After finishing his work for the day, Seongheon passed the main building and headed straight for Unseondang. The yard had already been swept clean; Seongheon kicked off his dress shoes and stepped inside.
He stood in the center of the hallway, glancing left and right. He strained his senses, listening, until he caught the sound of movement from the bedroom.
Drawn in, Seongheon stopped before the bedroom door. He opened it with a sudden urgency, like a man faced with a matter of life and death. Yeonwoo, who had been opening the window, spun around. Seongheon froze, his eyes locked on her.
“Oh. Hello. I mean—welcome back.”
Startled, Yeonwoo lowered her hand from the window and offered a hurried greeting. She bowed with her hands folded politely in front of her, and Seongheon stepped into the room.
Flustered by his early arrival, Yeonwoo scrambled to finish opening the window. Seongheon set his briefcase on a low-legged chair and shrugged off his jacket.
“There’s still a lot of pollen in the air during the day. So, I was told to ventilate the room as late as possible…”
Yeonwoo spoke as if she were a trespasser caught in a restricted area. Her explanation sounded more like a desperate excuse.
Although she was responsible for ventilating Unseondang—which consisted of the bedroom, study, drawing room, and bathroom—encountering Seongheon in the bedroom felt deeply intrusive. The subtle scent that clung to the air made the space feel even more intimate.
“I’ll take my leave now.”
“Are you well-prepared?”
Yeonwoo, who had been turning to leave with her eyes cast toward the floor, halted. Reacting to his voice, she pivoted to face him and stood straight.
“Manager Moon prepared the clothes for me. Is there anything else I should prepare?”
Seongheon, who had loosened his tie in one fluid motion, hung it in its place and parted his lips.
“Well. I don’t see anything else that needs preparing.”
He removed the cufflinks from his sleeves and placed them in their designated spot.
“Are you on night duty again today?”
He had become a man who asked too many unnecessary questions.
“No. Manager Moon told me to head home early. I received the schedule stating I need to head out early tomorrow.”
“I see.”
He began to unbutton his shirt. As his hands worked the buttons without hesitation, Yeonwoo flinched and curled her fingers. She couldn’t see past the opening of his shirt, but the mere act of watching him felt like a high-tension wire stretched to its limit.
She swallowed hard, and it felt as though the sound must have echoed through the room to reach him.
“If there is nothing else, I will take my leave…”
“Didn’t you say you were ventilating?”
Seongheon looked at her. Yeonwoo glanced at the open window, nodding as if she had finished.
“I’ve opened all the windows.”
“Well, if that’s the case, then it is.”
“…Ah.”
Only then did Yeonwoo notice the small, unopened window. She scurried past Seongheon and stood on her tiptoes to reach it.
As her heels lifted, Seongheon glanced at the movement. As she raised her arms, her skirt, which fell just below her knees, rode up. Upon catching a glimpse of her skin above the back of her knees, Seongheon quickly turned his head away.
It was a flash of slim, white calves. He found it ridiculous that his mind was being thrown into such disarray by a hemline rising a mere half-span, and for a moment, he laughed.
At his sudden laughter, Yeonwoo, who had turned around, rounded her eyes.
“Yes?”
Thinking she had made a mistake, Yeonwoo tilted her head, and Seongheon turned to face her. It was absurd—he was bewildered by how devastatingly, intensely he had reacted to her back while she was simply standing on her tiptoes.
After watching Yeonwoo, who wore an expression that clearly read *I have no idea why you’re laughing*, Seongheon spoke.
“Are you curious? Why I laughed.”
Yeonwoo adopted a professional tone.
“No. I am not curious.”
“Wise. If you knew, your head would be as complicated as mine.”
“…”
“You may go now.”
“Yes. Then, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Yeonwoo brushed past him and fled. As the door clicked softly shut behind her, Seongheon finally let out a long breath.
She had scurried away like a fugitive. From her hurried gait and restless eyes, he could see exactly how she regarded him. To be pining for a woman who ran away every time she faced him, left to seethe in his own frustration.
“…I’ve gone completely insane, haven’t I?”
Seongheon, his lips parched, spoke in a self-mocking tone. What kind of man was he, he wondered, standing still and staring at the open window as if reprimanding himself before slowly closing his eyes.
He stood there, worrying over the pulse thumping uselessly against his chest.
*
Saturday morning, Seongheon set off on his business trip.
Two vehicles traveled to the destination. The car carrying Yeonwoo and the interpreter took the lead, with Seongheon’s vehicle following behind for a long time.
After the long drive, they arrived at the hotel. While the check-in process was underway, Yeonwoo scanned her surroundings with the wariness of a trapped animal. It wasn’t the casual observation of a tourist; it was a stifled, guarded anxiety.
*She might run into Cha Yoonseok.*
From the moment she left Domyeongjae, she had been gripped by terror. She could not erase the conviction that she might bump into Cha Yoonseok at any time, in any place.
Yeonwoo closed her eyes tightly in resignation. The hotel lobby, open to anyone, felt like a battlefield where shells were falling and gunfire echoed. She felt as though Cha Yoonseok’s voice would materialize against her neck at any second.
Her deeply ingrained anxiety could only be lulled to sleep within the walls of Domyeongjae. That conviction, almost like a blind faith, had been the only thing allowing her to breathe. Now, standing in a space where strangers brushed past her, her legs began to tremble.
She had thought she was recovering over the past few days. She had convinced herself that everything she suffered at the hands of Cha Yoonseok was a distant memory—a nightmare she had moved past.
In the end, she hadn’t escaped even a single step from the terror.
Like someone drowning, her breaths came in short, jagged gasps. Her ears felt blocked, making the sound of her own frantic breathing deafening. She was seized by an extreme fear that the people passing by wouldn’t notice she was suffocating right in front of them.
She was fighting a silent, desperate battle that she couldn’t explain to a soul.
At the sensation of someone tapping her shoulder, Yeonwoo turned around with a violent jolt. Her heart hammered like she had just finished a hundred-meter sprint, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead.
“Are you alright?”
Seongheon watched her terrified face closely. Yeonwoo swallowed the saliva that had pooled in her mouth and gave a stiff, slow nod.
“Yes.”
She barely managed the word.
“I called for you, but you didn’t hear me.”
“I’m sorry.”
Her heart showed no signs of calming. Yeonwoo nodded several times, forcing the fear she had bottled up to exhale with her breath.
Watching Yeonwoo, who appeared dangerously unstable, Seongheon held out a key card. Yeonwoo reached out with both hands, and Seongheon watched them tremble as he handed it to her.
“You don’t look to be in good health.”
“No, I’m fine. I was just sleeping in the car. I’m a bit dazed.”
Yeonwoo made an excuse, sounding as though she didn’t even know what she was blathering about. Seongheon studied her, eventually giving up on the layers of questions piling up behind his teeth.
“There’s still time, so go up and rest.”
“Yes. I understand.”
It was unimaginable. The fact that she, having left the safety of Domyeongjae, was being swallowed whole by a terror he couldn’t see.
*
Seongheon, who had been staying in his room handling minor tasks, heard the news that the French representatives would arrive in two hours.
He rubbed his brow, having taken off his glasses, and looked down at his phone. He needed to inform Yeonwoo of the meeting time, but he had no way of knowing her personal number. Recalling her room number, he picked up the landline and dialed. He leaned back in his chair as the line connected.
“Are you preparing?”
— Yes, Managing Director. I am preparing.
“There is about two hours left. Prepare without any setbacks.”
— Yes. I understand.
Even while staying in their separate rooms, Seongheon thought of her. He couldn’t easily forget the sight of her standing in the lobby, her face so pale she looked as if she might collapse.
So, was she okay now? Was she feeling any better?
“Alright. Let’s see each other in the lobby in two hours.”
— Yes. I understand.
Hearing her dry, repetitive answers like a parrot made his chest feel stifled. Yet, the questions stuck in his throat wouldn’t come out. When all the words were exhausted and only the act of hanging up remained, he found his fingers moving of their own accord.
— Um, that is, Managing Director.
She called out in a small voice. Seongheon straightened his posture.
“Speak.”
— Oh, well, I did try on the clothes that Manager Moon prepared.
He didn’t anticipate the next words.
— But no matter how I look at it, this clothing is…
“…”
— I can’t judge if this is truly okay…
Seongheon rose from his seat.
“I’m coming over now.”
— Ah.
“Wait there.”
— Yes.
The moment he heard her voice granting permission, Seongheon left the room. Instead of taking the elevator, he used the emergency stairs to go down a floor and walked toward her room.
Arriving in front of Yeonwoo’s door, Seongheon knocked without hesitation. In truth, rather than being curious about the clothes, he was dominated by the knowledge that he had found an excuse to see her.
*Knock, knock.* He couldn’t wait for her to answer, and spoke through the wood.
“It’s Nam Seongheon. Open up.”
He was so eager he introduced himself before she even unlocked the latch. At the same time he thought about how good it would be for the door to open, he grew curious about what expression she would be wearing.
His own state of mind was clearly not normal.
Was he finally going mad from being buried in work? It was a moment where he was flooded with all sorts of thoughts in front of the closed door.