CHAPTER 79

Taejun buried his head in Minhee’s neck and took a deep breath. When she tilted her head to the side as she pulled her upper body back, he lifted his face to lock eyes with hers.

“Hi.”

Minhee greeted Taejun with a soft smile. His intense gaze met hers.

“……Hello.”

Taejun’s low, deep voice rang sweetly in her ear. Minhee whispered.

“Were you waiting for me?”

“Um…”

“Have you…… missed me?”

After asking the question, Minhee buried her face in his broad shoulders, avoiding his gaze.

This evening, Taejun paced the living room, staring out the window, as if his mind was elsewhere, unable to get anything done. His steps felt heavy, as if shackles were bound to his legs.

‘It’s cold, dark, and dangerous out there.’

There was a woman out there, a delicate creature that would shimmer and vanish with a mere touch. She was somewhere in this dangerous city, beyond his reach.

‘People die so easily.’

Taejun nervously ran his fingers through his unkempt hair.

‘Why is she taking so long? She would refuse if I offered a driver. Should I secretly assign a guard?’

Taejun was vaguely aware that he was acting like a half-crazed man. Images of his father’s drunken behavior flashed through his mind without context. Anxious emotions took hold of him.

The ground beneath his feet was slipping away, and he felt like he was standing on a sandy swamp of unknown depth. As the quicksand threatened to swallow him whole, a metallic sound outside the entrance caught his attention.

He rushed to the door in a stride, opening it to catch Minhee as she entered. Finally, he felt like he could breathe again.

‘Is this what people call “missing you”? I think it’s more like “I’ll go crazy if you’re not in front of me.’

“……I guess so.”

Taejun rattled off the answer in a hushed voice, and Minhee tilted her head and pouted her lips in a silent grumble, apparently not liking his answer.

“If you miss me, just say you miss me. What’s with ‘I guess so’?”

Even as she grumbled, Minhee used her fingers to neaten his disheveled hair.

“I heard you.”

Taejun finally let out a slight chuckle, relaxing a bit. He had unconsciously tensed up his entire body, and his trapezius muscles felt strained.

“Taejun.”

Minhee called out to him in a subtle voice.

“Hmm?”

‘Was this really okay?’ 

Her heart was racing, and her palms were sweating.

“Taejun…”

“…Why?”

“My feet are so cold.”

“…What?”

“My feet… Where are you going?”

Taejun walked over and set her down on the nearest couch and knelt on the floor. He could see that the tops of her shoed feet were reddened from the cold. Bowing his head, he carefully removed her shoes.

His large hands carefully lifted her frozen feet, examining them closely. Feeling embarrassed, Minhee tried to pull her feet away, but Taejun kept them enclosed in his warm hands, refusing to let go. Scowling, he looked up at her.

“You haven’t gotten frostbite. But where on earth did you walk from for your feet to be like this?”

“Taejun!”

Minhee urgently called out to him. Taejun’s brow furrowed, showing irritation and patience, and exhaled a short sigh. Minhee lifted a finger and gently touched Taejun’s forehead, smoothing out his furrowed brows.

Taejun didn’t shy away from her touch. As the wrinkles on his forehead softened, his expression also relaxed a bit. Still looking a bit flustered, Minhee reached out her arms to him.

“Hug me.”

At Minhee’s unexpected request, Taejun blinked as if bewildered, his eyebrows twitching. After what seemed like three seconds of contemplation, he pulled her into his arms. As she hugged his shoulders, she whispered in his ear.

“Wash my feet for me. With warm water.”

Suddenly, Minhee felt Taejun’s shoulders stiffen under her hands. Sensing his reaction, her heart sank. She opened her mouth to brush it off as a joke, but he let out a chuckle.

After releasing the embrace, he gripped her chin in his hand, sighed deeply, and spoke.

“Haha. Sometimes I want to peek into your mind.”

Minhee shook her head to free herself from Taejun’s grasp and eyed him suspiciously.

“Surely you don’t know how to do… that? What was it, hyp- hypno-“

Although she knew the phrase, only the first syllable lingered on the tip of her tongue when she got flustered.

“Hypnosis.”

“Ah, that’s it!”

Minhee narrowed her eyes. Then, realizing how absurd it was, she giggled.

“Pfft, no way. That’s a completely different genre. Not like in the movies.”

Taejun also let out a slight chuckle, his lips curving upwards. But then, his face became impassive, his eyes unblinking as he stared intently at her from up close. His eyes, deep and dark like an abyss, seemed to bore into her, as if trying to peer into her mind.

“…”

Minhee’s eyelids fluttered nervously. The smile gradually faded from her face as she involuntarily crossed her arms over her chest, using them as a shield.

“Don’t do that!”

“What?”

“Whatever you’re doing right now! Whatever it is!”

“I’m not a hypnotist.”

“What does that even mean?!”

Minhee screamed and struggled to get away from Taejun.

At that moment, Taejun burst into laughter loudly and buried his face in her lap. His broad shoulders shook with laughter. This was the first time Minhee had seen Taejun laugh so heartily, and she sat there dumbfounded, patiently waiting for his laughter to subside.

As Taejun lifted his head to look at her, he immediately buried his face again, chuckling. Mildly annoyed, Minhee pushed the head resting on her lap.

“Stop laughing now.”

When Taejun lifted his head, his face was bright and clear, brimming with laughter but without a single shadow. His eyes were narrowed, his lips curved in a soft arc, and the dimples Minhee loved were deeper than usual, making him look like a young boy. Minhee stared at Taejun’s face, mouth agape and entranced.

“Haa…….”

After Taejun adjusted his breathing, he stood up, lifting Minhee effortlessly.

“Let’s go. I’ll wash your feet.”

Minhee’s heart pounded like someone who had just finished a sprint as she was carried down the corridor. 

Taejun carried her to his room’s en suite bathroom and set her down on the edge of the jacuzzi tub.

The jacuzzi in Taejun’s bathroom was so large that it could accommodate three people comfortably.  The jacuzzi, finished in marble, had a marble staircase leading up to it.

Although Minhee had showered with Taejun in his bathroom once before, she had been too preoccupied to properly explore it. There was a faint scent of Taejun’s cologne lingering in the bathroom.

As Minhee took a deep breath, puffing out her chest, she suddenly coughed. Taejun was lifting the thin sweater over his head from behind.

As the sweater was pulled up, his back was partially exposed, and his abs peeked out. After removing the sweater completely, his hair was tousled, as if he had just woken up. With his sleeves still on, Taejun caught her gaze and gave her a sly smile.

‘Taejun is really crazy. So sexy…’

Suddenly, the temperature in the bathroom heated up. Minhee remembered her conversation with Luca.

‘He’s not smiling like that at the office, is he?’

The thought of Taejun showing this side to someone other than her made her heart ache suddenly. A feeling of intense and sharp jealousy, something she had never experienced before, overwhelmed Minhee.

As Taejun took off his sleeve and tossed the sweater onto a nearby chair, Minhee was captivated by the movement of his tensed muscles.

He sat down on the steps and rolled up her pants to her knees. As her pale calves and round knees were revealed, he leaned in and placed a kiss on her knees. The spot where his lips touched tingled.

“Pretty.”

“…”

Minhee looked down at her knees. It was the same knee she saw every day, the same knee she saw every day, nothing special, except that it was reddened from being in a cold place and coming into a warm place.

‘This man loves me enough to find my knees beautiful. He just hasn’t realized it yet.’

A fierce battle was raging in Minhee’s mind.

‘Should I confess now?’

‘No, I’m not ready yet!’

‘But what if I’m mistaken? What if Taejun doesn’t love me? If I confess while I’m sane, I might lose even our s*x partner arrangement this time.’

‘Maybe I should just keep things as they are now? What does love matter anyway? Being s*x partners is enough.’

Unaware of the turmoil in Minhee’s mind, Taejun reached over and plucked the small shower head from the corner of the jacuzzi. Turning on the water, a fine mist poured out like fog. After checking the water temperature for a moment, Taejun lifted Minhee’s feet and held the shower head above them. Warm water flowed down her insteps.

“Is the water temperature okay?”

“It’s fine.”

“Doesn’t it hurt or sting?”

“No.”

Holding the showerhead in one hand, Taejun gently massaged her feet with the other. Minhee’s throat constricted at each word that climbed up to her mouth.

‘I love this man so much, I feel like my heart will burst.’

As her frozen feet thawed, a tingling sensation spread throughout. His tender caresses on her calves and feet were painfully affectionate. She wanted to see his face.

“Taejun.”

“Hmm?”

He lifted his head and locked eyes with her. At that moment, Minhee realized. 

‘If the way this man was looking at me right now wasn’t love, then what was?’

“I love you.”