The email arrived on a Tuesday afternoon.
Lina was in the middle of editing when her phone pinged. She glanced at it absentmindedly then froze.
From: Jun-ho Kang
Subject: Meeting
She didn't need to open it to know who Jun-ho Kang was. Kai's father. The man who had torn them apart.
Her hands trembled as she read.
*Ms. Lina,_
I understand you are close with my son. I would like to meet with both of you to discuss the past and, perhaps, find a way forward.
I know I have given you no reason to trust me. But I am an old man now, and I have regrets. Please consider giving me a chance to address them.
Jun-ho Kang
Lina stared at the screen for a long time.
Then she called Kai.
He arrived at her apartment that evening, his face tight with anger.
"You don't have to go," he said immediately. "I don't even want to go. He doesn't deserve your time."
"Kai—"
"He controlled my life for years. He took everything from me. He took you from me." Kai paced her living room, hands shoved in his pockets. "And now he wants to meet? Now he has regrets? After seven years?"
Lina waited until he stopped pacing, then gently took his hands.
"I know you're angry," she said softly. "You have every right to be."
"I'm not just angry. I'm furious. I'm hurt. I'm..." He stopped, his voice breaking. "I'm scared."
"Of what?"
"Of him. Of what he might say. Of feeling like a helpless teenager again." Kai met her eyes. "I've worked so hard to build a life away from him. To become someone he doesn't control. And now he wants to walk back in like nothing happened."
Lina pulled him close, holding him tight. "Then we don't go. We don't have to do anything you're not ready for."
Kai was quiet for a long moment.
"What do you think?" he finally asked. "Honestly."
Lina considered the question carefully.
"I think... running from the past never works," she said. "I tried for seven years. I tried to forget you, to move on, to pretend that what happened didn't matter. But it always came back." She pulled back to look at him. "Maybe facing him is the only way to really be free."
Kai searched her face. "You'd do that? Face the man who destroyed us?"
"I'd do anything for you." She smiled slightly. "Even face monsters."
They agreed to the meeting.
Kai's father chose a quiet restaurant in Seoul neutral ground, he said. Lina dressed carefully, wanting to feel confident. Kai was silent during the taxi ride, his hand gripping hers so tightly she could feel his tension.
"You don't have to do this," she reminded him.
"Yes, I do." His voice was steady. "You're right. I need to face him. For myself. For us."
The restaurant was elegant, the kind of place where conversations happened in hushed tones. Jun-ho Kang waited at a corner table, rising as they approached.
He was older than Lina expected. Silver-haired, dignified, with Kai's sharp cheekbones and intense eyes. But where Kai's eyes held warmth, his father's were colder—though today, something else flickered there. Uncertainty, perhaps. Or regret.
"Kai." His voice was deeper than she'd imagined. "Thank you for coming."
"I'm not here for you." Kai pulled out a chair for Lina, then sat beside her. "I'm here for Lina. And for myself."
His father nodded slowly, accepting the rebuke. "Fair enough." He turned to Lina. "You're even more beautiful than your author photos."
Lina said nothing.
An awkward silence fell. A waiter appeared, took their orders, disappeared.
"I know I have no right to ask for anything," Jun-ho began. "What I did to you, Kai to both of you was unforgivable."
"Yes," Kai said flatly. "It was."
"I was trying to protect you. That's what I told myself, anyway. Protect you from distractions, from attachments that would hold you back." He looked down at his hands. "But I think... I think I was really trying to control you. To make you into what I wanted, instead of letting you become who you were meant to be."
Kai's jaw tightened. "You took everything from me. My music. My freedom. Her." He gestured at Lina. "You took the only person who ever really understood me."
"I know." Jun-ho's voice was rough. "I know that now. And I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" Kai's voice rose slightly. "You're sorry? Do you have any idea what those years were like for me? Boarding school with no friends, no music except what I could sneak, no hope of ever seeing her again? Do you know how many nights I cried myself to sleep?"
Lina reached under the table and squeezed his hand.
"I was wrong," Jun-ho said quietly. "Completely, utterly wrong. I thought I was doing what was best. But I was doing what was easiest for me." He looked at Kai with an expression that might have been love, buried under years of pride. "You're a better man than I am. You always were. And I'm proud of you—even though I have no right to be."
The words hung in the air.
Kai stared at his father, his face a battle of emotions. Anger. Hurt. And something else something that looked almost like longing.
"Why now?" he asked. "Why reach out after all these years?"
"Because I'm dying."
The words fell like stones into still water.
Lina felt Kai stiffen beside her.
"What?"
"Cancer. Pancreatic. They give me six months, maybe less." Jun-ho's voice remained steady, but his eyes were wet. "I don't want to die with this between us. I don't expect forgiveness. I don't deserve it. But I wanted to see you. To tell you the truth. To let you know that despite everything, despite all my failures... I do love you. I always have."
Kai was silent for a long time.
Lina held his hand, letting him process, letting him feel.
Finally, Kai spoke.
"I don't forgive you," he said quietly. "Not yet. Maybe not ever."
Jun-ho nodded, accepting.
"But I'm glad you told me." Kai's voice cracked slightly. "I'm glad I know."
They sat in silence as the food arrived, untouched.
The walk back to Kai's apartment was quiet.
Lina didn't push, didn't ask questions. She just walked beside him, her hand in his, letting him know she was there.
When they reached his door, Kai stopped.
"He's dying," he said, almost to himself. "My father is dying."
"Are you okay?"
"No." He turned to her, his eyes bright with unshed tears. "But I don't know why. He was terrible to me. He took everything. I should be relieved, or indifferent, or something. But I'm just... sad."
Lina pulled him into a hug. "It's okay to be sad. He's still your father."
"I hate him."
"Maybe. And maybe you also love him. Both can be true."
Kai held her tighter. "How do you always know the right thing to say?"
"Seven years of writing about feelings." She smiled against his chest. "I've had practice."
He laughed a wet, broken sound. "I love you."
"I love you too." She pulled back to look at him. "And whatever you decide about your father, I'll support you. Visiting him, not visiting him, forgiving him, not forgiving him. I'm here."
Kai kissed her forehead gently. "I don't deserve you."
"Stop saying that."
"It's true."
"Then I'll keep proving you wrong." She took his hand and led him inside. "Now come on. Let's order terrible takeout and watch bad movies and not think about difficult fathers for a few hours."
Kai smiled finally, truly smiled. "That sounds perfect."