D 06

Episode 6. Impulsive Kiss

“…Does it not hurt now? Are you okay?”

At Haeyoung’s subsequent question as she naturally reached out to touch his forehead, Taejun’s brow furrowed instantly.

“School.”

He said curtly.

“D-don’t you need to drink water?”

The two were having completely different conversations.

The faint flicker of the incandescent bulb illuminated them.

Taejun felt her questions were making him more uncomfortable.

“Go. Now.”

Taejun said coldly, but Haeyoung immediately refused the order.

“No.”

Taejun’s eyebrow twitched subtly.

“Then do as you please.”

At that short reply, Haeyoung hesitated and looked at his face.

Tears welled up again in Haeyoung’s eyes as she bit her lip hard.

“You were really bad.”

Her voice was small, but the emotion contained within it was enough to shake him.

“Do you know how surprised I was, how scared I was…”

Tears finally escaped from Haeyoung’s bloodshot eyes.

Waves of unstoppable emotion continued to overwhelm her.

“I…”

As Haeyoung tried to continue speaking, suddenly, rough fingertips still carrying a chill touched her eyelids.

“I get it, so stop crying.”

Startled, Haeyoung lifted her head and met the gaze of Taejun, who was quietly looking down at her.

Her eyes were like the dawn sky tinged with blue, or like a deep blue sea.

“Are you really okay?”

Haeyoung finally asked in a trembling voice. Her hand still couldn’t leave his face.

Their gazes became deeply entangled.

Her rounded forehead, her blue eyes as if the sea had been transplanted, her nose bridge rising at a perfect angle, her lips moistened with tears and taking on a deeper hue—all came into view one after another.

“You should go now.”

What kind of disgusting thought was this, directed at a kid he’d known since she was little?

Taejun found himself despicable.

Haeyoung didn’t even flinch.

“Don’t push me away like that.”

Her touch was excessively gentle. Cautious and warm, like the first snow falling on frozen ground.

“I’m telling you, I don’t hate you, Oppa.”

Taejun’s chest tightened strangely.

He couldn’t understand Ahn Haeyoung, who wouldn’t drift away no matter how much he pushed her away.

At this point, she should be angry, her pride hurt, so why.

Why, you.

Taejun grabbed the hand caressing his cheek.

“It’s dangerous to touch a man recklessly without knowing how scary he can be.”

His voice was low and quiet, but somehow languid and precarious.

Feeling her hand caught in his grip, Haeyoung pressed her lips firmly together.

But her gaze didn’t waver.

“What happens if I touch?”

Haeyoung’s voice was quiet, but within it lay a challenge deeper than fear.

It was an absurd provocation. When Haeyoung first set foot in this house, she was just a little brat, and in his mind, that hadn’t changed.

But why.

Why does she say such ridiculous things and provoke people?

What if he actually slammed into her?

Outside this house, the streets were swarming with guys whose heads were filled with nothing but trashy thoughts, so why was this house’s little puppy, Ahn Haeyoung, completely devoid of any sense of caution?

Was she really unaware of what kind of treatment she might receive if she acted so cheaply towards a guy with a rotten mental state like him?

Taejun’s pupils slowly dilated.

Haeyoung didn’t push Taejun away, nor did she shake off his touch.

Instead, she pressed her body closer and asked.

“What… happens.”

Taejun’s languidly half-closed eyelids opened and closed as he gripped her hand even tighter.

The warmth of her small hand felt in his grip subtly shook him.

He closed the distance between them as if to press his lips to hers.

Though the pain from his wound was plainly visible on his face, he didn’t stop.

Only when their lips were about to touch did he halt his movement, lifting his half-closed eyes.

“This is what happens.”

Smooch.

Their lips met.

A silence as if even the air had stopped enveloped them.

He had started this to scare her, but never thought it would lead to this absurd outcome, and Taejun’s face twisted harshly.

But in that instant, her warmth seeped into him like a breeze brushing past his ear.

“I…”

Haeyoung swallowed dryly and continued her words.

“Won’t run away.”

He shouldn’t have done that.

He shouldn’t have been shaken by the provocation of this fearless, impertinent girl.

As she tried to press her lips to his again, he pushed her forehead away firmly with his index finger.

“Don’t get cocky.”

Taejun, lowering his eyes languidly, added his next words.

“If you get cocky one more time, I won’t go easy on you next time.”

Whether she properly heard that chilling warning or not, Haeyoung just looked at him with a clear, innocent face.

It felt like the end of the rope he was holding was slipping away.

He was the one who had held and shaken it, yet it seemed he was the one who had been shaken.

Taejun didn’t feel the natural changes as the warm spring passed, the sweltering summer went by, the beautifully autumn leaves colored the landscape, and winter arrived.

The changing seasons were meaningless in Taejun’s eyes. Everything looked uniformly colorless. But after that girl came into the house, he began to see the colors of the seasons.

Ahn Haeyoung, picked up as if from a trash heap, found living as a dependent in someone else’s house quite uncomfortable, but it wasn’t as if she couldn’t adapt at all.

Compared to the environment she had grown up in, she was remarkably unspoiled and optimistic, which Taejun actually found fascinating about her. It was true that he had taken notice of her, growing by leaps and bounds with each passing season.

For him, who had never found any pleasure in life, Ahn Haeyoung was quite an interesting sight.

Whenever she quietly averted her gaze, Taejun felt a strangely suppressed emotion.

It felt like groping in the air, unable to find the end of a severed thread.

He had lifted her up and placed her here with his own hands, yet he couldn’t shake off his anxiety for a single moment.

If Haeyoung, determined to settle in and survive by any means, were to one day become filled with rebelliousness and leave the house, all the plans he had proposed to Chairman Ki could go awry.

Meanwhile, quite some time had passed since Haeyoung had asked him for help, but after the basement incident, she hadn’t brought up the topic of independence again, nor had she pestered him about it.

During that time, Taejun was assigned to the management support division of Jae-Won Group and was incredibly busy.

Overtime work became routine, and the silence of the night streets on his way home only made the noise in Taejun’s head louder.

That day was also a late night coming home. Passing through the luxury villas dotted with sparse streetlights, a familiar shadow caught his eye.

The scenery outside the car window was cold and still, a mix of winter’s unique blue hue and dark gray.

Taejun stared for a moment at the figure shining particularly brightly among it.

It was Haeyoung.

Taejun pulled the car over to the side of the road and hesitated for a moment.

Whether he should get out or just pass by.

As he briefly debated, Ki Je-jun, approaching the figure with light steps, came into view. Taejun stared expressionlessly at his excessively frivolous cousin.

In his hand were two cans of drinks.

“Looks just like a mangy mutt.”

Taejun took out a cigarette from his case and slowly rolled down the window.

After lighting it and inhaling the smoke deeply, Taejun shifted his gaze to Ahn Haeyoung’s face.

Her shoulders seemed smaller, as if she had lost weight, and a faint fatigue lingered on her expressionless face.

“I failed, and now she’s clinging to Ki Je-jun to ask for a favor, is that it? Even offering her body cheaply.”

Taejun muttered briefly, cigarette in his mouth.

He knew that the household staff subtly ignored Haeyoung, whether consciously or not.

For instance, before she entered university, there were events requiring adult participation, like parent-teacher conferences, but Ahn Haeyoung had never once asked anyone in the family for help.

However, Taejun had long since been using people to receive reports on Ahn Haeyoung’s daily activities.

Next