Chapter 18

“Yes, I’ll do that.”

Jun-hyeok had been staring at Seo-ha as she meekly agreed to an instruction that could fairly be called one-sided, and at last an edge of irritation crept into his voice.

“Why is everything so easy with you? Lukewarm about every last thing, like it’s all somebody else’s business. Never mind attachment to your own life — don’t you have even one thing you treasure?”

Seo-ha faltered. But a question like that was an easy one, its answer already settled.

“I do. Right beside me.”

His wry reply came right on the heels of hers.

“Beside you — what, me?”
“Huh? No. Dodam….”

A man as quick on the uptake as he was could not possibly have missed that she meant Dodam. He was plainly playing a word game to sound her out, and at the thought that she had been dragged into it, Seo-ha’s face reddened for no good reason.

“So now, of all things, I’m competing with a dog. But you know what?”

Seo-ha looked quietly toward where Jun-hyeok was, and for some reason she fell under the illusion that she could see his face clearly.

“I’m pretty well known in my line of work for being worse than any dog. They say once I start biting and tearing at something, I don’t let go.”

She had no idea how she was supposed to react to a man who said he would compete with Dodam. It had to be a joke, yet her heart fluttered anyway, foolishly.

“Mad dog versus gentle dog — you don’t have to watch to know how that ends.”

Seo-ha turned his words over again and again, wondering whether she had misunderstood. Jun-hyeok had sounded as though he meant to vie with Dodam, her affection the prize.

Why would this man volunteer himself for that kind of trouble?

She had thought him out of the ordinary, but he was also remarkably good at rattling a woman’s heart.

“It won’t be easy to win.”

Seo-ha didn’t want him jerking her around, so she answered firmly. Dodam alone was more than enough for her life right now: the one being she was attached to, the one she treasured.

“Fine. Shall we bet on it?”

She had only just managed a single step toward a future. She had no wish to be toyed with by Han Jun-hyeok’s talk, which did nothing but muddle her heart. Who knew how many women that glib tongue had seduced, but she refused to let ‘Yun Seo-ha’ end up among his spoils.

Wanting to get off the subject, Seo-ha spoke up.

“Since it’s come up — I think we should buy Dodam’s things before mine. Could we possibly stop by a pet-supply shop nearby?”

Jun-hyeok could hardly have failed to notice that she had steered away from it on purpose, and he smirked.

“Don’t just look after the gentle dog. Look after the mad dog a little too. If he gets jealous over nothing, it’ll be a headache.”
“Pardon…?”

Her voice cracked on the word, and Seo-ha floundered. His gaze seemed to be fixed on her, impossible to dodge.

“A son of a bitch getting jealous of a son of a bitch is unsightly just to imagine. So don’t give me an excuse.”

Jun-hyeok muttered it lightly and started the car. As he shifted in the cramped space, that scent particular to him drifted straight to Seo-ha’s nose, and the heart she had barely managed to settle began pounding again.

He really is a dangerous man. I have to be careful never to get pulled in.

As if to mock her resolve, the night air smelled sweeter than ever. All this time she had merely been drawing breath; now Seo-ha felt genuinely alive.

For the first time in a very long while.

Seo-ha had bought a great heap of dog supplies and felt full and content, so full that she could not tell whether it came from eating well or whether the shopping itself had filled her stomach.

The moment they got back into the car, Jun-hyeok’s phone rang and kept on ringing. Even switched to vibrate, it buzzed doggedly, until Seo-ha could ignore it no longer and asked hesitantly.

“Is it all right not to answer?”
“If I answer, you’ll have to go home.”
“Ah….”

The call had to be from his family’s house. No wonder things had seemed so strangely quiet. It was late, and Cha Mi-yeon, having found Seo-ha’s phone switched off as well, was clearly laying siege to his family.

“Switching it off would only get more tiring, so I’m leaving it. Don’t mind it.”

Seo-ha weighed the situation closing in on them and spoke first. She could picture how it would unfold as though it had already happened, so the decision wasn’t hard.

“Um, I really don’t think we can go to Han Jun-hyeok-ssi’s place right now.”
“Why?”
“My mother’s people will already be there.”

Odds were that Cha Mi-yeon had already found out his address. Seeing how utterly serious Seo-ha’s face was, Jun-hyeok asked cynically.

“Did you run off with your parents’ money, by any chance?”
“What? What do you….”
“It’s not as if somebody’s coming to hunt down a runaway slave. That’s overkill.”

This was not something she wanted Jun-hyeok to understand, nor did she have any particular reason to explain it. She would have been grateful if he had simply put it down to overprotectiveness and let it pass, but he seemed considerably displeased.

“Knowing perfectly well you’re with the man you’re going to marry and still going to the trouble of sending people — that’s a sickness, plain and simple.”

He was quick on the uptake, as expected. He had already seen that Cha Mi-yeon was sick, too. Seo-ha gave a small wry laugh to herself and kept quiet; she had no wish to take Cha Mi-yeon’s side, but she could hardly agree with Jun-hyeok either.

“She’d faint if she knew we registered the marriage first.”

Cha Mi-yeon wanted this arranged marriage more than anyone, but only as long as Seo-ha stayed locked away, safe in her arms. If she found out, wouldn’t she go completely out of her mind?

A moment later, Jun-hyeok spoke up, matter-of-factly.

“We weren’t on the way there anyway.”
“Then where are we going now…?”
“Unlike you, I happen to have a few home sweet homes.”

He had slyly twisted her own words about not wanting to go home and handed them back to her, and Seo-ha found it rather impish of him.

There was an age gap between them, true, but she had never thought of it as much of a gulf. Yet today Seo-ha had already felt the difference between herself and Han Jun-hyeok more times than she could count. As though he could see the future, he caught what she was about to say or do before she did, and moved first. He was probably not doing it for her sake in particular; it was action born purely of his own judgment and quickness. However old she grew, she would never be able to be like that man. And because he always saw one move ahead, her wariness only deepened.

First of all, I have to get my sight back, and fast.

To give herself room to maneuver, she had to hold out somewhere away from Cha Mi-yeon, somehow, until her condition improved. Wasn’t that exactly why she’d come this far?

“Then where is it we’re going now?”
“I’m thinking of the studio not far from Karon’s hospital. Will that do?”
“Yes. That’s fine.”
“You really don’t want to go home, do you?”

When Seo-ha forced a smile, Jun-hyeok added a remark, as though he found it absurd.

“Yun Seo-ha must have been a good child when she was little.”

No, not in the least. If she had really been a good child, she could never have survived this long. Not that Han Jun-hyeok would ever know it, not in a million years.

Oblivious to what was going on inside her, he went on calmly.

“I wonder if you’ve ever heard of the law of conservation of adolescent hell-raising. The saying that it’s better to raise hell while you’re still in your parents’ arms.”
“….”
“Poor Assemblyman Yun. He’d never have dreamed his grown daughter would blindside him like this.”

In a voice that was not sorry in the slightest, Jun-hyeok hit Seo-ha right where it hurt. Every word he tossed out so indifferently rang in her chest like an alarm bell; she couldn’t let her guard down. In the end, only one thing was clear.

Her brand-new husband was anything but ‘ordinary’.

The place Jun-hyeok took her to was an upscale officetel a little off the busy main streets¹. Thankfully the surroundings were quiet, which she liked.

She had lived shut inside the same space all her life, and yet ever since she had become tangled up with Jun-hyeok, everything was unfamiliar and new. Seo-ha prayed this flutter had nothing to do with the man standing so steadily at her side. Please let it be anticipation for the new world about to open out in front of her.

“Ah.”

The single syllable escaped Jun-hyeok as he released the officetel’s door lock, and Seo-ha asked what the matter was.

“What is it?”
“I forgot there’s nothing here — it’s been empty a good while. I’ll pick up water and a few things we need from the convenience store on the first floor.”
“Should I come with you?”
“No, no need. You can manage alone, can’t you?”
“Yes. I have Dodam, so I’m fine.”

Once Jun-hyeok had gone down to the convenience store, Seo-ha carefully stepped inside. He had said the place had been empty a long time, but it hardly seemed so. If anything, there was a warmth to it, as though someone had been staying there all along, and Seo-ha tilted her head. There even seemed to be a smell of alcohol drifting in the air.

Finding it strange, she gave Dodam an instruction.

“Dodam. Shall we go to the sofa?”

Understanding his owner’s words, Dodam began to move slowly, and Seo-ha followed him. Then, all at once, he stopped in his tracks and barked loudly.

The sound startled Seo-ha, but what truly froze her was the loud scream of a woman she did not know.