“I feel very unsettled, that’s why.”
“Isn’t it why I told you to move into my house for a while? Until you move out. There are many empty rooms.”
“I am moving soon, anyway… and where is there such a thing?”
“If I said you can, then you can. What more do you need?”
Having said that, she had nothing more to argue. Na-Yool glanced at the real estate agent talking on the phone with another customer at the entrance and continued.
“Still, it cannot be.”
“What can’t, what are you so agitated about on your own?”
“It’s just… in many ways. I am grateful that you keep caring about me, but I don’t want to cross the line.”
“A line, again.”
“What?”
“I’m asking if you’re drawing a damn line again.” Si-Jin groaned in a low voice. “You must be a great driver. Seeing how good you are at keeping lines.”
His playful tone could not cover the stench of aggressive sarcasm. Na-Yool grabbed him by the sleeve and led him to the window far away from the real estate agent. Then, she spoke one word after another, as if firmly teaching a small child.
“I don’t know how you dated before, Mr. President, but if you keep this up right from the beginning of a relationship, later your partner will refuse to leave you even if you beg them to.”
“Why.”
“Because you are too good. They will take your care for granted. Because if you keep crossing the line, the lack of distance becomes a given. Then, they will take advantage of you—”
“Take advantage of me as you please.”
“—but you will naturally feel suffocated and sick of it, and then—”
“I never had, and never will.”
“Never had what?”
“I never had such a relationship, and never will beg to break up.”
“How can you be so sure of the future—“
“I might beg you to stay, though,” Si-Jin added with calm.
“… I am no match to you, really…”
“If you want to keep tabs, do it at the houses you’re visiting, not me.”
“It’s precisely because I do not want to keep tabs! Because I keep calculating how much I owe you, and how much I cause you trouble.”
“So unnecessary.”
“Put up your guard, like you usually do. Who knows how tight I will cling to you in the future!”
“And I am already clinging to you. Stickily, miserably.”
Where does this expression of yours look sticky or miserable? This time, Na-Yool snorted as if she heard something ridiculous.
“Let’s say I stay at your house for a time until I find a new home, but decide to stick around because I like it. What will you do then?”
“Be happy, because it went as planned.”
“…What plans?”
When Na-Yool quizzically asked back, Si-Jin only coolly shrugged his shoulders. She shook in frustration at his sleeve that she was gripping.
“Do you really think it’s a casual issue…”
“Is it a great deal, then?”
“It all happens before you even notice it, you know. Casually moving in, then staying for a while until eventually cohabiting, and because the person is within reach, having s-sex every day like animals while feelings fade down. No real dating or marrying either, but still like a family that is not one, and the relationship is ruined. And if an unfortunate pregnancy appears, then it either leads to an unplanned marriage or—”
At the mention of pregnancy, Si-Jin’s eyebrows twitched, but it was but a moment.
“Except for a few things, it doesn’t sound too bad.”
“Are you serious?”
“I especially like the animal part.”
“That’s because you are lecherous.”
“I understand what you mean.”
He nodded his head in a rather steady manner. Only then did Na-Yool, finally relieved, sternly lectured him again.
“If you don’t want to be forced into cohabitation, make sure I do not take advantage of you. Be more distant and guard yourself well.”
Only after saying it all did Na-Yool realize how weird it sounded, and frowned. A pair of lips lightly grazed her frown.
“I get it, so stop scolding. The agent is waiting.”
“……”
“Hum, if you two are done talking, shall we head to the 11th floor on the other side of the street?”
The agent, who had ended his call who knows when and joined them in the living room, interrupted cheerfully and went out ahead.
“Since when was he listening? Since when?” Na-Yool anxiously asked in a muffled voice.
“Don’t worry. He didn’t hear your cute ‘s-sex’ stuttering. At most, he only heard you controlling my attitude—”
“—When did I stutter ‘s-sex’!”
“Ah, now he should have heard it.”
Even though Si-Jin whispered quietly, the beaming smile making fun of her on his smug face was infuriating. At the sight of Na-Yool breathing heavily as she glared at him, Si-Jin’s smile deepened in an inviting manner.
Na-Yool gave a slap to Si-Jin’s shoulders, full of rebuke and obstinacy.
She meant to make it painful, but his eyes looked at her as if he had been merely tickled, tickling her heart instead. The next moment, they were riding the elevator with the real estate agent, and she could therefore neither hit him nor even blush in embarrassment… In the midst of Na-Yool’s distress, the elevator doors opened on the 1st floor and the agent headed toward the entrance with quick steps. Only then did she come back to herself.
“I will sign a renting contract today.”
“Okay.”
“I will rent whatever place is the best.”
“Okay.”
“I have some savings, and I think my current apartment will soon find a new tenant. The real estate agent told me someone visited it today. Then I will soon get my deposit back…”
“Okay.”
Not a trace of interest nor sincerity could be found in Si-Jin’s answers. Na-Yool squinted her eyes at him and abruptly asked:
“It can’t be that you already were thinking of cohabiting with me, right?”
“Not to that extent.”
Si-Jin casually tossed the words, as if saying “There, the line that you like”. Na-Yool’s eyes grew thinner.
“Then, could it be…”
“What.”
“Will it feel lonely at home once I leave?”
He chuckled, as though mocking her assumption. However, Na-Yool’s narrowed eyes were still full of suspicion, as if they had forgotten how to widen up.
“Mr. President, you do not want me to leave your house, right?”
“……”
“Right?”
A derisive smile faintly drew on Si-Jin’s face. Yeah, figures. Na-Yool snorted.
“With that apathetic temper of yours, how could it be? I know it well.”
“You know nothing.”
“What?”
“The light is green. Quickly come here.”
Chapter 33 – Monday morning 7:27 a.m.
Somehow, on the weekend, they had a normal date, eating, watching movies, and shopping. It was all thanks to Si-Jin who once again changed his habits by not going to work on both Saturday and Sunday. Na-Yool even found a pretty decent apartment despite Si-Jin’s incomprehensible hindrance. She picked the 6th house which Si-Jin seemed to approve of and went straight to the real estate to stamp the contract. In a good mood, she even afterward went to the department store for the first time in a while and spent quite a bit of money.
So, it was a very good weekend.
So good, that something even felt off. Na-Yool’s mind was a bit fuzzy, thinking in a daze that he might actually like her, that, maybe, he did like her…It did not take much time for those words said in his voice to turn convincing. Na-Yool was still walking on clouds of awkward excitement. Even when she dated her first boyfriend in high school she would not have been so foolish to ruminate about his every word and action like this.
As for him…
“What are you thinking so deeply about?”
“Oh, just… what to do today.”
Never did Na-Yool expect to date him without a sense of mismatch. Instead, she was shocked as she realized that she had not even told him the L sound of “I like you”.
Reasonably so. After all, they had not been dating for long… But while she was convinced that Si-Jin was going too fast, Na-Yool could not suppress her guilty conscience.
“We are almost at the office. Wake up now.”
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