🔊 TTS Settings
Episode 1
A shabby, rundown hillside neighborhood.
The flimsy shack, surrounded by a faded green wall, was so shabby it looked like it might collapse at any moment.
But to Sihyeon, no matter what anyone said, it was her most precious home.
Her hair was tied up tightly, and her face was plain without a trace of makeup.
Wearing a striped shirt and black jeans, Sihyeon held an eco-bag in her hand.
Before she knew it, her gaze fell upon a photo frame placed on a rubber wood side table.
“I’ll be back, Mom.”
After finishing her greeting, she left the house.
There was no answer, but this was what she always did before leaving for her part-time job.
Walking down the steep hill, Sihyeon made her way toward the bus stop.
Beep beep—!
Along with the sound of the horn, a woman got out of the driver’s seat of a luxury foreign car.
Sihyeon head turned, and her eyes widened.
The woman who got out of the car was strikingly beautiful, almost resembling a famous actress.
She was adorned from head to toe in luxury brands, her defined features and flashy attire drawing attention.
A leather skirt that rode up to her thighs, a crisp white shirt with sharp pleats, and bright red high heels.
Bae Hyoju slightly rolled up her sleeve, then tilted her head as she checked her luxury watch. Her sleek, chin-length bob swayed with every movement.
“Looks like it’s time for our Sihyeon to go to work.”
Sihyeon eyes welled up with tears. Without hesitation, she approached her.
“sister!”
Hyo-ju let out a small laugh and hugged her younger sister tightly.
She wasn’t even wearing perfume, but the faint scent of soap brought a sense of peace to Hyo-ju heart.
“Ah, this is nice. Seeing my sister after so long.”
“What is it, sister? When did you get back to Korea, huh?”
“Today. I came straight here as soon as I returned to Korea. To see my sister, who’s even busier than me, the boss.”
Bae Hyo-joo. President of Taesan Yue Air.
She beamed, her eyes crinkling with a smile, then grabbed Sihyeon shoulders and looked her over, examining her face this way and that. Her gaze slowly wandered from her forehead, down her nose, to her lips.
“Wow, how are you becoming more and more like me? You look so much alike that even I, looking at you, am startled! If you had a mole under your eye, you’d be exactly like me.”
Bae Hyo-joo pointed to the mole under her own eye. Sihyeon nodded her head as if agreeing.
Even though they were sisters, the two were completely identical in height, build, and features.
‘How can they be this alike when they’re not even twins? Are you sure they’re not identical twins?’
‘I know, right? I’ve never seen sisters who look this much alike.’
Hyo-ju would cheerfully retort.
‘Why? I hear cases like this are common abroad. Actually, we’re doppelgangers.’
She’d say this as a joke.
If you looked closely, there were many subtle differences, but most people didn’t easily notice them.
As a joke, people around them would say they could tell them apart by the mole under Hyo-ju’s eye.
So much so that if Si-hyeon. put on makeup and dressed up like Hyo-ju, everyone was easily fooled.
However, their personalities were complete opposites.
Unlike the bold and direct Hyo-ju, Si-hyeon. was shy and quiet.
“It’s been a while since we met like this. Let me drop you off at your part-time job.”
Her sister, holding the steering wheel with one hand, was even humming a tune.
She seemed excited to be back in Korea after so long.
Ugh, Ugh.
Hyo-ju’s phone, placed in the cup holder, vibrated. Si-hyeon. subtly checked the caller.
It was a call from someone named [Shin Hae-il]. Again, that man.
“sister. You’re getting a call, is it okay not to answer?”
“Yeah. It’s fine.”
As soon as the vibrating stopped, the phone rang again immediately.
This time, it was a different man’s name.
To her, her sister was endlessly kind and good, but her personal life was far from ordinary.
There was never a shortage of men around her sister, and there had been many bad rumors. Whenever Si-hyeon. saw her sister like that, she felt sorry for Hyo-ju.
“Father didn’t say anything, did he?”
“Huh?”
“Settle that house now and come live in Samseong-dong.”
“What are you talking about? sister.”
“I went to the US branch on the condition that you’d be formally registered in the family registry.”
“…What?”
“You. How long are you going to live in that house? It’s facing demolition soon because of redevelopment, and it’s too dangerous for you to live there alone. So settle that house and come live in Samseong-dong. Don’t worry about money.”
“sister.”
“I guess you forgot. You’re my sister. You’re Bae Geun-ho’s daughter of Taesan Group. I know you hate Father just as much as I do. But Father probably had no choice in his decisions. And Si-hyeon., for Mother’s sake, at a big hospital—”
“sister. Let me out here.”
“Si-hyeon..”
“Please. I, I want to walk. I’m sorry but… let me out, sister.”
Hyo-ju let out a series of sighs.
“We’re almost there. Just ride along.”
“Since we’re almost there, I’ll get out. It’ll be quick if I walk.”
Having no choice, Hyo-ju pulled over to the side of the road and turned on her hazard lights. The clicking sound echoed repeatedly.
“Thank you, sister Let’s just forget about today’s conversation. No matter what, my name is Kim Si-hyeon..”
“Si-hyeon..”
“I’m going.”
With those words, Si-hyeon. picked up her eco-bag and got out of the car.
Hyo-ju, having rolled down her window, quietly gazed at the back of her departing younger sister.
Even if she tried to force her, she couldn’t break Si-hyeon. stubbornness.
Meanwhile, tears suddenly welled up in Si-hyeon. eyes as she walked.
Just thinking about her mother made her feel like her heart was tearing apart.
So what if she’s Bae Geun-ho’s daughter?
He wants to put her on the family registry now?
He was the person who had given her and her mother wounds that could never be healed.
He got their mother, who was only twenty years old, pregnant when he was already a married man. Not only that, but he took Hyo-ju away from their mother for his wife who couldn’t have children.
Her sister grew up separated from her biological mother, and until she turned sixteen, she didn’t even know she had a biological mother.
After his wife died, her father remarried another woman, but even so, he continued seeing their mother.
However, unlike Hyo-joo’s, Si-hyeon. was practically an abandoned child.
Perhaps that’s why her father was endlessly cold to Si-hyeon..
‘Mom is really sick. They say she might die if she doesn’t get a liver transplant. So… sob, please. Help us. I’m begging you.’
At that time, her father, already remarried to another woman, killed Si-hyeon. once again.
‘Who’s your father? Whether that woman ends up badly is none of my business. She’s a stranger to me, so don’t come looking for me again. What are you doing? Throw her out immediately!’
Back then, Si-hyeon., only nineteen years old, was dragged out by the men.
That’s the kind of person Bae Geun-ho was.
A person with no blood or tears.
A person who, once his affection cooled, could quickly discard the woman he loved and abandon her coldly.
Even if it was his own child, if they weren’t useful to his life, he was ruthless.
Fortunately, the test results showed that Sihyeon and her mother were a perfect match, and she was able to donate part of her liver.
It was also possible because her sister secretly covered the surgery costs.
But when Bae Geun-ho found out, he froze all of Hyo-joo’s funds, and Sihyeon, now solely responsible for their livelihood, couldn’t even attend school properly, struggling to pay off the overdue hospital bills and rent.
She barely managed to graduate high school, but she couldn’t even dream of going to college.
And now, all of a sudden, he wants to acknowledge her as his child?
Feeling sorry perhaps that Sihyeon was earning money alone, her mother had started a delivery part-time job in the early morning and had fallen down the frozen stairs, ending up in a coma due to a brain hemorrhage.
Sihyeon roughly rubbed away the tears in her eyes with the back of her hand.
She didn’t need it anymore.
As Sihyeon approached the flower shop, a man who had parked his car on the side of the road stared intently at her through his rear view mirror.
Seeing her tears, the man clenched his fist tightly, then slowly opened it.
He felt a suffocating tightness in his own chest. He put a cigarette in his mouth and got out of the car.
Perhaps because of a nearby elementary school graduation ceremony, today was incredibly hectic. Sihyeon glanced at the clock on the wall.
It was already heading towards 2:30 PM.
Sihyeon, who had been blankly watching people pass by outside the window, swept up fallen petals and wrapping paper from the floor with a broom.
As she was tidying up alone, she stopped at the sound of the door opening.
Jingle.
It was the man who always appeared at 3 PM.
Three times a week.
He only came on days Sihyeon was working.
Perhaps because he was so tall, a natural sense of pressure was felt whenever he moved.
The man looked very weary, and his jet-black eyes exuded a strange arrogance.
His skin was exceptionally clear, making his white shirt suit him well.
Today, he was dressed in more comfortable casual wear than usual.
There was no change in his expression, but for some reason, he seemed darker than normal.
Like someone about to part from a loved one.
Was something sad happening?
“Excuse me, is something wrong?”
In response to Sihyeon question, the man let out a faint, derisive laugh.
His dark eyes lingered on her as he pulled a 50,000-won bill from his pocket.
The action seemed to carry the implicit meaning, ‘Instead of asking things like that, just wrap it up.’
Sihyeon face flushed hot, feeling like she had meddled in something that wasn’t her concern.
“I’m sorry. I spoke out of turn…”
“No. It’s because I have to part from someone for a while.”
Not break up? Part from someone for a while, he said.
“So. Today, I want to give a special bouquet.”
“Ah. Well then, how about forget-me-not? They carry the meaning ‘Don’t forget me.’ I thought it would be good to give them with the wish that they won’t be forgotten.”
The man lowered his gaze and nodded.
“That’s good. Please make it with that flower.”
“Yes. Please have a seat and wait a moment. I’ll make it for you right away.”
Sihyeon turned around and began to wrap the forget-me-not
She could feel the man’s gaze intensely on her. The look was so warm that she even had the illusion she could hear the movement of his eyes.
Finishing the wrapping quickly, Sihyeon turned around. The man approached as if he had been waiting.
“It’s ready. Here you are.”
Sihyeon handed over the bouquet.
The man stared intently at the forget-me-not bouquet, then shifted his gaze to Sihyeon in front of him.
“It’s pretty.”
“I’m glad. That you like it.”
Sihyeon smiled prettily, her eyes crinkling.
The man silently watched her, her eyes curving into crescent moons as she smiled.
“Excuse me, was there something you wanted to say…?”
“It seems we don’t even know each other’s names.”
“Yes, yes?”
“We’ve been regulars for so long, but we’ve never even exchanged names.”
‘Ah,’ Sihyeon thought, and nodded her head.
Just as she was about to open her mouth, his voice flowed out first.
“It’s Pyeon Jiuk.”
