Two hours later, the hairstylist who had finished blow-drying exclaimed with a voice full of satisfaction, “It’s done!”

Only then did Ha Jun open her eyes and properly face her reflection in the mirror, slightly parting her lips. She looked just like a different person.

The hairstylist didn’t hold back on praising her own work.

“It really suits you so well. If possible, don’t shampoo until tomorrow. If you have essence or serum, gently apply it to the ends like this.”

“Thank you……”

After quietly thanking the hairstylist, Ha Jun’s gaze turned back to the large mirror. Somehow her heart was pounding and her mind was blank.

Is this really me? No matter how I look at it, it feels so awkward.

But I do look brighter and prettier…… I wonder what Kim Yi Hyun would say if he saw me?

As soon as she thought that, Ha Jun was startled. Her face flushed red with unnecessary embarrassment.

Without realizing it, every time the slowly recovering waves of emotion suddenly raised their heads, Yi Hyun was always there at the end.

Ha Jun’s changing emotions were likely feeding and growing her love for Yi Hyun.

Though it wasn’t very noticeable on the outside, Ha Jun left the salon after paying, still harboring a bit of confusion and shyness.

Her face, now slightly different from before, was reflected in the transparent glass windows of the shops lining the street.

Ha Jun smiled slightly again as she looked at it. To her own eyes, the sight of just the corners of her mouth lifting while her eyes remained unchanged still looked awkward.

“It’s difficult……”

Ha Jun returned to the officetel a little after 5 PM. Though her body was tired from walking all day, her mood had improved somewhat from earlier.

As Ha Jun opened the wardrobe in the dressing room to change clothes and was about to take out a comfortable t-shirt, her gaze fell on one side.

She slowly reached out and grabbed a light lemon-colored dress with small floral patterns.

It was a bright dress that had been hanging there from the beginning, but she had never thought of wearing it, thinking it wouldn’t suit her.

“Later……, maybe I’ll try it on once.”

I wonder if Kim Yi Hyun would be surprised if I wore something like this.

Suddenly, Ha Jun’s movements stopped.

Once again, Kim Yi Hyun’s name had popped up without her realizing.

The cold voice from last night that she had been trying so hard to forget thundered in her ears. Ha Jun slumped down onto the bed.

“You really have no sense, Lee Ha Jun.”

Why am I so foolishly fond of a man who treats me like a doll?

Tears welled up in an instant. A sharp pain pierced her heart fiercely.

Ha Jun took out a black hair tie from the drawer and tightly pulled her newly styled hair into a single ponytail.

Then she shoved the clothes she had taken out back into the closet and got into bed, lying down.

Lying motionless, staring at the white ceiling, Ha Jun quietly thought.

If I combine the severance pay I received as an advance with the last two months’ salary, would it be enough for a monthly rent on a studio apartment on the outskirts of Seoul? Or maybe one of those women-only goshiwons would be okay too.

But what about the debt? With such a large sum owed, not just a few pennies, what right do I have?

I can’t…… do that.

Tears that had been brimming in her large eyes flowed down the corners, soaking the white pillow.

Lee Ha Jun cannot leave Kim Yi Hyun. At least not before paying off the debt.

Clear tears flowed ceaselessly from her eyes, thoroughly soaked in distant pain.

Suddenly, her blurred gaze fell on the clock hanging on the wall.

Night was approaching. The time when Yi Hyun would come.

Ha Jun wiped away the flowing tears with the back of her hand. Then, slowly regulating her breath, she erased her emotions and expressions.

If she couldn’t avoid it, she could face Yi Hyun by becoming a doll that couldn’t feel pain or sadness, that couldn’t be hurt.

“Right. I’ve lived well like that until now. Nothing has changed. I am…… a doll.”

But contrary to her words, tears were welling up in her eyes again.

Ha Jun closed her wet eyes just like that.

She wished it would be morning when she opened her eyes again.

Today……

Yes, just for today, she really didn’t want to see Yi Hyun.

However, Yi Hyun came to see her without fail.

When he entered the officetel and didn’t see Ha Jun sitting in the living room waiting for him as usual, Yi Hyun’s face hardened.

He quickly opened the bathroom door to check, then opened the bedroom door to find Ha Jun lying on her side on the bed with her eyes closed, asleep.

Only then did a long sigh of relief escape Yi Hyun’s lips.

“Haah……”

Where would this woman have to go, to make me worry that she might have disappeared.

How absurd.

Yi Hyun roughly pulled off his tie and threw it on the floor, unbuttoning his shirt. He approached the bedside and sat down with his knees up right in front of Ha Jun’s sleeping face.

“Your hair…… the color has changed a little.”

Yi Hyun’s hand gently touched Ha Jun’s hair, carefully untying the rubber band at the back.

Her shortened hair flowed down towards her white face with a gentle breeze.

As if the sensation was ticklish, Ha Jun’s closed eyes opened slowly, her face slightly scrunching up.

Like stars embedded in them, her sparkling black jewel-like eyes saw Yi Hyun in front of her and smiled brightly.

At Ha Jun’s bright and radiant smile, as innocent as a child’s, which he was seeing for the first time, Yi Hyun’s face instantly flushed red.

With the intense feeling of his heart plummeting to his toes and then surging back up to his head, Yi Hyun unconsciously stood up from his seat.

“Mmm~”

Then Ha Jun turned over, tossing in her sleep. Yi Hyun was flustered.

“She wasn’t awake……?”

Huh…..

Somehow, he felt vexed.

Biting his lips tightly, Yi Hyun climbed onto the bed and lay down next to Ha Jun. Then he pulled her slender body close, holding her tightly in his arms.

Only then did Ha Jun’s eyes slowly open.

The familiar scent and familiar warmth that she didn’t want to feel today had awakened her from her sleep.

“Ah, I must have fallen asleep for a moment.”

Looking down at Ha Jun speaking dazedly with that expressionless face she always wore, Yi Hyun’s bright red lips opened.

“Smile.”

“I can’t.”

“I told you to think before you speak?”

“……I tried smiling in the mirror earlier, but it was awkward……”

“You practiced smiling?”

Still in Yi Hyun’s arms, Ha Jun lowered her eyes and nodded slightly.

“Why? Trying to look good for someone?”

The deep desire settled in Yi Hyun’s heart whispered. Say it’s for me. Say you want to look good for Kim Yi Hyun.

But Ha Jun couldn’t have known his wish. Even if she did, she wouldn’t have given the answer he hoped for.

“Just. I want to live like a normal person now too. Make friends normally……”

The image of her smiling brightly that he had seen just before overlapped with Ha Jun now in his arms, lowering her eyes and fidgeting with her small lips.

An inexplicable selfish desire suddenly raised its head.

I want to see your brightly smiling face. I wish you would smile like that only when looking at me, only in front of me.

“Did you perhaps…… have a dream while sleeping?”

“Just…… a dream.”

A dream with you in it.

You…… smiled at me on a bright street in broad daylight, not at night. So I smiled back at you too and we were happy. Like loving couples. That’s how I knew it wasn’t reality but a dream, so…… I thought about how they say dreams are the opposite.

“Tell me more specifically.”

“It was just a good dream.”

“Perhaps, was I in that dream too?”

At Yi Hyun’s question, thump, her heart dropped straight to the bottom.

Ha Jun held onto her consciousness that was about to fade away. It’s fortunate that she was lying down. If she had been standing or sitting, she surely would have staggered.

After a moment of silence, a barely audible small voice flowed from Ha Jun’s lips, saying “No……”

In that instant, Yi Hyun’s lips hardened rigidly. His icy cold eyes flashed sharply as if they would devour Ha Jun.

Someone else? Who? A man?

His mood plummeted endlessly. Anger rose towards a non-existent man, not knowing why he was getting so upset. It was jealousy, an emotion he was feeling for the first time in his life.

Who on earth gave her such a look, such a face to smile at? Why wasn’t it me? Aren’t you mine? Yi Hyun’s eyes sank coldly with a sense of possessiveness that knew no bounds.

“Tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“The dream. Who was it?”

What answer does this man want? Why is he looking at me like that?

It was truly bewildering. Why he looked so angry.

Ha Jun ended up lying.

“……Mom. My birth mother……”

At Ha Jun’s unexpected answer, Yi Hyun’s gaze softened slightly.

“Was that the happiest time?”

“I don’t remember well anymore, but…… probably……”

Scoffing coldly, Yi Hyun lowered his face and whispered in her ear.

“I’ll make sure you never forget. Because I’m going to make it that way.”

Yi Hyun’s large hand slowly caressed Ha Jun’s face. Then he approached languidly and pressed his lips to her ear, whispering.

“I’ll give you the most intensely passionate memory in Lee Ha Jun’s numb life, one you won’t be able to forget until you die.”

Hot lips met hot lips.

Yi Hyun seemed determined to faithfully keep the words he had just uttered.

Though it should be quite familiar by now, Yi Hyun’s hot and broad embrace, the feeling of his firm arms, still felt good, and Ha Jun found that sorrowful.

Ha Jun quietly turned her head, avoiding Yi Hyun’s face.

Displeased by this, Yi Hyun’s elegant lips twisted crookedly.

Well then, shall we see who wins?

Yi Hyun pointedly tightened his arms around Ha Jun. The victor would be Kim Yi Hyun, himself, anyway.