Yeonhee gently laid Hyunwoo, exhausted from the long flight, on the bed.

The innocent child who would smile softly in his sleep when his forehead was stroked, was now sound asleep, snoring lightly.

The long, black eyelashes were slightly damp, a pitiful trace of him holding back his tantrum alone about having to be separated from his mother again. Although still very young, Yeonhee gazed sadly at her grandson who was as deep as his mother.

Mom will come to get you soon. Grandma thinks your dad will probably come with her too. Your mom will do whatever it takes to live with you. So let’s just wait a little longer, Hyunwoo…

“Hah, what is happening…”

Sighing deeply, Yeonhee covered Hyunwoo with a cozy blanket and asked Jessica not to leave the child’s side before finally leaving his room.

“Is Hyunwoo alright?”

“Yes. More or less.”

As Yeonhee entered the couple’s bedroom, Professor Eom sat his exhausted wife in a chair after placing herbal tea on the tea table.

“I’m sure Soyeon has her reasons too. No matter what anyone says, I believe in my daughter.”

“What do you mean no matter what anyone says? Soyeon must have struggled a lot alone all this time. That’s what upsets me so much.”

“So, what does Hyunwoo’s father do?”

“I have a feeling he might be an actor working with her. Anyway, my heart was pounding too much to ask further.”

“Hmm… We’ll find out when the time comes. The situation doesn’t seem too bad. Considering our Hyunwoo, I mean.”

“That’s why I told her to bring Hyunwoo’s biological father. He must have been living comfortably all this time, I need to hear what he has to say in front of his own child.”

“You did well.”

Eunhyuk and Yeonhee shook off their worries with deep sighs and warm smiles.

Until late into this night.

Eom Soyeon suddenly left for Jeju Island, asking for a few days.

There were plenty of reasons to stop her, but he just let her go. She said she would explain everything when she returned, and although he didn’t know the details, her expression as she said it seemed so desperately earnest that it felt pitiful.

However, it was difficult to understand Eom Soyeon, who hadn’t been in contact for three days. Waiting for her like this, Seojun became anxious and even regretful. He should have directly proposed marriage instead of hinting at living together.

To express his feelings entirely, he could get married dozens of times over for her sake. But feeling it was a bit too soon, he had only talked about the essentials. He worried if she had misinterpreted his words as just “cohabitation” and gotten upset.

Clearing his mind of those jumbled thoughts, he spent the afternoon with intense exercise and took a long shower.

It was nearly evening by the time Seojun emerged from the bathroom. He grabbed a sparkling water and sat in the armchair by the master bedroom window, stretching out his long legs.

Any other time, he would have enjoyed a cold beer, but today he abstained from alcohol, feeling like he would see Eom Soyeon. He needed to be ready to rush to wherever she was as soon as she contacted him.

Seojun opened an old book he often looked through out of habit.

It was a 19th-century story about royalty with unique psychological descriptions and settings that made him reread it many times.

A queen cast out from the royal family because the baby born to the king’s son was black.

And a doctor who time-slipped from the future to the past relentlessly investigates the unjust circumstances of the deposed queen and the black prince, proving the legitimacy of the throne succession – this always gave Seojun a thrilling shock whenever he read it.

In the end, the black baby born to two white parents was an extremely rare mutation. It was remarkable that this setup appeared in a novel from the 1800s, but it was possible because the novelist was a geneticist.

Seojun suddenly cast his gaze out the glass window.

Staring intently at the moon half-hidden by dark clouds, he looked at Hyunwoo’s photo on his phone as if drawn to it.

He had felt it from the moment he first saw the child, but the boy’s appearance was strangely familiar.

Why?

Could it really be the child of someone he knows?

Seojun methodically went through his closest associates one by one in his mind.

Definitely not Gu Wonhoo. Even less likely to be Manager Bong or Park Sungho. Then, Jo Inha? No, no way. If it were him, he wouldn’t have backed off from Eom Soyeon so easily like that. He would have used the child as leverage.

Then who could it be…

Seojun once again mentally lined up everyone he knew and tried to figure out who resembled Hyunwoo the most. But no one in particular.

Then it hit him in an instant.

That time they talked a bit after getting out of the jacuzzi – the gesture Eom Soyeon had made toward him. Seojun felt his mind go blank for a moment as goosebumps rose on his skin.

Moreover, hadn’t she said she would explain everything as if it were some big secret?

“It couldn’t be… me?”

His expression was relaxed as his suspicions still leaned toward it not being the case, but Seojun’s fingertips visibly trembled as he quickly tapped the screen to call Manager Bong.

-Yes, Director.

“It’s about Ms. Eom Soyeon’s son. Do you happen to know his date of birth?”

-I heard from Ms. Yeo Dosoon that it’s around mid-September…

Seojun ended the call without even listening to the end.

If he met Eom Soyeon in late December and the baby was born the following September… Even just calculating the child’s birthday, the chances of him being the father were…

His heart struck by the realization that the probability of him being the child’s father was very high, Seojun closely examined Hyunwoo’s photo again. He repeated the action of furrowing his brows and narrowing his deep eyes several times.

Suddenly, the device in his hand vibrated and the phone screen switched.

The caller was Gu Wonhoo.

“Yeah.”

-Come here.

“Where to?”

-ElStella cocktail bar.

Wonhoo’s low voice seemed to reek of alcohol.

“You’re quite drunk, I see.”

-So you’re not coming?

It wouldn’t be normal to go running just because the drunk guy calls this late at night. Seojun raised an eyebrow and crossed his long legs, leaning back in the chair.

Although his mind was not at ease due to Hyunwoo’s matter, Seojun’s graceful figure was extremely relaxed and elegant.

“You know me well.”

-What to do. Ms. Eom Soyeon is even more drunk though.

“!”

Bam!

Seojun sprang up from his seat and headed straight to the dressing room. His movements were very swift, as if he knew why Eom Soyeon’s name was coming out of Gu Wonhoo’s mouth.

-If you don’t like it, then say so. I’ll just keep drinking with Ms. Eom Soyeon.

“You crazy jerk! Try laying a single finger on my woman!”

Buttoning his shirt with one hand, Seojun stormed out of the master bedroom with his long legs, growling in a low voice.

“You’re dead meat!”

It was a fierce warning.

After business hours, the dark hall was empty.

“You’re here, sir.”

“Where is she?”

“In the room. This way, please.”

Arriving at the ElStella hotel bar, Seojun followed the manager’s guidance and entered the room where three people were.

Taking a seat next to Gu Wonhoo, facing Soyeon who was snuggled up to Dosoon, Seojun swept his eyes over the room where the scent of alcohol wafted from the people to the very air. Then he stared at Soyeon’s noticeably haggard face compared to a few days ago with a gaze that was not at all gentle.

“So this is where you were. Ms. Eom Soyeon? You haven’t answered my calls for days.”

There seemed to be thorns densely embedded in Seojun’s prickly tone.

Having crossed to Jeju Island to tell Yeonhee the secret she had kept so carefully hidden and beg for forgiveness, Soyeon had to face frustration that day when her mother was adamant about taking Hyunwoo, let alone forgiving her.

So Soyeon had begged and pleaded with Yeonhee all day to take any other punishment but not to take Hyunwoo away.

However, Soyeon ultimately had to accept her mother’s will.

Her mother’s cold gaze that she encountered for the first time in her life. And that night, thinking Soyeon was asleep, her mother sat by the bedside, stroking her daughter’s hair and letting out deep sighs – that made her realize to the bone how gravely she had erred.

So she couldn’t turn on her phone that she had switched off since leaving Nonhyeon-dong during her stay in Jeju Island. Because she couldn’t do anything, overwhelmed by the sense of loss of having to let her son go and the self-reproach that all of this was the price of her rash judgment.

Soyeon felt even more miserable after seeing off Yeonhee and Hyunwoo, who were returning to Canada, at the airport.

She thought if even her mother hadn’t forgiven her, how much worse would it be with Tae Seojun? She wandered the streets aimlessly, and only turned on her phone when the pitch-black night fell, but she couldn’t muster the courage to call him right away.

Unable to feign ignorance of the reason for his anger, Soyeon could only answer in a small voice.

“I meant to contact you today, but time somehow flew by like this.”

“Somehow? Is that all you have to say to me? Do you know how anxious I was for days because of you?”

“…I’m sorry.”

Although he had heard over the phone that she was very drunk, Soyeon showed no signs of dishevelment except for slightly slurred pronunciation, perhaps because she was holding herself together with willpower.

“You think just saying sorry fixes everything?”

As Seojun fixed an intense gaze on Soyeon that seemed like he would devour her, she also stared back at him clearly without avoiding his eyes.

What has she done so well to be looking at me with such pretty eyes? What should I do with this mischievous and astonishing woman? Where do I even begin to break her habit of clamming up at the drop of a hat?

But Seojun had a more important matter at hand.

There was something he absolutely had to confirm through her own words.

About Eom Soyeon’s son, Eom Hyunwoo.

In great detail.

Seojun crossed his arms and stared intently at Soyeon’s face. As if pressuring her to finally spill the immense truth.

“…”

Unable to withstand Seojun’s intense gaze, Soyeon lowered her eyes and thought to herself.

The rule of a one-night stand where once the objective is achieved, it simply ends with some courting. She hesitated to speak because of that trait of his, and so she had to keep that secret to herself for years. But today, she had to tell him no matter what.

However, it was difficult right now. Soyeon simply bit her lower lip, deciding to wait silently until she could talk to Tae Seojun alone.

“What’s with this atmosphere?”

Dosoon asked Wonhoo in a small voice, sensing the strange air flowing between Seojun and Soyeon.

“They seem like they fought, right?”

Wonhoo smirked as if asking how would I know. But his mind was indescribably complicated.

The reason he had called Tae Seojun here was because Eom Soyeon looked so troubled. And he had intended to reach a conclusion at this meeting. About whether to stop or continue his feelings for Eom Soyeon.

However, there was no need for any conclusion. There was a strong something between the two that he could never intervene in, as if an incident were about to break out.

“For now, drink in good conscience. That’s the only fair way.”

Wonhoo placed a new glass in front of Seojun and grinned.

“As you can see, this is a gathering you can’t join unless you’re decently drunk. Everyone’s quite inebriated, so it’d be unfair if you’re the only sober one.”

“…”

Seojun wrinkled his eyebrows crookedly and smirked.

On the phone, his voice sounded like he would do something to Soyeon right away. And now the guy was being friendly – he was somewhat crafty, one might say. Wonhoo was originally skilled at keeping a poker face, but Seojun didn’t know he would use that tactic on him.

You’re especially getting on my nerves today!

As the businessman Wonhoo downed a glass of liquor diluted with ice, the doctor-turned Seojun poured straight liquor into his empty glass and gulped it down in one shot.

Five glasses in a row at that.

“Enough?”

“Isn’t it bitter?”

“Not really.”

He said that, but of course it was bitter. His throat that the alcohol had passed through and his stomach that felt like oil had been poured on a raging fire were burning so hot.

But Seojun drank three more glasses.

“You persistent bastard! Chugging such strong liquor without even flinching.”

“You drink more too. Seems like you’ve sobered up.”

Even as he spoke to Wonhoo, Seojun’s eyes were still fixed on Soyeon. It meant she should know why he came here and that he was barely holding back the urge to confront her about it right away.

“Ms. Eom Soyeon. Look at me now.”

It’d be even better if you tell me before I ask.

“…”

Seojun slowly drawled in a low voice, mixing derision into his elegant smile. Soyeon couldn’t lift her soaked gaze for a long time.

Unable to stand watching the two any longer, Wonhoo spoke as if taunting.

“Why are you two being like this? Anyway, you’re going to make Soyeon cry, you jerk!”

“A jerk, you say…”

Why do I have to hear that? Does he not think about why that might be? Seojun tossed back another glass of liquor that he had twirled with his graceful fingers.

That’s when it happened.

As if it were the calm before the storm. Wonhoo, who could tell from Soyeon’s low posture and Seojun’s cold gaze alone that the problem the two had to resolve was serious, reached across the table and firmly grasped Dosoon’s wrist, rising from his seat.

“Dosoon and I will be in the hall, call us when you two are done talking.”

“Huh? What?”

Dosoon found himself standing by the room door with Wonhoo as if instantly teleported.

And as soon as Dosoon and Wonhoo completely left the room, Soyeon raised her head with determination.

“I have something to tell you.”

“I also have something to ask. But I think an explanation is needed first.”

Seojun couldn’t hold back a smirk.

He simply couldn’t understand why Eom Soyeon, who had been out of contact for days, was here.

“Tell me. What have you been doing all this time? Why did you have to turn off your phone? Why are you here with someone else when you clearly know I’m waiting for you?”

“What I have to tell you, sir… It was because of that.”

“And?”

“Things didn’t go well talking with my mother, so I couldn’t even think about my phone. I never meant to ignore you, Tae Seojun. The situation just became more serious than I expected. And I came here because I needed courage before meeting you, Seojun. Even if I had to borrow the power of alcohol.”

“Why? Why did you even need alcohol?”

“…”

Soyeon’s lips, which had been promptly responding to Seojun’s questions as if obediently complying with an interrogation, now pressed together in a straight line. She couldn’t help it as she was momentarily confused about what to say first in order to tell the truth.

“This photo.”

“!”

Seojun stared intently at the snow-white face with large, trembling eyes, while Soyeon’s gaze was fixed on the photo of Hyunwoo displayed on Seojun’s phone screen.