Ordinary people are not that sensitive to sound.

However, visually impaired people had to be sensitive to sound as they had to discern everything through sound and touch.

Especially Woo Jin, who only lived inside the house, was even more so.

Sounds that normal people who rely on sight might think are insignificant were irritating to the point of giving him a headache.

However, explaining these circumstances to this woman one by one was too cumbersome and annoying.

Yesterday she asked for the contract, and now she thinks I’m deliberately trying to drive her out by nitpicking. It seems I’ve been branded as quite the bad guy.

But I don’t know why I care so much about whether she brands me or not.

Before that, why did I keep asking this woman to come? Ji Hyun was also puzzled. Saying I had shown utter disgust. I didn’t answer. Because I didn’t know why I did it myself.

Did I need some kind of impossible recharging? Yes, writing does require new stimulation. Still, letting this woman in seemed like the mistake of a lifetime.

“Don’t drag your slippers. I’m not nitpicking to kick you out.”

He says he’s not nitpicking, but from Soo Young’s perspective, it was nonsense that he could hear the sound of slippers dragging from inside the room.

“Honestly, I don’t even know if the landlord is in the room or not. I can’t hear any sound from the room at all, so for you to have heard my slipper sound…”

“It’s Woo Jin.”

“Pardon?”

“My name. Seol Woo Jin.”

“Ah… Hello, Seol Woo Jin sir.”

Her aunt said she hadn’t seen the landlord’s face for 6 months, but she had seen his face on the second day, and now even learned his name. Seol Woo Jin. She thought the name suited his face well.

Thinking he would obviously know her name, Soo Young skipped her self-introduction and said firmly,

“Anyway, I can’t hear any sound from the room at all, so it doesn’t make sense that you could hear the sound of slippers from the living room inside the room, does it?”

“You can’t, but I can.”

You can’t, but I can. In front of these words, Soo Young was left speechless. So she took off her slippers deliberately making a sound and snapped,

“There, I’ve taken off the slippers. No more sound now, right?”

At her words, Woo Jin’s eyebrows furrowed slightly. He thought she could just lift her feet slightly when walking, but wondered if that was difficult for this woman.

He also thought that just as there were things difficult for him, there might be things difficult for her too.

After standing there silently for a moment, Woo Jin soon turned and went back into the room.

Watching his door close, Soo Young sighed inaudibly. His prickly personality made even his handsome face not much of a consolation.

Her aunt said the landlord never comes out of his room, so why does he keep coming out?

His nitpicking didn’t end with the slippers. The next day he came out to the living room again for no reason and made another complaint.

“How do you clean the sofa? It’s been sticky ever since you cleaned it.”

“I wiped it with a dry cloth as your aunt instructed.”

“You must have used a different cloth.”

“There’s only one type of dry cloth in this house. Would you like to feel it?”

Soo Young held out the cloth, but Woo Jin couldn’t see it of course. When she deliberately put the cloth to the tip of his hand, Woo Jin waved his hand and stepped back.

He clearly hated having anything touch him. Another point to be careful about.

Don’t wear slippers, scrub the sofa thoroughly. Never touch the landlord’s body. She wondered if she could last 3 weeks.

She thought about quitting if she got a job within 3 weeks, but given the season, there weren’t many companies hiring so the chances of getting employed were slim.

Thinking that if she got used to being mistreated like this here, she might be able to endure well in any company she enters, Soo Young gripped the cloth tightly.

When told to clean the sofa well, Woo Jin was very flustered by her making him touch the cloth. Usually, when someone has a disability, people deliberately show excessive kindness or speak carefully.

Their consideration, treating him differently from normal people as if he were some peculiar person, was uncomfortable, but he couldn’t tell people with good intentions not to do so.

Just not meeting people was the best solution.

But this woman was different. She didn’t show any special kindness, nor did she try to help because he couldn’t see.

She treated him like a normal person, saying everything she wanted to say and acting normally. Perhaps because of that, he found himself wanting to talk to her more, saying things he didn’t need to say.

“The piano is sticky too.”

Honestly, he didn’t know if it was sticky or not because he hadn’t even been near the piano.

“Uh, I don’t even go near the piano?”

At the woman’s words that she doesn’t go near the piano either, Woo Jin tilted his head.

“…Why don’t you go?”

“You scolded me for touching the piano that time, remember?”

“…”

He hadn’t told her not to touch the piano, but not to touch the cane… This is why it’s inconvenient in many ways when things aren’t in their proper place.

That day too, for the first time in about a million years, he had sat on the piano bench and touched the new cane, then just left it there, which he shouldn’t have done.

“By the way, do you play the piano well? I can play a little too.”

Soo Young asked, looking back at the piano. It was her first time seeing a grand piano in person. It was strange to see something usually found in concert halls in a private home.

However, contrary to her thoughts, Woo Jin was more surprised that she thought he would naturally know how to play the piano.

There are Braille music scores, but it’s not as easy as one might think to press the right keys when you can’t see.

He just had it there because he had played since he was young, but after losing his sight, he had never played the piano even once.

But then she went on to say,

“Can you play for me once? I’ve never heard a grand piano sound up close. Is it different from a regular piano? It is, right? I thought things like that were only in concert halls.”

No one had ever asked him to play the piano. No, they didn’t even expect him to be able to play the piano.

They just thought it was displayed as a memento, a toy he had played with since childhood.

But when she asked so casually, Woo Jin thought that maybe he could play.

Soo Young, who was admiring the silver piano shining in the sunlight, turned her gaze to his golden eyes when he didn’t respond.

Looking at his mysterious eyes sparkling no less than the shining piano, she wondered if this person was really visually impaired.

Moreover, usually visually impaired people’s eyes don’t focus, but this person seemed to be looking right at her.

As Soo Young gently raised her hand and waved it in front of his eyes, Woo Jin grabbed her hand.

“Don’t do strange things.”

“I, I didn’t do anything strange?”

When Soo Young shouted with her ears turning bright red, Woo Jin roughly shook off her hand and tried to pass by her. At that moment, something soft was stepped on under his foot, and this time she grabbed his arm.

Woo Jin tried to shake her off in shock, but a thin groan was heard from below his shoulder. He seemed to have stepped on her foot. Sure enough, a resentful voice was heard from below.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you!”

He wanted to shake off her hand holding his arm, but his body wouldn’t move. Instead, only a stuttering response came out.

“N-no, I didn’t?”

“No? You did! You stepped on it hard while looking right at it?”

“I can’t see, I told you.”

“Ow ow ow ow, I think my instep bone is broken.”

Whether she was listening to him or not, judging by the strength in her hand holding his arm, she seemed to be in real pain.

Well, it would be strange if it didn’t hurt when his full body weight had been applied. He should apologize, but another harsh word came out instead.

“That’s why you should wear slippers…”

“You told me not to wear them! Said you don’t like the dragging sound! The floor is hard and my soles hurt too. You won’t let me wear slippers. While you wear them yourself. You’re really mean.”

Woo Jin clicked his tongue at her voice, which was talking to herself loudly as if for him to hear.

Her voice was even lower than his male voice, and somehow her grumbling with that voice felt cute. He was suddenly curious about what her face looked like.

Originally, during the time when the helper came, he mostly read books or listened to music. No matter how quiet it was, he could feel someone outside and couldn’t write.

But since she came, he kept coming out of the room. He was curious. About what she was doing… Whether he could hear sounds or not.

“Sit down.”

Woo Jin said, raising his arm and gently pushing her towards the sofa.

“Why…”

Although grumbling, Soo Young plopped down on the sofa. Then Woo Jin knelt in front of her and started caressing her instep with his hand.

His face was like ice, but his hands were so warm it felt like getting a hot compress. She thought this must be why people go for foot massages.

Woo Jin, for his part, was surprised at how much smaller her foot was than he had imagined. Are women’s feet usually this small? Or is it because she’s short, her feet are small too? Are there shoes that fit? Children’s shoes?

Although she was wearing socks, he could feel the delicate instep bones. Thinking she had no fat on her feet, he gently stroked her instep.

When a man is doing this to a woman’s foot, it should create a sensual atmosphere, but Soo Young felt sleepy rather than embarrassed.

“Seeing that you’re staying still while I’m touching like this, I guess the bone isn’t broken.”

At his words, Soo Young, who had come to her senses belatedly, quickly pulled her foot away and said,

“Ah, it really hurt like it was broken earlier.”

Maybe because of his warm hands, her instep that had been throbbing until just now felt fine. As if she had lied about being in pain, Soo Young said as if making an excuse.

Woo Jin, who had been still for a moment in his kneeling position, slowly stood up and said,

“Time’s up. If you can walk, you can go now.”

Soo Young stared blankly at his broad back as he entered the room, avoiding the sofa as if he could see, without even listening to her words.

Meanwhile, her hand was touching the instep he had just been stroking.

Although he had a prickly personality, like last time when she fell, and now too. She thought he might be unexpectedly warm-hearted. Like his warm hands.

Seol Ji Hyun, taking the manuscript Woo Jin handed over, suddenly looked at his face and said,

“Your face looks a bit better these days. Are you eating well?”

“I’ve always eaten well.”

Woo Jin said with an expressionless face.

“Eaten well, my foot. Dr. Kang said your weight keeps dropping. Why should I get scolded when you’re not eating?”

“Then, tell him to speak to me directly if he has complaints.”

“He tells me because you don’t listen when he tells you. You, behave yourself. If you mess up, grandfather will hear about it.”

“Tch, let him hear.”

“It’s not just ‘let him hear’. The moment he hears, you’ll have to go back to the main house.”

At the mention of having to go back to grandfather’s house again, Woo Jin’s expressionless face visibly distorted.

“Scared, right? So eat well. Is that helper girl doing a good job? Is the house clean?”

Woo Jin didn’t answer Ji Hyun’s question. Ji Hyun chuckled, looking at his younger brother’s eyes that were staring straight at him despite being unable to see.

“What?”

When Woo Jin asked with a displeased expression after hearing the laugh, he waved his hand and said,

“No, I’m just surprised you let that woman into your house. You completely hated it… Do you know her name?”

“Don’t know.”

“Don’t know? Didn’t you tell her your name?”

“She didn’t tell me hers.”

“Hey, man. Then you should have asked. What was it back then, Soo Young? Joo Young? Something like that… What do you call her if you don’t know her name? Miss? Ma’am?”

“I don’t call her.”

“Ah, because you don’t come out of your room, you don’t need to call her?”

Not coming out? He’s been coming out every day at the same time. He deliberately waited an hour before going out, thinking it might seem strange if he went out right away.

It was puzzling even to himself why he was so adamant about going out to meet her.

It’s not like they have good conversations when they meet, they just argue. Woo Jin thought maybe it was because he only had Seol Ji Hyun to talk to before, and now he had a new person to talk to.

But, he wondered if he even liked talking himself.

Looking at him lost in thought while his gaze was directed at himself, Ji Hyun quietly opened his mouth.

“I’ll read the manuscript and let you know if there are any revisions. You wrote it in Braille too, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s have dinner.”

“Not interested.”

“Just eat one spoonful. I’m hungry.”

When he spoke as if whining, uncharacteristic of Ji Hyun, Woo Jin got up from his chair, grimacing as if he had heard something he shouldn’t have.

Ji Hyun followed behind Woo Jin, who went ahead, laughing silently.

Although he was always busy with company work, Ji Hyun always had dinner with Woo Jin. Even on days with company dinners, he would come and have dinner with him first before attending the company dinner.

Since realizing that this dinner was the only way to save his brother, he couldn’t skip even a single day.