The winter-settled garden had changed its clothes from green to a brownish hue.

Ji Yeon Woo and Nam Do Hyun walked towards the glass greenhouse by the annex, stepping on grass that crackled from frozen morning dew.

Ji Yeon Woo stretched her hands behind her back, interlocking them, and stepped in front of Do Hyun with long strides.

“Are you unhappy that I came here, elder brother?”

“No. I’m sorry if what I said earlier upset you.”

“I know. You must have been flustered by my sudden arrival too.”

She knew well that he had become defensive, worried that her appearance might cause unnecessary issues with Shin Joo.

Even though she understood it all, a pain gnawed at the edges of her heart, slowly eating away.

“Thank you for remembering Mother’s birthday today. And for the gift.”

“Ah, the gift.”

Ji Yeon Woo stopped in place and put her hand in the pocket of her beige shearling coat.

Holding a black velvet box, she debated whether to give it to Do Hyun, then thought ‘whatever’ and pulled the gift out of her pocket.

“Actually, I prepared a gift for you too.”

“Why did you prepare a gift for me too?”

“I bought one for Juliet, so how could I not get one for you?”

Ji Yeon Woo couldn’t say that Do Hyun’s gift was the first one she bought.

She was afraid that saying so might make him distance himself even more.

“It’s really nothing special. Please accept it. Okay?”

Ji Yeon Woo stretched out her elbow, holding out the box to Do Hyun.

After seeming to hesitate for a moment, Do Hyun grasped the end of the box.

‘He took it.’

Suppressing the smile trying to spread across her face, Ji Yeon Woo pushed her hand into her coat pocket.

“If you’re worried about Shin Joo, you can throw it away. But! Just don’t do it when I can see.”

“It’s a gift. I’ll keep it.”

“Really? You’ll treasure it for a long time?”

“Why are you so happy about me accepting one gift?”

“I know, right? Why am I so happy about you accepting just one gift?”

You made me this way, elder brother.

You accepting one gift I prepared, that simple thing made the cold winter go away.

I shouldn’t have gone to England. If I hadn’t gone, the person by your side would be me, not Shin Joo.

If I had known I’d have to remain just a sister who knows you without being able to do anything, I would have at least confessed to you once.

If I could have just one more chance, I would confess without hesitation.

‘It can’t be, right?’

Because you like Shin Joo so much. Because you love her.

There’s no place for me to enter. I shouldn’t enter.

‘I must be really bad.’

I want you to be happy, but I want you to be happy because of me.

I don’t want you to be unhappy, but I wish you were unhappy with Shin Joo.

I’m becoming greedy. Because I’m in Korea. Because I’m with you.

I want to be your everything. I wish I was the person by your side.

I wish… before it’s too late, you would break up with Shin Joo.

I really, really wish that would happen.

***

“Divorce Do Hyun. That’s my first and last request.”

As if it were a request that should naturally be granted, Park Young Ran spoke calmly.

Though she had tormented her with rude words and actions until now, she had never brought up divorce from Do Hyun.

It wasn’t that she had accepted their relationship, but rather she thought of it as attaching an irritating thorn to her skin, unable to interfere in her son’s private life.

But that wasn’t it. She had just been waiting for the right time to cut out the thorn in her eye.

“Ji Yeon Woo made a request to me before going to England.”

Young Ran turned towards the window and looked down at Ji Yeon Woo standing with Do Hyun.

Unlike when looking at Shin Joo, there was a faint smile on her lips.

“She asked me to reconsider Do Hyun’s marriage issue until she returned from England and confessed to our Do Hyun. Her stay in England became longer, and I got impatient and urged Do Hyun to get married. But I didn’t know he would bring in someone like you with no background.”

Though she had done nothing wrong, Shin Joo’s shoulders gradually shrank and her head bowed forward.

People quickly become accustomed to situations.

In the past, she would have felt so wronged that tears would well up at one harsh word, but now she had grown used to the criticism and was enduring it silently.

But that didn’t mean she was fine. Even now, her heart was being slashed.

“It’s not too late. Even now, wouldn’t it look better to have Ji Yeon Woo by Do Hyun’s side rather than you?”

“I know you don’t like me. I’ll try hard to make you like me.”

“Can your efforts change your parents or the poverty you have? If you could do that, I’d cherish you.”

“Can’t you see me just for who I am?”

Young Ran lightly clenched her fist and brought it to her mouth.

A scornful laugh echoed faintly through the hallway. Soon, Young Ran removed the gentle smile remaining on her lips and said:

“My, how shameless. That’s why you brazenly showed your face with that measly bone broth, I suppose.”

“Measly…?”

“You don’t know, so you smile so brightly. Can the bone broth you brought even compare to the gift Ji Yeon Woo prepared?”

Measly. The sharply carved word caught in her heart.

The image of her mother standing in front of the gas stove, boiling bone broth with her ailing body, flashed before her eyes.

She had hoped that Young Ran would open her heart to her even a little bit because of her mother’s sincerity.

But the price for hoping for even a fingernail’s worth of affection was too cruel.

“But you liked it too. I thought you appreciated my mother’s sincerity.”

“Shin Joo. It’s pathetic that you believe everything you see. I didn’t want my son to hate me, so of course I had to pretend to be happy even if I had to force it.”

Her heart, hanging precariously as if it would break at any moment, rattled noisily.

The crying and tears she had been holding back felt like they would burst forth.

Shin Joo shook her head, expressing her refusal.

“I can’t do what you asked. I can’t divorce him.”

“I heard you’re meeting that Seo Jin Won fellow.”

Blood rushed to Shin Joo’s wet eyes.

“No. That’s not true. We’re not anything, Mother.”

“You said that back then too. That you weren’t in a relationship with Do Hyun.”

“This time it’s really not true. Please believe me.”

Despite Shin Joo’s endless denials, Young Ran acted like someone who had already decided on the answer.

“I may be Do Hyun’s stepmother, but I raised him like my own son for 18 years. I just didn’t tell him because I was afraid he would get hurt. Divorce before I reveal everything. Stop acting out without knowing your place.”

“Mother.”

“Stop it. That ‘mother’ sound really gives me goosebumps.”

Having said her piece, Young Ran turned and went downstairs to greet Ji Yeon Woo and Do Hyun returning from the garden.

Young Ran linked arms with Ji Yeon Woo ostentatiously, giving her an affectionate look.

Looking down at the lower floor, Shin Joo felt like she was seeing a real family.

A daughter-in-law loved by her mother-in-law, a son who loves his mother. Only she was left out, standing alone.

For a moment, Do Hyun looked up at the upper floor, and Shin Joo blinked away her tears.

Hiding her heart that had been torn and ripped in all directions, Shin Joo painfully pushed up the corners of her lips. Without any suspicion, he imprinted the same smile.

‘Senior likes me. That’s enough.’

Even if it hurts and saddens me like this, as long as Senior is by my side, it’s okay.

I can overcome everything. I can endure everything. As Shin Joo’s heart said this, a downpour rained inside.

That rainwater was about to sweep away even the firmly planted resolution.

***

Winter nights always came early.

On the way home, Shin Joo only had the dark window reflected in her eyes.

As Do Hyun’s hand slowly overlapped hers, Shin Joo erased her empty focus and habitually curved her eyes into crescents.

Do Hyun probably didn’t know anything. What words she had heard from his mother, how she had been treated.

He couldn’t have known. Because she had only smiled so he wouldn’t know.

Rrrrr―

Without any voices, the phone ringtone rang sharply in the quiet car interior.

Looking at her phone after opening her handbag, Shin Joo hesitated for a moment. Glancing sideways at Do Hyun, Shin Joo answered the phone that seemed about to disconnect.

“Yes, Mom.”

[Is the birthday party for your mother-in-law over?]

Shin Joo tapped her knee with her fingers that had been resting on her thigh.

“Yes. It ended well.”

[And your mother-in-law. Did she try the bone broth?]

Rolling her eyes back and forth, Shin Joo fixed her gaze on the window.

She had the illusion that Lee Jung Hye’s expectant face was reflected in the window instead of her own.

“No. It was after lunch so she couldn’t eat the bone broth.”

[It’s better if you eat it with chopped green onions. Adding some pepper is good too.]

“There’s a housekeeper there, so they’ll prepare it well. Don’t worry.”

Having watched over it for over ten hours, she must have hoped it would be eaten even a little more deliciously.

Jung Hye, not knowing what words Shin Joo had heard today, asked in an airy tone:

[Did your mother-in-law like it? How was she when she received the bone broth?]

Hearing Jung Hye’s excited voice, tears caught in Shin Joo’s throat.

She had been enduring well.

She had been bearing up well.

The heart that had been enduring and persevering seemed to snap like a broken thread.

Shin Joo felt Do Hyun examining her face.

Conscious of him, Shin Joo strained her eyes, trying not to gather tears.

“She really liked it. She said she was so thankful and grateful to you, Mom.”

[Oh my. That’s a relief. I was worried your mother-in-law might not like bone broth. I’m so glad it worked out. Does your mother-in-law like kimchi? I’m good at making kimchi too. Should I make some kimchi for her?]

Shin Joo shook her head.

“No. Let’s do it next time, next time.”

[Alright then. I should make kimchi for your in-laws’ birthday next time.]

“Okay. Let’s do that.”

At her mom’s voice, Shin Joo felt just like a broken faucet.

She had closed it tightly, held it firmly, but water was still pouring out of the broken faucet.

It was fortunate that Do Hyun was beside her. If he hadn’t been there, she would have cried on the spot.

If that had happened, Mom would have worried. She probably would have hurt more than me.

I didn’t want that. I’d rather hurt twice as much myself than have Mom be in pain.

But because a mother knows her daughter so well, there was no such thing as an eternal secret.