A heavy silence permeated the car’s interior. Neither of them spoke first.

However, Tae Eun’s mind was occupied with numerous thoughts. She couldn’t forget the look in his eyes when he asked if she saw him as that kind of man.

– I know. I’m well aware of how you’ll be treated if you go into that house with that bastard.

Just how much did he know from start to finish?

Perhaps he knew everything. After all, he was a man who could find out anything if he set his mind to it.

She had been caught in the aspect she wanted to hide the most. How she was treated at home, or how she had endured it. A sense of shame washed over her. But strangely, she didn’t dislike the man. What did he think at that moment, seeing her face flushed red with shame?

In fact, entering the house with a drunk Ji Hoon after the commotion he caused was almost akin to suicide. Ji Hoon wouldn’t stop there, and Min Kyung Hoon and Ji Eun would have grabbed her like a dog to take his side.

Come to think of it, the man had saved her once again from that hell.

“Where are we going?”

She asked, breaking the long silence. She had gotten into the car, following his lead without question, because she had nowhere else to go.

“Why? Are you worried I might kidnap you and take you somewhere strange?”

“No. That’s not it……”

“Does it matter where we’re going?”

“……”

“What’s important is that you don’t have to go back to that house tonight.”

At those words, Tae Eun was momentarily at a loss for words. He had pointed out a truly important reality.

The fact that she didn’t have to go home tonight.

The reason she had tried to enter that hell even in that situation was because it was still her home. There was no comfort or coziness that a home provides, but it was still a home. The moment she denied that fact, she would lose her sense of belonging and become someone with nowhere to go.

But then her cell phone vibrated. Taking it out of her handbag, the caller was none other than Ji Eun. She probably called after hearing Ji Hoon’s drunken rambling after he entered the house.

Tae Eun instinctively knew that she would hear unpleasant things the moment she answered this call.

“Don’t answer it, not tonight.”

As she hesitated, he made the decision for her. And as if pulled by something, she shoved the ringing phone back into her handbag.

Just for today, she wanted to be dragged along wherever he led her, without any thoughts.

* * *

The car stopped at an unfamiliar and enormous place. Woo Jin got out while on a call, and Tae Eun also got out in a dazed state.

A well-manicured garden and mood lighting illuminating various spots upgraded the atmosphere of the grand building.

As he was on the phone, she couldn’t dare to ask and followed him inside, but he turned around and asked.

“What’s your weight, by any chance?”

“My weight?”

When he nodded with a glance, Tae Eun answered.

“48 kilos? Well… around that……”

Without a chance to ask why, it seemed like he was informing someone of her weight and height. As they entered the house, the lights turned on, revealing a huge hall.

“I sent the people away in case it made you uncomfortable.”

“Where is this place?”

“Where I live. The Jang family’s main residence.”

“Then… your grandmother and aunts too?”

“That’s right. But the buildings are separate, so they won’t be able to know you’re here, so don’t worry too much.”

Tae Eun nodded and scanned the interior of the house. Although Min Kyung Hoon was a fairly successful lawyer, making her house quite large, it was nothing compared to the Jang family’s main residence where he was staying.

The stylish yet unique interior design caught the eye. Combined with the scale, it was a building that truly reflected the Jang family’s status.

“It’s incredibly spacious.”

“You’re right. It’s a bit too spacious for one person to live in.”

“You live here alone?”

“Well, it’s a place where I just sleep and leave.”

“Why do you only sleep here?”

“Because I spend more time at the company than here. So I end up just sleeping here.”

Ah, she had forgotten for a moment. How busy of a person he was.

“In a little while, some things that you can wear will arrive.”

“Things that I can wear?”

“I asked the personal shopper, Manager Song. Shall I give you a tour of the house in the meantime?”

Tae Eun carefully nodded. The fact that he was trying hard to ease her tension was conveyed to her heart.

“As you can see, this is the hall, and over there is the dining room. And this is where I work out.”

As she moved her footsteps to the places he guided her, Tae Eun was in for a series of surprises. She knew it was spacious, but who would have imagined that this house had everything from a movie theater to a gym, and even a huge outdoor hot tub? It was truly a different level of living.

Only then did Tae Eun keenly realize who this man was. No, she finally understood why Ji Eun was so obsessed with Seo Woo Jin.

From her perspective, he was someone she could never dare to look down upon.

His unparalleled wealth and power seemed to have given even greater wings to an already attractive man.

“And this is my bedroom.”

The last door he opened on the second floor was unlike the other rooms, making it difficult to enter readily. As Tae Eun hesitated, he smiled, curling the corners of his lips.

“What are you thinking? I’m just showing it to you.”

“Thi- thinking… what……”

“I won’t tell you to sleep together here, so feel free to come in and take a look.”

At his mischievous words, Tae Eun rolled her eyes gracefully and blushed. It was a moment when the man’s words were truly unnerving.

His bedroom, which she entered like that, was a room that made her jaw drop. Along with the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the garden, there was a large bed. And even a unique sofa. However, unlike the other rooms, it had a very simple interior design.

“I don’t like complicated things much.”

Thanks to the simple interior, Tae Eun thought this place, which already looked spacious, seemed even more expansive and quite resembled him.

But then his cell phone vibrated. He answered the call and informed her that her clothes had finally arrived.

Following Woo Jin downstairs, she saw a few shopping bags neatly placed on the table. It seemed the personal shopper had come and gone in the meantime.

“You know the room you saw earlier? Next to my bedroom, next to it. Stay in that room tonight.”

“Thank you.”

Taking the shopping bags he handed her, she went upstairs. Then she entered the room he had mentioned. Although not as spacious as his bedroom, it was decidedly a luxurious room that Tae Eun had never experienced before.

The place she would be staying tonight.

No, perhaps even after marriage.

Left alone after closing the door, the tension that had been strung tight loosened, and the mental state she had barely been holding together seemed to crumble. Today had truly been an exhausting day. It felt like she had fought a small war.

Tae Eun entered the bathroom, took off her clothes, and took a shower. As the warm water touched her body, an intense feeling of fatigue washed over her. It felt as if her body was being sucked into the ground. She didn’t know how long she had been under the hot water like that.

When she came to her senses, her shoulders were already flushed red.

Quickly finishing her shower, she put on the underwear and loungewear brought by the personal shopper. It was truly amazing that they could find clothes that fit her perfectly with just her weight and height.

After applying the toner and lotion provided, Tae Eun sat in front of the mirror for a moment, flipping her wet hair and looking at herself.

Even though she was just in a different place, it felt like she had crossed into a different dimension. It also felt awkward, like wearing ill-fitting clothes. Was that why? Despite the mental fatigue and drowsy body, sleep didn’t come.

Then her cell phone vibrated.

[Are you sleeping?]

Woo Jin’s message appeared above the numerous messages from Ji Eun.

[No. Not yet.] [Then do you want to come down? To the bar next to the dining room.]

Tae Eun hesitated for a moment at his question. But having come this far, there was no need to refuse when he was telling her to come down, not to the bedroom. She took a step.

Entering the bar, she saw him. Like her, he seemed to have just finished showering, also drenched in water.

Naturally flowing bangs and comfortable loungewear.

As he usually sported a perfectly styled pomade hair and a flawless suit fit, seeing him in such a relaxed state was like seeing a different side of him. Plus, he looked a bit younger because of his bangs. Of course, even in loungewear, his threatening physique couldn’t be hidden.

“Want a drink? I don’t think I can sleep.”

“No. I can’t handle alcohol at all.”

“Ah, then… shall I get you a cup of tea?”

“Yes. A cup of warm tea would be nice.”

He handed her a cup of tea and sat across from the bar. The cozy bar with drowsy lighting and the two of them drenched in water evoked an unfamiliar tension. Feeling her body, which had been thoroughly melted by the warm water, tense up again, Tae Eun took a sip of the tea in front of her.

Moistening her parched mouth and setting down the teacup with a clatter, she carefully brought up the words she had been putting off.

“Thank you… for today.”

“For what?”

“Just everything. I know you did it for my sake.”

Listening to her voice with a calm gaze, he slowly swirled the glass of on the rocks. Watching his unusually long fingers, Tae Eun swallowed her dry saliva. Even though it was just a habitual movement, the man in this unfamiliar space dominated everything around him.

“My style is, Ms. Min Tae Eun……”

He began to speak. His tone was as slow as the movement of his fingers swirling the glass of on the rocks. But that voice, which stuck in her ears, was by no means light in weight.

“It’s to immediately barge into that house, dragging that bastard, exposing what he did, and trampling him. And if he still doesn’t reflect, trample him again, and knock down anyone who takes his side, even their in-laws and distant relatives.”

“……”

“I don’t know how to turn back. I don’t have the patience for that either.”

“……”

“But the reason I held back and turned around was because of you.”

Tae Eun’s eyes trembled at the man’s resolute voice. Because she finally realized how much patience he had been exercising during that short time when she felt shame.

“Because you still have to go into that house for now. My momentary actions could make things harder for you.”

However, she couldn’t understand him. Even though they had decided to get married, she couldn’t understand why he was doing this much for her at only their second meeting.

“Why? Why… are you being so good to me?”

“Heh, what. Even though we’ve decided to get married, you’re asking why I’m doing this much when I don’t even love you?”

He let out a smirk as if it was ridiculous and casually mentioned not loving her. He was truly an unpredictable man. He immersed his emotions as if what happened to her had happened to him, and then drew a cold line between them with the words that he didn’t love her.

She had no idea which beat to match.

“Yes. That’s exactly it.”

When Tae Eun’s clear voice asked without wavering, his leisurely gaze hardened. Seeing that, all she could do was swallow her dry breath.

“I am someone who, from the moment I was born, learned responsibility before the rights I had. Because responsibility is essential to protect what I have.”

“……”

“It doesn’t matter what kind of life you lived in the past. From the moment we decided to get married, you came into my boundary.”

“……”

“And I can’t stand seeing any bastard treating the woman who will become my wife like that. Even if it’s your brother, mother, or father.”

“……”

“It drives me crazy with anger.”

His slow but clear voice fiercely penetrated her eardrums. In the end, the man’s words were about responsibility. But why did those words sound so disappointing?

What had she been expecting?

She bit her lip and lowered her gaze. Then he reached out, grasped her chin, and lifted her face so she could look at him.

Tae Eun took a deep breath at the gaze she was forced to meet. Because she instinctively knew what the man was going to do.

“And one more thing.”

“……”

“I don’t know that either. Why I keep going beyond my expectations when it comes to you.”

“……”

“I have no idea even if I die, so would you like to explain it to me?”

He asked, but it wasn’t a question that sought an answer. Instead, he lowered his lips and swallowed her whole in an instant, unprepared.