Leon didn’t know Korean, and Hee-sun’s English was only at a beginner’s level. However, there was no problem in sharing their hearts.

Leon learned that love was not expressed in words but in glances and lips. If there was something he really wanted to say, a woman stumbling through words after searching for a long time in the dictionary was charmingly unable to express herself.

The woman born in June shyly smiled like a budding rose.

Leon, who loved roses, called her by the nickname “Rose” instead of her name. In his heart, he wanted to gather roses from all over the world and give them to her, but lacking money, he often drew rose flowers as gifts.

[So beautiful!]

Every time she saw his drawings, Hee-sun smiled widely with joy. She resembled a rose herself, and maybe roses looked like her.

The dreamlike days didn’t last long. Just three months after becoming a couple, a reply came with money from a friend he had asked for help through letters. It urged him to return quickly because his mother was seriously ill.

Regardless of how strict and stubborn his parents were, she was the mother who gave birth to him. Moreover, he was the eldest son.

Leon worried about how much pain she might be in and feared that if he didn’t go back soon, he might not be able to keep even the last thorn.

However, on the other hand, he was afraid to go back, having barely escaped. If he returned to the United States once, he felt he might never come out again. Above all, his white supremacist parents probably wouldn’t accept Hee-sun.

Unable to speak the truth and agonizing every day, one night she unexpectedly revealed something.

It was a plane ticket to the United States.

[Hurry and go see your parents.]

The girl who couldn’t go to high school because she had no parents worked hard every day at the restaurant, saving money with the determination to go to college even if it was late. She couldn’t afford to buy new clothes or even one cosmetic like other girls of her age.

With the money she saved, this girl bought her own plane ticket.

Maybe she knew she might not come back.

At that moment, the words he had not been able to say spilled out.

[Wait for me.]

Leon spoke as if hanging on desperately.

[I’ll definitely come back after getting permission from my parents. Let’s go to the United States together.]

For her sake, he could throw away drawings a thousand or even ten thousand times. He would thoroughly live the way his parents wanted. He would learn business management as they wished and eventually inherit the company.

Then, wouldn’t his parents concede at least one thing he wanted most?
“I’ll be waiting. No matter how long it takes.”

Neither of them knew. That day, that night, would be the last.

The next day, Leon boarded a flight to the United States. His supposedly critically ill mother was fine, and Leon bowed his head before his furious parents.

“I have a woman I love in Korea. If you allow me to marry her, I’ll do anything you say.”

As a prestigious family, his parents had already been concerned about their eldest son’s marriage to a daughter of another distinguished family. However, they were shocked by his words of marrying a foreigner, and even more so, a woman of color.

Leon, unable to return to Korea or even go back to university, was confined to the mansion. Numerous bodyguards surrounded him day and night. The surveillance was so intense that he couldn’t even contact Hee-sun.

Nevertheless, Leon did not give up. He went on hunger strikes, pleaded, threatened to die, and eventually, after a suicide attempt, his parents relented.

His parents sent someone to bring Hee-sun. However, what the person brought back from Korea was her death certificate.

Unable to believe it, Leon flew to Korea to confirm it himself.

It was true.

Hee-sun had indeed died in a car accident.

Seventeen years had passed since then, after his parents passed away on the same day. While organizing heirlooms, Leon found a faded letter in his father’s drawer.

A short letter written in clumsy English, accompanied by a photo of a newborn.

[Dahsh] Our son is born. His birthday is on X month X day.

We haven’t named him yet. If it’s okay, we hope you will name him.

I will take good care of the child, so please don’t worry.

Be healthy and happy wherever you are.

Leon took the letter and approached his father’s former chief secretary. Now that Leon had inherited all the family legacy and businesses, the secretary finally revealed the truth.

At that time, his parents had planned to marry Leon to a daughter of another prestigious family. It was a marriage crucial for business.

To achieve that, the woman and the child she bore had to disappear from the world. They didn’t even consider the child of an Asian woman as a grandson.

Fortunately, the people his parents sent were not so heartless. They couldn’t bear to kill the young mother and the newborn baby, so they claimed she had died and used the excuse of taking the child to the United States, leaving him in Korea.

Through the testimony of the person who handled the matter and the fact that he was biracial, Leon quickly found his son. However, the mother was nowhere to be found.

Another nine empty years passed.

“….”

Leon took the letter out of his pocket.

The writing, carefully written one letter at a time. The phrase he had read thousands of times before now tore at his heart.

She had only asked him to name the child, not when he would come or asked him to hurry. She already knew. That he would never come to take them.

A large tear dropped onto the letter.

“I said I’d wait forever. Why didn’t you keep the promise?”

Mixed with longing and resentment, his voice seemed like he was vomiting blood.

Now you can forget about me. Even if you’re married to someone else, it doesn’t matter. Just once, only once, if I could meet you…!

Sensing a gaze from somewhere, he looked around. Unlike a few days ago, a woman was standing there, gazing at him from a distance.

This time, he didn’t turn away, and he could clearly see the face of the other person.

A face he had seen even in his dreams.

The face he had yearned for as if it had been twenty-five years.

“Oh, I’m seeing things again.”
Knowing it was nothing more than a fleeting fantasy, he still wanted to keep looking. Afraid it might disappear if he blinked, Leon stared at her with wide-open eyes.

“…….”

However, even after staring for a long time, the woman did not disappear and remained in the same spot.

Only then did Leon feel discomfort. It was undoubtedly her, but it was different from what he remembered.

She had never done her makeup like that. She had never worn such pretty clothes. Above all, she had never looked at herself with such a sad expression.

The moment he realized it was not a fantasy but the real her, the blood in his entire body seemed to freeze.

“Rose.”