Read the first part of the chapter here (nsfw)
***
In the end, it was only after the dazzling blaze of sunlight had begun to fade that our frantic, tangled sex finally came to a close.
I had no choice but to spend yet another night away from home. When I first stepped out of the house, I never thought I wouldn’t return for two whole days.
It hadn’t been any special occasion, yet I once again had his shirt tailored. I placed a new order with my name embroidered on it, as if I had never ruined the last one. And after wrestling with myself for a long while before payment, I decided to have one more shirt made. It was a choice that required tremendous courage.
A shirt embroidered with [Ji Cheong Hyeon]* was in his size, but it wasn’t a gift for him. Or would this be the real gift, as he said previously? The thought of someone peering into my head made my face flush.
I still didn’t really know how to read him, and there were still days when I unintentionally ruffled his temper. At those times, I never knew how to soothe him, and I’d grow anxious, my heart heavy the entire day. This shirt seemed like something that could help. A method that, in its way, was guaranteed, and worth trying in critical moments. The first time had been difficult, but the second…
…would still be difficult.
“You should have eaten first. I gave the message.”
I snapped out of my thoughts. Turning my head toward the sound of movement, I saw him walking straight to the table where I sat, not even having changed out of his uncomfortable clothes.
And then suddenly, without warning, something vague and half-forgotten sharpened into clarity in my mind. A passing thought I had not too long ago now revealed its true shape.
I sat, dazed, staring into his eyes for a long moment, contemplating the thought over.
Then slowly, I shook my head. I had been told he’d be late and that I could go ahead with dinner. But in those words, there had been nothing about him eating elsewhere. If he truly were going to be out so late, wouldn’t the message have been for me to go to bed first, not to eat alone? And wouldn’t he have sent it directly to me, not through his secretary?
If I waited, I thought we could share dinner together. That foolish thought had carried me through thirty minutes, then an hour, until it had grown this late. I hadn’t been forced into waiting, it was simply that time had slipped away. I wasn’t even hungry, so there was nothing to complain about. Seeing him slip off his suit jacket, drape it on the chair beside him, and take the seat across from me, I thought to myself that the waiting had been worth it.
I held back until the housekeeper lady had set down the warm dishes and the steaming soup, then quietly left us. Finally, when the silence between us thickened, sharp enough to be felt, I spoke the thought I had been holding onto, as calmly as if I had been waiting only for this moment.
“This house feels too big.”
“What?”
His brow furrowed. With him, who always laid his feelings bare, it was the reaction I had expected.
“Poor you.”
He hated the way I’d frozen into a mindset that had grown used to a life of having nothing. Even when I had first given him a shirt, I never explained that I had chosen it because it could be worn through all four seasons. I had known too well that such words would only rile him.
But that wasn’t what I meant this time. What I wanted to say was entirely different from what he might have thought of.
What had sharpened in my mind was the realization I had come to in that hotel room.
“If this house was small, we could just turn our heads and see each other.”
The feeling of turning my head at the sound of the door opening and seeing him right there.
In the spacious hotel suite where we had spent the night, where you had to cross several partitions to reach the bedroom, I had never realized it. But in that cramped room, in the rush of desperate longing, I had come to realize it.
I had never once felt the kind of eager anticipation that came from hearing the front door unlock and waiting for the person who would step inside. The sound of my mother returning home had only ever amplified my fear. But in that hotel, when he opened the door and stepped in, it was different. Here, in this vast mansion, where I could never know he was back until he came close enough for me to feel his presence and turn toward him, I had never known that emotion. My heart had been full to bursting. It was nothing like going out to greet him in the wide-open garden.
“That day at the hotel, just turning my head and seeing you right there… it felt good.”
Even though this house was now our home, and there would likely never be a chance to relive that thrill.
“In this house, there’s never a chance to run out to greet you at the sound of the front door.”
I had learned by now that not hiding my emotions of joy was what pleased him most.
When I finished my honest confession, the other side of the table was silent. The silence stretched on and on. Facing those eyes I could never fully read, I began to regret speaking out. Had I said something foolish, gone too far ahead of myself? I debated whether to add an explanation, when suddenly, words I couldn’t understand spilled from his lips.
“Where do you like?”
“Pardon?”
Puzzled, I looked at him more carefully.
“Well, the location doesn’t matter.”
As his eyes curved slowly into a smile, I finally understood what he meant.
“Do you mean us living together?”
Though a few words had been left unsaid, enough to risk misunderstanding.
“You said you wanted that, didn’t you?”
He wasn’t angry. He read the meaning behind my words and gave me his answer.
Before, I would only have turned him down, insisting there was no need for that, and in doing so, I would have soured his mood. But this time, the smile that spread across my face wasn’t forced or deliberate—it was pure, unstoppable joy.
Where would be good? Just picturing a modest house, the perfect size for the two of us, free from the oppressive grandeur of this mansion and beginning anew with him filled me with exhilaration.
When I smiled without restraint, he smiled back.
My heart pounded with anticipation for this new chapter of life we would share.
The certainty settled deep within me, that there would be endless days of happiness ahead, side by side, under his protection.
Side Story: Greeting Complete
And this marks the end of the first side story volume! See you hopefully soon for the next side story! Stay healthy and happy, everyone~
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