If I had thought a little deeper, I could have figured it out right away.

No, how could I have known this? Was there anything I could infer other than having the same surname and working at the same hospital?

What made Eun Jae uneasy was not that Tae Gyu was Sun Woo’s cousin brother. It was that the man’s plans might be disrupted because of her.

If she were discovered here, the opportunity might never come again. As that thought dominated her mind, she became even more anxious.

With a face that deliberately erased the emotions she didn’t want to reveal, Eun Jae calmly faced Tae Gyu. Tae Gyu was still gripping her wrist painfully, making her fingers turn white.

“Answer me.”

The palm where blood wasn’t flowing felt numb. As the pain in her captured wrist became increasingly unbearable, Eun Jae struggled to pull her wrist free from Tae Gyu.

“Let go and let’s talk, it hurts!”

Worried that her voice might leak outside, Eun Jae cautiously lowered her voice as much as possible. Yet, she still clearly expressed her displeasure.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Someone might think there’s something between us.”

Tae Gyu just stared directly at Eun Jae, only increasing the force on her wrist. He reached out with his left hand to close the open door, then roughly pushed Eun Jae against the closed door.

“Why are you really acting like this?”

Eun Jae frowned as she looked up at Tae Gyu with her back against the door.

“Ji Eun Jae.”

Faced with that gaze that seemed to demand an explanation for this situation, Eun Jae felt she couldn’t give any answer.

Turning her head to avoid his gaze was the best Eun Jae could do for now. As soon as she averted her eyes, Tae Gyu’s hand came down to grasp her chin and turn it back in place.

“Look me in the eye and talk.”

“About what?”

“This isn’t really you, is it?”

Her heart drops to her feet. The pounding sound of her heartbeat made her head spin.

What, which part looked that way?

As Eun Jae tried to figure it out herself, she struggled to regain her composure.

“What do you mean?”

One corner of Tae Gyu’s mouth curled up as he looked down at Eun Jae quietly.

Eun Jae’s eyes, lost in thought, were wavering. As he became certain that his hunch was correct, a sense of emptiness washed over him.

That’s the kind of person Yoon Sun Woo was. If it was about Yeon Rim, he would have endlessly pondered ways to grasp her in his hands no matter what.

Of all things, that method was Ji Eun Jae…

“You don’t know Yoon Sun Woo. That bastard, once he gets his hands on the hospital—”

Tae Gyu spoke through gritted teeth, warning Eun Jae, but then trailed off, roughly running his hand through his hair.

How did they meet, where on earth?

Tae Gyu found it hard to accept the picture of the two, who seemed to have no connection at all.

“Yoon Sun Woo isn’t sincere about you.”

“…”

Eun Jae’s lips tightened at the words that seemed to hit the mark.

Once he gets his hands on that hospital, we’ll go back to being nothing to each other.

But it wasn’t a marriage that only benefited the man. That person had saved her from crisis twice and was a benefactor who helped her live like a human being.

She thought that was certainly enough.

She hadn’t wished for the man’s heart in the first place, but as Eun Jae faced reality with Tae Gyu’s words, her chest stung as if pricked by a needle.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Why are you judging that person as you please?”

“Don’t marry him.”

Eun Jae laughed dryly at the serious warning.

“Who are you to say that?”

“I know everything. The store your mother ran, why it ended up like that. Is it because of that?”

“What do you mean?”

Tae Gyu let out a deep sigh and finally blurted out what he had wanted to say from the beginning but had been suppressing, without any filter.

“Did Yoon Sun Woo pay off your debt or something?”

“Yoon Tae Gyu!”

It felt like he was looking right through her heart and rifling through it. It wasn’t wrong, but it kept reminding her of things she had forgotten, inflicting another wound on an unhealed scar.

Eun Jae bit her lower lip hard, inwardly praying that her feelings wouldn’t be discovered as she endured.

At last, Tae Gyu’s grip on her wrist loosened. Tae Gyu gently grasped both of Eun Jae’s shoulders and spoke as if trying to soothe her.

“Tell me. Eun Jae, I can do everything Yoon Sun Woo did for you.”

“…”

“Let’s get out of here. Let’s talk outside first.”

When Eun Jae remained deeply silent, Tae Gyu gently grasped her wrist and was about to turn the doorknob.

“I know why I appear that way in your eyes. That’s why I hesitated a lot when Sun Woo first asked me to marry him.”

Tae Gyu, who had turned around, furrowed his brow.

“So, is this real?”

“I know, it’s a person who doesn’t suit me. That I’m being greedy beyond my station.”

“I don’t believe it.”

As if saying don’t be ridiculous, Tae Gyu sneered, lifting one corner of his mouth.

“But Tae Gyu, am I not allowed to?”

“…”

“I love that person. Please, I beg you, don’t ruin this.”

Tae Gyu, who had been roughly messing up his hair, finally couldn’t go inside and came out to the garden. It was because he couldn’t face Ji Eun Jae in there.

No, he didn’t want to face her as Yoon Sun Woo’s woman.

“I love that person. Please, I beg you, don’t ruin this.”

Eun Jae’s last words kept stirring in his mind.

“What did I do wrong!”

Tae Gyu kicked the garden grass irritably.

Yoon Tae Gyu, the immature high school student who lived on his own conceit, was full of unnecessary confidence.

Whenever he heard someone say they liked Eun Jae, he would just laugh. Because the outcome was as clear as day.

Maybe that’s why. Even though he knew Eun Jae didn’t particularly have feelings for him, he didn’t feel a sense of crisis.

Tae Gyu had several dates with girls from the same school. He would deliberately show affection in front of Ji Eun Jae.

He acted like someone who wanted to show off that he didn’t care if it wasn’t her. Yet, every time Eun Jae passed by him indifferently, inexplicable emotions would rise.

At least when she was visible, he thought it was just that level of emotion.

Around the end of the first semester after entering medical school. He happened to hear news about Eun Jae from a former classmate.

They said Eun Jae hadn’t enrolled in the university she was accepted to through early admission. They said the tteokbokki shop hadn’t been open for some time.

It felt like being hit on the head with a club. He rushed to the tteokbokki shop in front of the school. But that door was firmly closed, and the next day and the day after, the door of the tteokbokki shop didn’t open.

I thought she would always be in this place.

Now that Ji Eun Jae, who had been a thorn in his side, was gone, he could only laugh hollowly.

Right, now I can break free from you too. That’s what he thought at first. He thought he’d be fine once she was out of sight.

But it wasn’t like that. As time passed, he felt like he was going crazy. He felt he needed to see it through to the end, whatever that end might be. He thought he might find an answer if he could just bring her before his eyes.

So he did everything he could within his power to find Eun Jae’s whereabouts.

He attended all class reunions, dropping everything else. He even asked a friend, but it was of no use.

Years passed like that, and one day when Eun Jae occasionally came to mind, he happened to hear about Eun Jae’s mother in front of the tteokbokki shop he frequented.

The story was that loan sharks had been coming and going day and night for some time now, so it seemed they were in deep debt.

After that, he couldn’t concentrate on Da Jin. It wasn’t a deep relationship anyway, but even when he was with Da Jin, he kept thinking of Eun Jae.

He thought it was just a thirst for something he couldn’t have, but it wasn’t.

A ridiculous laugh escaped him.

That’s when he realized.

I liked Ji Eun Jae, very much.

It was a one-sided love realized far too late.

The dining atmosphere was warm and lively. Except for one person, Yoon Tae Gyu.

Tae Gyu, who entered the dining room long after Eun Jae, treated her as if they were meeting for the first time.

He even substituted a greeting with a nod. He tried not to be conscious of it, but he kept getting distracted.

“So, you’re saying you’re going to get married?”

“Yes, grandfather.”

Seok Hee looked at Sun Woo and Eun Jae sitting side by side over his glasses pulled down to his nostrils.

Sun Woo pulled Eun Jae’s hand under the table and held it. Not to show anyone, but as if to gain peace of mind for himself.

“The date?”

“We’re thinking of registering the marriage first, and holding the ceremony in mid-June.”

Everyone except Seok Hee widened their eyes at Sun Woo’s words. Yoon Gang, Sun Woo’s father, who had been sitting quietly, spoke worriedly.

“June is not far off, can you prepare everything in such a short time? It doesn’t seem necessary to rush like this.”

“There’s no reason to postpone either.”

“Right, since you’ve decided to do it anyway, what’s the point in delaying?”

As Eun Jung chimed in, taking Sun Woo’s side, Yoon Gang looked at Eun Jung quizzically.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Seok Hee’s meaningful gaze rested on Sun Woo and Eun Jae for a long time, but his permission was simple and straightforward.

After the tense lunch, Sun Woo briefly took Eun Jae out to the courtyard.

As soon as they came out, Eun Jae grabbed Sun Woo and asked. How could it be this simple? If they really got permission?

Sun Woo shrugged and laughed as if he didn’t know well either.

The courtyard was an outdoor space with three sides made of glass, but because of good soundproofing, their conversation didn’t flow into the house.

Sun Woo handed Eun Jae the coffee that had been brought down earlier.

“We’ll be leaving soon. Let’s endure a little longer.”

“I’m fine, you know?”

Sun Woo couldn’t help but laugh at Eun Jae’s attitude, saying she was fine despite her hands being drenched in sweat from tension. Sun Woo took a sip of coffee as he sat down on the bench in the courtyard.

Eun Jae, who had been quietly watching him, suddenly slapped her knee. She remembered something she hadn’t been able to say earlier.

“Oh, right. You know, mister.”

“There you go again.”

“I told you it’s a term of endearment.”

“Who calls their soon-to-be spouse ‘mister’?”

She thought he would find out eventually anyway, and it would be better to know in advance to handle any situation that might arise.

“It’s about Tae Gyu.”

Sun Woo quickly reacted to Tae Gyu’s name coming affectionately from Eun Jae’s mouth.

“Yoon Tae Gyu? Do you know him?”

“Yes…”

Eun Jae told everything about Tae Gyu without omission. That they were high school classmates, and were in the same class in their second year. And even the fact that the classmate she had tried to meet recently was Tae Gyu.

Sun Woo seemed surprised for a moment, but didn’t seem to mind much. She knew he wasn’t a man prone to emotional ups and downs, but she didn’t expect him to be this indifferent.

“Aren’t you surprised?”

“What’s there to be surprised about, they’re just classmates. Already thinking about playing around as a first-year resident.”

Watching Sun Woo click his tongue, Eun Jae burst out in frustration. Do you know how surprised I was to run into Tae Gyu, I was really taken aback, she said. Only then did Sun Woo smile meaningfully and ask Eun Jae.

“Unless there’s something I don’t know, I don’t think it’s a relationship worth worrying about.”

Sun Woo looked at Eun Jae as he finished speaking. Faced with his appearance that seemed to be waiting for an answer, Eun Jae hesitated for a moment.

There had been no direct confession, and she hadn’t let slip anything that could be misunderstood. She could proudly say she was completely innocent.

“Why, are you hiding something? If there is, tell me now, so I can come up with a plan too.”

“No, there isn’t.”

“Then that’s fine.”

The man responded with a smile. Looking at the man’s smiling face, Eun Jae wondered if that smile might also be fabricated.

Now it was difficult to distinguish where the boundaries were between his sincerity and lies, as they had become ambiguous.

“What are you thinking about?”

When Sun Woo’s words broke her reverie and Eun Jae snapped back to attention and looked up, that’s when it happened.

In the distance, she saw Tae Gyu walking towards the courtyard. She remembered what Tae Gyu had said in front of the bathroom earlier.

“This isn’t really you, is it?”

Eun Jae hurriedly put down the mug she was holding on the table in the courtyard, and pulled Sun Woo, who was sitting, to his feet.

If you don’t believe it, I’ll make you believe.

“Mister, can I hug you just once?”