"You seem really happy with your contract wife, baby."
The voice drifted from his right, slurred but sharp enough to slice through the quiet bar. Suho froze. His spine stiffened before he even turned. The world around him narrowed.
He knew that voice. He had lived inside that voice for nine years.
When he finally looked back, she was there.
Yerin.
Drunk. Eyes glassy with liquor and old wounds. A smile that wasn't a smile, a bruise of emotion stretched thin across her face. Months had passed, but seeing her again felt like someone had torn open a sealed scar inside his chest.
His heart trembled. Hard.
Every disappointment, every disbelief, every pain, every night he had spent trying to understand her silence, every shard of pain he'd gathered and buried, all of it came rushing back with a violent ache.
"How are you, my love? My Suho… my baby," she slurred softly, stepping closer. Her fingers came up, uninvited, squeezing his cheeks with a strange tenderness soaked in regret.
He didn't move.
He just stared at her.
The woman he had once worshipped. He woman he thought he could never move on from. The woman who broke him without looking back.
"You became more handsome now," she whispered, bitterness curling at the edges. "What's the secret? Is your contract wife taking good care of you?"
She chuckled, but the sound wobbled. Insecurity spilled through every word, every flicker of her gaze. It was jealousy, pain, longing, all mixed with the drunken fog she was drowning in.
Suho still didn't speak.
He only looked at her, quietly, steadily, a storm raging behind his eyes. Not love. Not longing.
"You forgot me, baby. So easily." Her voice wavered, anger and heartbreak tangled together. "I saw that video where you proposed that so-called wife of yours, in front of the world. You betrayed me, baby… You betrayed me."
The word wife spat out of her mouth like poison, and that's when something flickered through him. Anger. Small but rising.
She staggered closer, trying to close the space between them, trying to slip into the intimacy she once owned.
But he lifted his hand, stopping her firmly, pushing her away from getting close to him.
She looked at the barrier of his palm and let out a brittle chuckle, tears clinging to her lashes.
"Oh… I see. You don't need me anymore." Her voice broke into a whispering accusation. "Right. That wife of yours must be taking care of all your needs now, isn't she? Anyway… you slept with her several times to make a baby with her. What's the big deal to fuck that bitc—"
"Yerin."
Suho's voice thundered low, a growl erupting from a place he rarely touched. His eyes burned red with anger, jaw clenched so tightly it ached. His fists curled at his sides, holding back the violent instinct to hit something, anything, to stop the poison spilling from her mouth.
"Mind your tongue before speaking nonsense," he snapped.
Her lips trembled. Seeing him angry at her, truly angry. And that shattered her more. The pain twisted her expression, dragging a raw sob into her throat.
"Why?" she suddenly yelled, voice cracking through the music and chatter.
People by the counter turned, heads tilting, curiosity sharpening.
Suho noticed immediately. The last thing he needed was a spectacle. He gripped her wrist, not harsh but firm, and pulled her toward a quiet, dim corridor away from the crowd.
The moment they stopped, Yerin yanked her hand out of his hold, breath shaky, eyes shimmering with mess and memory. Before he could speak, she lurched forward and threw herself at him, trying to kiss him.
He caught her shoulders and pushed her back gently but decisively.
"Yerin. Stop," he said, breath unsteady.
Her chest rose and fell, breath uneven, heartbreak and humiliation crashing over her like a storm.
She struggled, tears slipping, trying again and again as if kissing him could rewind months of silence.
This time, Suho caught both her wrists and pinned them firmly against the wall. His body caged her in, not out of desire, but to stop the reckless chaos spilling out of her. She struggled against his hold, twisting, trying to break free, but he didn't let go.
Tears streamed down her face, and his followed, quiet, weary, the kind that rose from old wounds he thought he had buried for good.
"Why, Suho… why did you betray me?" she cried. "Why did you forget me like I was nothing? I loved you for nine years, idiot. Nine years. And you replaced me in months!"
He closed his eyes for a second.
"I left just for a few months, and you cut me off completely. You chose that bitch instead? What did she offer you? What does she have that I don't? Is it because you fucked her? Did that make you fall for her? Was she better than me? Was I not enough? She's a gold digger, you pabo, she married you for money." She yelled.
Every word struck him. Every insult toward Haeun burned through his veins.
But he didn't yell. He couldn't. Because he had once held Yerin like she was the whole purpose of his life.
"Tell me, Suho!" she screamed. "Why did you betray me?"
Suho finally looked at her. His eyes were red, burning with emotions too tangled to name. His breath was heavy.
"Done?" His voice was raw.
She glared, chest heaving.
"You love me, Yerin?" he asked quietly.
"Of course I do, you idiot." Her voice shook.
He nodded once, slowly. "Then why didn't you contact me, Yerin? Even once, after you left?"
Her lips trembled.
"Why?" he repeated softly. "Not a single call asking how I was."
She swallowed hard, unable to answer.
"Okay.. I'll even give you the benefit of doubt," he said, voice too calm for how much it hurt. "Maybe you were busy. Maybe life pulled you somewhere else." His jaw tightened. "But not even one text, Yerin? A single 'How are you, Suho?'"
He stepped closer, not threatening, but devastatingly honest. "You remember that evening, Yerin? When I was sitting in that wheelchair, shaking, broken, praying you'd just… stay."
She didn't speak.
His eyes flickered, teary, yet chuckling painfully. "You saw me that day, Yerin. You saw how my heart was longing for you, you saw how my eyes were begging you not to leave. You saw me trembling in that wheelchair, unable to even speak how badly I wanted you to stay. You saw how helpless I was, how much I needed you."
His breath shook, cracking at the edges.
"You saw everything, Yerin," he whispered, trembling. "And still you walked away... Without even looking back."
Silence hung between them, unbearably heavy.
"Why, Yerin?" he asked again. "Why did you leave me hanging like that? Why did you let me suffer alone?"
She had no answer. Only tears.
He finally spoke the truth he had never dared to say out loud.
"That day, you ended us, Yerina. You just didn't say it." His voice didn't waver. "You didn't want me anymore. Because I became a burden. A liability you didn't want to carry. A responsibility you didn't want to deal with."
Her knees weakened at his words, but Suho's face stayed steady, wounded, but no longer blind.
"You thought my life was over, Yerina..." Suho said quietly. "You thought I had nothing left to offer you. You wanted to keep your distance from me. That's why you left for the USA so suddenly. Isn't it?"
Yerin's eyes flared. He gave a short, humorless chuckle.
"Why, Yerin? Was that your love for me?"
Her breath hitched.
"You know what, Yerina... It took me months to move on," he continued, voice low. "Months of tearing myself apart, trying to understand, to get over your silence. But for you… It took just minutes to walk away. The moment I was damaged, you lost interest in me."
"Suho," she growled, wounded.
"Let me finish, Yerina," he said gently, almost painfully gentle.
His eyes softened with old grief. "I felt you slipping away from the day of the accident… from the moment you heard I might never walk again. But I kept telling myself that my Yerin would never do that. That you were just shocked… that you needed time."
His jaw clenched.
"Until that evening."
Her face paled.
"I heard everything you told Hauen that evening, Yerina," he said, voice cracking. "Every single word."
Tears slid down her cheeks.
"You told her you didn't want to waste your life with someone like me anymore. You said you didn't want to be tied to a broken man." His voice was barely a whisper. "And that day… your Suho died."
He looked her directly in the eyes, raw and honest.
"The man who loved you endlessly died right there, completely. And the Suho standing in front of you now… he isn't the one you left behind. He was born from hell, pain, disappointment, betrayal."
His breath trembled.
"I did everything I could just to keep you, Yerina… everything," Suho said, each word trembling with old wounds. "I went against my own heart to marry someone else because you asked, and I obeyed. I agreed to try for a baby with someone else because you said it would help us. And I obeyed that too. Because I loved you so much and cared too much for you not to put you through that pain, which scared you. I bent myself in every direction you asked just to protect you and keep you forever."
His voice cracked. "I held on to you until my last ounce of strength. I craved you, waited for you, clung to the smallest hope of you. And yet… the moment I lost my ability to walk, you dropped me. Just like that."
His eyes darkened. "The moment I stopped being a trophy boyfriend, you stopped needing me."
Yerin swallowed hard,
"You asked why I moved on?" he said. "Because the man who loved you doesn't exist anymore. You killed him. And the Suho standing here belongs to Haeun."
"The person standing here now… he was rebuilt. Piece by piece. By Haeun. The woman you call a gold digger and—" He stopped himself before repeating the rest of the insult.
"She held me together when I was falling apart. She stayed when I was broken, had no one to lean on. She took care of me when I couldn't lift myself. She cheered for me when I was crying for you." His voice trembled. "She earned me, Yerina... She healed me. She made me alive again."
He stepped back from the wall, letting her breathe.
"You know what, Yerin? She didn't even tell me a single word what you said to her."
He drew a long breath, steady but hurting.
"If I hadn't overheard you that evening, she would have carried it in silence for the rest of her life. She tried everything to keep us together. Even though she loved me… deeply… she never let her feelings cross the line. Because she respected us, she respected what we had."
His eyes shimmered, but his voice stayed steady.
"And she chose to hurt herself in silence rather than become poison between us."
"The man standing here today exists because of her," he said quietly, steady as a closing door. "And she has every right to me. She earned that right. She gathered what was left of me and breathed life back into it. If anything, I should be grateful that I'm the one she chose to love. I'm lucky… lucky that her heart ever opened for me."
His voice softened, but his eyes stayed honest.
"The Suho you had, the one you claimed to love… the boy who loved you with everything he had, he's gone, Yerina. That version of me died the day you walked away."
He exhaled softly, the truth settling between them like a closed book.
"Whatever we had is history now. Just a chapter of memory. We don't have a future anymore. My future is with Hauen. She owns every heartbeat in me, every breath I take."
A faint, tired ache warmed his voice.
"I know what you're feeling right now. It isn't love. It's just an old echo, ripple of emotions that stirred only because you saw me with someone else."
His voice gentled, but it didn't waver.
"So please… don't waste your time on me, Yerina. Move on. You still have a life ahead. You'll find someone better."
Suho looked at her one last time, letting every old feeling loosen its grip. Then he stepped back. And another. And finally turned away.
Yerin watched him walk, her vision blurring as tears gathered. Her heart refused to stay quiet, tearing itself open as the distance grew.
"Suho… stop… I love you, Suho… Suho!" she shouted, her voice cracking in the empty air.
He heard her. Every word cut through him. His steps faltered for a heartbeat, pain clawing at his chest… but he didn't turn back.
He forced himself forward, each step heavy but certain. He belonged to Hauen now. His Hauen. His angel.
He wouldn't hurt her. Not again. Not ever.