The other organization members who were leaving the company building turned their eyes toward the sound of Seol Ah’s angry voice, but when they saw the two executives, they quickly lowered their gazes and got out of the way.

Jae Kyung thought the squawking voice was unpleasant to hear and covered his ear with the hand not holding his luggage.

“I was on your side. I thought we were in the same situation, so I helped you! It’s thanks to me that you were able to keep Yoon Na Eun by your side, isn’t it? I was the one who taught you the method! And this is how you repay my kindness?”

Seol Ah, who had known him since childhood and was like a younger sister in a way, was one of the few people he tolerated even when she climbed the ranks using him.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t expected to hear such resentment after killing Kay.

So he had quietly stayed put, ready to endure some criticism, but soon his expression turned cold at her words that crossed the line.

“I’m going to kill Yoon Na Eun!”

Lowering the hand that was covering his ear and meeting eyes with Seol Ah, Jae Kyung warned her quietly.

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life bedridden with a broken leg?”

At that, Seol Ah cried out as she argued back.

“You took Kay away from me, so you pay with the same. At least understand how I feel that way!”

“…Sigh.”

Like an elder brother watching his young sister’s tantrum, Jae Kyung made a face as if he had a headache, then walked past her.

Seol Ah tried to block his way while crying out, but there was no way she could keep up with Jae Kyung’s walking speed while on crutches due to her leg injury.

“You’ll regret this… Just watch, Han Jae Kyung! I’ll have my revenge!”

In the end, Seol Ah, who had collapsed to the floor, screamed.

Seol Ah’s scream mixed with sobs poured out behind him, but Jae Kyung walked forward without regard.

Na Eun would be sleeping. I wonder if she ate dinner before sleeping. After checking again that the books and snacks he was going to give her were neatly in the paper bag, Jae Kyung calmly left the company building.

Right now, his only major concern was how to comfort Na Eun, who must be immersed in grief alone at home after hearing the belated news of her parents’ deaths.

As soon as Jae Kyung entered the house, he checked the dining table first. He had clearly set the table and told her to eat well before leaving, but there was no sign that it had been touched.

Jae Kyung sighed with a sinking heart.

Since yesterday evening until today, it seemed Na Eun needed time to accept her parents’ deaths and had been crying continuously.

She might get dehydrated at this rate. With a worried heart, he headed towards her room.

“Na Eun, I’m coming in.”

Knock knock. After lightly knocking, he slowly opened the door.

In the dark bedroom with the lights off, Na Eun could be seen curled up under the bed, hugging her knees and burying her face on top of them.

Jae Kyung turned on the light and slowly approached her.

He knelt down to meet her at eye level and gently stroked her hair.

“Have you been crying this whole time?”

“…Jae Kyung.”

Na Eun, whose eyes were red, leaned weakly against his shoulder.

Jae Kyung, who skillfully embraced Na Eun, slowly patted her back as if to comfort her.

“You didn’t eat dinner either.”

He said worriedly. The rice and soup he had set on the table had long gone cold.

When Jae Kyung asked if she could eat even a little if he reheated it, Na Eun hesitated for a moment.

She didn’t want to eat, but she seemed to think it would be a burden to act more spoiled to Jae Kyung, who was already taking so much care of her.

He chuckled softly as if he knew what the little head was thinking.

“If you can’t eat rice, would you like to eat this instead?”

He lifted up the paper bag he had set aside and took out a small cookie box. Na Eun’s eyes widened when she saw it.

When she saw the label of the bakery she frequented because she liked it, she even felt a faint joy that the store was still around.

Seeing that her mood had improved even a little, Jae Kyung took out the books, notebooks, and pencil case he had brought along.

“I picked these up on my way back from work. These are the right ones, right?”

“…Yeah. It seems so. That’s all my handwriting.”

She smiled with swollen eyes as she flipped through the books and notebooks Jae Kyung gave her.

Flipping through a few pages of the notebooks, traces of her hard work over that time could be seen at a glance.

The me of the future was also someone who worked hard.

While feeling a sense of pride anew, she simultaneously felt depressed due to the sadness that washed over her. She said as she fiddled with the notebook.

“…Jae Kyung. I think I have severe aftereffects from the accident.”

How could she have forgotten that her parents had passed away?

Jae Kyung looked at Na Eun, who was muttering gloomily, with a slightly sunken gaze.

‘Her cognitive impairment will gradually worsen. She will lose the ability to distinguish between her own memories and fabricated ones. If it reaches a point where she can’t properly make judgments in daily life, it would be best to temporarily stop the medication then.’

It’s okay.

Pushing the doctor’s words to the back of his memory as he handed over the medicine, Jae Kyung tried hard to comfort her.

It’ll be fine if I take good care of you.

Internally repeating that it was okay no matter what state she was in, he patted the shoulder of Na Eun who was leaning against him. Meanwhile, she muttered in a voice full of melancholy.

“…Then, I’ve been alone without family since 3 years ago.”

“…”

“My parents didn’t get along well with both my paternal and maternal relatives… I don’t really have any relatives I keep in touch with.”

Jae Kyung remained silent. He knew that fact as well. Thanks to that, the plan from 3 years ago had been easy.

However, it was difficult to watch Na Eun any longer as she looked lonely as if she was truly alone in the world now.

Jae Kyung hesitated for a moment, then held her hand.

Feeling the warmth that held his hand without hesitation, he decided not to regret his choice anymore.

“Na Eun.”

At his call, Na Eun lifted her head. Jae Kyung fixed his gaze on that innocent face and spoke in a kind but firm tone.

“Should we get married?”

“…”

Silence flowed for a moment. Jae Kyung calmly watched her swollen eyes from crying since yesterday slowly widen in surprise.

Soon, as expected, a response came after a short silence.

“Huh?”

Ma, married? He inwardly smiled bitterly at her reaction of truly not expecting it. Is it that surprising?

Even if the memories are fabricated, they are in a long-term relationship and even living together. Jae Kyung felt quite hurt that she seemed to keep pushing him away subconsciously even though her memories were gone, but he smiled without showing it.

Soon, he left Na Eun and the bedroom. Giving her time to calm down, he took something out of the drawer in his room and returned to her room.

Jae Kyung gently helped Na Eun, who was still sitting on the floor in confusion, to her feet.

After having Na Eun sit on the edge of the bed, Jae Kyung sat next to her and handed her something.

Na Eun tore open the thin paper envelope and fell silent after seeing the contents.

It was a plane ticket.

“Paris…?”

Jae Kyung spoke to her, who was bewildered and couldn’t understand the existence of the ticket or the destination.

“Let’s get married and live in France.”

“…”

“It will be a little safer if we go to a rural village.”

You said before that you like France. At Jae Kyung’s kind words, Na Eun tilted her head for a moment.

“I said that…?”

At Na Eun’s attitude of not remembering at all, Jae Kyung’s expression hardened a little this time. It wasn’t a lie this time.

It was a long time ago and only for a fleeting moment, but Jae Kyung remembered every single word and action of Na Eun’s without exception.

Is this also an aftereffect of the drug? Jae Kyung inwardly smiled bitterly, thinking that this too was something he had to endure, and let it go.

“Like I said before, Korea is still dangerous. You feel suffocated just staying here too, right, Na Eun?”

He coaxed her. As if he had no choice but to choose for her sake. Pretending to be villainously and disgustingly kind, like a true villain.

“I’ll become your family.”

So that you’re not alone, I’ll become your everything.

Hiding his true feelings inside and packaging them with plausible words to bring out, Na Eun was swayed by his skillful act.

Her close friends were out of touch, and her parents had passed away. The closest person to her now was only her boyfriend, Jae Kyung.

Should I just leave?

Now that there was almost nothing left in Korea to be attached to, she didn’t want to refuse Jae Kyung’s proposal that she had dreamed of.

What did it matter if she couldn’t communicate with those around her when she had the person she truly loved by her side? She had a talent for studying something, and she thought she could manage French if she put in a little more effort.

But… if we go abroad, does that mean we have to hide for the rest of our lives? Just the two of us?

She didn’t hate it, but she had a lot of things to do besides loving Jae Kyung.

She was sure she had dreams she wanted to achieve and a future she hoped for. After graduating from school……

…then what?

What was I trying to do?

Suddenly, she couldn’t remember what she was trying to do after graduating from school.

Is this also an aftereffect of the accident? Whenever she tried to think deeply about something, a throbbing headache had been coming to her for some time.

Na Eun closed her eyes tightly to shake off the pain, then bit her lip.

Forget it. I don’t want to think anymore.

A life with the person I love by my side, isn’t that enough?

Na Eun failed to realize that her attitude of rationalizing the strange situation was clearly not normal to anyone who saw it.

Seeing Na Eun’s noticeably wavering expression, a smile hung on Jae Kyung’s lips. How much time had passed? Eventually, permission fell from her mouth.

“Okay. Let’s do that.”

I want to marry you, Jae Kyung. At the following confession, Jae Kyung smiled brightly.

Seeing her boyfriend looking so happy as if he had gained the world, her mood also became good.

Na Eun hugged Jae Kyung back as he embraced her, whispering that he would do well for the rest of his life.

“I’ll really do well. I’ll… do well, Na Eun.”

“Yeah. But Jae Kyung, there’s something I want to ask of you.”

At the sound of her muttering while hugging him, Jae Kyung hurriedly detached himself.

With an unusually excited expression, he blinked his eyes.

“Yeah. What? Is there something you want?”

Come to think of it, I proposed without a ring. Should we go get one fitted tomorrow? To Jae Kyung, who looked ready to pour out whatever came out of her mouth, she smiled brightly and shook her head. It’s not that…

“The cell phone I used before the accident, can you find it for me if you have it?”

His face, which had been filled with joy, hardened for a moment. He composed his expression before she noticed and asked.

“Why is that? Like I said before, it was broken in the accident…”

“Then, can’t you at least recover the contacts that were in that phone? There are some kids I really want to contact before going to France.”

The departure date on the ticket was one month later. There were friends she really wanted to see before leaving Korea.

“…Who?”

“My high school friends.”

With just that answer, Jae Kyung knew who she meant.

The smile disappeared from his lips. Na Eun, who didn’t notice, said with bright eyes.

“I think we lost contact, but I still really want to meet them before leaving.”

She had her own thoughts. Jae Kyung might not know, but her friends were actually the heroes who were being cursed at in the news every day.

They had now become national fraudsters, but she still hadn’t let go of the string of hope.

Could there be some misunderstanding? Something similar happened in their first year of high school too. She wanted to believe it was like that this time too.

Also, there was a promise she had written in her old diary as if swearing an oath, so she couldn’t just turn away and leave.

The cell phone was broken, but couldn’t the contacts inside be recovered?

If they hadn’t changed their numbers, couldn’t she still contact those kids?

Jae Kyung, who had been silently looking down at Na Eun with such hopes for a while, asked.

“…You skipped dinner, and you haven’t had the tea I prepared yet either, right? Na Eun.”

She nodded weakly, startled by the sudden change of topic.

Jae Kyung slowly put away the cookie box he had set aside.

“Come to think of it, cookies instead of rice is a bit much. Let’s eat rice and have tea.”

You’ll fall asleep well.

As he smiled and said that, Jae Kyung’s eyes were sinking into endless darkness.