"Yay!" Hwayoung's hands shoot up in the air as the display shows that she has won the car race again. Or rather, it's thanks to Yunho as she is sitting on her father's lap and watching the showdown between Byul and Yunho. It's been four rounds but so far, Yunho has been snatching up the first place and left Byul to eat dust. It's a game that required them to press down on the pedals, steer the wheel and shift gears at the same time, but Yunho has somehow managed to execute them perfectly even with Hwayoung partially blocking his view.

Defeated, Byul leans against the chair and throws up her hands. "I give up, how can you be so good at this? I swear my steering wheel is broken and the gears are acting funny."

"Sure," Yunho manages. "Do you want to switch places and see whether it's the equipment's problem?"

She stretches her body, thumping a fist against her lower back as she ignores Yunho's question. "Oh dear, my back is killing me. I think I need to stand because I've been sitting for too long." She hums as she escapes the car racing game and moves over to another game machine, choosing to pick up the mallet for whac-a-mole.

Hwayoung giggles seeing her and Yunho shakes his head while smiling as they join her, with her already slotting the coins in and picking up the mallet. Byul hikes up her sleeves, looking entirely serious as the first mole pops up. She bashes down the mallet non-stop, managing to hit every mole except for two.

Yunho flinches every time she pummels the moles, feeling sorry for the inanimate objects because he can feel the strength she puts in them. As the score is displayed she lets out a small whoop of triumph. She turns around to see Yunho staring at her with slight trembling pupils as if he's going to be the next target.

"I think it is the equipment's problem. There's no way I'm too good at the racing game," he says. "And uh, you're really good at whac-a-mole." He gives two thumbs-up with a nervous smile.

"Told you," she winks as a playful smile creeps up on her.

"Byul-ie, I want to play it too!" Hwayoung approaches the machine's version for children and picks up the smaller mallet, looking up to Byul as she slots in the coins one by one.

There is blaring music as the game starts; Hwayoung's brows knit and her lips are pursed in concentration as she holds the mallet with both hands. She hits the moles excitedly, bashing their tiny heads with a loud thud, managing to hit every single one without missing.

Sure, it's the kid's version and the moles take longer to plop back down but it still manages to make Yunho slack-jawed at the sight, as Byul high-fives Hwayoung to say that she did a good job. She must have definitely gotten it from Lee Eunbi.

"My goodness whose daughter is she?" Yunho mutters to himself as he puts a hand to his chest, the first time he has actually seen his daughter displaying her strength properly. "Maybe I can start putting her into martial arts classes if she wants to. That strength puts us to shame."

They spend the afternoon trying every single game machine, with Yunho and Hwayoung taking too much liking to the dancing game and hogging the equipment. Since it's a weekday, visitors to the arcade complex are scarce, so they can spend as much time as they want without having anyone else waiting in line.

Yunho's long legs cross everywhere as he keeps up with the beat, his skills unmatched as he steps on every platform with accuracy. Hwayoung results in jumping with both legs every time a direction comes up on screen, but when two directions come up at once she misses the beat. Still, she has fun nonetheless, with Byul laughing with joy looking at them from the side.

The father-daughter duo spends more than an hour at the dancing machine, looking as if they're on a mission to try every song available at every difficulty level. The machine has quite a range of songs that Byul decides to take a chair to sit down, believing that they won't stop until they could destroy every stage. She smiles while looking at them anyway, a dreamy look painting her face as she rests her chin on her palm.

They finally stop and Hwayoung claps her hands, fully satisfied with their endeavours through the songs. After asking whether she had enough fun at the arcade and getting her agreement, they move on to their next mission: lunch.

Gripping her backpack straps, Hwayoung runs into the pizza parlour several blocks down, with Yunho and Byul following a few steps behind. They go into the restaurant to find a couple of people eating, paying them no attention as they walk to occupy a booth further inside the restaurant. Whipping out his card, Yunho tells them that they can order as much as they want as Byul looks at him sceptically.

"Is that yours?"

"Why, changed your mind about me after seeing this card?" he says teasingly. He puts down the black card on the table and slides it to her. "Everything's on me today, you can use it all you want."

"Are you making fun of me because I have no money?" she says, accompanied with a smirk. "Don't look down on me, Mr. Jeong. I just got my first paycheck from Hongjoong after our mission at the hotel," she whispers. Hwayoung pays no attention to them as she's too absorbed in the names of the different pizza that she tries hard to pronounce. "On the other hand, I think I can start paying my student debt now. Gosh, it's a long way to go." She clasps her hands and looks at Yunho with purpose.

He narrows his eyes before taking back the black card before uttering, "Are you asking me what I think you are?"

She purses her lips. "50-50, how does that sound?" she says jokingly. "You have a lot more money than me so, 50% of my student debt doesn't sound so bad, eh?" Her eyes automatically travel to the entrance of the pizza parlour when the door opens and they widen at the sight of the newcomer before she ducks and mutters, "Oh shit."

"What's wrong?" Yunho's first instinct is to turn around but Byul reaches out her hand to lock his face in place.

"Byul-ie?" Hwayoung enquires, confused, but Byul puts up a finger to her lips.

"Just for a moment, sweetie." She looks sheepishly to Yunho, then to the new customer who's marching towards the direction of their booth. She tries not to appear suspicious, but keeps her head down low. In her heart, she prays that the person won't recognize her, or even better, not see her. There is a lot to explain if the person does notice her presence in the booth nearest to the cashier, together with another man and a child.

Her heart stops when her ears catch the sound of the deep-voiced man. Yunho and Hwayoung, sitting side by side, look at her with wide eyes, but they stay obedient as they currently don't know who she's hiding from.

"Excuse me?" the man says, but Byul heaves a sigh of relief when she realizes that the man is not talking to her, but the cashier at the counter. She can hear the conversation between the man and the cashier clearly.

"Sir, you've come here twice and I'm afraid that I have to say it again that we can't help you. We've really never seen the woman in the picture coming to our pizza parlour."

"But-" Leedo exasperatedly tries to hand her the missing person flyers to her. "Can you at least please let me put these flyers here? She was last known to go for a job interview here in Light district. And even then, it took me so much time to find it out because she's a very private person. Look, her phone's off and the police doesn't seem like they want to help find her because according to them she's a grown woman capable of making her own choices. Plus they don't look at us because they figured that people like us who live in shit student flats aren't worth wasting their time on. The least you can do is let me put these flyers on the counter."

The cashier rolls her eyes before sighing. "Sir, if your girlfriend or whoever this person is on the paper has went missing, I'd doubt people visiting here would know. Plus, you said it yourself she's an adult woman, so who knows, maybe she ran away from you because you're being annoying? I'm not risking this by getting scolded by my manager; you can put your flyers somewhere else, not here. Stick them on walls or poles illegally, I don't care."

Leedo scoffs before picking back up the flyers, void of any words to reply to her. He storms out of the parlour without giving a second glance to the other customers eating.

He knows whatever the cashier said is right; Han Byul has been missing for more than a week, but when they checked her unit after fearing that something had happened to her, it seemed that she had took all her important belongings and left it as it is. No one knew when she walked out, no one knew where she went at first. The only clue he could unearth was her supposedly attending a job interview at the Light district. No solid evidence of that can be found though, because the cameras inside the whole building never actually work; they're only a decoy to deter thieves.

Maybe she did run away on her own - to escape from that asshole, but still, it's a bit unsettling for him as after they reprimanded Yoon Daewon, he was found dead. Or maybe she just decided that she had enough of the life at the student flat, and set off to somewhere else in search of a clearer path. After all, students living there barely interact with each other, preferring to keep to themselves as they have their own problems to deal with.

He never talked to her that much either; the longest conversation they had was when he told Yoon Daewon off one time and gave her his number, in case the man striked again. She only managed to say thank you multiple times before scurrying off, shutting herself behind the door to her unit. She didn't even look at him straight in the eyes. After that, they never spoke to each other except by small nods or smiles when they passed each other at the lobby.

Why is he doing this anyway, when it's most likely her choice to leave? He doesn't know her that well, only knowing that she's a recent graduate of Chrysalis University, aged 23 years old. He doesn't even know where she came from.

Maybe he's just doing something useless.

He looks to the papers in his hands, sweat starting to form on his face as the sunlight shines on him and he folds the papers in half before dumping them in the nearest trashcan. Wiping the sweat off his forehead with his arms, he walks the against the current of office and factory workers out for lunchhour. He shields his eyes from the glaring sun as he waves a taxi down, intending to go back to Utopia district.

In the pizza parlour, Yunho notices that Byul's face has turned sour, but she tries to cover it by faking her cheeriness. Resuming their activity they call over the waiter who takes down their orders, and as their food arrives all three dive in like they never had anything to eat since yesterday.

Occasionally, Yunho would glance to her and see that her mind is wandering, munching on the pizza as she's thinking about someone else. He wants to ask who the guy was, but he doesn't want to ruin the current mood as Hwayoung inhales the food while giving her thoughts on the movie they watched. Although Byul seems out of it, she never fails to pay attention to what Hwayoung is saying and throws in her own thoughts.

As they finish eating, he still sees her diving deep in her thoughts so he gets up to pay for the food. He taps a finger to her shoulder and she looks up, seeing him reach out a hand.

"I know that you rejected me but in case you need someone to talk to about anything, I'm here. Not forcing you or anything-"

She startles him by grabbing his hand so quick, and Hwayoung looks at them holding hands with dazzling eyes, the child already dreaming on how it would be if she becomes a flower girl on their wedding day. The child quickly runs to her dad's side, taking his left hand as he helps Byul to stand up from her seat, still holding on to her hand.

"Let's go," Byul utters.

She doesn't know what she's thinking as she lets her hand grip tighter around Yunho's; this day alone she has broken a lot of promises she made to herself.

She promised that today she would only focus on Hwayoung, and not let her unnecessary emotions towards Yunho be in the way. But even just after a few moments with him, she wanted to feel how his hand wraps around hers, reminding her on why she only ever looked at him ever since 11 years ago. With Hwayoung present as a testament to their relationship, it's hard for her not to cave in to her feelings, even when she told him otherwise.

Probably this is what KTC had been trying to instil in them; how feelings only make someone weak and unfocused.

Right now, all she wishes is to forget and abandon the daring mission, start all over again with Yunho and Hwayoung. But would she be able to return back to Lee Eunbi? Of course she can't, when she has agreed to succumb to the mission of bringing down those people who had wronged her permanently.

These thoughts haunt her as they make their way next to the indoor park, where the huge playground complex is enough to keep Hwayoung busy until night. They let her go as she starts exploring the vast expanse, assured by the working staff that the children there would be taken care of.

Yunho and Byul lounge at the cafe opened in the same area at the park, where they can catch glimpses of Hwayoung playing. He turns to Byul, trying to read her expression as she looks down into the coffee, swirling the drink around before taking a sip. Only one, before she puts it down again.

"Am I allowed to ask on who the guy was?" Yunho asks. "If you would like to talk about it."

"I don't want to ruin Hwayoung's birthday, but-" she says as she throws a look at Hwayoung, who waves at them and she does the same. Returning her gaze to him she sighs. "He was someone who lived in the same housing complex; probably the only person who notices my existence besides our landlord." She grimaces, "I wasn't the type to socialize that much, so I doubt people would even notice I'm missing. I just..." she trails off, "I never thought that there would be anyone who would look for me."

"I see," he says as he picks up a biscuit and crunches on it. He doesn't know what to say, but he feels there's one although it's most likely inappropriate. He just wants to know, but decides against it. Still, his face must have given it away because she peeks at him with a small smile.

"What was it that you want to ask?"

"Am I really making it that obvious?" He scratches his head.

"I can sense it." She shrugs.

"Well..." He picks up another biscuit, taking time to swallow it as he mulls over his question. "Is he... uh, was he... I don't know, someone special to you?"

"Someone special?" she enquires, amused. "As in... my boyfriend?"

He presses his lips together. In a smaller voice he replies, "Um... yeah."

She chuckles. "No, he's not. I've never been in any relationship before, though." Except with you. "He's someone who helped me to ward off that asshole multiple times." She doesn't even bother saying Yoon Daewon's name. "After he came in with those flyers... I feel bad, because I never really thought that someone would even care if I was gone."

"We would," he replies. "Even if it's not me but Hwayoung would be really sad if you leave. I'm not putting you in as her mother, but she really likes having you around."

She looks up to see him staring at her, and they are brought back to their first encounter in front of the cafe, where Byul had knocked him down and pinned Yunho against the road. It is still as if they're trying to search for the details in each others eyes, hoping to find anything unspoken and unchecked.

"I can't stay here forever, Jeong Yunho. Unless there's a way we can run away from your higher-ups; all of you are still under contracts. To them, I'm supposed to be dead."

He nods, resolute. "You're right, I seem to forget about that these days. Stupid of me to think that we get to live a normal life."

"You hated me a lot when I first came, though." She puts down the spoon that she's using to stir her coffee. "When you basically threw me onto Wooyoung's bed and left me to smack my hands against the headboard. Wouldn't you be glad to see me gone?"

He lets out a breathy laugh. "I told you that I didn't hate you; I just didn't want you to get hurt." He takes a bite off the last biscuit, already raising up his hands to order another plate. "Hwayoung's mother and I had a relationship when we're not supposed to, and she got killed because of that." The new plate of biscuits arrive and he takes one, snapping it into half. "I guess that's what made me wary of letting any woman near Hwayoung or even near myself. Because frankly, that made me feel as if anyone who gets involved with us will get hurt. That is," he takes a large bite off the biscuit, "before you changed my mind. Well, seeing you together with Hwayoung changed my mind. I've never seen her so happy, and you always make it seem like she's very easy to handle. She's my happiness but I can't deny that she's handful sometimes." He smiles, "Her personality's so much like her mother that I don't know whether it makes me miss her mother even more, or grateful that I can feel her presence in my daughter."

Byul keeps mum, afraid that she'll let it spill once she opens her mouth. With a shaky hand she takes a biscuit and munches on it slowly.

"Right, it's stupid. I'm still making it sound as if I'm seeing you as her mother again. Anyway," he clasps his hands, looking for another topic to talk about. "I said there's no time to be sad today. Ah, idiot." He slaps a hand to his cheek.

They try to pass the time they have not talking to each other by circling the area while keeping an eye on Hwayoung, seeing her enjoying herself bringing smiles to their faces. They forget the conversation they had; again bringing the attention back to Hwayoung as she stumbles out of the slide with a grin on her face, claiming that she's ready to move on to their next destination.

When they arrive at the funfair, though, they see the notice saying that it's closed down for renovations. Hwayoung isn't upset but instead she turns to them and mutters, "We can go to Dazzling Bridge and meet mom earlier! Dad, I've practiced what I wanted to say to her, so can we go before I forget what I want to say?"

"Sure, honey."

The lights at the bridge are turned on one by one as soon as they arrive there, with Hwayoung squealing in delight saying that her mother must have known when they came. She runs to the bridge, passing by other people as she takes up her usual spot that overlooks the northside of the river.

Byul tries to stay far to let her have her space, but the kid calls her over. "Byul-ie! You can say hello to mom too! I think she'll like you a lot."

She wants to decline, knowing herself that she would cry if she listens to whatever Hwayoung has to say, but her feet bring her close to the child. Yunho follows her steps, resting his elbows against the railing as Hwayoung starts her letter to her mom. All the way through her letter Byul fights back the tears, forcing herself to not let any fall.

"...and as always mom, I'm sorry. I really am, because I love you even though I don't know how you look like. Dad says he doesn't have a picture of you, but I know that you're really pretty! I hope that you're not mad at me and you'll keep giving light to this bridge so I can visit you every time I want to. I love you, mom!"

I love you too, Hwayoung.

Hwayoung then runs the whole expanse of the bridge multiple times, and when Byul looks quizzical, Yunho chuckles and explains, "She does that because she says she's having a race with her mother on the bridge. Don't worry, she enjoys doing it and she says she's having fun with her mother."

Byul nods, the feeling of wanting to reveal everything at this point so heavy that it would probably only take another push before she says who she really is.

When Yunho is about to turn around, she utters, "Don't you wish that everything here is an illusion?"

He stops, looks at her arms full of scars before uttering a reply, "You mean us, being together, here at the bridge?"

"No, you idiot. That our life having to fear someone else is merely an illusion. How better our lives would be if we could do what we want."

"I do, too." He takes her hands, and she lets him be; she doesn't pull away.

Impulsively he lowers down his face near hers, but stops just before his lips could touch hers. He pulls back and lets go of her hands, muttering a "sorry I don't know what I was thinking".

If she really wants to, she would say "stop being stupid" and pull him close again, but as she looks past him and sees Hwayoung running to them, she's grounded to why she didn't want to leave any feelings behind.

It would hurt too much.

He looks at her eyes, ones that he's sure he would recognize anywhere, no matter how many years have gone by. But he needs to understand why she is holding on to the name Han Byul.

He fell in love again, or maybe it's more appropriate to say that he never actually did fall out of love. When did he realize who she is? Maybe it was during the night they kissed; the memories came crashing down as his suspicions of who she is was confirmed. The DNA test... he knows it's been rigged.

No matter how he tried to bring the topic around her, she wouldn't admit who she is, and he realizes that she must have her own reason; a reason that he's scared to hear. He has a feeling that just like Lee Eunbi, Han Byul is going to leave them again. If it's her decision, he'll respect it and won't reveal that he knows who she is.

Even though he can already feel his heart breaking, he'll learn how to live with Hwayoung, like how he tried to exactly 6 years ago.

Lee Eunbi or Han Byul, I never stopped loving you.