When Yeonsu looked up, their eyes met.

“This is a meeting where you have nothing to lose, isn’t it? Divorces are common these days. Growing up in Chairman Hong Hyeonchul’s household or being divorced, it’s all the same, right?”

Yeonsu was dumbfounded.

How could cheating and getting divorced be equated with losing parents in an accident?

He really was a bastard, consistently so from beginning to end, just as she’d been told.

In fact, if Sukgyeong hadn’t arranged this, she would have left the table long ago.

She had made this choice and was silently enduring to do her best with that choice.

Yeonsu emptied her glass of water.

Still feeling stifled, she downed the champagne in front of her.

Min Jeongho’s nonsense right before her eyes combined with the increasingly heavy rain.

“You drink quite a bit, I see. Shall we go somewhere for drinks? Or we could go up to a room, that’s fine too.”

Yeonsu’s lips twisted at his sinister smile with upturned corners.

This wasn’t something to say to someone you’re meeting for the first time.

That one sentence revealed how this man viewed Yeonsu.

“No. I’m not interested. Same goes for dinner.”

Yeonsu stood up.

She had no intention of continuing this rude arranged date.

“What?”

“Enjoy your expensive and delicious meal alone, Mr. Min Jeongho.”

The man looked up at her with a bewildered face.

Yeonsu immediately picked up her handbag from the chair. Just as she was about to leave the confused Jeongho, she turned around at the loud roar from behind her.

Along with the thunder, a flash of lightning appeared and disappeared beyond the large glass window.

She knew it was raining, but sitting with her back to the window, she hadn’t realized it was coming down so heavily.

Now seeing the falling rain, Yeonsu felt her breath gradually shortening.

Her heart began beating at an unusual rhythm. Streams of cold sweat ran down her spine.

Trembling hands, a wildly pounding heart. And cold sweat pouring like rain.

It seemed like a seizure was coming on.

Yeonsu hurriedly walked toward the restaurant exit while putting her hand into her handbag.

She searched inside urgently but couldn’t find the medicine bottle that should have been there.

She definitely had brought a divided dose of medicine. Even looking for the spare, it wasn’t there.

Only then did a look of dismay color Yeonsu’s face.

People murmured at the thunder that rumbled again.

“Wasn’t there no forecast for rain?”

“I thought it was a shower, but this is a downpour. Is the rainy season starting?”

Yeonsu’s face turned pale.

Her entire body was now soaked as if she had showered.

After hurriedly leaving the restaurant, she scanned her surroundings.

She spotted a bathroom not far away and was heading in that direction when—

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Just before reaching the bathroom, Yeonsu’s wrist was grabbed.

Turning around, she saw Jeongho looking at her with an unpleasant face.

“What kind of manners are these? Have you forgotten who introduced you to this meeting?”

Yeonsu gasped for breath. Her body had been stiff for a while now.

“Do you think this will be okay? I heard you’re living off that family.”

“Go ahead.”

“What?”

“Go ahead and tell them.”

Yeonsu shook off the hand that Jeongho had grabbed.

Then she forced her legs, which seemed about to collapse, into the bathroom.

“Hey! Seo Yeonsu! I met you because I heard you were docile, but what kind of woman are you?”

He shouted loudly, forgetting that he was drawing attention.

And from the murmuring crowd, one person walked forward.

※※※

Only after locking the bathroom door did Yeonsu collapse into a sitting position.

Her vision was chaotically shaking.

The ground repeatedly soared up like a roller coaster and then plummeted.

Even sitting and holding onto the toilet, the world spun around her.

Her seizure symptoms were particularly severe on rainy days.

Usually, taking medication would alleviate the symptoms within tens of minutes.

But without medicine now, there was no telling when she would feel better.

Yeonsu buried her head and gasped as her breathing gradually became labored.

She knew it was just panic created by non-existent anxiety.

But the day she lost her child. The day she drove on the road while torrential rain fell, the day her child, whom she had carried for ten months, was lost—whenever rain reminiscent of that day fell, she was overwhelmed by unbearable anxiety.

It was painful. It felt like the fishy smell of rain from that day was stabbing at her nostrils.

And even the smell of hospital medications.

By now, Yeonsu’s mind was hazy.

Noisy sounds came from outside the bathroom.

Hearing the name “Yeonsu” intermittently, it seemed to be Min Jeongho.

‘He said bastard, but he’s worse than a dog.’

How ironic that even in her confused state, Moon Seonjae’s words came to mind.

A self-mocking laugh appeared on Yeonsu’s lips.

She thought about asking a hotel staff member for help but quickly gave up.

It was better to endure than to see Jeongho sneering at her seizure.

It’s okay. It’s just an illusory panic.

While repeating this to herself and desperately hoping that man would leave—

She heard the sound of someone entering the bathroom as the door opened.

And footsteps stopped in front of Yeonsu’s stall, followed by a knock.

“Open the door.”

Along with this, a familiar voice penetrated her ears.

Yeonsu’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Now she must be hearing things too. Hearing that man’s voice.

She had poured out her emotions to him and turned away, so there was no way he could be here.

Just as she shook her head and buried it deep into her knees—

“Open the door, Seo Yeonsu.”

It was when his voice echoed in her ears again that Yeonsu painfully stretched out her hand and unlocked the bathroom door.

Through the gradually opening door, she saw a man looking down at her. It was Seonjae.

The thought of why this man was here lasted only a moment.

With a sudden release of tension, her body collapsed forward.

※※※

It was quite some time later when Yeonsu woke up.

Her eyelashes trembled finely, and eventually, her light brown pupils reflected the world.

Yeonsu rolled her eyes to scan her surroundings.

The ceiling and an IV connected to her arm came into view one after another.

She thought it might be a hospital. But the furniture surrounding the bed didn’t look like a hospital room.

Yeonsu slowly raised herself up.

Curtains drawn over a large window in front of her. In the darkness, only the bed lamp provided light.

Her wondering about where she was didn’t last long.

Yeonsu soon discovered a medicine bottle placed on the nightstand beside the bed.

She reached out and clutched the bottle.

It definitely hadn’t been in her handbag. Where had it come from?

Yeonsu held her head as a headache surged.

“……”

She was certain she had seen Seonjae before losing consciousness, but had it been a hallucination?

Yeonsu moved to sit at the head of the bed.

And just as she was about to stand up, the door opened and a man entered.

“You’re awake.”

As if to say that earlier wasn’t a dream, the person who appeared was Seonjae.

Seeing Yeonsu trying to get up, he immediately furrowed his brow.

“You should lie down.”

Yeonsu, who had been trying to stand up because of him, was pushed back to sit on the bed again.

“…Where is this?”

“My home. Haven’t you been here before?”

A surprised expression spread across Yeonsu’s face.

She had suspected it when Seonjae entered, but it really was his house.

“If you’re asking why you’re here, you carelessly left something in my car.”

Seonjae gestured toward the medicine bottle Yeonsu clutched in her hand.

“I thought you might be in trouble without it.”

At his words, Yeonsu’s eyes gradually widened.

It was just a medicine bottle without even a name written on it.

Yet he had come back to deliver this. It was hard to believe.

“You came back to bring me this medicine?”

Yeonsu’s voice trembled as she asked him.

“Would there be any other reason?”

“……”

“Or is there an answer you’re hoping for?”

Slowly, their gazes became intensely entangled.

“That I wanted to see you, perhaps.”

After a long moment of staring, Yeonsu’s lips parted and a dry laugh escaped.

“Your joke goes too far.”

Dismissing it as a meaningless joke, Yeonsu got up from the bed.

He remained motionless as she walked toward a large cabinet that filled an entire wall.

He merely followed her with his gaze as she walked.

She scanned the bedroom.

The full view of the room, which she hadn’t noticed while lying down, came into sight.

A bed, a table with a three-person sofa, and the cabinet she was approaching were all there was.

Yeonsu, who had been briefly scanning her surroundings, stopped.

Then she turned to Seonjae and faced him.

“How did you know I take medication?”

Yeonsu showed him the white medicine bottle she was holding.

His brow rose and fell, as if he hadn’t expected her to ask so directly.

“You can’t tell what kind of medicine it is just by looking at this bottle. Please don’t make excuses like you had a feeling.”

Yeonsu added, looking at Seonjae who gave no answer.

“Perhaps you don’t want to answer? Is it inconvenient?”

At this follow-up question, Seonjae unfolded his arms that had been crossed.

“It’s not that I don’t want to, I just don’t know how to explain it.”