Well, Lee Seol-won was the one who recognized me for who I was from the first day I sat next to him pretending to be Eun-sae.

I wanted to argue, but I quickly accepted it.

“You’re probably the only one who can tell us apart at a glance without any confusion.”

Come to think of it, whether it was our parents, relatives, or acquaintances, everyone who knew us had always said the same thing: that the two of us were special, inseparable, destined to support each other like one body for life.

Even I had believed it without question.

The reason I was able to live under both names, Seo-hae and Eun-sae, was probably because there were people around me who sometimes mistook me for her. Over time, I got used to answering to both names.

It was the first time.

It was the first time anyone had insisted that Eun-sae and I weren’t alike at all – that we were completely different individuals.

“So this is how it felt. I think I finally understand why I was so special to you at the hospital.

But that was as far as I could relate.

I had no idea how to untangle these complicated feelings – this messy, twisted relationship.

This man was the one Eun-sae had loved from afar.

And now I was being told that the man my sister once adored had been watching me all along.

What was I supposed to do with that?

“But… beyond that, I really don’t know. You have no idea what I’ve been going through since I lost Eun-sae.”

I had thrown away everything I had built, driven by a single purpose: to bring down the person responsible for what had happened to her.

And now what?

Now you ask me what to do, where to go back to?

“I don’t understand what you hoped to gain by breaking off your engagement. I’m not in a place right now where I can be with anyone – not with a clear heart. Especially not with someone my sister had feelings for. How could I, with the guilt over Eun-sae still weighing on me?”

I stepped back and shook my head.

Even though I made it clear that I rejected him, his expression didn’t change. He remained calm.

Then, in the same calm voice, he said.

“Then just take it as my unrequited love.”

“What… what are you saying?”

“Forget about me. What do you want now?”

His voice, calm as always, lingered in my ears – soft but impossible to ignore.

I stood there stunned for a moment, then quickly pulled myself together.

This wasn’t a difficult question – not if I put Lee Seol-won’s feelings aside.

The goal I had to achieve was already clear to me.

“I want Lee Jae-hyup to disappear from my life forever. I want him to be punished for what he did to Eun-sae.”

“Then just focus on that.”

He gave his answer simply, without hesitation.

“I won’t ask you to go out with me. Just do what you have to do. And in the meantime, I’ll do what I want to do.”

“And what is it that you want?”

“Your safety.”

Thump – my heart started beating again.

“So go ahead and take revenge for your sister as you wish. I’ll be responsible for your safety.”

“What’s in it for you, Seol-won?”

It really felt like his whole life plan was being thrown off because of me.

Why would he go to all this trouble just to help me?

In response to my question, Lee Seol-won let out a short laugh.

“Isn’t that what unrequited love is supposed to be like?”

***

A year was coming to an end.

It was the most unemotional end of the year I had ever experienced.

Snow fell, but it didn’t stay for long.

Normally, the days between Christmas and New Year’s have a kind of exhilarating flutter to them, as if even the air itself were swaying – but this year they were nothing more than a series of dreary, tedious days.

I called my parents in the U.S. to wish them well and responded to New Year’s messages from acquaintances with carefully chosen greeting cards.

Then I called Lee Seol-won.

“This is Hyun Seo-hae.”

Even I had to admit that this was a terribly boring way to start a conversation.

But then again, this man was hardly known for his warmth. If anything, he was second to none when it came to stoicism.

Even as his cousins appeared in all sorts of society pages for attending glamorous events, he simply sat in his office – quietly and diligently going about his work.

“I’m thinking of going home, but I wasn’t sure what to do with the things the hotel provided… and I don’t really know how to check out either.”

Lee Seol-won had told me that I could stay at the hotel as long as I wanted, but now that I was physically fine, I felt uncomfortable staying in such an expensive room.

Yeonseo had mentioned that this wasn’t the kind of suite that just anyone could reserve, and that had stuck in my mind. So I looked up the hotel’s accommodation details and found that the room rates weren’t even listed publicly.

After searching online, I came across an article that said suites like this in five-star hotels could cost anywhere from several hundred thousand won per night to as much as ten or twenty million.

I was shocked.

I had lived in this incredibly expensive room for two whole weeks.

“Just pack what you need for now. The rest I will sort out and send to you later.”

Not “take it with you”, but “put it aside”.

I wondered what he meant and decided to ask.

“Are you coming to the hotel?”

“I’m going over there after work, so wait for me.”

“You really don’t have to walk that far. I can go by myself.”

“I know. You got out of the hospital on your own, didn’t you?”

I was surprised by his sudden reference to a barely remembered moment from the past.

What surprised me even more was the realization that he had paid so much attention to me – that he even knew that I had left the hospital alone.

“Still, wait for me.”

This was the man who had said that my safety was paramount.

He might even have secretly assigned bodyguards to me – no, more than likely he had.

And in that case, it would be far more familiar and comfortable for me to ride in his car than to return home flanked by SUVs escorting a taxi.

“All right. I’ll wait for you.”

He showed up just before eleven at night.

He’d told me to pack what I needed, but aside from the clothes and shoes I was wearing, there wasn’t much I felt I needed to take.

I put my phone and wallet in my bag and got into the car that had come to pick me up.

“Just think of it as my unrequited love.”

The moment I saw his face, that calm, matter-of-fact voice rang in my ears again.

In all my life, I’d never received a confession of unrequited love so indifferent – so quietly determined.

He really was a strange man.

The way he had simplified our complicated, hard-to-define relationship into a simple case of unrequited love – that mindset alone was unusual enough.

And the fact that he could sit there, calm and composed as ever, even after telling me he had feelings for me – that was just like him, too.

How could he be so unfazed?

Did he really mean it when he said he had feelings for me?

These doubts kept creeping in, and before I knew it, I found myself looking at him again and again, unable to stop thinking about it.

At this point, I could hardly tell which of us was the one in love.

Was this how he dated?

Cool and dry – just like his name.

Heo Yeonseo had admitted that she had never been able to go on a real date with him.

That he couldn’t drive because of his synaesthesia and that they just never had the chance to spend time alone together.

I could vaguely understand why she hadn’t dated Lee Seol-won, or maybe couldn’t date him.

To her, dating probably meant a man picking her up, taking her out for a nice meal, driving her somewhere with a beautiful view, or carefully preparing tickets to a movie, musical, or exhibition.

Yeonseo had experienced this kind of long-term relationship with her ex-boyfriend, and long-term relationships always leave their mark.

To be honest, I couldn’t really imagine Lee Seol-won in a sweet, romantic relationship either.

Besides, he was someone who hardly had any time to spare – just seeing him in person was difficult.

I was a performing artist myself, someone who worked when others rested, but Seol-won was even more extreme.

I began to wonder if he even had time to go out on dates.

“Lee Seol-won, let’s go out for dinner sometime.”

Come to think of it, I’d met this man several times – through all sorts of incidents that would have made headlines if they’d been reported – and yet not once had we shared something as ordinary as a meal.

Did that sound too much like a polite formality?

Concerned, I added.

“Before I go back to U.S.”

I had tried to be thoughtful with this condition, but instead of a yes or no, he countered with a question of his own:

“Doesn’t that mean you don’t really want to have that meal?”

“Why? Do you think I won’t make it to the U.S.? That I’ll end up in jail or something?”

When I made the joke, Seol-won’s brow furrowed in a way that didn’t seem so light-hearted.

“Are you planning to go to jail?”

“Who knows. I might run into Lee Jae-hyup and lose my temper – just lash out at him.

Older daughters tend to have a bit of a short fuse, you know.”

“That sounds like you.”

He said, sincerely agreeing – even though it was just a throwaway comment.

“What do you mean?”

“You have a fiery temper. Isn’t that why you attacked me?”

Well, it was true. The fact that I had decided to imitate my sister and cause a scandal when I first met Lee Seol-won – if I didn’t have a hot temper, that idea wouldn’t have even crossed my mind. I had nothing to say.

“I will make sure you get a good lawyer. I won’t let you go to jail.”