“Go ahead.”

She turned back to find him sitting on the sofa with both arms spread along the back and his legs crossed, the picture of casual arrogance.

His indifferent manner stung her pride a little. A woman was going to wash up, and he hadn’t so much as shifted in his seat……

‘He still just sees me as a child, I suppose.’

Her heart felt hollow the whole time she showered.

She knew this was a one-sided feeling on her part. He had been her first love, but that was hers alone.

She had sent him a hundred letters and never received a single reply.

He had never given her any reason to hope, so she had no right to feel hurt. She didn’t know why she felt this way.

She let the troubled feeling rinse away with the soap suds and stepped out of the bathroom, and the man was still sitting in exactly the same position on the sofa.

He watched the faint dampness still clinging to her hair and rubbed his jaw slowly, then narrowed his eyes and asked.

“Ms. Yoo Hari. You filmed quite a lot of commercials last year, didn’t you?”

The question came out of nowhere, but Hari answered without missing a beat.

“What counts as a lot?”

“You were on every time I turned on the TV.”

“Oh, well. I did film quite a few.”

She went into the bedroom, sorted the laundry, and came back out, and Jisang picked up the conversation again.

“Then why are you still living somewhere like this?”

The old villa had smelled musty from the stairwell up.

She had decorated the inside with pretty furniture and lighting and kept it reasonably tidy, but the wallpaper and flooring all showed their age unmistakably.

Hari rattled the cabinet of the old kitchen sink and answered.

“What’s wrong with this place?”

“It seems quite modest given what you earn.”

Hari pressed the button on the electric kettle and held up a chamomile tea bag instead of answering.

“Are you sure you don’t want any?”

“I’m fine.”

“Alright.”

She dropped the tea bag into a plain mug and poured hot water over it, and a faint floral scent drifted through the room almost immediately.

Hari carried the mug over and sat down on the floor in front of the sofa where he was sitting.

In the quiet stillness, the only sound was the soft sip of something hot being swallowed.

He waited in silence, and Hari didn’t give him a real answer until she had emptied half the mug.

“You know. The truth is…… I’m afraid of the money in my bank account.”

He might tell her that was nonsense, but Hari meant it.

“The idea that that much money has piled up in my account doesn’t feel real, and I’m scared it might turn to worthless paper one day.”

“Ah.”

“Maybe because I’ve never handled large sums before. I don’t really know how to spend money either. Something like that.”

Whenever she watched those celebrity home tour programs, Hari would react as though it had nothing to do with her, gasping ‘Wow, what an amazing house.’ Even though her own popularity far outstripped most of the people on those shows, she treated them as though they lived in a different world entirely.

“I just feel like this place suits me.”

Jisang, who had been listening without a word, added just one thing.

“You’re more than deserving of somewhere better.”

“Really?”

“You’re a successful actress, Ms. Yoo Hari.”

The words landed somewhere deep and tender. She had to bite down on her lower lip to keep from showing how much they moved her.

‘Promise me. That you’ll only walk the right path. That you won’t set foot in a place like this again, and that you’ll succeed on your own terms, with your head held high.’

This was the man who had given back the bracelet and told her to repay him with success, the one she had made a pinky promise with.

That she wouldn’t take shortcuts. That even if it took longer, she would succeed through her own honest effort.

And right now, in this moment, Hari was sitting across from him exactly as she had promised.

And he had called her a successful actress. It might have been a throwaway remark to him, but to Hari it felt like recognition, and her heart swelled with a joy almost too big to contain.

“Haaah. I’m getting sleepy.”

She felt warmth spreading through her chest and exhaustion following close behind.

Whether it was the chamomile doing its work or the warmth of what he’d said, she couldn’t tell.

“I should sleep.”

Hari stretched her arms above her head and got up from the floor, then went to the bedroom and came back with a blanket.

She had kept him here out of her own selfishness, but now that it came to it, the thought of making him sleep on the sofa didn’t sit right.

‘His legs are so long they’ll hang off the end……’

Hari hesitated, then offered.

“Actually, I’ll sleep on the sofa. Would you like to take the bed?”

“No.”

“I feel terrible about it.”

He gave a short, mocking lift of one corner of his mouth and stood up from the sofa. He walked straight to her and took the blanket directly from her arms.

“Don’t feel sorry over something like this. Stand your ground. You’re my client, Ms. Yoo Hari.”

Client. He drew a clear line with those two words.

Whatever their shared past might be, right now they were nothing more than client and hired professional.

Hari trudged toward the bedroom. But Jisang caught her wrist and stopped her.

He said quietly.

“Lock your window before you sleep.”

“What?”

“If you sense anything strange, even the slightest thing, come straight out. I’ll be right here.”

“Oh……”

His voice was close to her ear, low and lovely, and Hari’s heart stirred for no reason she could help.

“Yes. Goodnight.”

She had no idea what expression was on her face, but she had the instinct that she absolutely could not let him see it, and she rushed into the bedroom.

The door swung shut behind her with a loud bang.

“Ugh.”

That had given away exactly how flustered she was.

The back of her neck burned, and Hari rubbed it roughly as she lay down on the bed.

But sleep wouldn’t come, even after a long while.

She had been drowsy just moments ago, and now her heart was racing and her mind was wide awake.

She needed to sleep tonight after missing it last night……

‘Is it because of what happened earlier? Still too shaken?’

She had even chewed up the herbal medicine Jungwook had given her when they left the police station. Why was she still like this?

‘Even for someone who knows nothing about men, surely I’m not this undone just from hearing a warm voice once.’

After a long internal debate, Hari threw off the blanket and got up. Maybe if she sat near him again, the way she had before, sleep would come back. A strange hope took shape.

“Excuse me. Bodyguard.”

She came back out to the living room clutching her pillow, and Jisang, who had been lying on the sofa with his long legs stretched out beyond the armrest, slowly sat up.

“I, um…… I can’t sleep.”

“Yes.”

“……Would it be alright if I sat here for a bit?”

Jisang surprised her by calmly patting the spot beside him.

“Come on. Sit down.”

Hari sat on the floor in front of the sofa, the same as before. This time, instead of staying up on the sofa, Jisang came down and sat on the floor beside her. The sofa served as nothing more than a perfectly good backrest for both of them.

A quiet stillness wrapped around them.

Neither of them looked at their phones. They both simply sat there.

The heartbeat she had been afraid he might hear gradually faded into the background, and the tightness in her breathing slowly eased.

Drowsiness came again.

Her eyelids grew heavy and warm, and on a sudden impulse, Hari let her head drop sideways onto his shoulder.

He received it without any visible discomfort, staying still.

“……Sir.”

At the sound of her voice, his gaze finally drifted down toward his shoulder. Hari kept her eyes closed rather than meet it.

“Why didn’t you ever write back?”

He answered with a quiet exhale.

“I sent a hundred letters, and not one reply ever came. I kept wondering if I had the address wrong, if the letters never arrived. I was always curious. Sir, did you receive my letters?”

She had hoped he would say he didn’t know anything about them. Receiving a hundred letters and never replying even once was too heartless. She didn’t want to feel humiliated, so she had wanted that to be the answer. But the reply that came was merciless, crushing even the faint hope she’d been holding onto.

“How did you even find the address to send them to.”

So their meeting six years ago had only ever been a precious memory to her.

Hari, on the edge of sleep despite herself, turned the memory of that day over in her mind again, a bittersweet ache in her chest.