Episode 7
“Taeyoon, don’t do this. Let’s just go. Chaehee… you know too, right? The two of them…”
Youngsook didn’t get to finish her sentence.
Taeyoon turned to her and asked coldly,
“Why is Seorin standing here like this?”
“Taeyoon, that is… I mean…”
“Did my mother tell you to have her wait here like this?”
The coldness in Taeyoon’s eyes made Youngsook close her mouth. He radiated a sharp, cutting energy that felt like it could slice anyone who challenged him. Even though he was her son, Youngsook couldn’t understand how he could act like this.
Just as the tense silence stretched, Chaehee stepped in.
“Mom didn’t do anything wrong. Oppa,” she said.
Only then did Taeyoon look at her. Until she spoke, he hadn’t even noticed she was there. His brow furrowed slightly upon seeing her.
“Mom told us to go ahead, but Seorin insisted we wait, didn’t she, Seorin?”
Chaehee looked at Seorin, as if trying to get her to agree.
Seorin was speechless at the lie. It was Chaehee, not her, who had told her to stand there and wait. But in this situation, denying it would only make her look like she was whining, asking Taeyoon to take her side.
Especially since just yesterday, she had told him not to come looking for her again.
With a stiff face, Seorin nodded.
“Yes, that’s right. I said I’d stay here.”
Youngsook looked visibly relieved, but Taeyoon’s expression didn’t soften.
“Why are you playing servant like that? Did you forget that I said I’d take you with me?”
At those words, Chaehee, who had been smiling, suddenly frowned. Youngsook, caught in the middle, nervously glanced at Chaehee.
“I’ll take Seorin with me,” Taeyoon said firmly.
“Taeyoon, wait—”
He cut Youngsook off with a cold look.
“Seorin is mine. No matter where she is or what the situation is, that fact doesn’t change.”
Then he grabbed the shopping bags from Seorin’s hand and threw them to the ground. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he pulled her close to his chest.
Before she knew it, Seorin was in his arms and silently screaming inside.
“I’m leaving now.”
With that short line, Taeyoon turned and walked off.
“Taeyoon, wait—!”
Youngsook called after him in panic, but he didn’t look back or respond. He just walked away, holding Seorin tightly in his arms.
Seorin kept asking him to put her down, but he ignored her. She tried kicking her legs and punching his chest, but it was useless.
Exhausted, she had no choice but to let him carry her.
They arrived at an outdoor bench in a quiet park. Taeyoon gently set her down and stood over her, casting a long shadow.
Seorin looked up at him, her face burning red with embarrassment. She felt like dying from shame.
In the middle of Seoul, in a busy department store, to be carried out like that—it was a spectacle.
People’s eyes had been glued to them the entire time.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Even though she tried to hold her anger back, Taeyoon didn’t react. She glared at him with all the defiance she could muster. Finally, he sighed and knelt down in front of her.
His slacks touched the ground and got dirty, but he didn’t care.
Seorin’s eyes widened in shock. Just as she was about to ask what he was doing, Taeyoon lifted her foot and removed her shoe.
It was swollen and hard to take off, but he eventually pulled it off and dropped it to the ground.
The sudden removal of the shoe reminded her of the pain she had been ignoring. She groaned, furrowing her brow.
Before she could stop him, he removed the other shoe too. Then he looked at her, confused.
“Why were you even wearing shoes like this?”
Seorin stayed silent. These were the shoes Youngsook had forced on her this morning—because of what happened yesterday, all because of Taeyoon.
He clicked his tongue in frustration.
“Your foot’s a mess.”
Seorin looked down at her feet. With the tight shoes off, blood was circulating again and the pain lessened a bit—but he was right. Her feet were in terrible condition.
They were swollen, bruised, and had red marks shaped like the shoes. The skin was torn in places, and bright red blood was seeping out.
It was a painful sight, showing exactly how much she had endured.
Taeyoon sighed and picked up her shoes like evidence of the damage.
“Stay here and don’t move.”
“A… alright…”
She tried to stop him, but he was already gone.
Because he had taken her shoes, she couldn’t go anywhere. She had no choice but to sit on the bench and wait.
Sitting there barefoot brought back a memory—when she was a child, she had fallen off her bicycle, and Taeyoon had carried her all the way home.
He held her shoes in one hand and climbed the steep hill of Seongbuk-dong, sweating but never once complaining. Her little muddy feet bounced on his back, but he carried her with strength and warmth she never forgot.
That back had felt so reliable.
But that was a long time ago. A distant memory now. Things had changed too much.
She couldn’t look at him the same way anymore.
As Seorin pulled herself together, Taeyoon returned with a white plastic bag. Inside were ointment and bandages.
“Let me see your foot.”
Seorin tried to stop him, but it was no use. He knelt down again and gently examined her wounds.
