Miyoung glanced across the table to the young woman in front of her. She politely smiled at her and tried to keep her eyes from glancing at the obvious purple bruises on the other woman’s face for too long. It was such a shock to see the marks on her face after she pulled her black face mask off and Miyong tried her hardest not to gawk.

All the sudden, Yoongi’s ex-wife had contacted her out of the blue about wanting to talk about something. She was insisting on meeting somewhere private, but Miyoung lived with her family and not on her own, so this small quiet coffee shop was the only place she could suggest. Miyoung’s eyes couldn’t help themselves and they settled on the older woman’s battered face again. She quickly averted her eyes down to the iced Americano in front of her when she caught herself staring. So, this was the reason why the ex-wife didn’t want to casually walk into a coffee shop where it’ll be more comfortable for them to talk. If Miyoung would’ve known her more, then she would’ve invited the woman into her home. But, they weren’t. The idea of inviting her ex-boyfriend’s ex-wife over to the home she shared with her family was just too weird.

“I found out that Yoongi and you broke up Friday night through Hoseok.” started the ex-wife. “He didn’t say much and I kind of just figured it out myself that it was because of Yoonsung and I. I’m really sorry that the both of us has affected your relationship in such a negative way. Yoonsung and I never meant to do any harm to you two.”

The young woman blinked. Why was his ex-wife apologizing? She didn’t really do anything. The only two people involved with this was Yoongi and herself. It was their relationship and there was no third party involved so she didn’t need to apologize. It wasn’t like the ex-wife was the one that forced them to break up. Miyoung, herself, was the one that decided to do this because she felt it was for the best. “B-But, you really don’t need to apologize.” she stated. “I was the one that wanted to end things with him anyways.”

“But– he loves you.” countered the ex-wife, softly. The girl observed the way this woman’s brows creased together and the frown that she wore. There was clearly a lot of guilt etched onto her face, but for what?

Miyoung finally looked into her deep, brown, and very sincere eyes. “He loves you too.” she said back. She should at least know this now, whether or not if Yoongi will ever come to the terms that he was falling in love with her and tell her. This was what Miyoung owed her for all the times she had thought badly of this woman.

This deep look of sorrow flashed across the ex-wife’s eyes and she looked down, breaking their gaze. “If you think he’s in love with me, he isn’t. He only cares about me because we had a kid together.” she whispered. “But– he loves you. He loves you enough to want to marry you. I’ve never seen him like that with any other woman before.” She looked up again with the same kind of sincerity that were in her eyes before.

That was when something struck a chord. Yoongi expressed long before that he never wanted to marry his ex-wife. He probably made things clear about his feelings when they were married and divorced. “Have you actually seen him with any other woman before though?” asked Miyoung.

Yoongi is the type to date around, but only seem to fully commit when he feels like he’s serious about the other person. So, the only relationships he had actually been in for years were Miyoung and his ex-wife. That was about it. But, if they really break it down, one relationship was by force and the other was by choice. That was the difference between the two.

“Of course, I’ve seen him with other women when we were married very briefly. It’s always a different girl though, but they all leave the same marks on his neck.” the ex-wife answered and Miyoung’s eyes widened. She didn’t know that he had cheated on his ex-wife. When he talked about his past with her, he only talked about it briefly and she never asked him about it again. She knew that he despised his previous marriage, but she didn’t know it was to the extent of him completely disregarding her existence as his legal wife. “He loves you enough to ask you to be his girlfriend and be by your side all these years.”

Miyoung couldn’t say anything in return as she sat there and listened to this woman speak. Her voice was hushed and gentle because she didn’t want anyone to overhear, but you could clearly see the pain and guilt that was twisted into her expressions. What was she sad about? And– why did she feel guilty when she didn’t do anything wrong?

“I know that you mean a lot to him, especially when he talks about wanting a future with you, so I told him that he should put the past to rest. Yoongi and I have decided that it’s for the best if he no longer visits Yoonsung on Saturdays and to stop the child support. This is so that he can start anew with no ties to us anymore.” continued the ex-wife, with a nod.

Miyoung swallowed thickly, not believing what she was saying. Did Yoongi actually say yes to t? For the last few months, he talked non-stop about Yoonsung and how much he loved him. How could Yoongi possibly agree to this? It didn’t make any sense. “But, he loves Yoonsung so much though.” she stated. “That’s son. He-”

“It’s OK.” interrupted the ex-wife. She, then, nodded her head. “He’s probably hurting now, but he’ll be OK. When you two have kids of your own, he won’t remember Yoonsung anymore. That’s because the kids you two will have together will be children that he wants, not children that he wanted aborted. Yoonsung was just a mistake that couldn’t be undone and Yoongi will eventually forget about him one day.”

Miyoung stared at the woman across from her, speechless. She was completely unable to say anything in response for some time. “How are you so sure that he’ll forget about your son? He loves him so much.” she finally croaked.

“That’s because you, the person that he loves the most, will be the mother of those children.” replied the ex-wife. “The love he gives Yoonsung will never measure up to the love he’ll give your children. He’ll be happy and excited right from the moment you tell him about your pregnancies to the births of those kids. He’ll love them through every moment and step of their existence.”

“You don’t think Yoongi loves your son the same way?” questioned Miyoung.

“No.” the ex-wife sharply answered, making the younger woman’s heart heavy. “It only took him 6 years to love Yoonsung because Yoonsung exists.” She paused for a moment with cloudy, emotional eyes. “If I had gotten to the hospital any later when Yoonsung caught a really bad flu when he was 1 years old and didn’t make it, then Yoongi wouldn’t be sitting around today missing and loving him. I’m grateful that he even cares enough to reach out and learn how to love our son, but I know that he’ll eventually be OK. He’ll have his own children with you to love and care for and he’ll be there for them all the time when they need him. So, don’t worry too much about how Yoonsung won’t be in his life anymore. Just go back to him and focus on your future together.”

Miyoung frowned at her, with an aching chest. She had never spoken to this woman before and little did she know that the ex-wife had been so hurt by the things Yoongi had said or done. All these things she had said about the children Miyoung and Yoongi will have and the love he will give them were clearly hopes and wishes that she dreamed Yoongi would give Yoonsung long ago. Miyoung would probably never know all the suffering the ex-wife went through with Yoongi, but the pain of their past was evident with how she was handling this situation and the way she worded her pleas.

“I broke up with Yoongi because I know how much he loves Yoonsung. I wanted you two to take the opportunity to be together for the greater good of the son you two have together. You both love the child so much so all I wanted was for you two to love him together and union. And, what about Yoonsung? Don’t you think he’ll be devastated to know that his dad will never spend Saturdays with him ever again?”

Inhye blinked and casted down her eyes. “We can’t just be together again when there’s no love. We were together before for ‘the sake of our son’ and here we are.” she breathed. “I wanted to talk to you because I would like you to go back to Yoongi and for you two to continue to live out your lives as if these last few months had never happened. It was all because of me anyways. The reason why our lives are like this is because of me. If I had aborted Yoonsung from the start, then Yoongi would’ve never been forced to go back to Daegu. He would’ve met you sooner and you two would’ve fallen in love sooner too.” There was a pause, almost as if she was letting her words settle into the air above them. “Yes, Yoongi does love Yoonsung a lot, but he will eventually learn to live with the pain and heal from this. Then, with Yoonsung, well… He’s a kid. He’ll be upset at first, but he’ll eventually forget about his dad. Yoonsung will remember him as a random uncle that showed up out of nowhere asking Yoonsung to call him dad. All it takes is just time.”

Generally, it is easy to use time as an excuse to anything. If only Yoongi could go back in time and notreach out to his ex-wife and son, then none of this would happen. If the ex-wife aborted Yoonsung, then they wouldn’t even be in this situation at all. Yoongi would eventually heal with time from losing all contact with his son, but that wouldn’t mean that he’d forget about him. Even with all the children that he and Miyoung would bring into the world, Yoonsung would always be there somewhere in the depths of Yoongi’s heart and waiting to be loved by his father. No child would ever be able to replace Yoonsung and Miyoung knew this.

She stared at this other woman that she used to be so scared of losing her ex-boyfriend to. A few months ago, she was convinced that the woman across from her right now would try to seduce Yoongi and he would ultimately leave her. Little did Miyoung know that the reason why the ex-wife even agreed to let Yoongi and Yoonsung meet on Saturdays was because she just wanted Yoongi to love Yoonsung. All because he never wanted to until now.

“We talked so much about Yoongi, Yoonsung, and myself… What about you?” asked Miyoung. “Even if you don’t see it, Yoongi’s in love with you… He’s been falling for you very slowly ever since your Saturday meetings started. Do you– Were you ever in love him too?” It was a question she’d never openly ask the ex-wife, but she needed to know.

“When I found out I was pregnant, I wanted to keep Yoonsung because I was in love with hi