Chapter 19

“Well then, I suppose it’s time we took this carriage over to Geum-ryong’s place.”

How much time had passed? It was Hwang Deok-ho who finally spoke up.

Perhaps he’d exhausted what little energy he had left defending the steak from the others. For a man who usually prided himself on being able to drink anyone under the table, he’d gotten tipsy unusually quickly today.

“That’s right! We were being inconsiderate. It’s a virtue for us old folks to make our exit at this point.”

“Thanks for the meal, young man from Seoul! We ate well!”

The man had gone into the yard to wash the dishes and offered little in response. Even so, the elderly villagers waved at him as though his handsome, tall figure were still floating somewhere in the air.

Pork, chicken, duck. And on top of that, salad and pasta. One dish after another appeared, things they’d never even heard of, much less seen, in their remote little village. It was only a matter of time before the liquor bottles ran dry.

“When’s Mr. Gwak getting here? He said he’d come back up after selling the pigs, but I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him.”

“Now that you mention it, you’re right. Shouldn’t you give him a call or something?”

With the elderly villagers finally preparing to leave, Ja-yeong wanted nothing more than to escape the obnoxiously shiny camping table, too. There was just one problem: she could barely walk.

“This isn’t liquor. It’s medicine to beat the heat, medicine!”

Grandma Geum-ryong, who rarely ever encouraged anyone to drink, was unusually insistent today, winking as she offered Ja-yeong some raspberry wine.

Ja-yeong’s grandfather seemed far too drunk to stop her. And Ja-yeong, who sat blankly at the table, absentmindedly stroking the fur off some poor dog’s forehead, had little choice but to accept the glass.

The raspberry wine, served with sparkling water and ice, was actually one of Ja-yeong’s favorite drinks. As a child, she’d even sneaked sips of it behind everyone’s backs. Its cool, sweet taste spread through her body like the refreshing embrace of summer.

Not realizing how deceptively potent sweet alcohol could be, she’d kept drinking one glass after another, trying to soothe the feeling of being an unwanted extra at the gathering. Now her legs had gone weak, and she could barely stand, let alone walk properly.

“…Unbelievable.”

She hadn’t even managed to confront him properly before getting swept up in the whole mess again.

And she’d gone right ahead and eaten the meat the man had cooked, without a second thought. Worse, it had been delicious.

Whenever she got mixed up with this unwelcome guest, everything became unpredictable and somehow went completely off the rails.

Ja-yeong rubbed her forehead against the arm propped on the table. The alcohol was going to her head, and the world shimmered before her eyes as though heat haze were rising from the ground.

“Have the elders left?”

Nothing had been resolved, yet the infuriating intruder had returned to speak to her again.

Ja-yeong let out a tipsy breath and deliberately hummed a little tune. It was her silent way of telling him she intended to ignore him completely.

“You’re drunk.”

That had been exactly what she’d wanted him to think. But now that he was actually mistaking her for a drunkard, she hated it even more.

Ja-yeong jerked her head up and glared at Eden.

“I’m not drunk! What’s there to get drunk over? It’s just water and ice mixed in… What’s so special about that?”

Regardless of how fiercely she glared at him, the man continued neatly packing the clean cooking utensils back into their box.

“So Korea’s just like America. People who are actually sober say they’re drunk, and people who are drunk insist they’re sober.”

With the elders out of sight, the man was showing his true colors again.

Even his smile had completely changed. In front of her grandfather, he’d smiled with crinkled eyes, acting all pleasant and respectful. But now that he was alone with Ja-yeong, he kept letting out these irritating little smirks.

“Damn it… They should’ve seen that. If they’d seen how he ignores me and acts like that, at least they wouldn’t tease me about being his girlfriend or their future son-in-law.”

“Wasn’t it you who started that rumor, Ms. Hwang?”

The man spread out a linen cloth he’d wrung dry and laid it over the box of cooking utensils. He’d been quick in the kitchen, but he was even faster at cleaning up.

In the blink of an eye, the table was spotless.

Ja-yeong slammed her palm down on it.

“I already told you it wasn’t me!”

At the sound of her raised voice, Dusik, Seoksam, and Neoguri, who’d been lying beside her like her personal guardian spirits, all snapped their heads up at once.

“Woof!”

A short, light warning bark rang out. It was their way of threatening to put a stop to any disturbance that might ruin their rare outing.

“That’s right, boys! Good job! Get him! Go bite him!”

Ja-yeong waved her hands wildly and shouted at the dogs. Eden seemed to wear a faint, untroubled smile, but his eyes were busily tracking her fingertips.

Her palms were red. Perhaps she was the type who sweated easily.

Her flushed fingertips glimmered strangely in the early summer sunlight. Three or four calluses dotted each palm, their surfaces turned pale, as if to prove that she wasn’t like your average woman in her twenties.

Compared to Eden’s meticulously groomed hands, the difference must have been even more pronounced.

As someone who devoted all his attention to his fingertips, he kept his nails trimmed short, and his palms were always dry and clean.

Without realizing it, Eden clenched his fists. The thought came out of nowhere and pricked at his mind: If he held that woman’s hand, would it still feel sticky?

It was an impulse with absolutely nothing to do with rapport or understanding. The sort of foolish urge only an idiot would feel.

“Ms. Hwang, what I said earlier, before the others arrived…”

“Grrrr! Woof! Woof!”

Had the dogs actually understood what she’d said?

As though her hands waving back and forth in the air were toys, Seoksam bounced excitedly with his tail wagging. The other two dogs joined in, and all three began barking toward where Eden stood.

Eden swallowed the rest of his words, raised both hands to shoulder height, and laughed.

“Hey, are you guys talking to me? There’s nothing good that comes from listening to a drunk person, you know.”

“Woof, woof! Woof!”

On closer inspection, the dogs weren’t looking at him at all. Their attention was fixed on the entrance to the kiln yard, toward the narrow forest path barely wide enough for a single car.

“Dusik, Seoksam, Neoguri. What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”

When Ja-yeong staggered to her feet, the three white dogs closed ranks around her in a protective circle.

“Wait…”

Eden’s smile faded, and his eyes narrowed. At first, he’d assumed it was just the somewhat rough play typical of large dogs, but something about their behavior was off.

All three had their ears pinned back and their lips curled away from their teeth. Their bodies were pressed low to the ground, their hind legs tensed with energy. They were ready to spring at any moment.

Eden alternated his gaze between the mountain path, where nothing was yet visible, and the dogs glaring down it. A chilling sense of déjà vu crept over him.

Thud, thud, thud.

It was as though he could hear something approaching. Farther up the path, branches thrashed violently.

As if an agitated bull were about to come charging out…

“Woof! Woof! Woof!”

The dogs’ barking grew more and more frantic.

“Ms. Hwang, come over here for a moment.”

His first instinct was to get her to safety.

“Boys! Is this because I told you to bite him? I was only joking… Ah, what am I supposed to do in a situation like this?”

But Ja-yeong was too busy trying to calm the dogs. The sudden commotion seemed to her to be her fault.

Watching her hands flail helplessly in the air, Eden hesitated for a brief moment.

Should he grab her hand or not?

He’d already crossed the line and touched her without permission twice. If he did it again, any chance of getting her pottery delivered would be gone for good.

More than that, his intention in reaching for a woman’s hand that looked sweaty and sticky… hardly seemed innocent, even to him.

“Ms. Hwang, could you listen to me for a—”

Then came a voice that sounded more like an animal’s bellow than a human cry.

“There’s no need to carry on like this!”

The man snapped his gaze toward the sound and swiftly moved the dogs and the woman behind him.

Something was coming. Whether it was an agitated bull or a pig that had escaped from a truck, something heavy was definitely charging straight toward them.

Eden’s nerves stretched to the breaking point. Whatever the charging beast turned out to be, he intended to protect Hwang Ja-yeong once again.

“Woof, woof! Woof, woof!”

The dogs barked furiously. The woman flailed about, unable to handle the strength of the dogs, each as big as a calf. And then came someone’s shout.

“Hey, Hwang Ja-yeong!”

At least it wasn’t a cow mooing. Nor was it a pig.

“Are you seriously going to marry that stiff-necked guy?!”

Eden’s brow furrowed sharply.

The beast that had thundered up the mountain, making the whole place ring with its arrival, was none other than Gwak Yeol-ho, the village chief’s son.