Ji Eun Jae stepped out of the bathroom, wrapping a bath robe over her damp body that was not yet fully dry.

She had barely taken one step when she bumped her forehead against the bare chest of a man as solid as a rock. Ji Eun Jae looked up with wide eyes at the tall man standing there motionless.

How long had this man been standing here?

Tilting her head back as far as possible, his exquisite features, perfectly arranged, finally came into view.

“Why…”

She was about to ask why he was standing there, but afraid of the answer she might get, she changed her question.

“When did you arrive?”

“Just now.”

It was the same gaze as last night. Even in the darkness, she could clearly sense the meaning behind his eyes.

With eyes filled with passion, the man swept his gaze over every inch of Ji Eun Jae’s body.

“Dinner—”

“No.”

As if he knew what she was about to ask, his curt reply cut her off before she could finish. Ji Eun Jae was unable to continue. A dry gulp went down her throat.

It seemed he had no intention of answering her question from the start.

What mattered to him now didn’t seem to be something like dinner.

“Um, put something on.”

Feeling as if she had been stripped bare by his blatant gaze, Ji Eun Jae lowered her eyes and tightly gripped the front of her robe, crumpling it.

Her only thought was that she needed to escape quickly.

Silently, she took a step to the right, but he blocked her path in the same direction.

Then another step to the left. The man, as if he had no intention of letting her pass, blocked her way once again. This time, he closed the distance even further, making it even more suffocating.

In an instant, the man’s hand shot out and braced against the wall next to Ji Eun Jae’s face. He must know full well that even this alone was enough to be threatening to her.

The man’s fingers, radiating heat, slipped between the collar of Ji Eun Jae’s damp robe and traced along her delicate collarbone, quickly reaching her shoulder.

As he caressed her exposed shoulder in circular motions with his palm, the front of her robe began to part slightly.

Before she could even catch her breath at his sudden action, it was swallowed up.

It felt as if the events of last night were happening again in sequence, making her head spin.

Ji Eun Jae grabbed his hand to prevent it from moving elsewhere, and with moistened lips, she asked.

Her voice, unable to hide the trembling emotion, spoke:

“…Please step aside.”

Despite her firm rejection, the man seems intrigued by her eyelashes fluttering like wings.

A slight upturn of his lips, eyes half-closed. Deep desire was etched there.

“It was just one glass of wine.”

“…”

“There’s no way you could have gotten drunk on just that.”

Such a turbid gaze, with intense possessiveness in even the smallest gesture.

“Neither you, nor I. Right?”

“…”

The man persistently sought her gaze while fiddling with Ji Eun Jae’s slightly disheveled hair.

“Ji Eun Jae, we’re a married couple.”

“Are we just a married couple?”

We’re worse than strangers.

It felt like her heart might burst at any moment, but she didn’t want to show it.

“I like the sound of ‘we’.”

A sweet smile, like cotton candy, seeped into the man’s lips.

Last night, in the heat of the moment.

In the atmosphere that had ripened.

The intense kiss they had shared, as if being led along, was replaying countless times in her mind.

As he said, it wasn’t a mistake.

Skinship that was utterly true to emotions.

It was the day I was most honest with my feelings while living under the same roof with him.

At this rate, today might escalate beyond just a kiss.

At this rate, if you said you would take me, I wouldn’t even resist.

It wasn’t just my own thoughts, his gaze fixed solely on me was telling me so.

As the man took a step forward, Ji Eun Jae took a step back. Her back touched the still-warm bathroom door.

Now there was nowhere left to retreat, but the man kept closing the distance.

Sun Woo lifted Ji Eun Jae’s chin as it was about to drop, meeting her gaze intensely as if telling her to look into his eyes.

As a result, the towel wrapped around Ji Eun Jae’s head fell to the floor with a thud. Her long straight hair cascaded down onto her white shoulders.

“That kiss last night—”

Her chest grew hot at the man’s gentle touch as he brushed aside her tangled, wet hair.

“Was it just faithfully fulfilling the contract?”

No, it’s because I’ve come to like you.

“Is that how Ji Eun Jae wants me to take it?”

It’s because I feel like I shouldn’t go any further here.

This burning heat that feels like it might burst into flames at any moment, is it you or me?

“Would this be a breach of contract?”

His face tilted at an angle, leaving no room to push away, finally met Ji Eun Jae’s lips with burning intensity.

“I’ll take all four hours.”

As her breath was sucked away in an instant, her mind grew more and more hazy.

“Give it all to me.”

When she tightly closed her eyes, that day began to vividly appear in her mind.

The day I first met you, three months ago.

[This is the timeline separator]

My life has never had a single quiet day.

My mother who has been bedridden for years, and my father who gambled until his death and left even that debt to me.

“Where did she go in that short time? Spread out and search.”

They say there’s a day when even a mouse hole sees sunlight, so someday sunlight will shine on my life too.

Yes, Ji Eun Jae, let’s hang on a little longer.

Believing that for 27 years.

My mouse hole is too deep for even sunlight to reach easily. By the time I realized that myself, it was already too late for everything.

Now with debt that has grown beyond what I can handle, and those loan sharks who no longer have the patience to wait for me.

“She couldn’t have gone far, search thoroughly.”

Inside a large general hospital.

Somehow knowing exactly when my mother’s hospital bill was due, I was caught by the loan sharks who had been staking out the hospital early on.

They were determined to catch me, who was hiding like a dead person stuck to the cold wall.

My already parched lips were cracked and bleeding. It felt like even what little moisture remained would be completely dried up.

It feels like I’m standing at the crossroads of life and death.

At the edge of a cliff with nowhere left to step.

[This is the timeline separator]

After finishing his rounds, Sun Woo, looking visibly exhausted, was on his way back to the professor’s office while massaging his neck.

From behind, Hye Ji, a fellow doctor, called out to Sun Woo and approached him.

“Professor Yoon, why do you look like that these days?”

“I guess it’s about time for me to die.”

“That’s why I said to rest a bit. Are you really going to suddenly kick the bucket believing you’re still young?”

As she was joking around, Hye Ji’s hand brushed against his, and in that moment, Sun Woo’s eyes turned cold.

Yoon Sun Woo. The youngest professor in the thoracic surgery department at Yeonrim Hospital.

His appearance played a part, but contrary to his kind face, he was infamous within the hospital for being a sharp-tongued person with excessive germaphobia.

“Sorry. I didn’t touch you, I didn’t touch you.”

Startled by his sharp gaze, Hye Ji raised her hands, claiming innocence.

“It’s fine, I’m wearing gloves.”

Sun Woo, speaking somewhat sharply, shoved his hands into his pockets.

How could someone like that be a doctor? That’s why you’re still single.

While clicking her tongue, the gazes of all those directed at him were hot 365 days a year.

A tall man that most adult males had to look up to, with skin so pale it looked almost white, red lips, captivating eyes, and an exquisitely high nose bridge that was a work of art.

As much as one might not want to admit it, Yoon Sun Woo was a creature envied by men and women of all ages, a man close to perfection.

Recently, that man’s face looked quite ill somewhere. Even his lips, which always had a healthy color, seemed to be gradually losing their vitality.

“I’m telling you, health management starts from your 20s.”

Sun Woo stopped walking and furrowed his brow deeply.

“What’s your intention?”

“I’m saying to do it when you’re as close to your 20s as possible, when you’re even a year younger!”

Sun Woo, completely unfazed, strode into the wide-open professor’s office.

Even a tree standing on the roadside wouldn’t receive such treatment. Hye Ji, with a disgruntled expression, pushed her final words through the gradually closing door gap.

“We’re already 33! It’s not too late yet, take care of your health, man!”

As the door closed, Hye Ji’s voice was completely cut off.

“That jerk, really, even when I’m worried.”

Hye Ji ended up rolling the fatigue recovery supplement she couldn’t give him around in her hand for a while, before turning her steps in the opposite direction.

[This is the timeline separator]

Inside the tightly closed professor’s office, it was silence itself.

Sun Woo plopped down on the sofa, placed both hands on his dropping forehead, and exhaled deeply.

“Haa…”

He hadn’t slept a wink.

Because just yesterday, he had spectacularly ruined his 24th blind date.

“At this rate, I’m going to reach 30 dates.”

These days, there was one big worry threatening his health.

That was, marriage.

The next director of Yeonrim Hospital. When the grandchildren started squabbling over that position, grandfather took an extreme measure.

“I’ll give it to whichever one of you gets married first.”

Grandfather’s voice, like an ultimatum, buzzed in his head.

He wasn’t the type to be so picky about other things, but for someone who was particularly sensitive to other people’s touch, marriage was like a death sentence.

If skin touched directly, his whole body would break out in goosebumps and he’d feel dizzy. If he didn’t wash the touched hand quickly, he would soon fall into a panic state. It was a severe case of germaphobia.

Now it was somewhat improved due to medication. No, rather than improved, it had become somewhat tolerable.

Nevertheless, the discomfort of another person’s hand touching his bare skin still didn’t easily improve.

Fortunately, he didn’t react so sensitively to indirect contact, such as wearing gloves. Thanks to that, he was barely managing to live as a functioning person.

“Absolutely not, I can’t lose Yeonrim.”

Although it was an unwanted marriage, Sun Woo was willing to do anything to get the hospital.

To Sun Woo, Yeonrim was the embodiment of a dream he had grown up watching since childhood.

Now that it was finally within reach, he couldn’t lose it for a reason like this. Not to someone like Yoon Tae Gyu.

Yoon Tae Gyu was his uncle’s son.

Yoon Tae Gyu, who enjoyed a promiscuous private life, clearly wasn’t someone who could be bound by the institution of marriage either.

So he felt a little relieved.

Until he could find a woman whose touch he could tolerate, he could buy some time.

If he could at least hold hands, he could either pretend or really fall in love, right?

Wait, love?

He frowned, showing his displeasure at the thought that had briefly crossed his mind without his realizing.

“What am I thinking right now?”

Suddenly facing his increasingly rough face in the mirror, Sun Woo, as if having made some decision, stood up abruptly, running his large hand down his face.

“Get it together, Yoon Sun Woo.”

[This is the timeline separator]

There was not a hint of color in his face, which was dripping with water. Thinking he might try to come to his senses, he was about to leave after washing his face with cold water when he realized his phone was missing. Sun Woo headed towards the last stall of the bathroom where he had briefly stayed.

Just as he entered that stall again and picked up his phone, it happened.

Tap tap tap tap.

The sound of sneakers rapidly hitting the tile floor was heard. When he turned his head at that presence, there was already a young woman catching her breath, and the door was firmly closed.

For a moment, he wondered if she had entered by mistake.

What’s with this woman?

“What are you—mmph!”

Sun Woo couldn’t finish his sentence.

His mouth was covered by a small, white hand.

The woman, pleading in a voice that seemed about to break, quickly filled Sun Woo’s eyes.

“Please help me…”

As if afraid someone might hear, she spoke in a whisper, desperation evident in her eyes.

He should have already pushed away that touch and more, he should have felt a pressure so great he could barely breathe.

But now even that was problematic. The circuits had gotten crossed and everything had stopped.

Strangely, without permission.

The woman’s hand placed on his lips was unbelievably warm.

How long had it been since he had felt a touch like this?

It was a warmth he hadn’t felt in so long that his body, which had been on the verge of collapse just moments ago, seemed to be gradually recovering from that one small touch.

Why doesn’t it bother me?

How can this be possible?

This small, soft hand that had unilaterally touched a part of my body was not unpleasant, but so warm that I felt like crying.

“Please…”

Sun Woo quickly scanned the woman covering his mouth.

Except for the white skin of her neck exposed above the round-neck t-shirt, the woman dressed in dark clothes from head to toe seemed to be clearly running from someone.

This situation, if I get caught up in it unnecessarily, I might be in danger too.

Contrary to his thoughts, words popped out.

“If I help you—”

If there’s such a thing as fate, would it be like this?

As that thought crossed his mind, ridiculously, a meaningless laugh escaped.

“What can you do for me?”