POV: Male Lead (Ahn Min-jae)
Min-jae sat alone in his office, hands gripping the edge of his desk.
The whispers wouldn't stop.
"Min-jae… please protect her."
Every time he heard the voice, a shiver ran down his spine.
It wasn't just a memory anymore.
It was a plea. A final wish.
---
The Struggle for Control
The past few days had been unbearable.
Min-jae would reach for a pen, only to pause because he had the urge to hold it a different way—a way he never did before.
His music taste had changed.
Even his sleep pattern was different.
Ha-neul had started noticing.
"Min-jae," she said gently one evening, placing a hand on his arm. "You're acting strange. What's wrong?"
He wanted to tell her.
He wanted to say, Your father's heart is inside me, and it's speaking to me.
But how could he?
She had already been through so much.
So he forced a smile. "I'm just tired."
She didn't look convinced. "Maybe you should rest."
He nodded, but deep down, he knew sleep wouldn't bring him peace.
Because every time he closed his eyes—
He saw her father's past.
---
A Vision of the Truth
That night, Min-jae dreamt.
But it wasn't a dream.
It was a memory.
He was sitting at a hospital desk, flipping through patient files.
A woman stormed into the room, slamming a paper onto the table.
"You promised me!" she shouted. "You said you would save him!"
Min-jae's breath caught.
It was his mother.
And the man behind the desk… was Ha-neul's father.
---
A Broken Promise
The scene shifted.
Min-jae saw his younger self—**a terrified 14-year-old boy—**standing outside a hospital room, watching his mother struggle to breathe.
His hands curled into fists.
His mother had been pregnant. She had been waiting for heart surgery.
And Ha-neul's father… had delayed it.
"Doctor, please," a nurse had begged. "We need to operate now."
But Ha-neul's father had only sighed, flipping through files. "Another patient needs the operating room. We'll do it later."
Later never came.
Min-jae's mother had collapsed before the surgery could happen.
And now—
Now he had her killer's heart inside him.
---
The Heart's True Purpose
Min-jae jolted awake, gasping for air.
His entire body was shaking.
It all made sense now.
The whispers. The memories. The plea.
"Please protect her."
Ha-neul's father had known.
He had known about the past.
And in his final moments, he had only one wish—
For Min-jae to protect the daughter he had left behind.
---