(Latest Chapter) Read Your Sweet Breath - Chapter 43

The words she was about to refute had to be swallowed before being uttered.

The distance between them had diminished due to San lowering his body closer.

She hurriedly tried to push his shoulder away, but it was she who ended up being pushed away, as the mountainlike San, who stood firm, didn’t budge an inch.

He spoke continuously, matching her eye level at a distance close enough to feel his breath.

“No matter how precious your friend is, I’m the one protecting you right now.”
“……”
“And I’m the one you need the most.”
Kang took some time to digest the meaning of his words.

She had no idea why such a conversation was coming up at this timing.

She asked again.

“Is this because of what I said to you last time because of work? Are you doing this because you took that to heart?”
“Not that.”
“Or.”
“……”
“Don’t tell me you’re jealous?”
Even though she knew it was absurd, she blurted out anything because it was too absurd to dislike it unconditionally without a reason.

She didn’t like the sudden chilling atmosphere, and the question was partly intended to tease San.

But to her surprise, he responded with a smile.

“If you know, don’t do it in the future.”
To get what she wanted, it was tiring to stick around a human woman like a shadow, and she didn’t like having to deal with incomprehensible emotions every time, or having to breathe unfamiliar air alone.

Because in the end, she seemed to realize all too clearly that she was a completely different being from them.

And because the one who confirmed that fact was none other than you.

She couldn’t accept the situation generously where she was having a hard time even protecting a single dream of yours and had to keep caring about more and more.

Anyway, once she gave in as if she had been waiting, it was Kang who was left speechless.

But San asked why she was making such a face.

“You were jealous when I ate another dream outside.”
“What?”
“You were anxious. Worried I might leave to find a better nightmare.”
“No, wait. That’s not jealousy.”
“It’s similar.”
“……”
“I’m always on edge that you might be taken away by another guy. Of course, I don’t like you looking for someone better than me.”
He warned as if to make it clear this time.

“I’m telling you in advance so you don’t waste your effort.”
“……”
“I’m the only one among the dream demons with this ability.”
So don’t think about cheating.

San said he is the only one, among all humans and dream demons, who can erase nightmares from memories, even though everyone covets your dream.

In other words, he’s irreplaceable, so you should appreciate him while you have him.

Reluctantly, Kang nodded.

It was a sentiment born entirely out of ‘need’, so it would be a little different from normal jealousy, but she could understand what he meant.

Like he said, she too was anxious about when the value of her dream might decrease, and he would leave to find a better dream.

So, in the end, she had no choice but to surrender.

“Okay. I won’t mention Bani in front of you anymore.”
Only then did he, who had a stony face like an ice rink, show a smile.

Where the Siberialike coldness had disappeared, a tenderness that seemed to blossom flowers filled the air.

Anyway.

The temperature difference was truly drastic.

With that thought, she walked past him.

Kang, who arrived at the entrance first, waved her hand and said,

“Goodbye.”
Then, he gently pulled her wrist and kissed the tip of her finger.

Startled by the feeling of his silent and soft lips touching, Kang quickly pulled her hand away.

“Hey……!”
She cried out belatedly, but he left her house leisurely, leaving only a spring breezelike smile.

After he left like that.

Kang blankly stared at her fingertips for a while.

He, who was as cold as the north wind of winter, disappeared, leaving a summerlike heat after fluttering a spring flowerlike smile.

She had to prepare for work immediately, otherwise, her nerves would have been concentrated on her fingertips all day.

.
.
.

As always, he, who arrived first and was sitting, was neat regardless of the early hour.

As soon as she opened the car door and their eyes met, she unconsciously hid her hand behind her back.

Seeing that, he tilted his head.

“Why are you hiding your hand?”
He seemed clueless, as skinship was a daily thing on his side of the accident, it felt like only she was conscious all along.

…Ah. Was I such a Confucian girl?

She glanced sideways and changed the subject nonchalantly.

“Where is Sam Young?”
“He’s in the bathroom.”
“Is that so?”
Hmm!

She coughed for no reason and got in the car.

Sitting down and waiting for Sam Young, that brief time felt unusually long.

Unable to stand the awkwardness, Kang was the first to speak.

“I mean you.”
At her voice, he turned his head.

Kang met his gaze directly and spoke firmly.

“Weren’t there times when you visited me while I was asleep?”
“Why suddenly? It wasn’t just once or twice.”
“No, what I mean is.”
She recalled that day when he became her bodyguard and suddenly stopped showing up.

She recalled the touch of his lips that she felt vividly on her fingertips.

“You had days where you visited me in the early morning after we started working together.”
“……”
“The tip of my finger, you ki……”
“Ki?”

“Fine! On the day you kissed and left!”
Kang, who was starting to feel frustrated, snapped at him.

She had let it slide in her confusion earlier, but she decided she needed to address it clearly to prevent such incidents from happening again.

“Why do you keep touching my fingers with your lips? You did it yesterday too! And the time before!”
“Ah, that.”
That?

As she frowned, he laughed nonchalantly.

“In our world, it’s just a greeting.”
“…A greeting?”
“Yeah. There are countries where people kiss each other on the cheek to express their joy at meeting. We do it on the fingers.”
“Really?”
“Do you think it’s true?”
“…?”
It took Kang a long time to realize she had been tricked by San’s lie, which was delivered without batting an eye.

When she finally grasped the situation, her face turned bright red.

“You… You…!”
Her voice was trembling.

She wanted to pinch the snickering San’s lips, but she had to swallow her anger because Samyeong was coming back.

Just before he who was rushing over could open the car door,

She warned him in a low voice.

“Try it one more time.”
“What will you do if I do?”
Kang, who had been clenching her jaw so hard that the sound of her grinding teeth could be heard, spoke.

“I’ll gag you.”
At that, San laughed until the car left, and Samyeong, who didn’t understand, kept asking what was going on, but in the end, he couldn’t hear the conversation between them.

She was only looking outside with the window slightly open to cool her heated face.

San made a deflated noise as he watched Kang, who seemed angry even from the back of her head.

Where had the bravado of offering to share her bed gone?

It’s okay to sleep together, but not to touch her fingers with his lips?

Seo Kang was a woman who was mysterious even when you thought you knew her.