Episode 10: The Confession
After the showcase, Ju‑hyuk took her to a restaurant in Hannam‑dong, a place with white tablecloths and a view of Namsan Tower.
"This is very fancy," Seo‑ah said, looking at the menu with prices that made her eyes water.
"You've earned it." He poured her a glass of wine. "Your sister's single is already trending. The reviews are calling it 'the most honest debut of the year.'"
"She did that. Not me."
"She did that because you believed in her." He set down the bottle. "Which brings me to something I've been meaning to say."
Her heart skipped. "What?"
He took a breath—a real breath, the kind people take before saying something they can't take back.
"When you first told me you had a month to live, I thought you were lying. Not because I didn't believe in the supernatural, but because I didn't believe anyone could change that fast." He met her eyes. "I was wrong."
"Ju‑hyuk—"
"Let me finish." He reached across the table and took her hand. "I've spent my entire life building walls. Spreadsheets. Strategies. Things I could control. I thought that was the only way to be safe. Then you poured coffee on a laptop, and everything I thought I knew stopped making sense."
"That's a lot of pressure to put on a laptop."
He laughed—a real laugh, surprising them both. "You're the first person who's ever made me laugh like that. The first person who's made me want to be someone other than the man in the corner office."
She squeezed his hand. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying I don't want to be strategic about this. I don't want to analyze the risks or calculate the returns." He stood up, still holding her hand. "I'm saying I love you, Yoon Seo‑ah. And I don't care who's watching."
The counter in her vision blazed gold, the word OBSERVING replaced by a number she hadn't seen in weeks: 100%.
She pulled him down and kissed him, right there in the middle of the fancy restaurant, with the city lights glittering through the window and the celestial audience holding its breath.