Chapter 160
“Is it… really you, Mr. Kwon Si-heon?”
Si-heon furrowed his brow.
“Who else did you think it was?”
“How… how did you come here…?”
Ga-eun wore an expression of disbelief.
His gaze, quietly studying her face, was sharp, persistent, and… serene.
Like how red flames turn blue at high temperatures, appearing paradoxically cold.
Si-heon’s unwavering eyes were just like that.
His emotions ran so deep that he appeared calm on the surface.
The thought that he shouldn’t startle her.
Yet the instinct that made it impossible to look away from her.
The silence born from a mass of words—things he wanted to say, didn’t want to say, needed to say, and shouldn’t say—all caught in his throat.
Then, feeling the trembling of her delicate body under his palm,
Si-heon withdrew his hand.
He now understood why that brief moment of contact and separation from her felt like an eternity.
Turning away from Ga-eun, he looked toward the window.
He needed time to collect his breath.
She needed time to calm her startled heart, and he needed time to choose his words.
Si-heon fingered the ruby on the wedding ring on his left fourth finger.
A gesture that had become a habit since she disappeared.
“How are you feeling?”
“…”
“Call the doctor if you’re in pain.”
Ga-eun shook her head.
Though his back was turned, Si-heon stood still as if he could see her movement.
“How… Did you come here?”
“Are you asking how I found you?”
“No. Someone like you would have found my location easily enough.”
Ga-eun took a small breath.
“I mean, how did you come here personally when you must be busy?”
Si-heon’s brow furrowed.
Her words sounded as if she never expected him to look for her at all.
“I heard you would handle everything. That I just needed to sign the papers. That you’d take care of everything after that.”
“Who said that? The Chairman? Did you marry my grandfather instead of me?”
His voice sharpened without him realizing it.
Hearing Ga-eun’s sharp intake of breath, Si-heon rubbed his face.
This wasn’t how he’d meant to speak.
His damned dog-like temper leaked out before he could control it.
…Hah.
Si-heon regained his composure.
Before this, there was something he needed to say first.
“I heard it hasn’t been long.”
“What? What do you mean?”
His hand, still touching the ruby, showed an uncharacteristic tension.
Yet outwardly, he still appeared indifferent and insensitive.
“…The baby.”
As soon as those words were spoken, a heavy silence crashed into the hospital room.
It was a colorless silence, cold and sharp—the kind that could cut skin with the slightest movement.
After bringing Ga-eun to the hospital, Si-heon had learned from the doctor.
The news of his wife’s pregnancy.
Kim Hak-sun had known since Ga-eun came here, her aunt had found out recently,
And Kim Juhan learned today.
Just hours ago.
If he’d been just a little faster, another man wouldn’t have known about his wife’s pregnancy before him.
More than her carrying the child she’d once been so reluctant about, this fact bothered him more.
Having reached this point, Si-heon couldn’t deny it anymore.
That Ga-eun was his every exception, the sole owner of his emotions.
Love. It was love.
It couldn’t be anything but love.
Si-heon pulled something from his jacket’s inner pocket.
It was the wedding ring Ga-eun had left behind.
He’d hurt her by refusing to acknowledge his feelings. So this time, he planned to speak directly.
To say he was sorry. That he was wrong.
That he’d been so rough because these feelings were strange and awkward, and he didn’t understand them himself.
To ask her to take the ring back.
To tell her he wouldn’t leave until she accepted it.
That without her, he couldn’t sleep, could barely breathe.
That he couldn’t go on without her.
That’s what he’d planned to say.
As Si-heon slowly turned around, still clutching the ring, his pupils dilated.
“I’ll live as if I’m dead.”
Ga-eun had climbed down from the bed and was kneeling on the floor, head bowed.
“I’ll never show myself to you.”
The long IV line swayed like a spider’s web.
“So please… I’m begging you. I want to have this baby.”
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