"Ah, so I was the one who seduced you."
"……!"
"I used sweet talk to bring the demure Lee Yeon-ssi to my bed. Isn't that right?"
"……."
"What a shameless bastard."
Unlike his words, he was laughing as if enjoying himself. He seemed interested in looking down at his whitened memories as if they were someone else's.
She was getting increasingly tangled in his verbal skills. If she kept getting swept along thoughtlessly like this, she would be the one ending up dead with her hair caught in a drain.
In that moment, Lee Yeon felt a familiar anxiety strong enough to make her want to flee. Since they had shared a blanket as a married couple, the next step would naturally be sex.
When that conviction struck her, chills ran down her spine. She grew urgent with the thought that she had to prevent that at all costs.
"That's not necessarily true. We didn't have good physical compatibility."
He slowly started wiping the smile from his face.
"We didn't do it well."
"……Sex?"
"Yes, yes. That thing."
"Who didn't?"
"Pardon?"
"Who didn't do sex well?"
Even though she wanted to avoid his gaze, his eyes demanding an answer were relentless.
"……I suppose both of us were clumsy?"
At that, he let out a scoffing laugh. When his entire face distorted subtly, he instantly looked fierce.
"This is more shocking than losing my memories."
Kwon Chae-woo had eyes that looked like anger was simmering for some reason. When he seemed like an idiot who didn't know what he had done, that was one thing, but now he looked clear-headed, like someone who knew things well. He rubbed one side of his face as if washing it and let out a hollow laugh.
"So we were sexless."
"Yes……."
"Exactly where, and how, was the problem?"
His originally soft voice now carried weight.
"Um……."
Lee Yeon felt like she was going crazy. His questions were increasingly soaring far beyond her level. But a thirty-two-year-old adult couldn't cower here.
"First of all, we……. weren't the right size for each other. I didn't feel anything……. I still don't know what an orgasm is."
"……."
"And Kwon Chae-woo-ssi said he didn't have much of a sex drive either. Fortunately, I actually liked that about him. It wasn't about physical compatibility, but the ascetic, monk-like vibes I occasionally felt that made me think 'this is the man.'"
Lee Yeon delivered that decisive blow like that.
"……A monk? Me?"
He furrowed his brows as if he couldn't understand. Funny enough, that arrow was aimed at himself—or rather, at an illusion of Kwon Chae-woo that didn't exist.
"That's why we lived platonically."
Lee Yeon, watching his reaction carefully, drove the wedge in completely.
Kwon Chae-woo seemed at a loss for words for a while, just looking at the ceiling. When the silence stretched on, Lee Yeon was about to check if he had fallen asleep when he suddenly murmured.
"Nursed a man for two years without any romantic feelings, huh."
"……."
"Just how much did Soi Yeon-ssi love me?"
He let out a self-deprecating breath. It was a moment when another layer of misunderstanding was added.
Lee Yeon felt uncomfortable inside, like she had drunk spoiled milk, but she didn't show it. The more solid the misunderstanding, the better. This was the only way to keep Kwon Chae-woo down.
"Let's sleep quickly."
Lee Yeon used the bedtime greeting as an excuse to change the subject. The more she talked with this man, the more she felt like the rope she threw to bind him was instead wrapping around her own wrist.
"……Alright. You sleep well too."
Whether he also didn't want to know about the past anymore, he obediently closed his eyes.
Lee Yeon prayed to the wooden god.
'Please let this man fall deeply asleep. If possible, I hope he only sleeps for over a week. That's possible, right? That's what that syndrome was called. Please!'
She prayed and prayed again earnestly inside.
Then, Kwon Chae-woo whispered again with a face that wasn't convinced at all.
"But what exactly does 'clumsy' mean? Was the insertion bland, or was the foreplay lukewarm? Surely I wasn't a virgin."
At the persistently sticky question, Lee Yeon was momentarily stunned. But she didn't back down either.
"……Well, I'm not entirely sure, but it seemed like you finished particularly quickly."
He seemed shocked and was silent for a while, then chewed out "Fucking bastard" with a self-mocking sigh. With that, his breathing gradually quieted down.
Lee Yeon, who was about to leave the room right away, groaned for a while, unable to free her hand caught by him. The moment she released the tension in her body that had been stiff from nervousness in an instant, her consciousness also cut off as if pushed over.
Why did you kill the chicken?
Leaving that one question she couldn't ask in the end buried in her heart.
The next morning.
Lee Yeon, who got up from bed refreshed—
"Aaak!"
Could only scream.
"Did you sleep well?"
Kwon Chae-woo was looking down at her, propping his head up with one arm.
Sleeping Beauty syndrome, my ass!
Unlike the expectation that he wouldn't wake up for a few days at shortest to several weeks at longest, the man was perfectly fine, greeting Lee Yeon in the morning sunlight.
The indigo irises soaked in sunlight were particularly reddish.
* * *
Standing in the corner of the room, Lee Yeon was busy glancing sideways at the man being examined. She rubbed her forearm, pulled at her sleeves, and bit her nails, but couldn't calm down at all.
How could this be. How could this happen!
She buried her face in her palms. Her heart was beating incessantly out of rhythm. Perhaps because of the excessive pulse, her whole body felt like it was drumming.
"It's still too early to draw a hasty conclusion. More diverse sleep data is needed for a pattern to form. The patient could fall into a long sleep again as early as tomorrow. It would be best to observe the progress further."
Today, Kwon Chae-woo woke up 'normally.'
First it was 3 days, then 5 days, and finally the man who woke up after 12 days suddenly opened his eyes normally after just one day.
For Lee Yeon, who wanted to put him back to sleep in the abyss somehow, it was like being hit on the back of the head.
"There's nothing wrong with the patient's head. Then it's highly likely to be a psychological issue. Especially since the home and hospital environments are fundamentally different, something may have been triggered unconsciously. To determine the sleep pattern, it will be helpful to examine those factors going forward."
While the doctor was speaking, Kwon Chae-woo was chasing Lee Yeon with his eyes.
"If that's the case, I have one guess."
He muttered, rubbing his lower lip. The doctor, who was busy writing something on his tablet, didn't even miss the patient's mumbling.
"What is it?"
"I slept with my wife last night."
"……."
Suddenly, silence filled the room. The doctor, blinking slowly a couple of times, looked back and forth between Lee Yeon and Kwon Chae-woo. Then the expression that quickly returned to business mode looked like a worn-out civil servant.
"Do you mean you had sexual intercourse?"
"No!"
Lee Yeon quickly denied it, and Kwon Chae-woo rubbed his neck for some reason.
"Then let's try various approaches. For the time being, it would be best for the two of you to sleep together and observe the trend."
Lee Yeon's complexion turned ash-gray in an instant.
* * *
While Kwon Chae-woo went to the hospital for physical therapy, Lee Yeon collapsed on the sofa. She was watching the news flowing meaninglessly with a drained face.
『Voice phishing is becoming increasingly sophisticated.』
However, Lee Yeon's mind was extremely complicated.
If Kwon Chae-woo's condition improves, she can't hide him like this. The moment he comes down to the first floor, it was just a matter of time before Chu-ja found out. But if Chu-ja finds out…….
"―If this contract is leaked, I will take it as meaning there's another accomplice."
The threat to make Lee Yeon into the perfect perpetrator might extend to Chu-ja as well.
Whether to train Kwon Chae-woo to deceive Chu-ja.
Or to confess everything to Chu-ja.
At that crossroad.
The announcer's clear voice pierced Lee Yeon's ears once more.
『—Like in this recording, scammers threaten victims by saying, "If you hang up, it will be considered as an attempt to flee." It's a technique they use to prevent victims from getting help from those around them in advance.』
Lee Yeon had a private meeting with Kwon Chae-woo's brother from the night the incident occurred until sunrise.
In her most mentally vulnerable state, the environment where she couldn't consult with anyone was enough to make her passive. When threats and pressure were applied, Lee Yeon hastily signed, just wanting to escape quickly.
『Recently, these methods of psychologically isolating victims……』
Lee Yeon couldn't take her eyes off the TV screen.
Her chest sank for no reason and her fingertips went cold. She hugged a cushion and curled up to ignore the anxiety rising to her throat. But her breathing only quickened without any particular effect.
She had been losing sleep for a month since Kwon Chae-woo woke up. No, it was before that. Somewhere in the world she was seeing had started to twist.
The moment the announcer's voice became muffled like water entering her ears, Lee Yeon could finally end her dilemma.