She had loved those childhood nights falling asleep in her mother’s arms in a single room, and she had even loved the cramped closeness of sharing a small room with friends at the orphanage.

The reason she hadn’t left that narrow villa even when she had the money for something better was that she didn’t trust herself to endure the loneliness of empty space.

The fear of being reminded that she was alone in the world.

So living in this large house wasn’t something she could feel purely happy about. She was afraid the emptiness would grow to fill it.

But when his hand touched her eyes, something came to her.

‘Oh. I’m not alone anymore.’

And then another thought followed.

‘But this man…… why is he looking at me like that?’

The look in Jisang’s eyes as he gazed at her seemed to carry a deep, yearning intensity.

Was it the haze of half-sleep making it seem that way? Or perhaps she had simply dreamed it.

Right. I probably just imagined what I wanted to see.

She had even managed to dream in the brief time she’d been asleep.

Hari was pulled into his dark pupils. She floundered in the dark lake within them, barely swam her way out, and then he had turned into a black panther and she had turned into a rabbit, and he was about to devour her.

“Huh.”

She startled awake to find darkness had fallen.

It was clearly a ridiculous dream, but Hari couldn’t stop thinking about the look in Jisang’s eyes from within it.

“You’re up?”

His low voice came at the same moment every light in the apartment came on at once. Jisang, hand still on the switch, adjusted the brightness with ease.

He wasn’t in his sharp black suit but in casual clothes, and the change softened his severe impression, giving him a different quality than before.

“Bodyguard? How are you here……”

Hari asked, still trying to piece things together, and he gave a faint smile.

“Why are you looking at me like that. Would you rather not have me here?”

“N, no. I’m very happy about it!”

The answer came out as a reflex, and Hari was startled by her own words.

‘Oh no.’

She couldn’t take back what had already slipped out, and she bit down on her lip in quiet despair.

She had no idea how to walk back what she’d just said, and her mind went blank.

But Jisang showed no sign of being affected.

“I spoke with Ms. Maeng Hyunseo. She agreed to the live-in arrangement.”

“Really. What did you two talk about?”

“It would be better to hear that directly from Ms. Maeng Hyunseo.”

“Oh. Alright.”

It was a relief that the subject had shifted naturally, but Hari wasn’t entirely comfortable.

It had been a slip, but she had unmistakably shown her feelings. Anyone who wasn’t oblivious would have understood, and yet Jisang had done his best to ignore it.

She knew that in his own way it might have been a small kindness, but the quiet sting in her chest was unavoidable.

“Dinner.”

At his question, Hari quickly composed her expression.

“I’m fine. I’m not really thinking about it.”

She was hungry, but she had no particular motivation to eat.

“I spent a long time in the military. I can’t stand watching someone go without food.”

“What?”

“So sit down.”

Jisang pulled out a chair at the island counter himself and looked at her.

“Why……”

She stood there flustered and unmoving, and he gave a firm tilt of his chin toward the chair, telling her to come and sit.

Under the force of his gaze, Hari shuffled over and sat down like a soldier obeying a superior’s order.

She had sat because he told her to, but she was thoroughly confused.

“……Are we eating dinner together?”

He said nothing, just rolled up his sleeves and got to work.

He took out spaghetti and other ingredients, then pots and pans, all without a moment’s hesitation.

Hari sat and watched him move.

He picked up the pan with one hand and flicked it, and everything inside tossed and mixed evenly. With each short, precise movement of his wrist, the tendons from his wrist down his forearm came into sharp relief, the muscles of his forearm flexing and splitting cleanly.

Hari swallowed.

‘He’s so……’

The pasta that looked delicious didn’t even register. Her entire attention was fixed on the firm muscle of his arm.

In just over ten minutes, Jisang finished the dish and set it in front of her.

It was an oil pasta topped with water parsley, and the smell was absolutely incredible. It was enough to conjure an appetite from nowhere.

“Wow.”

Jisang opened a drawer beneath the island and handed her a spoon and fork.

“How is this possible? It’s so good.”

Without bothering to twirl the noodles around her fork, Hari shoved them into her mouth the way she might eat noodles from a bowl, and immediately her brow furrowed. The sincere frown that only appeared when food was truly exceptional.

“Eat slowly.”

Not content with cooking, Jisang also kindly brought her a glass of water. Hari asked with her cheeks puffed out.

“Aren’t you eating?”

“I already ate.”

“So you cooked all of this just to feed me?”

“As I said. I can’t stand watching someone go hungry.”

“Even so.”

Hari smiled as though she had everything in the world.

“Wow. I’m so happy.”

She meant it. Being treated with such care made her feel almost undeservingly grateful. It was naturally different from eating a meal Hyunseo had made for her. This was food made by the man she liked, made just for her.

“You’re being threatened and trapped, and the word happy comes that easily?”

“That doesn’t mean I have to ignore the happiness right in front of me.”

Hari kept smiling, full of contentment, and chewed every last bite of the precious pasta he had made for her.

Jisang sat across from her with his arms folded, watching.

“Thank you. It was wonderful.”

Assuming the dishes were her responsibility, Hari picked up the bowl and stood. But Jisang immediately rose and reached for it, and Hari pulled her hand away to keep hold of it.

“I’ll do it.”

“No. Give it here.”

“Why. I want to do it.”

“It’s expensive.”

“What? How expensive could it……”

He gave no answer about the price, just slowly shook his head, as if to say don’t touch it.

Hari reluctantly handed over the bowl, but a moment later a sense of unease crept in and she tilted her head.

“But how do you know that?”

“Know what?”

“How do you know it’s expensive. ……Actually, now that I think about it, that’s strange.”

And now that she thought about it, more than one thing was strange.

“You found the light switches right away, you moved around the kitchen like you knew where everything was…… You seem like someone who used to live here.”

Jisang, who had been tidying up naturally, paused briefly, then answered.

“That’s because I did live here.”

“What?”

“That space over there is mine.”

He pointed to the room right beside the entryway. When Hyunseo and Jungwook had looked around earlier, they had definitely checked that room too. Both of them had taken it for an empty room, because there was almost nothing in it.

She had been told the place was vacant and had no reason to question it, so Hari was simply bewildered.

“Oh, I was told this was company-owned…… that it used to be an idol dorm.”

“When I signed a contract with CEO Cha, he was kind enough to let me stay here while it was empty. Now that I’ve taken on your protection, I’ll be staying on.”

“Ah……”

It was a natural enough answer that left no room for suspicion, yet Hari felt an inexplicable unease that she couldn’t quite shake.

Jisang noticed the slight stiffness in her expression and lightly tapped her cheek with the tip of his finger.

“What’s wrong? I thought you said you were absolutely thrilled to be living with me.”

His teasing made Hari bristle immediately.

“What? I never said absolutely thrilled!”

“That’s how I heard it.”

“I said I was very happy about it!”

“Same thing.”

The slip she thought he had graciously buried was being dug back up and used against her, and Hari’s face went scarlet.

Jisang made no effort to hide his playful smile as he reached past her toward her waist.

Hari flinched so hard she nearly jumped out of her skin. But his hand wasn’t reaching for her. It was reaching for the cabinet she had been standing in front of.

It was stocked with various whiskeys and wines, and Jisang pulled out a flask-shaped bottle.

He poured whiskey into a glass and asked her casually, while she stood there mortified and speechless.

“Want a glass?”

“No. I’m fine.”

“Help yourself to anything whenever you want. This isn’t company property, it’s mine.”

“……Okay.”

Hari squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again to release the tension.

Just exchanging words in the same space was draining her in real time.

Not wanting to be rattled any further, she decided to make her exit.

“Then rest well. I’ll head in.”

“Alright.”

Hari turned toward the bedroom, but stopped after a few steps and looked back.

“Actually.”

“What. Again.”

“If I had called you oppa, would you have written back?”

“Who knows.”

He gave a vague shrug and set down his empty glass, then walked over to stand beside her.

Without any hesitation, he ruffled her hair and said.

“Sleep well. See you tomorrow. My client.”

He was drawing the same line as always, calling her his client, but if that was his intention, he shouldn’t have touched her.

Because of nothing more than that small gesture, Hari lay awake the entire night.