Suyeon felt something snap in her heart. She violently shook off the hand on her shoulder and sat up.

“What difference does it make now that you’re willing to listen?”

A surprisingly loud voice burst out.

“Do you know how I’ve been living all this time?”

She knew. It wasn’t this person’s fault. But even knowing that, she couldn’t erase her resentment.

If only he hadn’t known. If he had come to take the child earlier, there wouldn’t have been a chance of losing the child, and she wouldn’t have had to live as a dead person.

Wait for me, I’ll definitely come to get you. Even if he had broken the promise, he was ultimately the one.

If I were you, if I were in your place, I would have done whatever it took to come back!

“I’ve never sincerely smiled since Taeha was taken away. I’ve never walked with my chest held high. I lost my name, couldn’t even go to the hospital when I was sick. I survived by meeting Sihyun, at least, and attached affection to him instead of Taeha. Without him, I would have died by now.”

Once the words started pouring out, they couldn’t be stopped. She tried not to say it, but why did he keep poking at the person who stayed quiet?

Suyeon uttered a torrent of complaints.

“I should have never met you from the beginning. If I hadn’t, I would have gone to college late, met an ordinary person, had a child, and lived happily raising him with my own hands.”

After meeting Leon at the age of twenty, her life had completely fallen apart. She had to live day by day as if being chased. She missed the child she couldn’t even name.

“I’ve never seen my child take his first steps. Because of you!”

On her broad shoulders, Leon quietly placed his hand as Suyeon violently swung her fist, as if trying to hit him with all her might. It was not a gesture of coquetry but a sincere punch. It would probably hurt a lot, but the man endured it without flinching.

Once the words started to flow, Suyeon burst into tears.

“But why am I…!”

Why am I not filled with regret?

Why don’t I hate you?

No matter how hard I try, why.
“I won’t ask for forgiveness.”

Leon tightly embraced Suyeon, who was crying with her face covered.

“Just let me apologize and stay by your side so that I can seek forgiveness.”

His voice was also trembling.

“Please give me a chance.”

In his wide arms, Suyeon cried loudly for the first time in a long while.

[Star Icon]

Quietly. Ahyeon stealthily exited the room, suppressing the sound of her footsteps. As she headed towards the front door, she heard her mother Hwaran’s voice, which sounded like the Grim Reaper, from behind.

“Where are you going so early in the morning?”

Startled Ahyeon sighed and replied.

“I’m going to have brunch with a friend.”

“Cancel it immediately. If you’re going to see Sun later in the evening, don’t you have to go to a salon or something?”

“I told you I don’t want to see Sun.”

“Why the hell don’t you want to see Sun?”

Hwaran yelled, making Ahyeon roll her eyes.

“You’re already twenty-eight. You might become thirty in no time! Aren’t you unfairly wasting time waiting for Sihyun to marry that woman? Huh?”

Hwaran’s earthly goal was to marry her illegitimate daughter Ahyeon into a wealthy or powerful family.

Although the family background here was relatively inferior, fortunately, Ahyeon’s beauty was outstanding, making even seemingly impossible tasks not entirely out of reach.

If it weren’t for the fact that she would have had to send her niece Sihyun away first, even if it meant becoming a daughter-in-law to a conglomerate or a powerful figure, she would have done it during Ahyeon’s university years.

[My older brother Wujin and I got divorced.]

Since Sihyun declared that she didn’t know when she would get married after declaring that, Hwaran actively pushed for her daughter’s marriage.

But this time, Ahyeon was being stubborn. Even if a remarkable match came from a well-established company that didn’t suit her brother’s situation, she resisted. Hwaran was getting desperate because of her obstinacy.

“Tell me honestly. Are you meeting a man behind my back? Huh?”

“Oh, just wait a bit. Don’t nag me annoyingly.”

“Why should I wait whether you know him or not!”

Ignoring her lively mother, Ahyeon left the house.

“Kang Ahyeon! Can’t you stay still there?”

Avoiding the rushing Hwaran in her slippers, Ahyeon quickly got into the car waiting in front of her house and urged the driver.

“Grand Hotel. Hurry.”

“Yes, miss.”

As the car started moving, Ahyeon let out a long sigh.

There was a man. … The problem was that she knew nothing about him except his face.

On the day of the matchmaking with her cousin sister Sihyun, she happened to meet a man in the lobby of the Grand Hotel.

From the moment Ahyeon saw that man for the first time, her heart was completely stolen.

Although it seemed obvious that their relationship was not ordinary, Sihyun flatly denied any connection. What annoyed her was that while saying so, Sihyun refused to reveal anything about the other person.

[Since I won’t be dating my sister anyway. There’s no reason to tell you, right?] [It’s not like I want to involve you with someone like you. Do you think I had some kind of grudge with that person in my previous life?]

Thinking about the teasing words, Ahyeon involuntarily clenched her fist.

Since then, Ahyeon had only been thinking about that man. She sorted out all the potential matches that were circulating, and she refused all the arranged meetings her mother Hwaran insisted on.

Compared to that man, other men looked like dirt-covered stones.

She fell for him at first sight, and if it wasn’t him, it wouldn’t work out.

The problem was that she knew nothing about him—no name, no surname, no age. Except for the hotel staff lined up on both sides to greet them, he was quite an impressive VIP, but besides that, she knew nothing.

Since then, Ahyeon had been visiting the Grand Hotel quite often. She used vacation and healing as an excuse for overnight stays, and whenever she met friends, the designated meeting place was always the Grand Hotel.

The more she went, the more she thought that they would eventually meet fatefully. That was her thought.

“Ahyeon, over here!”
Entering the hotel lobby, a friend who had come early and was waiting shook hands with Ahyeon.

Approaching her friend, Ahyeon stopped abruptly. It was because a man coming down from the elevator caught her eye at that moment.

Even from a distance, she could recognize him at a glance. It was the man Ahyeon had been dreaming of all this time.

It felt like electric currents were running through her entire body. Her heart pounded as if it would leap out. Finally…!

Wrapped in the joy of finding the man, Ahyeon, unaware, didn’t notice there was another woman beside him. Only when the man gently kissed the woman on her forehead from a distance did she finally realize.

‘He wasn’t alone, was he?’

Unconsciously, Ahyeon glared at the woman. When she confirmed the woman’s face, Ahyeon’s eyes widened.

“Sihyun unni…?”