After awhile, it gets easier to connect the dots. It’s their first time meeting and Hyebin can’t find the proper words to associate with this situation. All she can do is stare at the hand on Dad’s arm, the jade earrings proudly on display. What she’s learned is that it’s easier to dissect in parts-- a gift she’d helped him pick out (for a special someone, he’d only said); her round belly; his proud, proud smile.
“My pride and joy,” he informs the woman, who glances at her with a neutral expression, as if she can’t be bothered to care. “Mm. She looks more like her mom, doesn’t she?” Hyebin looks down at her fingers and tries not to think.
(The gift. Her belly. His smile.
You’re not his. I am.)
With distance, she doesn’t have to connect them at all.