And they looked at each other for a long time.

Seo Jun hadn’t planned on coming, but he couldn’t help himself.

He couldn’t hold back any longer, missing Eom So Yeon to the point of insanity.

Unable to bear it, Seo Jun had rushed over, intending to just take a glimpse of So Yeon and leave. He had hovered near the screening room.

Cracking open the back door, he saw her clearly. She was still beautiful, even more so. Objectively, she hadn’t changed, but to Seo Jun’s eyes, she appeared different.

He was about to leave when hurried footsteps echoed down the quiet hallway. Seo Jun quickly moved to the opposite side, hiding in the corridor next to the screening room.

Peeking around the corner, Seo Jun wondered if it might be Wan Hu.

Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if they ran into each other after he said he wouldn’t come?

At that moment, as his guess proved correct, he also saw Eom So Yeon emerging from the screening room.
The provided Korean text has 21 lines. I will now translate it into English, maintaining the exact same number of lines.

But the way Wan Hu looked at Eom So Yeon was far from ordinary.

What was with the bouquet in his hand?

Seo Jun could tell from Wan Hu’s hesitant behavior. The woman Wan Hu had confessed to was Eom So Yeon.

Seo Jun almost laughed at the sight unfolding before his eyes. The idea of Wan Hu liking Eom So Yeon was absurd, but the thought that a woman could cause a rift between cousins was unsettling.

More than anything, Seo Jun couldn’t accept seeing So Yeon with another man. His emotions, held back until now, were overwhelming.

However, he found himself behind the curtain, pushed there by the noise of people suddenly flooding the hallway.

It was shortly after that.

Seo Jun, seeing So Yeon heading to the bathroom, couldn’t leave. He wanted to see her longer, closer. This desire drove him to take further action.

But when the call connected, he found himself speechless, his chest tight with an indescribable ache, unable to make a sound.

What caught his eye was So Yeon suddenly collapsing to the floor.

For some reason, So Yeon, smaller than before, trembled and cried with her back turned.

Her repeating, choking voice.

So Yeon’s whisper of missing him was faint but hit Seo Jun’s ears and heart hard.

His chest felt unbearably tight, as if about to burst.

Seo Jun stepped out from behind the curtain and lifted the sorrowfully searching So Yeon to her feet.

“If it was this hard, you should have come to me sooner. Or at least called me. If not that, you should have said something when I called. You should have, you silly girl…”

Spontaneously, Seo Jun’s words tumbled out, and he impulsively took So Yeon outside the building.

Seo Jun, looking into her tear-filled eyes, gently stroked her face with his thumb and said,

“Don’t cry…”

“Don’t cry now that I’m here…”

The tenderness in his voice and the gentle sweep of his hand across her slender face was palpable. His affectionate feelings clearly reached her.

“I made Eom So Yeon cry…”

And that’s why my heart hurts even more.

It seemed like he was saying that. His voice, though sweet, felt different from before. Less imposing and more gently comforting, like soothing a child.

“Hiccup…”

Perhaps because of that, large, childlike tears streamed down her face.

“Hey, now you’re crying more? Were you a contrarian, Eom So Yeon? Is that why you ran away even when I told you to stay?”

“…”

“If you knew I wasn’t wrong, you should have run to me, no matter how late. If you missed me that much, you should have thrown away your pride and come to me.”

“How could I do that… Hiccup…”

“Afraid I’d bite if you said it twice?”

“…”

So Yeon vigorously shook her head, tears hanging like dewdrops in her eyes.

“Then why… if you couldn’t deny it till the end, suffering alone like this, wanting to see me, what else is there?”
The provided Korean text has 21 lines. I will now translate it into English, maintaining the exact same number of lines.

“Hic…”

Despite her resolve to never cry again, So Yeon’s defenses crumbled irreparably at the sudden appearance of Tae Seo Jun. Uncertain of what the future held, she was overjoyed to the point of death to have met him again.

But the Tae Seo Jun she knew was a person of great stature, seemingly unattainable, like a towering mountain. That’s why she couldn’t speak the truth and chose to disappear like the vanishing Little Mermaid, just a burst bubble.

He was someone so difficult to reach, that’s why she had left him, and even now, she couldn’t dare to hope. Yet, So Yeon was at a loss about what the right choice was now.

“I don’t know.”

“Eom So Yeon, you really…!”

How and where do I even begin to scold this woman…

“It’s okay not to speak. But what will you do about your heart being exposed to me?”

“Do I have to take responsibility for that too? What do you expect from me?”

“Don’t know, want to ask? If you really don’t know, shall I teach you?”

“Yes, please. I don’t understand at all, so enlighten me.”

“Fine! From now on, I will teach you everything until you understand.”

“……!”

Seo Jun kissed her, a warning.

It was the only way to awaken Eom So Yeon, who pretended not to know, about her current mistake.

Unable to push away his torrential kisses, So Yeon just closed her eyes tightly. Already deeply in love, she had no other way out but Tae Seo Jun – the father of her child, her first love, the one she would love forever.

His passionate breath, drawn in and surging back, his hot kisses awakened her.

That this man had also struggled, unable to forget her.

That she couldn’t live a moment without him.

That she would be even more foolish if she foolishly pushed away this precious man again, losing him once more.