Can love transcend time? Jeon Jung-kook asked this very question himself when he looked at himself in the mirror as a middle-aged man. His daughter was planning to elope with someone considered not "fit" for the Jeon household. Somehow he heard hims...
"Yes, Mommy?" the girl scurried towards her mother, almost tripping as she ran.
"Who do you love the most in this world?"
"I love you the most, Mommy."
Min-A smiled at her daughter's response. "Here you go, there's a present for you."
The child looked at the doll, a woman dressed in a colourful Hanbok, and became ecstatic. She thanked her mom for the gift, giving her a warm hug.
The Jeon matriarch walked into this scene of mother and daughter embracing each other, and a look of disdain formed on her face.
"I can see why Eun-hye hangs on to you," Mrs. Jeon observed. "You're bribing her with useless toys."
Min-A stood up straight and patted the little girl's head. "Darling, why don't you play outside. I'll be with you after."
As Eun-hye left, Min-A turned and looked at her mother-in-law. "What's wrong with giving my daughter a doll?"
"You are spending too much time with that child instead of looking after your husband," Mrs. Jeon stated.
Min-A sneered. "Jung-kook has Sae-ron and other maids to take care of him. He doesn't need me."
"It's because of that attitude of yours that my son would rather be with a snake than be with you."
"Frankly, I thought you're more of a tiger than a snake."
In anger, Jung-kook's mother raised her hand and slapped Min-A across her cheek.
"Why, why...." Min-A stuttered as she felt her face stinging in pain.
"It's obvious you haven't learned not to talk back to your elders," Mrs. Jeon declared.
Min-A glared at the woman who just hit her. "You may be my mother-in-law, but I'm still your son's wife and I'll make sure he hears of this."
"Go ahead and tell him," Mrs. Jeon taunted. "Let's see who he'll side with. Remember that you two wouldn't be married if I hadn't forced him to, and whose fault was that?"
Min-A knew there's some truth in those words. If she hadn't bothered her mother to visit the Jeon household regularly, hadn't held the picture against her mother-in-law, and hadn't insisted on marrying Jung-kook back then, she wouldn't have been in this predicament right now. She thought with time, Jung-kook's feelings for her would change, that sharing a child together would bring them closer.
All Min-A received throughout the years from her husband was indifference at best. But was that ever good enough?
