Moisture

I'd been holding it in for so long that what spilled out was a crumbling, shapeless thing — words too muddled to hold any form. Whether he'd understood me at all, I had no idea. Kang Sa-eon merely looked at me for a moment with that expressionless face of his and offered nothing either way. Which was, if anything, an excellent sign.

I'd expected a torrent of scathing mockery — that I was talking nonsense, that I shouldn't even dare bring up that old hag. I knew how terrified he was of women, and how much of his life that terror occupied. Bringing up Jeong-i Halmae, the very source of it all, had been extraordinarily hard.

What were you supposed to do, standing beside someone in pain?

Making a fuss over a person who was bleeding wasn't a good choice. At least, not in my book. Telling him to get to a hospital was the most I could manage. Looking at a wound made me cry.

I couldn't drag Kang Sa-eon to a hospital against his will when he was hiding his wounds, and I couldn't look away either, so I just stood there beside him, caught awkwardly in the middle. It had been the same with Jeong-i Halmae. I hadn't been able to do a thing.

Well — of course I couldn't. How was the kid next door supposed to stop a grandmother and grandson who hated each other enough to kill, even if they never actually picked up a knife?

Not even next door, though. Much farther than that. We were just strangers, really.

The guilt was there because I'd wanted to do something for him so badly that my own helplessness felt suffocating. I blamed my old, well-worn unrequited crush again. It was such an easy out.

"Were you being kind to me?"

Kang Sa-eon asked after a moment. Was he embarrassed? I stared at that smooth, handsome face of his, trying to read what he felt. He pushed my face away with his palm. Then, apparently realizing his hand had brushed my lips, he bent his wrist.

"I'll have you know I'm an incredibly kind person. My reputation on my team is no joke. The second a strong-willed newbie shows up, they dump them all on me."

Compared to Princess, kids these days were downright adorable. Call them Gen Z or whatever you wanted — none of them could hold a candle to a chaebol princess.

"So being treated like a sucker who's easy to take advantage of is something to brag about."

"No, it is not. I'm a senior people respect and rely on. You going to keep picking apart every word I say? What I'm trying to tell you is..."

"I got it."

He hadn't gotten a single thing!

"Am I supposed to thank you for deciding to be nice to me?"

"Oh, why are you twisting it again?"

"Should I thank you for being my friend? Not that I ever asked."

"Why are you like this again?"

It wasn't pity. That was what I wanted to say.

But Princess, whose feelings had already been hurt for some reason my dense self couldn't grasp, was getting to his feet.

"Wai— Kang Sa— Sa-eon!"

I scrambled up after him and grabbed his arm. He didn't shake me off. Even as relief flickered through me, I'd stood so fast I lost my balance. Kang Sa-eon caught me and set me upright. All my weight must have been on him, but he barely seemed to exert any effort. I confessed in a rush.

"I'm kind to you because I like you."

"……."

"I'm saying I liked you."

"……."

Ah — he'd softened a little. The corners of his eyes were honest. Encouraged, I added,

"I was friends with you because I liked you so much."

"……."

He pulled away. Wait.

"W-wait. Sa-eon, let's talk!"

"It's late. Go to sleep."

"It's only midnight! I know you stay up late! Hey!"

"Go to sleep."

Was that not it? I could tell my last words had hurt his feelings, but I had no idea what I'd done wrong. Had it offended him that I dared to say I liked him?

But I couldn't give him that. I found Kang Sa-eon cute and lovable, but I could never look up to him. The only person I respected was my grandfather.

Kang Sa-eon didn't slam the door just because he was sulking. Well — he wasn't a teenager. I was left alone in the living room again. That heartless man clearly had no idea how miserable and mortifying this made a person. I was used to it, so I could bear it — and even that was miserable.

How many times had I been left behind, in a place he'd walked out of or a place he'd never come to, for something like this to feel familiar?

I'd said I liked him because I liked him. He wouldn't let me call Princess "Princess," and now he wouldn't even let me say I liked him...

Difficult bastard. Delicate as a sheet of wet paper. Impossible to please.

I gave Kang Sa-eon's bedroom door a pointless little kick. No sound came from inside.

On our first day living together, we had our first fight in a long time.

The cause was my confession.

God, what a petty bastard.

When I woke up in the morning, Kang Sa-eon had already left for work without a sound. I'd tossed and turned all night, then slept in, so I went to the office without even putting on makeup. It was October, so I decided to believe the UV rays wouldn't be as brutal as midsummer.

"Good morning, Chae-yoon. Woman of the hour!"

"I'm going to wither to death under this spotlight."

Eun-gyeol burst out laughing at my theatrics.

"They say those who wear the crown must bear its weight."

That's not even my crown.

It clashed with my philosophy of living quietly — like water poured into water, liquor into liquor — but this, too, had been my choice. People who knew my face and people who didn't all stared at me like a monkey in a zoo. Unlike children, who gawked openly, adults stole glances like crabs hiding in the mud.

Of course they were curious.

If this had been someone else's business, I would have been openly fascinated too. A third-generation chaebol of a major conglomerate. A young man with no fiancée — prickly, competent, and handsome besides. And then an ordinary person who'd popped up out of nowhere. It was a combination that didn't quite fit. Word had already spread that we'd known each other since childhood, so people who knew me sent messages barbed with resentment, asking how I'd managed to keep my mouth shut so perfectly. As if I'd been some kind of spy for the chairman.

It had only been two days, but that was more than enough time for people to talk.

Eun-gyeol said with a sly smile,

"You don't look like you hate it that much, though?"

"It's bearable, aside from all the people requesting pointless meetings and keeping me busy."

"Let's go out for lunch later. Yesterday you were so swamped I didn't even get a chance to talk to you."

"I didn't just miss talking. I missed eating, too."

Yesterday, the meal Kang Sa-eon had prepared had been the only food I'd had. I'd gone hungry all day and barely gotten one meal, and he'd still given me grief — actual grief — for eating too much. A wave of self-pity washed over me, and I leaned against Eun-gyeol.

"I didn't eat breakfast today either. I'm starving."

"Hold out until lunch."

I decided to tough it out by snacking on the treats I'd stashed in my drawer.

Kang Sa-eon, you bastard. Getting up early and leaving for work all by himself. Even if we didn't eat breakfast together, he could have at least woken me up. I was the type who always ate breakfast.

Eun-gyeol, watching my face, asked,

"I still think he'll treat you well. People who are cold to everyone else are supposed to be good to their own, right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

Not even close.

I honestly didn't know if he'd treat his actual wife well. Judging by the way he'd gone wild sucking on my tongue, he didn't seem to hate physical intimacy itself. If we spent enough time together, if affection took root, he'd eventually become tender. He had no manners, but he wasn't a bad person at heart.

"I heard the Executive Director is terrifying. He doesn't even get angry when people mess up — he just sighs and gives up on them. People are scared stiff because he never gives anyone a second chance. And you'd want to badmouth someone like that if they didn't deliver, except he's actually good at his job. Almost everything he's taken on since joining the Strategic Planning Division has gone well."

"Yeah, that's right."

Let me be clear about one thing: Kang Sa-eon wasn't someone who didn't give second chances. He was someone who never gave a first one. He only felt satisfied when he did everything with his own hands, but physically that wasn't possible, so he delegated. Which meant that no matter the result, it never quite pleased him. But he was even stricter with himself than he was with anyone else.

"It's a waste of a handsome face, how blunt and scary he is. I know someone on the secretarial team who says they've never once seen him smile."

"Maybe it's because it's work. He smiles a lot normally."

He sneers a lot, more like.

"Really? I guess he really is different with the woman he loves."

Eun-gyeol marveled, completely oblivious to what I was actually feeling.

A handsome man with a sharp, icy air; around the office, he was known as blunt and taciturn — rumors that had mostly leaked from the secretarial staff. He was basically a drama male lead. So did that make me the sunshine heroine who'd melted the arrogant, taciturn third-generation chaebol?

"You look happy, Chae-yoon."

Go get your eyes checked.

It was what I'd wanted, but Kang Sa-eon was pricklier than I'd braced myself for, and I couldn't read him, which was infuriating. If he had a complaint, he should just say it! And if I pressed him, he'd definitely say it wasn't something worth putting into words. If it wasn't worth putting into words, then don't show it — but he wore every last bit of his hurt right out in the open...

"I am happy."

God, that bastard is the worst.

I hid what I really felt and beamed.