“Even though we were engaged, we could hardly go out on dates. We were both busy with our own work, but besides that, Seol-won can’t drive.”

“Is that… because of his synaesthesia too?”

“He said he has a license. The driving tests are all standardized, so he just memorized the whole traffic light system and passed. But that was only a temporary fix-he can’t really drive. There are too many unexpected situations. According to Seol-won, when he’s waiting at a traffic light and suddenly he hears an unexpected sound and the wrong color is mixed in… How long did he say it takes for visual information to travel through the nerves to the brain?

Was it 0.1 or 0.2 seconds? Either way, in the blink of an eye, that’s enough time for an accident to happen.”

Then… was that why his chauffeur always drove in silence, without even turning on the navigation system? Was it to avoid unnecessary stimulation for him because of his synesthesia?

“As you probably know, when artists have evening shows, we don’t get off work until eleven or twelve. Later if there’s an after-party. And Seol-won – although he could send a driver if I asked, he wasn’t someone who could pick me up himself.”

As the meaning of synesthesia, which had seemed so abstract before, became clearer, a chill slowly crept over me.

It wasn’t just a question of whether he could drive or not.

It was the realization that in everyday life, unexpected obstacles could suddenly arise from the smallest things.

And for ordinary people – those who would never experience synesthesia in their lives – it was overwhelming, even frightening, to have to face these invisible barriers without any warning or understanding.

“After that, all kinds of questions came to mind. You know, there are things that couples are expected to do once they’re married. But… is that even possible for him? How would he feel about it? Maybe he said he would accept infidelity because even he wasn’t sure how he would react to intimacy?”

A sudden shiver ran down my spine.

Exactly. What had he felt when his tongue had entwined with mine?

What was going through his head?

“You really didn’t know anything, did you, Sunbae?”

“Well, I wasn’t exactly in a position to know.”

“Honestly… I thought you would know.”

Heo Yeonseo countered smoothly.

“Seol-won broke off the engagement because of you, didn’t he, Sunbae?”

With that one sentence, my body temperature plummeted.

The polite smile I had forced on my face froze on my lips.

It felt like a final, fatal blow – a confirmation I didn’t want.

My vision wavered, directionless and unsteady.

And then it happened.

Ding dong. Ding dong. Ding dong.

The room’s doorbell broke the silence once more, ringing loudly.

The timing was almost too precise.

My heart jumped in shock, aching from the suddenness of it all.

I stood up reflexively, startled, and went to check on this unexpected visitor.

“Who is it…?”

I’d inhaled too hard – my voice cracked.

As I quickly cleared my throat, a loud thud came from down the hall.

A fist banging on a door.

“Yeonseo. You’re in there, aren’t you? Open the door.”

The air vibrated with a low rumble.

It was that voice – the one I had heard countless times in my mind during my stay here.

‘Why is he here?’

And of all times, it had to be while Heo Yeonseo was here?

Lee Seol-won stood at the door, and Heo Yeonseo was behind me.
I had no idea how the three of us had ended up in the same place—it was unbearably awkward.

A cold sweat slid down my back at the sudden, unplanned confrontation.
I couldn’t bring myself to open the door recklessly, nor could I turn to look at Heo Yeonseo.

She murmured quietly,
“See? The moment he heard, he came running.”

Thud, thud.
The door shook again, as if urging me to hurry.

I unlocked it and pulled the handle.

As soon as the door opened, a hand from the other side reached in and threw the door open.

And there he was, standing right in front of me – Lee Seol-won. This man.

The man who had always been immaculately groomed now looked surprisingly disheveled.

Despite the bitter cold of December, his coat was nowhere to be seen and the buttons of his suit jacket were undone.

His usually neat, fine hair was tousled by the wind.

He looked around the room from behind the open door.

The parlor where we were sitting was the first room visible when the door opened.

His subdued gaze swept over me and Heo Yeonseo.

His solid chest rose and fell under his shirt.

He hooked a finger into his tie and pulled it off in one motion, then stepped confidently into the room.

“Heo Yeonseo. If you have something to say, don’t go looking for the wrong person. Say it directly to me.”

“I don’t think Sunbae Seo-hae is the wrong person here.”

Heo Yeonseo replied, looking directly at me.

“Not when you dropped everything and rushed over, Mr. Lee Seol-won.”

“To be honest, now that we’re finally talking openly… Seol-won never mentioned you once, Sunbae. Not a single word. I noticed it early on. It was the way he repeated my name the first day we met – it stuck with me for some reason. And later, when I was introduced to the orchestra, I got curious and looked up the website… and there you were.”

It was only after hearing Heo Yeonseo’s confession that I realized – too late – my mistake.

Because she had acted so naturally, as if she already knew there was a connection between Seol-won and me, I had let my guard down without realizing it.

In the end, the whole conversation had been a carefully orchestrated cross-examination.

“And it’s true that I met Sunbae Seo-hae by chance when I went to a team dinner. We had known each other by face since we were seniors and juniors at Traditional Arts High School. When we met, I took the opportunity to confirm something that had been bothering me. Seol-won, you were never honest with me. No matter how I looked at it, saying that you broke off the engagement because of the adoption felt like a lie. If that was really the problem, you shouldn’t have gotten engaged in the first place. Don’t you agree?”

Heo Yeonseo’s pointed remarks came one after another, steady and unyielding.

The gazes of the three people gathered here by choice or fate clashed in the air.

Heo Yeonseo looked at Seol-won.

Seol-won looked at me.

And I… was all too aware of Heo Yeonseo.

His calm gaze made my cheeks burn as if they were on fire.

“You’re right.”

A quiet confession.

“I was disrespectful to you, Ms. Heo Yeonseo. I admit I was wrong.”

And then, without another word, he apologized to her.

In truth, it was I who should apologize.

If I hadn’t strayed from the stage he had set, he would still be Heo Yeonseo’s fiancé.

That one day – the media presentation of the Traditional Music Festival – had changed all three of our life plans.

“Mr. Seol-won, has someone like Sunbae Seo-hae always been your type? I mean, she and I are completely different.”

“Well… I wouldn’t say she was my ‘type’.”

He answered without taking his eyes off me.

“She was an ideal for a long time.”

“Not your type, but your ideal? What does that even mean?”

“It means… she was someone I thought I could never have in reality.”

“And now?”

“Now… she’s someone I wish could become my reality.”

“Then why did you get engaged to me at all? If that’s how you felt, you should’ve just dated sunbae from the start.”

Even though I was no longer part of the conversation, I couldn’t have felt more uncomfortable – like sitting on pins and needles.

If blame was to be assigned, I had laid the first stone.

It was mostly my fault.

Maybe I should explain everything.

As it was, he bore all the blame, and his calm silence made it seem even more unfair.

Still, I hesitated to speak.

It didn’t feel right to reveal the secret that Eun-sae had kept so closely guarded – especially not to Heo Yeonseo, who didn’t even know her.

And the fact that Heo Yeonseo seemed to have some kind of connection to this family – whether she was related by blood or not – made me feel even more uncomfortable.

I opened my mouth several times only to close it again.

After a long hesitation, I was about to say, “Wait a minute,” and call out to Heo Yeonseo, but before I could even begin my timid attempt to intervene, Lee Seol-won, who had been watching me the whole time, cut me off.

“At that time, I was trying to make the best decision to protect what I had.”

“That means you gave up your ‘best decision’. Are you sure you won’t regret it?”

“I already do.”

My anxious heart gave a heavy thump.

His answer didn’t surprise me.

How could it not sting – his former fiancée was Heo Yeonseo. Of course, he couldn’t possibly feel no remorse.

“If I had been honest with myself from the beginning… If I had been sure of what I really wanted to protect… Then neither I nor Ms. Heo Yeonseo would have wasted our time like this. Yes, I regret it.”

…But what was I supposed to do with such an answer?

What was he trying to accomplish-what was he really trying to do?

Well, my heart was beating for a completely different reason.

“Wow. So Mr. Seol-won is capable of saying such things? You really showed us a whole new side of yourself today.

Heo Yeonseo made no effort to hide her surprise, and I felt the same.

I kept hearing things I never thought he would say.

I didn’t even have time to react – too busy wondering if I had heard him right.

“Well… I think we’ve all said about as much as we wanted to hear.”

Still sitting on the sofa, Heo Yeonseo slowly stood up.