Chapter 23

“W-why are you taking your clothes off all of a sudden?!”

Despite Ja-yeong’s startled question, Eden calmly finished unbuttoning his shirt. When his firm chest and defined abs were laid bare, she whipped her head away.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing in someone else’s workspace?!”

“I only have two sets of clothes. I can’t afford to get them dirty.”

Eden neatly hung his shirt on one of the shed’s support posts. Then he took something out of his jeans pocket and held it out to her. It was a lemon candy wrapped in yellow paper.

“Have some. Your hands were trembling.”

“…”

Ja-yeong instinctively hid her hands behind her back. It was true that her fingertips had started trembling from trying to shovel heavy clay on an empty stomach, but she didn’t want this man to see her looking weak. When she pressed her lips together and refused to take the candy, Eden let out a soft chuckle.

“That’s right. You’re still a baby, aren’t you?”

Rustle. Eden smoothly unwrapped the candy and suddenly reached toward her.

“I’m not a ba—Mmph!”

Before she could finish protesting, Eden’s fingers slipped between her parted lips. The hard, round candy brushed against the roof of her mouth, and the sharp scent of lemon spread with the breath she sucked in.

His thick finger lightly pressed against her lower lip before withdrawing. Startled by the unfamiliar sensation of something invading her mouth, Ja-yeong stumbled backward.

“Uh, ah…!”

Just as her feet tangled and she began to lose her balance, Eden’s strong arm wrapped around her waist. Without the slightest sign of strain, he lifted her straight off the ground.

“Eek!”

Her field of vision shot upward. Eden had hoisted her up like a piece of luggage and deposited her on a tall stack of red pine firewood beside the clay-maturing pit.

At this point, wouldn’t it be fair to call him a walking disaster? The moment he showed up, Ja-yeong’s composure had vanished as though a ghost had spirited it away.

“W-what are you…!”

Her habitual protest died on her lips when she caught sight of the man’s bare back.

Every time his muscles shifted as he worked the shovel, his broad back rose and fell. The deep grooves of his spinal erectors and the latissimus dorsi covering his shoulder blades looked as solid as the rocky ledges of Mount Worak’s peaks.

Those are… because of me.

And there, faintly visible across his skin, were the remnants of bruises. The dark bluish marks he’d gotten not long ago while rescuing her at the kiln yard had faded considerably, leaving behind only yellowish traces.

While Ja-yeong stared blankly at his back, Eden got to work.

The mud had been so heavy that Ja-yeong had needed to strain with her entire body weight just to shovel it up. Yet the spade in Eden’s hands looked as light as a feather.

Thud. Crack. Splatter.

He shoveled and transferred the clay with brisk, efficient movements, without even a single labored breath. The sticky clay, which clung together like chewing gum and was difficult to pull apart, piled onto the cart as easily as freshly pulled cotton candy.

“…”

Ja-yeong watched as though entranced, rolling the candy around in her mouth as it slowly melted. Every time its cloying lemon flavor slid down her throat, saliva flooded the back of her tongue. She sucked on the candy with gusto, but carefully swallowed the thick syrup collecting at the back of her throat without making a sound.

“That should be enough.”

Once the cart was full, Ja-yeong hopped down from the woodpile, rubbing her cheeks for no particular reason. One little lemon candy, and suddenly she felt full of energy. Her trembling fingertips had long since settled down, too.

Eden carefully covered the clay with plastic to keep it from drying out. Then, brushing the dirt from his hands, he spoke.

“We’ll eat before starting the next task. Your grandfather made me promise to take good care of you.”

“Where did Grandpa go?”

“He said today was his acupuncture day.”

“Oh, right! Grandpa’s going to the clinic!”

Ja-yeong let out a groan. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays were her grandfather’s acupuncture days. She was supposed to drive him to the supermarket in front of the clinic, but she’d completely forgotten while rushing out to escape Eden.

When Ja-yeong tried to hurry outside without even taking the cart, Eden caught her by the wrist and stopped her.

“I already took him there. He said he’d call when his treatment was over.”
“…”
“So now, be a good girl and eat your meal. Even if you don’t want to listen to me, you should listen to your grandfather, shouldn’t you?”

In the end, Ja-yeong obediently sat down at the table. Before long, a steaming plate of eggplant gratin was set in front of her.

She bit into an eggplant covered in a golden blanket of cheese. Hot juices and a rich, savory flavor gushed into her mouth. The explosion of flavor melted away so effortlessly that she barely had to chew before swallowing.

It’s… incredible.

Her pride wouldn’t let her admit how delicious it was, so Ja-yeong silently cleaned her plate. Eden set a glass of water down in front of her as she focused on eating.

“What are we working on next?”
“…Treading the clay.”
“Treading it?”

He sat down at the table and asked. As he tilted his head slightly, his neatly styled hair swayed over his forehead.

“I know you’re thinking of shellfish, but it’s an actual process. We remove the air bubbles trapped inside the clay.”
“I’ll figure it out as I help.”
“I really don’t need your help anymore, you know?”

Eden chuckled, picked up the empty plate, and stood. As Ja-yeong followed him with her eyes, she spotted a gleaming stainless-steel machine perched atop the old, chipped cupboard.

“Iced Americano? Seems like every Korean drinks one.”

The man asked as he set down the dirty dishes. Out here on a mountainside, she wasn’t being offered some instant coffee from a roadside tea shop, but an iced Americano with a beautiful layer of crema.

Her mouth practically watered, but Ja-yeong squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. She’d eaten the eggplant gratin solely because of her grandfather’s insistence. Coffee was another matter entirely.

She was absolutely done letting Han Eden provoke her into doing whatever he wanted.

The workshop floor was covered with yellowed linoleum treated with soybean oil. A hefty lump of clay landed with a dull thud on the freshly cleaned surface.

Ja-yeong took off her socks and rolled her pants up to her knees.

“Phew…”

She stretched both arms overhead and firmly grasped the handles made from cotton cloth that hung from the main beam. Then, with a solemn expression, she stepped onto the clay.

Squish.

Her feet sank into the wet clay. The mud pressed beneath her smooth, pale heels bulged upward with a sticky sound, enveloping her toes and the tops of her feet.

Treading the clay was a physically demanding process that used the weight of the entire body to push the clay outward in a spiral, forcing out trapped air bubbles.

Each time she pressed down with her weight, the clay spread beneath her feet, and her body lost its balance by just as much. The cotton handles she clung to as though hanging on for dear life were her only salvation.

“Hah… haah…”

Petal-shaped impressions, round as her heels, bloomed one after another across the mud. With each footprint spreading open like a lotus flower came a wet, dense squelch.

“Hh… haah… hng…”

As the work continued, Ja-yeong’s breathing grew ragged. Beads of sweat gathered on her forehead and the back of her neck, then trickled along her collarbones and soaked into her white T-shirt.

Her grip tightened around the cotton handles. While her hands had gone white from gripping them so hard, the fingertips peeking out beyond the knots had flushed red with blood.

A dark shadow fell across Eden’s eyes as he sat in the corner of the workshop watching her. He’d forgotten all about offering to help, his gaze fixed on Ja-yeong as she moved, her feet tangled in the clay. An unreadable expression appeared on the face that usually wore a mischievous smile.

He’d thought she was nothing but skinny, but every time she moved rhythmically, faint muscles showed in her long, slender calves, like a deer’s legs. Her pale feet kneaded and turned the clay, and damp strands of hair clung to the nape of her neck.

A drop of sweat fell.

Eden’s brows drew together in a deep furrow.

His relentless gaze had shifted to the woman’s lips as she panted for breath. They were only a small patch of reddish flesh, no wider than two finger joints. Yet some parts had dried and become rough from her breath, while others glistened with sweat.

“…”

Eden slowly curled the hand resting on his knee into a fist. The side of his index finger pressed against his thumb, rubbing as though tracing his own fingerprint. He remembered the slick, moist feel of the inner surface of her lips when he’d slipped the lemon candy into her mouth.

A vague, troubled discomfort crept stiffly up the back of his neck.

He could feel his attention drifting somewhere he’d never intended it to go.