Ah…? The round eyes rolled slowly.

Where did it… When… did I take it off…? I’m sure I was wearing it at the office…

I felt something was missing. I lost something small but significant at such a moment.

While unable to hide my confusion, the low-pitched voice asked again.

“The wedding ring.”

“…Ah, well… that,”

Ah, well, that.

The three-piece set of lame excuses all came out. But I couldn’t form a complete sentence.

“A married woman pretending to be single.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Or.”

The man straightened his upper body and folded his arms across his chest. The wedding ring glinted on his finger holding his thick arm.

His black eyes waiting for an answer were as sharp as that ring.

If only I could remember where I put it…

“…Just.”

“Just.”

“It’s just a ring. Meaningless.”

I could have honestly said I’d look for it, but my proud lips spoke on their own.

Emphasizing that it was meaningless was like casting a spell on myself. A kind of defense mechanism.

While staring at the woman who averted her gaze despite holding her head high, a self-deprecating smile appeared on Jae Kyung’s lips.

I see. The low muttered voice raised its decibel slightly.

“It’s your freedom to meet whoever you want, Ms. Kye Da Hae.”

For a moment, a corner of my heart twinged unpleasantly. Freedom is a word that Kye Da Hae really likes.

After a moment of silence, the man soon raised a smile.

That smile somehow felt chilling. To the point where I’d rather find his expressionless face more familiar,

“Not now.”

It was a very subtle difference, but I immediately knew the temperature of his smile had changed.

Da Hae just walked, following Jae Kyung who escorted her, saying let’s go in now. The light-hearted jokes they had been exchanging disappeared into heavy silence.

* * *

The office, with everyone gone, lost its vitality and was buried in darkness. Only green emergency exit lights floated in each divided section.

Relying on her phone’s flashlight, Da Hae entered the team leader’s office and fumbled around the desk.

The LED light set to maximum brightness illuminated the surroundings sufficiently.

“Haa… Found it.”

The troublemaker.

Without having to search messily, the small round object announced its presence by reflecting the light.

Seeing the measuring tape placed next to it, she finally remembered. She had taken it off when going into the material meeting.

She usually didn’t wear rings or accessories as scratch-sensitive leather select meetings were frequent, but she often wore her wedding ring.

What terrible timing. Of all days, why did I forget it today?

Da Hae leaned on the desk and pressed her forehead with her other hand.

The alumni meeting had gone on quite long. After dinner, they had tea. When upper-class graduates joined belatedly, similar situations repeated like a cycle.

During all that time, Kang Jae Kyung had been well-mannered. As if there hadn’t been any mishap.

That was rather like sitting on pins and needles. Her right hand, which had been overlapping her left hand throughout to hide the empty spot of the ring, was still stiff.

Even when the event was all over and everyone was finding their cars, the man only got in his car after sending her off first.

Only after that figure disappeared from the side mirror’s range did Da Hae allow herself to make a dejected face.

It felt very unsettling. Like the kind of uneasiness where you wonder if it was diesel or gasoline you just filled up with as you drive away from the gas station.

That was why she turned the steering wheel towards the office at a time nearing midnight.

It would soon be time to go to work after showering and lying down, but it was hard to wait that interval. It seemed she wouldn’t be able to sleep until she knew its whereabouts.

“…”

What should I do now?

Da Hae just glared at the innocently shining round object while biting her lip.

Her leg, slightly raised from sitting on the edge of the desk, trembled. She was racking her brains.

Meanwhile, the two hands of the clock overlapped at 12.

If she were Cinderella, she should quickly catch the pumpkin carriage, but Kye Da Hae, owner of a 6-cylinder convertible, headed to the parking lot without delay.

*

Blink, blink.

Was the front door always this huge?

The black iron door firmly closed between the beige marble stood like a final barrier.

She had entered the main entrance by directly entering the password, but unlocking the front door lock as if she were the real lady of the house was something she couldn’t do.

Her finger, lingering near the doorbell, only scratched various places – her head, then the nape of her neck, then her temple.

She came because she felt she should apologize, but the time was too late. Though knowing this, her two feet planted on the floor wouldn’t move.

Right, since I’ve come this far, I should at least try.

Just press it once, and if there’s no response, then I’ll leave.

Her finger, stretched out a bit more boldly, came close to touching the doorbell. Her mouth felt parched.

“Hoo-.”

Just as Da Hae, who had taken a deep breath, was about to press it.

An arm suddenly appeared from behind her and tagged a key card on the pad. A clear effect sound, beep, rang out in the quiet space.

“It’s not a system that opens by glaring at it.”

The head that slowly turned over her shoulder looked up at the homeowner who had approached behind her.

Large eyes blinking at regular intervals and a suffocatingly pressing gaze met in midair.

It was a moment when she should say something.

Da Hae, standing still as if caught by the pitch-black eyes, clenched her small fist firmly. Then she stretched it up.

With one arm stretched out like Superman’s signature pose, Da Hae’s face was quite solemn.

On the ring finger of her left fist, which came close to Jae Kyung’s nose, sparkled the same design of troublemaker as his.

See.

Did Kang Jae Kyung notice this?

Her lips, dried from repeatedly getting wet with saliva and drying, moved slightly.

Her voice, hoarse from not being used for a while, spoke resolutely.

“I, found it.”

* * *

Black sweatshirt and white shorts. The man in comfortable attire stopped in front of the vase.

As midnight passed, the windows that had been brightly lit became black one by one.

Jae Kyung, who had been guarding the sofa for a while after returning to the residence, finally went out.

Beer was an excuse; he wanted to get some air. It seemed that would be the only way to relieve the inexplicable stuffiness.

“I told you to date if you’re lonely.”

-Should I?

“Yeah. Though I’m worried because your eye for men is terrible.”

-…I’ll admit that.

Jae Kyung chuckled as he moved an unlit cigarette to the corner of his lips.

His mother, who called as soon as he turned on his phone as if she knew, talked about her uneasy dream.

It was their first contact in nearly three months. It was a dream too ominous to mention, but anyway, she was telling him to be careful.

-Are you sleeping with the yeouiju?

“What yeouiju? To your daughter-in-law.”

His mother used to compare her son’s match to a yeouiju. The magical stone that an imugi bites to become a dragon.

It wasn’t unreasonable, since she suspected it wasn’t a normal relationship as soon as she heard about the marriage partner.

She persistently tried to persuade him until the ceremony, and after seeing him do as he pleased, she neither received nor made contact after that.

‘Crazy bastard.’ That was her congratulatory message and last text.

After a short silence, a long sigh came through.

-Hey kid. Still, marriage should have been, you know? With someone you love.

“Mrs. Choi married for love. But why did she get kicked out?”

-Kicked out? I walked out on my own. That dog-like household was filthy and petty.

“And you left your young son behind in that dog-like household.”

-That’s why I’m living quietly in my old age. Putting up with even my son’s impertinence.

Mother and son laughed dryly. It wasn’t long ago that they started bringing up the past, which must have been a wound and nightmare for both of them, as if it were nothing.

Jae Kyung checked the time by lowering the display and wrapped up the call.

“Go back to the dream you were having. This impertinent son is going in now. It’s the honeymoon period.”

The call ended with a not-so-unpleasant curse. Silence fell upon the world again.

Love. An abstract emotion with no guaranteed end.

It’s common for chaebol families to form marriage ties with similar families for business, but Jae Kyung’s parents married for love.

The end was miserable. The emotion believed to be eternal evaporated.

Despite numerous slanders, the ordinary in-laws had no power to protect their daughter, and all that remained in the hellish reality was their fruit thrown into darkness.

‘The first young master is already so tall, it’s obviously from outside the family, right? The model madam’s genes are good indeed.’

‘Ah, watch your mouth, man. If the second madam hears this, right then and there, kkik!’

‘The lowborn women should just prepare meals. Serve the watchful meal for our eldest young master~’

‘Keke keke!’

The playful laughter of the employees still remained in his ears.

What was my expression like then? Was it miserable? Depressed? It seems I wanted to run away right then. No, I think I was probably hungry.

Because I ate deliciously the meal they served while mocking it as a watchful meal.

A self-deprecating smile appeared on his expressionless lips.