Bewildered, Eun Seo anxiously followed the now invisible goshiwon through the rear window before turning her head restlessly again.

“Why on earth are you doing this? I told you my part-time job starts today.”

“……”

“Hey, Kwon Tae Ha, you said you can hear me well, right?”

“I can hear you.”

“Then can you tell me the reason? Why are you doing this?”

“Live together.”

Tae Ha answered lightly as he made a U-turn. Even his lips closing without a single wrinkle were neat.

She must have misheard. Of course, she must have misheard.

Should I ask, or not? Eun Seo, who was anxiously pressing her fingertips together, finally asked.

“What did you just say?”

“I said let’s live together.”

It wasn’t a mishearing.

Her eyelids blinked incessantly, and her lips parted, unable to close.

Knowing her bewilderment, Tae Ha glanced at Eun Seo and soon opened his mouth.

“I don’t mean live together as a married couple. Don’t get scared yet.”

Haa. With a shallow sigh, Eun Seo’s slowly lowering eyelids somehow seemed like a gesture of relief, which strangely displeased Tae Ha.

It felt as if he had just kidnapped her.

“First, my house will be better than the goshiwon. You paid in advance? I won’t take any money. Just stay. I’m not saying stay forever. Just until you save up for independence.”

“Kwon Tae Ha, do you know? There are several reasons for marriage annulment.”

“Second.”

Tae Ha cut her off.

“Part-time job? You seem to need a job, I’ll provide one.”

“That’s really kind of you, but why go this far.”

“How much were you going to get paid? A hundred? Two hundred? I’ll give you three hundred. Work under me.”

Three hundred. Eun Seo’s shoulders dropped. At this point, she really couldn’t understand the man’s intentions.

His kindness towards her had now gone beyond excessive. At this rate, wouldn’t he be considered a lifesaver rather than a scammer?

“Three hundred with room and board provided, how about it?”

“I really don’t understand. When you first took me to that house, ah, okay, since I’m a scammer, it would be really hard to catch me if I ran away, so that was the reason, but now why.”

“I’m going to find out from now on, why I’m doing this. Right now, I’m not sure either. For now, let’s just say it’s sympathy. You said you respect that emotion. So just respect it.”

Sympathy. Yes, compassion. Eun Seo, measuring that emotion that perfectly fit the current situation, parted her lips again.

“Still, I need to know what’s going on……”

“It’s reviewer work. Not official, temporary. I have three secretaries who assist me in my work. You know Team Leader Choi? He’s very busy right now. And one is about to take a leave. For childcare. We’ll split the work of two people.”

“I, I dropped out of college.”

“Study. Use your salary to save for tuition.”

“That’s not what I meant, whether it’s temporary or not, the people you work with might not accept it. Besides, I don’t even know what that job is.”

“Everyone starts like that. Are there experienced workers from the beginning?”

“I know that, but.”

“Didn’t you say you made your debut?”

“How do you know that?”

“I did a background check. You probably expected it anyway. If it offended you, I apologize.”

“I don’t mind since I expected it. But what does my debut have to do with working under you, Kwon Tae Ha?”

“I’m a busy person, so I hardly have time to read books, newspaper articles, or watch performances. But given my position, I need considerable knowledge in all those areas. There are necessary conversations when meeting people from all walks of life.”

She vaguely understood what he was saying. Somehow, it reminded her of the high-society conversations she had read about in books.

Whether it’s literature, politics, music, or anything else.

“You’ll do that job for me. Don’t do it half-heartedly. Even when reviewing a book, you need to grasp the author’s basic philosophy. Keep personal opinions to short memos. Even for the same news article, newspapers have different tones. Read them all and extract the important points for me. Polish interview drafts smoothly too. Soon you’ll also take on secretarial duties. That’s it. That’s the job.”

Honestly, Eun Seo wondered if this job was really necessary, or if it was hastily created. However, the work he assigned was rather close to her aptitude, and she calculated that there would be quite a bit of free time left.

With that time, she thought she could study for college readmission or do translation work.

“What do you think? You’d be a fool to refuse.”

“I’m not, a fool.”

Isn’t the fool you, Kwon Tae Ha? As if knowing she wanted to say that, Tae Ha’s lips finally loosened.

“Grab the opportunity when it’s given. You never know when I might come to my senses.”

* * *

Ziiing, the garage door opened and Eun Seo got out of the car again, just like when she first came to this house.

Except now there’s no ‘Bluebeard’ here. Just an ‘Archangel’ with enormous wealth and immeasurable infinite compassion.

Eun Seo waited quietly in front as Tae Ha unloaded two suitcases.

“Let’s go.”

Tae Ha held one suitcase in each hand.

“Give me one.”

“It’s fine. Just carry your bag well.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Tae Ha left the arched structure. Eun Seo followed beside him.

“So, where will I stay now?”

“What do you mean where will you stay?”

His expression said he was hearing nonsense.

“I heard all the workers stay in the annex.”

“Just use a guest room. It’s not like we have many guests, it’s mostly an empty room.”

Tae Ha brought the suitcases into the room. When he pulled back the blackout curtains, red sunlight pooled warmly on his broad shoulders without spilling a single crumb.

His face with distinct features left afterimages wherever he paused, and his unfixed bangs swayed with a sunset glow with each long stride.

Somehow feeling fresher than the winter wind, Eun Seo couldn’t take her eyes off him.

“What are you staring at?”

Tae Ha turned around and met Eun Seo’s gaze as she was looking at him intently.

“The sun.”

Everything around was bathed in red light.

* * *

Eun Seo completely unpacked her luggage at Tae Ha’s house.

The room had already been thoroughly cleaned, and all the men’s clothes in the dressing room had been emptied out.

[Take any clothes you like. There’s no owner anyway.]

Even taking out all four seasons of clothes from her suitcase didn’t match the clothes in the room. Above all, it was the quality that differed.

Eun Seo hung the clothes in two groups. Just in case Tae Ha changed his mind and kicked her out of the house.

Eun Seo entered the bathroom, hearing that dinner would start at 6 o’clock. Fatigue washed over her, as if her shoulders had tensed up while packing and unpacking.

Only after contacting the goshiwon and the place where she was supposed to work part-time did she sink into the bathtub.

Bububububu.

Plugging her nose and submerging her head in the tub, the world became completely silent.

Kwon Tae Ha. Tae Ha, Tae Ha.

Eun Seo rolled that name on the tip of her tongue, then exhaled ‘poo’ and immediately lifted her head out of the water. Because that name felt sweet.

Because it felt like it shouldn’t.

After letting all of that overflowing name flow away, Eun Seo changed her clothes.

Due to Tae Ha suddenly having urgent business, they ate separately. And as Mrs. An was going to the annex, she asked Eun Seo to make Tae Ha’s coffee.

Woo Young was still on a business trip, and Jung Woo had an appointment. In the end, only the two of them remained in the main house.

Eun Seo turned on the coffee machine in the kitchen, with her back to the Han River bathed in colorful lights. Then, as Mrs. An had taught her, she brewed a full cup of coffee with rich acidity, which was said to be Tae Ha’s preference.

After brewing, she was worried.

Should she take it to his room? Or wait until he comes out?

If she goes in, she feels she wouldn’t dare to even put her hand on the doorknob, but if she doesn’t go in, the coffee might get cold.

[The CEO always drinks coffee at 7 o’clock. Since you’re going to live here anyway, why don’t you try it today, Eun Seo?]

She should have said ‘no’.

As Eun Seo was pondering, unable to decide, the sound of a gentle piano came floating.

It seems a relative has come.

Her mind eased as one more person was added to this spacious house. Eun Seo, seeing it as an opportunity, passed through the kitchen into the living room. She was now a real employee of this house too.

But Jung Woo was nowhere to be seen. The piano sound was still there.

What’s going on?

Eun Seo quickly scanned around the piano. It wasn’t hard to find the protagonist.

It was Tae Ha.

Whether it was the force of pressing the pedals or striking the keys, his black bangs swayed neatly.

Eun Seo stopped in her tracks, holding the tray as if entranced. She just breathed quietly and then moved her feet little by little. Very little by little.

Feeling like the sound might stop at even the smallest footstep.

Then their eyes met directly between the black lid and the prop.

Her heart, which had been beating steadily, stopped with just one glance.

Tae Ha’s fingers also stopped. Two gazes were quietly trapped in the not-so-wide triangular frame.

No sound, no time, not even a breath.

After a long while like that, Tae Ha took his hands off the keys and leisurely walked out from behind the piano. Because he couldn’t press the keys from the moment their eyes met.

Thinking carefully about the reason, it’s because of that woman.

Like now, either freezing him in place.

“What song is it?”

“Je Te Veux.”

“That’s the name of the song?”

“Yes.”

“It’s French.”

Watching Tae Ha slowly approach, Eun Seo knew the meaning of the title, but deliberately didn’t say it. Because if she uttered those words, it felt like it would really become true.

Step by step, as Eun Seo approaches, Tae Ha answers in her place. Maybe it’s already become that way.

“The meaning is, I want you.”

For some reason, at those words, Eun Seo’s walking feet happened to catch on a wing chair and she lost her balance and wobbled.

“Uwaah!”

With that, she dropped the tray and the coffee from the mug sliced through the air, and Tae Ha, getting completely drenched by the coffee pouring in front of him, overlapped with the off-balance Eun Seo and fell backwards.

“Ah, hot!”

Or making things hot.

“What should I do!”

Eun Seo was so startled that she sat up straight and unconsciously shoved her hand inside the hem of Tae Ha’s cream-colored knit, frantically pulling it up over his chest.

If he got scalded by hot coffee on his stomach, it would be a big problem.

“Take your hands off, quickly.”

But there’s no way she could hear those words. Eun Seo, straddling Tae Ha’s waist as he lay fallen, was solely focused on taking off his knit.

Not knowing that the dull pressure below his waist was more painful than the burning sensation from the hot coffee.

“We need to take this off. Hurry! Look, your skin is red!”

“I told you to take your hands off.”

Eun Seo, in her urgency, didn’t hear the words that came out as if ground between teeth.

“What should we do. If we don’t take this off now……”

In an instant, her body was lifted and their positions switched.

She found herself pinned to the floor by her wrists, trapped between Tae Ha’s legs as he knelt over her.

“This is why, I warned you. Didn’t I.”

“……”

“Do you want me to take it off?”

“……”

“If I take it off, can you handle it?”