The room was silent except for the faint hum of the air conditioning. Seung-Hyeok sat across from her at the kitchen table, his jaw tight, eyes heavy with something she couldn’t quite read. It had been a week since his father—her husband—passed away. A heart attack had taken him without warning, leaving their strange, tangled family dynamic more fragile than ever.

“Are you going to you eat?” she asked, her voice calm.

Seung-Hyeok let out a hollow laugh. “You don’t have to act like my mom, you know. We’re practically the same age. This whole thing is... ridiculous.”

“I am your mom,” she says, though the word felt foreign even to her. A year older, that’s all she was. She had married his father because she thought she loved him—or at least the security he provided. She never thought she'd be left navigating this mess.

“You married him, not me. Stop pretending this is some perfect little family.” His tone was biting, but his eyes softened just a fraction. He wasn’t angry at her, not really. Just lost.