The words of Butler Jang from earlier were all correct.

On the day Ha Eun was getting her dress fitted, Butler Jang moved together with Ha Eun.

It was also Butler Jang who insisted on going to the shop, even though the designer said she would come to the house. Ha Eun was not keen on Butler Jang’s company, disliking the nagging.

As expected, Butler Jang dismissed Ha Eun’s opinions carelessly and stubbornly stuck to her own ideas. She ordered a cream-colored dress from the designer, adding that the back of the shoulder, specifically the scapula area, should be deeply cut.

So what was completed was a halter neck dress with strings tied behind the neck.

Ha Eun wanted a dress that accentuated her chest, her strong point, so she objected, but Butler Jang was adamant.

[You must wear this, absolutely. Trust my words.]

Ha Eun had doubted it, remembering how following Butler Jang’s advice to take off her coat and emphasize her figure during her first meeting with Tae Ha had not worked at all.

However, she could not go against Butler Jang’s fierce words.

And so, the dress that was made became the object of Tae Ha’s intense gaze now. The man’s eyes would not leave her shoulders.

Rather, Tae Ha was fixating his gaze on Ha Eun’s shoulders to the point of embarrassment.

As if stroking each skin texture one by one.

“I asked what this is.”

The second question fell with a chilling gaze, carrying an intimidating pressure that dared not be refused an answer.

She already knew what to answer. Butler Jang seemed to have foreseen even this and told her the necessary response.

It seemed like she just needed to blink her innocent eyes and open her mouth as Butler Jang had said, but Ha Eun hesitated somewhat because his gaze was so sharp.

Lest Butler Jang had given another careless answer that might ruin things.

But then, as if suddenly aware of Seo Jin who had been staring intently at the two with a strange look, Tae Ha briefly ordered.

“Come out.”

Tae Ha left the banquet hall first without looking back once.

Ha Eun looked at the man’s solid back walking ahead, admiring the sight and inwardly rejoicing.

They were alone.

It was the first time Tae Ha had called for her, and the first time he sought a place for just the two of them.

A strange elation spread throughout her body, making her feel as if she were riding a magic carpet wherever her feet touched.

Tae Ha showed intense curiosity about the scapula markings, and according to Butler Jang, it was a secret matter, so Ha Eun thought that if Tae Ha found a place for just the two of them like this, perhaps even a room would be possible.

If he wanted, she was willing to untie the ribbon around her neck and show him properly in a private place.

Tae Ha immediately left the banquet hall and exited the hotel building entirely. His strides were so quick that Ha Eun had to take repeated breaths to keep up.

The place Tae Ha stopped was in front of a fountain.

This entire hotel belonged to Kwon Tae Ha, so he could have chosen a room to talk, but the man chose the outside. And cleverly, in front of a fountain.

A place where the sound of water gushing up and falling down would prevent others from hearing their conversation.

“Why did you bring me all the way here?”

Ha Eun asked, looking up with innocent eyes. It was no use looking at the already derailed plan of a room.

She couldn’t reveal her back by untying the ribbon with a sensuous gesture in an enclosed room, so she asked in the prettiest face and sweetest voice possible.

“The markings, those markings on your back. What are they?”

It was the third time he’d asked the same question.

From this, she could tell. Tae Ha was very flustered now and in a state of panic.

“That’s……”

Ha Eun deliberately cut off her words and turned her gaze diagonally towards her shoulder. It was a calculated gesture. She could feel Tae Ha’s gaze slowly following hers.

As if savoring and engraving each detail.

“I’ve had it since I was little. My mother didn’t give me details, so I don’t know much.”

“What else do you know?”

“That the owner of the initials is you, Kwon Tae Ha.”

Ha. After a sigh that finally burst out, she thought she heard a short curse between his teeth.

“What else.”

“That’s all.”

“Do you know I have the same thing?”

As Tae Ha’s eyes narrowed with suspicion, Ha Eun nodded as if she had no choice.

“Yes, I knew.”

She first came to vaguely suspect that T.H. might be Tae Ha’s initials on the day she was introduced to him as her fiancé.

Before meeting him, she didn’t even know who her fiancé was, so she couldn’t even guess what those letters meant.

She had always been curious about the tattoo on her body. Whether it was from before the adoption, or after.

However, Butler Jang, who knew all of this, only told her after getting the dress fitted.

That T.H.’s initials were Tae Ha’s and that the tattoo was a letter his mother had engraved in case the two might ever be separated.

Tae Ha’s scapula supposedly has Ha Eun’s initials, H.E., engraved on it.

As a reminder not to forget his other half.

Kwon Chairman, who knew nothing about this tattoo until it was done, disliked that aspect of his wife and didn’t reveal it to the world.

So Butler Jang also kept the secret, and fearing it might leak through Ha Eun, didn’t even tell her.

Butler Jang’s loyalty to gain Kwon Chairman’s trust was frighteningly superhuman.

[Young Master Tae Ha doesn’t know that the HE engraved on him are your initials. He was too young to explain the reason. There were also things we didn’t want to reveal. So the Chairman plausibly deceived young master by saying it was a combination of H, the common initial of the three family names, Kwon Gi Hoon, Hong Ji Soo, Kwon Tae Ha, and the first letter of Eternity. So he’ll surely react when he sees your tattoo.]

In whatever way that might be.

Whether it’s the thought that he should at least fulfill his mother’s dying wish, which was desperate enough to engrave a tattoo, or an awe-inspiring thrill at a fateful encounter, or a sense of kinship from bearing the same markings on their bodies.

And Kwon Tae Ha showed some kind of ‘thrill’ reaction.

* * *

The last time Eun Seo saw Tae Ha was inside the banquet hall.

Ha Eun had taken off her shawl, and Tae Ha was staring intently at Ha Eun’s shoulder with an expression as if he had been suddenly pierced.

Why is he acting like that?

Eun Seo’s gaze, now curious, remained fixed on that spot without leaving.

Recalling, it wasn’t a time that could be called ‘brief’. Tae Ha persistently stared at Ha Eun for much longer than that, and then soon after, he took her outside and disappeared.

Eun Seo’s existence seemed to have already vanished from Tae Ha’s sight.

Once when leaving the banquet hall, once when entering. The man’s eyes that had been searching for Eun Seo didn’t do so this time.

Yoo Ha Eun, fiancée.

In Eun Seo’s mind, these two words were synonymous, which is why she had said to just be lovers with Tae Ha, but somehow her feet moved on their own.

It was she who refused to withdraw the marriage annulment lawsuit, and she who refused to share a bed, so she didn’t know why her insides were churning so ignobly.

She thought she had fended it off well. She thought she had endured well.

She had always lived like that all her life, so she vowed that she could do well this time too, that Kwon Tae Ha was a mountain among mountains, that he should be called Mount Tai.

Kwon Tae Ha was the most precious among countless things like dolls, clothes, or cakes that she could only look at through a glass window. Something that could be seen but not possessed. Something that shouldn’t be touched. No, something from an entirely different dimension.

But why did her heart ache like this?

An emotion she didn’t understand rose hazily like fog.

When Eun Seo left the banquet hall following them, Tae Ha had already disappeared somewhere with Ha Eun.

Jealousy? Or was she afraid of losing him?

Or maybe both.

She laughed emptily, somehow disappointed that her will was this weak.

What would I say if I found them?

They might have gone out together for official business.

‘Song Eun Seo, you’re deluding yourself again after living comfortably for a few months. Get a grip.’

Eun Seo turned back without searching for them further.

At that moment, one of the young group gathered in front of the banquet hall saw her.

A man leaning loosely against the wall narrowed his eyes sharply upon seeing Eun Seo. Then he immediately straightened up from his slumped posture and approached her.

The man in a white tuxedo with a bowtie was the one who had been at Tae Ha’s table a few months ago when the eldest son of Seo Un Construction held a party in Cheongdam-dong.

He remembered Eun Seo precisely.

Because although it was just once, for just a few minutes, it had been quite interesting.

The woman in the most ridiculous outfit he had ever seen, who had accurately called the most expensive among them, Kwon Tae Ha, ‘husband’.

Understanding exactly what Tae Ha meant by telling them to keep quiet, none of those present ever mentioned it again.

But it was very strange that that woman was here, at Tae Ha’s hotel, hovering around this banquet hall.

“It is you.”

Eun Seo was startled when a man suddenly blocked her way like a huge wall.

Thinking she might have almost bumped into the approaching man because she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings due to thoughts of Tae Ha, Eun Seo quickly bowed her head in apology.

“I’m sorry.”

But the man didn’t seem inclined to leave, spinning his wine glass round and round. If Eun Seo stepped to the right, he stepped to the right; if she took a step to the left, he moved left.

It was clearly a mischievous behavior despite having business, so Eun Seo raised her head and looked straight at him.

“Why are you doing this? If you have something to say……”

“It really is you.”

Eun Seo blinked at the enigmatic words. It was unclear what he meant was correct.

“What is?”

“Your way of speaking, too.”

“……”

“Don’t you remember me?”

Informal speech from the first meeting. Feeling it went beyond mischief to expressing displeasure, Eun Seo felt very uncomfortable and embarrassed.

“I saw you in Cheongdam-dong a few months ago. You’re a con artist, right?”

“……”

“What? Are you offended?”

Cheongdam-dong, con artist.

In Eun Seo’s memory, there was only one place where those words fit. This man must have been part of Tae Ha’s group on the day she first met him.

“You didn’t come to approach Tae Ha again today, did you? If you did, you really have no conscience. But how are you walking around alive? Did Tae Ha let you off?”

“……”

“It’s strange. He’s not the kind of nice guy who would normally let someone off. That’s why we’re busy watching out for him. But you’re walking around just fine. How did you do it? Maybe……”

The man looked Eun Seo up and down with drunken eyes.

“It’s not like that.”

“If it’s not like that, then is it a different man this time? Huh? Is that it?”

The tone leaking from his sneering lips was close to contempt.

Where should she start explaining this? She couldn’t just spill out the story that Tae Ha was hiding even from his father.

She could well imagine how she must have appeared to Tae Ha’s group.

Eun Seo fell into contemplation.

“Tae Ha went too far. There shouldn’t be anyone in this field suitable for someone like you.”

“……”

“Of all people, you messed with Tae Ha. He’s not even interested in women. If you’re going to investigate, investigate properly before acting up. You should have acted up to me instead. How about me? My face is decent too, so I’m a bit tempted.”

The man clicked his tongue, looking Eun Seo up and down lewdly.

“I came here to work today. And I’m not a con artist. That day, I misunderstood Mr. Kwon Tae Ha. That’s why it happened.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“Yes.”

“I’m calling Tae Ha.”

“He’s busy right now.”

“You are a con artist.”

“Who’s a con artist?”

A soft baritone voice cut between the two from somewhere.