It was purely coincidental that Tae Eun, who had returned home from the nursing home and showered, then sat at her vanity to do skincare, turned her attention to the message notification sound and read Seo Woo’s text.

The message that appeared on Woo Jin’s defenseless phone pierced her eyes clearly.

– Oppa, are you doing well? I miss you.

Park Seo Woo’s name and message flashed for a moment before disappearing back into the darkness, but Tae Eun couldn’t move.

Although all misunderstandings about Seo Woo had been cleared up, Park Seo Woo was still not a welcome presence to Tae Eun. Especially when she sent messages to Woo Jin so casually like this.

Even though they said they were nothing to each other, were the two of them still exchanging messages? No, maybe it was possible because they were nothing to each other.

But Tae Eun unknowingly reached for Woo Jin’s phone.

Usually, Woo Jin would open his phone defensively in front of her. So it was easy to unlock his phone even if she didn’t want to know, and seeing the messages they exchanged was no big deal.

As she picked up his phone and brought it to her eyes, she was startled to see her own eyes reflected in the black phone screen. It was because an unusually fierce gaze unlike her usual self was being projected.

Surprised, she looked up at her face reflected in the vanity mirror. It felt like she was sitting across from a strange woman. Though she thought she trusted Woo Jin without doubt, the woman sitting across from her still seemed full of disbelief, as if questioning many things.

Finally facing her true self, Tae Eun was shocked and put down Woo Jin’s phone.

“Why am I……”

She couldn’t believe it. That she had become a wife who snoops through her husband’s phone.

Confronted with her own ugly appearance, she closed her eyes as if momentarily shocked.

– Never… never again will this happen.

She recalled what he had said the moment she first realized he knew of Park Seo Woo’s existence.

Tae Eun thought she had dismissed all suspicions at his sincerity that came through without needing to be said. But the dirty suspicion hadn’t completely disappeared, remaining as remnants to create a small spark. She shouldn’t be relieved that it was just a small spark. After all, the huge spark that could devour a mountain and have more leftover usually starts from that small spark.

With her eyes closed, Tae Eun soothed her petty self with deep breaths. She couldn’t believe that in this moment, the trust she had built up for Woo Jin was becoming hazy over just one text message.

The person she should trust more than anyone was her husband, Woo Jin. The moment that trust breaks, this marriage would become another hell for her.

As she was comforting herself like that, the bathroom door opened with a click and Woo Jin, who had finished showering, appeared with just a towel wrapped around his waist. His not yet fully dry appearance entered her wavering eyes clearly.

Tae Eun was startled when her gaze met his sunken black eyes. It was because his unusually dark eyes seemed to see through everything about her today. Feeling as if her misguided thoughts of doubting him had been caught, she hurriedly averted her gaze.

But before she could say anything, a familiar scent wafted over. Woo Jin had embraced her from behind.

As his firm body pressed against her back, an unbearable heat transmitted through the thin silk slip.

“How did it go at the hospital today?”

His deeply lowered voice irritatingly scratched her eardrums.

“Ah. They said there’s no change yet. I got the next prescription too.”

She answered calmly, trying hard to erase thoughts of the text message. All the while, she was on high alert in case Woo Jin reached out to look at his phone nearby.

But he didn’t. As if he had no interest to spare for his phone right now when it was a message he would see eventually, he buried his lips in the nape of her neck and murmured.

“I see. Let’s not rush to think about it. It’s only been three weeks so far.”

“That’s the plan. Like you said, it’s only been three weeks… Ah, mm.”

She nodded her head, mulling over his words, but couldn’t finish speaking. It was because his hand had pushed up her slip and delved in. Raw desire was transmitted, incomparable to the heat that had been conveyed through the thin silk fabric.

Tae Eun gritted her teeth to keep from making a sound, but it was ineffective. Woo Jin accurately stimulated her sensitive spots from his accumulated experience. Her lips parted involuntarily as her head tilted back. And she saw. Her own reflection in the mirror.

It was a first. To so starkly face her appearance filled with desire like this.

And it was a fresh shock. It felt like facing a great seductress completely heated with desire, with no trace of her usually neat and stern self. Enough to make her look back and wonder if she really had such a side to herself.

But even that thought didn’t last long. Unable to hold back, Woo Jin stripped off her slip in one motion and turned her to embrace her. As their bodies intertwined, heat rushed in.

“You went to the hospital and took your medicine, so now we should get down to business properly?”

He lowered his head and captured her lips. His heat that dug in deeply was the catalyst that exploded her heat that she had barely been suppressing all at once.

Tae Eun wrapped her arms around Woo Jin’s neck. Then she raised her slender thigh to encircle his waist, and a deep sigh erupted through his Adam’s apple.

Liking that low groan like the growl of a beast of prey, Tae Eun entangled him even more. Because she knew him just as well as he knew her.

Laid down on the bed, he lowered his head and left his marks all over her body. As her body opened and they became one, looking at his face that was focused solely on her, she thought.

Even in this moment when we desperately want each other, this man doesn’t utter words of love, but still, I will believe in you. Because that’s the only way this marriage won’t become another hell for me.

She couldn’t turn the life she had difficultly regained into another hell. Especially not because of someone like Park Seo Woo.

No matter what anyone said, you were my man.

Not Park Seo Woo’s man, but Min Tae Eun’s husband, Seo Woo Jin.

So, someone like Park Seo Woo could not shake my life.

* * *

Five o’clock in the morning.

Woo Jin opened his eyes in the dim darkness. His eyes always open automatically around this time, as if an alarm had been set. But it’s not insomnia. It’s just the fearsome result created by the habit of exercising at this time.

In fact, the insomnia that had persistently troubled him before marriage had long disappeared. It was not once or twice that he had fallen into a deep sleep holding Tae Eun, who had fallen asleep without even realizing it.

And that’s not all. On rare resting Sundays, he even sleeps in occasionally. These days, when things he couldn’t even imagine before marriage have become everyday occurrences without him realizing, he thought all of this was the sense of stability this marriage gives.

Why do people advise against doing something this good? Is it human’s selfish desire to want to keep good things only for themselves that manifests as misguided advice? Thinking such thoughts, he turned his head to see Tae Eun’s sleeping face beside him.

Having received him twice throughout the night, she had fallen into an exhausted sleep. At some point, when he saw her sleeping defensively while looking at him, he felt his head grow hot with an unimaginable mental satisfaction.

In the early days of their marriage, she used to sleep with her back turned to him.

He was inwardly relieved that this marriage seemed to give her the same sense of stability he felt in it.

Woo Jin gently brushed back the long hair covering her cheek with his finger, lightly kissed her exposed cheek, and then got up.

He went straight to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face, changed into workout clothes, put on his earphones, and habitually looked for his phone. As he picked up the phone on Tae Eun’s vanity and unlocked it with a light touch, he saw an unwelcome message.

He frowned as he climbed the stairs towards the second floor room equipped with fitness equipment for his personal workout.

– Oppa, are you doing well? I miss you.

The three syllables of Park Seo Woo’s name unpleasantly blurred his vision.

Just when he thought things had been quiet for a while, it starts again. How many times does he have to say it for Seo Woo to properly understand?

He thought she would stop if there was no response, but Seo Woo had good patience. No, perhaps she was exercising such patience because she thoroughly believed in something. Although his heart had left, he couldn’t completely cut off his ties with Seo Woo. Seo Woo was believing in that.

He didn’t know how to stop Seo Woo from running to him.

Letting out a small sigh, Woo Jin unknowingly turned his gaze to the bedroom where Tae Eun was sleeping. The door was tightly closed, but he felt like he could clearly see Tae Eun’s sleeping figure.

That day, he had promised.

That she would never be hurt because of Park Seo Woo again.

He wanted to keep that promise he had made.

So that Tae Eun would never cry because of Seo Woo. So that she would never suffer heartache alone again.

To do that, he had to erase everything of Seo Woo around him. So Woo Jin erased Seo Woo’s name from his contacts.

Hoping that Park Seo Woo would come to her senses soon.

* * *

She decided not to mind. Not to mind replies that wouldn’t come back.

Wasn’t it a message sent lightly after making up her mind like that? But the message that never came back harshly scratched Seo Woo’s insides, which had been excited on the pleasant morning.

“Seo Woo Jin, how much do you intend to regret……”

When you’re going to return to my arms anyway.

Suddenly, a terrifying thought occurred to her. Yesterday, after hearing that Tae Eun had infertility issues, she was too excited to think rationally. But now that cold reason has returned, she can see all the possibilities.

Not sterility, but infertility.

That meant it was difficult to have children, not that there was no possibility at all.

What if Tae Eun suddenly gets pregnant?

“No……”

It was horrifying just to imagine. Even though Woo Jin doesn’t particularly like children, things would change when he sees his own flesh and blood. It means an unbreakable strong connection would form between Tae Eun and Woo Jin.

Seo Woo couldn’t just stand by and watch that happen. It’s already hell every day because of Woo Jin’s turned back, but if a child is born between them, Woo Jin would become an unattainable vain dream.

Unable to bear the anxiety, Seo Woo habitually chewed on her nails and thought.

What could she do to reclaim Woo Jin in this situation?

She had to end things between them before a child was born.

But Woo Jin was too solid to move. Moreover, if she provoked him further, there was a high chance it would backfire.

Then…….

“Min Tae Eun……”

Perhaps stimulating Tae Eun instead would be more effective in creating an invisible rift between the two.

She knew very well from experience that that foolish woman has a habit of enduring things internally and is too proud to casually divulge matters regarding herself.

Having finished those calculations, Seo Woo called Jung Keun.

“Oppa, how’s my schedule for next Wednesday?”

[There’s a meeting with the CEO in the morning, why?]

“If it’s a meeting with the CEO, can’t we postpone it a bit? I want to take that day off.”

[Why, did something happen?]

“No, it’s not that. I just haven’t been feeling well lately. But the schedule up to Tuesday can’t be adjusted.”

[Ah, I see. Then I’ll try to adjust it and let you know.]

“Okay. Please do.”

Seo Woo’s eyes sparkled brightly as she hung up the phone.

According to what was reported by the man, Tae Eun volunteers at an orphanage on the second Wednesday of every month. The moment when humans become most vulnerable is when they visually confirm what they cannot have. Tae Eun would be the same. Seo Woo planned to dig into that gap when she became weak like that.

Women are creatures of doubt.

Especially when trust is strong, once doubt creeps in, it takes root at a terrifying speed using that trust as nourishment. Seo Woo only needed to plant a small seed of doubt in Tae Eun’s trust.