(Eleven Years Ago)

"Mom! Mom! Don't go!" the boy cried from the front door as he watched his mother's car drive away. "Stay with me! Mom!" He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and ran toward his father's office. "When is Mom coming back?" he asked from the doorway.

The man looked up from his desk. He was perhaps in his early forties, but still handsome despite the etched frown lines on his face. "She is not coming back. Go and finish your homework."

The young boy, not yet thirteen, rushed into the room. "Why? Where did she go? Why did she leave?"

"She is never coming back," the man repeated. "She has left us."

"Why can't I go with her?" The boy was sobbing louder.

"She left us. That means she left me, her husband, and you, her son," the man said impatiently. "You need to face the fact that she is not coming back--she doesn't want to come back."

"But why? Doesn't she love us? Doesn't she love me?"

The man looked down at his hands, which were clasped on his desk. When he looked up again, he was scowling. "She is just like all women--when she doesn't get her way, she loses interest and leaves. I don't know if she loved us. I don't know if love has anything to do with it. She wasn't happy here. I'm not young anymore, and I have to work all the time. I didn't have the time to deal with her constant demands. She chose to leave and lead a different life. I didn't stop her. Now, stop crying!"

The boy was hiccoughing. "Why didn't you ask her to stay?"

The man slammed his hand down on his desk angrily. "Enough! It's over!" He stood up. "Remember this: a woman who loves the person you are on the inside will stay with you always, but a woman who only loves the way you look on the outside will leave when she is through with you." He walked out from behind his desk and approached the boy. He put a heavy hand on the boy's shoulder. "You are lucky because you are a very handsome boy, but that is also what makes you unlucky because you will not know if a woman can see past your looks to your heart. My advice to you is to have fun with them, use your looks to your advantage, and don't let them know they hurt you. If they want to leave you, just let them go. Don't ask; don't beg. There will always be another woman, but you only have one heart."

The boy sniffed and wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve again.

"Be extra careful, Seokjin," the man said. "Besides your looks, you also have money. Women cannot resist that, so you must always keep your guard up. Others will envy your life, but they won't understand." He went to an ornate serving cart next to the desk and poured out two drinks. He handed one of them to the boy. "Here."

Seokjin took the glass and drank. He grimaced as the liquid burned its way down his throat, but then it felt better, and he drank the rest. His father motioned for him to leave. The boy turned back when he reached the door and saw his father refill his glass. Then he dried his last tear and walked out of his father's office.