“Mom! It’s Bread Aunt.”

Si Hoo was about to run off, letting go of Gyeo Wool’s hand.

“Aunt will park and come, wait a moment, Si Hoo.”

Eun Young parked the car in the noodle shop’s parking lot and ran to Si Hoo.

“Bread Eun Young Aunt!”

Si Hoo ran to Eun Young with a lisp.

Eun Young hugged Si Hoo and lifted him up immediately.

“Si Hoo, say Bang Eun Young aunt.”

“Bread Eun Young aunt.”

“It’s Bang Eun Young.”

“Bread Eun Young.”

“This rascal is teasing aunt.”

Eun Young pretended to pinch Si Hoo’s nose lightly.

“Hahaha……”

Si Hoo laughed loudly with a sound that made the listener feel even better.

“What brings you here?”

“Where are you going?”

Gyeo Wool and Eun Young asked simultaneously.

The two burst into laughter without anyone being first.

“I was chased out by mom, so I’m going to eat ice cream. What about you, senior?”

“Me? I wanted to see Si Hoo.”

Eun Young avoided Gyeo Wool’s gaze and played with Si Hoo, putting on and taking off his hat repeatedly.

“Did mom contact you?”

Seeing Eun Young avoid her gaze, Gyeo Wool got it right away.

“Si Hoo, let’s quickly go eat ice cream.”

Instead of answering, Eun Young hugged Si Hoo and started running towards the ice cream shop.

“Oh mom……”

There was a reason why Myung Sook had suddenly chased her and Si Hoo out of the shop.

She had called Eun Young but didn’t show any sign of it.

A little while later.

“Si Hoo, aren’t you going to eat more ice cream?”

Si Hoo had stopped eating his favorite ice cream and was playing with a cat.

It was a Persian cat owned by the ice cream shop owner.

The cat, which was haughty even to its owner, was being very affectionate to Si Hoo.

Si Hoo was using all the words he could speak to converse with the cat.

“You said you were sick. Why? Did something bad happen in Seoul?”

As expected, Gyeo Wool’s guess was right.

It was clear that Myung Sook had called Eun Young and told her that Gyeo Wool was sick.

“No. It’s just a simple cold.”

“Medicine?”

“I took it. How have you been, senior? Are the company people doing well?”

It hadn’t been many days since she went up to Seoul, but she already missed the company people.

“We’re doing well. We’ve also taken on a new construction project.”

“Really? It seems things are starting to go smoothly now. That’s really great.”

Gyeo Wool didn’t hide her joy at hearing about the new construction project.

“Gyeo Wool.”

“Yes?”

“I don’t know if I should say this.”

Eun Young showed a hesitant expression, unsure whether to speak or not.

“You know, that day we had the company dinner……”

“Senior. I’m sorry. That day.”

Gyeo Wool assumed that Eun Young was about to talk about Tae Wook’s sudden appearance.

“I thought if I told the truth, you wouldn’t take on the resort construction.”

“I know why you hid it from me, Gyeo Wool.”

“I didn’t intend to hide it forever. I was planning to tell you when the opportunity arose.”

“Rather, I’m really sorry and grateful to you.”

“Then are you forgiving me, senior?”

Gyeo Wool asked, deliberately exaggerating.

But for some reason, Eun Young just looked at Gyeo Wool with a strange gaze.

“Gyeo Wool.”

This time, Eun Young called Gyeo Wool with a heavy voice.

“Senior, did something happen?”

“I was told not to say, but I think I should tell you after all.”

“What… are you talking about?”

Gyeo Wool unconsciously tensed up and her face hardened.

“That night, CEO Kang called me separately.”

“The CEO called you, senior?”

Eun Young nodded to the surprised Gyeo Wool.

“The employee training center construction that I had refused. He politely asked me to take it on again.”

“Senior, is that true?”

Had she raised her voice unknowingly out of surprise?

Si Hoo’s attention, which had been on the cat, shifted to Gyeo Wool.

“If you’re this surprised, how do you think I felt?”

Eun Young, seemingly uninterested in eating the ice cream, kept poking it with the spoon as she spoke with a flushed face.

“So, senior? So did you agree to take on the construction?”

“I have my pride. After causing such a scene at the fish restaurant, how could I readily agree?”

“No matter how hurt your pride was……”

Gyeo Wool thought Eun Young had once again missed an opportunity and made a regretful expression.

“When I said I would refuse, he said it was a token of gratitude.”

This was what Tae Wook had said to Eun Young when she tried to refuse even after he formally requested the training center interior construction.

“A token… of gratitude?”

“Yes. He clearly said to take on that construction as a token of gratitude.”

Gyeo Wool tilted her head.

A token of gratitude?

Shouldn’t it be ‘The Space’ who should be grateful, not Tae Wook who was giving the construction job?

“What on earth was he grateful to you for, senior?”

“He said he was thankful that I looked after you by your side.”

“Is, is that true?”

Having heard something unimaginable, Gyeo Wool even stuttered.

It was hard to accept the fact that Tae Wook had said such a thing.

“Do you know if that’s all he said?”

“What else did he say?”

Gyeo Wool asked, her black eyes shining.

“He even persuaded me by saying that showing ‘The Space’ doing well was for your sake.”

Eun Young, still seeming to have remnants of that day’s surprise, put down the ice cream spoon and stared into space for a while.

“When he pushed the contract at me and asked to keep it a secret from you, I thought my heart would stop.”

“……”

Gyeo Wool was speechless.

“I promised not to tell, but I thought you should know.”

Eun Young thought that honestly revealing what happened that day would actually be better for Gyeo Wool.

“I started to reflect on whether I had been judging CEO Kang as trash without even experiencing him. Of course……”

Eun Young paused and continued, watching Gyeo Wool’s reaction.

“You’re the one who was hurt by that person, so I won’t say that you’re misunderstanding CEO Kang.”

“Thank you for saying it like that, senior.”

Was it because she had heard such surprising words from Eun Young in succession?

Her mind was in such chaos that she couldn’t organize how to accept the Tae Wook that Eun Young had experienced.

“But Gyeo Wool. CEO Kang’s feelings of caring for you… at least, they don’t seem to be a lie.”

Gyeo Wool sat leaning against the bed headboard, gently stroking the head of the sleeping Si Hoo.

“Oh my son, what should we do, you fell asleep without eating?”

After parting with Eun Young, Gyeo Wool had taken Si Hoo to the kids cafe after a long time.

He had played so excitedly.

Si Hoo must have been tired, as he fell asleep while eating dinner.

“Even without mom, play happily with your friends like today.”

She lowered her head and kissed his chubby cheek.

He must have fallen into such a deep sleep that there was no reaction even when she stroked or kissed him.

This time, she boldly traced his eyebrows with her finger as if drawing them.

They were quite thick and bushy eyebrows.

Until last year, there were occasionally people who mistook Si Hoo for a girl.

But this year, his eyebrows had suddenly thickened, and he looked unmistakably like a boy.

And because of those eyebrows, his father’s face was even more visible in Si Hoo’s face.

“It seems he resembles him more as he grows up.”

Gyeo Wool removed her finger from tracing the eyebrows and stared blankly into space.

−The employee training center construction that I had refused. He politely asked me to take it on again.

Suddenly, Eun Young’s words came to mind.

“I didn’t even know that.”

She felt like she could die from guilt towards Tae Wook.

−Why did you lie to senior?

−CEO doesn’t know what kind of person senior is.

Why had she said such things to Tae Wook, not understanding his concern for Eun Young?

She hadn’t even dreamed that he was drawing a bigger picture for Eun Young’s sake.

“Why didn’t he tell me?”

Moreover, she couldn’t understand why Tae Wook had earnestly asked Eun Young to keep it a secret.

Gyeo Wool quietly got off the bed.

She felt like she needed some fresh air. Only then might the tightness in her chest ease a bit.

She took out a thick cardigan from the closet, put it on, grabbed her mobile phone, and left the room.

Gyeo Wool tiptoed through the living room, trying not to wake Myung Sook, and smiled wryly.

Her mother, like herself, never woke up once she fell into deep sleep.

“Rain?”

When she opened the front door, a light drizzle was falling.

Should she go back inside?

She hesitated slightly.

“No. I came out because I felt stuffy, I should at least sit for a moment before going back in.”

Gyeo Wool came down the stairs and walked to the mini vending machine installed in front of the noodle shop.

Customers leaving after eating noodles could drink milk coffee and tangerine tea without coins.

It was also frequent for neighborhood grandmothers and grandfathers to stop by for a drink.

Without hesitation, Gyeo Wool pressed the button labeled ‘milk coffee’.

With a ‘ding’ sound, coffee filled the paper cup.

She sat at a table with a parasol, holding the coffee.

“I wanted to walk by the sea……”

Perhaps because of the rain, it was so dark that she couldn’t distinguish where the sky was and where the sea was.

Feeling disappointed, she lifted the paper cup.

The strong coffee aroma rushed into her nose, carried by the wind from the sea.

Jeju Island, rain, and coffee.

As if by magic, the image of Tae Wook who had come through the rain appeared in her mind.

Gyeo Wool took out her mobile phone from her cardigan pocket and pulled up the recent call log.

Staring intently at the phone number without a name, she mumbled.

“I miss you……”

There was nothing to eavesdrop on but the wind.

Yet Gyeo Wool’s voice was infinitely small and trembling, as if someone might hear.

The resentment and hatred that had settled in her heart like sediment were no longer there.

Instead, a deep longing was firmly lodged in her heart.

Gyeo Wool stroked Tae Wook’s phone number with her finger.

Perhaps the feeling of longing had weight to it.

Without realizing it, her finger pressed down, hitting the call button under the number.

“Oh my! What am I doing!”

Gyeo Wool was startled and pressed the end call button.