him.
Jeonghan let out a sigh, not a frustrated one, but one out of pure love. No matter how much he disliked this guitar teacher, nothing made him happier than hearing his daughter talk about her day.
Yeon taking guitar lessons was originally not supposed to be a big deal,
One evening, while they were cleaning up after dinner, a music program happened to be playing on the television. A little girl, not much older than Yeon, sat on a stage with a guitar nearly as big as she was, carefully strumming each chord while the audience applauded.
Jeonghan hadn’t thought much of it.
Yeon had.
She’d stopped what she was doing entirely, her eyes glued to the screen. She didn’t say a word, just watched with quiet fascination, barely blinking until the performance ended.
“You like that?” Jeonghan had asked, raising an eyebrow.
Yeon gave the smallest nod, but that was more than enough for Jeonghan to ask;
“…Do you want to learn?”
This time, the nod came much faster.
It wasn’t often Yeon showed excitement so openly, but when he suggested guitar lessons…
Her whole face lit up.
Her eyes sparkled, the corners of her mouth stretching into the biggest smile he’d ever seen on her.
“Really?”
It was such a simple question.
Yet it carried so much hope that Jeonghan didn’t have the heart to tease her.
He simply smiled back.
“Really.”
Before he knew it, she had thrown her tiny arms around his waist.
“Thank you mom!!!”
It was the first time he had seen Yeon so genuinely, unapologetically happy.
From that moment on, there was no question.
No matter how busy work became or how exhausted he felt after a long day, every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon belonged to guitar lessons.
Because if an hour of music could make his daughter smile like that…
It was worth every second.