Drip, drip.

Raindrops drew diagonal lines on the window of the moving bus.

On her way home from work, Ji Yeon Woo was lost in a single thought all day.

“Ji Yeon Woo, we didn’t have something going on before, did we?”

Not having anything? We had more than enough.

Ji Yeon Woo was a college freshman, Nam Do Hyun was a college senior.

Whether it was the alcohol, or in his sleep. Or maybe both. Nam Do Hyun had crashed his lips into hers.

Ji Yeon Woo was the one it happened to, but he couldn’t remember it at all, while she, who was sober, remembered it vividly.

She had barely covered it up, tried hard to erase it. But that effort was for naught, as whenever she met Nam Do Hyun, that day’s events would suddenly spring up.

Beep—

Leaving the old, musty past behind, Ji Yeon Woo pressed the red bell and stood up.

Fatigue clung stubbornly to the corners of her eyes, perhaps from barely sleeping at Do Hyun’s house.

‘What should I say if I run into the landlady.’

She had already warned Ji Yeon Woo to move out several times, so she felt uneasy all day.

After getting off the bus, Ji Yeon Woo climbed the long stairs and entered the maze-like alleys.

And when she arrived in front of her house and tried to push open the gate while shaking off the raindrops gathered on her head, it wouldn’t budge.

Lowering her gaze, Ji Yeon Woo finally noticed the cardboard box placed in front of the door. Her eyes trembled faintly and she swallowed dryly.

Inside the cardboard box were Ji Yeon Woo’s daily necessities and clothes, thrown in haphazardly.

Growing anxious, Ji Yeon Woo straightened up and started knocking on the gate with her hand.

“Ma’am! Ma’am!”

By the time her palm knocking on the gate had turned red with heat, it was then.

The first-floor door opened and the landlady wearing a transparent umbrella opened the gate.

With an irritated look, the landlady abruptly asked Ji Yeon Woo.

“Didn’t you see the message?”

“Message?”

She had been so out of it all day that she didn’t even have time to check her phone at work.

“The rooftop room was rented out today. A new tenant has already moved in.”

Ji Yeon Woo knew the rooftop room would be rented quickly as it was difficult to find jeonse (key money deposit) properties these days.

That’s why she tried to find a place that provided room and board, but she couldn’t find a decent place to stay.

“I know it’s shameless, but I haven’t been able to find a place to stay yet. Isn’t there any way…”

Ji Yeon Woo restlessly made an earnest request, but the answer that came back was only cold.

“I already received the full jeonse for the rooftop room. There’s nothing I can do for you.”

The landlady, who unilaterally ended the conversation, closed the gate and went inside.

Left alone, Ji Yeon Woo could only watch the landlady’s retreating back while standing on her tiptoes.

When she lifted her chin, the gloomy sky was pouring down a torrent of rain.

Hesitating, Ji Yeon Woo hugged the cardboard box and stepped out from under the narrow eaves.

She left the alley aimlessly and walked and walked endlessly.

Due to the hospital bill she paid yesterday, she had just over 100,000 won left in her account.

She could probably stay somewhere for a night with that money, but then she would lose all her living expenses.

Her face was pale white, her brown hair stuck to her cheeks, and the cold collar of her shirt brushed against her skin with each step.

Her teeth chattered from the chilly air enveloping her body.

‘Endure it. You can do it. Hold on.’

Repeating it over and over, Ji Yeon Woo stopped walking.

Clothes and objects spilled out onto her feet from the box with a torn bottom.

Sighing, Ji Yeon Woo bent her knees and swept the objects scattered in the muddy water towards herself.

‘Hold on.’

As she clenched the clothes while chewing on those words, Ji Yeon Woo’s hand stopped.

“…How long do I have to hold on for?”

If I’ve endured this much, isn’t it enough?

If I’ve lived with anxiety for 2 years, isn’t that enough?

I’ve lost my dad, lost money, lost my house, so how much longer do I have to endure?

Since when did living become enduring?

“Hic.”

Swallowing back the tears that threatened to spill, Ji Yeon Woo turned her head to the side.

What she saw with her bloodshot eyes was the bottom of the Han River where her father had jumped.

Her mind went blank and only a single thought surfaced.

‘If I throw my body there, it will all be solved.’

There were no days where the sun would shine on this damp and dirty future.

The sun always rose with its back turned to me. Would tomorrow be any different?

‘I’m tired of barely getting by.’

Putting down what she was holding, she walked towards the railing of the bridge. Her slow steps stopped at the end of the bridge.

Grabbing the chillingly cold safety bar, she wedged her feet between the railings.

The stinging rain pounded her shoulders, making her upper body feel like it would weakly lean forward.

Just as her grip on the railing seemed to loosen, it instead tightened so much that her knuckles turned red.

Her two feet that had gone between the railings also sat back down on the ground.

“Dad.”

A pitiful voice was swallowed by the sound of rain.

The voice calling “Dad” curled inward with sobs.

“I want to live.”

It’s so hard that I could die.

“But I still want to live, Dad.”

Even though it’s so hard that I want to die like this, I don’t want to give up on life like you did.

“How could you do that, Dad.”

How could you abandon me and Mom, and leave on your own, throwing us into hell?

Even if it’s so hard that I can’t breathe, even if there’s a cliff under my feet.

“I have to live, Dad.”

The body gripping the railing slid down.

The sound of crying was drowned out by the rain.

Instead, the body being hit by the fierce rain shook greatly while sobbing.

Ding dong.

Nam Do Hyun, who was reviewing a project report in his study, leaned back in his leather chair.

It was late and there was no one who would come to the house. He had told his mother again not to visit without contacting him, so it couldn’t be her either.

Getting up, Do Hyun left the study and walked down the hallway.

The doorbell didn’t ring again, as if someone had pressed it by mistake.

Do Hyun grabbed the front door handle and pushed the door open.

Outside the door.

Seeing the figure standing alone, Nam Do Hyun’s eyebrows rose.

“What’s the situation here?”

Ji Yeon Woo, who had been thoroughly drenched by the falling rain, stood in front of Do Hyun with her lips tightly closed.

Ji Yeon Woo, whose face was pale to the point of being blue, looked so precarious as if she would collapse at any moment.

“I assume you didn’t come to my house to borrow an umbrella.”

“…”

“What do you have to say to me at this late hour?”

Ji Yeon Woo, who only kept her head down, didn’t easily open her mouth to speak.

Her shoulders trembled constantly, and just as Do Hyun was about to turn around to get a towel, it was then.

“Stay here. I’ll bring you a towel.”

“…Do you still do that?”

At Ji Yeon Woo’s voice that flowed out faintly like fog, Do Hyun’s feet stuck to the floor.

“Do you still feel concerned if someone looks pitiful?”

“Shin Ji Yoo. It’s hard for me to catch on if you beat around the bush.”

“Please marry me.”

Did she get drenched and her judgment became clouded? Even so, is it normal to blurt out a marriage proposal?

If someone else had said the same thing, it would have sounded like a joke, but Shin Ji Yoo was different.

She had nothing, but her pride was high and her self-esteem never bent even if she died.

Such Shin Ji Yoo was standing in front of him in a wretched and unsightly state, asking him to marry her, so he couldn’t laugh it off for fun.

“Is this how people propose these days? No romance, no emotion.”

“…”

“It’s novel. That’s just like Shin Ji Yoo.”

Since she hadn’t heard an answer about marriage yet, Ji Yoon Woo stared at Do Hyun with great tension.

His black eyes were deep like a swamp, making it impossible to read what he was thinking.

A short silence followed, and Nam Do Hyun scratched the end of his eyebrow with his index finger.

“But what should I do?”

He looked troubled and embarrassed, but.

His gaze wasn’t very kind.

“I’ve never seen Shin Ji Yoo as a woman.”

He drew a line as if there was no ulterior motive in the goodwill he had shown her so far.

Even though she already knew this fact, it felt like the rain, which had sharpened into an awl, was seeping into her heart.

“Go back.”

Do Hyun tried to send Ji Yoon Woo away, pushing aside even the flimsy goodwill of giving her a towel.

Seeing Nam Do Hyun coldly turning around, Ji Yoon Woo’s body invaded inside the front door.

As Do Hyun was about to close the door after seeing Ji Yoon Woo step inside with one foot, his hand paused.

“As you can see, I’m at the edge of a cliff. I’m grabbing onto anything I can because I have to live.”

She clenched a pebble in one hand and reached out with the other.

What the swaying hand grabbed was Nam Do Hyun.

“You need to be careful, Shin Ji Yoo. Would it be enough if the hand you grab at the edge of the cliff is mine?”

“My situation can’t get any worse from here. So there’s nothing I’m afraid of right now.”

She hoped the prince who would throw his body into this ruined life would be Nam Do Hyun.

It didn’t matter even if it wasn’t a marriage out of love.

This tough life wouldn’t improve even if sugar was dumped on it. All she wanted was a comfortable home and utmost peace.

“What would I gain from marrying you?”

“I accidentally overheard your conversation with the chairman before. He said there would be no overseas business trips until you get married.”

She stated it honestly as there was no need to hide it.

“You need to get married too, senior.”

“So you thought I’d marry even someone like you who looks pitiful?”

“…”

“No matter what, marriage isn’t something that happens just out of sympathy. Unlike me, you have way too little.”

There were women with better conditions than Ji Yoon Woo lining up.

If marriage was the goal, he could pick one of them. There was no need for it to be Shin Ji Yoo.

Ji Yoon Woo’s gaze, which had fallen downward, was lifted.

She had faced despair countless times at the end of a sloped and winding road. She couldn’t give up everything and turn back after just one rejection.

“I’ll do anything you tell me to. I can do it all well.”

Nam Do Hyun’s gaze settled on Ji Yoon Woo’s chest area, covered by a thin blouse.

Her trembling figure looked like a puppy struggling to gain a small bit of warmth.

Did Shin Ji Yoo even know what she was saying right now?

Probably not. She probably didn’t know, so she was looking at him with those desperate eyes, pleading for him to take her in just this once.

“Shin Ji Yoo. When you come in looking like that and say you’ll do anything, men will misunderstand.”

“…”

“Even I, who has no feelings for you, am getting aroused.”