“Ha…”

In the end, I agreed to go on the blind date.

I didn’t have even the slightest courage to defy my father’s wishes.

Letting out a deep sigh, I pushed open the door to Jae Animal Hospital and stepped inside. Just the thought of having to go on a blind date that afternoon drained all my energy.

“Director, you’re here?”

The one who greeted me brightly was Park Na-yeon, a staff member at the clinic.

“I—I’m a bit l-late, aren’t I?”

I awkwardly forced a smile as I looked at her, already there ahead of me, having opened the clinic. My stutter improved a little when I was with someone I felt comfortable around.

The problem was—it was only a little.

“Director, why do you look so pretty today?”

Park Na-yeon, one of the founding members of the clinic, was someone I was fairly close to.

“Are you going somewhere today?”

“N-no… I just… d-dressed up a bit.”

True to her naturally curious personality, her eyes sparkled.

There was no way I could tell her I was going on a blind date that evening. I hated unnecessary noise and attention.

My life motto was to live quietly, as if I were barely there.

After putting on my white coat, the first place I headed to was the cages where the animals were kept.

“O-our babies… have you all been well?”

I smiled warmly as the dogs and cats greeted me, wagging their tails in quiet affection.

The hospital wasn’t big, but if I had to choose one place in the world where I felt truly at peace, it would be here.

I had fought to open it, after writing a pledge to my father promising to stop searching for the paintings my mother had left behind, just to gain his approval.

However, the moment I thought of her final works, a sharp pain pierced my chest.

I had promised my father that I would never look for them again.

And yet, I hadn’t given up.

As long as my father never found out, I could continue searching in secret.

My mother, a painter until the very end, had left me a painting before she died.

I didn’t know where she had hidden it. But I was determined to find it, no matter how long it took.

“Director, it looks like it’s going to rain.”

I turned my head and looked out the window. The sky had gone completely dark.

“…Y-yeah, it really does.”

The clouds looked as if they were about to pour at any moment. Letting out a quiet sigh, I reached into the cage, lifted out a small dog, and held it tightly in my arms.

“W-want a treat?”

Although we didn’t have many customers, I loved this small animal hospital because of the animals.

The animals didn’t treat me badly just because I stuttered or limped. They didn’t look at me strangely just because I stuttered or had a limp. Instead, they liked someone as insignificant as me.

“S-stop, that tickles!”

Like now—wagging its tail wildly, showing me with its whole body that I was the one it loved most in the world.

“H-how could I… n-not like you?”

Ignoring how much darker the sky had become, I hugged the dog closer — the same one that had almost died from injuries sustained on the street not long ago.

The warmth of its small body was a gentle balm for my aching heart.

Still, it really shouldn’t rain too much.

If it did, I might not be able to see the cherry blossom that I had been waiting for all year.

My gaze kept drifting back to the window.

“I’m going to get some coffee—do you want some, Director?”

Park Na-yeon’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I rose from my seat.

“N-no, I’m okay.”

If I wanted coffee, I could make it myself.

Perhaps the reason I couldn’t accept even the slightest gesture of kindness was the way I had lived my life.

A faint, bitter smile touched my lips as I put the dog down and gave it a treat. Then I sank into the chair in the director’s office and let out a long, heavy sigh.

I wished time would slow down, slow to a crawl.

No, better still, it should stop altogether.

That’s how much I didn’t want to go on the blind date.

All I wanted was to run this animal hospital and find my mother’s painting.

Was that too much to ask?

Once again, I found myself resenting the sky.

It had always taken things away from me.

Whenever I wanted something or allowed myself to hope for something, it would be taken away in the end.

All I wanted was to live happily with my mother for a long time, but it took her away, lifting her up into the sky.

Back then, too…

“…”

Without warning, the memory surfaced: a man clutching a white puppy, his face contorted with anger, beneath a sky filled with falling cherry blossom petals.

My expression faltered.

A sharp ache pulsed through my head and I frowned. I shook my head, trying to push the memory away. I didn’t want to dwell on something I couldn’t clearly remember.

It felt as though the rain was about to pour down at any moment. Even inside, the air felt thick and damp.

Perhaps Na-yeon had started brewing coffee, because I could smell its rich aroma mingling with the scent of wet earth and stinging my nostrils faintly.

Such mismatched scents, I thought.

Suddenly, something brushed lightly against my ankle.

Startled, I flinched and tensed my shoulders, quickly lowering my gaze to see what it was.

“M-Mongsil… it was you?”

Having finished its treat, the puppy scratched my ankle, asking for more.

When I first found it, its right eye was badly injured. I didn’t know whether it had been hurt while wandering the streets or if someone had harmed it.

Its eye had improved a lot since then, but the injury still hadn’t fully healed. I gave the puppy a name of my own choosing: Mongsil.

It was an old-fashioned name, almost rustic in sound, but it suited the puppy, who seemed to like it.

For a moment, I felt a strange sense of pride — no, more than that; I simply wanted to escape reality.

So I forced a smile that didn’t reflect the turmoil raging inside me.

***

“T-thank you.”

As I thanked the staff member who showed me to my seat, I noticed a hint of hesitation in their expression.

Thankfully, they seemed to think that my stutter was just nerves. Then again, perhaps the staff member wasn’t thinking anything at all. Perhaps I was the only one who was overly conscious of the way I stuttered and limped in front of others.

“Ha…”

I bit the tip of my tongue in disbelief at the fact that I had travelled all this way for a blind date without knowing the name of the person I was meeting.

The only information I had been given was that he was the eldest son of the Hyunwoo Group chairman.

I knew nothing else about him.

Ah, no.

That wasn’t right.

He had a potbelly. He was bald. Supposedly, he liked any woman as long as she wore a skirt.

Maybe it would have been easier if I hadn’t known any of that beforehand.

Either way, I could already imagine how he would react.

‘How dare you—someone like you—show up here?’

He would certainly look at me with contempt.

This was supposed to be So-hee’s place, not mine.

Anxiety rose within me, swelling until it constricted my throat, making it hard to breathe.

I kept my head lowered and rubbed my fingernails. I should have been used to those looks of disdain by now. But the problem was that I was hurt every single time.

The blind date had been arranged at a restaurant on the top floor of a hotel.

Had I not been there for the date, I might have admired the view or the elegant interior of the restaurant.

But right now, none of that registered with me.

I felt like I couldn’t swallow water, let alone food, yet I was expected to sit there and share a full meal with him.

He hadn’t arrived yet, but I already felt like I was suffocating.

“Do whatever it takes to hold on to that man! If you don’t, I’ll tear down that animal hospital immediately!”

It felt as if my father’s threat was echoing in my ears, and I bit down hard on my lips.

I should’ve asked him—

‘How is someone like me… in a body like this… supposed to hold on to a man?’

A faint, hollow laugh escaped me.

And then—

“……”

…What is this?

In an instant, the entire restaurant fell silent. I slowly lifted my head and looked around. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath, their gazes fixed on someone who had just entered the room.

Without realizing it, I followed their gaze — and sucked in a sharp breath.

My eyes widened as if they might shatter.

The moment I saw the man, I understood.

He was dangerous.

I had never seen him before, and yet I knew it instinctively.

Just meeting his gaze made me feel as though I couldn’t breathe, as though my heart might stop at any moment.

He was the kind of man whose mere presence could silence an entire room.

And I had met his gaze.

Not wanting to get involved, I quickly averted my gaze.

He was exactly the type of person I hated most: someone who could crush others without lifting a finger; someone who made people shrink in on themselves.

And yet—

Why did it feel like he was walking towards me?

I didn’t want to meet his gaze at all.

The truth was, I was afraid.

I lowered my head further and shrank into myself.

‘He must be looking for the person he’s supposed to meet.’

That’s what I thought.

“……”

To prove that there had been no misunderstanding, the man took the seat directly opposite me. I was startled, snapping my head up and widening my eyes as though they might burst.

Slowly, our gazes met and locked in the air.

I should have asked who he was, but I couldn’t get a word out, either because I was nervous or afraid.

Even as the silence stretched on, he simply looked at me, saying nothing.

It was as though he were calmly waiting for me to speak first.

I stole a few glances at him, but I still couldn’t find the courage to speak.

Then, when I finally saw his face clearly, I was startled all over again.

I had never seen anyone this handsome in my life.

His face was small, yet his features were sharply masculine. His eyes were the perfect size, with slightly upturned corners reminiscent of a tiger’s. His nose was high and straight, and his full lips hinted at stubbornness.

He was tall, with broad shoulders that seemed capable of bearing anything, and long, well-proportioned legs.

Even his build was flawless.

Above all, his eyes were darker than the deepest night and looked as though they could see through everything.

It felt as if God had made a mistake.

How could someone be born with a face like that?

It made no sense.

That thought lasted only a moment.

Despite his handsome face, his piercing gaze made me feel as though he might devour me whole.

Being looked at like that made my mouth go dry and my fingertips tremble. It felt as if my heart were turning cold.

He was so tall that I would have had to tilt my head right back to meet his gaze. For a moment, his broad shoulders felt strangely reassuring, absurdly enough.

I bit the inside of my cheek hard.

Only then did my senses return.

My lips parted and closed a few times before I finally found my voice.

“…W-who are you?”

He seemed perfectly content to sit there in silence, as though he were prepared to wait all night for me to break it. I had no choice.

At the sound of my voice, his eyes lit up.

There was something cruel about it, sending a chill down my spine.

At first glance, his expression seemed languid, but it wasn’t.

His gaze was sharp enough to pierce me as though he could read my every thought, and I shrank under it.

My forehead. My brows. My nose. My lips. The tip of my chin.

Every place his gaze touched burned hot.

“I-I think… y-you’re in the wrong… s-seat.”

I had clearly been told a potbellied, bald man would be coming.

So this man had to be mistaken.

That was why I gathered my courage to speak.

And yet—

“Let’s get married.”

The words that left his mouth were completely unexpected.

His voice was so low it made my heart drop.

“…W-what? R-right now… w-what…?”

I stuttered worse than usual; I was completely flustered.

He hadn’t said a word until now, and suddenly he was proposing?

Every nerve in my body was sending out warning signals about just how dangerous the man sitting in front of me was.

‘Run.’

‘Run right now.’

Even without trying to figure it out, my body reacted instinctively.

The man tilted his handsome face slightly, slowly—almost suffocatingly so.

“Let’s get married.”

To make sure I hadn’t misheard him, he repeated his words slowly and clearly.

My gaze locked onto his lips.

Ah, so the wheel of fate had finally brought me to a place called Misfortune.

I pressed my fingernails hard into the back of my hand, but couldn’t stop myself from letting out a faint cry of pain.