I thought the quarrel would end once we got outside, but I was sorely mistaken.

We compromised on the modest destination of the hill behind the house, but Yeon Se Eun encountered difficulties from the entrance.

“Come on, link arms with me.”

“I’m really fine, thank you.”

It was because of Ki Sun Woo, who kept insisting she link arms despite her firm refusals.

Though it would likely make her look like she was dangling off him, he wouldn’t budge at all.

As usual, he took it one step further.

“Really won’t link arms? Then shall I just carry you on my back?”

“…!”

Sun Woo quickly escorted the stone-stiff Se Eun and led her by the hand.

It was a hasty suggestion because he felt they needed to get outside quickly.

He remembered there was a park following a small fortress wall behind the house.

But once they got out, it wasn’t a suitable place for Se Eun to leisurely stroll with her limping leg.

So Sun Woo demanded they walk arm-in-arm.

Saying that as her legal guardian, he had a duty to protect her.

It was awkward enough suddenly having a husband, but his repeated invasions of her personal space were endlessly troubling.

On the other hand, the rapid pulse in the hand he held felt strangely unsettling.

She couldn’t remember the last time she had held someone’s hand like this.

Only a distant memory remained of walking between her parents, holding their hands on either side.

Ki Sun Woo’s hand was, in a word, unfamiliar.

Is this what all adult men’s hands were like?

The long, straight joints seemed almost like a separate living thing.

An intense, foreign sensation enveloped Se Eun.

So much that she couldn’t even take in the scenery of the hill they were walking on.

Yet one thing was clear.

Se Eun’s steps were slowing.

Because this awkward date was causing a strange stirring in her heart.

“Your hand is so small.”

“Pardon?”

“Now that we’re standing and walking together, your whole frame is tiny too. Didn’t notice at the wedding since you wore heels?”

“…”

Unable to answer such an awkward question honestly, Se Eun pressed her lips shut.

In her childhood, she hadn’t eaten properly due to her maternal grandfather’s watchful eye, and during her crucial growth years, she had practically starved under her aunt and cousin’s tyranny.

There was a miserable reason she hadn’t grown as tall as her statuesque parents.

“Why the long face? I’m not criticizing you.”

“…I thought you were making fun of me for not growing.”

“No, it’s cute in its own way. Yeon Se Eun, tall height wouldn’t have suited your face. You have very delicate features.”

Saying that, Sun Woo examined Se Eun’s face in detail.

As his gaze traced from her forehead down her nose bridge to her lips, Se Eun felt her whole body burning.

Even when they visited the doctor earlier, she had faced him like this the whole time.

But now felt completely different from then.

“Oh…!”

Perhaps due to her overly agitated emotions.

Her unguarded ankle caught on a rock, causing her to lose balance.

Fortunately, this time the mishap of falling into Sun Woo’s arms was avoided.

Thanks to the hand he was firmly gripping, which steadied Se Eun.

But Sun Woo didn’t seem to want to let this near crisis pass.

“This won’t do after all. Get on my back.”

“What? N-no, I’m fine! Riding on your back…”

“From here on it’s downhill. Going down is usually harder on the legs.”

“…Still…”

“If you want to fall and receive my nursing care, keep walking. Just so you know, my nursing style is unique. Very hot and intense…”

“…!”

In the end, moments later, Se Eun found herself neatly perched on Sun Woo’s back.

More accurately, she was in an awkward position like a rock placed on a A-frame carrier.

Sun Woo adjusted Se Eun, who was stiff as a board, several times before starting to stride down the slope.

As his steps wobbled on the descent, Se Eun instinctively clung tightly to his back.

Finding it somewhat amusing, Sun Woo teasingly asked.

“It would have been a big problem if I hadn’t carried you, huh?”

“…”

There was no reply.

Despite her earlier vehement protests against being carried, Se Eun had already fallen asleep, her breathing soft and even.

Sun Woo shook his head in disbelief.

Perhaps she was tired from the hospital visit.

Still, it was remarkable how she could sleep so soundly on the back of a man like him.

Not realizing he was eyeing the back of her head, not knowing he planned to use her.

“Ah, this feeling is so…”

Conflicting emotions warred within him – wanting her to open her heart, yet also wishing she would stay tightly closed off.

Sun Woo’s long sigh escaped into the chilly night air.

“…Let’s end this quickly. This sort of thing.”

*

The information Sang Hyun had gathered was quite useful.

First, the accident 20 years ago.

That tragic car crash where Se Eun’s parents died simultaneously occurred on their way to the airport, he said.

Their destination was Eastern Europe, presumably for business related to Ko Yeon Hwa’s jewelry brand launch preparations, though the exact nature of the business was unknown.

Ko Yeon Hwa had pushed her daughter Se Eun with all her might just before the car exploded, and as the door flew off with Se Eun, only she survived.

Se Eun’s father, who had been driving, lost his life in vain.

Given what happened, it was only natural that Ko San was furious enough to spit blood.

From the start, Se Eun was a granddaughter born of a marriage he opposed.

No chaebol chairman would welcome his preciously raised daughter marrying a penniless unknown composer.

But because Ko Yeon Hwa’s stubbornness was extraordinary, Ko San couldn’t break her will.

When his granddaughter was born looking so much like his daughter, there was a time he found her quite lovely.

But it was all temporary.

With her strong fate that had “devoured” her mother, and the added disability of her limp, Se Eun became Ko San’s headache.

According to some close associates, he even considered sending her to live with her late father’s relatives.

Sun Woo thought anew.

If they were smart businessmen to begin with, they would never have wanted him as a grandson-in-law.

Yet Ko San had dumped his granddaughter on him as if she were some trade good.

The relationship between Ko San and Se Eun was crystal clear without digging too deep. A mouse before a tiger.

“Hmm. This is the interesting part.”

A sneer spread across Sun Woo’s lips as he flipped through the documents on Ko Do Hwa and Shin Mo Na.

As he’d suspected from their brief meeting, they were far more intriguing characters than expected.

While Se Eun’s mother Ko Yeon Hwa was renowned for her talent and beauty, her younger sister Ko Do Hwa had never once been in the spotlight.

Ko Do Hwa, who suffered from lifelong inferiority towards her sister, made a distinctive choice in marriage to please her father Ko San.

Unlike Ko Yeon Hwa who chose love, Ko Do Hwa took the hand of the partner most needed by the Ko San Group at the time.

The problem was that the age gap with that partner was over 10 years.

She somehow gave birth to her daughter Shin Mo Na, but the marriage didn’t last long.

In less than 3 years, Ko Do Hwa returned to her family home with her daughter.

Naturally, Ko Do Hwa didn’t get along with her sister.

Especially after their mother passed down the Ko San Group’s heirloom “Queen’s Tears” to Ko Yeon Hwa.

Sun Woo found it amusing how they coveted the precious jewel, not realizing it was pushing them into hell.

In any case, after reviewing all the documents, one thing became clear.

Ko San, Ko Do Hwa, Shin Mo Na, and Ki Sun Woo.

At the center of everyone’s tangled desires was the woman named “Yeon Se Eun”.

*

Perhaps it was from encountering so much text after a long time.

Sun Woo dozed off leaning against the living room sofa.

What woke him was a unique sound brushing his ear.

The sound of paper pages rubbing and absorbing air.

‘…Rice paper?’

Removing the arm covering his eyes, he saw Se Eun busily moving about with calligraphy tools.

Since the desk she was using had a blind spot where Sun Woo was, she hadn’t noticed him yet.

He decided to simply observe her quietly.

Perhaps thanks to the layers of white winter clothes, she looked just like a white, fluffy rabbit.

In the space created by sunlight pouring over the desk, Se Eun neatly placed an inkstone and ink stick.

Then she spread out the rice paper with her hands and began carefully smoothing it.

The rolled-up rice paper soon became quite flat under her small fingertips.

A small smile appeared on her lips as well.

Why did it feel like time had stopped for Sun Woo in that moment?

Se Eun’s appearance was worlds apart from the realm of desire he had been immersed in.

As if everyone’s tangled desires couldn’t reach the space where she was.

Perhaps that’s why.

Sun Woo felt emotions he absolutely shouldn’t feel in this marriage, towards Se Eun.

Sympathy, and guilt.

He felt like a villain trying to coax a naive child into giving up their only piece of candy.

Even though that was the truth, he didn’t know why it felt so unpleasant in this moment.

Despite volunteering for the ill-fitting role of husband in order to stab her in the back.

“Yeon Se Eun.”

As if to remind himself of that resolve, Sun Woo called her name in a low, husky voice.

As expected, Se Eun turned towards him with a start.

The brush she was holding fell with a thud.

“…Mr. Ki Sun Woo?”

The brush rolled all the way to Sun Woo’s feet.

Slowly picking it up, Sun Woo locked eyes with Se Eun and murmured.

“…I.”

Se Eun waited for his next words with an expression both utterly bewildered and innocent.

Words he would have uttered without a second thought normally, Sun Woo now swallowed with all his might.

Among all the words he had spoken to her so far, there was only one truth.

‘I’m going to use you.’