Chapter 9
Seol-ah grabbed the robe that came as a set with the dress and quickly slipped it over her body.
The robe fluttered brightly like a wave of flowers before softly wrapping around her slender figure.
Seol-ah immediately went to the dining room and gulped down several glasses of water.
Clack!
She put the glass down.
Only then did the chilling silence wash over her.
Seol-ah realized it.
No, there was no way she could not realize it.
The eerie silence, so quiet that even a mouse seemed afraid to move, told her everything.
There was only one person in this huge, empty place.
Her.
“Ha…”
Seol-ah let out a breath and slowly sank into a chair.
She rested her elbows on the cold marble table and covered her forehead with both hands.
As if mocking her, she suddenly remembered their first night together.
That day, she had been sprawled helplessly across the bed, gasping for breath after experiencing an unfamiliar pain that had been suffocatingly intense and a dizzying pleasure she had never felt before.
When everything was over, Moon-hyuk immediately got up.
After taking a shower, he had said,
“Let’s sleep separately and comfortably, okay?”
Even now, his words, the way the corners of his lips had slightly curled, and his back as he walked away without leaving even the slightest trace of regret were as vivid as if it had happened yesterday.
A self-deprecating laugh escaped between Seol-ah’s lips.
Yeo Seol-ah, what were you expecting?
That was when she heard the sound of the door opening.
There was quite a distance between the dining room and the entrance.
It was such a small sound that she had to listen carefully to hear it.
Yet Seol-ah knew immediately.
Cha Moon-hyuk.
He was home.
Her quiet heart suddenly began racing.
Regardless of how hurt and disappointed she had been, every nerve in her body instinctively rushed toward him.
She had absolutely no pride when it came to him.
Seol-ah bit down hard on the inside of her lip.
It was an old habit she had developed over the years.
Whenever she was upset, embarrassed, or didn’t know what to do, she would unconsciously bite her lips.
She had been hurt and disappointed by him.
Yet now that she thought about facing him, she didn’t know what expression she should make or what she should say.
If she could, she even wanted to disappear like smoke.
But the bright light from the dining room was already spilling out into the hallway.
As the sound of approaching footsteps gradually grew closer, Seol-ah finally let out a resigned sigh and stood up.
Every time she moved, the soft, smooth slip dress wrapped around her body.
Only then did she become conscious of how excessively bright and glamorous the dress was.
It was her mother’s burial day, and also the anniversary of Moon-hyuk’s grandfather’s death.
This outfit was completely inappropriate for the occasion.
Seol-ah bit her lip in embarrassment, but she had no other choice.
In the end, she walked outside.
“You’re home?”
Unable to look directly at his face, Seol-ah lowered her eyelashes slightly.
Moon-hyuk walked into her field of vision.
At first, she saw his indoor slippers.
Then the hem of his dark suit trousers.
And as he came closer, she could see his firm, muscular thighs hidden beneath the suit.
The closer he came, the drier Seol-ah’s mouth became.
Finally, his footsteps stopped.
Seol-ah tried her best to keep a calm expression.
But her nerves tightened painfully, as if mocking her attempt.
A quiet yet suffocating silence settled over her.
Then his woody scent, mixed with a faint fragrance, gently tickled the tip of her nose.
She could also feel his gaze slowly traveling over her body.
Perhaps it was because of the thin slip dress.
His usual cold, indifferent gaze felt especially sharp today, almost painful against her skin.
She wished he would say something.
Anything.
His silence and his gaze were so uncomfortable that even breathing felt difficult.
And the fact that he didn’t say anything despite seeing her looking so different from usual felt almost cruel.
Seol-ah nervously grabbed the robe.
Then she realized.
Even that movement had been caught by Moon-hyuk’s eyes.
Yet he did not move at all.
Her mouth became dry and rough.
It was a torturous stretch of time.
But Moon-hyuk showed no intention of ending it first.
Finally, as though she had made up her mind, Seol-ah lifted her eyelids.
Her gaze moved over his perfectly white shirt, his loosely undone tie, and the prominent line of his masculine Adam’s apple before finally meeting his face.
He looked tired.
Of course he did.
He had returned from Saudi Arabia and immediately attended his mother-in-law’s funeral.
He had even followed them to the burial site.
Afterward, he had returned to work and then attended his grandfather’s memorial rite.
Even so, he remained as perfectly composed as a sharply honed blade.
“Did the memorial rite go well?”
Seol-ah asked in a dry voice.
“Yes.”
There was a faint smell of alcohol coming from him.
After that brief answer, Moon-hyuk walked past Seol-ah and headed straight for the dressing room.
Seol-ah quietly followed him.
Moon-hyuk took off his jacket.
Seol-ah naturally took it from him.
A cold silence settled between them, a silence that seemed impossible to bridge.
As always, Moon-hyuk showed no intention of breaking the silence first.
Once again, Seol-ah spoke.
“Is everyone… doing well?”
“Everyone is… doing well.”
Moon-hyuk gave a faint, almost mocking laugh.
He was exceptionally—
But he soon erased the expression from his face.
He took off his watch and placed it inside the accessory compartment on the island cabinet.
Then he skillfully began undoing his cufflinks.
“Because I wasn’t there, did something…”
Seol-ah carefully moved her lips.
At that moment, Moon-hyuk’s hands stopped while undoing his cufflinks.
He slowly turned his head and looked directly into Seol-ah’s eyes.
His eyes seemed to ask:
Because you weren’t there, did something what?
Seol-ah flinched and closed her mouth.
Even so, she couldn’t look away from his eyes.
It felt as though she were being pulled into a cold night lake with no bottom.
Moon-hyuk also took in the sight of his fragile, painfully fragile wife.
Unlike her father and older sister, who always looked polished and radiant, Seol-ah’s face had become even thinner and more gaunt.
Perhaps because of that, the delicate purity unique to her was now mixed with an exhausted, sorrowful atmosphere.
It gave her a strange beauty that made her look as though she could break at any moment.
And then there was the slip dress he had never seen before.
Perhaps it was the bright color.
It suddenly reminded him of cosmos flowers, their colorful petals swaying here and there in the autumn breeze.
Yet when he looked into those large eyes of hers, something inside him twisted.
It irritated him.
Very much.
There it is.
Those eyes again.
Moon-hyuk narrowed his eyes.
Yeo Seol-ah…
She had always been like this.
Even that morning, when her father and sister had attacked her with their words, she hadn’t even cried out.
She had simply endured.
And endured again.
Yet she was also a foolish woman who couldn’t stop her emotions from spilling out.
Like a puppy that would approach its owner nervously at the slightest gesture and eventually lick the owner’s palm even after being kicked and beaten.
And yet, despite everything, she had been standing there in her black mourning clothes, swaying like a cosmos flower, so fragile and unstable that he couldn’t get the image out of his mind.
She had even made him turn around and stop walking away.
Ha.
Yeo Seol-ah.
Everything about her irritated him.
Moon-hyuk finally spoke coldly.
“Did something what?”
“…Were they perhaps uncomfortable because…”
What are you talking about?
Of course they were uncomfortable.
The corner of Moon-hyuk’s lips curled into a faint, mocking smile.
“Your daughter-in-law is really important…”
Tsk.
He remembered his uncles, who depended on Taekyung while constantly giving unwanted advice and demanding that he fulfill every responsibility and obligation.
He also remembered his aunts and wives of his uncles, who pretended to be elegant and refined while clinging closely to Kyung-hwa, constantly talking about family traditions and picking at everything Seol-ah did.
It was unpleasant.
Even if their marriage had been arranged, she was still the woman he had married.
“Don’t worry about it.”
With those words, Moon-hyuk coldly withdrew his gaze, drawing a clear line between them.
Then he resumed removing his cufflinks.
But to Seol-ah, his words sounded like:
Why would there be anything about you worth worrying about?
After that, Seol-ah couldn’t bring herself to say anything else.
She simply stood there, quietly watching Moon-hyuk place his cufflinks into the perfectly organized accessory cabinet.
Thump.
He tossed his shirt aside.
His perfectly shaped upper body was revealed, with a broad back and a flawless inverted-triangle build.
Below it were his fitted boxer briefs and his thick, firm thighs stretching down beneath them.
Seol-ah knew perfectly well how foolish and pathetic she must look.
Even so, she couldn’t turn away.
Turning away was not something she could do.
Like her mother, she could only stand there and watch.
So Seol-ah continued looking at Moon-hyuk.
Without even the slightest hesitation, Moon-hyuk left her standing there and headed toward the shower room.
A cold breeze seemed to follow the trace of him as he moved farther away.
The door closed.
Whoosh.
The sound of running water could be heard from far inside.
Only then did Seol-ah turn around.
Her unsteady steps came to a stop.
She looked back.
Was it because her heart felt so cold and painful?
Or perhaps because her name, Seol-ah, meant “child of snow”?
The room was perfectly temperature-controlled, yet it felt unbearably cold.
That was when it happened.
In the mirror directly in front of her, her own reflection suddenly appeared in her frozen field of vision, almost as though it had scratched its way into view.
