Chapter 3
“Are you saying there are actually crazy women who live with their ex-husbands?”
Do-young asked, seemingly unable to understand Dan-bi’s cold reaction.
“You said all you needed was a place to lay your head at night.”
“That’s true, but…”
“So what’s the problem?”
“……”
“Do you hate the idea of living with me that much?”
Do-young raised one eyebrow. His sharply defined eyes gleamed intensely.
“That’s not…”
“There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It’s not like I’m asking you to share a room and a bed with me. We’ll just be housemates.”
Dan-bi bit down gently on her lip.
If there was a problem, it was her feelings for Moon Do-young.
She had been the only one whose feelings had grown while they lived together. Do-young had never once spared her a second glance.
While he had been out of her sight, she had firmly locked away the feelings she had for him. After he left, she had tried desperately to put an end to her unrequited love.
But if she started living with him again, she was afraid all the feelings she had worked so hard to suppress would become confused all over again.
“……”
“……”
She couldn’t exactly tell him how she felt, either.
It was driving her crazy.
“Your parents are in the States, aren’t they?”
“……Yes.”
“So you can’t exactly move back to your family home.”
When Dan-bi was about to enter university, her father had been assigned overseas as an expatriate employee. Apparently, her parents had taken to life abroad, because they eventually settled down in the United States for good.
They had repeatedly tried to persuade Dan-bi to join them in America, but as a Korean through and through, she had never felt particularly drawn to the idea.
Yet at this very moment, regret came rushing over her in waves.
Was this why people said that if you listened to your elders, you could even find a rice cake while sleeping?
“Do whatever you want.”
Do-young leaned back, folding his arms across his chest.
It was practically a declaration that he was leaving the entire decision—and responsibility—to her.
“I only wanted to repay you for helping me. If it makes you uncomfortable, I’ll drop it here.”
Now that he put it that way, his offer suddenly felt like an opportunity.
So this was how fickle the human heart could be.
“Think about it and let me know.”
Do-young stood up.
At his large movement, Dan-bi’s heart began pounding wildly.
Growing anxious, she shuffled her feet and opened and closed her lips several times, as though she wanted to say something but couldn’t quite bring herself to do it.
“Senior Do-young. Wait a moment.”
Dan-bi grabbed the sleeve of Do-young’s shirt as he passed by her.
He stopped and looked down at her.
“……Are you leaving already?”
Even she thought she was being unbearably pathetic.
“Why?”
Do-young bent down, bracing one hand against the back of Dan-bi’s chair and the other against the table.
She was half enveloped in his embrace.
The clean scent of shower cologne drifted toward her from Do-young, who had suddenly come so close.
“When should I come?”
His voice slipped into her ears with the faintest hint of amusement.
A spring breeze wafted gently through the open window. The strands of hair falling over his forehead fluttered like something out of a painting.
Dan-bi pressed her lower lip between her teeth before forcing herself to speak calmly.
“I suppose I can’t help it.”
“……”
“If you feel indebted to me, I’ll feel uncomfortable too.”
“……”
“I’ll accept your offer.”
A soft chuckle escaped between Do-young’s lips.
Dan-bi had changed her stance to protect the last shred of her pride.
After all, refusing someone’s kindness wasn’t exactly polite. So she would simply be gracious enough to accept it.
“But I have one condition.”
“What is it?”
“Only until I can save enough for a rental deposit.”
Do-young suppressed a laugh and nodded.
Every time he blinked, his thick, luxuriant eyelashes fluttered softly over his eyes.
Dan-bi stared at his face as though entranced, then moistened her lips with her tongue.
In that fleeting moment, she failed to notice the slight twitch of Do-young’s jaw.
Dan-bi didn’t have much luggage.
With a backpack on her back and one hand wrapped around the handle of her suitcase, she stood outside the front door.
She took a deep breath to steady herself.
She had no idea how many minutes she had already been standing there like this.
She never thought she would find herself walking into Moon Do-young’s home of her own free will again.
“This house should have been mine…”
With a deeply miserable expression, she gently banged her forehead against the front door.
Seriously. If simply stepping over the threshold of an apartment in the middle of Seoul was this difficult, what was she supposed to do?
Frowning, she bumped her forehead against the door again and again.
“Ouch.”
Just as she was banging her head against it, the front door suddenly opened and Do-young poked his head out.
“That’s one hell of a knock.”
Dan-bi rubbed her forehead, which had been struck by the unexpectedly opened door.
Do-young swung the front door wide open with one hand, then snatched the suitcase from Dan-bi’s grasp.
“Stop banging your head and come inside.”
The muscles and veins in his forearm bulged as he effortlessly lifted the suitcase.
Dan-bi quietly watched Do-young’s back as he walked inside first.
He was dressed comfortably in a slightly loose T-shirt and sweatpants. She couldn’t help admiring the smooth, solid lines of his body visible even through his casual clothes.
“……I think you’ve gotten taller, too.”
“Huh? Dan-bi, what did you say?”
He had good ears, too.
How had he heard her muttering from all the way over there?
“I said the interior is beautiful. It looks like one of those homes you see in interior-design magazines.”
The atmosphere was completely different from the last time she had visited this place with that swindler—the previous owner.
The modern interior, decorated in black and white tones, suited Moon Do-young perfectly.
“Dan-bi.”
She turned toward the low voice calling her.
Do-young was standing in the doorway of one of the rooms, motioning for her to come over.
Dan-bi hurried toward him, and Do-young slipped the backpack from her shoulders.
She naturally shrugged her shoulders free and let him take the bag.
“The master bedroom has an attached bathroom, so it would probably be more convenient for you. But I figured you’d complain about feeling uncomfortable again.”
“Of course, of course. How could I possibly use the master bedroom when the landlord himself is right here?”
“I knew you’d say that.”
The small bedroom had a bed, a vanity, and a storage cabinet arranged to leave plenty of room for moving around.
“When did you prepare all of this? I would’ve been fine just spreading a blanket on the floor…”
Dan-bi furrowed her brows, looking apologetic.
She hadn’t expected him to go to this much trouble because of her.
Do-young tilted his head, looking puzzled, as if wondering why she thought he had prepared all of this specifically for her.
“It was originally the guest room.”
“Oh. Right.”
An awkward silence descended.
Only then did the realization hit her that she was alone with him in this enclosed space.
Every muscle in her body seemed to tense.
It was as though a taut sense of tension filled the room.
Of course, it was probably all in her head.
Moon Do-young probably wasn’t thinking anything of it.
To break the silence, Dan-bi looked up at him.
Standing right beside him made the considerable difference in their heights even more apparent.
“By the way, Senior, how did you end up buying this place? It isn’t even a new building. It’s just an ordinary apartment.”
Dan-bi asked with wide eyes.
Do-young met her gaze, rubbed the tip of his chin, and murmured thoughtfully.
“Hmm.”
After carefully considering the question, he gave her an extremely simple answer.
“I needed this house.”
It was a short answer, but Dan-bi couldn’t help being insanely jealous of the kind of financial power that allowed someone to simply buy an apartment because they needed one.
“Why did you need it? Are property prices in this neighborhood supposed to go up again?”
Do-young placed his large palm on the crown of Dan-bi’s head and gently pushed her aside as he walked past.
“I’m going to take a shower. Unpack your things and make yourself comfortable.”
“Yes.”
That was what she said, but there was no way she could just sit around and relax when she was living under his roof.
She shoved her backpack and suitcase into a corner of the bedroom before creeping out into the living room.
The sound of rushing water came from the bathroom attached to the master bedroom.
She hurried into the kitchen.
“His obsession with cleanliness hasn’t changed.”
There wasn’t the slightest trace that anything had ever been used.
Do-young had been the same even when he was her husband.
Even if he drank nothing more than a glass of water, he would immediately wash the glass, dry every last drop of moisture from it, and return it neatly to the shelf.
His lifestyle had not a shred of human warmth to it.
Even when they had lived under the same roof, she had sometimes felt a strange emptiness because she could hardly find any trace of him in the house.
Still, she remembered being immensely relieved that, at the very least, he never forced his own lifestyle onto other people.
“I wonder what’s in the refrigerator.”
She opened the double-door refrigerator.
Even inside, his personality was unmistakable.
Bottles of sparkling water and imported beer stood perfectly aligned, while ingredients and various sauces were arranged with meticulous neatness.
“……What kind of food did he like again?”
Come to think of it, she knew almost nothing about Do-young’s tastes when it came to food.
They had been married for a year, but in reality, they had been little more than housemates, just as they were now.
The two of them had spent most of their time separately in their respective rooms.
Do-young had been busy preparing for graduation, while Dan-bi had been a third-year university student—the year students jokingly called the “death year.”
They rarely encountered each other inside the house.
They shared the kitchen, but they had never once sat down at the dining table and eaten together.
For some reason, a mixture of emptiness and bitterness washed over her.
“I’ll just make some simple pasta.”
She took out pasta sauce, garlic, bell peppers, minced meat, and other ingredients, cradling them all in her arms.
“Where are the pasta bowls…”
She opened the cabinet above the sink and spotted dishes that looked suitable for serving pasta.
Rising onto her tiptoes, she stretched one arm as far as she could.
They were just barely out of reach.
She took a deep breath and, putting more strength into her toes, reached up once more with a small grunt.
That was when a solid-looking forearm suddenly stretched out from behind her.
“……!”
The familiar scent of shower cologne seeped into her nose.
The same scent that always lingered around Do-young.
“Is this the one?”
Dan-bi turned around.
Do-young was holding the pasta bowl she had been trying to take down.
“……Yes. That’s the one.”
Tiny droplets of water glistened on the ends of Do-young’s hair.
The bathrobe draped loosely around him revealed glimpses of his sculpted chest and abs beneath it.
Dan-bi drew in a short breath.
Her face flushed a bright crimson.
Not knowing where to look, she hurriedly turned her head from side to side.
“I took it off so you could look.”
Dan-bi’s already large eyes widened.
She couldn’t believe what she had just heard.
She lifted her head to look at him, needing to make sure that those words had really come from Moon Do-young’s mouth.
Do-young curled the corners of his lips into a playful smile and continued,
“It’d hurt my feelings if you didn’t look.”
