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Knock, knock. Ja-kyung, who had knocked and was about to enter, hesitated. The model that had been in the second-floor living room was gone, and when she wondered where it had gone, it was sitting in Kang Il-hyun's bedroom. She stared in disbelief when the bathroom door opened and Il-hyun came out with only a towel around his lower body, shaking his wet hair.
His face with damp bangs was not the man who had looked like a murderous ghost earlier. It wasn't the first or second time she'd seen his naked body, but she felt inexplicably embarrassed and looked away.
"I was going to wash up before leaving, but I couldn't wait and came down."
Ja-kyung frowned. She had heard from Park Tae-soo that he told her to come down. She didn't know whose words were true, but seeing him smile, she trusted the not-so-friendly Park Tae-soo more. He removed the towel covering his lower body.
Seeing his cock spring up, Ja-kyung couldn't close her mouth. It was fully erect 24/7. He casually put on a gray robe and tied the sash while walking to the sofa. When he sat with his legs spread across from her, the robe opened, barely concealing his cock.
Noticing her gaze, Il-hyun laughed openly.
"Unless you're going to suck it, stop staring."
She was dumbfounded. How could her eyes not go there when he was completely naked with his legs spread? She threw a cushion at him, telling him to cover up, but it was useless. In the end, Ja-kyung had to look away on her own. Il-hyun put a cigarette in his mouth, lit it, and handed her a brown paper envelope from beside the table.
Ja-kyung took it and checked inside. There were simple documents, a plane ticket to Hawaii, a business card and photo of someone she'd never seen. Surprisingly, the departure date on the ticket was two days from now. The background of the photo was Hawaii, but the man was wearing a black suit, so at a glance it looked like a composite.
"Yoon Soo-hyun. He's the person in charge of taking care of you there. He'll come to meet you at the airport, so at least familiarize yourself with his face."
The words "take care of you" rubbed her the wrong way. Am I a child? She sent him a protesting look, but his attitude was firm. Along with several precautions, he repeatedly told her not to move around alone just in case.
She didn't like that he had already made a decision without her giving a clear answer. Noticing this, he asked indirectly.
"Don't want to go?"
"It's not that I don't want to..."
Ja-kyung trailed off. Then she thought of the people who had been in the living room. After washing up and coming down from the second floor, they had already left.
"The people who were in the living room earlier."
"Yeah."
"Are they newly hired people?"
Il-hyun nodded.
"Then isn't that a loss for you? If you're paying money to have them play around, why did you keep me?"
Il-hyun put out his cigarette and smiled with a hurt expression.
"Are you really asking because you don't know, or is it an act?"
Ja-kyung's mouth opened and closed. Does he really like me? Not just keeping me around for sex, but sincerely? Words that couldn't make it past her throat piled up layer by layer. From the moment she started wanting to believe him, wanting to protect him, she kept having doubts. Is it possible for a human who hates and detests even his own family to sincerely like someone else?
Ja-kyung had never sincerely loved anyone either. She had only met people briefly and leaned on them out of physical and emotional loneliness. That was why she couldn't understand Wang Lun's attitude of missing and longing for a lover who had betrayed him even while resenting them.
"If you have something to say, say it."
Noticing she seemed deep in thought, Il-hyun spoke first. Ja-kyung kept her mouth shut and shook her head. Then she gathered the documents. Nothing would change in this situation. He was the employer, and she just had to do as told.
"Are they trustworthy people?"
She checked again just in case. Il-hyun smiled, stood up, came to Ja-kyung's side, and sat down. A peach scent wafted over. Thinking it didn't suit him, she nevertheless found herself bringing her nose closer to smell it.
Il-hyun wrapped his arm around Ja-kyung's shoulder and pulled her close. He held her hand as she tried to pull away, interlaced their fingers, and tilted his head to meet her eyes. Strangely, with this man, things like this were more embarrassing than sex. When she feigned indifference, he rested his head on her shoulder. It wasn't like her shoulder would break, so she just left him alone.
"Don't tell me you're worried about me."
"As if."
"I may not shoot as well as you, but I'm better at acting."
Ja-kyung frowned and pushed Il-hyun away. Don't do that, she meant to say. When she got angry, Il-hyun climbed on top of her. Through the thin robe, his erect cock rubbed explicitly against her thigh. She struggled to get up, but with his body weighing her down, it wasn't easy.
"Ah! Get off."
"Try saying 'please move aside, nicely.'"
Ja-kyung glared at him, then reluctantly gritted her teeth and spat out each word.
"Please. Move. A. Side."
He answered immediately with a smile.
"No.
Ha. Should she beat him up once before leaving the country? She was conflicted when he moved his body behind Ja-kyung. The sofa was wide, but it was cramped for two people to lie down. He hugged Ja-kyung from behind. He precariously hung off the edge of the sofa and wrapped his arm around her waist to pull her close.
From his broad and firm chest against her back, she could hear his heart beating thump-thump. When she tried to pull away, he held her even tighter. The bedroom was dead silent, and lying with their backs and chests against each other felt strange.
Il-hyun slipped his arm under Ja-kyung's head to make a pillow, then patted her shoulder.
"I'll put you to sleep."
When she refused, he even hummed an unrecognizable song. When she asked what song it was, he said he didn't know either.
Come to think of it, she had no memory of ever hearing a proper lullaby from anyone in her life.
"CEO, did anyone sing you lullabies when you were little?"
"No. I've slept alone since I was a newborn."
"Weren't you scared?"
"Not particularly. What's there to be scared of?"
"Ghosts and things like that..."
"Where are there ghosts."
Ja-kyung blinked. When she was staying in the Philippines before, she had seen a ghost with Wang Han in an old hotel. She hadn't seen it clearly, but a white object had whizzed past right before her eyes. Recalling that moment, her spine tingled.
"They exist. I've seen one."
Il-hyun laughed.
"You believe in ghosts, but you kill people."
Come to think of it, that's true. Ja-kyung felt needlessly flustered.
"Is there anything else besides ghosts that scares you?"
Ja-kyung thought deeply. Cockroaches and anything with six or more legs were all scary. That was why she liked snakes. Because they had no legs. Occasionally her dead parents appeared in her dreams trying to kill her, which was scary, and... there didn't seem to be anything else.
"Will you tell me about your childhood? I'm curious."
Il-hyun asked about Ja-kyung's childhood for the first time. When she didn't answer, he fiddled with her ear.
It was a past she didn't want to recall. Being beaten, delivering drugs, being hungry, being beaten again, and the daily life that repeated like hell to the point that even as a child she had wished she were dead. Her brown eyes stared fixedly at one spot. When memories returned to those times, her brain felt like it stopped momentarily.
"If you don't want to say, you don't have to."
Uncharacteristically, he readily backed down. His hand that had been touching her ear stroked her hair. At the gentle touch, sleep poured in. The sofa she had only found uncomfortable was cozier than expected, and her eyelids grew heavy.
She tried to get up and go upstairs but was held back again.
"I'm sleepy..."
"Sleep here. I'll carry you to bed when I'm done."
Ja-kyung snorted. Just imagining it was too funny.
"Am I a princess?"
"There's no rule saying a prince must always carry a princess. If you want, I'll be the princess."
His tone and touch were gentle. When she closed her eyes, he continued singing the unidentifiable song. The sound resonating in his throat was pleasant.
Ja-kyung, who had been tossing and turning, opened her eyes. Thanks to the blocked light, the bedroom was dim. She reached out and touched the space beside her, but it was empty. After turning on the bedside lamp, she looked around. She had been aware of being carried while half-asleep but had left it as is. When had he disappeared?
She got up and climbed out of bed. The documents he had given earlier were sitting intact on the table.
Opening the door and stepping out of the bedroom, she discovered him standing in front of the living room window. His face as he looked outside holding a glass of alcohol was terribly cold. The blue light of the dawn sky poured down on him, and his atmosphere was like a predator about to go hunting.
He discovered Ja-kyung and immediately changed his face, breaking into a smile.
"You're awake?"
An empty bottle was placed on the table in front of the sofa. Surely he didn't drink all of that? But his face was too composed for that.
"Have you been drinking all this time?"
"Yeah. I couldn't sleep."
Ja-kyung approached him, took the half-filled glass, and brought it to her lips. Gulp, gulp. She drank two sips before it was immediately confiscated.
"Don't drink. Your drunken behavior is scary."
"......"
"Of course, the jealousy was nice though."
She glared at him as he laughed. She protested that it wasn't jealousy, but he didn't believe her. The gaze that had been looking out the window now came to rest entirely on her. His eyes revealed plenty of affection and lust instead of hostility. His face came closer, and Ja-kyung didn't avoid it.
His fingertips brushed her lips, then parted her robe and entered.
"Suck it."
After hesitating, Ja-kyung moved her tongue and licked his fingers that had entered her mouth. She wasn't drunk from just two sips, but her body moved on its own. He laughed as he pressed his upper body close, brought his lips to her ear, and whispered intimately.
"Looking at you asleep, I thought I'd go crazy wanting to torment you."