Feeling Hun Tae’s gaze looking down on him, Jae Ho lowered his head a bit more. He didn’t want to reveal the faint smile on his lips.

Wanting to overcome the biggest hurdle first, he had come straight to his grandfather, and the conversation was going better than expected. If he had intended to refuse from the start, he wouldn’t have kept listening.

For this moment at least, his worry about Da Jung, who had been hard to reach since earlier, was somewhat diluted.

“However, you’re not saying you’ll quit acting entirely.”

“No.”

“Why are you so attached to it?”

Attachment, huh.

It could be seen that way.

The sense of debt to fulfill someone else’s dream. The sense of responsibility to keep a past promise. Such feelings weren’t entirely absent.

But that wasn’t all. The comfort gained from acting out various people’s lives was greater than expected. When there was nowhere else in the world to belong, acting became a good friend.

Jae Ho was a child who had survived.

When he fainted after crying madly and pleading for help while watching a building engulfed in flames, his heart had all but burned up too. Though his body lived on, his mind was shattered into hundreds of pieces, and he lived in a state no different from being completely broken for years. What helped heal that heart, even a little, was acting.

He couldn’t easily give it up.

The words spoken with interlocked fingers couldn’t be forgotten either.

“It’s a dream I promised someone. It’s also my resolution.”

“Tsk.”

Hun Tae clicked his tongue.

“I’m sorry.”

Hun Tae turned his gaze to the window. And he smiled with his eyes, imperceptibly.

Jae Ho didn’t know. The fact that Hun Tae was valuing his stubborn side even more.

The conviction to speak difficult words without backing down. The caution to not make promises that couldn’t be kept. Though he truly disliked the profession of acting, the perseverance to not easily give up what had been started was praiseworthy.

Hun Tae wanted Jae Ho more and more. Even though he was right in front of him.

This was why Jin Hyuk, who loved shortcuts and schemes, could never surpass Jae Ho.

“What does the young lady do?”

“She’s a nurse.”

Hun Tae’s eyes widened.

“I thought you’d say she was an actress.”

“…”

“Not bad. Meeting a woman with a sense of duty.”

Jae Ho smiled again at the corners of his mouth. This time he couldn’t hide it from Hun Tae’s eyes.

“Are you that happy?”

“How can you say that? Grandfather, you had an arranged marriage, so you don’t know how thrilling romance can be.”

Jae Ho grumbled.

“I’m glad you know more than me.”

“Yes.”

Just then, Mi Jung knocked. Hun Tae responded, and the door opened carefully as Mi Jung walked towards the sofa carrying a tray. The tray held cookies, fruit, and other snacks.

“I thought your conversation might be long, so I prepared this. Father.”

“Why are you carrying this yourself? Are there not enough hands in this house? Hire a few more people. It’s not right for the eldest daughter-in-law of the Tae Myung family to be doing such menial tasks.”

Having sincerely repented his past opposition, Hun Tae now doted on Mi Jung excessively. He wanted to give her everything she desired, saying he didn’t know how to repay the hardship of raising a child alone.

Although Sun Woo was gone, the reason Mi Jung could continue living in this house was because of her father-in-law’s generous treatment.

‘Daughter-in-law. If you had chosen to terminate the pregnancy because it was too difficult back then, what would have happened? The thought alone is dreadful. Thank you for enduring those hard times and coming to me. Thank you.’

Mi Jung never once thought of terminating the pregnancy no matter how difficult it was, but hearing such words made her frozen heart thaw a little. There was no lasting hatred or resentment. Ironically, in the house where Sun Woo was gone, the two finally became the relationship Sun Woo had most wished for.

“What do you mean menial tasks? Father, this is taking care of my son. Of course I should do it.”

Mi Jung smiled as she picked up an apple slice with a fork and put it in Jae Ho’s mouth.

Jae Ho was reminded of himself sitting by the window a few days ago, putting an apple in Da Jung’s mouth. That afternoon when he wanted to taste her lips still sweet with apple. In the end, had that kiss failed?

His heart felt bitter.

Why wasn’t she answering?

His fist clenched. In the moment his thoughts had wandered, Mi Jung had left with the tray, and silence fell over the study once again.

After a long while, Hun Tae spoke.

“I will pass on Tae Myung to you. That’s how it will end up. But I won’t rush.”

“Grandfather.”

“When your heart is fully ready, tell me then. I’m still healthy, so I can wait that long. But it shouldn’t take too long.”

“…”

“You don’t have to move into Pyeongchang-dong. It’s better to live separately with good feelings than to live together with distant hearts. Your freedom won’t be curtailed.”

“I can’t just take benefits without giving anything in return.”

“I intend to give you another task.”

Hun Tae got up from the sofa, went to the desk, opened the safe in the deepest part, and took out a white envelope. He looked at the envelope for a moment, sighed briefly, then walked back to the sofa and held it out to Jae Ho.

When Jae Ho looked up at Hun Tae with a questioning expression, Hun Tae gestured for him to open it.

“I received an absurd letter. Someone left it secretly. It says your uncle killed your father.”

“…This, this is nonsense… I heard father’s accident was a coincidence.”

Jae Ho shook his head slightly. He furrowed his brow, trying to deny the thought.

His father, who had passed away in a traffic accident shortly after he was born. Mi Jung, upon hearing the news in the newspaper, had cried her eyes out while holding her newborn baby.

“Is it credible? Do you believe this claim is true, grandfather?”

Although his uncle was known to be particularly ambitious for power, Jae Ho didn’t think he was reckless enough to plan a murder. Jae Ho’s eyes, which rarely showed surprise, shook for a moment.

“Well. It would be good to investigate that first.”

Jae Ho didn’t particularly like his uncle, but separately from that, he understood his anger to some extent.

It was just a matter of time before he got his hands on Tae Myung, but suddenly someone claiming to be his brother’s son rolled in. How angry must he have been? Moreover, the nephew turned out to be smart and ended up taking the successor position. The reason Jin Hyuk couldn’t like him was all too clear.

But if he had eliminated his brother out of greed for power from the start, the situation was different.

Jae Ho buried his gaze in the letter again and said,

“It’s too old a case. It won’t be easy. There weren’t even black boxes back then…”

“You can’t investigate like the prosecution. You’ll have to do some illegal things too. But will you try? Jae Ho. It’s about your father.”

The father he had never seen came to mind.

Mi Jung always told him only the good things about his dad. So when he was young, he really thought his dad was watching over him from heaven. He firmly believed that his dad loved him.

Did he love him? A child whose existence he didn’t even know.

“I hear Jung Manager is good at finding people? You’ve got a good person there. If needed, Choi Manager will help too. I’ll support you with anything you need.”

Still, he thinks that if he had known, he would have loved him.

They say he had made plans to run away with Mi Jung, abandoning everything. The woman left because she couldn’t believe his resolve, but Jin Woo was really organizing his real estate and bank accounts bit by bit.

How must he have felt when he realized Mi Jung had disappeared? He knows that just as Yoon Da Jung is everything to Lee Jae Ho, Kim Mi Jung was everything to Lee Jin Woo.

He wanted to ask how it felt to lose everything. Jae Ho felt he couldn’t live if Da Jung left, but Jin Woo had endured steadfastly and lived another year. If not for the accident, he would have survived even longer.

He became curious about the meaning of the life Jin Woo lived after losing Mi Jung.

Whether he completely forgot and started a new life, or if he had the determination to get her back someday. If he were alive now, he might be proudly telling his son various stories of his romance.

“Even if you don’t find out, I won’t oppose that young lady. But I want to try my best at least once. I’ve never looked into Jin Woo’s life in all my years.”

Hun Tae’s voice faded, sinking into reminiscence.

“Will you do it in his place? It might have some meaning just for a son to look back.”

It was time to look back on the past days of the father who was said to have the same eyes as him. Suddenly, his palms began to sweat.

“…I’ll try.”

**

As soon as he left the study, he called Da Jung, but she didn’t answer. It was still early evening. The continued absence made him dizzy. Jae Ho went up to his room on the second floor where Jung Manager was waiting.

“Manager. We need to check on Da Jung. There are guards around her, right?”

“Yes.”

“Tell them to approach the lodging. Have them check if there’s any sign of activity. If there’s no sign, tell them to ring the bell or open the door and go in. Something seems wrong.”

Jung Manager stared at Jae Ho, who was pacing around aimlessly and speaking rapidly.

Lee Jae Ho looked just like this when he was searching desperately for Yoon Da Jung right after returning from America. A state where logic and reason had disappeared, leaving only worry and anxiety. Jung Manager was afraid Jae Ho’s mental state might become unstable again. Trauma crept in from dreams, slowly eating away at his mind.

Only after finding Yoon Da Jung did the terrible nightmares stop. Jung Manager rubbed his own face once and grabbed Jae Ho’s arm. He hoped and prayed that Jae Ho wouldn’t become like that again.

“She might just be sleeping early. I’ll call the pension caretaker couple.”

“Ah.”

“If guards go in the middle of the night, it will startle her.”

“Ah… That’s right. Then please do that.”

“Don’t worry too much.”

Jae Ho finally stopped pacing and turned to Jung Manager. They had met during the most difficult time. Jung Manager was also an older brother who had lost his younger sibling in the . Sharing the same pain, they had become another family.

“Jae Ho. It’ll be alright.”

Jae Ho barely regained his reason.

“I feel like I’m going crazy without Yoon Da Jung. Hyung.”

Only after watching Jung Manager make the call to the pension caretaker couple did Jae Ho’s tense expression relax a little. The caretaker couple had answered that they would go to the pension right away to check.

“By the way, is there still no news about Ha Jae Woo? I got a mission from grandfather, so I need to find Ha Jae Woo quickly and do one more task.”

“There’s no sign of life at all. It’s not easy.”

Jung Manager answered in a heavy voice.