Dara was watching TV in the living room after Bom left, for once, staying in a section of their house other than her room, but her mind was not in it. She just kept flipping the channels trying to put her thoughts in order. She was thinking of her parents on top of everything else. She knew she could get a hold of them if she asked Lee Hi to get their number. That girl was good in investigation. But would this be the right time to contact them? She want to rip out her hair by thinking if she would still be the same after everything she learned about herself.

What about Donghae? Did she really only married him because she wanted to hurt someone named Jiyong, who doesn’t even a ring a bell? But what if she regained her memories and found out she really want the divorce? What if she found out the reason why she married him? What if she found out why she doesn’t want to stay with him?

But she really does. Everything in her mind is telling her otherwise. She wanted to stay with Donghae. She wanted to stay married to Donghae. Even analyzing everything Donghae told her, she couldn’t find it anywhere in her for any inkling of wanting to stay away from him. And what’s this thing about a mouse? Dara shut off the TV in frustration and let her head hang back from the back rest of the couch. What would she do? What can she do? With every answer gone from her, she doesn’t know how to go forward.

She saw Mrs. Rey entered the living room and putting a platter of sandwich and a glass of juice on the table.

“You need to eat,” Mrs. Rey said. “You look like you’re about to faint any moment.”

Dara nodded her thanks and Mrs. Rey turned around to walk out.“You’ve been with Donghae when he married me right?” Dara called out after her and Mrs. Rey stopped walkng and turned her head to look at her questioningly. “Was I… really horrible to him?”

Mrs. Rey nodded without hesitation. “Pretty much. You were a .”

Dara let fell open. Such words she couldn’t imagine coming out of a middle aged woman. Even a formidable looking middle-aged one.

Mrs. Rey chuckled and walked over to her. “I really didn’t like you.”

Dara made a face. “Great. Everybody in this house hates me.”

“No. You were hated, yes. But now….” She sat beside Dara. “I think I can finally see why Donghe fell in your clutches.”

Dara felt twitch. She seriously couldn’t tell if Mrs. Rey is insulting her. Mrs. Rey smiled at her expression.

“I practically raised Donghae and I have treated him like my own son. When he was little, I’ve always thought he would be married to a woman who can love him as much as he loves her when he grows up because that boy… Donghae… he is the most selfless kid I had ever seen. Well, maybe my help in raising him up had taught him that. And of course with his parents discipline.” Mrs. Rey grinned looking proud. “it was when Donghae was about to graduate grade school when he… what’s that word… moved out…in the valedictorian spot. There was this one other kid who was vying for the 1st spot. In the end, Donghae got an average higher than this other kid. So of course, he would be the first. But he walked up to his teacher and said he cheated on his exams and he couldn’t live with a guilty conscience. So he got suspended, his parents were called. His father was really angry at him and he couldn’t sit for days ater the beating he received from him.”

Dara blinked. Does Mrs.Rey really consider this an act of selflessness? By admitting you cheated? He was honest, yes, but selfless, she couldn’t see where it came from.

“But the truth is, he lied on cheating. Donghae had found out this kid needed to be the first so he could give the honor to his mother, who was sick with cancer and already counting the days in the hospital. Of course there’s nothing wrong with being second but Donghae had decided, being first is the best honor a son could give his mother. He said he could try to be first another time. I was… shocked. Really shocked, that I could hear such words from a kid who sounds like he had just figured out a simple math.

No one knew what really happened then. Not even the kid knows what Donghae had given up for him. Donghae had made me promise not to tell anyone. But of course I told his mom.” She chuckled. “And he got really mad at me saying my promises are all lies. He made his mom promise not to tell his dad because this kid needed it and his hard work would be for nothing. Even if Mrs. Lee thought it unfair, she had let it go. And no one knew about it. Even if everybody called him a cheat, he didn’t bend. Because that kid was his best friend.”

Dara felt her heart go out to Donghae as a kid and tried to imagine him urging the adults not to say he didn’t cheated.

“When Donghae had announced to his parents he was going to get married, he was really happy. And I was happy for him. He was always talking about this girl named Dara when he was in his teens and now, she is the woman he is going to get married to. I had such high hopes for you. But when Donghae brought you home after your wedding, you were nothing like what I had pictured you to be. You are always… impassive. Unresponsive. And it pains me to see Donghae with his efforts to make you happy even if it’s making him miserable.”

Dara nodded. “Okay Mrs. Rey.I don’t want to know how horrible I was. Donghae already filled me on it this morning and… I don’t need a replay.”

“What I’m trying to say Dara is, Donghae had loved you more than any woman he had ever loved in his life. So don’t give up on him. He had been hurt and he doesn’t want to feel the same pain when you regained your memories. Even more so now, because he finally see what it could’ve been. For these years you were married, he did everything for you but you just... ignored it. And yes, i saw him pacing in the living room, in the veranda, in the patio, everynight, just w