Chapter 44: In His Words
669 Words
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Jae-won didn’t believe in fate.
Not anymore.
Fate was what rich families called manipulation.
What parents called legacy.
What corporations called strategy.
But love?
Love wasn’t fate.
It was choice.
And he had chosen Eun-ha.
Every time.
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He watched her speak at the second ALM summit with the same ache he always felt.
Not pain.
Pride.
Like standing too close to the sun and feeling something in your chest rise before your skin could burn.
She didn’t speak to win.
She spoke to wake people up.
And it worked.
Because when Eun-ha told her truth, it became everybody’s mirror.
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He remembered the first time he really saw her — not in the hallways of St. Lysander, not in class, not even when she first snapped back at his teasing.
It was when she walked out of the dean’s office without flinching.
After being humiliated.
After everyone stared.
She’d met his eyes across the quad, chin high, face unreadable.
He’d never felt smaller.
Not because she looked broken.
But because she didn’t.
And deep down, he knew she should’ve.
He watched her walk away and thought: That girl deserves everything I was born into and more.
He just didn’t know then that he’d give it all up to stand beside her.
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His father once told him, “You’ll never be loved for who you are. Only what you give.”
At the time, Jae-won believed him.
So he gave pieces of himself to everyone.
Charm. Time. Money. Attention.
He called it connection.
But it was all transaction.
Until Eun-ha refused to take anything from him.
Not his name.
Not his help.
Not his apologies.
Just his honesty.
And when he gave her that — the first thing he’d ever offered without conditions — she didn’t thank him.
She kept it.
Like it was already hers.
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He remembered the night she almost left.
Geneva. Winter.
She’d been crying but said she was fine.
And when he told her, “You don’t have to be strong right now,” she whispered, “But if I’m not, who will be?”
He didn’t answer.
He just held her hand and promised to become soft so she could be steel.
They balanced each other like that.
Not by changing — but by choosing.
Again. And again.
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Now, in New York, watching her face another storm, he saw it clearly:
This wasn’t about her past anymore.
This was about what she’d built from it.
So when people whispered that she was too emotional, too involved, too much — he didn’t argue.
He posted one sentence to his own feed the day after the ALM summit:
> “If love isn’t part of the policy, it will fail.”
No hashtags.
No names.
But everyone knew.
And Eun-ha saw it.
She sent back a message.
> I love you too.
Thank you for holding the line.
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That night, he couldn’t sleep.
So he sat at the window, phone in hand, and started writing something — not a speech. Not a press release.
A letter.
To her.
> To the girl who became my truth,
*You once asked me why I should always love you.
The answer is: because you made me want to be loved for who I am — not what I offer.
Because you showed me that survival is strength, but healing is war.
Because when you cry, you still stand.
Because when they underestimated you, you remembered their names, and then you outran them.*
Because when I gave up the empire, I gained the world — and it was you.
Because you are proof that love isn’t soft. It’s unbreakable.
And I will keep choosing you — even when you don’t need to be chosen anymore.
— J
He didn’t send it.
He tucked it into his drawer.
Maybe one day, he’d show her.
But for now, he just made breakfast.
And waited for her to come home.
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End of Chapter 44
[To Be Continued...]
- Writer
