“Does it feel good to make enemies?”

At the sound of a languid female voice wrapping around his neck, Ki Joo turned to look. Eun Chae, clad in beachwear, was draping a robe over herself and staring at him.

“It’s unfair. I’m the one who got cursed at.”

His face showed more amusement than frustration. Setting that aside, Kwon Ki Joo had always had a ruthless streak.

Eun Chae remembered how he had upset her when they first met. He instinctively knew where and how to prod to get a reaction. She was one of his victims too. Luckily, sometimes it wasn’t intentional. Of course, with Han Seung Yoon, it was decidedly deliberate.

As Eun Chae tied the waistband of her robe, she suddenly felt his gaze. He was looking at her with half-lowered eyes.

“Are you really going to stay here?”

As soon as she asked, he demonstratively started to undo his sleeve cufflinks and placed them on the table, followed by his wristwatch. His response came after.

“Yes.”

Ki Joo’s dark eyes were motionless and dark, yet strangely heated.

“Does it bother you?”

As he casually rolled up his sleeves, he asked her dispassionately. Eun Chae silently stared at Ki Joo and spoke evenly.

“Not really.”

Her own response, though spoken by herself, felt like a line from a movie, perhaps because she heard Ki Joo chuckle.

Eun Chae, pretending not to care, opened the balcony door. His retreating footsteps didn’t disturb her as she stretched out her legs.

She took off her robe, laid it on the sunbed, and dipped her feet into the hot spring pool. She playfully kicked the water before fully immersing herself.

The water was warmer than her body temperature. Savoring the sensation of being enveloped by the water, Eun Chae leisurely swam.

She even tried backstroke, looking up at the sky, following the faint stars scattered across the dark sky.

Then, she suddenly thought that her inner self resembled the dark sky rather than the quietly shining stars.

Between home and school, getting a chance to be alone with Kwon Ki Joo was hard. Proposing a shooting bet she was bound to lose was a cunning ruse.

She had essentially egged him on to cause a scene. And her secret desire to be fooled by his ploy was her ugly truth.

Did Kwon Ki Joo know?

Eun Chae’s body sank momentarily below the water’s surface. She stood up, barely reaching the bottom, and pushed her head above the water.

“Phew.”

Wiping her water-drenched face, Eun Chae inadvertently turned her head and saw a familiar silhouette. Her eyes blinked to adjust, then widened.

Ki Joo was sitting on the sunbed. The sight was surprising. There he was, not in his usual black suit, but in casual clothes. His wet black hair contrasted starkly against his ivory knit.

“How long have you been here?”

“……Since you sank?”

Ki Joo vaguely replied, sipping orange juice from a glass with a straw. His eyes remained fixed on her. The juice level quickly dropped by half.
As Eun Chae emerged from the pool, Ki Joo’s gaze followed her. Water dripped from her hair, face, and body. Staring longingly at the robe on the sunbed, Eun Chae suddenly felt a shadow cast over her head and looked up.

Ki Joo, who had stood up, spread out a large towel and draped it over her shoulders.

Eun Chae, who had been in the warm water, now shivered in the cold air, biting her blue-tinged lips.

Was it in Cebu?

Like a child, she had dived into the water. It had felt no different from breathing in the outside world, maybe even more comfortable. Perhaps that’s why she had stayed under for so long.

Suddenly, Ki Joo had jumped into the water with a splash of white light. He had grabbed her as if fishing out a body, pulling her to the surface.

In her confused state, coughing up water, Ki Joo had said something.

“Do you remember that time?”

He looked at Eun Chae incredulously, who asked the question nonchalantly despite appearing to freeze any moment.

“In Cebu. You said if I wanted to die, I should try when Kwon Ki Joo isn’t around to succeed.”

“……That.”

“Actually, I was just diving then.”

His silence suggested he was at a loss for words for the first time, perhaps recalling his overreaction. He licked his lips, remembering that overly sensitive response.

She had secretly loved that overreaction.

“But is that still valid now?”

“I’m always around.”

“I thought so too, once.”

Eun Chae’s sigh was deep and sorrowful. Ki Joo silently observed her.

His eyes betrayed no annoyance, no coldness, no confusion. This was why understanding Kwon Ki Joo was like falling into a labyrinth.

Eun Chae laughed as if she had hoped in vain.

“Don’t worry. Why would I die? Who would that please?”

“……You might not believe it.”

“That’s right. I don’t believe it. Because you know everything about me, but I know nothing about Kwon Ki Joo. When you disappeared, I wanted to call you back, beg you to come back. I even wanted to make a fool of myself.”

Her suppressed emotions leaked out as a faint laugh.

“Where you live, who you live with, whether you have a family, who your close friends are. Really, I knew…… nothing.”

“…….”