A Gentle Intruder (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 9

“I wanted to treat you.”

Lee Jae Ho knocked, asking her to have dinner. His lack of realism felt so surreal it was as if he’d slipped right into someone else’s mind. His thought process kept flickering like a faulty circuit sending out distress signals.

“You probably didn’t have time to prepare anything on your first day.”

His unreadable smile was surprisingly warm. Da Jung clutched at her heart, which felt like it was drifting far, far away, and pressed on with her thoughts. Why was Lee Jae Ho acting like this?

No matter how she thought about it, his kindness felt excessive.

“There’s a decent steak place, but it’s boring eating alone.”

His oddly casual tone at the end of the sentence carried an inexplicable mix of intimacy and coyness. Maybe that voice, laced with just a hint of amusement, was casting a spell.

Leaning against the wall with a faint smile, the man was dangerously beautiful. Da Jung even wondered if she’d readily offer her neck should he turn out to be a vampire. One wrong move, and it might actually happen.

“No, it’s fine.”

So she pulled back first.

No matter how much she pondered it, she couldn’t fully grasp his intentions. She didn’t want to get drawn in. She clearly saw an invisible line drawn right before her feet. Stepping over it felt like it would set something irreversible into motion.

Just up to here.

“I’m uncomfortable. And you really don’t have to do this.”

When Da Jung gave a rather curt greeting and tried to close the door, he blocked it with his arm. His brow furrowed slightly.

“You really don’t have to do this?”

“It means even if you don’t go this far, I won’t spread word that Mr. Lee Jae Ho is here.”

Da Jung spoke clearly and shut the door without a trace of hesitation.

Then she sank down to the floor. She’d tried hard to sound composed, but her heart pounded fiercely, as if about to shatter. She could still feel his gaze—calmly looking down at her, so much shorter than him—melting her from the top of her head.

I’m going crazy. Totally insane. Everything here—this whole seaside—is absolutely mad.

She barely managed to stand up and shuffled into the kitchen, opening the fridge. She grabbed a bottle of water and gulped it down. Yet her heart still refused to calm.

“Why is he like this, Lee Jae Ho?”

Da Jung poured another glass of water and aimlessly circled the kitchen. Her face felt hot, so she fanned herself with her hands. Then she drank more water.

“Suddenly asking to have dinner… Seriously, me.”

She circled the island counter once again for no good reason.

“Does he act like this with everyone? Is he just a flirty guy?”

Da Jung kept muttering to herself.

“So confusing.”

Only after losing herself in this for a while did her heartbeat finally settle a little. When she turned her eyes back to the TV, the drama she’d been watching earlier had already ended. It had just started getting interesting—what a shame. She pictured Oh Chae Won’s face, her wavy hair flowing loose like ocean waves. The role suited her quite well.

“Even in a situation like this, I’m still hungry…”

She’d arrived, unpacked, met Lee Jae Ho, and had a cup of tea—it was already past 8 p.m. At this hour, Da Jung would normally have long since finished dinner.

“Has it really only been about three hours since I got here?”

A hollow laugh escaped her lips. It felt like two whole days had passed, yet it had barely been three hours.

It truly felt like she’d dropped straight into some bizarre, twisted world where even time behaved strangely. To quiet her noisy thoughts, Da Jung walked over to the sink and started opening cabinets at random. She spotted some instant ramen on the upper right shelf—she remembered the owners mentioning they’d left some for her.

“I’ll just eat this for now.”

Kyung Mi had packed a few side dishes for her, but she couldn’t be bothered to search for them. Da Jung put water in a pot to boil. She just wanted to eat, sleep, and deal with everything tomorrow.

She also wanted, just for a moment, to forget that unrealistically gentle tone of his.

**

Jae Ho, seated on the second-floor terrace, let out a hollow chuckle. It was a relief she wasn’t easy—but also made things terribly difficult. If things kept going like this, he’d either die of frustration or waste away entirely. He couldn’t tell which fate would be worse.

“She turned down Lee Jae Ho and went to boil ramen. She’s insane.”

He took a swig of beer while gazing up at the stars scattered like mist. The scent of ramen drifted up with the breeze.

“The night’s unbelievably clear. Why are the stars so vivid tonight? It’s thrilling.”

He regretted not bringing his camera. Jae Ho loved photographing stars and owned several high-performance cameras. He was nearly a professional photographer, and most of his shots had been taken in Taean.

This wasn’t Jae Ho’s first time in Taean. He’d visited often enough to know about its famously star-studded beaches.

He even had a good guess why Da Jung had chosen Taean for her month-long trip.

“We went on vacation to Taean. Our family always goes to Taean. Dad’s obsessed with clam digging—you have no idea how much Da Jung hated it.”

She must have plenty of family memories here. “That guy” had mentioned coming here at least three times, so she’d probably visited even more often. Perhaps these were the happiest times of their lives.

What would it feel like to go on a happy family trip? Jae Ho had never experienced that kind of warm, joyful family vacation.

Out of curiosity about that happiness, he’d become an actor and often returned to Taean—to watch the stars, stare into campfires, go fishing… Yet each visit only deepened his longing instead of helping him understand joy.

“Still, eating ramen on the first day of your trip? She’s really throwing in the towel.”

His thoughts drifted back to Room 102. Just as he was debating whether to ring the doorbell again, all the lights in Room 102 suddenly went out. She must be going to bed.

[This is the timeline separator]

Morning came.

She woke before dawn to the shrill cries of seagulls loud enough to hurt her ears. Da Jung pulled up the blinds and looked out at the sea. The tide was halfway out.

She couldn’t tell if it was coming in or going out. For some reason, she was oddly curious about it. If she was going to stay here, it’d probably be useful to learn the tide schedule. She searched for tide-tracking apps and was surprised by how many there were—likely popular among anglers.

Just in case, Da Jung downloaded one herself.

“Hmm… the tide’s coming in.”

Kree-kree.

“Why are those birds so noisy?”

There was one more unexpected problem: the seagulls.

What she’d imagined as a romantic seaside charm turned out to be extremely noisy birds. If this kept up, sleeping in would be completely out of the question.

Honestly, this place was full of annoyances—Lee Jae Ho and this deafening racket.

Yet why was the morning view so breathtakingly beautiful?

After gazing at the sea for a while, Da Jung turned and looked down at the three suitcases in the living room. She needed to unpack. That was today’s plan: unpack, go to the market, take a walk.

As she ticked off tasks on her fingers, she suddenly found the situation amusing and chuckled softly. She’d come here to clear her mind, yet somehow it felt more cluttered than ever. Wasn’t she just piling on more to-do’s?

“Take it slow, Yoon Da Jung.”

Right. First, a walk—just to fully wake up.

Was Lee Jae Ho awake yet?

As soon as her thoughts drifted toward Room 101, Da Jung hurriedly sprang up and started bustling about. Keeping busy would help keep unwanted thoughts at bay. Her hands moved quickly as she grabbed her outerwear.

She considered walking the opposite direction today, just in case she ran into Lee Jae Ho again like yesterday. Near the entrance she’d come through were rice fields, vegetable plots, and a few houses. That path intrigued her too.

As soon as she opened the front door, a cold gust hit her cheeks. Even though it was autumn, the dawn air was quite chilly.

“Let’s go.”

The air here was different from Seoul’s. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with crisp coldness. She smiled briefly, enjoying the refreshing sensation. She walked straight ahead from the pension and soon passed houses and fields—it was a quiet countryside village.

Had it been about thirty minutes?

“Time to head back.”

Suddenly feeling she’d strayed too far from the pension, she turned around.

The pleasant walk left Da Jung energized, cheerful, and rosy-cheeked. It was a beautiful autumn morning. Though certain worries still clouded her mind, the joy of traveling far outweighed them.

She occasionally worried about her mom, but she trusted Kyung Mi would take good care of her. Truthfully, worrying was just an old habit of Da Jung’s.

Worrying never changed anything. Ever since that day, she’d done nothing but worry, yet nothing had changed at all. Her thoughts drifted on the autumn breeze, back to the day of her brother’s accident.

[…It has been confirmed that those staying at the resort were students from Seoul Haeyul High School on a school trip. While the teachers’ accommodations remained relatively intact, the students’ lodging was almost completely destroyed… Sadly, there were no survivors…]

She couldn’t recall how she’d boarded that plane. In an instant, the parents became grieving family members, boarding flights to Jeju Island. Da Jung arrived in front of a building so charred beyond recognition she couldn’t even make out its shape. Wailing. Sobbing. The acrid stench of smoke. People’s rage and unspeakable grief.

Our tragedy was scattered nationwide under the headline “news report.” Watching her parents sob with hearts torn apart, Da Jung recalled her last conversation with her brother.

“What should I bring you?”

“Yeah yeah! Snacks. Snacks.”

“Not snacks. What do girls like? Dolls? Hairpins?”

“No. Chocolate.”

“You eat chocolate all the time here. Lay off the chocolate—you’ll really regret it later.”

Even with a cold, her brother hadn’t skipped scolding her, though gently. Still, he ruffled her hair and finally relented, saying he couldn’t win against her.

“Alright. I’ll bring chocolate too. Just wait a few days.”

“Yay!”

“When I get back, I’ve got something to tell you. Look forward to it.”

Those few days became a lifetime. What had he wanted to tell her?

Before her thoughts could plummet into the deep abyss, Da Jung forced herself to stop. Depression would instantly swallow her whole and lock her in darkness. She wanted to live brighter now. She turned her head to gaze at the sky and admire the autumn foliage, humming a cheerful little tune through her nose.

And there, right in front of the pension she’d just returned to, stood Lee Jae Ho.

Da Jung stared at the man leaning against the entrance of Room 102 as if he were a painting. As if to prove he wasn’t just an image, he straightened up and met her gaze. A soft curve played at the corner of his lips.

“You’ve already been for a walk? You’re quite the early riser. I was going to join you—why go alone?”

His manner was so natural it almost made her doubt whether they’d had some unspoken agreement she’d forgotten. She nearly apologized for going alone.

What a strange man.

“Do you like morning coffee?”

Strange… Another strangely odd day was beginning.