A subtle crack appeared in Woo Jin’s brow as he heard Jung Keun’s dying voice. His darkly sinking gaze naturally turned towards the bedroom where Tae Eun was. The tightly closed door was utterly quiet, but for some reason he couldn’t take his eyes off it.

If he hadn’t been married, if Tae Eun wasn’t there, he would have gotten dressed right now. But the presence of his soundly sleeping wife was holding his feet in place.

He just couldn’t go. Leaving in the middle of the night at someone’s call was enough for their wedding night. No wife in the world would understand a husband going out at dawn.

Moreover, if he rushed to Seo Woo every time she was sick, she might misunderstand it as love. Woo Jin didn’t want to give such an excuse anymore. However, thinking that Seo Woo might need him, Woo Jin calmly assessed her condition for now.

“Where and how does it hurt?”

[Well, you see… She threw up everything she ate for dinner, and now she has a fever. She’s burning up with fever and can’t even think straight, but she’s stubbornly refusing to go to the hospital. You know Seo Woo’s personality. If I try to take her to the hospital like this, I’ll…]

I know. Park Seo Woo. Once she’s sick, she sees it as an opportunity to meet Woo Jin and refuses to go to the hospital.

Once, when Jung Keun forcibly took the stubborn Seo Woo to the hospital, he got into big trouble. Using the excuse of being sick, her upcoming schedules were canceled one after another. She was indeed sick, but not enough to cancel schedules – it was clearly an exaggeration. It was behavior very unlike Park Seo Woo.

“When did she start feeling sick?”

Compared to the agitated Jung Keun, Woo Jin was coldly calm.

[We went to the hotel salad bar for dinner. She was eating fine, then suddenly said she felt nauseous and came home, then threw everything up. Even digestive medicine had no effect.]

That’s a relief. At least it didn’t seem to be an urgent emergency situation like internal bleeding.

“I understand. Wait.”

Woo Jin hung up the phone. But he didn’t get dressed to rush to Seo Woo. Instead, he called Manager Park.

“Manager Park, I’m sorry. You must have been sleeping.”

[No, it’s fine. What’s the matter? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?]

“No, it’s not me who’s sick… it’s Seo Woo.”

[Ah!]

“Can you go and take Seo Woo to the hospital?”

[Ah, of course. I’ll go to Miss Park Seo Woo right away.]

“I’m sorry.”

[It’s no problem. I prefer going myself rather than you going. So don’t worry.]

After ending the call, Woo Jin let out a small sigh. Thinking he should give Manager Park a generous bonus tomorrow, he put his phone down on the table.

Though it wasn’t an emergency and he sent Manager Park instead of going himself, he couldn’t crawl back into bed where Tae Eun was.

* * *

In the dim moonlight of dawn, Tae Eun felt Woo Jin, who had been embracing her, pull away. Soon after, she heard the sound of him taking his phone and going to the living room.

She slowly lifted her eyelids in the yellow moonlight.

She could guess who would be calling at this hour without thinking too deeply. Seo Woo’s face from earlier in the day came to mind. That audaciously, no, confidently beautiful woman.

After digging into her heart like that during the day, did she have to call Woo Jin out at this dawn too?

She resented Seo Woo. But more than that, she hated herself. What she resented most in the world was herself, who couldn’t even bring herself to hate Woo Jin despite everything.

Tae Eun closed her eyes and tried to sleep. She wanted to forget everything. But when Woo Jin’s warmth that had been enveloping her from behind disappeared, a cool chill filled that space and she couldn’t fall asleep.

Finally, Tae Eun got up from the bed and approached the door. Not having the courage to open the door and ask him what was wrong, she instead tried to listen.

He was on the phone. From the occasional words she could hear, it seemed Seo Woo was sick again.

I’m the one who’s hurt, so why is she the one who’s sick?

She thought it was a fake illness. A ploy to call Woo Jin out.

But fortunately, Woo Jin didn’t leave her side this night. Of course, that didn’t mean he stayed by her side either.

* * *

In the morning, fatigue was evident on Woo Jin’s face, who hadn’t slept a wink. But Tae Eun helped him prepare for work without showing any sign of noticing.

“Are you going to be late today?”

It was a question thrown with a glimmer of hope. Though he didn’t rush to Park Seo Woo last night, she thought he might go see her today at least.

But,

“No. I’ll come home on time. I’m tired.”

A truly unexpected answer came back.

“Shall we watch a movie at home in the evening? With a glass of wine.”

Saying that, Woo Jin reached out his hand to her lips, gently pressing down on her plump lower lip. Knowing his habit of sometimes tracing her lips with his finger just before reaching climax in bed, Tae Eun’s face immediately turned red at that small gesture.

“You’re blushing again. What did I do?”

“You always say it. That I blush easily.”

Muttering a lame excuse, she straightened his tie. Then as she hurriedly turned her gaze away, he grabbed her chin again, making her look at him.

“Let’s drink the white wine you like today.”

“But you said it was too sweet.”

“That was before. But not anymore. I… like sweet things now.”

Smooch.

“I really like them… I’ve gotten used to them now.”

Saying that, Woo Jin gave her a few more short kisses. But just because they were short doesn’t mean they weren’t intense. They were brief but powerful kisses, leaving a long strand of clear saliva between their parting lips.

“Prepare the wine you like. And the movie you like.”

Seeing her nod, Woo Jin left for work in a better mood than expected. But even after he left, a doubt remained in a corner of her heart.

He had rushed out at Seo Woo’s call on their wedding night. But yesterday he didn’t. Of course, she knew he had stayed up all night worrying about Park Seo Woo. What does it mean that he worried so much but didn’t rush to her?

“…Did they fight?”

That could be it. Or maybe a small change had begun between them.

“Madam, what should I prepare for lunch?”

“How about a simple salad?”

“Ah, yes. I understand.”

Giving instructions to Mrs. Hong, she entered the bedroom and sat at the powder room. Perhaps because she hadn’t slept, her reflection in the mirror looked very haggard.

“Ah, did I see him off with a face like this?”

Tae Eun habitually reached for her lipstick. Then she startled and stared at the lipstick in her hand.

It’s the lipstick Woo Jin bought her. The one she had been wearing every single day lately. But the moment she saw this color shining on Seo Woo’s lips yesterday, everything changed. She couldn’t wear this lipstick anymore. Because every time she saw this lipstick, she would think of Park Seo Woo.

She threw the lipstick into the small trash can beside her.

Then she found another lipstick and applied it. It didn’t suit her as well as the one Woo Jin had bought, but it seemed better than not wearing any, as it added some color to her complexion.

As she stood up to turn around, Woo Jin’s voice echoed in her head.

−No. I’ll come home on time. I’m tired.

Her turning feet paused.

How can one word make her heart soften a little? She shouldn’t become weak, it would only bring pain. Nevertheless, Tae Eun couldn’t control her heart moving on its own.

In the end, she dug through the trash can and took out the lipstick again.

She just couldn’t throw it away. But she couldn’t wear it either.

“…I’ll just keep it, I guess.”

Tae Eun pushed that lipstick into the deepest part of the drawer.

* * *

Bang!

A flash of light burst before her eyes, accompanied by an eardrum-shattering sound.

Startled, Seo Woo strained to figure out what had happened in the pitch darkness.

Light gradually seeped into her dark vision, and shapes began to appear faintly. Seo Woo could make out that it was Woo Jin, covered in blood.

It felt like her heart had dropped to her feet. Shocked, she crawled over and grasped Woo Jin.

“Oppa… Oppa? Open your eyes, Oppa!”

But his cold, lifeless body showed no response.

The surroundings were chaotic. Many people started gathering to deal with the accident. Amidst the murmuring crowd, Seo Woo cried pitifully and pleaded.

“Someone… please save our Oppa! Please save him!”

She screamed at the top of her lungs along with her sobs. Perhaps because of that, people started crowding around Woo Jin.

“There’s an injured person over there too?”

“No, this person first! This person first!”

Fortunately, people took Woo Jin from Seo Woo’s arms to try to save him. Watching Woo Jin being loaded into an ambulance, Seo Woo looked around the accident scene.

A ringing sound echoed in her ears.

The accident site, which had been hazy with smoke, now seemed to be getting cleared up one by one. As she turned her gaze, she saw a man lying motionless among the bustling people. Covered in blood, he was abandoned alone without anyone’s attention.

Seo Woo unknowingly turned her steps towards that man.

Strangely, the man’s face wasn’t visible. Thinking it was because her vision was blurry, Seo Woo approached the man and shook him.

“Hey… Hey. Are you okay?”

At that moment, her hazy vision cleared again and the man’s face started to become distinct. And when she saw the man’s clear face, Seo Woo was too shocked to speak.

A familiar face.

No, a face she couldn’t not know.

If she had been born a man, she would look exactly like this. That’s how much the man’s face resembled hers.

Because he was her twin brother, born 5 minutes before her.

“Seo… Seo Jin…”

She was so shocked that tears wouldn’t even come. How on earth did this happen? Seo Woo wiped the blood flowing from her twin brother’s face and called him pitifully.

“Sob… Oppa. Oppa! Open your eyes!”

But he remained motionless as if dead. Seo Woo screamed for help from people at the top of her lungs, just as she had done earlier. But no matter how much she screamed until her throat was raw, not a single person turned to look.

People passed by.

And amidst those people, the dying Seo Jin and Seo Woo holding him felt like they had become invisible.

Finally, a scream close to a wail flowed out.

“Sob… Save… him. Please… please save our Oppa−!”

.

.

.

.

She came to her senses with a start.

But her heavy eyelids still wouldn’t open easily.

Perhaps because her body was in pain, a terrible nightmare she hadn’t had in a while visited her again. Although Seo Woo wasn’t at the scene when her twin brother Seo Jin died, it was a dream so vivid as if she had been there.

Seo Woo pushed open her heavy eyelids with all her might.

The first thing that appeared in her disoriented vision was an IV drip hanging down.

“It seems it was acute indigestion. But now that it’s settled, you can be discharged after receiving the IV.”

“Ha, really, I didn’t even eat much, how could it be indigestion?”

“Sometimes when you’re stressed and eat hastily, this can happen. Regardless of how much you ate.”

The voices of a man presumed to be a doctor and Jung Keun could be heard. Judging from the content of the conversation, this seems to be a hospital.

So she ended up coming to the hospital. But nowhere in her memory was there any recollection of seeing Woo Jin. He didn’t come last night. Instead, she remembered Manager Park, Woo Jin’s closest secretary, forcibly carrying her as she struggled not to go.

He didn’t come even when I was this sick?

Even though there was no strength left in her body, her fists clenched involuntarily.

How… how could he do this to me. And Seo Woo Jin of all people.

Anyone else could, but Oppa shouldn’t do this to me.

Even if everyone in the world turns their back, Oppa shouldn’t do this to me!

Tears burst forth. But these weren’t tears of sorrow for Woo Jin turning his back on her.

‘I won’t let this slide.’

They were tears of anger.