Chapter 134:

“Are you saying your parents are the adulterous ones after all? Do you think finding a man is more important than your family? Is that why you left your family to chase after a husband? Without even looking, you can tell that this man you call your husband is–”

Lee-yeon collapsed to the floor and covered her cousin’s mouth.

“Please… that’s enough. Don’t say anything more.”

“…!”

Her cousin’s eyes grew wide with shock at her unprecedented behavior.

“I’m asking you to stop, now.”

Lee-yeon stared at him with tears in her eyes. Please, stop. Don’t you dare speak badly about someone I care about.

She had been through unbearably difficult moments in her life, but she’d never felt as little as she did now. Lee-yeon couldn’t bear to even look up at Chae-woo.

“He’s not my husband. I’m not married. You misunderstood.”

“Huh!”

Lee-yeon felt as though her wrist might break, but she endured the pain desperately. Even as her hands trembled, she kept his mouth covered almost to the point of crushing him. Still, her coworkers were still watching, even Dong-mi. She was anxious to keep Chae-woo out of this somehow.

“It’s not what you think, so don’t just blabber on carelessly. Let’s just get out of here. I’ll listen to everything you want to say, so let’s just keep it between us.”

“Ugh, ptui!”

Her cousin spat on the floor, shaking her hand, “Fuck, what are you……!”

“Don’t you dare move a muscle, Lee-yeon.”

“…!”

She froze at the sound of his sharp voice.

“First, I’m your husband, then I’m not. I don’t know why I’m so angered by your volatility. I’m not sure I can be kind now, so even if you have to crawl over here, you better do it now.”

“Chae-woo, this–”

“Stop spewing your nonsense.”

“That….”

“That’s enough. I said come here.”

Despite his insistence, she still hesitated to look around at the audience. Chae-woo’s voice thundered.

“So Lee-yeon!”

Surprised, Lee-yeon shot up reflexively.

The cousin who was watching their interaction reached for her devilishly. But Chae-woo was faster. He lifted Lee-yeon out of the way and pushed her cousin’s face away with his foot.

He stepped on the back of his head. The cousin slammed against the floor and spat curses at Chae-woo. At each curse, Chae-woo smashed the cousin’s head down again and again.

Bam, bam, bam, he kept bashing the cousin’s head down. The faces of the onlookers blanched. However, no one came forward to stop him.

Expressionless, Chae-woo asked Lee-yeon, “Do you enjoy making heads turn?”

“…Ugh, what, what the fuck, who the hell are you?” Her cousin asked.

“You tell me, Lee-yeon. Who the hell am I?”

He threw the question back at her, pounding his hell relentlessly. Lee-yeon caught Chae-woo’s sharp gaze with shaky eyes.

The strange pounding sound continued to ring out against the floor, but Chae-woo’s eyes remained on her.

“Tell me, Lee-yeon.”

“I just said that to try and spare you from embarrassment.”

Lee-yeon loosened her arm from around his shoulder. But the touch of him under her arm and on the back of her knees was firm and hot.

“I was trying to find a way to keep you out of this mess. Look at all the people here. What do you think they see?”

Lee-yeon lowered her voice, bowing her head as if curling into a ball.

“…so just pretend you’re not my husband for now. I can do that for you.”

At that moment, Chae-woo pushed her head into his shoulder. All of a sudden, she could no longer see the stares of the people surrounding her and everything went black. He was pressing hard against the back of her head making it impossible for her to turn her head.

“Try again.”

“…!”

Her heart thundered against her chest at their close proximity and the sweet smell of his sweat. Then she heard a low voice in her ear.

“Who am I?”

***

Something was boiling up inside her threatening to explode.

With her eyes covered, she could no longer see anything, and the social calculations she’d been making in her head disappeared, replaced with a strong desire to disappear.

A desire to be with him, no matter where.

However, Lee-yeon gritted her teeth and pushed the thought from her mind.

“….”

“….”

The silence grew between them and Lee-yeon wondered what expression was currently playing across Chae-woo’s face. He had remained disturbingly quiet all this time and now he began to move, stepping slowly. Even as he made his way across the lobby, he kept his hand on the back of Lee-yeon’s head, pressing her face into his shoulder like she was a baby.

She could feel his pulse beating rapidly against the back of her neck. She felt as though every nerve in her body was focused on that spot where she could feel his speeding pulse.

“What room are you in?”

“Well, I didn’t…”

Chae-woo kept walking and didn’t ask any further questions. She remembered there being a long line, but somehow he approached the front desk and picked up the card key with Lee-yeon’s name on it. The sound of his shoes dragging across the floor seemed to gather into a single sound.

“So Lee-yeon! My mom is sick. She’s sick!”

The gasping voice tugged on Lee-yeon, her cousin’s final desperate cry. The mother he spoke of was Lee-yeon’s aunt and the person who raised her.

Her expression was grim, but Chae-woo paid her cousin no attention and continued towards the elevator.

Nevertheless, Lee-yeon was unable to ignore the distant sound of her cousin’s voice. She bit her lip to fight back a surging feeling of repulsion when a large palm covered her ear.

“You even paid your uncle’s hospital bill, and you only knew him for a year at most. Does my mother, who has suffered considerably more than him, mean nothing to you?

“….”

“I heard you got a pretty hefty sum in compensation for that. What did you do with it!”

Chae-woo seemed to stop walking just for a moment but she soon felt him resume his rhythmic pace. Lee-yeon dug into his arms, her ears still covered.

Meanwhile, Chae-woo found Beom-hee, still keeping an eye on the situation with a cold expression, and winked at him.

Suddenly, two mensilently stepped from the crowd and dragged her cousin, still shouting, out of the lobby.

Dong-mi’s eyes grew wide as she watched the noisy disturbance breathlessly.

She stared at the door through which the two men had disappeared.