“It’s been a while since you’ve been here. Let me show you to your room.”

Tae Un entered the Korean restaurant to meet Lee Han. When Lee Han immediately accepted Tae Un’s sudden dinner request as if he had been waiting, it didn’t make him feel particularly good.

Knock knock knock.

“Your companion has arrived.”

As the waiter opened the door, Lee Han, who had arrived first and was waiting for him, turned his head to look at Tae Un. There were no greetings exchanged when they met. They simply looked into each other’s eyes as a form of greeting. Tae Un sat down across from Lee Han and looked at him, and Lee Han didn’t avoid Tae Un’s gaze either.

“I don’t think we’re on terms to have meals together. What’s this about?”

As silence fell in front of the well-prepared table, Lee Han spoke first.

“I don’t particularly want to see your face while eating a pointless meal with you either.”

“……”

“Well. We’re not friends, and I have no intention of becoming friends.”

Tae Un’s dark, deep eyes looked particularly cold. When Lee Han flinched at his words, Tae Un raised one corner of his mouth and let out a chuckle, wetting his throat with the water in front of him.

“Then why did you ask to meet?”

“What are you doing with Cha Hi Ra? Are you actually dating?”

“What on earth are you talking about……”

Lee Han’s face gradually hardened.

“Do you even know that Cha Hi Ra came to the company?”

He didn’t know.

If he had known, he wouldn’t be in this situation. Lee Han didn’t have time to worry about Hi Ra. No, he didn’t want to think about her, and he’d rather not have heard any news about her. But listening to those words under the pretext of having a meal made his stomach churn.

What on earth was she up to?

“I… didn’t know.”

He knew Hi Ra had been to the house. When he returned home after his schedule, the house was clean. The floor where beer bottles had been strewn was spotlessly clean, without a trace. As if someone had cleaned up his messy feelings for him.

As he looked around the cleaned room, he turned his gaze to the box that was left open, so he expected that Hi Ra had looked into the memories with Ba Ha, but he didn’t care.

He rather hoped she would leave his side at this point.

“Cha Hi Ra went too far this time. Ba Ha got hurt.”

“Was she… hurt badly?”

“She was hurt badly.”

As Lee Han’s face trembled with uncontrollable anger at his words, Tae Un looked at him intently and continued speaking.

“Her cheek is swollen, her lip is split, and above all, her heart must be deeply wounded. She endured all that humiliation alone, surrounded by people. She was even pointed at by colleagues who had been with her every moment. At that point, how could she not be in pain?”

Lee Han’s trembling face gradually turned red. With each of his words, the painful moments that Ba Ha must have endured flashed before his eyes, and his head lowered involuntarily.

This time too, Tae Un was by Ba Ha’s side. Lee Han was merely the cause.

He was sorry and regretful.

Lee Han hated himself for making the choice that ruined everything, and if he could turn back time, he would never make such a choice again.

He wouldn’t even have considered it.

“I’ve been thinking. Why does the affection of that couple, who should still be dripping with honey, that couple who spoke of beginnings while trampling on one person’s heart, only overflow on screen?”

“……”

“It seems like only Cha Hi Ra is dripping with that honey.”

At Tae Un’s words that hit the mark, Lee Han gripped the water glass in front of him, trying to hide his trembling.

“Ah, let me be clear, I don’t care what circumstances you two have.”

So it’s better to give up on futile dreams.

Tae Un spoke matter-of-factly, but his words carried weight.

“I’ll just eliminate it. I’ll eliminate anything that harms that person.”

Tae Un asked Lee Han, who wouldn’t even meet his eyes, who wouldn’t say a single word.

“Let me ask once more. Cha Hi Ra and Lee Han, are you two really dating?”

Two months ago.

It’s still vivid.

That child who first crossed the high threshold of Chairman Han’s house.

That small child with large eyes full of tears and an endlessly trembling gaze.

That child who held the edge of Lee Han’s sleeve with tiny, fidgeting hands and forced a smile while taking pictures.

He remembered all of it.

It hurt.

When he realized he couldn’t do anything for the crying Ba Ha, his heart painfully tightened and ached. Every time, he wanted to bring her out of the corner where she was crying into the world.

He wanted to tell her that that narrow corner wasn’t her only refuge.

Knock knock knock.

“Chairman, Lee Han is here.”

“Tell him to come in.”

It had been a while.

After Ba Ha left this house, Lee Han also had no reason to be here. Since convincing his father, Lee Kang, to leave the house, Lee Han hadn’t set foot here even once, and the house he saw after coming in after a long time was the same.

It was cold and desolate.

He ended up setting foot in the house he never wanted to return to again.

“You called for me, Chairman.”

Lee Han approached Chairman Han, who was sitting in the study. Looking at Chairman Han, who hadn’t even opened his mouth yet, it felt like even the air was freezing.

“Han ah.”

As Chairman Han looked at Lee Han standing still, those unchanged cold eyes sent chills down Lee Han’s spine.

“Yes, Chairman. I’m sorry I couldn’t visit you for a while.”

“Sit down.”

At Chairman Han’s words, Lee Han moved closer to him. As he sat down next to him in the seat of honor, the study was so quiet that not even footsteps could be heard.

Lee Han was just looking ahead, waiting for Chairman Han to open his mouth.

“Cha Hi Ra, that child came to see me.”

Lee Han was surprised by Hi Ra’s name coming from Chairman Han’s mouth. He quickly racked his brain, but there was no reason for her name to suddenly come out of his mouth. Even after thinking deeply about why he would mention her name after calling him all the way here, there was only one answer.

He couldn’t guess.

“Some insignificant thing came and spouted nonsense.”

“What… nonsense?”

An unpleasant feeling gradually enveloped his body.

Everything about her was not good. From the beginning, Cha Hi Ra approaching under the pretext of the drama, Cha Hi Ra approaching calling herself a role model, none of it was good. The increasing frequency and gestures as if she knew him too well.

The more Hi Ra approached, the more his brow furrowed.

“Maybe it’s because she has Chairman Cha backing her, but that child has no fear. To see her come seeking a deal. And even bringing up Ba Ha.”

“…What do you mean.”

“Han ah, I’m thinking of accepting that deal.”

A low, resonating voice.

Words with meanings not at all gentle within a gentle tone.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying, Chairman.”

Lee Han couldn’t make sense of this whole situation. How Cha Hi Ra knew about Ba Ha. No matter how much he racked his brain, no answer came.

“What Cha Hi Ra wants is just one thing. You, Han.”

“……”

“Han ah, do you think there’s anything eternal in this world? Nothing is eternal. It’ll be the same for you two.”

As Chairman Han’s words became clearer, Lee Han clenched his fists and lowered his head, not answering his question.

“Ba Ha, you know what that child has wanted all her life.”

“Yes… Of course I know.”

She has wanted it all her life.

To escape from your embrace.

Ba Ha was a woman who had wished all her life to erase the two characters of Taesan from her existence. Lee Han, who had watched it all by her side, couldn’t not know, and he too wanted to someday help her escape from this place called Taesan.

It was Ba Ha’s lifelong wish, and also Lee Han’s wish that he had thought about all his life by her side, wanting to bring her out.

“If you know the answer, there’s no need to avoid it.”

“I refuse.”

Lee Han spoke more firmly than ever. The answer to this question was clearer than any other answer.

He couldn’t do it, and he didn’t want to do it.

“You refuse……”

“I understand what you’re saying, but you know we’re doing well together, Chairman.”

I love her.

Ba Ha was also Lee Han’s world. If there was a driving force that could give him strength in this hellish reality, it was Ba Ha. She was the reason for all his actions, his first love, and the woman he had loved all his life.

To the extent that he couldn’t even think of love without her.

Ba Ha was the reason for Lee Han’s existence.

Chairman Han, showing no sign of surprise at the refusal, picked up the teacup in front of him and brought it to his lips.

“What Cha Hi Ra said isn’t strange, is it? Ba Ha is your daughter, Chairman. Please… help us, Chairman.”

“Why should I do that? You also think that Taesan will fall just because that one child goes out into the world.”

“……”

“It doesn’t matter. Yes, it might be noisy for a while. But that doesn’t mean this big Taesan will collapse.”

Looking at Chairman Han, who was passing the choice to Lee Han with an overflowing composure, Lee Han was angry. He was someone who hadn’t done anything for her since coming to this house. But seeing Chairman Han who only saw even this situation as a deal, he no longer looked human.

“She’s a pitiful child! You know that! It’s not even a difficult thing for you, Chairman…! Why…!”

As Lee Han shouted with a reddened face, Chairman Han spoke without changing his expression even at such a sight.

“That’s right. As you say, Ba Ha, that child is indeed pitiful.”