Clang, the sound of the front door opening was heard. Yuri, who was sitting on the living room sofa, quickly got up and ran to the entrance.

Jeho, who was just entering, looked at Yuri with surprised eyes as she suddenly appeared.

“Yuri?”

Yuri ran and hugged Jeho, clinging to his neck.

“You’re discharged already?”

Jeho supported Yuri’s hips with both hands to keep her from falling, wearing a bewildered expression. He couldn’t believe she was in front of him when she should still be in the hospital.

Yuri nodded without loosening her arms around Jeho.

“As soon as I was discharged, I rushed here.”

“How long have you been waiting?”

“Not long. About an hour?”

Jeho walked into the living room carrying Yuri and gently set her down on the sofa. But Yuri didn’t let go of her arms around Jeho’s neck.

In the end, Jeho sat on the sofa with Yuri on his lap. Yuri buried her face in the crook of his neck and breathed out softly. She had rushed over because she couldn’t put it off any longer, but now that she was about to speak, she couldn’t quite summon the courage.

Jeho seemed to understand Yuri’s hesitation and gently rubbed her shoulders, kissing her temple.

“…Thank you, Jeho.”

Yuri slowly began to speak.

“No. I’m the one who should be thankful.”

Jeho ran his fingers over Yuri’s slender wrist and the watch glittering on it.

“If you hadn’t been wearing this, I wouldn’t have found you in time.”

“…Hah.”

Yuri let out a small sigh and raised her upper body to meet Jeho’s gaze. Then, with a faint smile, she brushed Jeho’s bangs away from his forehead.

“Actually… I’m too embarrassed to look you straight in the face. But I’ll try my best to talk while looking at you.”

Yuri blushed slightly and bit her lower lip. After hesitating for a moment, she continued speaking.

“I’m taking back the favor I asked before, about avoiding me.”

—When I see you, I’ll rush to you like this again, and then I’ll be more disappointed and disgusted with myself than with you. So please, avoid me so that I don’t disgust myself.

At the time, she thought she had sincerely appealed to him. But looking back, it was just a cry of distress. He must have been just as troubled as she was…

“Then you won’t be disappointed in yourself now if you rush to me like this? You won’t be disgusted?”

“…Ah.”

Yuri furrowed her brow slightly at Jeho’s words. Come to think of it, she was the one who rushed to him today too. Even now, she was clinging to him without letting go…

“I’m not disappointed. I’m not disgusted either.”

As Yuri shook her head vigorously, Jeho raised his hand to cup her cheek.

“If you have something to say, we can continue tomorrow. Your body hasn’t fully recovered yet. The anesthetic they used during the kidnapping might still be in your system.”

Even though Yuri had been kidnapped and rescued, Jeho seemed to think her 180-degree change in attitude was due to the lingering effects of the drug causing emotional confusion.

“No, the test results showed nothing abnormal.”

When Jeho tried to stand up from the sofa, Yuri hurriedly pulled on his arm.

“…Yuri.”

“This isn’t because of the kidnapping. I was going to talk about this even before that. I was just about to speak when the call connected right before I was kidnapped.”

As Yuri explained the kidnapping situation, Jeho finally stopped interrupting and listened silently to her words.

“I’ll be honest. I’m still not over what you did, approaching me intentionally because of Minwoo. …I won’t forgive that easily. But…”

Though she loved Jeho and had changed her mind about wanting a future with him, she didn’t intend to forgive and forget everything.

If they wanted a solid relationship, they needed to address things clearly from the start rather than pushing them aside because it was burdensome.

“But I belatedly realized that I can’t keep pushing away my feelings just because of that. Your words about approaching me because I was Minwoo’s counterpart, that it was a wrong start but you ended up truly loving me. I’ll believe those words.”

Yuri cupped Jeho’s face with both hands and met his gaze with a face that looked like she might cry.

“I realized I never opened up about my true feelings to you either. At first, it was because I was afraid of getting hurt… But in the end, that made the hurt even bigger.”

“Why do you say that?”

Jeho looked at her with sad eyes. He knew the state of mind she was in as she was opening up now. It was all his fault, yet Yuri was blaming herself.

That’s why he felt even more sorry towards Yuri. How could she believe the words of a man who had approached her intentionally? It was natural for her to push him away and resent him.

Not only that, but Yuri couldn’t hide her feelings of affection even as she pushed him away.

“Yuri.”

Suppressing the fire rising inside him, Jeho spoke in a calm voice.

“You may not have told me your true feelings in words, but you conveyed everything to me through your expressions and eyes.”

“…Jeho…”

“I’m really sorry. For our relationship starting because of my selfish desires… If I could change it, I’d want to change our beginning.”

At those words, Yuri bit her lip and shook her head slightly. Her throat stung as she forcibly held back the tears that were about to burst out. But now was not the time to cry. Tears shouldn’t get in the way of such an important moment.

“Have you forgotten? For me, the beginning was at the tennis court.”

That’s right. Yuri fell for Jeho the moment she first saw him.

It was the first time in her life she had seen such a beautiful creature, a sculptured man, up close. Like the gentle spring breeze scattering flower petals, he knocked on her heart.

“That day when I climbed over the wall in a skirt to see you. The day I fell in love at first sight with my incredibly handsome fiancé. For me, that was the beginning.”

“…Yuri.”

Before Jeho could say anything, Yuri quickly pressed her lips to his.

At first, she gently tapped, coaxing a response from him.

As their joined lips gradually heated up, she pushed her sweet breath deeper. Just as Yuri’s hands cupping Jeho’s face tightened, his hands on her waist tightened as well.

As their hot breaths melted into one, their bodies slowly tilted onto the sofa. Soon Yuri’s back touched the sofa and he shifted his position over her body.

“…I love you, Jeho.”

After a while, Yuri whispered softly as she pulled away from the kiss.

“I’ve loved only you since then until now. So even if I had known you approached me because of Minwoo from the start, I probably would have pretended not to know.”

Even though he had heard this first love confession once before, it gripped his heart strongly once again. Suppressing the urge to roughly claim her lips again, Jeho gently traced Yuri’s swollen lips with his fingertips.

“Don’t ever forgive me.”

Even if she forgave him, he couldn’t forgive himself. No matter how much she said it was okay, he knew all too well how much he had hurt her heart.

“I’ll spend my lifetime making up for what I did wrong to you.”

“…Um… okay.”

Yuri spoke in a slightly choked voice, as if she was about to cry.

“I’ll never forgive you. So stay by my side, by my side for life… and make up for everything you did wrong.”

“Alright, I will. I love you, Yuri.”

Jeho whispered softly as he pressed his lips to Yuri’s.

At his warm whisper, the tears Yuri had been holding back finally flowed down her cheeks. With their lips still joined, Jeho’s thumb gently wiped away the tears wetting her cheeks.

Perhaps because some of the walls in their hearts had crumbled? Even though it was just a kiss, a heat so intense it blurred her vision enveloped her entire body.

The contact that started with their lips gradually spread to other areas. Yuri let out a whimpering sound as Jeho’s languid touch crept under her sweater.

“Do you have more to say?”

Jeho asked in a low, seductive voice as he nibbled on Yuri’s earlobe with his lips.

“…Of course… I do.”

Her reply came a beat late due to her rough breathing from their deep kiss. Jeho chuckled and brushed back Yuri’s fallen hair.

“Then shall we continue in the bedroom?”

Yuri furrowed her brow as if contemplating.

Could their conversation continue if they went to the bedroom?

But it was unrealistic to expect a calm discussion to continue in the living room either. They had missed each other so much after all.

“Okay. Let’s go to the bedroom.”

When Yuri finally nodded, Jeho swiftly lifted her off the sofa. Then he quickly entered the bedroom.

It was the beginning of a sincere night where the dialogue between hearts and bodies would continue uninterrupted.

[This is the timeline separator]

Perhaps exhausted from the conversation that lasted all night, Yuri couldn’t open her eyes even when morning came.

Instead of waking Yuri, Jeho carefully slipped out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Even after he finished showering and preparing to go out, Yuri was still breathing evenly like Sleeping Beauty in the forest.

Jeho sat on the edge of the bed and silently watched the sleeping Yuri.

Last night, the two of them had shared all the stories they had been hiding from each other until now. Some were things they already knew, and some were new revelations.

—My mother really loved my father. And so did my father. But they never once confessed their love and hid their feelings. Isn’t that too sad?

That’s what Yuri had murmured, as if talking to herself, just before falling asleep.

—That’s why I’m determined not to do the same. I can’t make the same mistake. So… I love… you. Jeho.

After saying that, Yuri burrowed into Jeho’s arms and drifted off to sleep. It seemed as if she was catching up on all the sleep she hadn’t been able to get, now that she had put down the heavy burden on her heart.

As much as he wanted to wake her and see her clear eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to disturb her sleep.

“I love you, Chae Yuri.”

Jeho kissed Yuri’s forehead and slowly got up from the bed, leaving the bedroom. Just as he was passing through the living room, his phone rang. Jeho’s expression darkened as he checked the caller ID.

“Hello?”

[We’ve found out the scale of the slush fund accounts.]

As soon as Jeho pressed the call button, the other party skipped greetings and got straight to the point.

“What’s the scale? Is it enough for us to have a chance?”

[Fortunately, it’s not as bad as we feared. Even if they pick a fight first, we can handle it on our end.]

“I’m not so sure. It’s a fight for management rights… It will probably be quite an ugly battle.”

At Jeho’s words, the other party paused before continuing.

[Assemblyman Chae has sent us some documents. If we add those, we might be able to end this before a fight even breaks out. The important thing is whether Kwon Jeho has made a decision.]

Jeho delayed his answer and turned his head towards the bedroom where Yuri was sleeping.

To be honest, he hadn’t made a decision yet. Everything was prepared.

Now he just needed to bring down the knife in his hand to cut the tenacious thread of fate. But he wasn’t sure about the ‘butterfly effect’ that would occur afterwards.

He also worried whether he could properly cut the thread that his parents had tried to sever 10 years ago.

“For now…”

Finally, Jeho’s mouth opened and a dry voice flowed out.

“Let’s meet with the Chairman first. Everything will depend on his reaction.”