Chapter : 6 — Impulsive Kiss
“…Does it still hurt? Are you okay now?”
Haeyoung naturally reached out and gently touched his forehead as she asked. At her continued questioning, Taejun’s brows immediately furrowed.
“School.”
He spoke shortly.
“W-would you like some water?”
They were talking about completely different things.
The faint flicker of the incandescent bulb illuminated them.
Taejun felt that her question was only making things more awkward for him.
“G-Go now.”
His voice was cold, but Haeyoung refused the order immediately.
“I don’t want to.”
Taejun’s eyebrow twitched slightly.
“Then do whatever you want.”
At his brief answer, Haeyoung hesitated and looked at his face.
Biting her lip tightly, tears began to well up again in the corners of her eyes.
“You were really mean.”
Her voice was small, but the emotions within it were strong enough to shake him.
“Do you know how shocked I was? How scared I was…?”
Tears finally slipped from Haeyoung’s reddened eyes.
The wave of emotion that she could no longer stop kept washing over her.
“I…”
As Haeyoung tried to continue speaking, the rough fingertips that still carried a faint chill suddenly touched her eyelids.
“Alright, so stop crying.”
Startled, Haeyoung lifted her head, and their eyes met—Taejun quietly looking down at her.
Her eyes looked like the dawn sky tinted with blue… or like the deep blue sea.
“Are you really okay?”
Haeyoung asked in a trembling voice. Her hand still hadn’t left his face.
Their gazes tangled deeply.
Her round forehead.
The blue eyes that seemed to hold the ocean.
The sharp bridge of her nose.
Her lips, slightly darker from being soaked in tears.
One by one, they entered his sight.
“You should go.”
What kind of crazy thoughts was he having about a kid he had watched grow up?
Taejun felt disgusted with himself.
Haeyoung didn’t move at all.
“Don’t be so harsh.”
Her touch was too gentle.
Like the first snow falling on frozen ground—careful and warm.
“I don’t hate you, oppa.”
Taejun’s chest tightened strangely.
No matter how much he pushed her away, Ahn Haeyoung refused to leave.
At this point, she should have gotten angry from wounded pride.
So why…
Why are you…
Taejun grabbed the hand that was stroking his cheek.
“You shouldn’t touch a man so carelessly without realizing how dangerous he can be.”
His voice was low and quiet, yet strangely languid and precarious.
Haeyoung felt her hand trapped in his grip and pressed her lips together.
But her gaze didn’t waver.
“What happens if I do?”
Her voice was calm, but there was more challenge in it than fear.
It was a ridiculous provocation.
When Haeyoung first stepped into this house, she had been nothing more than a tiny child.
Even now, he still thought of her that way.
But then why…
Why was she saying such absurd things and provoking him?
What would she do if he actually responded?
Outside the house, there were plenty of men whose heads were filled with filthy thoughts.
So why did this little mutt of the Ki household, Ahn Haeyoung, have not a single ounce of caution?
If she acted so cheaply in front of someone whose mind was rotten, did she really not know what kind of treatment she might receive?
Taejun’s pupils slowly loosened.
Haeyoung neither pushed him away nor shook off his hand.
Instead, she leaned closer and asked again.
“What… happens?”
Taejun’s heavy eyelids lowered and lifted again as he gripped her hand tighter.
The warmth of her small hand in his grasp shook him slightly.
He pulled his body closer as if he were about to kiss her.
The pain from his wound was clearly visible on his face, but he didn’t stop.
Only when their lips were about to touch did he stop moving.
Taejun opened his closed eyes.
“It becomes like this.”
Tap.
Their lips met.
A stillness so deep that even the air seemed to stop surrounded them.
Taejun’s face twisted harshly.
He had only meant to scare her. He hadn’t expected things to turn this ridiculous.
But in that brief moment, her warmth brushed against his ear like a passing breeze.
“I…”
Haeyoung swallowed dryly and continued.
“I won’t run away.”
She shouldn’t have done that.
He shouldn’t have been shaken by the fearless provocation of such a reckless girl.
When Haeyoung tried to press her lips against his again, Taejun pushed her forehead back with his finger.
“Don’t climb over me.”
Lowering his eyes lazily, Taejun added,
“If you try that one more time, I really won’t go easy on you.”
Despite the brutal warning, Haeyoung simply looked at him with a clear expression.
It felt as if the end of the rope he had been holding had come loose.
He was the one who had grabbed and shaken it.
Yet somehow…
He was the one who felt shaken.
***
Warm spring passed.
The hot summer followed.
Autumn brushed by with beautifully colored leaves.
Then winter arrived.
But Taejun never noticed these natural changes of the seasons.
To him, the change of seasons was meaningless.
Everything looked the same—colorless.
But after that girl entered the house, he began to see the colors of the seasons again.
Ahn Haeyoung, whom he had picked up like something salvaged from a pile of trash, had been extremely uncomfortable living as a dependent in someone else’s house.
Still, she wasn’t incapable of adapting.
Considering the harsh environment she had grown up in, she herself was surprisingly cheerful and optimistic. Taejun often found that strange.
It was true that he had watched her grow rapidly every time a season changed.
For someone like him, who had never found joy in life, Ahn Haeyoung was quite an interesting sight.
Whenever she quietly avoided his gaze, Taejun felt a strangely suppressed emotion.
It felt like groping through empty air without being able to find the end of a severed thread.
He had placed her in this house with his own hands.
Yet he could never shake off the unease.
If Haeyoung—who was trying to survive here somehow—suddenly left the house out of rebellion, the plan he had proposed to Chairman Ki might fall apart.
Meanwhile, although a long time had passed since Haeyoung asked him for help, after the incident in the basement she never brought up independence again, nor did she pressure him.
During that time, Taejun had been assigned to the Management Support Department of Jaewon Group, leaving him overwhelmingly busy.
Working late became routine.
The quiet roads during his nighttime drives home only made the noise inside his head louder.
That day as well, he returned home late.
As he drove past the luxury villas under sparse streetlights, a familiar silhouette caught his eye.
Outside the car window, the scenery was cold and silent, mixed with the bluish light and dark gray shadows typical of winter nights.
Among them, one particularly bright silhouette stood out.
Taejun stared at it for a moment.
It was Haeyoung.
He pulled the car over and hesitated.
Should he get out?
Or just drive past?
While he was briefly thinking about it, he saw Ki Jejun walking briskly toward her.
Taejun watched his thoughtless relative with an expressionless face.
There were two cans of soda in Jejun’s hands.
“Looks like a damn stray dog.”
Taejun slowly rolled down the window while taking a cigarette from the pack.
After lighting it, he took a deep drag and shifted his gaze to Haeyoung’s face.
Her shoulders looked thinner than before.
A faint exhaustion lingered on her expressionless face.
“So I failed… and now she’s going to cling to Ki Jejun instead and beg him for help?”
“Maybe even offering her body cheaply while she’s at it.”
Taejun muttered briefly with the cigarette in his mouth.
He already knew that the people working in the house subtly looked down on Haeyoung.
For example, before she entered university, there were times when something like a parent-teacher conference required an adult’s participation.
But Haeyoung had never once asked anyone in the household for help.
However, Taejun had long ago hired someone to keep track of Haeyoung’s daily life and report it to him.
