“I have my own plans. You don’t need to know what they are.”

“Is that so? Then what do I need to know about this divorce, Cha Yunjoo?”

Yunjoo looked away from Kangwook’s gaze, which was fixed on her with an unreadable expression. His gaze had changed from before, and the weight of it was uncomfortable, the look he kept sending her impossible to ignore. She looked away, but his low words kept turning over in her head.

‘Is that so? Cha Yunjoo. Is that so? Cha Yunjoo. Is that so? Cha Yunjoo.’

The moment Yunjoo brought up the paperwork, Kangwook had tensed. Her demand that he take care of it immediately had sent a flash of anger rising through him, and the cold words had come out on their own. He had pushed back with the unreasonable argument that she must find living here with him that unbearable.

Kangwook knew what Yunjoo wanted, but he couldn’t give it to her right now. Giving it to her meant doing what she asked, and he wasn’t ready for that yet. He had no way to explain the part of him that couldn’t let her go. It only frustrated him further that every time he thought about her, a question mark appeared in his own heart that he couldn’t answer.

When Yunjoo handed him the word divorce, Kangwook had been thinking about how to buy time when her father suddenly came to mind. He knew the man was both a source of pain and the sharpest weak point Yunjoo had. In all the time they had been married, she had almost never gone to her family home. She had even found excuses to skip her own father’s birthday.

At the time, he had been grateful for that. He had no desire to attend tiresome private family gatherings and perform the role of a happy couple. So he had accepted Yunjoo’s convenient excuses without protest, and made do with sending a suitable gift and a phone call instead.

Which meant he could more than guess how her father would react. He had seen Yunjoo flinch at the mere mention of her father, and the tactic had worked. He felt sorry seeing just how deep a wound her father had left in her, but it was the only way he could think of, so there was nothing to be done.

An arranged marriage could be made with anyone so long as the families reached an agreement, but both of them understood that breaking the bond between the families meant no forgiveness would come. Still, desperate as he was to buy time, he had no intention of leaving Yunjoo to go on living as someone her family saw only as a tool.

“Mr. Kangwook, can you actually deal with my father?”

“That depends on what Cha Yunjoo does.”

“You seem to have forgotten. It’s not something I need to do. It’s something you need to do.”

“And once I do it, then what?”

“That’s all I need from you. What comes after, I’ll handle myself.”

“A woman who waited three years, and now she’s in such a hurry. Is there someone waiting for you?”

“That’s also something Choi Kangwook doesn’t need to know.”

He had said it deliberately to get a reaction, but Yunjoo cut him off cold. She didn’t even bother responding to what he had thrown at her, said only what she had to say, and closed her mouth.

After finishing dinner with Yunjoo, Kangwook went to his study. Yunjoo was a completely different person inside the house than she was outside it. Tonight she had come back as the woman he knew well. Kangwook rested his elbows on the desk, rubbed his face with both hands, and let out a long breath.

After sitting alone in the study for a long while, he came out and headed toward his room, then noticed the light spilling down from the second floor and went up the stairs. Yunjoo was sitting alone in the living room, staring into nothing.

She had been like that since coming upstairs after dinner. The realization that she had forgotten about her father made her head pound. How had she forgotten about him? He was the biggest obstacle of all. Since she had started working again, she had probably been a little too caught up in the excitement every day.

Just thinking about her father was enough to make her chest tighten. She had already tried everything, and the only option left was to run. He was the kind of person who made her think that if going back to her family home was where she had to return after the divorce, she would be better off living like this forever. 

And then there were her father’s two little soldiers. Thinking about them made it hard to breathe. Her two older brothers were like puppets in her father’s hands. No, sometimes they were even harsher, even more ruthless in the way they kept her down.

To them, she and her older sister were simply connections, links to the things they wanted and the places they wanted to reach. The commander and his loyal subordinates, that was probably the right way to put it.

The shield of Choi Kangwook’s name protected her from them, which meant she had to wait until she was fully ready to leave before letting anyone know. As long as she was in Choi Kangwook’s house, they couldn’t touch her, and even if she disappeared, this man was not someone her family could push around. His power far outweighed theirs.

She might have to leave without telling anyone but her mother, at the airport. Even her mother couldn’t know where she was going. Knowing and staying silent would not be easy for her. She might not be able to come back for a long time. Or perhaps never at all.

Yunjoo sat running through possibilities and sorting through her thoughts, unable to bring herself to get up. Kangwook had come upstairs with Yunjoo’s expression in response to his words weighing on him, and he stopped where he stood. He watched the woman sitting motionless, her face a tangle of things she wasn’t saying. When she finally stirred after sitting there for a long while, he spoke first.

“Make me a cup of tea.”

“When did you come up?”

“Just now. Why do you ask?”

“Because you never come up to the second floor.”

“A husband who’s about to be divorced figured he’d better come up and talk if he wants to get even a cup of tea out of it.”

“Fine. Come with me.”

Come with me? It sounded like a command, but he said nothing and followed. Yunjoo walked past him and headed toward the living room, then stopped him.

“No, this way.”

The direction Yunjoo pointed was the kitchen. Kangwook looked at her with a puzzled expression, but Yunjoo tilted her head toward it and walked in. Kangwook had blurted out the excuse about tea in a hurry, worried she might realize he had been watching her, and now he had been dragged all the way to the kitchen.

But walking behind her, the sight of her back made something tighten in his chest. The small shoulders, and the weariness of someone living in a house where her heart no longer belonged. Kangwook felt the urge to wrap those small shoulders in his arms before he even realized it, and shoved his hands into his pockets.

“So why exactly am I standing here?”

“So you can see where things are and help yourself from now on, if there’s something you want.”

“What?”

“You’ll need to learn if you’re going to live alone. Your personality isn’t exactly easy, so a live-in housekeeper won’t last long, and you don’t tolerate strangers moving around inside your house either.”

Yunjoo’s words were sharp and accurate. Knowing she was right about him didn’t make it any easier to hear.

“Excuse me!”

“Mr. Choi Kangwook, the things worth accepting, just accept them and move on.”

“Cha Yunjoo, are you completely out of line right now?”

“I’m not out of line. I’m telling you the reality. Now, the teas are all here, sorted by type. Each jar has the name on it, so just pick one. The water just needs to go in the electric kettle over there. Simple, right?”

“Ha! Really……”

The man was so dumbfounded he couldn’t get a full sentence out, just short bursts of disbelief, and she watched him and kept going. She could see the look on Kangwook’s face, and since she had already brought him into the kitchen, she started explaining all sorts of things under the pretense of teaching him. Kangwook had been quietly watching her for a while, seeming to listen, when his low, quiet voice came through.

“How long are you planning to keep this up?”

Knowing the information was useful was one thing, but the real reason she had brought him to the kitchen was mostly to tease him. She had started it to get a rise out of him, and the longer she talked, the more visibly exasperated his expression became, and yet he kept holding himself back, and she had been swallowing her laughter and stretching it out with things she didn’t even need to say.

His voice stopped her mid-sentence. Something about the way he spoke made it impossible to say anything back. Low, not quite angry, but not the kind of tone that meant she could keep going either. She looked at him and just stood there with her eyes wide.

‘What is it, Choi Kangwook?’

With him staring at her like that, she felt like she needed to say something to herself just to keep the nerves at bay. But the longer it went on, the less sure of herself she felt.

“Cha Yunjoo, are you planning to move out tomorrow?”

“No, it’s not like that, but……”

“That’s enough. I think you’ve had enough fun.”

Kangwook looked like he already knew exactly why she had done all of it. She hid the jolt of surprise that went through her.

“I did it for your sake. What’s fun about any of this.”

“You’re saying that’s not what it was…?”

Kangwook’s low voice came with a look that matched it perfectly, aimed straight at her like something sharp, and she couldn’t hold her ground.