After my confession, Joo started avoiding me like before.

Joo would only come out of her room after I left the house first to avoid overlapping our leaving times. She didn’t even touch the dishes, as if she ate dinner elsewhere.

Before, even if she skillfully avoided my sight, I wouldn’t have cared.

Because we only shared a house, not our daily lives.

“It’s you that I like, senior.”

I thought you also maintained this marriage for our mutual benefit.

I always had doubts. Why you were conscious of me even while seeing Seo Jin Won.

I wasn’t usually dense about these things, but I realized it too late. Your definition of our relationship didn’t end at just senior and boss.

“I’m telling you I like you right now, how can you say that?”

“Because I don’t like you.”

I deliberately said hurtful words to help Joo give up. I didn’t want the kindness I showed to become a thread of hope for her.

I was the one who told you to go be with someone else, yet I found myself following your drooping steps.

I was already there even before Seo Jin Won found you.

Inside the food truck tent, the two happily laughed and talked.

As if they were lovers. As if they had always been like that.

I felt a tingling sensation deep in my ribs, like when I saw the photo Seung Hee sent. My jaw clenched and my breathing felt unpleasant.

This unpleasantness wasn’t new.

When Jin Won and Joo were left alone in the meeting room, when Jin Won examined Joo’s hand without a ring. Those nasty, dirty feelings swirled around then too.

Was this feeling something I had towards Jin Won himself?

Before I could reach a conclusion, Jin Won stepped out of the food truck to make a call.

Even from a distance, Joo already looked drunk, gently swaying back and forth.

It was like that time we drank wine together. She guzzled it down regardless of her tolerance, just like then.

She’d get suddenly drunk at this rate. No, she already seemed drunk.

I had planned to take Joo out when she left the food truck, but I couldn’t delay any longer.

Do Hyun walked up to Jin Won, who was on the phone in front of the food truck.

Seeing Do Hyun approach from afar, Jin Won’s eyes flickered for a moment. He looked curious as to why Do Hyun was here.

“I’ll call you back later.”

Hastily wrapping up his work call, Jin Won turned his body towards Do Hyun.

“It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that you’re here like me… I suppose you were waiting for Joo.”

“I’ll take Joo home, so you can go in.”

Despite Do Hyun’s suggestion, Jin Won didn’t back down easily.

“It’s alright. I’ll take her home.”

“Mr. Seo Jin Won. I should be the one declining politely here.”

There were thorns in his words. Those thorns overturned the air and the flow between the two.

Jin Won still had a faint smile, but his eyes no longer curved.

“I don’t think Joo will welcome the CEO much, so it’s hard to decline.”

Although he seemed soft on the outside, Jin Won was by no means an easy person.

But Do Hyun also didn’t know how to back down.

“This isn’t a matter of welcoming or not right now, is it?”

Do Hyun’s questioning gaze seemed to coldly crawl over Jin Won’s body.

“A man who doesn’t know a drunk woman well takes her home. With pure intentions?”

“How can you assert that I don’t know her well.”

“Do you know where the house Joo lives with me is?”

“……”

“The house passcode, were you going to have drunk Joo enter it?”

The weight could be felt in the voice flowing out. Overwhelmed by the heavy pressure, Jin Won had to close his mouth.

“You just know one secret. Don’t act like you know everything.”

Around the time Do Hyun took a step after binding Jin Won’s feet by hitting the bullseye, it happened.

“Let me ask you one thing.”

Do Hyun stopped at the sound of Jin Won’s voice from behind.

“Whether Joo drinks or is with me, you’re not in a position to care, are you?”

“I think the reason Shin Joo is drinking is because of me.”

Do Hyun, who turned his upper body diagonally, faintly lifted the corners of his mouth.

“I have to take responsibility, don’t I?”

Entering the food truck, Do Hyun stood in front of Joo, who was sitting at a table near the entrance.

Not even realizing Do Hyun had come, Joo was pouring and drinking alcohol again.

When Do Hyun silently sat in front of her, Joo’s half-closed eyelids slowly closed and opened.

As if making eye contact with Do Hyun, Joo lowered her head back to the glass.

“Actually, I confessed to my husband not long ago. That I like him.”

Joo poured out her anguish, not even realizing Do Hyun was in front of her.

“What do I do. I guess I haven’t gotten over my feelings yet. I still like him.”

A mournful voice, like a cry, gently resonated.

Leaning forward, Joo mumbled painfully then collapsed onto the table.

As if she had fallen asleep like that, Joo didn’t raise her head while slumped over the table.

After paying the food truck owner, Do Hyun supported Joo and put her in the car.

Not even knowing where she was being taken, Joo had fallen into a deep sleep. The car carrying Joo, who was sleeping without tossing and turning, stopped in front of their house.

Unbuckling the seatbelt, Do Hyun tried to wake the still motionless Joo.

“Shin Joo. Wake up.”

“Mmm.”

Narrowing the space between her eyebrows, Joo curled up and burrowed towards the passenger door.

It seemed she wouldn’t easily wake up even if he shook her.

He couldn’t leave her in the car forever, so Do Hyun turned off the engine and got out of the driver’s seat. When he opened the passenger door, Joo’s body that was leaning against the door collapsed to the side.

Bending his upper body, Do Hyun lightly lifted Joo by supporting her waist and the lower part of her legs.

Entering Joo’s darkened room, Do Hyun laid Joo on the bed.

As Do Hyun was about to leave the room, Joo opened her eyes, holding her dizzy head with her hand.

“Where is this.”

As Joo rolled her eyes in confusion, Do Hyun pulled over the vanity chair and sat down.

“It’s your room.”

“Ah. I hate this house.”

Tossing and turning with the influence of alcohol, Joo complained.

“Why do you hate the house.”

“Because my husband is here.”

The usually respectful speech was abruptly cut off, and her tone was almost whiny.

Bringing both elbows to his thighs, Do Hyun leaned forward.

“You’re really saying that in front of me.”

Only then did Joo turn her body towards where Do Hyun was sitting.

Relying on the light coming through the crack of the door, Joo stared at Do Hyun and reached out her hand.

Her fingertips touched the tip of Do Hyun’s chin. Her hand went up a little more and gently stroked his cheek.

Joo’s warmth, hot to the point of stinging, warmed Do Hyun’s cold face.

Do Hyun’s eyes quietly widened.

“It really is you, senior. You’re in front of me.”

Joo grinned, revealing her neat teeth, under the influence of alcohol.

Perhaps because of the cozy atmosphere, or because of Joo’s scent permeating everywhere, Do Hyun was defenseless.

Seeing her smile like a child, the breath he drew in remained deep in his chest, unable to come out.

Dropping her hand onto the bed, Joo rubbed her face against the pillow and chattered.

“Ah. I don’t want to run into senior right now.”

“You confess as you please then don’t want to run into me?”

“Who made me confess.”

“It sounds like you’re blaming me now.”

Pushing the bed away with both hands, Joo abruptly sat up.

“You hinted at me being married, said you’d even love me if I wanted, saying those things to me makes you guilty. It’s aaaall your fault, senior.”

After passionately declaring that, Joo collapsed back onto the bed as if her power had been cut off.

As if she was still upset, Joo wiggled her lips as Do Hyun laughed, looking at her.

Sweeping Joo’s hair and tucking it behind her ear, Do Hyun spoke softly.

“Okay. Hearing that, it’s all my fault.”

“See. Stroking my hair is also a crime. Don’t make me confused and confess again. Then you’ll really become a bad person.”

Even as she said that, Joo couldn’t actually brush Do Hyun’s hand away.

Perhaps because his stroking was gentle, Joo’s closed eyelids didn’t lift again.

Only after confirming Joo had fallen asleep did Do Hyun take out the first-aid kit from the nightstand drawer.

As he always had, he took a cotton swab, applied ointment, and pulled Joo’s hand.

New skin was already growing over her hand that had dots of blood before.

After gently spreading the ointment on Joo’s palm, Do Hyun put the first-aid kit back in its place.

The treatment was over, but Do Hyun couldn’t let go of Joo’s hand and held it the whole time.

“I was confident I wouldn’t care who you meet or what you do with them, but I guess I didn’t know myself well.”

I’m not usually a person so full of contradictions like this.

Seo Jin Won by your side bothered me.

I even felt impatient for the first time in my life.

“I think I’m jealous, like you said.”

There was less than a month left until he returned to Clark.

Once he went back, he would have to stay there for 2 years, and he wouldn’t see Joo’s face like he does now.

The feelings he had now could, as he told Joo, vanish quickly. It could be affection that arose from being together.

But it was too much to dismiss it as that when you constantly got on my nerves.

“This is trouble.”

He knew he shouldn’t do this.

Hurting her so much then changing his mind now was no different from greed.

But he couldn’t stop.

Do Hyun brought Joo’s white hand that he was holding to his lips.

Do Hyun’s lips settled on her long, delicate fingers.

“I want to become a bad person, like you said.”