TNV 08

Each time her small feet stepped on the grass, droplets of water bounced plumply up from beneath her sneakers.

Mu-hyeon watched the sight with the corners of his lips lazily drawn upward. The moment Chae-yoon disappeared into the annex, he straightened the driver’s seat he had reclined at an angle.

“So you did come out.”

It had been about fifty minutes since he parked the car in the villa’s front yard, and he’d already begun wondering whether he needed to change tactics.

There was no way anything good would come of knocking on the annex door outright. So Mu-hyeon chose instead to quietly get on Song Chae-yoon’s nerves from the parking lot.

A woman who ran a study room for children wouldn’t be able to ignore a car sitting in the parking lot on a rainy day forever—whether out of concern or sheer annoyance.

That calculation was what kept him waiting, but Song Chae-yoon hadn’t budged an inch inside the house.

She’d even lowered the living-room blinds, as if the sight of his car in the yard offended her too much to tolerate.

The moment the blinds came down, Mu-hyeon was momentarily taken aback.

Still, he decided to hold out for exactly one hour. If she showed no reaction after that, he would try something else.

In the end, just as an hour passed, Song Chae-yoon could endure it no longer and revealed herself.

Judging by the way her eyes darted toward the car, sharp and tense, she must have spent the last hour pacing anxiously inside.

Thinking I knew it, Mu-hyeon let out a small chuckle without realizing it and continued watching her from inside the car, holding his breath. Next time, he decided, he’d time how many minutes it took her to come back out.

But—

This time, the annex door didn’t open even after well over an hour.

Her expression, crumpled as she stared into the car through the passenger-side window, suggested she might have realized he was watching her reaction from inside.

Still, he couldn’t give up now.

He couldn’t let the two-plus hours he’d spent waiting in the rain go to waste.

After a moment’s thought, Mu-hyeon undid the top button of his shirt and opened the car door.

There was an emergency umbrella in the trunk, but he deliberately walked out into the rain.

The rain wasn’t heavy, but thankfully the wind was strong. By the time he reached the annex, he looked suitably disheveled—just as he’d intended.

Slightly damp hair. A suit slick with moisture. A complexion made faintly pale by the rain.

She wouldn’t throw him out after seeing him like this. Surely.

After checking his reflection in the glass, Mu-hyeon lifted his hand with a satisfied smile.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Unlike the villa, the annex had a metal door, and the sound echoed loudly.

He waited for some sign of movement, but when there was no response, he knocked again.

Bang. Bang.

Just as he clenched his fist to knock a third time, the annex door flew open.

“What is it, at this hour of the night?”

Wrapped in a soft cardigan, Chae-yoon asked with an irritated lift of her eyes.

The lack of surprise or alarm on her small face suggested she’d been watching him ever since he stepped out of the car.

Mu-hyeon quietly swallowed the laugh that nearly escaped him.

He hated to admit it, but Song Chae-yoon—with her chestnut hair roughly tied up and an oversized cardigan draped around her—looked rather cute.

She was probably trying her best to look sharp and intimidating, eyes filled with tension, but to Mu-hyeon even that was amusing. Like a kitten baring its claws and puffing up its fur.

Maybe that was why he kept wanting to poke at her and watch how she’d react.

He angled his body slightly so the porch light illuminated him fully and replied,

“I was wondering if I could stay the night.”

Just as he’d expected, Chae-yoon looked dumbfounded. Before she could refuse, Mu-hyeon continued,

“I ran out of gas.”

She stared at him with a look that mixed irritation and disbelief, as if she were dealing with a lunatic. Her gaze wavered for a moment, as though she were debating whether to believe the simple fact that a car without fuel couldn’t move.

But soon enough, she lifted her eyes again, just as sharply as before, and demanded,

“There was a gas station on the way here.”

“Turning back from there was farther than coming here.”

At his shameless excuse, Chae-yoon bit down on her lower lip.

When he saw her small, plush lips pressed tight, Mu-hyeon’s gaze deepened on its own.

What would those red lips taste like if he sucked on them, bit them hard?

At the same moment a sharp thrill shot low through his body, Chae-yoon’s answer came.

“Unfortunately, there’s no spare room.”

“That can’t be true.”

Mu-hyeon replied calmly, brushing aside the instinctive desire that had flared within him.

“It’s not like I don’t know how many rooms this villa has.”

At his brazen insistence that she hand over a room, Chae-yoon looked utterly incredulous.

Mu-hyeon didn’t look away, as if he were engraving her expression into his mind.

This is ridiculous. Seriously—where does he get that confidence?

Chae-yoon thought as she roughly unlocked the back door of the villa.

She wanted nothing more than to complain openly, maybe even curse him out for being such a jerk—but the jerk in question was standing right behind her, so she couldn’t.

What annoyed her even more was the fact that, over the past hour, she’d prepared to receive a guest, her thoughts restless and unsettled.

Even after going out to check Mu-hyeon’s car and returning inside, she couldn’t shake her unease.

So, just in case—if Seo Mu-hyeon had actually come down with something—she’d turned on the boiler in a first-floor room of the villa.

If he were truly sick, it would be better to have him stay in the villa rather than the annex. That way, she could check on his condition from time to time.

Even so, she couldn’t bring herself to let Mu-hyeon sleep in the same space as her. If she did, she might find herself unconsciously holding a damp towel and nursing him all night.

And yet—

The moment she returned to the annex, Mu-hyeon knocked shamelessly, as if he’d been waiting for it, and demanded a room for the night—looking perfectly fine, contrary to her worries.

What on earth was he plotting?

Standing there soaked, offering an excuse she couldn’t easily ignore, made it hard to refuse him outright.

Listening to his footsteps following close behind, Chae-yoon grumbled inwardly.

The one small comfort was that the place she’d prepared was the smallest room in the villa—and one without windows.

Originally, the first floor of the villa had only a study and a kitchen.

The room attached beside the kitchen, like an auxiliary space, had been used by staff for short breaks. As such, it contained nothing but a small bed, a set of bedding, and a four-drawer dresser.

“You can sleep here.”

Opening the door beside the study wide, Chae-yoon stepped inside and spoke with her displeasure plainly written on her face.

“When you wake up, please leave quietly. Neither of us wants to run into each other any more than necessary.”

“Not much hospitality,” he remarked.

“You’re not a guest I invited.”

Her sharply edged reply was met with a crooked smile.

As if he’d decided to tease her, Mu-hyeon lifted one corner of his mouth into an infuriatingly charming grin and shrugged.

“Still, you’ll give me a glass of water, right?”

“You know where the kitchen is, don’t you? Help yourself.”

Snapping back, Chae-yoon took a step toward the door to leave.

But Mu-hyeon simply stood there, his large frame blocking the doorway—as if he’d entered freely, but had no intention of letting her leave just as easily.

She wanted to shove him aside and walk out.

But she knew that if her hand touched his body, the fragile composure she was desperately maintaining would collapse.

Clenching her fists, Chae-yoon lifted her eyes and glared at him. Mu-hyeon only looked down at her with the same unreadable smile as before.

How much time passed? Just as her nerves had been stretched to the breaking point, shredded beyond endurance, Mu-hyeon finally took a step back and spoke.

“Have a good night, Song Chae-yoon.”

Even though he’d stepped back, the space he left wasn’t wide.

Pressing herself against the wall to avoid touching him, Chae-yoon held her breath and carefully slipped out of the room.