webnovel

should we give up?

From outside the restaurant, Joon-young watches Ajusshi and his mother singing and chair-dancing to an old song ("With You") about building a house out in the country and living for one hundred years with the one you love. He joins them, and they dance happily together.

He narrates that his mother used to sing that song when she was happy, and that he grew up dreaming of living out his life in that house with the one he loves. Even when he found out his time was short, he didn't give up on that dream. The time just shortened from one hundred years, to three months.

Now he sees that Eul is sending him a series of texts that echo her wish when in jail for him to come to her… "Now there's five meters left. Now there's four meters left…" and so on. Joon-young thinks that he may not have a hundred years, but he wants to spend his remaining time loving the person he loves. "So let's not be sad or upset."

He watches Eul count down to zero, than decide to give up, because he's not coming. That's when she'd finally decided to leave Korea, but Joon-young had made a decision too… that he's not going to give up on his last dream. Maybe he can't spend the last months of his live living with Eul in a little country house, but he can return the justice that he took from her.

He approaches Lawyer Cha, the prosecutor in charge of Eul's father's case, determined to find the person who really killed him. Lawyer Cha wants nothing to do with him, but Joon-young just follows him, determined to end the long winter that Eul has been living and give her a happy and free life when he's gone.

Eul had decided to leave the country, but she doesn't get further than a few feet before Ji-tae opens her taxi door and demands she get out. He yanks her out and sends Jik upstairs with their things, though Jik makes it clear that he wants an explanation on why Ji-tae disappeared on them.

He tells Eul that she doesn't have to leave — he heard about Assemblyman Choi's wife threatening her, but he remains cagey about how he knows. Eul yells that these people are scarier than he can imagine, and finally Ji-tae blurts out the truth: "They're my parents!" Eul laughs, thinking that he's joking.

People are growing curious as to why Ji-tae isn't showing up for his engagement ceremony, but he's far more concerned with explaining himself to Eul. It starts to sink in that he's telling the truth and Eul walks away, realizing that she doesn't know this man at all.

We flash back to Joon-young punching Ji-tae, and we see that Joon-young had admitted that he took Eul's USB and nearly got her killed. But he wants to know what Ji-tae did that was so terrible. "What did you do when your parents threatened her, and tried to send her abroad?" Ji-tae did nothing, and that's his shame.

Ji-tae's parents try to call him, but he refuses to answer, and Jung-eun sits with her expression growing more and more uncertain. She tries to smile at Ji-tae's mother, but the corners of her lips wobble, and she barely avoids bursting into tears.

Joon-young is doing his "charming but stubborn" thing to Lawyer Cha, and he even shows up with a gift for his daughter's birthday. Lawyer Cha insists that the real killer turned himself in, sticking with the story, but Joon-young just blithely ignores him.

Things are not so great for Lawyer Cha — his daughter is in the hospital, and he's estranged from his wife. She tells him he's no father and to go away, but a flurry of excitement that Joon-young is in the hospital gets Cha's attention. He's holding court in Cha's daughter's room, though Cha's little daughter Bo-ram just looks at him like he's a crazy person while he recites his most famous drama lines for her, hee.

Lawyer Cha watches while Joon-young explains that he knows Bo-ram because he's a big fan of her father's, and that finally entices the adorable little girl to talk to him. He tells her that her father is brave, and just, and a great man, and that he envies her for having such a good daddy.

Later he finds Lawyer Cha in the stairwell, and Cha asks why he lied to Bo-ram. Joon-young says that he didn't lie, and he does respect Cha. He sits (and digs into the cake that Cha dropped on the floor with his bare hands, ick) and guesses that Lawyer Cha traded his integrity in Eul's case for his daughter's chance to go to the best hospital in the country. By Cha's guilty face, it looks like Joon-young nailed it on the head.

But that case got Cha demoted and he couldn't stand the shame, so he quit his job, and lost his wife and daughter. Lawyer Cha tells him to take his drama back to the set and stands to leave, but Joon-young stops him, and says that he doesn't have much longer to live. The truth will die with him, so he just wants to know what really happened.

Lawyer Cha grows angry and calls that a stupid drama plot, but Joon-young has one more secret to share: "Assemblyman Choi Hyun-joon is my father." He says that Assemblyman Choi doesn't know about it though, and not only that, but the victim of the hit and run was the father of the woman he loves. Joon-young jokes that he's known for holding grudges, so he threatens to haunt Lawyer Cha forever if he doesn't help him.

Eul decides to visit the Choi home, politely insisting on being let in even when the housekeeper says that nobody is home. She gets more demanding, thinking they're there and refusing to see her, and Ji-tae finds her outside bellowing into the intercom.

She yells that she was going to get lost like they wanted, but she accuses them of sending their son to spy on her. Ji-tae is horrified that she thinks that's why he befriended her, but when Eul collapses, he runs to her.

Haru and Ji-tae's mom are on their way home from the engagement ceremony, and his mother asks her assistant to check if Ji-tae possibly got into an accident. Meanwhile Assemblyman Choi and Jung-eun's father, Assemblyman Yoon, go to dinner to discuss matters.

Assemblyman Yoon gets right to the point — is Ji-tae seeing someone else? Assemblyman Choi defends that he would never do something like that, but Yoon doesn't want to hear any excuses. He orders Ji-tae to come see Jung-eun before the end of the day… only if he does that can they still get engaged.

Next chapter