The sea and sky of Malaga were exceptionally clear and blue.

The place they reached by yacht, navigating unmarked waters, was a small unnamed island. He told her that the entire island was shaped like a heart. Why did he have to mention that?

Once upon a time, Hyunwoo had asked.

Why is a heart shaped like a heart, why are both sides the same? So I told him that when two people’s hearts meet, it becomes perfect love.

Then, cleverly, Hyunwoo’s eyes sparkled like black Go stones as he asked again if that perfect love wasn’t me. Why didn’t I realize then that he was asking indirectly because he wanted to know who his father was? So I just nodded with a lump in my throat.

But suddenly, as he explained, the conversation with Hyunwoo came to mind, and I barely held back tears at the thought that I might be the one blocking the affection between father and son.

So Yeon, fluttering like a butterfly on the beach of the remote island, felt her heart pounding as she looked at Seo Jun, who seemed more like a prince than a fairy tale prince.

She was happy.

As if she possessed the entire beautiful world. This time with him was as sweet as honey. No, even sweeter.

The unavoidable reality. Someday, she would have to bring the child’s sealed secret to the surface, but for now, those complicated and anxious thoughts were forgotten.

It was just one night.

And she buried deep in her heart the man who had been special from their first meeting, unable to forget him. But when he emerged again from that heart, he had become even more significant than a few years ago.

She wasn’t sure if his feelings were sincere. Perhaps it was just a momentary curiosity about something he didn’t have. Even if Tae Seo Jun’s heart was just that much, today she wanted to believe it was love.

If she had to part with him, she wanted to believe it was love even more. Because she would have to live her entire life embracing him, his love.

Her parents warmly embraced their daughter whose belly was growing day by day.

And they said. Our daughter is pretty, but how much prettier will be the child you bear. We will gladly help. But, you must think of your solid life first. Though they spoke cheerfully, why wouldn’t they have sighed? Their disappointment must have been as great as their expectations.

That’s how she came this far, bearing a debt of heart.

Enduring days that were never easy.

Is this how the little mermaid felt, becoming sea foam without being able to tell the prince? She wanted to tell him right away that this child was his child. But she shouldn’t do that yet. When their relationship becomes more solid than now. Until then, it must remain a secret.

The time she had endured until now, driving nails into her parents’ hearts. The happiness she had painstakingly protected with him could crumble in an instant due to her selfishness.

And because she hated the thought of herself and her child becoming a blemish or burden to Tae Seo Jun more than death.

She just wanted to remain a fairly decent woman in his memory. Even that selfish desire would allow her to look back on the path she had walked someday and smile faintly. Even without him, those memories would serve as a lever for the rest of her life.

I will never regret coming here.

I will greedily and diligently engrave in my memory the memories of this place, the happy times with him, even if for just a few days.

Even if it becomes a crazy act, if I can fulfill even half of that expectation. No, even a quarter of that half…

Perhaps because her deeply buried thoughts were fully projected, So Yeon’s smile was especially white and lustrous like a pearl.

So Yeon deliberately spoke more brightly.

“Since when have you been so handsome, Mr. Tae Seo Jun?”

So Yeon’s face, showing playful curiosity, was exceptionally lovely.

“……”

‘Since when have you been so pretty?’

Asking that would be too embarrassing, so Seo Jun silently gripped her small, delicate hand more tightly as they walked side by side on the sand.

Was this destined from the beginning? Is this what they call an unbreakable fate? If God were to imprison me on this small island and make me live here, and tell me to choose just one person to be with for a long, long time, who would I choose?

I think it would probably be you.

Her long, glossy hair fluttered alluringly in the sea breeze. Why did her smiling, lovable face look so pretty?

Seo Jun took a photo of her with his camera and smiled sheepishly. Because taking a picture to remember this moment felt so unfamiliar and awkward to him.

As they were returning to the villa from Heart Island, Seo Jun had to briefly stop the yacht’s movement through the water. It was because of So Yeon’s story that swimming in the middle of the ocean had been her childhood dream.

It was just a passing comment, but this man immediately stopped the boat. So Yeon smiled brightly, grateful and amazed at him for listening carefully while pretending not to hear.

“Aren’t you going to swim, Mr. Seo Jun?”

“Not really. I’ve heard that schools of sharks have been appearing frequently around here lately.”

Seo Jun mixed an eerie joke with a playful expression.

“Eek! You’re joking again, right?”

If it were real, he wouldn’t have set things up like this for her to swim. When So Yeon burst out, Seo Jun chuckled, shrugging his shoulders once.

“I’m the type who doesn’t believe anything unless I experience it directly, no matter what anyone says. I’m also the type to do what I want to do.”

“So, you mean I should try it myself?”

“Well. Whatever you do, it’s Eom So Yeon’s freedom, isn’t it?”

“Pfft, it seems you’ve really gotten into teasing people… Alright!”

So Yeon quickly took off her white cardigan and jumped into the deep sea with an unfathomable bottom in her swimsuit. Her entrance into the water, lightly launching her body, was quite brave and spirited.

So Yeon swam around the yacht, showing off, and Seo Jun watched her moving gracefully from the deck with a steady gaze.

When So Yeon climbed back onto the yacht after thoroughly enjoying her ocean swim:

Clap clap clap!

“Not bad.”

Seo Jun applauded, praising So Yeon’s courage and swimming skills.

“No reward?”

“……”

Even though she obviously knew it was a joke, when So Yeon pushed a bit further and asked, Seo Jun curled up his handsome lips and showed his most charming smile.

“Isn’t this smile enough?”

“That’s the reward?”

“Yeah.”

“Ah, really… Hoot……”

So Yeon burst into laughter at Seo Jun’s brazen response, which was so ridiculous.

It was the first time she had forgotten all her thoughts and become one with the vast nature. It was most reassuring that Tae Seo Jun was watching over her with a generous gaze, and that’s why it was possible.

At this moment, So Yeon could feel overwhelmingly.

That this is what perfect happiness is.

When Seo Jun and So Yeon returned to the pier from the island, the sun was at its zenith in the sky.

At Seo Jun’s offer to show her around Malaga city, So Yeon hurriedly changed clothes and followed him out.

The place the two arrived at was the Marqués de Larios Street, famous for its beauty.

True to its nickname as a pedestrian paradise, Seo Jun and So Yeon walking on the clean and shiny pavement blocks looked like a couple to anyone who saw them.

The large hand gently enveloping the small hand that had slipped between Seo Jun’s waist and arm was reassuring.

Was the warm touch of being protected so pleasant? So Yeon kept turning her head towards the street shop windows, pretending to be intently examining products she wasn’t even interested in, lest her flushed face be noticed.

Not knowing that Seo Jun was observing her gaze.

While excitedly roaming the streets, the two ate tapas, traditional Spanish appetizers, as they got hungry. So Yeon grumbled that what she ordered wasn’t as tasty as she expected. Then Seo Jun generously offered his to So Yeon.

But his wasn’t that great either.

“I thought only mine tasted bad.”

“I find this unsatisfactory every time I eat it too.”

“Hik! What? You knew and still brought us here?”

“It’s a famous place, and though I don’t like it, it might suit Eom So Yeon’s taste.”

As he spoke, Seo Jun wiped off some sauce on the corner of So Yeon’s mouth with his thumb. His action, done so naturally, was too casual, and it was only So Yeon who was flustered.

“Huh…!”

As So Yeon laughed helplessly, not knowing what to do, Seo Jun shrugged his shoulders and giggled.

Because no matter what expression Eom So Yeon made, no matter what she did, it all looked cute to Seo Jun’s eyes and made him very happy.

In the end, the two just downed some cool drinks and left the restaurant, walking a few steps to enter a clothing store.

They had intended to choose gifts for family and friends, liking the clothes displayed in the window. However, upon accidentally seeing pajamas that parents and child could wear as a set, So Yeon left the place in less than 5 minutes.

As she gazed at that family pajama set, the image of her, him, and Hyunwoo spending a leisurely evening together naturally came to mind. It was an ordinary and happy scene that left nothing to be desired, but wasn’t it a family image far from her reality?

So Yeon discovered that she had developed an excessive and vain desire, and it suddenly frightened her.

“Why did you just come out? I thought you were going to buy something.”

“I thought the clothes in the window looked pretty, but when I went in and looked, I didn’t like them.”

After sightseeing in the city, the two headed to an observatory where they could overlook the entire city of Malaga at a glance. However, after climbing uphill for about 30 minutes, the light raindrops suddenly grew heavier, and unfortunately, they had to turn back midway.

Until they reached the waiting car, Seo Jun took off his outer garment and wrapped it around So Yeon’s head and body to protect her from the falling rain. Meanwhile, he himself was thoroughly soaked by the rainwater.

Thus, the two got into the car returning to the villa.

It was when the black sedan briefly stopped at a crosswalk signal. With a bang, as if the sky was about to tear apart, it roared, and then a downpour began.

It was then that her head, which had just started to doze off, bumped into Seo Jun like a chick’s beak.

Shortly after, as the signal changed, the car started moving again.

At that moment, Bong (manager) and Park Sung Ho in the front seats saw it.

Seo Jun letting the small head rest on his shoulder. Gently supporting So Yeon’s head with his large palm, lest it fall and get hurt. Tracing her white face meticulously with soft eyes.

So Yeon was sleeping soundly, and Seo Jun didn’t mind the gazes of the two men in the front seats.

Shh!

Bong (manager) and Park Sung Ho, with their lips tightly closed, silently exchanged surprised glances.

They knew well. That as attendants, they must never disclose what they had just seen.

Arriving at the villa in the evening, Seo Jun and So Yeon had dinner together.

Afterwards, returning to her own space, So Yeon sat in front of the dressing table, recalling the series of events that had happened today.

The natural scenery viewed from the middle of the vast sea was truly beautiful.

The white fluffy clouds were even whiter with the blue sky as their companion. Below, the green mountain ridges and the sea undulating to the seemingly endless horizon, the white yacht cutting through the emerald waves and the water spray.

Among that exquisite spectacle, what stood out most was undoubtedly Tae Seo Jun.

In the middle of the unrestrained Mediterranean, I was free.

There was nothing to be mindful of, no one to criticize my actions, it felt like a world with just the two of us.

When we were walking around Malaga city, my laughter just burst out.

When I laughed, he laughed, and because he laughed, I laughed again.

On the way back to the villa, I briefly fell asleep. Having been caught in the rain and with the warm air in the car, fatigue seemed to hit me all at once.

The warm touch that reached me then.

A time I was grateful for to the point of tears.

A dreamlike day.

So Yeon, who had carefully engraved today’s events onto one of the few pages of memories with him, suddenly felt tears welling up.

Mom had said before.

That difficult love is not love. That forced connections are bound to fall apart. That real love is meeting someone naturally in life, meeting without strain and becoming an indispensable existence to each other. That such a connection will surely come to you too.

But what could she do?

She had already lost her one and only heart.

“Hoo……”

So Yeon, no longer able to sit like a mannequin, took a deep breath.

Biting her pink lips firmly, she rose from the chair and lightly stepped out of the room door. She was going to cross over to Seo Jun’s room as promised yesterday.

Click click…

Her brisk steps walking down the corridor quickened even more.

She was already missing Tae Seo Jun.

Seo Jun waited for So Yeon in his room.

Taking a sip of whiskey, Seo Jun maintained a calm demeanor as he naturally shifted his gaze to the window.

Outside, the rain was still pouring down like spears, thoroughly soaking the garden where dusk had settled.

Why did I bring Eom So Yeon all the way here? What did I want to gain, what did I want to confirm by coming this far? When this persistent rain stops, will I be able to dislike Eom So Yeon even a little? Will I be able to hate her?

He asked himself, but it seemed he already knew that it was unlikely.

Seo Jun’s heart pounded just thinking about her, and the inside of his chest kept tingling. His heart knew before his head did.

That the beautiful season with Eom So Yeon was drawing closer and closer.