“Lee Ji Wan…?”

A voice that made even her reddened forehead useless came from behind her.

Because that voice had uttered her name, of all things.

Ji Wan froze in place like a statue.

Thump― Thump―

The person’s footsteps, slower than usual, drew closer to her bit by bit.

Ji Wan, not yet ready to face him, didn’t even glance in the direction of the approaching presence.

What concerned her most right now was Joo Tae Sung’s rhythmic footsteps that had stopped right beside her, Joo Tae Sung’s heavy scent, and Joo Tae Sung’s calm breathing.

Everything that pulled at her was Joo Tae Sung.

Realizing this fact in real-time, she found her own feelings so embarrassing that she couldn’t calm down at all.

“Heading home now?”

Tae Sung asked.

Swallowing dryly to clear her voice, Ji Wan answered as nonchalantly as possible.

“Yes, as you can see…”

But her words trailed off mumblingly.

It was a demeanor completely uncharacteristic of her usual boldness in everything.

Tae Sung gazed down intently at her face, which was still turned away from him.

Her brow, visible at a glance, was slightly furrowed.

Unless it was Joo Tae Sung frowning out of shyness, that expression surely meant yesterday’s anger had not yet subsided.

Having reached that conclusion, Tae Sung took a deep breath.

Then he spoke in a low voice.

“I came to talk about what we couldn’t yesterday.”

After saying it, he had this thought.

Perhaps to her ears, it might sound like he was rushing the divorce.

That wasn’t the purpose of his visit.

Not wanting to become an even more resentful person here, Tae Sung tried to add an explanation that wouldn’t be misunderstood.

But before his closed lips could open again, her voice flowed out first.

“I’ve prepared everything. The documents and contract, all of it…”

“…”

“Let’s go upstairs to check. There are eyes watching here.”

Ji Wan finished speaking and moved towards the first floor entrance.

Her oddly cold back seemed to have already taken it in the meaning he had worried about.

He wanted to smooth things over, but instead, things to smooth over were steadily increasing.

Tae Sung’s eyes sank with complex emotions as he followed behind her.

* * *

A sigh.

That damn sigh was the problem. From Ji Wan’s perspective.

It was already embarrassing enough to be so conscious of a man demanding divorce, but Joo Tae Sung’s attitude of sighing deeply upon seeing her like this was enough to carve into Ji Wan’s heart.

‘Just divorce me then. I was going to do it! Geez!’

She wanted to shout like that, but as she couldn’t even manage her expression yet, it would only seem like a needless tantrum.

She had to stay calm.

If she didn’t want to crumble further in front of Joo Tae Sung, she needed to keep her wits about her and act calmly.

“Have some.”

Ji Wan set down two cups of chamomile tea on the table where Tae Sung was sitting.

Looking at those cups, Tae Sung smiled faintly.

“I’ve become a guest after just a few days.”

She had brought the tea solely to calm herself before an important battle, but Ji Wan decided not to add that explanation.

Ji Wan sat across from Tae Sung with a composed expression.

Then she placed the divorce papers and contract he had been waiting for on the table.

“I’ve filled out everything and stamped it too. Transfer the remaining balance right away.”

Tae Sung’s gaze fell on the white papers.

The contract was hidden behind the divorce papers, but Tae Sung didn’t bother to look.

In fact, it might be more accurate to say he wasn’t touching them at all.

“Is there a problem?”

Ji Wan asked him pointedly.

Tae Sung took a sip of the tea Ji Wan had given him first, then set down the cup quietly and asked a question.

“How was it? The feeling of reaching the end.”

Ha, what was his intention in asking this?

Unable to explain that feeling, Ji Wan almost snapped at him, but she desperately maintained her composure as she answered.

“It was bittersweet. I thought I’d feel completely relieved and good, but surprisingly, it wasn’t like that.”

Even then, she didn’t lose her honesty.

Seeing her still without a hint of pretense, Tae Sung’s smile deepened a bit more.

“Then was Do Hwa Young right? That you have lingering attachments and don’t want to end it like this.”

She had hoped he wouldn’t bring up that incident of all things, but it came out anyway.

Ji Wan, who couldn’t be that honest, refuted first just like yesterday.

“I told you it’s not true. I said Hwa Young sir was just thinking on his own, didn’t I?”

“You said you felt bittersweet.”

“When did I say I felt regretful? I said it was bittersweet. Those two are completely different. Really, how can someone smart enough to be a prosecutor not understand that?”

Though she was hitting back without hesitation, somehow she felt heat rising to her cheeks.

Fearing a blush might appear, Ji Wan immediately lowered her head and lifted her teacup.

Tae Sung, gazing at her intently, maintained silence for a while without saying anything.

‘Is he still worried? That I might have a change of heart.’

Joo Tae Sung opening his mouth was frightening, but Joo Tae Sung keeping his mouth shut was equally frightening.

Quietly regulating her breath and composing her expression again, Ji Wan pushed the documents towards Tae Sung demonstratively.

“Don’t just sit there silently, check it. There might be something else needed.”

Right then.

“Reconsider it.”

Tae Sung uttered one low, gentle sentence.

At those words that didn’t match this situation of meeting to finalize things, doubt clouded Ji Wan’s eyes.

“Reconsider what?”

“Moving.”

“Moving…?”

“I’m asking you to think once more about moving instead of divorcing.”

The moving issue was Tae Sung’s first request.

Ji Wan, who had lived in this house alone with her father for a long time, didn’t want to change her living place and flatly refused.

But now he’s making the same request as back then.

If anything has changed, it’s that Ji Wan’s mouth doesn’t produce the cold ‘No’ response like before.

To Ji Wan, who was silently looking at Tae Sung, he continued speaking as calmly as his expression.

“I’m not saying to completely get rid of the house. You don’t need to move everything here either.”

“…”

“I just want you to come with me, thinking of it as staying at a different lodging for a while. I’ll prepare everything you need.”

As he spoke up to there, it felt like his brow was about to furrow.

Tae Sung, worried she might misunderstand again, forcibly relaxed his facial muscles.

That face looked quite complex to Ji Wan’s eyes.

Frowning then consciously relaxing, his gaze wavering then looking at Ji Wan again.

“What do you want me to do?”

Ji Wan asked, unable to guess what was on his mind at all.

For a moment, Tae Sung’s gaze that met hers seemed to deepen, then a gentle but clear voice flowed out.

“…Say you’ll follow me. That’s the answer I want.”

Tae Sung’s hand slowly reached out and touched the documents Ji Wan had prepared.

Then he pushed the documents back towards her.

Ji Wan’s wavering eyes settled on the back of his hand that had come towards her.

Was it just her imagination? Or a wishful thinking?

Somehow, in his touch that lingered briefly before slowly returning, she seemed to see reluctance.

* * *

‘I need time to think.’

That’s what Ji Wan said.

It was an answer she had barely managed to give after much deliberation.

Perhaps it wasn’t the answer he wanted, as Tae Sung silently met her eyes and held back his words.

But he knew too.

That she couldn’t immediately answer about deciding on an extension in front of a divorce that meant the end of the contract.

‘I can’t wait long. I’ll be anxious.’

‘…’

‘Still… think carefully and decide.’

Tae Sung left those words and returned to his house.

In the place where he had been, only the half-drunk chamomile tea remained alone.

Even after he left, Ji Wan sat at the table for a long time, lost in thought.

She had read something like this once before.

That escape is in order of intelligence.

An opportunity to end a contractual marriage with a dangerous man in many ways.

An opportunity to pay off the debt incurred due to her father’s medical expenses at once.

Am I lacking in intelligence to be contemplating whether to escape or not, setting aside all these opportunities?

“Haa… this shouldn’t even be something to consider.”

Ji Wan sighed deeply, holding her throbbing head.

Then, as Tae Sung had urged, she desperately tried her best to think.

Though it wasn’t like she was on the brink of death, the time she had spent with him in this house flashed by like a kaleidoscope.

The night she first barged in here.

The beautifully prepared breakfast every morning.

The presence that filled the house that had always been quiet since her father was hospitalized.

Their first kiss, shared in a strange atmosphere, whether due to alcohol or something else.

Every time a fleeting moment came to mind, Ji Wan’s eyes rippled like waves.

Her expression, far from resolute, seemed to have already made a decision, regardless of the right answer.

“Sigh… I don’t know anymore. Whatever happens, happens.”

Ji Wan finally rose from the table, her brow deeply furrowed like Tae Sung yesterday.

What she brought out, huffing and puffing as she strode into the veranda, was none other than a travel suitcase.

She had only used it once on a Jeju Island trip in elementary school and never taken it out since, but now she was using it to set up a different household with an outsider.

“I must be crazy. Yeah, there’s no way I’d do this if I weren’t crazy!”

Though she was blaming herself for making such a choice, her hands were busy packing only the essentials as she moved around the whole house.

It seems the part of the brain that governs rational thinking must have broken down.

Not a shred of reason was involved in making the decision to leave this house.

But even if it was a hasty decision, somehow it didn’t feel like she would regret it.

The strange tension enveloping her now.

It was just exciting, making her heart flutter like a child before their first field trip.