After finishing the half-body bath with Kanghyun, Seoyoon tied the waistband of her bathrobe and checked her phone. Seeing the missed call from a familiar number, Seoyoon’s lips trembled visibly.

Thump-thump, like beating on rib bones, Seoyoon pressed her heart area, which throbbed vigorously, and took a deep breath.

“Yuna.”

Kanghyun grabbed Seoyoon’s shoulders as she stood there absentmindedly, without changing her clothes.

“Oppa.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Got a call from Dad.”

Kanghyun’s eyes, which rarely widened for anything, opened wide. Kanghyun, seeing Seoyoon trembling and shaking hands, suddenly felt scared.

Seoyoon said she would accept it, but she couldn’t let herself do it selfishly. “Just disappear as if you were never here.”

“It’s horrible to weigh you against my parents. If I choose you, I lose my family, and I can’t easily give that up.”

With a nonchalant demeanor, pretending to be a monster that wouldn’t be hurt by any words, Seoyoon’s voice from the deep abyss unexpectedly sprang out.

Seoyoon, who originally clung to life as a pledge, didn’t take sleeping pills with the intention of dying. However, she showed signs of losing her mind at the threshold of death. Faced with the possibility that Seoyoon, who had chosen to be with me, might tire due to my frequent mistakes even after coming to Jeju Island, fear engulfed me.

“I’m sorry for not preventing you from receiving the call. Yuna, Oppa didn’t do it on purpose, but because I didn’t know, and I thought those people might take you away. Now is not the time. I promise not to confine you…”

“Oppa.”

“I was wrong.”

“Oppa!”

Seoyoon, holding Kanghyun’s hand, raised her voice.

“I’m not blaming you, you can call back. I was just surprised by the sudden contact; it’s really nothing.”

Her eyes, which had been shaking in all directions, finally showed a clear light.

The emotions I didn’t know were there were amplified twice, causing great confusion.

“It hasn’t been long since I quit taking medication.”

Kanghyun momentarily pushed away the anxiety that paralyzed his reason and showed a faint smile.

Seoyoon, who barely swallowed the heat that surged up to her throat, gently stroked Kanghyun’s back of the hand with her thumb.

I didn’t know if Kanghyun had been in his right mind since the traffic accident five years ago. In fact, when I first met him as he came to work at my house as my secretary, I thought he looked like a crazy person many times.

What was in Kanghyun’s head during the days he held everything in his hands and waited for the day to die in his bedroom?

How much anxiety did he feel next to me, not knowing when memories would come back?

Looking at me, who broke up with harsh words, how many times did he feel the urge to die?

It was only after coming down to Jeju Island and spending peaceful times that Kanghyun finally began to show himself.
Tae Kanghyun, struggling to patch up his fragmented mental state without a definite form.

“Make a call to Dad first; I’ll be in the living room.”

“No, you go first, Oppa.”

Seoyoon threw her phone onto the bed and embraced Kanghyun around the waist.

“Sorry, Oppa.”

“For what?”

“For pretending to be strong alone all this time and not being the real Han Seoyoon.”

Kanghyun, not wanting to leave Seoyoon in a melancholy state, playfully teased her.

“I didn’t know you were a fake Han Seoyoon.”

Gone was the previous scene; Kanghyun, who quickly regained his composure, enjoyed the teasing touch on his back and laughed.

“Oppa was my family. Suddenly, I had new parents, and I liked them so much. Even though I knew I couldn’t have them, I greedily pursued it till the end.”

“You always needed it since you were young. There was no one at Seowon to be a parent for you. It’s all my fault.”

“Ugh, ugh, I’ve become incredibly weak, weakened, oh, so weak, Tae Kanghyun, kkuh!”

Seoyoon, who had been holding back her tears, burst into tears, grabbing Kanghyun’s clothes and shaking him.

“So I don’t like it.”

“It’s not that I don’t like it, kkuh…”

Sniffling, Seoyoon buried her face in his firm chest.

Although I had earnestly wished for Kanghyun to have mixed feelings before, now that I saw him learning and suffering from those feelings, it felt bitter.

“Oh, I can understand what it feels like.”

“What feels like?”

“I don’t like when you cry, but I like it because it’s cute. It’s similar to how you look at me.”

Gently holding Seoyoon’s flushed cheek without hurting her, Kanghyun chuckled.

“That’s right. I like it when Oppa smiles, but I don’t like it when it’s hard for you.”

“You’re kind.”

After lightly patting Seoyoon’s buttocks, which were reddened with bloodshot eyes, Kanghyun picked up the phone buried in the blanket and handed it to her in his white palm.

“You should make the call.”

“We’re adjusting to each other right now, so if you ever feel uncomfortable, feel free to talk anytime. The most important thing to me is you, Oppa.”

“I’ll do that. Make the call, change your clothes, and come out.”