Chapter 210.1

Chapter 210.1

“That w-woman…”

Seoryeong swallowed hard. It was a name she no longer felt she could say easily.

“Deputy Director Joo Seolheon… where was she buried?”

“In a mausoleum.”

Seoryeong gave a blank nod. Her face revealed nothing, but the one who seemed uneasy was Lee Wooshin.

He turned his head slightly, studying her expression from the side. Seeing the crease between his brows, tight with worry for her, Seoryeong spoke first.

“If I say I don’t feel anything at all, do I look frightening to you?”

“Of course not.”

His answer came at once. Seoryeong buried her face briefly against the gentle hand that brushed her cheek.

“I don’t feel sad, because I don’t remember anything. It just sounded like someone else’s story. Even if those people were my biological parents, we never spent time together or lived as a family.”

“….”

“And I hid the fact that I was a Winter Castle mouse from you on purpose. I never felt toward them, the kind of anger I did toward Kim Hyun. Still…”

‘They must have let go of everything by now, finally at peace.’

A thin breath slipped from her lips like a wisp of incense. Lee Wooshin held her quietly and rested his chin against the fur of her shafka hat.

Then, as she naturally wrapped her arms around his waist, Seoryeong looked up and smiled. Her nose wrinkled as she smiled shyly, unable to hide her embarrassment.

“Come to think of it, Instructor, you failed before I did. You had me right in front of you and still didn’t recognize me.”

Her lips twitched with playful satisfaction. He’d said he’d worked ten years as an NIS agent searching for the Winter Castle files, yet he hadn’t known her face or her name. To find her, he’d even staged a fake marriage, and then disappeared?

Her rounded cheeks lifted as if she’d just heard the most ridiculous story in the world. Wooshin couldn’t take his eyes off her bright, innocent face for a long time before finally glancing away.

“Do you still think about Kim Hyun?”

When she stared at him, his jaw tightened. He turned his head, gazing somewhere out over the lake, as if debating whether to say more. The tips of his ears were oddly red.

“Do you still like him?”

“…!”

“Why can’t you answer right away?”

When Seoryeong only blinked, wide-eyed, he met her gaze sharply. She stayed silent so long that his chest rose and fell in irritation. His eyes, tense and uneasy in a way that didn’t suit him, stayed fixed on her sealed lips.

After what felt like an eternity of silence, the moment Seoryeong turned her wide eyes away, he suddenly snapped and bit her small nose bridge.

“Ah!”

She stumbled back in surprise, but he didn’t stop. His lips followed, pressing down on hers. He caught her lower lip between his teeth, pulling her in with desperate hunger, his hands clamping around her cheeks as he kissed her deeply.

Afraid she might slip and fall on the ice, Seoryeong blurted out without thinking. Her answer was clear, loud, and absurdly direct.

“I want my child to take after Kim Hyun!”

“What?”

Wooshin, who had been breathing heat against her skin, froze and let go of her face.

“I want him to grow up kind like Hyun.”

“…”

“So I’d like to pass down his name, at least. It’s a beautiful one. And now, I’m sure Kim Hyun wasn’t just an illusion to me.”

“You… no matter what, that’s…”

Wooshin dragged a hand down his face, unable to finish, and she quickly added,

“Of course I’d still give him your surname, Lee.”

“That’s enough. From now on, don’t even mention the name Kim Hyun.”

“Why not? You are Kim Hyun!”

“I don’t look like that hairless bastard, and I sure as hell don’t act like him.”

“That’s ridiculous. You’re the same person!”

“No, you’d lose your mind every time you saw someone who looked like him on the street.”

“Me?”

“You did it all the time. You’d sniff the air and go running after them.”

“When did I ever…!”

She stopped mid-protest, her words catching. A face flashed through her mind before she could stop it.

“Who are you thinking of right now?”

“.…”

Seoryeong kept her mouth shut, but the more his expression hardened, the more she felt like laughing.

It still felt unbelievable, even now. The idea that Kim Hyun and Lee Wooshin were the same person, how could that possibly make sense? What once had struck her like a cruel truth now sent a thrilling pulse through her chest.

“How could you be Kim Hyun, Instructor?”

He froze, looking like he’d just been struck with a cane.