1.8

Leeseo continued in a calm tone, 

“I won’t report today’s incident to the CEO.”  

“Should I bow and thank you for that?”  

Leeseo didn’t respond to his sarcasm.  

“Well then, I’ll take my leave.”  

As she turned to go, Junhyung called out, 

“Leeseo!”  

She stopped but didn’t turn around, her expression showing exhaustion and annoyance.  

“This isn’t like you.”  

Leeseo frowned and looked at him, as though silently asking what he meant.  

“In the past, you were more thorough with these things. What are you going to do about that nurse? How will you keep her quiet?”  

She bit back the urge to mock him further. 

He’s worried about the aftermath now, after everything he’s done?  

“There’s nothing to cover up. Nurse Park Sujin is a well-known veteran in her field.”  

“A well-known veteran? That’s funny. If she’s such a veteran, why would she call you in the middle of the night?”  

“If it had been manageable, she would’ve handled it herself. She must’ve been desperate to call me. Being recognized in one’s field isn’t just about skills or knowledge. It also means having pride and dignity.”  

“So, you’re saying this prideful and dignified veteran nurse will just voluntarily keep her mouth shut?”  

Leeseo didn’t answer. She didn’t see the point in explaining further. It was doubtful he’d understand anyway.  

Whether or not this incident would spread was out of her hands. Dressing up a s*x partner in a nurse’s uniform—what kind of absurdity was that? Junhyung couldn’t possibly understand the humiliation Park Sujin must have felt witnessing such a thing.  

“After your surgery tomorrow morning, a caregiver will be assigned to you.”  

“I’d prefer it if you stayed and took care of me.”  

“Get some rest.”  

Leeseo turned and walked away without hesitation.  

“Hey! Leeseo!”  

Junhyung called after her persistently, but she ignored him. She had no intention of staying in that space a moment longer than necessary.  

“Leeseo!”  

As soon as she stepped out of the hospital room, Leeseo closed the door behind her. Even then, an overwhelming wave of exhaustion washed over her, leaving her unable to move for a while. This really has to be the last time. Whether it was a person or a parasite, they could deal with it themselves from now on.  

She took a deep breath and was about to walk away when a voice stopped her.  

“Are you leaving already?”  

She hadn’t even noticed someone approaching, but there stood Nurse Park Sujin, right in front of her, holding clean bed sheets in her arms.  

Even though this was the VIP ward, this wasn’t something a nurse typically did. Nor was it an act of kindness. There was no way she’d be doing this out of goodwill for a patient who had caused such chaos in the room.  

If it wasn’t part of her job, and it wasn’t out of kindness, there was only one reason left.  

Nurse Park Sujin didn’t want the disgraceful incident that happened in her assigned area to become known.  

“I’m sorry about what happened today.” 

Leeseo said, apologizing on Junhyung’s behalf.  

“You even apologize on his behalf?” 

Sujin asked, her tone curious yet sharp.  

“That’s just part of my job.” 

Leeseo replied with a faint, tired smile, bowing her head slightly as a gesture of farewell.  

Her legs felt heavy as she walked down the quiet hospital corridor. The second hand on the clock hanging on the wall ticked relentlessly toward 3 a.m.  

***

Leeseo lay on her side, turning her head to scan the unfamiliar room. Morning had already arrived outside. With nothing covering the windows, the sunlight poured in unfiltered.  

I should get curtains.  

She rested her arm on her forehead and closed her eyes.  

“I should get up….”  

But it was only words. Her head felt unbearably heavy, as though weighed down by a thousand pounds. The aftermath of barely catching any sleep after being summoned to the hospital the night before was hitting her hard.  

Not that the hospital incident was the only reason. Even before she moved into Gu Junmo’s house, her sleep quality had been terrible.  

The problem was organization.  

Before the move, she had spent countless hours sorting through what to keep and what to throw away. After the move, she had spent just as much time putting everything in its place.  

The sorting itself wasn’t the issue. The real problem was the small items—diaries, doodles, and trinkets filled with memories she couldn’t bring herself to throw away. Each one demanded her attention, and before she knew it, hours would fly by.  

“Looks like he didn’t come home again.”

She muttered to herself, listening to the silence that filled the house.  

What if he never comes home? 

Bzzzz—bzzzz—  

Her phone vibrated noisily.  

The words “Hospital Appointment” were displayed prominently on the dark screen. Brushing her hair out of her face, she tapped the confirmation button on the screen and got out of bed.  

She searched through the music files on her phone, pressed play, and turned on the Bluetooth speaker. Soon, music began to fill the room.  

〈Il Mare Calmo Della Sera〉  

The song began with Italian lyrics that translated to “I don’t know.” All she knew was that the title meant “The Calm Evening Sea.”  

She had first heard the song at a café, and its melody had stuck with her. The tenor’s sweet voice had captivated her, and it had since become a song she often listened to.  

……Cosa sia la fedeltà….  

La ragione del mio canto….  

Listening to the music, Leeseo gathered a change of underwear, a towel, and the speaker before heading into the bathroom attached to the living room.  

She placed the Bluetooth speaker, from which a sweet voice was flowing, on the bathroom shelf and hung up her clothes. Listening to music while showering was a habit she had recently picked up.  

Standing under the showerhead, she closed her eyes, letting the water stream down her face to shake off the lingering drowsiness that clung to her eyelids. The intense spray of water splashed from the top of her head to her shoulders, scattering like mist.  

Although she had made an appointment, she had no intention of going to the hospital.  

The problem was her eyes. She had felt something was wrong for quite some time.  

When moving from a bright area to a dark one, her ability to adapt to the darkness was painfully slow. Occasionally, when standing outside in broad daylight, faint, transparent cracks would appear in her vision, but she had dismissed them as signs of fatigue.  

One became two, then three….  

Even as the number grew, she had chalked it up to her line of work, which required prolonged focus and likely caused eye strain.  

But it wasn’t until she had a car accident while driving at night that she realized how serious the problem was.  

She hadn’t seen the car merging into her lane.  

It was her first fender bender. The memory of that incident made her shudder involuntarily.  

Fortunately, no one was hurt. But no matter how much she thought about it, the accident didn’t make sense. It had been a quiet road with no other cars or pedestrians—just her own vehicle.  

When she visited the ophthalmology clinic in the building next to the gallery where she worked, she had assumed it was nothing serious. But when the doctor there wrote her a referral for a larger hospital, she had finally realized something was wrong.  

Wouldn’t it be okay to delay the test just a little longer?  

The transparent partition of the shower booth fogged up with steam as she turned off the water. As she squeezed the shower sponge, rich foam spilled over her fingers. She spread the lather across her body when, all of a sudden, the bathroom door burst open.  

Startled, she instinctively turned her head.  

Since she had thought she was alone in the house, she initially assumed it was her imagination. But the door was indeed open, and through it, Junmo was walking in, wearing nothing but a pair of drawers.  

Still half-asleep, Junmo shuffled his feet against the floor, as if searching for nonexistent bathroom slippers. He seemed completely unaware that there was another person in the house.  

“…….”  

It seemed that when someone was truly startled, they couldn’t even make a sound.  

“Oppa!”  

Leeseo screamed, hurriedly crouching down to hug her knees with both arms. Although there was a shower partition between them, it was made of frosted glass and didn’t provide sufficient cover.  

“You….”  

Junmo seemed just as surprised. One foot was inside the bathroom, while the other remained outside as he stood there blankly, staring in her direction. His sleepy eyes slowly opened wider, making him look like a bear rudely awakened from hibernation.  

“Can’t you see? I’m showering!”  

He rubbed his entire face with his palm, a gesture so casual that it only made Leeseo more frantic.  

“Oops!”  

Once he grasped the situation, Junmo let out an exaggerated exclamation and began chuckling.  

“In situations like this, the normal thing to do is just leave. Not stand there staring.”  

“Normal, you say? Besides, I can’t see anything. It’s all fogged up.”  

While Leeseo was on edge, Junmo remained utterly nonchalant.  

“Get out!”  

“Sure, I’ll leave. But shouldn’t I apologize first?”  

“Forget the apology—just later….”  

In her urgency, her words spilled out faster and faster.  

“A person of dignity wouldn’t act like this. Back when I was studying abroad, we placed great importance on benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. As humans, we should naturally possess these four virtues: kindness, justice, courtesy, and wisdom….”  

Junmo seemed to be enjoying himself. His leisurely demeanor suggested he had discovered a rare, amusing game. Not only did he draw out his words in a low, theatrical tone, but he also ignored the original purpose of entering the bathroom, as well as the obvious outline of his lower body.  

“Ah! Seriously!”  

“Sorry.”  

With no sign of remorse, Junmo closed the door casually. Leeseo, still reeling from the shock, tried to calm her pounding heart when she heard his voice from outside the door.  

“It was a mistake.”  

His voice was tinged with laughter, making his claim of a mistake far from convincing.  

“How am I supposed to believe that? The master bedroom has its own bathroom!”  

Furious, Leeseo shouted back.  

“I use that as a storage room. Cleaning it is a pain…. Whenever my friends come over for drinks, they use this bathroom. They always leave it a mess, and I’ve been too busy to deal with it….”  

“Fine, fine, just stop talking….”  

She had no idea how she even managed to finish her shower.  

When did he even come in?