Late at night, Ji Wan’s mind became confused by the words of her unfamiliar husband sitting on the bed.

He said he had no intention of divorcing just two weeks before the contract ended. That he wouldn’t let her go.

Ji Wan’s mental state was too weak to accept this at face value.

“Haha, that’s quite… a mean joke.”

So even though she knew the situation was serious, she smiled, and Tae Sung smiled back.

“Whether it’s a joke or not, you’ll find out as time goes on.”

What is there to find out over time?

I won’t have time to wait for the hospital, or for bank interest. Where do I have time to wait and see!

“How can you do this? You said you’d divorce me cleanly.”

Ji Wan argued with an impatient expression, feeling rushed.

Tae Sung still replied shamelessly with a smiling face.

“If I said that, I’ll take it back.”

“Take it back?! A person shouldn’t say two different things with the same mouth!”

“If it’s something I shouldn’t do, I’ll apologize.”

“Oh my, you must be crazy! Really…!”

As expected of a prosecutor, he answered well.

Thanks to that, Ji Wan, who was on the verge of going crazy, shouted in an even more agitated voice.

“No! You have to divorce me no matter what! Let’s get divorced!”

“……”

“I need to get my money back too! Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this day!”

“……”

“You liar! Swindler! And you call yourself a prosecutor of the Republic of Korea!”

A rampaging heron and a monk in silent meditation. That was the appearance of the two at this moment.

Of course, there was no need to think about which side would lose their reason first – it was obviously the heron.

“Ah, divorce me!!!”

Ji Wan shouted at the top of her lungs right next to Tae Sung’s ear.

Her voice was so loud that the bedroom windows trembled.

At that moment, Tae Sung’s brow furrowed deeply.

Grabbing his forehead with a faint groan, he looked somewhat uncomfortable.

“Ah… could you lower your voice a bit? My head is ringing.”

Tae Sung said.

Even though she thought he was putting on airs just because she raised her voice a little, Ji Wan momentarily closed her mouth, scared by his deeply furrowed brow.

Still, unable to calm her angry heart, she glared at him while panting, and after briefly regulating his breath, he continued speaking.

“I haven’t fully recovered yet. I need absolute rest.”

“Recovered…?”

Ji Wan’s eyes sharpened at the ominous word.

Tae Sung revealed quite a brutal story to her.

“A month ago, someone struck the back of my head. I was in a coma for a week because of that accident.”

“What? The back of your head…?”

“I don’t know who the culprit is. Probably one of the guys who considers me an enemy.”

It wasn’t at all surprising that he had many enemies.

Even Ji Wan, who had only dealt with him a few times, was on the verge of considering him an enemy, so how much worse must it be for others?

Just as she was thinking this, Tae Sung stared intently at Ji Wan.

‘Did he just read my mind?’

Feeling oddly guilty, Ji Wan unconsciously hunched her shoulders.

Tae Sung’s gaze lingered on those shoulders for a moment, then he soon lifted the corners of his mouth in a slight smile again.

“Do you know what this means?”

Then he suddenly posed a quiz.

Unable to know the answer, Ji Wan just stared back at Tae Sung with her eyebrows contorted.

“You probably have a lot to say to me, but save it for later. I’m not in the condition to properly process it right now.”

In other words, he was saying he couldn’t continue the conversation because he wasn’t feeling well.

Could this be the reason for his strange stubbornness?

If that was the case, shouting at this man now would be a meaningless act.

“Haa… Then after you get absolute rest. Will you keep all your promises to me then?”

Exercising her last bit of patience, Ji Wan asked with a deep sigh, calming her excitement.

“We might be able to get a much more positive result.”

It wasn’t a perfectly satisfying answer. But there was nothing to gain by being stubborn now anyway.

Right, he must be acting difficult because he’s sick.

He’s probably just being stubborn out of spite because I only talked about money and contracts to a sick person.

It would be better to step back thinking that way. That way, he won’t be so unreasonably stubborn tomorrow.

“If you understand, can I rest now? I feel like I need to lie down right away.”

Tae Sung said as he loosened his tie.

Surprised by his natural undressing, Ji Wan couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

“You’re going to sleep here?!”

This meant “Don’t say such nonsense,” but Tae Sung paid no mind and continued unbuttoning as he answered.

“Where would you send a patient at this hour of the night?”

“But how can I let a strange man sleep in my bed…!”

“Not a strange man, but your husband.”

“What husband! No. Absolutely not!”

Ji Wan shouted in absolute opposition as she snatched the blanket on the bed.

Watching this scene quietly, a mocking laugh escaped Tae Sung’s lips.

“A positive result… I guess you don’t need it?”

The words he uttered were almost a threat.

How petty to bring up the contract at a time like this.

I wonder if I made a contract with a person or with a devil.

“If that’s how it is, I’ll leave. I won’t reflect the feeling of being kicked out now in tomorrow’s conversation.”

“Who, who’s kicking you out…! Alright, stay the night! It’s just for tonight, right!”

As they say, the one who needs more loses.

In the end, Ji Wan helplessly put down the blanket she had been hugging.

Though her feet were obediently leaving the bedroom, she still didn’t forget tomorrow’s promise.

“We’re really going to do as we promised tomorrow, right?”

“I said alright.”

“No other talk! Really, really!”

Tae Sung waved his hand dismissively.

Kicked out of the bedroom so naturally that she couldn’t even retort, Ji Wan thought as she closed the door:

‘He said he hit his head… Surely it’s not something like amnesia, right?’

Just imagining it for a moment sent chills down her spine.

But Ji Wan tried all the more to maintain her rationality and stay calm in times like this.

‘Ah, what am I thinking. If it were amnesia, he’d forget people he originally knew! Does he suddenly remember someone he’s never met?’

It was quite a rational inference.

Finally free from the worst-case scenario, Ji Wan’s heartbeat calmed down.

* * *

It was a strange woman’s strange bed.

No matter how much he tried to think of her as his wife, the scent of this space, its temperature, and even its silence felt like a first encounter.

But Tae Sung tried to suppress these uncomfortable feelings.

This was all because he had lost 3 years of memories. The fact that he felt nothing for the woman he supposedly loved was due to the lost time.

He kept trying to understand himself over and over again.

“Haa… what am I even doing?”

Of course, no amount of self-persuasion could make him adjust to these feelings.

His life had started to go seriously awry from the assault incident a month ago.

They said someone had struck the back of his head, and at that time, his brain had completely forgotten a span of 3 years.

Why am I lying here?

Why is it 3 years earlier than the time I know?

Who on earth tried to kill me, and with what intention?

To Tae Sung, who was confused by numerous questions, Heo Yoo Jung, the hospital specialist and his longtime friend since high school, revealed something significant.

‘When you came to your senses and were diagnosed with dissociative amnesia, the atmosphere was strange.’

‘Strange… In what way exactly?’

‘How should I put it… Nobody seemed to feel sorry for you. Of course, the businessmen who didn’t get along with you, and even the prosecutors you work with didn’t seem sympathetic. It was as if they welcomed your memory disorder.’

The fact that many people welcomed Tae Sung’s crisis meant that Tae Sung’s enemies were scattered around him.

Tae Sung, who had been poking into dangerous cases here and there, had numerous enemies from the start of his career.

The number of enemies must have increased during the 3 years he had forgotten, making it even more difficult to narrow down the culprit who had done this to him.

‘Shouldn’t you be hiding somewhere? Things look ominous around you.’

Yoo Jung expressed her concern as a friend.

But Tae Sung answered with composure, as if it were no big deal.

‘Why do you think I should hide? As long as I didn’t die and survived, I’m the one who’s “it” now.’

‘You’re not fully recovered yet. You should show off after your body heals.’

‘Well… That makes sense.’

Yoo Jung’s eyes suddenly sparkled as she seriously pondered his safety.

‘Ah! You can stay with your wife until you recover!’

‘Wife? Whose wife?’

‘Joo Tae Sung, don’t tell me you forgot about your wife too? You were married.’

That news was more shocking than hearing about the murder attempt.

For Tae Sung, a staunch anti-dating, anti-marriage advocate, this was such an unrealistic story that it felt like a dream.

‘Is this some kind of joke?’

So when he tried to laugh it off, Yoo Jung continued with what he thought was nonsense, with an expression of disbelief.

‘Your family was strongly against the marriage, so you couldn’t even have a ceremony, just registered the marriage, but you forgot about that love of the century?’

‘I did…?’

‘Yes, you had a big war with your father because of the marriage, and then you left your family home and set up a household with that woman.’

There’s no way I would have done that.

There’s no way I would have done such a troublesome thing because of one woman.

…While thinking this, Tae Sung anxiously confirmed:

‘Who is… that woman?’

The answer that came back to him was preposterous.

‘I don’t know. You’d just show a quick glimpse of her photo if anyone asked, but you never actually introduced her even once.’

‘For 3 years?’

‘Yes, for 3 years.’

‘Do you think that makes sense?’

‘You managed to pull off that nonsensical marriage. Do you know how hard it was to listen to you brag about your wife? If you really can’t believe it, check your phone or laptop. The photos you showed me should be somewhere.’

He first checked the notes on his phone where he saved all important matters. It wasn’t difficult to find a secure file named ‘Marital Relationship’.

At the front was written the name ‘Lee Ji Wan’ along with personal information, and a place marked as the current address. It was bothersome that it was an unfamiliar outskirts of Seoul he had never been to, but he set that aside for now.

As if predicting that he would lose his memory someday, the lengthy content written after that shook Tae Sung’s mind.

What is this now…

First meeting in February for a legal-related interview. It wasn’t love at first sight, but we connected well in conversation, leaving a good impression.

A month after the first meeting, chance reunion at a wine bar. On this day, we had a deeper conversation and confirmed shared hobbies like wine, horseback riding, and pottery. Due to slightly overindulging in wine that day, my condition was worse than usual. Unintentionally spent the first night at her house.

Developed into a private relationship after the first night. Though I had no thoughts of dating, I realized that when I was with her, I felt emotions that made me wonder if this was what dating was like. Finally, 23 days after our first intimate encounter, we progressed to being lovers.

I proposed first. Considering her preference for night views, I proposed at the Jamsil Sky Restaurant with a good view of Seoul’s night scenery.

The bouquet was cockscomb. Prepared a ring size 11. The menu ordered then was Sea Bream Course A. The song was “Fly Me to the Moon”, which she liked. She accepted with tears.

Is this… a love diary?

Tae Sung’s spine turned cold. The wedding diary that followed was even more outrageous than the dating diary.

After marriage, start each day by preparing wife’s breakfast. Her favorite breakfast menu is Mediterranean salad and gambas. And coffee.

Sometimes surprise her by putting flowers in a vase, and each time she shows an adorable reaction. Every moment together is happiness. (Expressed happiness to acquaintances for 2 years)

He wanted to insist that he hadn’t written this, but the security folder’s password pattern was the complex pattern Tae Sung often used.

But even more shocking than that brilliant love story were the photos that followed below the data.

Date proof photos taken at places known as lovers’ sanctuaries like the Han River, Yeouido Park, cafes with good views.

The unfamiliar woman smiling brightly and his own image in those photos were a visual shock like no other.

‘No, this is a false accusation. Or maybe a dream.’

Tae Sung vehemently rejected his past.

But the reason why such a person desperately visited the problematic wife’s house exactly two weeks later was just one.

In this precarious situation where he couldn’t trust even his colleagues, this woman seemed to be the only person with no connection to the assault incident.

The fact that he hadn’t shown her even to his most trusted friend meant that none of his acquaintances had ever been involved with her, and the fact that his father hadn’t recognized the relationship meant she had never been introduced to businessmen either.

She was like an isolated island in his brutal human relationships.

The only refuge he could feel at ease in now when everyone around him was suspicious.

When his thought process arrived here, even Tae Sung, who had lost his direction, saw a destination.

‘Right, in my defenseless state now, staying by this woman’s side is the best option…’

But there was a very big problem with this.

It was because of the ominous contents written at the very end of that unsightly love story summary note.

3rd year, taking on complicated cases significantly reduced time spent together. As conversations decreased, small misunderstandings began to pile up. (e.g., communication issues, not being able to take care of her when sick, forgetting 2nd wedding anniversary, etc.) From the 3rd year, started showing depression when talking to acquaintances about married life.

Judged that a marriage unrecognized for 3 years was too much for her. In the last year, started living separately from 2 years and 6 months into the marriage. Tried to have an adjustment period, but ultimately concluded in divorce.

At the end of the diary that had suddenly turned gloomy, even the ‘planned divorce date’ was written.

Seeing that the date was exactly two weeks later, it seems that at the time of the accident, he was already preparing to cut ties with her.

In other words, it was a situation where all the good times had ended and only a bad ending lay ahead.

Now he understood why she had been crying for divorce. She had endured for 3 years against the Joo family, which was quite a long time.

But even if it was already a settled matter, Tae Sung couldn’t simply choose divorce.

Someone unrelated to any incident, unexposed to acquaintances, and who fully understood his life.

No matter how he thought about it, that could only be Lee Ji Wan.

‘Then there’s no choice. I’ll have to somehow persuade her to postpone the divorce.’

Tae Sung couldn’t let go of his connection with her until he regained his memories and caught the culprit.

He needed to buy time until he recovered, and for that, he needed a place to sustain his life.

Perhaps the man Lee Ji Wan had loved wasn’t such a calculating and cold man.

But unfortunately, the love that had changed him was forgotten from his memory.

What remained was only his true self, uninfluenced by hormones.

‘I must postpone the divorce. Until everything returns to normal…’

Tae Sung, with his eyes closed, thought about what he should do to capture her heart starting tomorrow.

As it was difficult to come up with ideas on his own, he had to recall cliché scenes from romance movies he had glimpsed at before.

At that moment, in the room across from Ji Wan, who had suddenly lost her bedroom.

Locking the door in case of any situation, and even propping a chair against it, she was earnestly making a wish.

“Moon, please help me get 9.5 billion won. You know I’ve worked hard for 3 years.”

Ji Wan, who was thinking about 9.5 billion won even in this situation, was no less calculating than Tae Sung.

There was no more perfect discord befitting a couple on the brink of divorce.