Sorry for this very late update :( I hope you guys are still reading this.  To those who have given up because I always take too long to update, I'm very sorry. And to those who have been waiting patiently, thank you so much! There are only a few more chapters left so I hope you will stick with me 'til the end :)

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CHAPTER NINETEEN

“You did well, my love.” Mark snuggles with Jackie.

“No~ We both did well.”

The couple has been celebrating the whole day for succeeding in breaking Jaebum and Jina apart. For the past few days, the two have not gotten in touch and Mark couldn’t be any happier knowing that the two are definitely not in good terms right now.

“Knowing Jina, she won’t make any move to talk to Jaebum about whatever’s bothering him.”

“And knowing Jaebum, he won’t let that woman know how he’s feeling or what he’s thinking of.”

“That’s perfect, then!” Mark smiles at Jackie and hugs her even tighter. “You’re the best, my mandu.”

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“Wh-what?”

“Tell me the truth. Have you been playing with me? With my son?”

“Jaebum, I don’t underst—“

“Oh, so you’re going to deny it? Well, what the hell was I thinking? How can I expect you to tell me the awful truth about your intentions…” Jaebum disappointedly tells Jina who was too confused to understand what the other is ranting about.

“Jaebum…” Jina stops as she feels her tears welling up again.

“No. Stop. Forget it, Jina. I don’t want to hear it.” Jaebum decides that it’s better that their conversation ends this way. He’s afraid that what Jina will tell him is worse than what he already knows.

“I think you’ve got it all wr—“

“I said stop. And please… let’s not meet again after this,” Jaebum walks away.

This time, he expects that Jina will run after him and offer an explanation. He wishes that whatever it is that she’d tell him, it won’t hurt him and his son.

When he hears no footsteps coming after him, he turns around to find Jina leaving. He stares at the disappearing sight of the woman’s car. ‘I guess she’s decided to end whatever we have…’

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After making sure that Jaebum is no longer in sight, Jina parks her car at the side of the road. She finally sheds tears as she recalls the encounter they just had.

“Something’s not right. What is he talking about? What truth…” she thinks aloud.

She fetches her phone and starts checking it. ‘He started acting weird after I lost this…’

While doing this, she gets a text message from Jaebum saying:

“That person is right. Your gifts to Bambam really did their magic. Thank you for being a good friend to him – even if you weren’t being true to him, to us. Sorry for reading your message, I thought it was from you… Sorry.”

‘What?!’ Jina checks her messages and finds one that came from an unknown number. She reads it and finally understands what Jaebum is referring to.

As much as she wanted to investigate on the identity of the person who sent her the message, she decides to go to Jaebum first to explain everything. However, when she arrived at the latter’s home, from the outside, she sees Jackie happily playing with Bambam at the living room.

Jina decides whether to ring the doorbell or not. ‘But I need to clear my name. I need to tell him that this is all a set-up…’

A few more minutes of convincing herself, Jina finally resolves to take this chance to talk to Jaebum, only to be interrupted by a call from Mark.

Knowing that she couldn’t ignore her fiancé’s call, Jina opts to leave but not after taking one last look at Bambam and Jaebum. ‘I will make it up to you… I promise.’

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Jaebum turns on his bed every now and then. It’s already half past two o’clock in the morning and he’s still wide awake. He couldn’t bring himself to sleep as his mind is filled with questions concerning Jina.

He sits on his bed and ruffles his hair in annoyance. “Arrrggh! Why should it bother me? What, ‘cause she’s a friend? I have lots of friends! She can go and disappear if she wants!”

He thinks of Bambam and how he’s come to love Jina. “Or am I so affected because I don’t want my son to get sad? Maybe that’s it,” he convinces himself though deep inside him he feels there is something more.

Jaebum closes his eyes and tried to clear his mind. He thought of only nice things to calm himself. Doing this eventually made him feel relaxed and in no time, he falls asleep.

He dreams of Jinyoung who hugs and congratulates him. Her touch felt real, warm and soothing though it didn’t make him feel butterflies in his stomach. She looked really happy.

“Why?” was all he could say.

Jinyoung lets out a chuckle. “We both know why. I’m happy for you and Bambam. She’s beautiful, caring and smart, too. Definitely a great catch, Jae.”

“What?” He thinks of Jina. ‘Is Jinyoung referring to her…?’

Jinyoung ignores him and looks over his shoulder. She then speaks to whoever was behind him, “Please be happy together.”

And with that, Jaebum suddenly wakes up. It is already morning and as he scans his room, the first thing that catches his eye is Bambam and Jina’s picture that his son had insisted they put by his bedside table.

‘I have to talk to her…’

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“Youngji, I’m sorry to have to ask you to do something non-work-related but as much as I want to mail this myself, my schedule really is jam-packed. I’m so sorry…”

“It’s okay, Miss Jina,” the young lady smiles at her boss reassuringly.

“Thank you so much!” Jina smiles back then bows to Youngji, embarrassing the latter

Jina then runs towards the conference room, leaving her secretary behind.

“Is this a letter? Isn’t this old-fashioned?”’

Youngji checks to whom the letter is addressed and becomes surprised seeing the name: Im Jaebum. ‘What’s going on between them?’

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“Sir, you have a letter,” the floor’s receptionist informs Jaebum before handing over a long white envelope to him.

“Oh, thank you.”

He examines the envelope but only his name and office address are written at the back, with no hint on the sender’s identity.

“Jaebum, please see me as soon as possible,” Park Jungsoo, his boss, suddenly calls him before the former enters his office.

‘Maybe later then…’

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As soon as Jaebum arrived home, he read the letter and even if no name of the sender was written, he knew exactly who it was. The letter read:

“I don’t even know if you would still believe me but I think someone set me up. Whoever sent me that message probably knew that I lost my phone and you had it with you. Please believe me, Jaebum. What you saw, how I acted whenever I was with you and Bambam… that’s the real me. When I told you that I had my reasons for wanting to make it up to your son… it’s because I couldn’t take how he’s being bullied because of what my company has done. You see. I, too, was bullied when I was younger. My mom died trying to save me from an accident and my friends from school accused me of killing her. When I heard that Bambam was being bullied, I was able to relate and I knew exactly how he must have felt – which is why I wanted to make things right. I wanted to comfort him. Please believe me, Jaebum... If you doubt my story... then please tell me.... why does my Dad hate me so much?"