Prologue: I'm Not Dad's Blood... So I Can
Twenty years old.
The moment my daughter became an adult, something about her changed. The girl who had never known anyone but her father suddenly brought a blonde thug into our home.
"This is my boyfriend. Say hello."
I figured she'd come back to her senses soon enough. My daughter wasn't that kind of girl. But this time, a creeping dread told me that certainty might be wrong.
It was not long after she'd brought that blonde delinquent home, passing him off as her boyfriend. Something about that day felt off, so I broke a rare drinking appointment with a friend and headed home.
Yes. It had been strange—from the very moment she'd walked that punk through the door.
"It's none of your business, Dad. Just stay out of it, please."
I had to see for myself. She wasn't my blood, but she was my one and only daughter—the apple of my eye, the precious child I'd given everything I had to raise. I couldn't hand a girl like that over to some worthless thug. Never. Never.
I threw my own front door open as if I were raiding a crime scene.
"Min-ah!! Dad's home!! Where are you?"
I was already certain. That punk was going to put his hands on my precious daughter.
"Dad? You're back?"
Her voice came from the master bedroom.
"My plans got canceled, so I came home early."
But something was wrong. Ever since high school, my daughter had never set foot in the master bedroom. Don't tell me... because the big bed is in there?
"Sweetheart! What are you doing in there? Come out right now!"
"You're so suspicious, Dad."
Her voice wasn't right. There was a breathy, nasal quality to it, as if she were savoring every second. And unlike her leisurely tone, she showed no sign of coming out of that room.
Suspicion began to harden into certainty.
"You're in there with him, aren't you?! Aren't you!!"
I yanked the bedroom door open.
The room was bathed in red light. A sweet, hazy fragrance hung in the air. And there was Min-ah, wearing my coat, smiling as she greeted me.
"What's wrong, Dad? What about the hospital at this hour? Something urgent come up?"
She wasn't asking. She was mocking me. A face that said she was enjoying this. A face that said she knew exactly why I'd come.
"Where did you hide him! That... that thug bastard!! Where is he?!"
"There was only ever me here. What's with you, Dad? Getting possessive?"
"Min-ah...!!"
I almost said something unforgivable to my own daughter. Fine. Then I'd find him myself.
I started tearing the room apart—the closet, the bathroom, even under the bed.
Huh...?
Why... why wasn't that punk here? My instincts can't be wrong. Don't tell me he's outside the window?
I slid it open. No one was clinging to a twentieth-floor window.
......
A complete disaster. Letting emotion masquerade as certainty had left me with nothing but a thorough misjudgment. My face went scarlet in an instant.
"Dad. What's wrong. Did you actually think something was going to happen with Tae-min?"
"...Th-that's......"
"Heheh... thank you, Dad. You still love me after all."
In the blink of an eye, my daughter slipped the coat from her shoulders.
...My daughter. Min-ah wasn't wearing a thing underneath. Her breasts swelled like ripe apples, and beneath them a slender, cinched waist. I whipped my head away—but I had already seen, and my face began to burn red as a beet.
"Wh-what are you doing!!!!!!! Min-ah!!! Put some clothes on right now!!!!"
If she'd still been a minor, I would have rushed over and dressed her myself. But my daughter was an adult now. I couldn't put clothes on her with my own hands.
"Why are you turning around? You used to bathe me until last year, remember?"
"...You're an adult now!! C-come on! Get dressed!!"
"I don't want to."
"Wh...at?"
A single sheet of paper fluttered toward me. It was... the Paternity Test Result Certificate I'd had done twelve years ago.
Client A (Alleged Father): Cha Eun-hyeok
Client B (Child): Cha Min-ah
Pursuant to genetic analysis conducted on the above parties, a biological parent-child relationship is hereby EXCLUDED.
Probability of Exclusion: 99.999998%
"Client A, Dad. And Client B, me. It says the two of us aren't related by blood."
"Y-you... how did you get this?!"
She lunged and pressed herself against my back.
"Min-ah!!"
With my hand caught in hers, my daughter was trying to drag me down into a sweet hell.