“Don’t make people more miserable.”

At first, even when I closed my eyes, Ban Jae Hyuk came to mind.

I missed him, but I didn’t want to see him. I resented and hated him, but the good memories of the past also came to mind, making it painful.

“Seeing you like this is too hard for me, Ban Jae Hyuk. But it’s not you. If you just came out of curiosity, go back.”

It was hard enough to die.

Dozens of times a day, countless contradictory emotions swirled within me. Guilt rushed in and weighed down on my entire body for a situation that could no longer be turned back.

[Jae Hyuk is not looking for you out of lingering feelings. I told you. If only I hadn’t been deceived by the words of that fortune teller back then and had misunderstood. Anyway… I guess I can assume he’s not stupid enough to not know his place?]

A Rin gritted her teeth as she recalled what Mrs. Jung had said.

“I won’t ask why you came. Just accept the documents without further ado.”

Exactly two years after Director Han had visited, he came to find me.

Along with him came Mrs. Jung, whom I never wanted to see again while living with him, and the woman Jae Hyuk loved.

Jae Hyuk was silent. He was only staring at A Rin with his empty eyes.

“A Rin.”

“……”

His kind voice, tinged with moisture, lingered in her ears.

A Rin felt anger rising from deep within her heart.

“Are you playing games with people?”

It was bad. Really bad!

I spent a difficult three years and thought I was okay and composed. I thought that if I saw him someday, I might be able to pass by ignoring him.

I thought I had sorted everything out, but when I saw him, my three years of determination crumbled.

A Rin tightly clenched her fists on her knees and bit her lower lip hard. Blood beads formed on her thin lips.

“Didn’t you hear from Director Han? I said I want a divorce. If you have something to say, I thought I told you to say it through a lawyer.”

“…Yeah. You did.”

Jae Hyuk lowered his head without a word. A Rin’s heart fluttered again at the sight, but she had no intention of showing that she was shaken.

“Congratulations on your engagement.”

So please, stop now.

“Give me a divorce.”

Don’t make me more miserable.

“…The engagement is.”

“I don’t want to hear it. Whatever you do with Ban Jae Hyuk has nothing to do with me anymore.”

A Rin stared at Jae Hyuk after spitting out all her words. Jae Hyuk pressed his lips tightly together. After maintaining a brief silence, Jae Hyuk opened his mouth.

“I hesitated about what to say first.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

Even at A Rin’s sharp words, Jae Hyuk only grimaced but didn’t stop talking.

“Should I say I’m sorry? No, can an apology make up for everything I’ve done?”

“……”

“Where should I start asking for your forgiveness? When I think about it, there’s too much.”

I didn’t want to be shaken.

I just didn’t want to be entangled with him anymore.

“It doesn’t matter. Not anymore.”

“…Yeah. I guess so.”

Jae Hyuk gave a hollow smile at A Rin’s words.

“Let’s… get a divorce.”

Jae Hyuk recited the word divorce as if he was chewing on it.

“Yes. That’s what I want most right now. Honestly, I don’t know why we’re still having this conversation after three years.”

Jae Hyuk bowed his head deeply. A small, trembling voice flowed from his mouth.

“I know you don’t want to talk to me.”

“If you knew, you shouldn’t have come to see me.”

“I also know that what you want is divorce. I know I have no right. But still, I……”

Jae Hyuk tightly clenched his fists, which he had gently placed on his knees.

“I’m sorry.”

“……”

“If you ask me what I’m so sorry about, it would be too much to answer right now, but……”

Jae Hyuk raised his head and met A Rin’s eyes.

“If you just listen to me, I’ll tell you everything. What I did wrong to you……”

Jae Hyuk bit his lower lip and continued.

“Of course, I may need to hear from you too since I don’t know everything. It might take a lifetime, but……”

Jae Hyuk didn’t avoid A Rin’s eyes. A Rin found the emotions swirling in his eyes too unfamiliar.

A Rin had never seen Jae Hyuk’s weak side in her life.

‘The Ban Jae Hyuk I know was always overflowing with confidence and was dignified. He was a big mountain and the only hope I could rely on. But why are you showing this side of you? As if you’re a different person.’

Still, she had no intention of being swayed by him.

“I thought it was the most foolish thing to say that you know when you leave… but I was like that.”

That was the plan.

“I thought I would go crazy if I couldn’t see your face.”

Until Jae Hyuk came to see her today.

She was confident that she would never be shaken by him.

“I missed you a lot.”

“……”

“Actually, I wanted to say I missed you as much as I’m sorry.”

“You’re really selfish.”

A Rin was confused.

Your mother said something!

Why are you saying something else in front of me?

“So what? So what do you want from me?”

I had no intention of seeing him again, so I had to reject him firmly.

Even if there was a misunderstanding, which was unlikely, I didn’t want to see him again.

“It doesn’t matter. Don’t shake people up now. Whatever your intention is in coming to me, nothing changes.”

A Rin felt her heart surge.

“You’re the one who ruined this relationship! You say you missed me? How dare you say that now?”

When I lost everything?

When I let go of the most precious thing with my own hands……

“You’re shameless. As you can see, I’m barely living like a human being now.”

I was angry. When I was begging you to look at me, you didn’t even pay attention, so why are you showing up now?

A Rin put her hand on her already empty, flat belly and said,

“I don’t want to face you anymore, Ban Jae Hyuk. So I’d like you to make it short.”

Whether you love that woman or not, whether the reason you’re not getting a divorce is because of that woman or not, I don’t care.

A Rin produced the coldest and most indifferent voice she could muster.

That gaze was so cold that it could freeze even the spring sunlight.

“That answer is to sort out this relationship that hasn’t been sorted out for three years.”

“I know it’s shameless, but I’m sorry. I have no intention of getting a divorce.”

A Rin’s eyes instantly turned cold at Jae Hyuk’s answer.

She couldn’t understand him at all.

“Are you kidding me?”

The relationship had ended when she left the divorce papers with him three years ago.

“Why in the world? Why do you keep making it hard for me? Why are you so self-centered, Ban Jae Hyuk?”

I couldn’t understand his intention of not getting a divorce when he said he was engaged.

Mrs. Jung, who thoroughly disliked A Rin, had prepared another match for Jae Hyuk even before she brought up the word “divorce” to A Rin.

A woman incomparably superior to A Rin in family background, appearance, and ability, Min Yu Jin.

She was also the woman Jae Hyuk loved.

That’s why she had to taste an even more miserable feeling. Because unlike herself, who was just a tool, that woman was meant to stand by his side as his dignified wife.

Recalling what happened then, A Rin bit her lower lip.

“What I want is one thing. Divorce.”

A month, two months, a year, and three years passed since she left the divorce papers, but no contact came from the lawyer.

[The papers haven’t been filed yet. They say they have no intention of divorcing you at all.]

When she finally called the lawyer introduced by Ji Yun after waiting, he said,

“Ban Jae Hyuk. I don’t want to be entangled with you in any way, even for a minute or a second. So if you have even the slightest consideration for me, you shouldn’t come to me like this.”

Jae Hyuk kept bowing his head in front of her.

She didn’t want to see this side of him either.

“If you’re truly sorry to me……”

A Rin felt her heart surge. To compose herself, she bit her lower lip hard.

When the resentment subsided a little, A Rin continued,

“It’s been three years. Do you want me to take this to court? Do you want to have a mud fight?”

A Rin glared at Jae Hyuk and stood up from her chair.

“It’s not like that.”

“Then let’s end it on good terms. Go. And don’t come looking for me next time.”

“A Rin.”

Jae Hyuk reached out and grabbed A Rin’s wrist.

“Let go. This hand.”

“Can’t you give me one more chance…?”

“…You’re crazy.”

A Rin roughly shook off Jae Hyuk’s hand that touched her wrist.

“Am I a joke to you? Am I a joke to your family?”

What do you want?

If you were going to come back, you shouldn’t have left in the first place.

“If you knew how I felt when I left you, you wouldn’t be able to come looking for me like this. If you knew how I spent the last three years since I left you, you wouldn’t dare tell me to come back.”

“……”

“Does being a chaebol mean everything? Status difference? What the hell is that? Yes. Status difference. I get it, so go meet a woman who matches your status. It’s too late. I’m happy now. The moment I see you now, I feel like I’m suffocating to death. I have no intention of going back to that hell a second time. The moment I left that house that day, I decided to never go back in.”

Jae Hyuk’s eyes shook violently.

She thought she might have been too harsh, but she couldn’t be lukewarm.

The dangerous thing was not him, but A Rin’s own heart that was shaken even though she knew he was a selfish, cold-hearted, bad guy.

“Don’t come to see me.”

A Rin got up and passed by Jae Hyuk. His voice was heard behind her back.

“I missed you. I mean it.”

A Rin felt her emotions surging.

She was angry.

She was as angry as she had missed Jae Hyuk.

When I was asking you to please look at me, you ignored me.

Don’t act on your own.

I won’t be swayed by you anymore.

A Rin finally burst into tears she had been holding back.

“You say you missed me. How can you show up in front of me? How can you talk nonsense about missing me?”

The sound of a chair being pushed back reached her ears.

Step by step, as Jae Hyuk’s footsteps approached, his unique white musk scent mixed with his body odor prickled her nose.