BTAD 07

Chapter 07

Seohah hesitated at Junhyuk’s words.

“Who told you that you’d become free by dying?”

Fearing that she might make another mistake if they continued talking like this, Seohah quickly changed the subject.

“More importantly, I think I’ll feel a little freer once I can take this jacket off.”

Junhyuk snorted at her remark and scolded her.

“If you’re going to take it off, take everything off. Otherwise, keep it on.”

Remembering the mistake she had made earlier, Seohah’s cheeks flushed peach.

Just then, Junhyuk’s phone rang.

He stood from the sofa and stepped away to take the call, allowing Seohah to let out a long, heavy sigh.

Whenever she was with Han Junhyuk, she felt as though every hair on her body were standing on end, leaving her in a constant state of tension.

Even when he disappeared for only a moment, it felt as though the oxygen she had been missing suddenly filled the room again.

“Hmm, what’s this………………?”

The pocket of the jacket he had put on her bulged outward.

That must have been why the oversized jacket had felt strangely uncomfortable despite how loose it was.

Perking up her ears toward the direction Junhyuk had disappeared, Seohah carefully surveyed her surroundings.

It was quiet.

She secretly felt along the hem of the jacket, then cautiously slipped her hand into the pocket.

Her slender fingers carefully traced the outline of something heavy and perfectly balanced.

Seohah’s eyes narrowed for a moment.

“Ah, this is……………….”

The first sensation against her skin was the soft texture of leather wrapped around heavy metal.

The moment she gripped the lens bezel, the subtle resistance of the familiar focus ring caught against her fingertips.

The small dial beside the shutter, the protruding film-winding lever—

Even without seeing them, her fingers remembered each one first.

There were things in this world that she could recognize without seeing.

Just like now.

“……Leica CM.”

The words she murmured were spoken with almost absolute certainty.

But the camera’s focus ring was slightly misaligned. Following the familiar sensation in her fingertips, Seohah turned the ring until the distance scale was set precisely where it should be.

Beyond the smooth friction, that familiar sensation traveled properly through her fingertips.

Only then did a smile curl at the corners of her lips.

A smile bright enough to reveal the dimples that had been hiding in her cheeks.

“……And you said it wasn’t your type.”

Junhyuk shook his head as though she were pathetic.

Unlike the mouth that had dismissed Seohah as a mere youngster, his gaze was fixed on her pale white legs.

Even from the angle where they were pressed against the sofa, their smooth, flawless lines somehow grated on his nerves.

‘Quit putting on that pointless act.’

Ridiculing himself inwardly, Junhyuk began studying every detail of her from head to toe.

Beyond the range of Seohah’s vision, Junhyuk stood loosely against the hallway wall.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he quietly tried to read the subtle shifts in her expression.

Eventually, her lips parted slightly.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t hear the whisper itself, but Junhyuk could easily guess what Seohah had murmured.

“Leica CM.”

At those words, a faint ripple passed through his eyes as shadows of the past spread across his gaze.

Then dimples appeared on Seohah’s cheeks.

It was the first time he had ever seen such a defenseless smile on her face, and an involuntary dry laugh escaped him.

So she knew how to smile like that, too.

After glancing around for a moment, she cautiously pulled the camera from the pocket.

‘No matter how I look at it, this doesn’t seem like an act…….’

Unlike her slightly unfocused pupils, her long fingers delicately explored the camera.

After watching Seohah for a while, Junhyuk cleared his throat softly and straightened from where he had been leaning.

He saw her hurriedly hide the camera back inside the pocket.

Walking toward the sofa as slowly as possible, Junhyuk pretended not to know anything and spoke to her.

“Ah, sorry. It was an important call.”

“Yes, it’s all right.”

Junhyuk sat on the edge of the marble table in front of Seohah and leaned his upper body toward her.

When his long legs brushed against Seohah’s knees, she seemed startled and sank deeper into the backrest.

For some reason, the sight displeased Junhyuk.

He deliberately shifted his leg, letting it lightly brush against Seohah’s calf.

Her shoulders visibly flinched.

“You said it was your first time with a man.”

Junhyuk brought up the embarrassing subject again, and Seohah’s eyes wavered in confusion.

“If you came here with me after bringing it up yourself, that means you’re prepared to sleep with me, too.”

She still couldn’t quite grasp the purpose of his conversation, but he wasn’t wrong, so Seohah slowly nodded.

“Does that mean you’re prepared to faithfully play the role of my wife, at least until you die?”

If that was what he wanted, there was nothing she couldn’t do.

Not if it meant keeping Cha Miyeon away from her.

“If you’ll marry me, I’m prepared to fulfill all my obligations to the best of my ability.”

For the sake of complete freedom, Seohah truly didn’t care how she used even her own body.

Junhyuk gave a faint chuckle.

“That’s not something you can accomplish just by trying hard.”

“Whatever you want, if it’s something I can do, I’ll try.”

“How do you know what I want?”

Judging by the implications behind the ‘role of a wife’ he had mentioned, it seemed likely he meant something sexual.

Something she could still do even though she couldn’t see well.

But Han Junhyuk seemed to have a somewhat different idea.

“Maybe it’s because you’re young. You don’t understand how frightening the world can be. I can tell just by how easily you talk about dying.”

“I’m not that young.”

No sooner had she finished speaking than Junhyuk lightly pulled on Seohah’s ankle.

Her slender white leg slid helplessly toward him.

The instant it touched Junhyuk’s knee, her back sank into the sofa.

Junhyuk slowly lowered his upper body toward her.

“And you understand even less how frightening a man can be.”

As his face drew close enough for her to feel his breath, Seohah instinctively turned her head away.

Because she couldn’t see, the vibrations in the air and the warmth against her skin felt even sharper.

Her heart pounded violently.

Junhyuk’s fingertips brushed beneath her chin before turning her face back toward him.

It was a light touch without any real force, yet the sense of dominance it carried made Seohah’s breath catch.

“Even though you can’t handle a stimulus this small.”

As he spoke in a low voice, his lips briefly brushed against Seohah’s lower lip.

In the dizzying silence, Seohah felt as though his unseen gaze were piercing straight through her.

He slowly brought his lips toward her earlobe and whispered,

“Trying so adorably hard to pretend you’re not a little kid.”

Han Junhyuk’s sudden actions always went beyond anything Seohah could predict.

And what he said afterward had enough impact to overshadow all the rudeness of his behavior.

“I’ll accept your proposal, so breathe properly.”

Junhyuk pulled Seohah up by the wrist as he spoke, moving away from her body.

Only then could she finally release the breath she had been holding.

“But there’s one condition.”

Seohah quietly placed a hand over her chest and waited for Junhyuk to continue.

For now, calming her startled heart came first.

“Even if you’re going to die, you don’t do it without my permission.”

“Yes