It wasn't that Chaeyoung didn't like her dad. They'd been awkward and distant when she'd been at school, but after her mom had left him in her endless quest for upward mobility some of the stuffing had been knocked out of him, and with it some of the stuffiness. As she'd mellowed and he'd relaxed, they'd become closer, almost friends.
Which was why it was always difficult coming to him for money.
They sat at opposite ends of a long dining table, a legacy from her mom, who'd taken her dad's last minor pay raise as an excuse to turn their modest house into a kind of miniature Downton Abbey, complete with a chandelier, which hung perilously low over the table and required conversation to be conducted either around, below, or through it.
"So," her dad said, from somewhere on the other side of the glass curtain. "Why are you here?"
Chaeyoung sighed. Her father's mellowing hadn't robbed him of his directness. "Can't a girl come to have dinner with her dad from time to time?"
"Yes, she can," her dad replied, unfazed, "But she doesn't. So come on. Out with it."
"Well..."
"A girl only comes to her dad when she needs money, she's pregnant, or she wants him to punch someone. So which is it?"
Chaeyoung laughed, despite herself. The thought of her dad punching anyone was ridiculous, and they both knew it. "The first one."
"Thank God for that. So what's it for?"
It looked like they were going to play the long game. "I'm a little up on my credit card."
"Uh huh. And why is that?"
"I... had to go away last week."
"For college?"
"No."
There was a long pause that said she was going to have to do better than that. "Okay, if you must know, I went to see Nayeon."
"Nayeon?"
"Maybe you don't remember her. She was the girl that helped me put on the play you came to see, the one where-"
"Oh, I remember her, all right," her dad said. "It's just I've never heard you call her 'Nayeon' before."
"Yes, well-"
"It was always 'Im' this and 'Im' that, and on one occasion, 'who the goddamn fuck does fucking Im think she fucking is', if I recall."
"Dad!"
"Well, it was. You seemed a little fixated at the time, even for you."
"Well, things are different now," Chaeyoung said, face burning at the memory. "We're kind of friends." She stabbed at her food. "Or at least we were," she muttered, chasing a pea.
"You fell out with her?"
"Sort of."
"I'm sorry to hear that," her dad said, with what sounded like genuine regret. "What did you do?"
"What makes you think it was my fault?"
"Wasn't it?"
"Well, yeah, but it wasn't just me."
"So what happened?"
"Do we have to go into it?"
"If you want money."
"Ugh. Right. Well, it turns out her partner doesn't like me."
"And why is that?"
"I don't know."
"Right. So her girlfriend doesn't like you, for no reason at all."
"Well she... I didn't say 'girlfriend'."
"You're careful with your words, Chaeyoung," her dad said. "I taught you that. If you'd meant 'boyfriend' you'd have said it."
"Right. Fine. Her girlfriend doesn't like me."
"And why not?"
"Well, I was over at the apartment with Nayeon, just messing around one night, and she came home and caught us, andㅡ"
"Whoa, hold on there, young lady. Came home and caught you?"
"Well we..." It dawned on her what her dad meant. "No! Not like that! We weren't... I mean I'm not..." She peered under the chandelier to see her dad raising an eyebrow, and sighed. "I am not gay, Dad."
Her dad held up his hands. "I didn't say anything."
"Good.""Although it reminds me of a quote I once heard."
"Really." She knew exactly where this was going.
"Now what was it? Hmm... It's on the tip of my tongue..."
She quietly ground her teeth while her dad went through the whole charade. "Oh, yes, that was it," he said, finally. "Methinks-"
"Yes, dad, I get it, okay?" She huffed. "I get it. Look, there's nothing between me and Nayeon. Even if I was... you know, she doesn't see me like that." She sniffed. "Doesn't see me as anything, now either." She said, disconsolately.
"So what did you do that was so bad?"
"Well, we were just... actually, Dad, can we skip that part? I don't need a lecture."
"Okay. So she came home to find you doing something that I clearly wouldn't approve of, and then what?"
"We had a bit of an argument."
"You and..."
"Me and Nana. The girlfriend."
"And?"
"And I... threatened to kill her. Apparently."
"Words fail me."
"It's not how it sounds, okay? It's just I thought she was bullying Im, and I wanted to... warn her off. Anyway, now she doesn't want Nayeon to see me."
"I see. And what does Nayeon say?"
"She said it was for the best." Chaeyoung tried to keep the slight crack out of her voice.
Her dad went quiet. She looked up, warily. "Are you... mad with me?"
"Because you didn't want your friend to get hurt? No I'm not mad."
"But you think I was wrong."
"I think you could have handled it better."
"I know, Dad. You don't need to rub it in. I screwed up, and I've lost her."
They ate in silence for a minute. "So when are you going back?"
Chaeyoung put her fork down with a clatter. "I've just told you, Dad, she doesn't want to see me."