Chapter 12

It was Jin Sunwoo’s number.

[Professor Jin, it’s me, Seon Ayeon. I’ve decided to write the book we talked about. I think I might have found a case subject.]

She had come across an unexpected case.

And not just unexpected, but from a place far closer than she ever imagined.

A breathless laugh and a trembling sound escaped through her clenched teeth in turns.

Anyone looking at her now would have thought she’d lost her mind.

Yet those strange noises wouldn’t stop.

As she hiccupped faintly, her phone buzzed again.

[Good decision, Sunbae.]

Ayeon pressed her lips shut, closed her eyes, and lifted the phone to her chest, which still thudded wildly.

She forced herself to breathe slowly, trying to soothe her already shattered heart.

“Ha…”

She sat there like someone who’d been hollowed out, then lightly thumped her chest with the hand holding the phone.

“Ayeon!”

Jooheon’s voice reached her ears as he stepped out of the shower.

Her face instinctively tightened.

It was strange.

Only moments ago, his voice calling her name would have felt endlessly warm.

The fact that it no longer did made her almost doubt herself.

When Jooheon saw her pale, frozen face, his eyes widened and he rushed to her side, crouching down in front of her.

She stared at his face.

The worried look in his eyes seemed tainted.

‘When did you start deceiving me and meeting another woman.’

‘When exactly.’

“Are you okay?”

No.

She wasn’t okay.

‘You’ve been doing God knows what behind my back, and you ask if I’m okay.’

The words urging him to explain the lies about last night burned at the tip of her tongue.

If he had acted like a man who had simply fallen out of love, maybe she could have understood.

But it wasn’t that, which made it all the more chilling.

‘What do you even think I am to you.’

“Ayeon.”

He called her name again. She let out a quiet sigh and lowered her gaze.

Everything was a mess inside her, but she didn’t want to respond emotionally.

Ridiculous as it was, she didn’t want him to see through her current feelings.

She wasn’t ready to tell Jooheon, who believed their relationship was peaceful, that she couldn’t see it that way anymore.

As a psychologist, she had often told her clients that revealing emotions could be a weakness sometimes and a strength at others.

Which one did she need now, in this unstable psychological state.

She tried to view the situation as objectively as possible.

But it was hard.

Her heart was pounding. She wanted to ask him where he’d been last night.

She wanted to yell at him for deceiving her and ask what he had been doing behind her back all this time.

But she swallowed those words down.

Showing her emotions now would only be a weakness.

She ran a hand through her hair and finally spoke.

“I suddenly feel a bit dizzy. I think I might have a headache too.”

“Oh no. Maybe it’s because of that glass of wine earlier.”

“Maybe.”

She frowned as she replied.

“You’ve been stressed lately. Maybe that’s why you’re not feeling well. Come lie down.”

He tried to lift her up into his arms.

“No.”

She instinctively pushed his arms away.

It might have been unconscious, but she didn’t want to be touched by him.

“I think I’m okay now. I can walk.”

“Oh… okay.”

She rose slowly and walked at a sluggish pace toward the bedroom.

Jooheon, unsure what to do with his empty arms, flusteredly followed after her.

When she lay down on the bed, he lay beside her and wrapped his arms around her.

“Don’t get sick, Ayeon.”

He buried his face against the nape of her neck as he spoke.

His words were warm, but her chest grew even colder.

She flinched and tried to pull away, but his embrace tightened.

She lowered her gaze to his arm around her waist and bit her lip.

He was the one she had believed only had eyes for her.

She had lived without a shadow of doubt.

But had these arms held someone else.

Had it stopped at just holding.

Images she didn’t want slipped into her mind, unbidden.

Jooheon’s body tangled with another woman’s.

Ha…

An uncomfortable feeling rose and fell in waves, creeping closer like an inevitable tide.

Then his warm breath touched her neck.

“Feeling any better?”

She nodded. He loosened his arms.

“It’ll be difficult tonight, won’t it?”

She blinked without a word.

She had no desire to be in his arms like this.

Even the brief contact felt unbearable.

Yet she couldn’t deny the strange feeling twisting inside her.

Normally he would have tried, gently or persistently, to initiate something between them.

He would have insisted that her headache would go away once they started, then held her tightly when she refused, saying they could just sleep in each other’s arms.

Now, a chill swept through her chest.

“…Yeah.”

She murmured softly, turning her back to him and curling up on her side.

Even now, a faint sting to her pride crept in, one she couldn’t quite explain.

Her eyes squeezed shut.

Her chest felt tight, and she didn’t know how to hold herself together.

The suffocating pressure made her part her lips at last.

“Hey.”

“Hm?”

His voice from behind sounded drowsy, as if he were already half asleep.

“That warehouse your company has outside the city.”

“Yeah.”

“Where exactly is it?”

“…Huh?”

“You said you worked there last night. I was just wondering where it is.”

Just once, she wanted to hear it from his mouth.

Whether she was hoping for the truth or simply trying to confirm it, even she didn’t know.

She held her breath without realizing it, waiting for his answer.

She hadn’t known a few seconds could feel this excruciating.

“…Unpo.”

He answered casually, half-asleep.

She closed her eyes and exhaled quietly.

Of course, he didn’t disappoint her misplaced expectations.

“Unpo.”

Her voice trembled as she replied.

Unpo was an area a bit outside Seoul.

Naturally, it had nothing to do with the InterContinental Hotel.

Hearing his calm voice as he claimed to have been in Unpo sent a chill down her spine.

She bit her lip, then released it.

“If I’d known, I would’ve gone there last night.”

“…Huh?”

Her words caught him off guard.

“Unpo isn’t that far. There’s no traffic at night.”

“Why would you bother going all the way there. You’re busy too.”

He turned over and wrapped his arm around her waist again.

She frowned at the sudden contact.

“I felt kind of empty after going to your office for nothing.”

“You did? You didn’t have to. It’s dusty there anyway. But if you had come, it would’ve cheered me up. It was tough yesterday. We suddenly got a lot more pieces in.”

She let out a silent, bitter laugh at his words.

He was weaving lies with such ease that it made her sick.

“Hey, um…”

She spoke carefully.

“Hm? I thought you had a headache. Let’s just sleep, Ayeon.”

He rubbed his face against her neck.

The sensation made her nerves bristle.

“No, it’s nothing big.”

“…Yeah.”

“I was just curious.”

She forced herself to speak casually.

“What about?”