
guys, astelle doesnt have another child besides theo. she went back to the place she and theo lived in hiding, at the bakery she worked, and set up a pharmacy near it. the older woman is the owner of that bakery and that was her child who tripped. she reminisced the time in chap 1 when soldiers came and explained to her that the woman working for her in the bakery is actually the past empress

he got with the girl cause she was interested in him, physically attractive, naive, has money, and most of all — reminds him of haesoo when they were both young and in love. he never planned to stay with the new girl, he just wanted haesoo to get jealous and start fcking him again; basically go back to how she was in the past, u know, before he forced her to do multiple jobs to lessen the debt HE made and take care of him while he does absofckinglutely nothing. basically he enjoys having a new girl worship him, a similar trait he sees in haesoo who loved him back then and "loves" him now to the point that she never once left him despite everything he did. he believes shes so in love w him that shed still be waiting once he gets bored of the other girl.
hes a scum who thinks w his d!!c and doesnt face the consequences of his actions. add the fact that he has an inferiority complex, hes basically a sadist who likes having women grovel at his feet. people like this experienced a rough childhood and specific circumstances leading to the future may very well cause them to be repulsive individuals, BUT that isnt an excuse. at the end of the day, he alone made his choices in life. a rough childhood does not excuse u from abusing the people around u. ur pain doesnt excuse u from causing others pain.
i just wanna hug her so badly. even taeha isnt a raging green flag, we literally dont know his motives yet?? he has very much clearly known her since the flowershop but hes not exposing his identity. haesoo's just surrounded by awful people and i hope she finds an abundance of happiness and contentment from my bottom of my heart