Chapter 08
The two entered the annex bedroom.
Thudā
As the door closed behind her, the peculiar pressure of the enclosed space made Harry swallow dryly.
Tae-min had already thrown off his jacket.
With unhesitating hands, he unbuttoned his shirt and sat down on the edge of the bed.
At the sight, Harry’s footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
The massive bed in the center of the room.
And Tae-min, sitting on it as if commanding the space, staring at her.
At the hotel yesterday, they’d clearly used separate rooms…
Why was he claiming this one today?
Harry asked in a cautious voice.
“Surely… we’re not sleeping in the same room, are we?”
Tae-min’s hand, which had been unbuttoning his cuff, stopped.
Slowly raising his head, Tae-min looked up at Harry and replied indifferently.
“And if we are?”
Harry’s lips parted in bewilderment.
“There’s… only one bed, too.”
Tae-min rose from his seat.
The moment Harry instinctively took a step back, Tae-min took a larger stride forward, closing the distance.
“Husband and wife normally sleep in the same bed.”
His tone was as gentle as a teacher instructing a child, but the gaze directed at her was unrelenting.
“Besides, we’re a newlywed couple so passionate that we even kiss at the dinner table.”
With each step he took, his smoothly sculpted chest muscles were revealed through his open shirt.
Harry frantically darted her eyes, not knowing where to look.
Considering the employee who had been watching even their meal, she couldn’t stubbornly insist on using a separate room.
But sleeping in the same bed as Tae-min was even more impossible.
Just then, a small sofa in one corner of the room caught Harry’s eye.
Harry crept toward the sofa and sat down.
“Then I’ll sleep here.”
Tae-min watched with interest, then gave a short reply.
“Suit yourself.”
*
Swooshā
The flowing water stopped.
Harry wiped the steam-covered mirror and let out a long sigh.
As the tension eased, a wave of crushing fatigue washed over her.
She put on a bathrobe and tightly cinched the belt twice, just in case it might come loose.
‘Is he asleep? Please, let him be asleep.’
Carefully, she opened the bathroom door and stepped out.
The bedroom was dimly lit by only the indirect lighting.
But contrary to Harry’s hopes, Tae-min wasn’t asleep.
He was leaning casually against the headboard, reviewing work on a tablet.
He must have just finished showeringāhis damp hair was scattered across his forehead, and through his loosely worn silk robe, the contours of his solid chest muscles were fully visible.
The cold glow of the tablet illuminated his sharp features even more starkly.
“Ah…”
Harry hesitated, instinctively clutching her robe collar and hunching her body.
At the sound, the fingers scrolling through the tablet paused.
He slowly raised his head and fixed his gaze on Harry.
The moment their eyes met in the air, Harry couldn’t move.
As the unbearable silence stretched on, she finally managed to speak.
“…Aren’t you going to sleep?”
Without answering, Tae-min tossed the tablet onto the nightstand and rose.
Then he began to slowly walk toward Harry.
She wanted to step back, but her feet felt as if they were glued to the floor.
Stopping right before her, Tae-min wrapped a strand of her damp hair around his finger.
“Want to sleep together?”
At the lewd words uttered in a low voice, Harry gasped and swallowed.
Tae-min took another step closer.
The cold bathroom door touched against Harry’s back.
There was nowhere left to retreat.
Tae-min’s large hand covered the back of Harry’s hand, which was gripping her robe collar.
“Ah…!”
At the searing warmth of his touch, Harry’s heart dropped.
This was the first time in her life she’d been this close to a man.
As unfamiliar sensations washed over her, her mind went blank.
Staring straight into Harry’s flustered eyes, Tae-min very slowly pressed down on her hand.
The front of her robe fell open weakly, exposing her white collarbone defenselessly.
“I didn’t agree to… to this kind of thing…!”
Harry, thoroughly tense, squeezed her eyes shut and cried out.
Tae-min held back the laugh threatening to escape and asked.
“What kind of thing?”
“Th-that is…”
Harry couldn’t finish her sentence, her ears burning red.
She’d been so bold when it came to revenge, but the moment his touch reached her, she became utterly flustered.
That innocent, helpless appearance stirred Tae-min’s mischievous desire for conquest.
He stepped even closer.
Close enough that their thighs nearly touchedāa precarious distance.
Tae-min bent down, bringing his face close to Harry’s.
“Rolling around in bed?”
At Tae-min’s words, Harry’s eyes trembled as if struck by an earthquake.
Thoughts she couldn’t voice out loud tangled chaotically in her mind.
‘How could I with oppa…’
Just as she was about to shake her head in denial, Tae-min’s long fingers moved downward.
He began to toy teasingly with the loosely tied end of her robe’s belt.
“Wh-what are you doing!”
Harry clutched her robe with both hands and shouted.
She looked exactly like a kitten digging in its claws stubbornly before a wolf.
A soft puff of air escaped above Harry’s head.
“Watch yourself.”
Tae-min tightened the loosely tied belt securely.
“I might do something unpredictable.”
Only then did Harry realize she’d been perfectly teased, and her face flushed as if it might explode.
She shoved Tae-min away, dashed to the sofa, and buried herself under the blanket.
Thump, thump.
Her heart pounded as if it would burst.
Cupping her burning cheeks, Harry muttered softly.
“Just try touching me.”
Even her hands clutching the robe were flushed red.
*
Late at night, the bedroom was submerged in silence.
Only the soft moonlight seeping through the window illuminated Harry, curled up asleep on the sofa.
Tae-min, who had been lying sideways on the bed, sat up.
His gaze had been fixed on the sofa for quite some time.
She’d actually fallen asleep in that uncomfortable spot.
Silently approaching, Tae-min carefully lifted the sleeping Harry into his arms.
The weight against his chest was far lighter than expected, and his brow furrowed.
Where in this small body had she been carrying such venom?
“…You need to eat more.”
With a low mutter, he laid Harry on the bed and pulled the blanket all the way up to cover her.
For a moment, his gaze lingered on her face, a complex heat flickering in his eyes.
His eyes naturally settled on her lips.
On the terrace, when their hot breaths had touched, he’d felt the impulse to devour those lips whole.
If he had, it probably wouldn’t have ended with just once.
“You’d be scared.”
Tae-min slowly brushed aside the hair scattered across Harry’s cheek.
To return to this hellish house, he’d had to trample over countless people, their leashes firmly in his grip.
All to survive.
As the world called himāa monster without blood or tearsāhe’d willingly embraced that label.
It didn’t matter if everyone feared him.
But if this child looked at him with the same eyes as the rest… that, he felt, he couldn’t bear.
He withdrew his hand that had been hovering near Harry’s lips.
Watching her sleep, the iron patience he’d built over a lifetime crumbled like a sandcastle.
Whenever Harry’s breath reached him, the beast inside him raised its head.
‘I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out.’
A suppressed thirst swirled in his eyes.
The urge to wake this audacious child right now and have those clear eyes reflect only himself surged within him.
In the end, Tae-min rose without hesitation.
If he lay down beside her now, he’d surely spend the whole night watching over her with sleepless eyes.
And in the end, he might just unleash the beast inside.
Suppressing the burning thirst, Tae-min left the bedroom, leaving the sleeping Harry behind.
Only his rough, heavy breathing lingered in the dark room for a long time.
[file content end]
