He set down his wine and gave a faint, amused smile. The sharply defined line of his jaw seemed to tense slightly.
“Why? Is that not allowed?”
Sitting casually on the edge of the table, he let both hands hang loosely between his thighs.
Seeing how relaxed he looked somehow made Namu feel the atmosphere grow even more tense.
“I’m sorry, but… what I said earlier didn’t mean anything.”
“I know. That’s why it pisses me off even more.”
She quietly stared at his face. Her purpose was to look into his eyes.
When she concentrated, there were times when fleeting images occasionally passed through her mind.
That was why she wanted to see him. What kind of expression was that man wearing right now…?
“Sonamu.”
At the sound of him calling her, she narrowed her eyes and nodded.
“Tell me.”
“Don’t you think this is your chance?”
“Chance for what?”
“A chance to get out of your current situation.”
“What’s wrong with my situation?”
“It’s miserable.”
Miserable?
Namu frowned.
Seo Joo-young would sometimes tease her for being completely oblivious. Since she couldn’t see other people’s expressions, she often failed to understand their moods and misunderstood their intentions.
It was the same now. She couldn’t figure out Kwon Seung-jo’s real intention when all he seemed to do was say things she didn’t want to hear.
“If I sleep with you, Mr. Kwon Seung-jo, are you saying you’ll get me out of this miserable situation?”
At her almost absentminded murmur, he silently stared at her, rubbed his face, and slowly rose.
“Sonamu. When people see a loose knot, they usually think of two things.”
Namu vaguely watched him as he approached.
“One is to pull it tight and tie it again. And the other is… to pull on it until it comes undone. Like your shoelaces.”
She instinctively looked down. But all she could see were white indoor slippers. When she looked back up, irritated at being compared to a shoelace, his large hand suddenly came to the back of her neck.
Before she had time to react to the sudden closeness, his low voice continued.
“Which one do you think I am?”
A brief laugh passed between them, and the tension in his presence seemed to spill over toward her. His thumb slowly brushed across her lips.
It had been similar before.
Kwon Seung-jo had always touched her lips before kissing her, and whenever she reacted to his hand, he eventually lost his restraint.
But all of that belonged to the past.
Namu simply looked up at him without moving. She didn’t know what the right answer was, and somehow, she felt she shouldn’t answer at all.
“If you don’t want me touching your loose knot, don’t provoke me carelessly.”
His teeth ground together harshly. He was serious, and she knew it.
“Sonamu… I’m capable of going further than just kissing you.”
Lee Jun-yeop stood before the closed door, grinding his teeth in disbelief.
Room 610.
There was no way he had come to the wrong room. Since Sonamu couldn’t recognize people by their faces, he had only wanted to confirm things for himself.
But Sonamu was with a man he had never expected.
“Could it be that bastard?”
The man Sonamu had mentioned—the one she supposedly had a crush on.
It had been a long time since Jun-yeop had truly experienced what it meant to feel overwhelmed by someone.
At thirty-one, he had passed the examination to become a prosecutor and had quickly risen through the ranks.
He was confident about his looks, qualifications, height, and family background as well. No matter what anyone said, he believed he was above most other people.
But the man inside that room with Sonamu had crushed even his lofty pride.
Cheating on Namu with her friend, Seo Joo-young, had been wrong, but in his mind, Sonamu was the one who had driven him to it.
Her sophisticated taste and elegant appearance that naturally drew attention—she had been the perfect trophy for him.
But that was where it ended.
Whenever he looked into those empty eyes, it felt suffocating. No matter how openly he showed his affection or sent her admiring looks, she never noticed.
Whenever he suffered from the emptiness Sonamu caused him, Seo Joo-young comforted him.
Naturally, they grew closer, and before he knew it, he was meeting Joo-young at hotels during lunch breaks.
The ironic part was what happened when they had spent a weekend together at Seo Joo-young’s house and Sonamu suddenly showed up.
Even after seeing him with Joo-young in revealing circumstances, Sonamu had actually apologized with her head bowed, saying she was sorry.
And now this?
Why had she recognized him?
Could it be that she had called him down just so he could see this? Because she had reunited with her former fiancé and wanted to separate them…?
“No one decides that without me.”
Jun-yeop clenched his fists, trembling as he kicked the hotel-room door.
Bang!
At the noise, someone who appeared to be an employee approached from the end of the hallway.
“Sir?”
Startled, Jun-yeop lowered his head and hurried away in the opposite direction as though fleeing.
The phone alarm rang for barely half a second.
5:30 a.m.
After turning off the alarm, Seung-jo checked the time with dark, exhausted eyes.
Damn it…
It was practically as though he had stayed awake all night. He had continued drinking wine until three in the morning, so he had gotten barely two and a half hours of sleep.
As he stared at the ceiling with hollow eyes, he turned toward the sound of quiet breathing.
Namu was sleeping peacefully beside him.
She was even using his arm as a pillow, holding onto him in her sleep.
Her eyelashes rested softly against her cheeks, and her smooth forehead caught the faint light. She moved her slightly parted lips now and then, almost as if murmuring in her sleep.
Seung-jo quietly watched her before placing an arm over his forehead and letting out a deep sigh.
He had clearly warned her not to act so defenseless, but Sonamu hadn’t listened. Instead, she had been calm enough to offer him a glass of wine.
‘That bastard from earlier… Was he really your boyfriend?’
‘Yes.’
‘Ha… So right after demanding that I break off our engagement, you found yourself another man?’
‘I was immature. I started dating Lee Jun-yeop just because I mistook his kindness for something more.’
‘…Ha. You can joke at a time like this? I broke off the engagement and—!’
‘I think you keep misunderstanding something, so let me make it clear. You and I broke off our engagement. We didn’t break up after dating. So please don’t twist it into something else.’
He had been left speechless.
He had never been verbally outmatched by anyone before, yet with her, he couldn’t even manage a proper rebuttal.
You really know how to crush someone’s pride in the most spectacular ways.
Even while grinding his teeth inwardly, Seung-jo carefully pulled his arm free.
Part of him wanted to lie back down beside her and pretend nothing was happening, but he had things to do.
Her sleeping face was so peaceful that she looked like a gentle puppy.
His heartbeat was pounding almost unpleasantly hard. Just being in the same space as her had kept him tense enough to prevent him from sleeping, yet Sonamu remained completely at ease.
It had felt like this back then, too.
It had been an impulsive night, but when he opened his eyes the next morning and imagined this woman staying by his side for the rest of his life, his heart had felt strangely full.
And you’re saying we were nothing more than a broken engagement?
After all the turmoil you caused me, after leaving me alone with all these feelings, that was all you thought it was?
There was hardly any pride left for him to lose.
He casually brushed her fallen bangs away and got out of bed.
The moment his feet touched the floor, the alcohol rushed back to him and his vision spun. As he paused with a hand against his forehead, he noticed Sonamu’s phone.
No wonder it had seemed to keep ringing throughout the night. More than ten messages were flashing at regular intervals.
He couldn’t check them, but the sender was probably that trash named Lee Jun-yeop.
What an annoying bastard.
He turned the phone face down and entered the bathroom. After changing and standing beneath the lukewarm water, he felt some of the alcohol finally leaving his system.
As his mind became clearer, one sudden question began bothering him.
‘Namu can’t recognize people by their faces. And she thinks I’m in Japan. She probably assumes I’m someone who looks similar.’
‘Even if she can’t distinguish people’s faces, there’s still such a thing as instinct.’
She couldn’t recognize people by their faces?
Sonamu never acknowledged him first unless he spoke to her.
Of course, he understood that. It was the way she wanted things to be.
But wasn’t it different when they were alone?
Whenever he called her name, Sonamu reacted as though she had seen a ghost.
It seemed strange to simply dismiss it as poor eyesight. There was a difference between having difficulty recognizing a face and being unable to distinguish people altogether.
After taking a quick shower, he came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around him.
She was sitting blankly on the bed, rubbing her eyes.
She rubbed them several times, then opened them wide.
After shaking his damp hair, he spoke in a slightly sarcastic tone.
“Why did you get up? You should’ve gone back to sleep.”
She slightly parted her lips and let out a relieved sigh.
“Oh… it was you, Mr. Kwon Seung-jo. I thought it was someone else…”
What was that supposed to mean?
“Stop calling me ‘Mr.’ all the time. Use the proper title.”
“I can’t call you oppa. That would be even stranger.”
“Outside, call me Director Kwon.”
“Oh, fine… I will.”
She still looked half-asleep, blinking with her messy hair and drowsy expression.
Seung-jo suppressed a hollow laugh and stood before the mirror.
“Breakfast will come through room service. Eat and sober up.”
“I heard there’s a good place nearby that serves bracken beef soup.”
“Ah, that place? I’ve been there. It’s not your taste.”
“It is my taste.”
“Then go eat there.”
“Then cancel room service.”
“If you don’t eat it, they’ll collect it themselves. Just leave it.”
Because of the sound of the hair dryer, he couldn’t hear her clearly, but it was obvious she was grumbling quite a lot.
“Are you some kind of drinking champion? How can you drink that much and still be fine?”
“Ah, well… I can handle wine. But about yesterday… I’m sorry. Yesterday was a mistake.”
Seung-jo glared at her through the mirror and gave a slight nod.
“I know. You made a mistake.”
She grinned, dragged her slippers across the floor, and walked over to the refrigerator.
She took out a bottle of cold water and drank deeply. Water trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Sonamu suddenly held out the bottle she had been drinking from toward Seung-jo.
“Want some? You must be thirsty.”
He looked back and forth between her and the bottle, then snatched it from her irritably and drank the rest.
Only then did he seem to feel alive again. He stretched and walked to the window before pulling open the curtains.
“So, we’re done now, right? I played the music you wanted, and you passed the chairman’s test, Mr. Kwon.”
He frowned and glared at her standing by the window.
It annoyed him that she seemed so desperate to push him away.
Seung-jo irritably looked away from Namu.
“Don’t worry. I have a woman I’m supposed to marry too. If I want to rush things and get married, I won’t have time to worry about you.”
“Oh, right. You did say that. That’s good. I’m glad.”
Glad?
Sitting on the windowsill and swinging her legs, she genuinely seemed pleased.
It was that same defenseless smile that had tormented him all night.
His thoughts became increasingly tangled. Every time he tried to annoy her with a remark, somehow he was the one who ended up suffering.
“What’s good about it? That I found another fiancée? Or that I won’t have time to worry about you?”
His words came out harsher than intended.
His anger was slowly rising, and his stomach twisted.
She drew such a firm line between them and built such a high wall, yet apparently she had been able to date a piece of trash like that man.
Damn it.
He could no longer keep his expression under control.
With a grim expression, Seung-jo approached her.
But Sonamu only blinked her large eyes, searching for something to say.
“Answer me. What exactly is so good and fortunate?”
He placed both hands on the windowsill where she was sitting.
Trapped between his arms, she stared at him before pulling her head back with a frown.
“Are you being difficult on purpose?”
“Why would I?”
“What did you want me to say?”
“I asked the question.”
“I… I think both things are good. I don’t think I said anything wrong…”
Ha. This is driving me crazy.
Sonamu didn’t even smell strongly of alcohol.
Her cool skin carried almost no scent at all.
Her natural scent was so faint that it was difficult to notice unless one was very close to her.
And he knew far too well how much that subtle scent could affect him.
Being this close to her made him tense, yet Sonamu’s body remained completely cool.
He lowered his head and deliberately changed the subject.
“I heard you’re unemployed.”
“I’m not unemployed. I tutor students privately. Like a private instructor.”
“That’s basically the same thing.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Apparently, the chairman liked your performance.”
He stepped away from her before he completely lost control of himself.
Once her face was no longer so close, breathing became easier.
Seriously… enough already, Kwon Seung-jo.
“The chairman?”
He put on the shirt he had taken off and let out a long sigh.
Perhaps she wasn’t completely oblivious after all, because her expression stiffened as she climbed down from the windowsill.
“I’ll have someone come and explain the details to you. You’ll hear everything from them. Of course, there’ll be a contract too.”
“Excuse me, but I want this to end with today’s performance.”
“Then keep getting involved with me.”
It was a ridiculous argument.
After throwing out that absurd statement, he quickly took away her chance to respond, trying to hide his own anxiety and embarrassment.
“It’ll probably become a very personal relationship. I don’t mind.”
