"Eun--"

"A-an-nswer my qu-questi-on." She rasped out, unable to stop her stutter, her face turning a blotchy red as more tears built up.

Yongguk felt his heart constricting and it felt like someone was sitting on his chest. This wasn't the way she was supposed to find out. He was supposed to tell her the truth when everything was dealt with and she had nothing more to be scared about.

It wasn't supposed to  be because he made a stupid ing mistake.

It wasn't supposed to be because he was reckless.

But he knew.

He knew he was done.

There was no lie that would justify why he moaned her nickname or wore her fiancée's ring. He was weak around her as it is, but now, he was just backed into a corner with nowhere to run and no lie to hide behind.

"Hwang, I--"

"STOP! D-Don't ca-call me that. Wha-what did you do? Where did you get it?" Eun Ah said, tears dripping on her face.

"Eu--"

"WHERE DID YOU GET IT?!" She screamed before launching at him, her arms outstretched to rip it off his neck.

Yongguk grabbed her wrists, before she could reach the necklace but she kept fighting against him. Her sobs getting more pained.

No, please don't cry, love.

"Where did I get it?" Yongguk bent his head down and stared at the ring hanging off the chain.

"You chose it. We bought it together after I proposed to you. You were supposed to put it on my finger." He whispered.

Eun Ah's eyes widened and her lands went limp. She felt her heart thud in her chest before it stopped beating all together.

"Wh-What?" She yanked her arms out of his grasp and stumbled back.

Yongguk looked at her, with all the love and devotion he had to keep bottled up in the past. When Eun Ah saw that warm look that she was so familiar with she covered and let out another sob.

"It's not you. You're not Yongguk. This is a joke. You're joking. You're lying to me. I'm dreaming. Stop. PLEASE STOP!" She screamed while covering her ears with her hands and squeezing her eyes shut.

This was all a nightmare. A horrible nightmare that was just taunting her. This wasn't real.  

She wanted to wake up.

She wanted this to all stop.

Yongguk swallowed the lump down his throat as tears started filling in his own eyes. "Princess, it's me. It's really me."

Eun Ah took another step back but her feet landed on the broken glass. She whimpered but didn't move as the linoleum tiles started turning red. The pieces of glass dug relentlessly into her skin but she didn't care.

She couldn't feel it.

Yongguk's eyes widened and he walked close to her so that he could grasp her elbow and pull her away from the glass but Eun Ah just shoved his hand away, her eyes blazing in fury.

"You're a sick bastard. W-Who a-are yo-ou? Why a-are you doing this?"

Yongguk stared into the eyes that he made home. "Hwang, please, just step away from the glass, you're bleeding."

"Don't touch me." She snapped coldly. "Why are you doing this to me? Why are you toying with me."

"I-I'm not toying with you, Hwang. I would never. It's me." Yongguk said uneasily.

Eun Ah shoved him away when he reached for her and just watched the heart break pass his face. "You're lying. I don't believe you. Yong-Yongguk is dead. He's gone. You're a liar. You're full of . DON'T YOU ING CALL ME THAT! YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED!"

Her body started trembling and she started feeling so cold as the pieces of glass dug into the bottoms of her feet.

Seeing how she didn't believe him just played out how much pain that she must've been going through. That she must've dreamt him with her for all this time.  There must've been days when she'd think she saw him, but just berate herself of imagining something that wasn't there.

He shattered her.

Seeing her hysterical and made him feel himself choking up. He broke her. And for the first time he had no idea how to fix her. He couldn't put into words how sorry he was. 

Yongguk's voice cracked. "What do you want me to do, love? How can I prove it to you. It's me."

Love.

"Stop." She whispered, her body shaking and her hands clutched her heart. "Please. Stop. It hurts."

"You saved Junhong from Ryu's men. I made you stay in this house so that I could protect you from the men that were coming after you. You punched Himchan in the nose. I asked you to fake marry me so that I could convince the others to help you. You were kidnapped twice because of me. Ahn Jaehyun was Ryu's brother.  You only found out you had a brother  a little under 4 years ago. You thought Halmoni died in a fire and we got a divorce. Then you gave up your life to protect the youngest and then I asked you to marry me for real. Baby, I don't know what  else to tell you. I can recount every single moment I had with you and every moment you made me fall more in love with you if you want me to because that means I'll have to tell you ever second I spent with you and that's okay because I will. Because I love you." Yongguk spat out, his chest heaving. He needed something tangible to remind her that it was him.

It would always be him.

He couldn't lose her. He wouldn't allow it. He'd do everything in his power, he'd move mountains just to get her to believe him.

Eun Ah felt her vision get blurry and the rest of her body numb, "How much did he pay you?"

Yongguk's eye brows furrowed. "What?"

Eun Ah wiped her nose and glared at him through her tears with so much hate that it made him sick. "How much did Himchan pay you? Is this some trick to give me closure? He found someone who looks like him and told him a bunch of personal things about our relationship to make him act the part? Is that what he did? What type of ed up bull is that? Is this some sick joke? Because it isn't funny."

She didn't believe him. He tore up that trust she had so carefully placed in him so viciously that he could never win her back. He could never get her to trust him. But he'd try.

He'd never give up on her.  

Yongguk felt himself panic. He needed something, anything to convince the woman of his dreams that it was really him. There was no elaborate plan, no doppelganger and no trickery.

That it was really him.

He took a deep breath and stepped towards her, cautiously. Her eyes widened and she took a step back on instinct, making his heart sting, but he didn't stop until she had backed enough so that her feel were off the glass and on the cool tiles.

And now it was his feet that were being ripped apart by the shards, but he didn't care. He just needed her to believe him.

He needed her to hear him.

"Hwang Eun Ah, you are my echo,"

Eun Ah let out a gasp and covered , tears still streaming down her face.

No. No.

His vows.

"When I first fell for you, I thought that it was all the things I had shouted out into the world, before knowing you, had come back to me in your form. It was like everything that I  never thought I needed was given to me and I can only hope to do that same. All the hopes and wishes, dreams and happiness that you have carried this far, I’ll spend the rest of my life making come true. If, in the far-off future, someone were to ask me what my life’s achievements were, I would say that it was the time I spent living by your side, spending forever with you, loving you and holding you. I'm just one small strand of your collective brilliance,  but I promise to you now that, that has always been, and will always be, enough. Because for me, it’s not “I do,” it always "was"."

Yongguk every word that escaped his lips was matched  with a step closer he took to her. Soon she was so shocked that she made no attempt to push him away and just stared at him, bewildered, as he got closer and closer.

It's him.

It's really him.

Yongguk's eyes lovingly traced every feature on her face until it landed on her neck. His eyes widened and his lips parted when he saw his writing peeking out of her shirt. He reached his hand forward, completely oblivious to how she flinched and brushed her hair back. He tugged her sleeve down and caught his breath when he saw his words imprinted on her skin, forever.

She watched him with guarded eyes as he finished reciting his vows. "Calling me a lucky man is an understatement. I must be blessed. You saw me."

Her tears just got stronger as he finished the rest of his vows until he got to the last line. Then, with the very tip of his finger, he traced her skin, following every letter as he spoke them out loud.

"I love you. Don't you dare forget that."

"It's you." She mumbled, her whole body swaying. "Oh God. It's you. You-You're alive."

Yongguk smiled softly and slid his palm up to cup her cheek. "It's really me, love."

Eun Ah stared into his eyes, but instead of being reminded of the looks of love, it was replaced with  anger. He was there. He was alive.

After all this time he was alive.

He let her believe that he was dead.

She spun out.

She drank herself half to death because of him.

And he was just…back?

At that moment she knew.

She hated him.

She shoved him back, with both hands.

"I hate you." She spat and stormed directly up the stairs.

Yongguk stood frozen when he heard her angry steps slam down the  floor, no doubt, stinging her feet.

I hate you.

Yongguk never knew how powerful words were until he heard p