“Let’s go to my house.”

Yuri’s eyebrows twitched momentarily at the words ‘my house’. But she soon calmly followed behind him.

Ding-dong, the front door opened with a cheerful sound.

Following Jeho into the apartment, Yuri carefully looked around the unfamiliar place. At the same time, bang, the door closed behind her.

The moment she heard the sound of the front door closing, she became aware of the reality before her eyes.

Did I just follow a man into his house alone?

‘Of course we have to go home for disinfection. It’s not something to do in the car.’ But it was a more serious situation.

Oh no…

Her head felt dazed as if hit by a hammer. As her heart pounded fiercely, Yuri unconsciously gripped her bag tightly with both hands. Jeho seemed not to notice her change as he walked steadily into the living room.

Yuri stood in front of the entrance for a moment, lost in thought.

Should I just open the door and leave now?

Yuri slowly backed away, slowly reaching for the front door. But as she grabbed the doorknob, she thought it would look silly. Kwon Jeho was the older cousin of her fiancé Kwon Minwoo. Soon when she marries Minwoo, he will become part of her in-laws. That’s right. Who else would take care of her future in-laws if not her!

It would look stranger if she just left here.

Having made up her mind, Yuri took a short breath and stepped into the house. Jeho was leaning against the back of the sofa with his eyes closed, looking tired. When he sensed Yuri approaching, Jeho gestured towards the wall cabinet in the living room.

“The first aid kit is in the second drawer.”

Yuri approached the cabinet and opened the drawer containing the first aid kit. The long, sideways drawer was heavy enough that it required both hands to open. In Jeho’s current state, even opening the drawer would not have been easy.

After taking out the first aid kit, Yuri hurried over to Jeho’s side. As she took her place beside him, he slowly opened his eyes and looked at her.

“…By the way.”

With his gaze fixed on her, he began unbuttoning his shirt with one hand.

“Is it okay to follow a man living alone into his house like this? Are you fearless or reckless?”

His tone was teasing, as if provoking the other person. But Yuri didn’t properly hear those words. The moment she saw him unbuttoning, she realized a fact she had forgotten.

He needs to take off his shirt for treatment! You can’t pour disinfectant on clothes, after all.

It was already awkward enough suddenly entering a house where a man lives alone, but now she has to watch a man undress…

Moreover, he was undressing right in front of her eyes.

With each button undone, bare skin was revealed, almost visible yet not quite. All her nerves were on edge. Trying to hide her flustered state, Yuri swallowed dryly, careful not to let it show.

The chest visible through the open shirt was reminiscent of an intricately crafted art sculpture. A well-balanced, firm chest, not excessive, followed by a defined muscular abdomen below. It was a body that elicited admiration just by looking at it.

Feeling her face flush hot without realizing it, Yuri hurriedly averted her gaze.

A moment later, the rustling sound stopped, as if he had taken off his shirt. Carefully looking to the side, she saw Jeho sitting with his back turned to her. Only the right side of the shirt was pulled down, revealing the injured shoulder.

Yuri opened the first aid kit and took out the medical supplies needed for disinfection.

“By the way, don’t you need to take off the whole shirt?”

To avoid misunderstanding, Yuri quickly added:

“If you wear it like that, the medicine will spread and ruin your clothes.”

Jeho obediently began to take off his shirt following Yuri’s words. He pulled down the injured right side further with his left hand, and straightened his left arm to help Yuri take off the shirt easily. Then he put the bloodstained shirt in the laundry basket and brought a new shirt to change into.

When all the preparations were done, Yuri carefully brought a gauze soaked in disinfectant to the wound.

“It might sting a little.”

“Ugh.”

As expected. The moment the gauze touched the affected area, a groan escaped Jeho’s lips.

“What’s wrong? Is it too painful to bear?”

Yuri stopped her movements in surprise and tried fanning with her hand. And still not satisfied, she even started blowing on the wound, going “hoo hoo”.

“…Hmm.”

As Yuri’s breath touched the wound, Jeho let out another low groan. It wasn’t because of the pain.

The ticklish sensation on the affected area was harder to endure than the pain from the disinfectant.

As Jeho clenched his fist with his mouth shut, Yuri interpreted it as him feeling extreme pain.

“I’m sorry. I’m too clumsy… Does it hurt a lot?”

She was indeed clumsy. But that clumsy touch felt rather stimulating. However, she had no way of knowing that feeling. She seemed unaware that she was so focused on the treatment that she was almost embracing him, pressed closely behind his back.

It was harder to bear the sensation of her breath landing on his bare skin and her hair lightly brushing against him with each movement, rather than the pain from the wound.

“So…”

Yuri grumbled to herself towards Jeho, who remained silent without a word.

“Why did you recklessly jump in when you’re not fully healed yet, jumping in like that.”

“Ha, who was it that jumped in first without thinking?”

Instead of arguing back, Yuri just chuckled. Whenever he spoke informally, it somehow felt like going back to the past. From their first meeting, he had spoken informally as if it were natural.

“But can I ask you one thing?”

“Yes, go ahead and ask.”

Yuri nodded lightly at Jeho’s question.

“Do you always rush in when you see someone in a dangerous situation?”

“Not always. Mainly just for children. …Um, maybe I take after my mom. She often did that.”

Yuri answered nonchalantly while wiping away the blood that had spread on his shoulder with disinfectant.

“Do you know how my father first got elected as a congressman?”

When he shook his head, Yuri continued speaking as she placed gauze on the disinfected area.

“The opposing candidate was a veteran politician known as a fixture in the district. My dad was just a novice starting out in politics. Everyone around said it was a game with no chance of winning. But an accident occurred during the campaign.”

Despite it being a child protection zone, a speeding car rushed towards a child walking on the crosswalk. So Yeon, Yuri’s mother who witnessed the scene right in front of her, instinctively pushed the child away and was hit by the car instead.

Coincidentally, the wife of the opposing candidate was also present at the scene. But instead of rushing forward like So Yeon, she pretended not to see and stepped back, turning her head away. A reporter who was at the scene quickly captured that moment on camera.

The incident became a big issue, making headlines in the news and newspapers day after day. At that time, Congressman Chae Hyungsik’s campaign slogan was ‘No more politics of just words. I will run with my own body!’ True to his words, So Yeon rushed in when she saw danger while the opposing candidate’s wife just watched from afar.

So Yeon’s good deed and Congressman Chae’s slogan matched perfectly, and began to move the hearts of voters one by one.

“Mom was badly injured in that accident. But thanks to that, father was elected with a big margin over the opposing candidate.”

Everyone said it was thanks to his wife So Yeon that he became a congressman. So Yeon gained even greater trust within the district than her husband Congressman Chae, and swept up votes in every election.

“But mom developed complications from that accident. Her broken ribs deeply pierced her lung. After repeating surgeries and hospitalizations, surgeries and hospitalizations, she finally passed away a few years later.”

A year after losing his wife, Congressman Chae took in An Misook, who had been his assistant, as his wife. It was a remarriage much sooner than expected, so disapproving gazes poured in from voters. The Congressman’s side hurriedly used Yuri, who looked exactly like the deceased So Yeon, in the election.

Voters were reminded of So Yeon in Yuri’s appearance, and the result was successful. As a result, it was the eldest daughter Chae Yuri, not Lady An, who stood next to Congressman Chae in every campaign.

Yuri looked down at the necklace around her neck, a keepsake of her late mother, as she recalled her. When she didn’t say anything, Jeho turned his head to look back.

Yuri was blinking slowly while looking at the necklace, as if lost in thought. The necklace looked very familiar to Jeho’s eyes.

“You’re still wearing that.”

As Jeho muttered as if to himself, Yuri snapped out of her reverie and returned to reality. Then she turned her gaze to where his eyes were resting.

“Ah, this.”

Yuri faintly smiled as she fiddled with the necklace with one hand. After nearly losing it, she had kept it preciously stored in her jewelry box for a while. But after learning of her father’s affair, she took it out of the jewelry box and wore it around her neck. She wanted to always be with her late mother, even if only in this way.

“You still remember this necklace?”

“Of course. It’s the necklace I barely managed to find while getting a scar of glory…”

Jeho raised the corner of his mouth as if it were obvious.

At that time, he had risked danger and gone down a cliff to find the necklace Yuri had dropped. Yuri recalled Jeho’s arm that had been scraped and bleeding somewhere on the cliff.

“I was really grateful back then. If it wasn’t for you, Mr. Jeho, I might have lost it forever.”

“Hoo.”

Then a sound that was hard to distinguish between laughter or a sigh escaped his lips.

“You were crying so hard with tears pouring down, I just couldn’t stand still.”

That’s right. It was a time when she easily burst into tears, crying a lot. Yuri smiled bitterly. Suddenly a question popped into her head.

Was the reason for finding the necklace just because she burst into tears?

Or was he a man whose heart easily softened at a woman’s tears?

“That doesn’t mean…”

He paused for a moment before continuing in a gruff voice.

“I don’t show such kindness to everyone.”

What does that mean? Yuri listened carefully to his next words as she put a bandage on the affected area.

“Only to those I want.”

At the expression “those I want”, Yuri’s hand trembled slightly.

Why is my heart pounding at such an insignificant remark? It probably just means someone he wants to be kind to…

“It’s done.”

Yuri, having finished the treatment, pulled up Jeho’s shirt and stepped back. Jeho silently buttoned up his open shirt. But it seemed difficult to button up with one hand. He kept fumbling repeatedly.

Suppressing the urge to button it up for him, Yuri was about to turn her head to the side when…

“…If you don’t mind.”

Jeho’s low whispering voice was heard.

“Could you button it up for me?”

Those words made Yuri feel strange.

In dreams, she usually unbuttoned shirts, but in reality, she was buttoning one up.

“Okay.”

Yuri nodded and carefully reached out her hand.

But why? From the moment she touched the buttons, she became very tense. Was it because they were sitting face to face? When treating him, he was sitting with his back turned, so their eyes didn’t meet.

Perhaps because of the gaze staring directly at her, she kept fumbling and couldn’t properly button up.

It felt awkward to tell him not to look, and she couldn’t ask him to close his eyes either.

Right, just finishing quickly is the best option.

Whispering to herself, Yuri quickly moved her hands. But in her haste, her hand slipped and touched the smooth skin. Her fingertips felt hot as if burned, but trying to hide her agitation, Yuri set her expression and bit her lower lip.

“It’s done.”

Finally buttoning up the last button, Yuri quickly stepped back.

Looking around to avoid the awkwardness, the neat interior decoration finally caught her eye. The inside of the apartment was decorated in a modern style, mainly in white and gray.

“It’s herringbone.”

As Yuri pointed to the floor pattern with her hand, Jeho leaned against the back of the sofa and turned his gaze to the floor.

“It’s not my taste. It’s that guy’s taste.”

“That guy’s taste?”

“It’s a friend’s house. I’m just staying here for a while.”

“Ah…”

That means it’s not a house where a man lives alone. Whew, as Yuri let out a sigh of relief inwardly, a meaningful remark flowed into her ears.

“And right now, it’s just you and me here.”