Knock. Knock.

Then, Mrs. Jin knocked and entered the room.

“Eat dinner. You can come down right now.”

“Yes. I’ll be down right away.”

As Ji-an and Janice entered the dining room, Eun-ji’s forehead, who had been guarding the place first, wrinkled slightly.

If it were in the past, she would have raised her voice and confronted Eun-ji the same way, but Ji-an didn’t care and spoke.

“I came to visit on the weekend. I’ll leave tomorrow. …Is that okay?”

Eun-ji spoke in a cold voice without much expression.

“Would anything change if you did? I don’t want to know what’s inside your heart, Mom. Just live uncomfortably as usual if it’s less awkward for both of us.”

“Mom … am I uncomfortable?”

“…”

“I am uncomfortable. But there are so many people in the world who are uncomfortable with their families. Still, because they are family, they live seeing and enduring each other. I’m trying to do the same. It might get a little better if you see each other more often, but it won’t disappear. Everyone seems to live like that.”

As Ji-an’s indifferent words scattered, the neatly arranged dinner cooled, and the atmosphere became even more awkward.

Ji-an glanced at Janice and lifted her spoon to speak.
“Mom and I can’t suddenly become close, right? I’m not expecting that. …But Mom, the words you said earlier, when I was young, I knew that unpleasant things weren’t welcome. But now that I hear it today, it hurts a lot. It’s not that I dislike it; it seems like it has been hurting continuously.”

Ji-an poured out her inner thoughts, and her heart pounded as she avoided Eun-ji’s gaze. Only now did she realize that she had never honestly told Eun-ji her feelings.

Jenice, who was awkwardly holding a spoon, tapped Ji-an’s back, comforting her. It’s okay. Don’t mind it. There were shared emotions in her gesture.

In Eun-ji’s eyes, who was looking at Ji-an with an amazed expression, Janice’s appearance also appeared.

‘Were they close to each other like that?’

Eun-ji felt strangely mixed emotions watching Janice and Ji-an.

For the past few days, Janice had been eating with an unresponsive attitude, so Eun-ji had forced herself to sit at the dining table during meal times.

Today, with Ji-an’s presence, Janice’s expression was noticeably brighter.

“Mom, let’s eat. Ji-an came home with good intentions. I was curious about how Ji-an was doing too.”

When Janice recommended eating, glancing at Eun-ji, she reluctantly picked up the spoon.

Eun-ji was actually a little surprised because she hadn’t expected Ji-an to come home.

‘Considering the way she looks fine, maybe there wasn’t much to worry about.’

After contemplating several calls from Jong-gu, Eun-ji let out her worries while looking at Ji-an again.

‘If only she went abroad together, it would be a bit easier.’

With Ji-yoon not around, Ji-an was someone Eun-ji could rely on, like a support.

She refrained from speaking and closed her mouth, feeling bothered by everything. She didn’t have the energy to speak right now.

That night.

Ji-an and Janice sat side by side on the bed, holding Ji-yoon’s diary.

Both of them turned the cover and carefully unfolded the first page. They faced each other without saying who should start when they saw sentences written in a familiar handwriting.

[To my beloved daughters, Janice and Ji-an.]

As Ji-an cautiously turned the next page, tears welled up in her eyes.

[When spring comes, I want to call my family, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep that promise. I’m still able to clench my fist and move my hand as I please, but I can’t decide if hiding the illness from my family is the right thing to do. It was a day when worries piled up as I wondered if easing my heart would actually burden me more. …I want to finish the construction as soon as possible and see my family gathered.]

It was the diary entry from early February when Ji-yoon first went down to the countryside.

The diary couldn’t be turned past the first page because Janice was crying loudly. Ji-an was the same, with tears streaming down.

“Dad… What do we do with the diary? …We have to read it.”

“I felt the same way at first. What if we don’t finish reading it all today? We have plenty of time. Let’s read it together while thinking about Dad.”

Every time they tried to read the diary, tears burst out from Ji-an.
Will the day come when this heaviness gets better?

Just as tears didn’t flow even when too sad, it’s unlikely that the day when the numbness to Jaeyoon’s death fades away will come.

Exhausted from crying, Jian and Jenice collapsed onto the bed without energy.

“I want to visit Grandma’s house too. Is my room really still there? If I go, we can take family pictures… Mom, I can bring you with me.”

Even while sniffling, Jenice expressed her desire to visit her grandmother’s house.

‘I guess my sister also feels uneasy about the empty family photo frame. She probably wants to see the clothes Dad left too. Somehow, I feel like Dad’s scent is still there in that house. …My sister must feel the same, right?’

Jian looked at Jenice, who was no different from herself, and smiled faintly.

With the sound of rain hitting the window, morning arrived.

Having talked extensively about Jenice and Jaeyoon’s stories, or perhaps due to tiredness, Jian spent the night without dreaming. She woke up abruptly, feeling overwhelmed by unshed tears, and sat up.

Dawn breaking with the sound of rain hitting the window marked the beginning of Jian’s day. It was too suffocating for her, so she got up in a rush.

‘I should tell Danwoo!’

While hesitating whether to wake Jenice, she noticed that Jenice had opened her eyes quietly. After blinking, Jenice closed her eyes again.

“Why? Are you leaving now?”

“Sister, are you going to the practice room in the afternoon? Call when the manager is there. Decide when to go to the countryside according to the schedule.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Make sure to call.”

After preparing to leave, Jian came downstairs and looked around the quiet house before stepping out onto the porch. Then, she turned around to glance at the house once more.

It still felt strange and like she was in someone else’s house, but she thought that frequent visits might change that.

As Jian entered the penthouse, Danwoo looked at her with a surprised expression.

He had just returned home after a video conference with The Eagles headquarters that lasted until dawn. Moreover, he had just finished his dawn exercise and was wearing only a bathrobe.

Without waiting for Danwoo to say anything, Jian rushed into his arms.

“What happened? Why are you like this?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to tell you that I didn’t have any dreams.”

“So you came home early because of that?”

“No. It’s because I missed you.”

Only then did Jian notice that Danwoo was still in his bathrobe. Between the gaps in the open robe, surgical scars were visible.

When Danwoo hurriedly tried to fasten the robe, Jian stopped him.

“It’s okay. Don’t hide it.”

Jian’s hand moved slowly along his scars.