CHAPTER 97 

Taejun’s mind flashed with the changes that had occurred in him since he had met her.

‘If it weren’t for Minhee, I would still be drowning in the deep, dark abyss, searching for a reason to breathe.’

As he stared at Minhee, he lifted his arm to cover his eyes. Just seeing her made his heart throb.

‘I had pushed her away, built high walls, and buried her deep within…’

Sealing up his emotions, locking away his memories, and not giving his heart to anyone was a matter of survival for him.

After his mother’s death and his father’s slow demise, Taejun, at the tender age of 13, had experienced the harshest of situations. Looking back now, he was just a child. The survival techniques he had instinctively and desperately learned as a 13-year-old deprived of a normal childhood were to control his own thoughts and emotions.

This survival mechanism sustained Taejun until he was 32, preventing him from strangling himself in madness.

When a sweet-smelling, tearful, loving woman walked into his life when he was bitterly cold and desperately alone, he thought that all he needed was to be near her, to be temporarily melted by her warmth.

However, that gentle warmth had not only melted the ice that had long encased his heart but also brought it to a boil. His thick, solid defenses had been melted away from the inside, and he was about to crumble to dust.

No, perhaps he had been obliviously clinging to the remnants of a defense mechanism that had already crumbled long ago. Once that shield was gone, he would have to face the hideous dregs clinging to the bottom of the abyss he had never dared to look into.

For Taejun, love was about letting go of the lifeline he had clutched so desperately in his own hands for so long and standing together on the edge of a cliff.

If the person holding his lifeline stumbled and fell off the cliff, he would fall with them. He had experienced such tragedy firsthand, right in front of his eyes.

‘People die too easily…’

This was the source of the fear that haunted his mind. The people who had given meaning to Taejun’s life had simply vanished from the world, one day without warning.

When he arrived at the battlefield, he witnessed people being blown up by bombs, shot, crushed by buildings, run over by cars, r*ped, and beaten to death.

Death spared no one, regardless of good or evil, gender or age. Taejun finally realized why he had been so abnormally obsessed with Minhee’s safety.

‘If Minhee dies, will I be able to survive without going mad?’

Suddenly, his throat felt constricted, and it became difficult to breathe. At that moment, the bed shifted lightly.

Minhee had climbed onto the bed. Taejun drew in a ragged breath and waited for her to approach. He didn’t know what she wanted to do, or how she wanted to do it.

Taejun felt a tickling sensation at the tip of his nose. Feather-light kisses landed on his slightly parted lips, cheeks, and chin. The trembling breaths and unconcealed affection that accompanied each touch penetrated deep into his heart.

‘Do I deserve to receive this kind of love? What if I end up making this woman unhappy too? If she disappears from my life…’

With a lump rising in his throat, Taejun lowered the arm that had been covering his eyes. The sight of Minhee looking down at him with her eyes glistening made him waver.

Minhee’s large eyes, transparent with emotion, grew slightly wider as they met his. Then, they quickly filled with tears. The clear droplets rolled down her pale cheeks and fell onto Taejun’s face.

Minhee gently wrapped her arms around Taejun’s face as if she were holding a precious treasure, and softly kissed his lips.

In that moment. Taejun gave up his resistance.

The protective shield that had surrounded him for the sake of survival finally shattered, crumbling into pieces, and met its honorable demise.

His consciousness, which had stubbornly denied and ignored the fact that his heart had long been in the hands of this woman, finally admitted defeat.

“I… didn’t want to love you. But I just couldn’t help it.”

Emotion spilled out of Taejun’s mouth like blood gurgling from deep within.

“I love you.”

“Sob, I love you too.”

Minhee whispered against his lips in a tear-soaked voice. Taejun pulled her close, burying his face in the crook of her neck. The stinging sensation in his nose made him close his eyes tightly. As she sobbed against him, a teardrop fell on his temple and trickled down his earlobe.

“A broken person like me…”

Taejun’s voice wavered and cracked and he swallowed hard at the lump that rose in his throat.

“I’m sorry for loving a woman like you. Thank you for saving me, for not giving up on me… I love you, Minhee. I love you. I love you…”

The overflowing heart that had melted and risen to the brim now poured out, drenching the two embracing figures.

*

Their chests were pressed together, heartbeats in sync. Minhee’s tears dried up, and she lifted her head from Taejun’s shoulder, her eyes widening at the sight of his reddened face.

“Taejun, were you crying?”

Her eyes, rimmed with red, quickly filled with tears again. Taejun, seeing this, gave a small smile and pulled her into a crushing hug. His large hands stroked her hair and patted her back.

“Shh, don’t cry. It’s okay, Minhee.”

Minhee pleaded in a tear-choked voice.

“Just say it one more time.”

“…I love you.”

“Sob. I was so scared that you would never truly accept your feelings until the end.”

Taejun gently separated Minhee’s shoulders from his embrace. He had a question.

“What were you going to do if I didn’t admit it until the end?”

When the sobbing subsided, she hiccupped this time.

“Go…… hic, hic, try to…….”

Minhee’s pronunciation was muffled. Taejun wrapped his arms around her face and stroked her cheek, kissing the tip of her nose as if to soothe her.

“Say it slowly. What are you going to do?”

“I… was going to… hic, buy a cat.”

Taejun stared at her blankly for a moment before bursting into loud laughter, his eyes welling up with tears. Watching Taejun laugh so heartily made Minhee’s expression sour.

‘It’s nice to see him smile like that after so long, but was my resolve to grow old as a spinster really that funny?’

Minhee pouted with a disgruntled look, but her expression was ruined by the persistent hiccups, making it difficult to maintain a serious expression.

Gazing at her flushed face, with swollen eyes and pouting lips, Taejun’s mind finally attached a proper title to the category that had previously been labeled as “undecided/exception” when it came to Minhee.

‘Seol Minhee: My lifeline’

Underneath it were a few simple, intuitive adjectives he’d scavenged from his rusty emotional system.

‘Special traits: Cute, pretty, warm, smart, quirky, adorable.’

Minhee’s large bathrobe slid down one shoulder, revealing rounded shoulders and a glimpse of one br*ast. Taejun mentally added:

‘Warning: Can provoke lustful thoughts and s*xual reactions regardless of time and place.’

With a smirk on his face, Taejun pushed at the hem of Minhee’s robe on the other side. The robe parted, falling halfway down her arms and across her back.

Minhee let out a small gasp of surprise and quickly tried to pull the robe back together. But before she could, Taejun swiftly pulled her onto his lap.

Minhee straddled his waist, her hands braced on his chest as she pushed herself up.

“What the……!” 

“Do you like cats?”

Caught off guard by the sudden question, Minhee shook her head in response.

“……No, I’ve never had one, so I don’t know.”

“Hmm. Isn’t it too late to decide to grow old and die alone with a cat?”

“What do you mean ……?”

“We’ve already kissed, after all…” 

Taejun’s thumb stroked Minhee’s lips. Then the back of his hand trailed down the nape of her neck and slowly skimmed her collarbone.

“And you’ve already done other things… with me.”

“Ah!”

Taejun’s hand trailed down the gentle curve of her br*ast and circled the peak with his fingers. Minhee grabbed his wrist with both hands, squirming and pulling his hand away from her chest. 

Taejun then grabbed her waist with both hands and stroked up and down, before slowly lowering them to squeeze her b*ttocks. Again, Minhee writhed and removed his hands.

“Don’t touch me.”

Taejun blinked, his words stuck in his throat as he gazed at Minhee.

“No, that’s not what I meant!”

Minhee shook her head. Her cheeks slowly flushed.

“The truth is… my original plan was to seduce you first, make you lose your mind, and then make you admit that you love me. But I didn’t expect you to surrender even before I could do anything.”

Hearing Minhee’s explanation, the corner of Taejun’s lips slowly curled upwards.

“Ah, is that so? Then, give it a try.”

Taejun folded his arms and looked up at her lazily, his eyes twinkling with mischief.