TWENTY EIGHT

Hyuki put a can of soda on the table while looking down at his best friend who had been staring at him blankly for a long time. It had been more than ten minutes. Jinwoo sat there, in Hyuki's quiet apartment. But during that time, neither he nor Lee Hyuki said a word other than the sigh that Hyuki had let out.

Don't know what is going on with his friend as well his subordinate, what is clear today is that Hyuki's situation looks much more disorganized than a few days ago when they made a video call to discuss the issue of the terrorist threat.

"You want to say something?"

Jinwoo took his drink while looking at his best friend who was still holding on to his silence. Since then he had been wasting his precious time just to listen to Hyuki's breath that kept blowing loudly in front of him. In an hour and a half he had to pick up Yujin at his campus. If Hyuki didn't bring up the problem soon, he swore he would never help the man solve his problem.

"How's Yujin doing?"

One sentence that Hyuki managed to get out managed to make Jinwoo frown in anger. He had been waiting for the man to tell him his problem, but the first sentence that came out was actually related to how Yujin was doing. That's really not what he wanted to hear. After all, why is that man questioning Yujin's problem, Yujin is his business. It was none of the matter of shabby man sitting in front of him at the moment.

"Yujin is fine. What about your problem with your mother? I believe the reason behind your shabby appearance today is because of your mother."

"Hahhh..." Hyuki sighed again in front of him while looking at Jinwoo full of frustration. "Next week I'm getting married."

Jinwoo looked surprised by the information that Hyuki gave, but he chose to be flat rather than being excited which would never be useful for Hyuki's survival.

"Why all of a sudden? Is your mother for real?"

"One hundred percent my mother meant it. Even my mother today will come to pick me up. What should I do?" Hyuki whined like a child.

Jinwoo chuckled amused seeing Hyuki's really pathetic condition in front of him, but somehow it looked funny in his eyes. He had never seen Hyuki this scared just because of a marriage. And by the way, marriage doesn't seem too bad either.

In the past he also thought married life was a complicated life. Full of intrigue and various kinds of complexities that are not easy to solve. But after he married Yujin, everything felt different. Married life was not as bad as he thought. By getting married, he can feel a complicated feeling that he himself can't explain, but it feels very beautiful to him.

"There's nothing bad about marriage."

Hyuki looked at Jinwoo in disbelief while showing his sad frustrated face. The man seemed in disbelief with his own ears after hearing Jinwoo who actually asked him to marry in a relaxed tone.

"Marriage is not as bad as you think Hyuk. What your mother did was right. You should indeed be married at the age of thirty-two." Jinwoo's advice was wise.

Hyuki is getting frustrated listening to the advice of his very unhelpful friend. His intention to call Jinwoo to his apartment was to help him get out of the old arranged marriage arranged by his mother, but in fact, he got to a dead end by calling Jinwoo to his apartment.

"I am not ready."

"Even ten years from now you will still say the same thing. There is no other way but to obey your mother's wishes and experience for yourself what married life really is. Trust me it's not as bad as you think."

"Huh, is it because of Yujin? Don't you realize that your words are like you're licking your own spit. You used to openly hate Yujin, reject Yujin, and try to throw Yujin out of your life. But what do I see now? You seem to have started to love Yujin and like your marriage."

Jinwoo was silent. He didn't try to deny the accusations that Hyuki gave him because they were true. Gradually he begins to like his married life and begins to make peace with his past. Yujin made him feel like someone who was precious and loved. Now every time he felt that his existence in this world mattered. And it's all because of Yujin.

"You are right. I'm licking my own spit. I used to hate Yujin so much and wanted her to stay out of my life. But the more I got to know her, the more I couldn't stay away from her. Yujin is like a magnet to me, she draws me closer to her and she also floods me with a lot of love that I never got. It's true that my adoptive family treats me well, but I feel the love that Yujin gives me is far different from the love that my adoptive family gives me. Yujin reminded me of my mother who was always gentle with me even though I was a very unruly child. And after I lost my mother, I don't want to repeat the same thing. I don't want to wallow in regret for wasting Yujin like I wasted my mother."

"Wow."

Hyuki muttered under his breath and looked speechless. All of Jinwoo's words this afternoon proved to him that the figure of general Lee who had been known to be cold and cruel had disappeared. Now Jinwoo has turned into a normal man with his human side starting to grow.

"I think you should follow your mother's wishes. There's nothing wrong with getting out of your comfort zone and trying new things because you never know what will happen if you don't try to get into it. After all your mother must have chosen the best. No parents wants to see their child suffer."

Hyuki clapped his hands excitedly and shook his head in disbelief at the new, unexpected side of Jinwoo. Yujin really exerted a great influence on a Lee Jinwoo. But seeing his best friend who turned wise like this, will he also experience it one day? Will he also turn into a wise man after marrying a woman he has never known?

"What's the name of the girl you're going to match up with?"

Hyuki blinked once and began to return to the real world he had left to fantasize about. With a sad face the man looked at Jinwoo while mentioning the name of the girl who would soon become his lifelong partner.

"Kim Nari."

-00-

Brukk

Yujin threw her tired body a little hard on the back of the passenger seat beside Jinwoo. In her hands was already presented a pile of books that would be her ammunition in carrying out the final project of her master's program.

"You look pale."

Jinwoo looked at Yujin from the side and saw that his wife's face was slightly pale and also sweaty. Without saying anything. Jinwoo grabbed a piece of tissue from the tissue box beside him and slowly started to wipe the sweat droplets that flooded his wife's beautiful face.

"We have to go to the doctor, you have a little fever." Jinwoo said.

Yujin put away Jinwoo's hand which was still wiping the sweat on her forehead and then shook her head weakly.

"I am fine. This is only part of the first trimester of pregnancy. General Lee, I'm pregnant."

Silence. Suddenly the atmosphere between them became quiet and felt tense. Yujin, who was initially quite anxious waiting for the reaction that Jinwoo would show, looked even more worried because Jinwoo didn't say anything and instead immediately drove his car without saying anything. Yujin then turned her face to another direction while observing the scenery of passing vehicles with pain.

She thought that Jinwoo would be happy to know the news of her pregnancy, but the man acted coldly after hearing the good news she gave. Is it wrong if she is pregnant? God has given her the trust to become a mother at the age of four months of her marriage. Although it was indeed too soon, but that was no reason to be cold like that. He should be happy. When other couples beg for a child, they immediately get it very easily. Even in the midst of the hassle of working on her master's final project, it means that God has considered her capable of carrying out her responsibilities as a parent.

"Sorry if this is too sudden and startled you."

Yujin said with a choked voice that was very evident in every sentence. But Jinwoo remained silent and just looked straight ahead.

After hearing the shocking news, he somehow felt… confused. Having a child is not the plan any time soon. He still has to organize his life to be better and can provide a conducive environment for his future child. And now if suddenly God gave them a child, what should he do with him later? He is not a good father-to-be. He is a sociopath. A cold-blooded assassin who has many enemies. What if one day he endangers his child? He really couldn't think of the various bad possibilities that kept racing into his brain. If he could ask, he wanted God not to give him offspring so he wouldn't have to worry about the fate of his descendants in the future or what if his descendants had terrible psychopathic traits. He did not want his son to suffer the same fate as him, because he knew very well how bitter those sad times were.

"How long?"

Finally Jinwoo chose to open his voice to neutralize the tense atmosphere that ambushed them a moment ago. With a forced hoarse voice, Yujin tried to answer the question Jinwoo was asking even though her throat felt really sore at the moment.

"About two weeks. This pregnancy is still very early, so anything can happen. If you don't want it, we can abort it."

Jinwoo subconsciously squeezed the steering wheel tightly and gnashed his jaw in anger at Yujin's words that were too sadistic for him. He really didn't like Yujin's words, which sounded very cruel for a mother-to-be. Yujin must have misunderstood his silence. That's not what he really wanted. He just didn't know how to express it.

"Never jump to one-sided conclusions if you don't really understand them. And don't even think about eliminating him because he's innocent."

Yujin turned her face to the side and looked reluctant to look at Jinwoo again. The words that Jinwoo spat out really didn't fix anything. Instead, Jinwoo made her already cloudy heart even more cloudy.

Now she was really annoyed with Jinwoo and wanted to go back to her father's house. It's useless to stay at home with Jinwoo if her husband doesn't love her and her pregnancy at all. Jinwoo only liked her body, but the man didn't want to take responsibility for his actions that had always slept with her. If she had known how painful it would be, she would have chosen to remain silent and not tell the man that she was pregnant with his child.