Suh fam? It's been a minute.

I'm somewhat back. Thank you for all the nice comments and for your patience.

Moving around and being in college has taken it out of me, but I haven't given up. I'll see you guys to the end.

Wang So

Vomit sloshed into the toilet as Wang So retched, holding either side of the porcelain bowl and violently emptying his stomach of soju and whatever other alcohols he had managed to force down overnight.

He had hardly eaten anything, so everything that left him remained clear, burning his throat and nostrils as it all came out in waves of discomfort. So was never the best at drinking, but after quitting smoking at Soo's behest, he could do nothing to alleviate the pain of their breakup but drink himself into oblivion.

Finally empty, he flushed the toilet and stood on shivering legs to hold the sink and rinse his mouth and face off. The burning in his nose and throat remained, yet the taste subsided when he swirled mouthwash around before also spitting that out.

Slowly, carefully, he exited the bathroom and pulled his shirt off, tossing it into his new laundry hamper and throwing on a tank top in its place. He moved like a robot, silent and precise. His hands picked up the bottles of soju and liquor that he had managed to guzzle overnight, tossing them into his apartment-assigned recycling bin with unintentional precision. His mind remained blank, his hangover forcing back almost every reminder that the love of his life was no longer his.

Rubbing his chin, So trailed his fingers over the week-old stubble that grew over his face. He trudged into the kitchen and filled his electric kettle with sink water, having forgotten to buy bottled water when he was out on his alcohol run.

At least pretend to be human.

Shave when it's done.

Or before.

Fuck, it's done.

So's thoughts roamed, unable to focus until he stared at a miraculously cooked container of ramen, chopsticks in hand. "Breakfast first," he murmured to no one in particular.

He sat on the floor, placing his ramen onto the foldable table he had purchased sometime during his drunken grocery shopping. It had a princess on it. So knew exactly which princess.

Opening his laptop, So slurped the cooked noodles, hissing as the steam scalded his mouth. He typed in the three passwords required to get into his device and coughed, chewing twice before swallowing and taking another large bite of his breakfast.

Knowing that his benefactor still thought he lived in the Hae House, So slowly blinked at the bank transaction that stared at him through an e-mail from Australia. He clicked on the link and viewed the abysmally low deposit on the screen, wondering why he even bothered indulging this novice.

It was time to put an end to things. Slurping his ramen, So put his hungover state to work, lifting the bowl to his lips and drinking the hot, spicy soup that immediately warmed him and woke him up. A quick glance at the clock told him breakfast was actually lunch.

"Soo is at the company," he voiced into the air. "She's meeting her brother… discussing stocks and indexes… they'll go out for lunch afterwards… No wait, today's a holiday. She's… at home."

Jumping through whatever hoops presented themselves and evading firewalls, So tracked his own e-mails to the fool that thought themself above him. His thoughts drifted to Yoon and Mi as he combed through ages of code, erasing his presence from the internet as he retraced footprints. He was grateful that he had left just enough presence to be trackable, and cleaned up as he went along.

"Which one of you fuckers tried to make me kill the people I love?" he murmured, glancing down at the princess table still wrapped in its original plastic sheets. So touched the smiling face of the princess it featured before sighing and wishing he could show his new buy to Mi. She would have loved it.

Unspoken, but confirmed, So looked at the last traces of his digital footprint as a hitman and deleted each and every part without a second thought, finally folding his business of fourteen years.

The Wolf Dog was officially dead.

Hwang Bo Wook

Wook glanced up from his cup of coffee with a smile. Sitting around a table on the floor, he and his family had brunch in their pajamas, enjoying a national holiday before Wook went to work for two hours for a small celebration.

A large spread of food sat before them, and Wook could not imagine a better way to start his day. To his left, Mi sat and pushed her messy hair aside with one hand, jabbing a piece of pancake with her fork and lifting it to her mouth. She took a sip of her orange juice and smiled as she chewed. When Wook looked forward, he smiled at Soo and Yoon. His baby girl sat on her mother's lap with only a pair of pajama pants on, her hair a rat's nest, and her sippy cup in a death grip. Behind their daughter, Soo scooped a mouthful of eggs into her mouth before feeding a bite to Yoon.

Reaching forward, Wook added more eggs and bacon onto his plate. "Feeling better, Mommy?" he asked, referring to when Soo had excused herself during dinner. Wook assumed that she had had a stomachache.

He could tell that Soo was keeping herself eerily calm, and he suspected that was her way of keeping their children in the dark about her recent breakup. If anything, he was grateful that her calm demeanor was not tipping Mi off about Soo's sadness. Wook disliked that his wife so openly mourned the end of her affair, but he knew she would return to normal soon, and he would be there for her the entire way.

But no matter what Soo felt, Wook was proud that she and Wang So were no longer together. He had no idea what kind of relationship they had, but by the looks of Soo's emotions, it was more than just a quick fuck.

In the end, however, Wook knew that So and Soo were just incompatible, and their differences had forced them apart, just as Wook had done with Si Yeon. Wook took Soo's melancholy as a sign that ultimately, they were the ones right for each other.

After brunch, he collapsed onto the sofa in the sitting room, holding each of his daughters by his side as they sat around for a movie. Soo returned to bed to rest, and Wook thought about her, ignoring the movie his daughters sang along to. Once it ended, he would drop the girls off for a day with his parents while Eun came over for some time with Soo. Wook hoped his wife would feel better later when her best friend arrived.

By the time Soo walked out of their bedroom to collect the girls and get them ready for their day out, the movie was over and Wook rushed to get himself put together.

Soo followed them to the front door to see them off, and Wook wrapped her in his arms and hugged his petite wife after she kissed their girls goodbye. Instead of kissing her lips like he normally did, Wook pressed their foreheads together and sighed, hoping Soo would return to her normal self soon so he could have some peace of mind.

Having come to the decision to move his bodyguard away from the house and assign him to Wang So's former position as head of the security team, it was Wook that drove his princesses to his parents' house.

He stopped at his parents' apartment and helped Yoon out of her car seat while Mi sprinted out the car and to the main door of the apartment building his parents lived in, already punching in the code. When Wook set Yoon down from the car, she quickly followed her sister's lead, running straight for the door and squealing when it slid open.

"Bye, Daddy!"

"Bye bye, Daddy!"

His girls shouted and waved and Wook laughed before following them up the stairs and leading them to the elevator. He grabbed his parents' mail along the way and sifted through the magazines they subscribed to.

"I'm not leaving yet," Wook said, herding his daughters into the elevator once it arrived.

There were no more fights as to who got to press the elevator buttons because Soo had already decided months ago that Mi would get to press the numbers while Yoon would get to press the door closer.

Wook smiled as each girl did her job perfectly, letting him glance over an article about his competitor, Wang Yo. He skimmed over paragraphs denouncing the youngest conservative at the helm of his party, chuckling at the almost comical way the author declared war on Yo's decrease in taxes for foreign imports. Wook remembered losing miserably to Wang Yo, yet he always drew consolation that just two days earlier, he had introduced a proposal to the President that would decrease taxes for the working class as well as negating Yo's bill in order to cover extra costs.

After dropping the girls off at his parents' place, Wook drove straight to work, surprised at the smattering of applause he received when he reached his floor. He glanced around, unknowingly bowing and accepting the applause seemingly directed at him. Wook smiled for the interns and secretaries that stood from their desks, wondering if everyone was so happy about their office party that they were clapping.

"Congratulations, Mr. Hwang Bo!" shouted one of the interns.

"Thank you, Gwang Seok, but I have no idea why you're–" Wook stopped when two members of the National Assembly wrapped their arms around him and quickly pulled him into his office, shutting the door behind them. Wook stood behind his desk, staring at six of the highest-ranking members of their party with raised eyebrows. A swarm of old men in black suits and various ties peered at him, but Wook could not figure out why, and that annoyed him.

"Has the war ended? What's the fuss?" he asked, completely and utterly perplexed.

"Hwang Bo Wook, have you watched the news at all today?" asked one of the oldest members of Wook's party. Wook shook his head.

"I did not; however, I did watch a princess movie with my daughters. I can tell you exactly what happens in that."

The older gentlemen laughed and patted his shoulders, barking out their approval and mirthfully wagging their fingers at him. Wook maintained his smile, but internally he shouted for the old men to get to their points. He had only allotted a couple hours to remain at the office before joining his girls back at his parents' home.

"This is why scum like Wang Yo can't lift a finger against our Wook! He's the cleanest person I know! Perfect husband, father, and politician! Hwang Bo Wook, you're the reason our party thrives!" Wook smiled and deflected their compliments, saying he only did what his wife told him to do and tried his best to be a good father in any way.

"Haven't you heard, young man? The president ordered an emergency committee to vet your proposal and Wang Yo's bill overnight, and my boy, you fucked Wang Yo in the ass."

Immense pride and glee lifted Wook onto cloud nine at the prospect of his bill gaining the president's approval. With that, Wook burst out laughing at the older legislator's remark, immediately making his way to his drink stand and passing tumblers around to those in the office. "We need to toast! I could not have done any of this without you fine gentlemen!"

"Bah, we're just seat-fillers. You're the one keeping this party alive. Your young blood and your lovely wife's even lovelier donations! You practically run the place!" Boisterous laughter filled the office and Wook joined in the mirth, knowing that as the youngest, he was still at the mercy of these old men that demeaned his wife.

He walked around the room, pouring each man two fingers of cognac, and while he did, he listened to their remarks, commenting as he went.

"Speaking of your lovely wife, when is Hae Soo gonna give you a son, boy? You need a son to inherit her fortune and continue leading our party! I hear Wang Yo is already grooming his boy for law school. Have a son, Wook!"

"My wife and I are perfectly happy with two girls, but she prays at her temple every day for us to be blessed, so perhaps I'll join her in prayer someday," Wook said with an amiable tone. He had worked too hard on his image for it to be corrupted by a small comment about Soo.

"Ah," sighed another legislator, "that's the one thing our Wook isn't good at. Religion. You're damn lucky your wife is Buddhist. She's your lucky charm! If it weren't for her praying for you, you'd still be trapped in a law firm, getting drunk drivers out of jail!"

Wook gave a good-natured laugh before sloshing cognac into his own tumbler, pouring much more than two fingers. They could believe what they wanted, but Wook chose to believe that he had endured his father-in-law's abuses for years at the beginning of his marriage in order to reach the point where he was at now.

A permanent and blinding smile stretched over his features as he toasted one of his greatest achievements as a lawmaker. He took pleasure in knowing that somewhere, Wang So sat in an apartment, benefitting from a law Wook had created for all constituents, even scum like him.

"A toast! To fucking Wang Yo in the ass! May the prick never dare to raise his head during council meetings again!"

"Hear hear!"

Hae Soo

She took a tiny sip of tea as her stomach lurched and her skin crawled. Her blouse was too itchy, too thin. Her skirt was too tight around her middle, and she abhorred how much the tag on her waistband ground into her skin as if it was trying to force itself deeper against her stomach.

Soo tried to focus on anything other than her mounting discomfort, going over her day's itinerary. Beads of sweat dotted her forehead, and Soo brushed a hand over her nose to wipe away the drops that had accumulated as she nodded to whatever Eun was talking about.

"I mean, he set a new record, right? Longest bodyguard to hold that position. Crazy," mused her best friend. He poured himself another serving of tea before looking at her with a bright smile. "Hae Soo, you look terrible. Has firing your bodyguard made you get the flu?"

Distracted by how woozy she felt, Soo could only frown and focus on Eun's pink shirt and white pants.

"You look like you're dressed to go boating," she remarked, amused by his fashion choices, but not quite surprised. Eun merely shrugged.

"Every day is a vacation if you want it to be. Life is fun."

Soo wanted to laugh at her friend's statement, but she held back and just shook her head with a small smirk. Her watch informed her that it was time for dinner, and Soo momentarily thought about So, wondering if he was eating well. When he had lived as a member of the staff, Soo had increased their meal budget in order to fit things that he liked, like the ever unhealthy oil pastries that never seemed to add weight to him. She wished he was doing alright.

"You know," said Eun, a devilish grin on his face. "Mi called me on your phone today and asked me to save some of the bulgogi we're having for din–"

Soo pressed a hand to her mouth as her stomach lurched at the very mention of a food she found so disgusting that it sent her hurtling for the nearest bathroom, knocking her chair back and ramming into the door. She collapsed in front of the toilet and gagged into it, the meager amount of breakfast that she'd had forcing its way back up through her esophagus and nostrils.

Soo shuddered as each wave of nausea passed in another wave of vomit before returning for another round. She would have laughed at the way Eun sat beside her and held her hair, gently patting her back and asking if they were still in college, but she could not think other than to register the pain that coursed through her, stabbing at her stomach and pushing up and out of her.

"Have you been drinking? Hae Soo, the last time I held your hair, you'd downed half a bottle of tequila and we were twenty-three. Pull yourself together." His remarks did little to make her feel better, but Soo coughed and groaned, wondering why the nausea did not dissipate even after she was completely empty. "You used to be such a nice drunk person. Remember when you braided my hair? I told Yoon that your braiding skills came from practicing on me when we were in college and she told me I looked like a squirrel."

"Eun, shut the fuck up please," Soo finally uttered, accepting the wad of tissues he handed to her so she could blow her nose and wipe her mouth.

"Are you a sloppy drunk now?"

Soo wished beyond compare that she could have drunk herself into a stupor after So left, but she had only herself to blame for trusting him, and as the cheating wife, she had no right to let others deal with her drunkenness.

"Thank you for holding my hair," Soo mumbled, holding her skirt and standing so she could flush the toilet and rinse her mouth out in the sink. She spat a couple times and turned to look when Eun thanked someone. He passed her a cup of mouthwash brought by Chae Ryung, and for a moment, Soo wished she could throw the mouthwash in the nanny's face.

You told Wook. You told him. So left… This isn't your fault. Her thoughts ran haywire and Soo thanked Chae Ryung for the mouthwash, using it to make her mouth taste infinitely better.

She held Eun's shoulder as she left the bathroom, thanking him again.

"Nah, brings back memories from college. We were both puke buddies, weren't we? So this isn't the first time I held your hair while you puke and I don't think it'll be my last. Just give me a bit of warning next time, okay Soo?"

"You're the best."

"I really am."

Eun left early and Soo ordered the cook to disperse each piece of meat that was not pork away to the staff, claiming that she could no longer stand even the thought of having meat in her home.

Soo skipped dinner in favor of stripping down to just her underwear and laying in bed, sore and disgusted at everything that had occurred over the course of just a week. She sighed and hugged a pillow as she endured the throbbing pain that emanated from the top of her skull and left her ears ringing without pause.

With little to do but lament her current situation, Soo let her mind run free - too tired to truly focus on anything - until she heard her husband knock on their door and ask if she was alright. His very voice made her stomach lurch once more, and Soo closed her eyes, breathing deeply to swallow down whatever might come back up.

He opened the door and walked in. Soo remained still, holding her pillow against her face and keeping her breathing even as he approached. Wook stood close enough that she could feel the heat from his body. She heard him sigh, his hand pressing into her throbbing head and lightly moving her hair.

He pulled their blanket over her body before stepping away. The cover billowed around her, too cold yet too hot, before it nestled against her body.

Wook walked away, their bedroom door shut behind him, and Soo let her eyes open. The lights were off, and she was alone in a room that was too large. Her thoughts remained centered on Wook, her headache receding just long enough for her to gather her thoughts into coherency.

Wook. He was too kind, but too hateful. Too caring, but too mean. Over the years they had had their ups and downs, but each up and each down had been so extreme that Soo was too exhausted to continue. The highs and lows that they had endured had taxed their marriage to the point that she could no longer see a future with Hwang Bo Wook.

It had taken years of pain for her to finally come to terms with the end of her marriage, but Soo knew she had to make the decision on her own. Alone in her bed, she forgot for a moment about her girls and about So and Lily and her family and everyone else in the world except for herself and Wook. They had fallen apart to the point that even though Wook was trying to come back, Soo could not fathom an ending where they were happy together.

They were through. She would file for a divorce and free herself.

And as if a light had turned on in the dark room she laid in, Soo finally smiled at the weight that left her shoulders, and the throbbing subsided from her head.

Another week later, Wook held her hair as she clutched the toilet bowl at seven in the morning, retching into it even though her stomach was empty. He rubbed her back and murmured encouraging words to her, but Soo heard nothing, only feeling the intense burn of stomach acid crawling up her throat and falling into the water below.

When she finished, Wook texted a maid for tea, and Soo returned to bed, wiping her tears and smacking her lips to maintain the taste of mouthwash. She blamed a stomach bug, and Wook agreed, saying he too had not been feeling well after eating some dubious sea urchin at an office party.

Wook left to tend to their girls, leaving Soo behind to stew in her thoughts. She laid in bed and spread herself out like a starfish, taking Wook's side and kicking one of their pillows away to make room for her legs.

She did math in her head, only able to sustain a train of thought for a few seconds until the migraine returned. Soo knew it was no coincidence that she was experiencing the same symptoms as she had while pregnant with Mi, remembering how much she had vomited and ached with her first baby. That plus she had not had a period since So was still with her.

"God-fucking-dammit," she whispered, spreading her hand over her belly and slipping it under her shirt to touch her skin. There was no sign of any change happening on the exterior of her stomach, but judging by the way Soo despised any mention of any protein other than pork and eggs, she knew that Mi's wish was going to come true. "How come they're all accidents?"

She'd have to take a test to be absolutely sure, but Soo knew from being pregnant three times before that she did not need to check. Breathing deeply, Soo caressed her belly and rolled onto her side, curling against a pillow and softly sniffling back the tears that formed from the love and sadness that overcame her.

Her gut and her brain told her that the baby in her womb was the child of the man she desperately wanted to see again. Soo wondered if she should call So and tell him of her condition, but her own logic stopped her, and she thought of how she had called the soft caring man with the tortured past a monster. She regretted every harsh word she had spat at him, and the loss of his bracelet on her wrist made it feel bare and naked. He probably wanted nothing to do with her.

"Hi darling," she whispered, closing her tear-filled eyes and imagining her and So's baby could hear her. She could approximate how far along she was, and Soo knew her baby could not hear her at all, yet she chalked her sentiment up to wishful thinking, already in love with the little bundle of cells that grew inside her without pause. She gave her stomach a small rub before heaving a sigh. "I'm your mommy. I know who your daddy is, but I don't know if I want to tell you, baby. He's a hitman… but I love him so much."

So like... Krysyuy is literally the goat. Best beta ever.