Imperfect Desires

"I'm glad you finally decided to have this dinner with your father. From your reaction yesterday, I thought you would reject it."

Darren only glanced at Paige but said nothing. He might have thought of not having this dinner but last night after talking to Ying, he didn't have any other choice. It wasn't that he was estranged from his father but he still would be the last one to find out anything related to his health. And the blame was on his father who would share everything else with him except for his worries.

As he stood at the entrance of the private room, two men standing guard at the door bowed to him respectfully and opened the door for him to enter. While Paige stood outside, he entered the room.

The man inside was standing close to the window looking out but turned around when he heard the sound of the door. Darren hadn't seen him in a year or so, and now he seemed to have aged a lot more. Dylan's father and his own had almost the same age but why was it that his father was looking older?

"I hope you're not planning on just standing there," he heard that gentle voice and his trance broke. His father walked over to him and hugged him. When he pulled away, he looked at his son up and down and nodded, "You look good. I wonder if it has something to do with love."

"You heard that?" 

His father smiled at him, "You announced it to the whole world. It does feel bad to realize that I was the last person to hear about it but yeah, I'm really happy for you."

"It's not like I wanted to hide it from you," said Darren as he followed his father to sit down. "But you seem to be hiding a lot from me."

"Me?" His father frowned slightly. "What did I hide from you?"

"You had a heart attack," stated Darren keeping his voice leveled. "And you didn't even bother telling me about it."

Darren's father stared at his face carefully. Although Darren's physical features were all inherited from his maternal family, his temperament and nature were just like his father's. 

"It wasn't something big and even if I informed, would you come to see me?" 

"Of course, I..." Darren stopped mid-sentence with his internal struggle visible on his face.

His father smiled slightly as he said, "I know you wouldn't. I didn't want to put you in any difficult situation. I know if you knew about my condition you'd certainly want to come to see me but..." He shook his head and sighed, "Anyways, I'm absolutely fine now. It doesn't matter."

"Shouldn't you be resting? Why are you here?" 

"As I just said, I'm absolutely fine now. Besides, I wanted to meet my son. He might not miss his father but I can't help missing him."

Darren rolled his eyes as he said, "There is no need to be so emotional about it."

After a while, the food was served and Darren silently looked at the table filled with everything he liked to eat. He lifted his eyes slowly to glance at his father. Although they had never had a chance to live together, his father still understood him which he found quite strange at first. But now he didn't. Because now he had come to understand that his own observation skills were inherited from his father.

"By the way, I do know you're dating someone but I still don't know who she is or what she looks like or what she does or what kind of a person she is."

"But you aren't curious about any of that," stated Darren straightforwardly.

His father shook his head at his son and said, "Yes, I'm not curious about any of that. I have no doubt about your choices. If she's your choice, she'd definitely be one of a kind."

"That she certainly is..." His father raised his brow and he went on, "I mean she is one of a kind. Period!"

His father was a bit surprised to hear that. "And you seem to be really in love with her. Interesting. Very interesting indeed."

"I indeed am in love with her. I mean literally everyone around her adores her. It's hard to resist when it comes to her. She is just that kind of person who just makes you fall you in love without even trying too hard. She just has to act like her usual crazy self and that's it." His eyes were sparkling as it always did whenever Xiu's name was brought in any conversation. It was always like he was under some kind of spell.

His father stayed quiet for a long time reading his expressions before he questioned, "So, when is the wedding?"

Darren turned to him with an inquisitive gaze, "Why is everyone asking me that question lately? It seems everyone is more eager for my wedding than me."

"I think it has something to do with the way you talk about your girlfriend." Darren's brows furrowed up. "It's almost like you are charmed. The way your eyes lit up talking about her is enough indication of your strong feelings for her."

Darren lowered his head and concentrated on eating. He could never help talking about his Sweets like that. Her name was enough to not only make him smile but to make his whole world light up. She was that existence in his life which actually made him believe in fairytale love. Being charmed? He had fallen under her spell so deep that even he couldn't find a way out. 

"I think the wedding will be soon."

His father was surprised to hear him say that suddenly but he was still happy to hear it. "Hopefully, I'll be invited?"

Darren looked up at his face, "Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I invite you?"

"Just saying..."

Darren frowned but didn't say anything. Even though he still had been in a lot of stress about this, he couldn't deny that he had to tell Xiu about his father. He couldn't run from it and as much as he knew about his Sweets, she'd rather face it all than to run from it either.