Park A Rin’s small fist trembled. She bit down hard on the tender flesh inside her mouth. The metallic taste of blood lingered in her mouth.

A good daughter.

A good wife.

A good elder sister, those times felt meaningless now.

‘No one cared about my wounds and pain. If they had, I could never have done this.’

She resented Yun Kyung Sook, Ban Jae Hyuk, and everyone involved in this matter.

A Rin forcefully pushed open the glass door.

“What are you two doing here?”

As A Rin opened the door and entered, Jae Hyuk and Kyung Sook’s heads turned.

Their reactions to A Rin’s appearance were completely different.

“You’re here?”

Far from being surprised by A Rin’s appearance, Kyung Sook looked at her with an indifferent gaze.

“…A Rin?”

On the other hand, Jae Hyuk’s face turned deathly pale as if he had seen a ghost.

“I didn’t know you two were this close. Are you perhaps doing something nice behind my back?”

A Rin glared at Kyung Sook and Jae Hyuk in turn as she spoke. Though she tried to act like it was fine, her angry voice trembled slightly.

“Can’t you see? I’m in the middle of a conversation with my son-in-law.”

Even with A Rin’s appearance, Kyung Sook remained brazen. Jae Hyuk glanced at Kyung Sook resentfully before abruptly turning his head.

“I will go speak with A Rin first.”

Jae Hyuk stood up and turned to face A Rin.

“Let me explain.”

“…Explain?”

To A Rin, both Kyung Sook, who acted shamelessly after being caught red-handed, and Jae Hyuk, who looked at her with a pitiful expression, felt insincere.

‘How could you do this to me. How could you two even meet!’

The meeting between the man who was about to become her ex-husband, who had handed her divorce papers long ago, and Kyung Sook, whom she believed to be her mother despite not sharing blood, completely shattered A Rin’s expectations.

“What is there to explain? About this situation?”

“A Rin.”

“Have you been meeting like this the whole time I was gone? Did you never think I would hate it? Why did neither of you consider my feelings at all?”

Even knowing it was a foolish question, A Rin asked the question that made herself feel pathetic.

“Yes, go ahead and explain it to me!”

A Rin shouted. Her small fists trembled.

Shameless! You’re really shameless!

A Rin glared at Jae Hyuk with all her resentment and hatred.

“Why are you two together?”

“That’s…I had something to say to your mother.”

The word ‘mother’ flew into A Rin’s ears and pierced her.

“Mother?”

At A Rin’s words, Jae Hyuk wiped his face with an ‘oops’ expression.

“The word mother, it’s just…”

“Enough.”

How long had it been since she threw the divorce papers at him, and he still called her ‘mother’.

A Rin bit her lower lip as she looked at Jae Hyuk.

‘Even when I wasn’t around, even without me, the two of them were like this? All this time?’

The more she recalled the situation, the more anger and betrayal surged up from deep within A Rin’s heart.

“Why did you meet?”

At A Rin’s question, Jae Hyuk glanced at Kyung Sook before fixing his gaze back on her.

“Let’s go outside and talk about that.”

Jae Hyuk approached A Rin and took her hand as he spoke.

Jae Hyuk’s actions only made the flames in A Rin’s heart grow larger.

‘You can’t say it confidently, so you’ll tell me in private later. You’re going to deceive me with lies!’

A Rin resented Jae Hyuk for trying to appease her with lies even after being caught in this situation.

“Why, why can’t you say it here? What in the world were you two doing behind my back, what were you hiding from me so much that you can’t say it?”

A Rin’s eyes reddened and her lips trembled.

“I won’t be fooled anymore.”

A Rin roughly shook off Jae Hyuk’s hand that was holding her arm.

She hoped the worst-case scenario among the expected ones would not unfold in reality. Because she didn’t want to be hurt anymore.

Jae Hyuk finally just moved his lips without answering and lowered his eyelids at A Rin’s reaction. A Rin became angrier as his silence felt like an affirmation of her suspicions.

‘This can’t be happening. You told me to come back to you. Is this why you spoke so confidently, because you two were doing this behind my back? No one was thinking of me. Just me alone!’

She couldn’t erase the feeling that she alone had been made a fool.

“Ban Jae Hyuk, please leave now.”

“…A Rin.”

Jae Hyuk grabbed A Rin again. But she shook him off with even more force than before.

‘I hate you! Both you and mother!’

Although A Rin’s heart wavered slightly at Jae Hyuk’s trembling voice and gaze, she was afraid and angry that he would deceive her again with a flimsy excuse to get out of the situation.

‘What more accurate explanation can you give beyond this?’

‘I won’t cling on like a fool anymore.’

It was the moment she let go of the lingering attachment she had been holding onto out of selfishness, even though it wasn’t hers.

Then, A Rin’s eyes looking at Jae Hyuk became even fiercer.

“If you don’t sign the divorce papers, I’ll sue you.”

“A Rin, that’s…”

“I don’t want to hear it so leave. I said leave! You said it’s all over.”

The whole situation was disgusting.

“…A Rin.”

A Rin abruptly turned her head away from Jae Hyuk.

For a long time, Jae Hyuk’s gaze remained on A Rin.

Ignoring Jae Hyuk’s gaze, A Rin glared at Kyung Sook, whom she had considered a mother up until just thirty minutes ago. She was dumbfounded by the utter tranquility on Kyung Sook’s face.

‘How could you do this to me, mother.’

A Rin clenched both fists tightly as she glared at Kyung Sook.

‘Just leave, Choi A Rin. Even if you ask, you won’t get the answer you want.’

She didn’t even need to ask to know.

She felt she knew too well what kind of words the person she once believed to be family as a mother would say.

It was the price she paid for not being able to let go of her last hope, even knowing she would get hurt…

Had she ever been this angry in her life?

A Rin couldn’t suppress the surging anger.

“Mother, I told you three years ago. That I was going to divorce this man, but how could you do this.”

Before boarding the plane to Jeju Island after leaving the house, A Rin had called Kyung Sook.

That she wanted to break up now.

That it was too hard and she couldn’t do it anymore.

[A Rin, are you in your right mind? Why did you leave. You won’t go back in?]

That’s what Kyung Sook had said to A Rin who was sobbing.

Kyung Sook tried to change A Rin’s mind, who wanted to settle in Jeju Island, by citing the safety of the Choi family.

[I’m sorry, mother. I’m going to divorce Jae Hyuk. I want to live my own life now.] [A Rin, if it’s not you, our whole family will die.]

Kyung Sook used threats, persuasion, and various other methods, but A Rin had no intention of changing her decision.

“Is this your answer to what I said, mother?”

“Hey, A Rin…Be careful what you say with your brother-in-law here. He’ll misunderstand.”

A Rin was dumbfounded by Kyung Sook’s face devoid of any emotion. In A Rin’s eyes, it seemed Kyung Sook had no intention whatsoever of caring about her feelings.

“Who’s a brother-in-law?”

“A Rin. Your husband is right here. I told you. Just because you live apart doesn’t mean you’re not husband and wife.”

A Rin saw Kyung Sook’s gaze flicker towards Jae Hyuk.

“Mother, how could you do this to me?”

“A Rin, what are you accusing me of doing again? You’ve been like this since you were young, stop throwing a fit like a child and come sit over here.”

At Kyung Sook’s answer, A Rin tightly clenched her fists.

‘Was this the answer you wanted to hear? Choi A Rin? Is this the kind of answer you wanted?’

Perhaps, no. It was from the beginning.

The moment she found out they weren’t related by blood, perhaps it was a foregone conclusion.

She could never be family to them in her lifetime.

Tears rapidly welled up in her large eyes.

If she blinked slightly, it seemed the tears would spill over immediately. To hold back the tears, A Rin bit down hard on her lower lip as if chewing it. A metallic taste of blood lingered in her mouth.

A corner of her heart felt as if it had been cut off, leaving an empty void.

“Now that person and I are strangers. I told you I was getting a divorce. Then you shouldn’t have used that person either.”

“A Rin.”

“Is this why you got me married? Is this why you ignored me when I said I was getting divorced? When I kept insisting on a divorce, did you contact that person behind my back?”

“Sit down, I told you to sit.”

“Mother. Do you love me?”

A crack appeared on Kyung Sook’s face that had remained calm the whole time. Kyung Sook’s eyes quickly swept over Jae Hyuk.

“What kind of thing are you saying now? If a mother doesn’t love her daughter…”

Kyung Sook’s lapse in composure wasn’t because she felt sorry towards A Rin or for any other reason. It was because she was conscious of Jae Hyuk.

Kyung Sook never dreamed that A Rin knew ‘that truth’. Even knowing she had to show Jae Hyuk that she loved A Rin, she was irritated by A Rin who wouldn’t listen to her.

Kyung Sook always thought that if only A Rin had endured well, she wouldn’t have had to go to these lengths. She was rather annoyed by A Rin who cried about divorce. After raising her so much!

Not even being a grateful magpie*!

(*Korean idiom about being ungrateful)

‘It’s all over, she’s not even my real mother… Don’t get hurt. Choi A Rin, you knew you were just a means to an end for her.’

A Rin read the emotions swirling in Kyung Sook’s dark pupils.

A Rin belatedly accepted the cruel reality that Kyung Sook had been a heartless mother who unleashed her anger the moment she couldn’t fulfill her greed as planned.

The time she had desperately lived to become a real daughter all turned to bubbles and disappeared into thin air.

“If you act like this, what does that make me? Your brother-in-law will misunderstand.”

Kyung Sook belatedly tried to pretend to be a ‘good mother’, but once again, the person she was speaking to wasn’t A Rin, but Jae Hyuk.

Kyung Sook’s heart was filled only with the fear that Jae Hyuk might severely misunderstand and not do the things he had promised.

“You shouldn’t have done this. No matter what… you shouldn’t have done this. If you were going to do this…”

A Rin finally sank to the floor. Kyung Sook’s gaze toward her turned cold.

Kyung Sook approached A Rin as if swallowing rising anger and grabbed her arm to make her stand up.

“Get up, A Rin. I told you I would explain, didn’t I? I said you’re misunderstanding right now.”

But A Rin couldn’t hear anything.

Although it was an affection that didn’t return as much as she gave, although it wasn’t warm, A Rin had felt relieved to be within the embrace of family.

A Rin felt as if her heart was empty. She felt so hollow and empty she thought she would go crazy. The tears that had welled up in her large eyes fell to the floor with a plop.

A Rin looked up at Kyung Sook who was roughly pulling her arm. At Kyung Sook’s irritated gaze, a tear rolled down A Rin’s white cheek.

Kyung Sook roughly let go of A Rin’s arm that wouldn’t get up and approached Jae Hyuk.

“I’m sorry, let’s talk about what we couldn’t next time.”

“…Wait.”

Jae Hyuk spoke as if biting his lip while looking at Kyung Sook. He passed by Kyung Sook and crouched down in front of A Rin.

When Jae Hyuk approached her, A Rin abruptly turned her head away. At her reaction, Jae Hyuk bit his lower lip hard.

“I’ll tell you…anything you ask. So A Rin…please just give me a little of your time.”