Lia, are you in there?” Seung Ri asked as he entered the apartment.

“I’m in my room,” Lia’s voice called from in her room.

He followed the sound of her voice and he opened the door wider to reveal Lia lying face up on her bed, clutching her stomach in pain. But she was not alone.

Mir was with her.

This surprised him a lot.

Mir looked up when he saw the cup of hot Milo in Seung Ri’s hands. He looked relieved. “Oh, good, you’re here with the Milo,” he said, taking the cup from him.

“What are you doing here?” he blurted out without thinking and Lia glared at him. “Don’t you have schedules?” He didn’t mean to sound rude but he felt suspicious. Lately, he has seen Mir spending a lot of time with Lia.

And, he also didn’t like the way Lia lied on the bed, her stomach exposed as Mir rubbed her stomach to ease the cramps.

Mir just shrugged. “I came to help,” he said to him. “My schedules ended so I thought I’d come and see how Lia was doing. I found her crouched down on the floor. I carried her up to her bedroom and she told me what happened. So yeah.”

Lia sat up and accepted the cup from Mir. She took a sip after blowing it.

Seung Ri sat down next to her. “Feeling a bit better?” he asked.

“No.”

Both men in the room knew that she wasn’t talking about her stomach.

Seung Ri didn’t want to leave Lia with Mir but he figured that she’d feel more comfortable with him there. He can’t help but feel jealous. He used to be so close to Lia, so, so close. But ever since Mir walked into her life, everything changed. He looked at Lia now and marveled at her beauty.

He missed holding her at nights when they were still together. Although he had gotten over her, there was still days when he would wonder what would happen if he had really been the father of the triplets.

He stood up and gave Lia a light kiss on the forehead before leaving. Once he was gone, Mir turned to her.

“Can I ask you something?” he asked.

Lia was wary but she nodded anyway. She had a feeling she knew what he was going to ask her.

“What about university?”

She cringed. She didn’t want to talk about it. “Umma sent out a few applications. I just need to wait for the replies.”

“And what happens when you get them?” he went on. “What if one accepts you?”

She shrugged. “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it,” she replied.

He stared at her, long and hard. “You’re not going to go, will you?”

Sometimes Lia really hates the fact that Mir knows her so well. “I have a family to take care of,” she explained.

“The kids got Ji Yong Hyung. I mean, yea, he may not remember them but he’s still their father. The DNA test proved it.” He sighed. “I don’t want your kids to hold you back.”

Lia sighed as well. “I have to take care —”

“Don’t be stubborn.”

“I don’t want to be selfish,” she snapped.

Mir knew he won’t be able to convince her so he decided to drop it.

But Lia wasn’t done. “Sometimes you have to sacrifice your dreams for the ones you love,” she murmured.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” he said.

She nodded quietly as he started to rub her stomach again.

“I’ll do it.”

They looked up to see Ji Yong standing by the door. “I’ll do it,” he repeated, gesturing to Mir’s hands.

“Are you sure?” Mir asked hesitantly as he and Lia exchanged glances.

Ji Yong nodded. He had no idea why but he felt weird seeing Mir touching his wife — even if he doesn’t remember her.

Mir rose up and kissed her on the forehead. “Just think about it,” he said quietly so only she would hear. “It couldn’t hurt.” He left.

Ji Yong came and began to rub Lia on the stomach. She smiled happily, closing her eyes. He looked at her and smiled too. Somehow, seeing her smile made him smile.

When she opened her eyes, Ji Yong smiled at her. “You feeling better?” he asked her.

She nodded shyly.

His smile turned into a frown. “I’m still not remembering a thing. Yet . . .” he trailed off.

“Yet?” she prompted him.

He smiled. “Yet I actually don’t find this so awkward anymore,” he finished.

Lia looked away, blushing. She felt happy that he at least felt something. It was slow, but it was an improvement.

“Lia?” he went on and she turned back. “I want to try something. Can you close your eyes for a bit?”

Curious and intrigued, she closed her eyes. A second later she felt something warm on her lips. Her eyes flew opened and realized that Ji Yong was kissing her. Startled, she leaned back and his eyes opened.

He quickly looked away, his face red with embarrassment. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “That was stupid. I should have asked first.”

“I . . .” she stammered.

Ji Yong didn’t want to give false hopes but he had to admit that he felt something when he kissed her. Could it be that he was discovering his feelings for her all over again?

Ding dong!

They jumped at the sound of the doorbell. Ji Yong stood up to answer the door, glad to have an excuse to leave. It’ll give him time to recollect himself. Lia was relieved as well.

Ding dong!

Ji Yong answered the door and blinked in surprise when he saw TOP and a very pretty girl he didn’t recognize standing outside. He smiled at her. “Annyeong.”

TOP stepped inside and she followed him. “Is my sister in her room?”

He nodded, not taking his eyes off the girl. “I’m sorry,” he said to her, “but I don’t know your —”

“Soo-Jin,” she replied, smiling. TOP went inside Lia’s room. “I’m TOP Oppa’s girlfriend. I’m Lia’s friend as well.”

“Are you my friend too?” he asked with a smile. He had no idea but somehow flirty seem to come naturally to him.

She smiled back. “Of course. We have been friends for a long time,” she replied, sitting on the sofa.

He sat down next to her. “So, Soo-Jin, how did we meet?” But then he laughed. “Damn, I wished I at least remembered such a pretty girl like you.”

Soo-Jin blushed.

He smiled his signature smile at her that a lot of girls swooned for.

She told him how they met, how they both got together until the day of their wedding and how he and Lia got married instead. Then she told him how she and TOP got together.

Ji Yong couldn’t believe that he had just let an amazing, hot girl like her go. He sat closer to her.

She edged away a bit from him, shuffling uncomfortably. “Now, well, before you had the accident, you and Lia were happy together like how TOP and I are happy together.”

“But you’re not married.”

She shook her head. “I hope one day we will be. I love him.”

He let two fingers traced up her arm. “You know, I’m pretty sure I remembered you. I do not know why I can’t remember my wife. But you . . . there were . . . graphic images.” He was not lying about that.

Soo-Jin blushed but felt really awkward at the same time. Her boyfriend and Ji Yong’s wife were just a few feet away. She moved all the way to the edge of the sofa but Ji Yong had moved as well.

“Ji Yong . . .”

“Shhh,” he said, putting a finger on her lips. He smirked at her. “I know you want it as much as I want it too, Soo-Jin. What they don’t know won’t hurt them.” He crept a little bit more closely.

But Soo-Jin shook her head. “This is wrong. I can’t do this. We may have had something on before, but it’s over. You love Lia.”

“How can I love someone I don’t know?” he asked back.

She tried to find a way to reply to that but he had trapped her in his arms and his face dangerously drew closer to hers. She tried to push him off. “Ji Yong, andwae!”

Meanwhile, inside the room, Lia sat up as soon as TOP entered the room. She smiled at him. “Annyeong, Oppa!” she said cheerfully. She waved at her brother.

TOP chuckled. “Mei, you seemed happier than the last time I saw you,” he remarked to her. “And I know that you are always crabby on the first day of your period. Did something happen between you and Ji Yong?”

She shrugged. She wanted to tell him about the kiss but at the same time she wanted to just keep it as a secret for now.

TOP came over to her. “So how are you? I heard from Maknae that you were having a bit of stomach cramps earlier.”

She nodded. “Neh, but the hot cup of Milo really helped,” she replied. She looked out of the window, where the rain was finally letting up. “Such bad timing to get my period now, I tell you.” She grimaced.

Her brother just laughed, ruffling her hair in an affectionate way. “I brought Soo-Jin over. I know you haven’t seen her in a long, long time so I thought it’d be good for the two of you to hang out together again.”

Lia squealed and hugged him. “Yay!” But then she paused. “Does Soo-Jin Unnie know that Ji Oppa —”

He nodded. “Neh. She knows about him. I told her about him.”

“When are you going to propose?”

He gave her a dark look but ignored that. He looked at the door and suddenly felt alert. He turned back. “Why don’t we go outside?” he asked her.

She nodded and hopped out of bed. Then she quickly made the bed.

TOP chuckled quietly. Aish, I can’t believe Mei is so adorable even at the age of twenty-three, he thought to himself with a smile. The two of them walked out of the room and he opened the door. They could hear voices coming from the living room.

“Ji Yong, andwae!”

The moment they stepped out of the room to the living room, Ji Yong had kissed Soo-Jin on the lips.

Lia gasped.