While I was offering a prayer of thanks for a while, a crashing sound was heard from Woo Jin’s room.

I wondered what was happening, but I was too scared to go back in and check.

It seemed like he was angrier than I’d ever seen before… The sound that came from his mouth was not something a human could make.

Soo Young wanted to run away outside the house to be safer, but she couldn’t because her clothes were all wet.

Like last time when I spilled ramen broth, maybe I should leave some of my clothes at this house.

She looked for her cell phone belatedly to report to Seol Ji Hyun, but her phone had disappeared somewhere too.

Did I drop it in the bathroom? Oh crap…!

After carefully turning her body and craning her neck to check the situation in the room, Soo Young swallowed hard and approached Woo Jin’s door, muffling her footsteps.

She pushed the door open slightly with her finger, but there was no one in the room, perhaps still in the bathroom. She seemed to have dropped her phone in the bathroom, but didn’t have the courage to go in and retrieve it.

Just then, she suddenly thought, what if Woo Jin didn’t see her phone and tripped over it?

Just imagining it made her heart start pounding. Could that crashing sound earlier have been him tripping over the phone? What if he hit his head on the floor while falling!

Suddenly, a breaking news headline flashed through her mind.

− Ms. Kim sneaked into the bathroom to peek at a naked Mr. Seol, then fled. Visually impaired Mr. Seol didn’t see the phone Ms. Kim dropped and tripped over it, dying… or becoming completely… paralyzed… Ms. Kim sentenced to life in prison for murder charges…

“No!”

Soo Young hurriedly crawled across the room on all fours and stopped in front of the bathroom door. After fidgeting anxiously for a while, she carefully opened the bathroom door. But unexpectedly, the inside was empty.

“Uh, where did he go… Where did the body go…”

“What went where? Whose body?”

A chilling voice came from behind her as she was panting.

Soo Young screamed “Wooahhh!” and stumbled backwards, landing hard on her bottom on the bathroom tile floor.

It felt like her tailbone cracked on the hard tile floor, but just like when she fell in the living room, no scream came out.

He was now looking down at her with scary eyes, wearing a V-neck t-shirt and sweatpants.

Somehow his amber eyes seemed to be flashing. And in his right hand was Soo Young’s cell phone.

“You… now you just come into this room too?”

“Ah, no… I wasn’t going to come in… That CEO person…”

“Seol Ji Hyun?”

“Yes. He said he couldn’t reach Seol Woo Jin… told me he’d take responsibility so I should just go in… I didn’t want to go in but he said to just go in… There was no one in the room so I was about to leave… He even said to check the bathroom… that he’d take responsibility…”

Emphasizing again and again that she wasn’t going to do it herself, it was all his orders, Soo Young just sat there on the wet tile floor.

But Woo Jin was silently looking at her body. Or rather, he seemed to be looking.

Under his piercing gaze, Soo Young slowly lowered her eyes to her own body. Her white t-shirt was soaked through, clearly revealing the pink underwear she was wearing underneath.

“Eeek! W-Where are you looking! Pervert!”

She quickly covered her body with both arms and shouted.

An expression of disbelief characteristic of him appeared on Woo Jin’s face. At the same time, he suddenly became curious if this woman was also naked now like he was earlier.

Woo Jin slowly knelt down on one knee in front of her. As his amber pupils drew closer, Soo Young unconsciously pulled her bottom back and muttered.

“W-What? What is it? Are you going to look properly now?”

Strength entered Soo Young’s arms covering her body. If I’d known this would happen, I would have worn prettier underwear. Huh! W-What am I saying? Do I actually want to show him?

While she was having an identity crisis, Woo Jin slowly reached out his long arm towards her.

“Why, why, why? Where are you touching?”

His fingertips lightly touched Soo Young’s shoulder then fell away. Soon he said with a disappointed expression and a smirk.

“What. You’re wearing clothes.”

Huh. Was he checking if I was naked?

“Can’t you tell by looking? Do you have to touch to check? Are you really a pervert?”

“Lee Soo Young. I think I’ve said this about 10 times now, but I can’t see. So I have no choice but to check with my hands.”

Who’s Lee Soo Young? Why do these brothers keep changing other people’s names? And why are you checking if I’m naked or clothed?

“It’s Kim Soo Young, you know?”

“…Anyway. Why are you making a fuss like you’re naked when you’re wearing clothes?”

“You splashed water on me! So I’m all wet!”

“You’re still wearing clothes anyway, right? I was completely naked earlier.”

At his words, the image of the David statue from earlier came to mind, and Soo Young quickly shut her mouth.

“If you were a woman with basic manners…”

Woo Jin opened his mouth while still kneeling in front of her. Somehow his voice sounded chilly, and Soo Young unconsciously swallowed hard.

“You would have closed your eyes or turned away out of courtesy. Right?”

Soo Young’s eyes narrowed, wondering if this meant she was a person without even basic manners.

“But from your voice earlier, your face was turned towards me and you didn’t close your eyes. Right?”

Soo Young couldn’t say a word. She had realized she was a person without basic manners, but acknowledging it was a separate issue.

Woo Jin stood up. As his tall body moved, Soo Young’s head followed.

“How was the view?”

“…Pardon?”

“Did you hold your breath again?”

“Heh… hehe…”

“You did, huh?”

The monstrous voice had returned to a falsetto by now.

“Must have been impressive.”

“N-No it wasn’t!”

Honestly, it was. She fully understood why her relatives kept repeating “if only his eyes were normal”.

Suddenly he reached out his hand towards her.

“I can’t see, so stop covering up and get up. If you open that sliding door over there and go in, there are clothes. Just take out clothes from the drawer that seem like they’ll fit you. Don’t touch anything else. If the positions change, it’ll be hard for me to pick out clothes.”

Soo Young hesitated for a moment, then took his hand and stood up. Their clasped hands were so hot, she couldn’t tell whose body temperature it was.

I was so angry. Because of her, who had invaded even my private space. But soon, with the sound of her slipping and crashing, her scent suddenly disappeared, and the anger that had risen turned to concern.

Did she slip on the tile? Did she fall? Is she hurt?

This bathroom had been remodeled with tiles that weren’t slippery even when wet, for Woo Jin’s sake. But if she had stumbled and fallen, she could have been seriously hurt like on any other tiles.

It seemed like she had run outside, and there was another crashing sound from the living room. She must have been quite flustered, though I was also taken aback.

As I hurriedly dried myself with a towel I had left to the side after getting out of the tub, I heard a small sound from somewhere.

− Soo Young? Soo Young, are you okay? Soo Young!

I knelt on the tile floor and reached out towards the sound, feeling around. Soon I touched a small cell phone.

Did that woman drop it and leave? When I picked up the phone, Seol Ji Hyun’s voice was leaking out from inside.

− Did you meet Woo Jin? Is Woo Jin okay? Soo Young!

The call suddenly cut off, as if I had pressed something wrong. It seemed to ring again a moment later, but I didn’t know how to answer a phone without voice settings.

I tried touching it roughly by feel, but it cut off again. Thinking I should tell that woman to call directly, I headed to the dressing room with the towel wrapped around my waist.

I also wondered if the woman would come in again, but I figured if she was in her right mind, she wouldn’t come back in after that commotion.

But sure enough, the woman was not in her right mind. As I was getting dressed in the dressing room, I heard the woman’s muttering voice.

Rather than muttering, an extremely agitated voice was echoing in the bathroom.

“…Where did it go? …Where did the body go?”

Has she finally gone crazy? Why is she looking for a body in someone else’s bathroom?

The one fortunate thing is that she doesn’t seem to be hurt. No, did she hit her head? Could she think I’m dead? I yelled. And before that, I splashed water on her.

After checking by touch that I was properly dressed, I slowly headed to the bathroom.

Something similar had happened before. That time, I really was trying to die. Just before I lost consciousness, drugged in the bathtub, Seol Ji Hyun came in and shook me awake.

I went to the hospital for stomach pumping and was confined to a hospital room for a full week. The stress of how much they touched me during that time nearly killed me.

Somehow Seol Ji Hyun persuaded my grandfather, who was demanding I come home immediately, and I ended up just living in this house after being discharged. Instead, a helper comes during the day and Seol Ji Hyun comes in the evening.

It’s uncomfortable having a stranger come, but the thought of someone watching has kept me from having the courage to do anything foolish again. I also got busy with publishing work.

I could understand why Seol Ji Hyun told her to check on me. Those memories must have come back to her. Is she losing her mind again, blaming herself and feeling guilty?

Plus, today is the anniversary of Father’s death… When evening comes, talkative relatives will gather again to gossip about me under the guise of sympathy?

It’s fine if they just talk about me, but if they start talking about Father, I feel murderous. What do they know! What do they know at all!

When I went behind Soo Young, who was looking for a body, and made my presence known, she screamed that I was a pervert as if I had seen her naked.

What’s there to see to be a pervert, I can’t see anything. How many times do I have to tell her I can’t see, does she have goldfish memory?

But it didn’t feel so bad being treated like a pervert, as if I were a normal man.

Was I in too good a mood, that I even lent her clothes from my closet to change her wet ones? I who abhors the thought of someone else wearing my clothes, or myself wearing someone else’s clothes.

It seemed like the woman wasn’t the only one with a head injury, I felt like I was losing my mind too. I haven’t been in my right mind since that woman started coming and going from this house. They say people die when they change…

As I sat in the living room waiting for her to finish changing, I sensed a presence and familiar scent beside me. I reached out and handed her the cell phone.

“Call Seol Ji Hyun. Tell her I’m alive.”

“Huh? Oh, yes.”

Soo Young took the phone and pressed one of the missed calls that were listed in a row with the same number.

− Soo Young! Are you okay?

As soon as Seol Ji Hyun answered the phone, she quickly asked about her wellbeing first.

“Yes. Woo Jin is fine too. He was taking a bath so he couldn’t hear the phone.”

Saying the word ‘bath’ somehow made her face flush and she choked a little.

− Ah, I see? Woo Jin is alright then? He was just taking a bath?

At the repeated word ‘bath’, Soo Young couldn’t even answer and hurriedly nodded as if Ji Hyun was right in front of her. But somehow Ji Hyun’s amused voice came through.

− That’s a relief. Did Woo Jin get very angry?

“Huh? Oh, well…”

He yelled, but he didn’t seem as angry as expected.

− Can you put him on?

“Oh, yes. Just a moment. Seol Woo Jin, she wants to talk to you.”

Soo Young said as she placed the phone on Woo Jin’s hand. Woo Jin picked up the phone with a subdued voice.

“I’m not going.”

At his sudden words, Ji Hyun quickly replied.

− Okay, okay. I told Grandfather. I’ll come after the memorial service is over.

“You don’t have to come.”

− I want to see you.

“Want to see, my ass. You’re just coming to check on me. I’m fine with Soo Young here.”

Hearing Soo Young’s name come out of his mouth so affectionately, her already wide eyes grew even wider. He usually just called her ‘you’.

But if he needs to be monitored to this extent normally, that means this kind of thing happens often. Soo Young quietly looked down at the sculpture-like man with uneasy eyes.

Suddenly she thought that maybe Seol Ji Hyun having her aunt or herself come to this house was also to monitor Seol Woo Jin to prevent him from doing anything foolish.

But this man is usually just holed up in his room, and the helper isn’t allowed to freely enter that room. Then isn’t the monitoring not working properly?

No, are there cameras installed somewhere? Strange thoughts also came to mind, but Soo Young quietly waited for Woo Jin to finish his call.

Soon, after exchanging a few more gruff words, Woo Jin held out the phone to her again.

“I’m hungry. Give me food.”

“Huh? Oh, yes. The side dishes…”

“I want tteokbokki.”

“What?”

“I said I want tteokbokki. I’m craving something spicy because of the stress you caused me.”

“Ah… ah… okay, well… I’ll treat you.”

In terms of stress, it felt like she was experiencing several times more than this man, but thinking it would be better for her wellbeing to keep quiet, she silently opened the delivery app.

She went into the snack food section and was searching for tteokbokki places for a while when Woo Jin slowly leaned back against the sofa and placed his long arm on top of the backrest.

Though no part of him was actually touching her, from the front it looked exactly like Woo Jin had his arm around her.

Unaware that Woo Jin had closed his eyes and was tilting his head towards her, Soo Young was busily adding menu items to her cart.

After the memorial service ended, Ji Hyun arrived at Woo Jin’s house past 11 o’clock. As soon as she opened the front door and stepped inside, familiar shoes caught her eye.

No way, still?

When Ga Eul entered the kitchen, she saw kimbap ingredients and leftover kimbap spread out messily on the dining table. And even the wine bottle and wine glasses he had bought before.

Ji Hyun’s face, who was usually as neat as Woo Jin, automatically frowned. Woo Jin wasn’t the type to leave things like this.

Even if he couldn’t see, he was not the type to leave food so messy, even if it meant putting everything in a plastic bag.

When she entered the living room, an even more surprising scene unfolded. Slippers were scattered here and there, and on the sofa…

On the not-so-narrow sofa, Woo Jin was lying on his side, his body pressed tightly against the backrest, fast asleep.

And in his large embrace, Soo Young was also sleeping, wheezing slightly. Wearing only Woo Jin’s shirt.