This encounter was the beginning of an ill-fated relationship.

‘Hello. I’m Woo Joon Hwan.’

‘Hello. I’m Ha Soo Hyun.’

Tae Un’s grandfather, Chairman Woo, needed Daehan Group to increase the size of his Yoo An Group. It was an arranged marriage set up to connect with Daehan Group by putting a mask on Joon Hwan, a playboy son who couldn’t live without women, and packaging him nicely.

‘Dad! I want to marry Joon Hwan!’

The union of Yoo An Group and Daehan Group.

It was a common strategic marriage in chaebol families, a meeting formed out of mutual interests, but for someone, it was love.

For Soo Hyun, Daehan’s naive youngest daughter who knew nothing, it was love at first sight when she saw Joon Hwan. His sharp face that suited glasses well, tall height, broad shoulders. The warmth conveyed when he smiled, unlike those sharp lines.

Above all, his every word that showed consideration for her made Soo Hyun’s heart flutter.

And so, she begged and pleaded until she succeeded in marrying Joon Hwan.

[ Yoo An Group Chairman Woo Jang Hwan passes away. ]

But this happiness did not last long.

After Chairman Woo died, Joon Hwan immediately took off his mask. He proudly spoke of the things he had been doing secretly behind her back right in front of Soo Hyun, and even as she saw this side of him, Soo Hyun just waited for Joon Hwan in that place.

Unable to forget the warm smile he first showed her, the naive young lady Soo Hyun waited for him, telling herself that it all couldn’t have been a lie.

‘I envy you. You two still have such a good relationship.’

It was a show window.

Joon Hwan only showed his warm smile while wearing a mask outside the house. Outside the home, Joon Hwan and Soo Hyun were a couple more in love than any other. It was a show window of them looking at each other with loving eyes, arm in arm, smiling the warmest smiles in the world.

While Joon Hwan’s love for Soo Hyun might have been a masked show window, Soo Hyun’s feelings for Joon Hwan were never just for show.

‘Honey, when are you coming home today?’

‘I’m not coming, so don’t wait.’

She asked the same question every day, and the answer was always the same. The lively and naive young lady Soo Hyun withered away, exhausted from waiting for Joon Hwan.

The once radiant Soo Hyun was no more.

‘Are you going out again today? Am I invisible to you now? Please… come back to me.’

‘Are you starting again? Isn’t it time you gave up? Just give up already.’

On the rare days Joon Hwan stopped by home, Soo Hyun would cling to him. She begged him to come back, but all she got in return were cold words. When he left, the whole house felt empty, and the only thing keeping her going in this empty house was Tae Un, who looked just like Joon Hwan.

When little Tae Un smiled brightly, Soo Hyun could endure for that moment. For a very brief time, looking at Tae Un made Soo Hyun believe he was truly the fruit of love between her and Joon Hwan.

‘Joon Hwan, let’s get divorced.’

She let go of his hand.

The woman who used to cling to him crying every time now let go of his hand. Seeing her young son who had fallen asleep exhausted from crying, she could no longer forcibly hold onto his hand. So Soo Hyun tried to end this charade. Soo Hyun, whose heart was slowly rotting away, finally let go of Joon Hwan’s hand first.

‘Sob…’

Tae Un still remembers.

From the night they left his father’s house, the sound he heard from beyond the room every single day without fail.

His mother endlessly crying, muttering his name every night.

The faint smell of alcohol that always lingered on his mother.

Tae Un remembers his foolish mother who still loved the father who had deceived her.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Wow… this is crazy. How pitiful.”

Murmurs spread all around after seeing Lee Han and Ba Ha. Seeming not to care about the murmuring sounds, Tae Un stood up from his seat as Ba Ha remained curled up crying on the table.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

“I’m leaving.”

“Hah… Woo Tae Un!”

Despite Seo Ha calling out, Tae Un approached Ba Ha. Again. Whenever Ba Ha cried, Tae Un approached her as if entranced. Tae Un quietly sat down next to Ba Ha, resting his chin on one hand as he looked at her crying.

“Hic… sob.”

As he watched Ba Ha crying endlessly, not even noticing his presence, Tae Un’s face gradually furrowed. Ba Ha’s sorrowful crying sounds kept bringing up memories Tae Un didn’t want to touch.

Why do they just keep crying? You can just forget too.

“Sob…”

“I wish you’d stop crying.”

“…”

Ba Ha couldn’t hear anything. Not even Tae Un’s low voice. She just felt more and more hurt that this was all she meant to Lee Han, and she grew to resent him more and more.

“Hic… jerk.”

“Who’s a jerk?”

Tae Un kept talking to Ba Ha who didn’t even notice him, and again Ba Ha gave no response. She just reached for the glass without answering.

“Stop drinking. Are you going to keep being a zoo monkey here? Everyone’s just staring at you now.”

She was annoyed.

Why was this stranger taking away her glass as he pleased? Ba Ha didn’t want to hear nagging from someone she didn’t know.

The man she wanted to hear worried nagging from wasn’t this man.

This wasn’t the voice she wanted to hear.

There was another voice she wanted to hear.

“Excuse me, who are you to do this?”

Whether she couldn’t recognize him because she was drunk, or she just didn’t remember him from the start, it didn’t matter. Tae Un just wanted to get Ba Ha out of here first as she glared at him asking who he was.

He knew all too well how drinking while thinking of one person could be poison.

If she stayed here like this, either some stranger would take her away or she’d cling to Lee Han again. Neither option appealed to Tae Un.

“Hah… where do you live? Let’s go. I’ll take you home.”

First this stranger took away her glass, and now he was asking where she lived. Ba Ha let out a laugh as she stared intently at Tae Un asking where her home was.

“Stop staring and let’s go. Get up.”

Tae Un lifted Ba Ha up and grabbed her slender arm, but as soon as he did, Ba Ha shook off his hand and leaned her unsteady body against the table.

“Do you… have a girlfriend?”

“If I did, why would I be doing this? I don’t.”

When Ba Ha asked as she struggled to steady her drunken body, Tae Un answered with a hardened expression. Seeing Ba Ha become more and more disheveled, Tae Un felt beyond frustrated – his insides were twisting.

“Ah… Then you don’t have a secret lover either? You might not have a girlfriend but could have someone hidden away.”

Someone you could discard anytime.

Ba Ha rambled on drunkenly with tears in her eyes, while Tae Un stood beside her, furrowing his brow as he looked at her.

“What on earth are you saying? Get up. I said I’ll take you home.”

She wanted to forget.

If breaking up was Lee Han’s wish, the drunken Ba Ha wanted to grant his wish. Ba Ha smiled faintly at Tae Un’s repeated words about taking her home and spoke without avoiding his eyes.

“Forget about home, want to sleep with me?”

“…Do you realize what you’re saying right now?”

“I do.”

He was about to get angry.

Tae Un’s face instantly hardened at Ba Ha’s words. Seeing Ba Ha trying to destroy herself more and more because of one trashy man, Tae Un felt an incomprehensible feeling rise up, and now he was about to get angry.

“Come out.”

[This is the timeline separator]

It was just luck.

Tae Un grabbed Ba Ha’s wrist tightly and came to the Daehan Hotel near Alice. Why did his insides keep twisting like this? He thought it was just good timing, just luck.

If not, she could have easily become prey to those thugs from earlier, and the thought made Tae Un’s insides twist for some reason.

An inexplicable thirst irritated Tae Un.

“Ow… it hurts.”

From the moment they left Alice, Ba Ha tried to pull her wrist out of Tae Un’s strong grip, but even when she said it hurt, Tae Un didn’t let go until they reached the hotel entrance, his face hardened.

“Go in.”

Tae Un said as he finally released the wrist he had gripped so tightly, and Ba Ha, having arrived at the hotel room door, stood in front of it without going in, staring at the door with wavering eyes.

The moment she crossed that threshold, there would be no turning back.

“…”

Was this right?

Ba Ha said nothing at Tae Un’s words to go in. It was just an impulsive statement made out of hatred for Lee Han. His words that he didn’t care what she did pierced her heart painfully, and she couldn’t forget his eyes looking at her coldly.

She wanted to show him.

That if he wanted to break up, they could break up.

That she wouldn’t just keep looking at him and holding onto only him.

So in that moment, she impulsively clung to Tae Un who approached her.

But was it right to use this man in her struggle to forget him?

Was it okay to use him?

“What are you doing? Not going in.”

As Ba Ha hesitated in front of the door, Tae Un opened it first and went in, gazing steadily at Ba Ha.

The slightly dazed look she had earlier when drunk was completely gone, and now Ba Ha’s face seemed somehow full of shadows.

Tae Un felt he could understand without her saying anything.

The reason for those shadows.

It must be because of that man.

“…”

As Tae Un reached out his hand slightly, looking at her with dark, deep eyes while she remained silent, Ba Ha swallowed dryly and met those black eyes.

“Choose. If you take my hand now, there’s no stopping.”