After finishing the dressing and leaving the hospital room, Tae Gyu looked very exhausted. Having been awake for over 20 hours, his fatigue had reached its peak.

After struggling all day in the ER (Emergency Room), he had to go on rounds with the professor without a chance to catch his breath,

“Doctor, do I not need to disinfect?”

Tae Gyu sighed at the patient’s question. He had forgotten to do the dressing in his distracted state.

He had made a mistake that a doctor should never make. As a profession dealing with others’ lives, such small mistakes could lead to bigger ones later.

“Didn’t you do EOD dressing this morning?”

“Well…”

“Yoon Tae Gyu, take off the wound dressing.”

Sure enough, the bandage that hadn’t been changed on time was a mess with discharge from the wound.

There were many critical patients in the ER today, so he couldn’t bring himself to say he couldn’t do it because of that. Whatever the reason, it would still be an excuse.

“Are you not paying attention? Where did you leave your mind?”

There were no words after that, but just looking at the professor’s eyes, he could tell.

That’s why you can’t keep up with Yoon Sun Woo.

“Hah… why am I like this, really.”

Tae Gyu’s steps towards the doctors’ office gradually slowed. It was probably since then. Since that day he encountered Ji Eun Jae at the main house.

That day, he felt dazed all day long.

After the dinner ended, as they were heading to the annex, Su In, who was walking ahead, gently called out to Tae Gyu.

“Tae Gyu, are you okay?”

No, I don’t think I’m okay.

Ji Eun Jae is getting married, and with Yoon Sun Woo at that.

Tae Gyu replaced the words that had risen to his throat with a long sigh. Then he forced a smile, lifting the corners of his mouth.

“What?”

“Mom isn’t disappointed.”

Of course she wouldn’t be disappointed, she probably knew it would end up like this.

Yoon Sun Woo was different from me on a fundamental level. At 17, he entered medical school with the top score and graduated at the top of his class. With such a monstrous person also putting in effort, there was no competition.

An insurmountable wall.

Everyone just called him that and looked up to him.

Does Mom think I’m like this because of that hospital?

“If you’re not disappointed, you should mean it. I won’t get married without love just to inherit some hospital, unlike someone.”

It was words thrown out in anger. To Su In, who asked with curiosity what he meant, Tae Gyu never gave an answer.

Grandfather was always dissatisfied that his two sons, Yoon Gang and Yoon Chung, didn’t go to medical school.

It was his grandson Yoon Sun Woo who fulfilled Grandfather’s long-held wish.

When Yoon Sun Woo decided on a medical career at an early age, Grandfather’s attention shifted drastically towards him. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Yeonrim belonged to Yoon Sun Woo.

At some point, it seemed that not only himself but even his parents had been pushed to the back burner. Whenever he saw that, he felt guilty, as if it was all because of his own inadequacy.

Should I set my sights on the hospital?

Maybe I, who had been invisible in Yoon Sun Woo’s shadow, could stand on a similar level even if I couldn’t surpass him.

That was the beginning.

When I, who had been outside of Grandfather’s interest, entered medical school, the look in Grandfather’s eyes towards me changed subtly.

It wasn’t the path I wanted. That was all. Because it wasn’t the path I wanted, I also lacked desperation, but thinking that Yeonrim, which was such an insignificant existence to me, was everything to Yoon Sun Woo, I didn’t want to just let it go with the flow.

I know that even if I struggle for a lifetime, I won’t be able to reach even Yoon Sun Woo’s toes.

But Yeonrim made that somewhat possible.

I thought things were going relatively smoothly. I was planning to find Eun Jae, monopolize the hospital, and Grandfather’s trust, but.

I overlooked one important fact.

That to Yoon Sun Woo, Yeonrim was everything in his life. That he was someone who could do anything to get that everything.

“I underestimated you too much.”

Lost in thought, he walked aimlessly until he found himself in front of Sun Woo’s professor’s office.

Like someone who had lost all will, Tae Gyu stood still in front of Sun Woo’s office for a long time.

“Why did it have to be Ji Eun Jae?”

As soon as he saw Eun Jae at the main house, he laughed in disbelief. He remembered how he had been complacent, mocking Yoon Sun Woo. He had been a complete fool.

When I was trying so hard to find her, she was hiding and nowhere to be seen.

Is this why you kept hovering around me?

To bring me down again like this?

“Hah…”

Tae Gyu let out a bitter laugh. Just as he was roughly running his large hand over his face, Nurse Lee Na Rim, who was passing by the professor’s office, noticed Tae Gyu and spoke to him.

“Professor Yoon took a day off today.”

“A day off?”

“He’s really changed these days, right? Leaving work on time, and now taking days off when he used to live at the hospital 365 days a year.”

Maybe he’s going on a date, or maybe he’s hiding a honeypot at home. Muttering to herself and laughing, Na Rim’s face flushed when she met Tae Gyu’s eyes staring down at her.

Na Rim was caught in that gaze for a long time. Unable to avoid it or keep looking, Na Rim carefully asked Tae Gyu.

“Um, doctor, did you perhaps have something to say…?”

“Ah, no.”

Only then did Tae Gyu come to his senses and shift his gaze. Seeing Na Rim smiling, for a moment her image overlapped with Eun Jae’s, causing him to stare at Na Rim too overtly.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I was just lost in thought for a moment.”

“It’s okay. Um… What do you usually do on your days off, Dr. Yoon?”

Tae Gyu, who seemed lost in thought again, didn’t seem to hear Na Rim’s question, which she had asked with some courage.

“Um, doctor?”

“Ah, what did you say?”

“It’s nothing, you look tired. Go up to the doctors’ office and get some rest.”

“I should do that, good work.”

Tae Gyu quickly left. Na Rim watched him until he disappeared from sight before moving her feet.

Barely suppressing the desire to ask what was causing his increasingly rough skin.

Tae Gyu’s steps slow down again.

He remembered the sight of the two he had seen while passing by the courtyard. As he turned the corner, he couldn’t see Eun Jae’s face, but he remembered Yoon Sun Woo embracing her with a smile he had never seen before. The magma in his chest began to bubble up.

Until he talked with Eun Jae, he was certain that their marriage wasn’t normal, but after seeing Yoon Sun Woo’s actions and expressions, he kept getting confused.

No. Even that might be possible for Yoon Sun Woo.

I know.

“This isn’t real for you.”

“Yoon Sun Woo, he’s not sincere with you.”

Your eyes wavered in front of me twice.

No, three times.

“I love that person.”

You can’t lie. Not then, not now.

Eun Jae recalled the events of the day after returning home.

The sight of things progressing smoothly when accompanied by the man, when they had been stagnant before.

No. The way he looked at her with eyes that seemed about to drip honey at the planner’s question, the way she unnecessarily blushed at the man’s pleasant words asking what she liked.

When he kindly said, “I’d like it if you did it where you want to,” it really felt like she was a bride loved by the man.

“How can he act so well.”

Even though she knew, she kept falling for it, and from some point, she had the unreasonable thought that she wished it was sincere.

It’s a contract marriage, and if I have to pretend anyway, can’t I have you for real just then? Can’t I be greedy?

Where else would I meet a man like you?

She had such a ridiculous thought and then just laughed.

“What will you do after that?”

If I come to like you so much that I don’t want to let go, what will you do then?

The man said he would file for marriage annulment after a year. She knew what that meant. To the man, this marriage contract might be like a blemish he wants to erase completely.

Moreover, if he found out about these feelings she had, she might have to pay double the penalty.

“No, absolutely not.”

She had been constantly suppressing and denying the emotions that kept rising, trying not to like him, but without realizing it, her eyes kept being drawn to him and her heart kept being pulled. She couldn’t hide it.

It was certain that she had already given more than just a favorable impression. That it was already irreversible.

Eun Jae stared blankly at the calendar on the dressing table.

It felt like yesterday that she had moved into the man’s house, but already a month had passed.

“Less than 11 months left.”

It was a day when the year that had felt so long when signing now felt unbearably short.

She couldn’t sleep.

Until the blue light seeped dimly through the fluttering chiffon curtains, Eun Jae lay awake, and then, looking at her phone showing 5 AM, she rubbed her tired eyes and struggled to get up.

Coming out to the kitchen and gulping down water to quench her thirst, Eun Jae quietly gazed at the man’s bedroom door that suddenly came into view.

“Just like a real married couple.”

Suddenly, the words the man had said a few days ago came to mind, and reflexively, her face flushed with heat. Eun Jae filled her glass with water again and gulped it down in one go to suppress the heat.

It was also the reason she couldn’t sleep. Because those casually spoken words seemed so sincere.

And yesterday, his sudden accompaniment to the meeting with the wedding planner without any notice was also puzzling.

“Ji Eun Jae’s face turns red when she lies.”

Did he change his strategy, deciding to seduce me completely? What if I end up clinging to him like a leech?

“Mr. Yoon Sun Woo. If you keep gently seducing people like this, there’s a chance I won’t stamp the divorce papers.”

Come to think of it, now that we’ve greeted both families, the one who would be pushed around isn’t me but the man.

It’s true that I’ve received a lot of help, but if I don’t cooperate, he also has a lot to lose.

Wasn’t the hospital what he always said was his everything?

Should I grab your weakness and shake you up too? Should I pretend to be crazy and suggest we date for the remaining time?

You did it too. You did whatever you wanted with my weakness.

“So be good to me, Yoon Sun Woo!”

Because your hospital is in my hands.

After washing the glass she drank from clean and about to head to her room, it happened.

A strange sound came from inside the man’s room. Tilting her head in confusion, wondering if she had heard wrong, Eun Jae slowly approached the man’s door and put her ear to the crack.

The man’s faint groans were seeping through the narrow gap in the door.

“Mister?”

There was no answer. The man’s labored breathing could still be heard through the door crack.

She remembered the man’s face looking unusually tired yesterday. She couldn’t help but worry if he was sick.

“Mister, are you okay?”

Eun Jae was about to put her hand on the doorknob but stopped and withdrew her outstretched hand.

He hadn’t even entrusted her with laundry, let alone cleaning his space.

“Right, he’s the kind of person who wants to draw the line so clearly. What business is it of mine?”

She tried to ignore it, telling herself not to care, but her feet wouldn’t move.

And when the man’s deep groan was heard once again, all the resolutions she had made just moments ago crumbled in an instant.

“Ah! I don’t care anymore.”

Eun Jae turned around and flung open the man’s bedroom door.

The man’s door, which she thought would be locked, opened without any hindrance. As she entered the room, the scent that always emanated from the man deeply permeated her lungs.

The sight of black furniture neatly arranged seemed to show the man’s personality at a glance.

Eun Jae’s gaze, which had been looking around the vast room of the man, turned towards the bed.

She saw Sun Woo’s figure, drenched in sweat, breathing heavily with a pained expression.

“Mister!”

Startled, Eun Jae quickly approached Sun Woo and shook his shoulder. But Sun Woo only occasionally let out wheezing breaths.

She placed her hand on his forehead. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like he had a fever, but was he having a bad dream?

Pulling her sleeve to wipe the sweat beaded on Sun Woo’s forehead, Eun Jae gently stroked the man’s hair, which was soaked with sweat.

“It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”

When I was younger, was it when I had just entered my growth spurt? There was a time when I had nightmares almost every day.

Every time, Mom would stay by my side with open eyes all night, stroking my hair and whispering that it was okay.

Remembering that time, as she stroked the man’s hair like reciting a spell, the man’s groans that had been painfully escaping gradually subsided.

“Phew… Thank goodness. That was scary.”

The neatly exposed forehead, the beautifully placed eyebrows below it as if drawn, the long and densely filled eyelashes, and the elegant nose bridge caught her eye in turn.

And her gaze lingered for quite a long time on the moist lips tinged with an appropriate redness.

For a moment, her fingers fidgeted with the urge to touch, but Eun Jae quickly came to her senses.

“What are you thinking in front of a sleeping person?”

Looking at the man’s face, which had become somewhat peaceful, Eun Jae withdrew her hand that had been stroking his forehead. Just as she was about to get up from the bed and turn around, reassured.

Grab.

The man who had snatched Eun Jae’s wrist pulled her with strong force.

“Ah!”

Losing her balance, Eun Jae fell onto the bed with Sun Woo with a thud. Sun Woo’s nose and Eun Jae’s nose almost touched.

“What are you doing here?”