Two weeks after her arrival, Jihyun is discharged from the hospital, but with another surgery scheduled and several recommendations. In fact, the only reason he was being sent home instead of a mental health facility is because Min-ji promised to watch over him around the clock.

"You don't have to do that." He mumbles after she signs the necessary terms. "I could have hired someone."

"I trust myself to look after you more than a paid stranger." She replies with a finality on her tone that is hard to argue against. "Unless you dismiss me, I won't leave your side. And even if you do, I'll only step out after seeing the new caretaker face to face."

Her gaze fixes on his until he nods.

As soon as they arrive at his apartment, she takes him to the living room and sits him on a couch as she moves around the kitchen and removes all the piercing and cutting instruments she can find.

Distantly, she hears him say, "I threw myself off a bridge. Knives are not an option."

"That's exactly what someone who'd use knives would say!" She replies loudly.

He does not say a word. He does not feel like indulging in this dark joke.

She inspects all the other rooms and removes everything Nurse Park listed as potentially dangerous. After a little over two hours, she is finished, and goes back to Jihyun.

He is crying.

She sits at his side and pulls his head to her shoulder. Her arms encircle his waist, and she quietly waits for his tears to fall and his sobs to stop. Eventually, he pulls back.

"I love you so much." He whispers.

"Jihyun…" She whispers back.

It has been two years since she last heard these words. It sounds like music to her ears, it feels like coming home, and she could not help but hate it with a passion. All these years, slowly building herself back from the pain she felt when he left her, gone in a spur of the moment confession.

"I never stopped." The man adds. "How could I? You're the most amazing woman I've ever met."

She shakes her head. "If you're saying that just because I…"

"You're my everything." He cuts her off. "You could have refused to come to the hospital, you could have walked away as soon as I was discharged, and you'd still be the most precious being in this fucked up world. But you didn't, and this means more to me than you could ever imagine."

Min-ji cups his face in her hands. There is no point keeping it to herself now.

"I wouldn't do this for just anyone." She admits. "I'm not that benevolent. I did it all because I, too, never stopped loving you."

He takes a sharp breath. His voice is almost inaudible. "After all I've done?"

"All I wanted was for you to come back to me." The woman confesses, her voice failing her and the words seeming empty front such emotion. "For us to talk about whatever drove you to leave and why you said the words you said. I wanted a chance to forgive you and start over. Just that."

He looks at her, mouth agape. His eyes were always a light green that reminded her of the turquoise Caribbean seas on her computer's screensaver. Now, though, she cannot help but be reminded of jewels, shiny in a way that draws her in and trap her. It would be a crime to look anywhere else.

Jihyun gulps, settling his throat as his hiccups almost make it impossible for him to speak.

"Before Zen told me the news, I…" He takes a breath. "Do you remember, some weeks before it all went down, I went to the mall instead of going home with you?"

She nods. "Yes, of course. You drove me home then went there."

Min-ji never got around to ask why. It was strange of him to do such a thing, enough that she remembers, but it did not occur to her then, and after it was too late. Eventually, she began to chalk it up to a red flag that she had ignored.

He lowers his voice to answer. "I bought a ring."

The woman gasps, and her hands fall off his face.

Through his tears, the teal-haired man smiles softly. "I had planned to ask you the week after. I'd order your favourite pizza, we'd eat under candlelight, dance without music as you like most, and then pour my heart to you as I stood on one knee."

She cannot help but mourn what could have been. His planned proposal had been perfect for her, they would be married by now, they could have been happy together. Now, she is miserable and he tried to kill himself.

"But then all that happened and... How could I ask you to join such a fucked-up situation? How could I ask you to be one flesh, one hear and one soul with an adulterer, a cuckolder, a murderer?"

Her breath catches in her throat. "What?"

"I knew, Min-ji. I knew. Rika told me what she was planning to do." Jihyun said, mournfully.

The woman breathes out. "When did she tell you?"

He shook his head and continued to cry. "After I bought the ring. Jumin must've told her what I was planning to do, and she wouldn't stand for it. She said she'd do it for me, so we could be together, so we could have the Han fortune to ourselves. I said I didn't want anything to do with that, that she was insane. I tried to say something, I tried to warn them. I told my father, Jumin, the police, even Chairman Han, but they didn't believe me. I tried, I swear I tried."

"I believe in you, Jihyun, and I would've believed in you back then, too." Min-ji reassures the man. "I understand what you've gone through, it's a heavy burden to bear on your own. You can rely on me, too."

"No, I can't! I can't." He denies fervently. "I… I loved her, once, I think. She did it for me, she said. If she is the way she is, what did it say about me? What does it say about someone who insisted in following her and kept doing so for years and years? She was hateful. How could I not be?"

"She's hateful, and so am I." She echoed, the phrase travelling years and years, but holding the same edge as it always did. "I never forgot those words. I couldn't understand then, you were anything but hateful, Jihyun."

Tears fall freely now. He raises his thumb to wipe some of them off.

"I may not agree with your decision, but I understand now. However, the only conclusion that made sense back then was that you had never moved on. That you loved her still, and I was an illusion. An attempt to forget her, a failed one."

Jihyun looks shocked at the declaration, as if the idea is so outlandish that he never even considered such a thing. He uses his remaining hand to cup her cheek.

"Never." He affirms, and his voice is the most resolute she has heard these last two weeks. "I never loved anyone as much as I love you, not even her. Not even the children, because she didn't let me love them. You've consumed me. There can never be anyone else after you, even if there is no 'us' anymore."

He rests his forehead against hers. She raises her hands back to his face, caressing the small bruises there.

"There could be an 'us' again." She whispers. "Say the word, and there will be."

He lets out a shuddering breath and pulls back, shaking his head. "No. Not now."

She straightens her back. After everything, he still would not take her back?

"Why? You just told me…"

"Min-ji!" He groans, cutting her off. It is agonizing. "If we get back together now, I'll spend the rest of my life wondering if I've trapped you."

"No, you won't!" She replies instantly. "I want to be with you, didn't you…?"

Jihyun kisses her lightly on the lips, but retreats before she can kiss him back.

"Please." He whispers. "You can take care of me and you can stay here for as long as you like, but it will help me more if I know you can walk away at any moment you want. I'd rather you have that freedom."

"I don't want this freedom!" Min-ji insists.

He shakes his head. "I know you hate it when I say I don't deserve you, but you should at least get a better version of me. One more like the Jihyun you met. Have this one as your friend, but not as a lover. I don't want you to wonder if leaving me will break me."

Her throat throbs with the urge to scream, but she swallows it down and nods tersely. She will play along with what he wants, at least until he gets better.

You have all the time in the world, Min-ji assures herself.