Chapter 12. The Pervert and Chun-ja

What on earth is happening right now?

Do-ah’s long, dark lashes trembled.

Every time the man exhaled and inhaled, his marble-hard muscles pressed against her skin.

Even the source of the pounding heartbeat between them blurred. She couldn’t tell whether it was his or hers.

Thump thump thump.

Maybe it’s true that your brain stops working when faced with an absurd situation.

Do-ah wasn’t easily flustered, but right now her usual composure had vanished.

It was the first time she’d ever been this physically close to a man.

“Ha… are you alright?”

His voice restarted her frozen reason.

She shoved against his shoulder and pushed herself upright. Her gaze dropped fast, then lifted again.

‘Well… at least that part’s covered.’

His lower half was wrapped in nothing but a faded pink towel.

That was… a relief.

Her body ached from the scramble to escape, but she had no time to care. She quickly got to her feet.

Her indifferent gaze locked onto his eyes.

Whether it was tension or instinct, his muscles tightened, standing out even more. His thick brows lifted.

“I know it’s a body you can’t take your eyes off, but maybe stop ogling me now.”

“…”

“You’re practically burning holes through my muscles.”

With a smug remark, Gwon-ha stood up, one hand on his waist. He checked if the towel was still secure, but her gaze followed him.

Wherever her eyes landed, his body reacted. His chest, where her soft body had just been pressed, was already pumped.

Her faintly sweet scent filled his nose and his twenty-something male body reacted honestly.

It was beyond his control.

Just keeping himself from visibly rising took superhuman patience.

‘This is weird, though.’

He wasn’t the type to lose control like this.

He frowned as he glanced at his abdomen, where his abs cast sharp shadows above something that was very nearly standing at attention.

He’d hardly had any sex drive to speak of. Even during his teenage years, he’d been indifferent.

In his twenties it was the same. Desire for wealth and power triggered his dopamine, not sex. He devoted himself to work, and boxing on the side took care of any lingering instincts. There was no room for other urges.

His perfectly controlled life reflected Kang Gwon-ha’s calculating nature.

And yet…

For the first time, his body had reacted on its own.

In this rural village, to a woman whose only exposed skin was her slender neck and delicate ankles, wrapped in a deep blue hanbok.

‘Why the hell is she sparkling like that in the morning?’

Her clothes were covered in ash and dust, yet her clear, fresh face shone like a pearl in the mud.

For a moment he wondered how much makeup she’d applied to look that pretty at dawn, then remembered she’d told him not to wear perfume.

There wasn’t a single pore visible on that pale skin. It was bare skin, nothing else.

And it was annoyingly beautiful.

Even compared to his cousin Seo Hee-jin, whose face was rebuilt with surgery and caked with makeup, she was incomparable.

He even caught himself thinking, somewhat pervertedly, that he wanted her eyes to keep looking at his body.

Actually, scratch that. It wasn’t “perverted-like.” It was just plain perverted.

Then her cold voice cut through his thoughts.

“Ogling? More like torturing my eyes.”

The veins on his temple pulsed.

There wasn’t a trace of embarrassment or excitement on her face.

Could she be pretending out of shyness? He held onto that hope, but she crushed it mercilessly.

“For someone who committed optical terrorism this early in the morning, you’re awfully full of yourself.”

“With a body like this, can you blame me?”

“I don’t know. There’s not much to look at.”

“Impossible.”

He let out a disbelieving laugh.

She looked up at him with eyes as cold and emotionless as winter water.

“So you ran out here half-naked to show that body off, is that it?”

“Show off? What do you take me for?”

“Well, you ran out of the bathroom naked and you’re standing here like it’s nothing. It’s either exhibitionism or an urge to brag.”

“No! I didn’t run out on purpose. Something happened in there.”

Her protest didn’t erase the suspicion in her eyes.

Ugh… great.

At this rate, he’d end up branded as a streaking pervert at dawn.

“I’m not usually the type to make excuses like this.”

Scratching the end of his eyebrow, he explained awkwardly.

“Something suddenly jumped out at me in the bathroom.”

It sounded like a pitiful excuse, but this time it was true.

“What jumped out?”

“Well… that is…”

Here’s what had happened earlier.

Feeling great, he undressed and turned on the tap.

Humming cheerfully, enjoying his extra 3% share from yesterday.

But instead of warm water, icy cold water like mountain stream poured from the shower.

First shock.

‘Seriously? No hot water in this countryside?’

I’ll let it slide today for the 3%.

As he reached to turn it off, something black and furry suddenly leapt out of nowhere.

His heart nearly exploded.

“Ahhh! What the hell!”

His body moved before his brain.

The fact that he’d managed to grab a towel in that moment was miraculous.

When he finished telling the story, Do-ah’s expression wavered for the first time.

“Black… fur?”

“Exactly. Some kind of animal. I didn’t get a good look.”

At that moment, the bathroom door creaked open slightly in the breeze.

Her gaze moved over his broad shoulder.

Behind the thick wooden door, a long tail swayed gently.

Her eyes curved into a bright smile.

His shoulders flinched almost imperceptibly.

‘What’s with that smile…’

Her smiling face made his heart pound strangely fast.

His hand drifted from his waist to his chest, pressing down, but the wild pounding didn’t calm at all.

She walked past him.

The scent of pear blossoms trailed behind her. His body followed that scent slowly, unconsciously.

There, in front of the bathroom, sat a black cat.

She knelt and gently gestured.

“Chun-ja.”

At the sound of that homely name, the cat dropped what it was holding in its mouth and rubbed its head against her hand.

Do-ah chuckled softly and stroked the cat’s head. It purred happily.

“Got one again today? Good job.”

“Meow~.”

She tapped its plump backside and it flopped onto its back, exposing its belly.

With its glossy coat and well-fed body, it clearly wasn’t a stray.

Watching it lovingly, Do-ah’s voice softened.

“Go on, go eat, Chun-ja. I bought food for you.”

As if it understood, the cat darted off somewhere.

Gwon-ha was now sure that this cat was the culprit behind the morning chaos.

“There it is. The perverted intruder cat.”

Freed from the pervert accusation himself, arrogance returned to his face.

She didn’t care. She pulled on a pair of plastic gloves and replied coolly.

“Go finish your shower.”

Her voice was devoid of warmth now. For some reason, that irritated him.

He crossed his arms and spoke bluntly.

“Do you actually keep that cat here? You can just keep animals in a brewery like this?”

“Ihwado-ga keeps her. And Chun-ja isn’t just any cat.”

She stood and thrust something toward his face, pinched between her gloved fingers.

It dangled under her hand like a morbid ornament.

“A rat-catcher.”

It was a dead rat.