Chapter 14
Click.
It was a rainy weekend, as if the sky were jealous of the pleasant weekday weather.
After spending the entire day in his study, Yoon-jae came out, only to stop when he heard faint music drifting through the house.
Music, soft enough not to be bothersome.
“……”
Though he had no personal interest in classical music, he was used to it, often attending performances for work. But this—an upbeat, fast-tempo song—felt completely foreign.
Following the sound down the hallway, he soon passed through the living room and reached the largest room, farthest from his own.
Thump, thump, thump.
The not-so-loud beat was clearly coming from inside.
Naturally, this was the room of Ae-jeong, the one with whom he shared the apartment but kept separate quarters. They each had their own bathrooms and dressing rooms, divided perfectly between them.
Yet, hearing this strange music from her side, Yoon-jae instinctively leaned his ear toward the door.
It wasn’t really curiosity—more of a reflex.
A reflex to identify and eliminate a potential threat.
Bang.
“……!”
He hadn’t expected that he would turn out to be the threat.
“What are you doing?”
Caught off guard when the door suddenly opened, he froze, unable to retreat in time. Ae-jeong tilted her head at him, puzzled.
Only then did Yoon-jae slowly straighten up and reply.
“What are you doing?”
Fortunately, she didn’t notice the faint blush on his face.
Hurriedly, she reached to turn off the music, scratching the back of her head.
“Was it too loud? Sorry.”
Beads of sweat clung to her forehead, and her clothes were damp as well. At his gaze, she grew embarrassed and took a step back.
“I was working out a bit. It feels better with music, you know? But since I don’t have earphones, I played it on the computer instead.”
How new.
So new it didn’t even feel real.
How could someone change this much overnight?
While he was still mulling over this, glancing back and forth between her sweat-dotted brow and lively lips, she continued.
“Staying home all the time makes me feel stiff and unhealthy, so… I’ll be quieter from now on.”
She quickly apologized again, and Yoon-jae turned away without further comment.
“Oh, wait a second.”
As he started to leave, she stepped out and called to him.
“If you’re done with work, let’s talk a bit. I’ll shower quickly and meet you in the living room.”
She set the one-sided appointment and shut the door behind her.
“……”
Somehow, he couldn’t shake the feeling he was being swept up by Ae-jeong.
After a quick shower, she entered the living room with a bundle of blank paper and a pen in hand.
Fortunately, he was sitting on the sofa, having put aside the documents he’d been reading. She hurried over and handed him the paper and pen.
“I thought carefully about what I need to do first.”
“What do you mean, ‘do’?”
“Out of all the things, I think this is the most important.”
The most crucial information she needed now was about Joo Ae-jeong and Ha Yoon-jae—their contract.
She had to know exactly how it worked.
It’s too late to claim amnesia now.
She had already decided to brazen it out, pretending she’d always been this way. But she still needed some basic information. She wrote something in large letters on the paper.
<Contract Terms>
Though her handwriting was still rough, it was at least legible when she put effort into it.
Holding it up, she asked:
“How about we organize this again?”
A natural way to extract information about their relationship. But at that, Yoon-jae tilted his head slightly.
“Again?”
“Again.”
“How do you ‘redo’ something that wasn’t done in the first place?”
“…No, come on. How can you have a contract without clauses?”
“We did.”
“……”
“You needed money. I needed a wife. That’s all.”
What she thought was just his spite turned out to be the truth—there really were no written terms.
Pitying the naïve, foolish Ae-jeong, she set the paper down on the table and scooted closer to him.
“Then let’s set them up now. Just the important ones—simple, clear.”
At that moment, the scent of shampoo lingered around her.
Her damp hair brushed against his skin, her pale shoulder brushing against him, and Yoon-jae unconsciously held his breath.
“……”
A part of himself he didn’t even realize existed stirred unexpectedly. He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again.
The woman who always kept her distance, at least a step away, was gone.
This woman, who invaded his space without warning, was becoming less and less unfamiliar—and Yoon-jae hadn’t yet noticed.
“Look.”
Taking advantage of his silence, she quickly pressed the pen into his hand.
“Each of us writes down the terms we want. The ones that match, we keep. The ones that don’t, we discuss and decide. Then we carry out the contract based on that.”
“A mutually agreed contract.”
“Yes. If you want, we can even notarize it. With your lawyer or mine, whichever. What do you say?”
Her clear eyes, sharp behind her glasses, didn’t waver in the slightest.
But Yoon-jae pointed out the fatal flaw she hadn’t noticed.
“You don’t even have a lawyer.”
“Huh? Why wouldn’t I? Of course, I—”
She was about to say she had a law firm on retainer, paid in the millions…
Gulp.
Realizing her mistake, she slowly pressed the paper to her chest.
“I have one in my heart.”
“……”
“The only one who can protect me… is me. The only one who can defend me… is me. That’s the kind of person I am.”
Cold sweat ran down her back.
It wasn’t her first slip-up, but this one was serious. Swallowing hard, she studied his face.
He just looked at her for a long time, then finally asked, in his usual calm tone:
“Did you always talk like that?”
Thump.
Maybe this time she had gone too far. Her confident gaze wavered, and she muttered, looking away:
“People… change, you know.”
“You left, sure. But you never came back.”
Her restless eyes froze. Her hunched shoulders and fidgeting fingers stilled as well.
She toyed with the pen, then finally asked quietly:
“Do you want me to come back?”
Even as she said it, a bitter taste lingered.
I’m me. But no matter how I tell myself that… it still feels like I’m stealing someone else’s body, someone else’s life.
What Yoon-jae wanted was the real Joo Ae-jeong.
Their eyes met. Lost in separate, unknowable thoughts, she was the one to look away first.
“Anyway, after this, I need to buy a phone. Not having one is way too inconvenient.”
She smoothly changed the subject, just as she was writing the number 1 on the paper.
Rrrrr. Rrrrr.
As if to break the awkward tension, a ringtone suddenly rang out. She crouched down, clutching her pen like a child doing dictation.
“Go ahead and answer it. I’ll keep writing.”
But despite her words, Yoon-jae didn’t move.
Rrrrr. Rrrrr.
“Seriously, don’t mind me. Answer it.”
When she even waved her hand toward him, he finally reached out—not to his pocket, but toward the table.
The table barely 30 cm in front of them.
“…Huh?”
He was pointing at a phone. A silent phone.
Then where was the ringing coming from?
No way the soundproofing of this luxury apartment was so bad that it leaked from another unit.
As she blinked stupidly, his gaze shifted.
Rrrrr. Rrrrr.
The ringtone was coming from the TV stand.
“Oh?”
She rushed over, quickly picking up the loudly ringing phone.
Turning back toward him, she held it up as if asking for confirmation. But he only watched silently.
“This is…”
On the TV stand sat a phone, plugged into its charger.
Since she had never once used the living room TV, she hadn’t even known it was there.
She didn’t know how long it had been sitting there, but it was ringing persistently in her hand.
And without even checking, she could already guess whose it was.
Her eyes narrowed at the caller ID flashing on the screen.
<Oppa>
