Chapter : 59
After leaving the hospital and rushing to the parking lot, Director Jung was already waiting.
Joo-hye explained the situation to him, helped Dae-hyun settle in, and then took the wheel herself.
Director Jung paced anxiously, but today she wanted to move alone with him.
There were many things she couldn’t say in front of others.
“Luckily, it’s a holiday at the arboretum, so no one will be there.”
“…….”
“It’s good that the weather cleared up. The rain has stopped.”
While Joo-hye chatted quietly, Dae-hyun stayed silent, his face buried in his palms.
The stiff posture of him leaning in the passenger seat looked strange.
She wondered if he was even crying, but she didn’t turn to look.
Somehow, if she did, she felt she might burst into tears while still holding the steering wheel.
“Were you surprised about the baby?”
“……I was.”
Finally, he answered for the first time.
Joo-hye gripped the wheel tightly and smiled awkwardly.
She had worried about how to tell him about the pregnancy, never imagining it would happen like this.
“How… did this happen?”
Dae-hyun spoke hesitantly, shifting his gaze.
Seeing Joo-hye’s still-flat stomach, the news felt almost like a lie.
Of course, since it hadn’t been long yet, it wasn’t the time for her belly to show.
“It’s exactly as I said earlier. About seven weeks along.”
“…….”
“I did a test and went to the hospital alone. My period was late, so I thought something was off.”
But he hadn’t expected to hear that she was already pregnant.
Even when Joo-hye added that casually like a joke, Dae-hyun didn’t laugh. Nor did he cry.
He simply stared blankly at her stomach, a look of disbelief on his face.
Feeling his gaze was embarrassing, Joo-hye twisted her waist slightly to the left.
Only then did Dae-hyun lift his head after noticing her discomfort.
“Why did you hide it all this time?”
When the blunt question came, she couldn’t say a word.
There was no accusation or anger in her tone, which made it even scarier.
Earlier, when she had declared she wouldn’t divorce him, she had felt relief—but not now.
Even with a child on the way, Joo-hye was someone who could leave him anytime.
She wasn’t a wife who would cling to him just to take care of the baby.
“I went to the villa. The one we were at together.”
The villa… Dae-hyun’s tongue felt like stone, and only his eyes moved.
Joo-hye, focused on the road ahead, had tears quietly welling in her eyes.
“The handkerchief… I saw it.”
“…….”
“Do you remember the liberal arts class we took in college?”
Dae-hyun couldn’t continue speaking, and Joo-hye felt the weight of his silence.
She whispered that they could talk about the details once they reached the arboretum, and finally, Dae-hyun nodded heavily.
At last, a time was coming when they could be a little more honest with each other.
When they arrived at the arboretum, the garden was bathed in the red glow of the sunset.
The two quietly passed through the main gate and headed toward the zelkova tree.
Stopping under the massive zelkova, the gentle rustle of leaves in the wind could be heard.
If you listened carefully, it sounded almost like waves crashing.
“Let’s sit.”
After a deep breath, Joo-hye took out a few items from her bag.
A plastic bag containing the test, and the handkerchief she had brought from the villa.
Dae-hyun took both with trembling hands and examined them.
Seeing the clear line on the test confirmed that the pregnancy wasn’t a lie.
“And there’s something I couldn’t tell you earlier.”
“What is it?”
“I heard about Eun-jae. You two are half-siblings.”
Perhaps expecting it, Dae-hyun didn’t react strongly.
But the next words made him furrow his brow.
“I… had thought Eun-jae was your mistress all this time.”
“What?”
He could hardly believe it.
Dae-hyun frowned in disbelief.
“Before I mentioned divorce, I went to your company. There, I saw you secretly meeting Eun-jae.”
Faced with such a shocking confession, Dae-hyun’s face gradually turned pale.
He remembered the time Joo-hye had suddenly suggested divorce.
“You were so kind, smiling, touching my hair… giving me concerned advice.”
“Joo-hye…”
“Seeing that, it felt so unfamiliar that I naturally assumed you had a new woman.”
Even as she made this embarrassing confession, Joo-hye didn’t avoid his gaze.
To understand this stubborn man, she felt she needed to be honest first.
“But even then… I hated that I couldn’t ask if you had someone else. That’s when I first thought of divorce.”
“…….”
“What if you answered that you really did have a mistress? What if I were already so deeply in love that I’d beg you to stay by my side regardless?”
It was already so painful—what if she fell even more for Seo Dae-hyun now?
“So Eun-jae was just the trigger.”
“Just the trigger?”
“Because I thought you didn’t love me.”
These doubts strengthened her resolve about divorce.
She thought that if she ended it before loving more deeply, even now, it might be okay.
Hoping that eventually, time would heal this pain…
“No… that can’t be.”
At Dae-hyun’s dry, cracking voice, Joo-hye blinked.
Her eyes said she wanted, at last, to hear his honest feelings.
“When I… first saw you.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe even then, I was already captivated by you.”
Dae-hyun spoke as if confessing a sin, looking into her clear, brown eyes.
It was a confession he had never dared to make before.
“But thinking of my situation, I couldn’t allow myself to feel that way. I hadn’t been recognized by my father, felt inferior to my brother… I couldn’t even take responsibility for a younger sibling, so I couldn’t express myself.”
“…….”
“When we met again at Inwangsan, I thought it was fate. I thought I should at least ask for your number.”
Dae-hyun muttered while looking at the handkerchief in his hand.
“I wanted to say I kept this handkerchief all this time.”
“But you ran into Seo Woo-hyun, so you couldn’t.”
“Yes. I didn’t want to show you my lowest self.”
He had never dated anyone because he assumed no woman could understand his depths.
Moreover, he had never forgotten Joo-hye, whom he had met briefly in college.
Whenever a woman resembling Joo-hye appeared, he would observe her, be captivated, then grow disappointed and drift away.
“The party was my chance. Seeing your expression again, I felt… you felt the same about me.”
His voice grew heavy.
Joo-hye raised her hands and touched his cheeks.
“Yes. I couldn’t forget you either.”
She wiped her tear-streaked cheeks, and he pressed his lips to her hands, murmuring.
“I was always anxious, Joo-hye…”
“……”
“I had nothing, my insignificant family was a burden… I feared that every flaw in me would show in your eyes.”
Realizing that all this conflict stemmed from his insecurities made him feel even more miserable.
Yet even after knowing what kind of man he was, she had still come to hold on to him.
“So that made you anxious. You pushed me to ridiculous misunderstandings, thinking I had a mistress.”
“Dae-hyun…”
“I’m sorry.”
Why would she love him?
How could she love someone so flawed…?
Suppressing his sobs, Dae-hyun pressed his lips repeatedly against her palm.
“Joo-hye, it’s all my fault.”
Faced with his finally unleashed apology, Joo-hye’s lips trembled too.
She cried a little, wiped his tears, and listened to his heartfelt confession.
A confession she heard only after deciding marriage—and even divorce.
“Your family’s demands were justified. A man like me, with nothing, married using your love as leverage. I was desperate to use you… I even wanted to use you.”
“Dae-hyun…”
But in the end, he never used Joo-hye.
Even while abandoning all pride, he helplessly fell in love with her.
“I love you. I… love you, Joo-hye.”
Feeling the tears spreading across her hand, Joo-hye lifted her head.
As they kissed through their tears, Dae-hyun wrapped his arms tightly around her waist.
Their chests pressed together with no space in between, hearts pounding in unison.
“That answer is enough.”
A cold breeze blew. The zelkova leaves brushed softly, scattering above them.
Joo-hye felt him pull her closer and smiled softly.
“Let’s start over. Us.”
Now, both were determined not to fail again.
