It took Lee Chaeyeon over a week to adjust to the busy and fast pace metropolitan life of Seoul after coming back from Japan. Even she is living in a comparatively less congested community in Gangnam, she still cannot get over the cultural shock coming back from the peaceful Kagoshima suburb. And the air is bad. She has to wear a mask in order not to trigger her sensitive Tracheal. She even feels dizzy and nearly throws up when taking crowded subway rides. To a town planning student, it is really a great revelation.

Fulfilling all the admission requirements for the new semester is another torturous exercise to Chaeyeon when she has to compete vigorously to enroll in some courses, and the pressure becomes more severe when this is her last year and it must be done within the few days right after she is back. She experienced serious cramps during her period when it normally doesn't happen. The only way she can release her stress is to hide in her room with Chaeri, her beloved dog and worked on her publicity plan for the Miyawaki Grocery Store when she does not have to leave home. The highlight of the day, of course, was a short v-call with Sakura every evening before they go to bed. Chaeyeon thought it was very heartwarming when she could share her "girl sickness" with Sakura and astonished to find out that their cycles were within the same range. Nevertheless, the lovers decided they should not be too clingy for the time being, and to communicate mainly on text and pictures in the daytime.

After everything is settled down, Chaeyeon finally agreed to meet Jaemin, the son of her dance teacher. Jaemin is just two years old, so the real meaning of meeting him is to meet his mother, someone that Chaeyeon has been trying her best to avoid in the past three years. But now she has started a new relationship, she wants a proper closure.

They are going to meet in the Seoul City Hall, even though their homes are actually quite close. The mother claims she wants to bring Jaemin to a summer water carnival in the City Hall Plaza. Chaeyeon scoffs at the idea. Before she was pregnant, the art historian would take her to art exhibitions or cultural workshops in the City Hall, but now there are only children games in her mind.

And she is late. She was never late. Hiding in a corner of the Citizens Hall, Chaeyeon rehearses anxiously in her mind how she should address her teacher when they meet. Should I call you Dr. Kwon? Or Kwon Eunbi? Or just eonnie? No, I will not call you Eun...

She unlocks her phone and found a message from Sakura.

“Good luck in meeting your teacher. Stay calm.” (bear hug)

“I miss you.” Chaeyeon types.

“Why are you clingy suddenly? Are you nervous?”

(cry)

“Yeonnie I will always be with you.” (smile)

“I love you.” (Kiss)

"I love you more."

Chaeyeon smiles. But now 10 minutes have passed. Chaeyeon feels restless so she stands up and paces a bit and sits down and checks her phone again. No new message.

She then opens her Dropbox photo album and looks for a picture she photoshopped last night. It was the picture taken in the storeroom when Sakura just finished the dance and opened her eyes. She cropped tight and changed the picture to black and white.

"Saku-chan..." Chaeyeon feels a bit calmer looking at the picture, so she sets it as the wallpaper of her home screen. She then presses the phone to her face as if it is an amulet.

"Why am I so ing nervous to meet this ?" She askes herself. Then her phone suddenly beeps and her heart skips a beat.

Eun: Sorry to be late. At the Big Ear now.

Automatically, Chaeyeon stands up and walks to the entrance and she meets Eunbi right at the entrance.

"Chaen!" Eunbi is pushing a baby stroller with Jaemin in it. Her face blooms with a big grin when she sees Chaeyeon.

"Eonnie..." Chaeyeon tries her best to stay calm and polite.

"Chaen," Eunbi moves forward and gives Chaeyeon a big hug. She looks significantly thinner but still stunningly beautiful.

Chaeyeon's heart starts to race but she tries to stay composed.

"Let's move in first. It's so hot outside." Eunbi says and pushes the stroller.

"Can I help you?" Chaeyeon asks.

"It's fine, Chaen, I use it as my rollators as my back is still not in very good condition," Eunbi smiles and looks straight into Chaeyeon's eyes, "just like when we first met."

Chaeyeon immediately turns her face away.

Jaemin has been looking at Chaeyeon curiously all the way when they are moving indoors. He has a pair of big double lid innocent eyes that reminds Chaeyeon about the person in Kagoshima. When they reach the children's corner, Eunbi unbuckles Jaemin but he is still glaring on Chaeyeon. 

"Hey, baby, what are you looking at? Do you know Chaeyeon eonnie? You wanna say hello?" Eunbi says and puts Jaemin on the ground. 

"Hi, Jaemin!" This is the first time Chaeyeon and Jaemin meet “officially”. She feels her heart melts when the beautiful boy walks bumpy towards her. She kneels down to meet his height.

"Say annyeong, Jaemin." The mother reminds him, "say annyeong to Chaeyeon."

"Annyeong!" Chaeyeon takes Jaemin's tiny hand with her fingers and shakes it.

Jaemin touches Chaeyeon's face and giggles suddenly. "Chaeon eomma!"

Chaeyeon froze. She is completely shocked and instantly fired up with anger. She tries not to act abruptly to scare the toddler. But Jaemin already feels her vibe and is on the verge of tears.

Chaeyeon immediately forces a smile and takes a fluffy toy out of her bag, "Jaemin is going to have his birthday soon, right? Chaeyeon eomma has a gift for you."

Jaemin's attention shifts to the toy instantly. He starts laughing again and plays around with his new toy. Chaeyeon slowly stands up and shoots a fierce gaze at Eunbi.

Eunbi avoids her gaze.

"Jaemin, say thank you!" Eunbi catches Jaemin and makes him thanks Chaeyeon. The toddler just mumbles some words and squirms away from her mother's constraint.

Obviously, this is not what Chaeyeon wants.

"Why are you doing this? What have you done?" Chaeyeon asks, suppressing her voice but not the anger in her voice.

Eunbi looks at her blankly. Instead, she put Jaemin into a stationed wooden boat and encourages him to imagine he is sailing.

"Smile!" She turns to Chaeyeon. "Jaemin is watching us."

Chaeyeon squeezes a smile obediently. 

"Chaen, Jaemin is our son!" After a while, Eunbi says.

Keeping her smile, Chaeyeon says, " you, he is your son, you and your husband's son. We have talked about it!"

"When?" Eunbi creases her brows. "And Chaen, stop using that word in front of children! You are an adult now."

"How can you have forgotten about that!" Chaeyeon thinks and turns her face to Eunbi and repeats the F word silently with her lips.

"Hah!" Eunbi scoffs, “yes, please. Chaen, I really miss it. Do you mean what you say?” 

Chaeyeon gulps and keeps mum. She has forgotten she could never win over Eunbi in any argument. But she can still remember clearly Jaemin was precisely the reason they broke up.

It was almost 3 years ago. Eunbi finally finished the final revision of her thesis and earned her Ph.D., while Chaeyeon got admitted to the same university Eunbi was teaching. It was supposed to be Chaeyeon's proudest moment in life. However, soon after the first semester started, Chaeyeon discovered something wrong with her precious teacher. When they were making out in her office, as usual, Eunbi always needed to go to the bathroom and vomit.

"Eun, are you pregnant?" Chaeyeon was never the innocent type, she observed Eunbi's abnormal behaviors and Google it.

Eunbi just stared at the ground and stay silent.

"With Prof. Kim?" 

Eunbi nodded after a long while.

"I thought you have not been sleeping with him..."

"Chaen," Eunbi cut in, "I have always longed to have children, and I am 30 already."

Long silence.

"I know." Chaeyeon felt defeated. "I can never give you a baby."

"No, it's not like this. Chaen, this is OUR baby! I just use his . Do you understand?"

Chaeyeong scoffed. "So are you telling me you have performed artificial insemination?"

Eunbi gulped. "Chaen, the only person I love on earth is you, and you know that."

Chaeyeon stood up abruptly, she raised her voice, "but you ed with him!"

"Don't use that word, Chaen!"

Tears started to stream down Chaeyeon's face, "why? You could have told me. I will always support you. I have never been jealous, right? Why didn't you tell me? I won't say no if you asked me. Why did you lie to me?"

"It's not like that." Eunbi pleaded.

"Not like what?"

"Chaen, I am married, even though I don't love him anymore I still have the obligation as a wife. You can never imagine how painful it is."

Chaeyeon's tone escalated. "Oh, did he you then?"

Eunbi snorted.

"Chaen, please, why are you so stubborn? What matters is that I was making OUR baby!"

"Stop it! You know it will never be OUR baby. I can never give you a baby!" Chaeyeon stomped on her feet. "We ed nearly every day, but I could not make you pregnant, and that's the reason you went to him?"

Eunbi stood up. Her eyes widened and trembling with anger, "what are you talking about?"

Chaeyeon almost yelled at Eunbi, "you really do not remember what happened during your final revision?" 

"No!" Eunbi felt all the blood left her head.

"You almost break down! You said it was the most depressing period of your life. So I spent all my free time with you. I took care of your daily life and pampered you all the way. And it was ME who always stand by to make love to you when you need it. Because it was the ONLY way I can calm you down when you wanted to harm yourself – And after your submission, you go to HIM to make babies! What are you treating me as? A servant or a slave?" Chaeyeon clenched her fists and stomped her feet and cried hysterically. " you! I feel so dirty now!"

Eunbi couldn't stand it anymore. She raised her hand and slapped Chaeyeon on the face the hardest she could.

"How dare you!" Eunbi hissed. "How dare you talk to me like this!"

She picked a pillow from the sofa and hit Chaeyeon. "It was ME who lifted you up in the hospital; it was ME who trained you how to dance properly; it was ME who raised you to be a decent human being; it was ME who tutored you to university; it was ME who taught you about love! I tell you, without me, you are nothing!"

Eunbi lost control and kept on attacking Chaeyeon. She was totally not aware how her "without me you are nothing" instantly pi