"I was dying inside."

Mihyun swallowed a lump on as she sat on the floor of her son's bedroom, watching as he slept.

She never thought he'd hear that from her Bongseokie. Her precious son, her understanding and kind son.

The last time she heard those words…

"I was dying inside."

The first rainfall after a long heat wave, he situated himself outside her window and Mihyun knew exactly what that meant. Even at the cost of his own life and freedom, everything he valued, he still went to see her.

The first rainfall after a long drought, that was what Kim Dooshik meant to Lee Mihyun.

Kim Dooshik who brought her flying donkatsu dinner when she told him once that take outs were a burden when she worked alone overtime.

Kim Dooshik who remembered that she was a crazy woman who had purple curtains, remembering how she loved the color.

Love.

He loved her.

Kim Dooshik loved her.

His feelings, none of it was fabricated despite how their initial interactions began. The brief moments they shared from the coffee vending machine. The awkward, fleeting gazes they exchanged as she intentionally took the same elevator rides he did. Somehow, along the way, it all became real.

She remembered the way they kissed when he showed up soaking wet from the rain. Droplets of rain streamed down his perfectly sculpted face as he confessed to her, desperately trying to keep whatever semblance of composure he had left, trying to keep the dam from breaking.

"I was dying inside."

Mihyun desperately clung to his shoulders, stepping backwards to drag his body inside her apartment. His rain soaked clothes dripped all over the hardwood floor, but she didn't care.

She clawed at his jacket and he undid the loops of her blouse, both discarding the materials with such urgency, knowing that this might be the last time.

That this was the last time.

Mihyun woke up cold and alone the next morning. The only thing she had left to remind her of last night was her aching muscles and the marks he left scattered on her skin.

When she went to work, whispers of his capture reac