Ugh, Sun Woo gritted his teeth as if chewing.

Mother. This woman before his eyes dared to mention his mother.

“Did you say resentment?”

“Yes. You’re always looking for someone to blame. Just like a teenager going through puberty.”

“…Ha!”

The anger he had been desperately suppressing rose like flames inside him.

“You’re truly amazing. Even dressed in fancy clothes and jewelry, your shamelessness can’t be hidden.”

“Watch your words, Ki Sun Woo. Even if I’m your stepmother, I’m still your mother. How dare you call me ‘you’?”

“Are you one to talk about watching your words?”

Glancing sideways, Im Ryu Ryeong looked towards the sales counter.

The staff, frozen by the atmosphere between the two, quietly slipped away to attend to other customers.

Seeing this, Sun Woo raised one corner of his mouth crookedly.

“Looks like you’re aware it’s something embarrassing to be overheard.”

Despite his provocation, Im Ryu Ryeong kept smiling leisurely while caressing her fingers.

The wedding ring glinting on her fourth finger, always an irritation.

As if deliberately showing it off, she was provoking him.

“You’ve grown old enough, yet that victim mentality of yours never seems to improve.”

“I wonder. Is it really a victim mentality?”

“Your mother died because of her chronic illness. How long will you keep denying reality and acting like a rebel? Isn’t it enough to be branded as Ju Ha’s shame?”

“You…”

Sun Woo looked this shameless woman up and down anew.

While she was the one actually denying reality.

He even thought she might not be human, but some kind of monster wearing human skin.

Suddenly, a memory Sun Woo never wanted to recall again flashed through his mind.

When he was in high school, his mother, a pianist, was diagnosed with heart disease.

Even so, his mother didn’t give up the piano.

She even joked that she’d be happy to die while playing the piano.

To Sun Woo, still a student then, those words sounded terribly lonely.

He knew well that her marriage, arranged for political reasons, could never be happy, and that he and the piano were everything to his mother.

When he enlisted in the military, leaving such a mother behind, Sun Woo earnestly asked his father.

To always stay by her side and watch over her condition.

Though not entirely trustworthy, he was still his father, so Sun Woo left believing in him to answer the nation’s call.

‘Your mother has passed away.’

He received that call less than a year after enlisting.

When he hurriedly returned home, what greeted him was his mother’s cold, lifeless body.

Through the mouth of the long-time housekeeper, Sun Woo learned the whole story.

After Sun Woo enlisted, Chairman Ki Ju Hwan began to be away from home more frequently.

On that night when his mother’s heart condition worsened while she was playing the piano alone, she was alone.

Because of that, his mother collapsed beside the piano clutching her chest, and was only found the next morning.

The housekeeper wailed, clutching Sun Woo’s trouser leg, saying that the madam had passed away on the very day she had gone to her daughter’s house.

But it was by no means the housekeeper’s fault.

The reason his father was away from home, the reason he couldn’t be by her side even on the night his mother left this world.

It was because of the hidden mistress, Im Ryu Ryeong.

The taste of blood from his tender inner cheek filled his mouth from clenching his teeth too hard.

Ignoring this, Im Ryu Ryeong called a staff member again and had them pack up a dessert set to hand to Sun Woo.

“Here, take this to Yeon Se Eun. The pastries are innocent after all.”

“…”

“Oh, and by the way. I noticed you seemed quite close with Chairman Ko San at the last party.”

“He’s practically my father-in-law, is there a law against being close?”

“Of course there’s no such law. But.”

She suddenly walked up to him, closing the distance.

Then she whispered in a voice too low for others to hear.

“I’m just curious, you know. About all the things you’ve been doing. Making all the companies I invested in go bankrupt. Seducing all the girls In Hyeok had picked out as potential matches.”

“You don’t really not know why I did those things, do you?”

At Sun Woo’s indifferent retort, Im Ryu Ryeong flashed a grin.

It was an expression that always made Sun Woo uncomfortable.

“Of course not. I’m just giving you motherly advice.”

“Did you say advice?”

“Yes. I don’t know what you’re plotting with that old tiger, but that old man is no ordinary person. Be careful not to fall into your own trap.”

Her affectionate smile was clearly filled with mockery.

Then she thrust the pastries into Sun Woo’s arms and left.

All that remained was a feeling of being utterly defiled.

As much as he hated to admit it, she was indeed a woman not to be taken lightly.

Im Ryu Ryeong was already guessing that he had made some kind of deal with Chairman Ko San and was fishing for information.

Moreover, that his heart was unconsciously turning towards Se Eun.

“…Ha!”

He had gripped too tightly, crumpling the paper dessert box hideously.

Sun Woo stared blankly for a moment at the cute ribbon tied daintily.

Don’t fall into your own trap.

Ridiculously, it was a warning quite fitting for the current Ki Sun Woo.

“Right. I mustn’t forget a thief’s duty.”

Swish, Sun Woo threw away that pretty box without hesitation.

As the freshly packed desserts landed in the trash can, people around murmured in surprise, but he left the department store without looking back.

Im Ryu Ryeong was right.

He would heed that advice and never forget his original purpose.

*

After taking a day off and returning, the company atmosphere was strangely tense.

Clearly everyone had been happy when Sun Woo brought desserts, but today it seemed like everyone was consciously trying not to speak to Se Eun.

It wasn’t hard to guess what had happened in just one day.

Seeing Mo Na reigning in the middle of the office, laughing ho-ho.

Shin Mo Na had laid out jewelry samples from the sample room on the table and was giving an enthusiastic briefing to team members.

Even designers with more experience were listening attentively.

“For this gemstone line, I’m thinking of using rubies and sapphires. I want to bring out the contrast in colors.”

“Oh, that sounds exciting. Mo Na, your last piece using colored diamonds was so distinctive too. They were clearly diamonds, but somehow elegant while also evoking a childlike feeling. Like the kind of adult’s jeweled necklace you’d imagine as a child! That kind of feeling~”

“Ah… hohoho. Well…”

Mo Na glanced briefly towards Se Eun before quickly averting her gaze.

Se Eun wasn’t interested in her words, and had been checking the time since earlier.

It was because Sun Woo hadn’t shown up even though it was past the time he usually arrived.

He normally burst in at 6 o’clock sharp saying it was time to leave work, but today there was no sign of him.

‘…Should I try contacting him?’

Se Eun fell into thought for a moment, fiddling with her phone.

She knew his number, but had never called or messaged him before.

Living in the same house, there wasn’t really any need to contact him, and given her personality, she probably wouldn’t have told him even if something had happened.

But today she felt strangely anxious.

Although Cho Bbang had a major poop incident yesterday and that thing happened in the bathroom, the atmosphere hadn’t been bad.

Rather, adopting Cho Bbang had eased the tension of being alone in the house together, which was nice.

‘Should I just wait?’

He’s not a machine, how could he arrive at 6 o’clock sharp every day?

Se Eun thought this as she fixed her eyes on the monitor.

Various documents were open on the screen, but she couldn’t focus on any of them.

Suddenly, Se Eun felt an unfamiliar emotion.

Getting used to someone’s presence.

The feeling of both excitement and fear, was it because that presence was growing so much?

“Um, I think I’ll head out first.”

Feeling it was no use, Se Eun quickly grabbed her bag and stood up.

Today she wanted to leave first and wait for Ki Sun Woo.

*

6 o’clock, 6:10, and 6:20.

Tapping one hand resting on the steering wheel, Sun Woo was hesitating over and over.

He had boldly thrown away the desserts.

But picking up and dropping off Yeon Se Eun was clearly necessary for “achieving the goal”.

A daily task with no emotions involved.

Yet for some reason, even though he had arrived long ago, he couldn’t muster the courage to open the car door.

He just needed to go up into the building as usual and bring her out.

“Damn it. Are you going to spend the night here, Ki Sun Woo?”

After letting out a rough sigh, he turned to open the door.

That’s when it happened.

In the rearview mirror, he saw Yeon Se Eun hurrying towards him.

Probably because she had stuffed it full of books for studying, she was carrying a bag almost as big as herself.

Watching her earnestly moving her feet despite her uncomfortable leg, Sun Woo was convinced that his feelings for Se Eun were probably closer to pity or sympathy.

Pitiful and pathetic, but only that far.

Yeon Se Eun was nothing more to him than an object convenient to use.

Such an existence, to oil the blade of revenge he had been grinding for so long.

So as she had repeatedly emphasized, he should just maintain appropriate boundaries while focusing on interrogating her about the whereabouts of the Queen’s Tears.

It’s not like memories would only return if he treated her especially well. So…

“Ki Sun Woo!”

“…”

So…

His firm resolve couldn’t continue any further.

The moment he saw Yeon Se Eun, who had quickly approached and pressed both hands against the window, smiling brightly, Sun Woo agreed with the rumor that he was the world’s biggest scumbag.

A scumbag raising such an innocent white rabbit just to eat it.