Chapter 16
Sighing, Sa-heon rubbed his forehead wearily.
The situation was more serious than he had anticipated, yet even in the middle of all this, he couldn’t help but smile whenever he looked at the woman sitting there, looking utterly worried as she hunched over in concern.
This was driving him crazy.
“Director, do you still not remember anything at all?”
It wasn’t that he remembered nothing.
The way she nagged him was as cute as a little chick, and whenever she worried about him, she looked like a dejected puppy.
And then there was her face.
Several dozen times a day, he found himself thinking about how delicately beautiful her features were.
Even last night, while tossing and turning in the unfamiliar, uncomfortable bed, images of Jian kept floating before his eyes—the back of her impossibly white neck flushed red with embarrassment, her trembling lips, and those large, wavering eyes.
“Nothing at all.”
“Even while talking with Secretary Han Jian, nothing came back to you?”
Nothing came back to him?
Of course something had.
He wanted to sleep with that woman.
More specifically, he wanted to have sex with her.
Those were the kinds of trashy thoughts that had been filling his head.
“Nothing.”
Sa-heon calmly gave an answer completely opposite to what was running through his mind.
Manager Choi let out a helpless sigh.
“…I see.”
“If we spend a little more time together, something might come back to me. The doctor also told me to have plenty of conversations with Ms. Han Jian. Right, Jian?”
Sa-heon turned toward her with a gentle smile.
“Yes,” Jian answered quietly, biting down on her lip.
“Let’s have lots of conversations about all sorts of things.”
Sa-heon spoke warmly.
Though, if possible, a conversation using their bodies would be even better.
＊＊＊
While Manager Choi had gone to the supermarket on an errand, Jian showed Sa-heon a secondhand trading app.
“Director, I installed this.”
Jian proudly showed him her phone screen. She tapped the app with the orange carrot logo and scooted a little closer to him as she sat down.
“What is it?”
When she deliberately pressed her shoulder a little closer to his, she felt his body stiffen.
Sa-heon watched her while hiding his amusement, and she quietly moved herself away.
“Ah, well… You said you needed a wooden platform, right? People sell a lot of things like that on here. Sometimes they even give things away for free.”
“Give them away?”
“Yes. They give them away without asking for money.”
Jian typed ‘wooden platform’ into the search bar.
Perhaps because of the neighborhood, there were actually quite a few decent-looking items.
“What about this one?”
Jian clicked on a wooden platform listed as a free giveaway.
It had clearly been naturally weathered over many years of exposure to sunlight, rain, and wind.
The wood had the pale brown tone characteristic of pine, though the edges had darkened into a deeper chestnut color, leaving unmistakable traces of age. It was, without a doubt, a used item.
“You want me to use something secondhand?”
Sa-heon asked with a mild smile.
Jian flinched and quickly lowered the phone.
“It would be a waste. You won’t even be using it for very long.”
“A waste? What would be a waste? I think my body is more precious than lying down on something someone else used.”
“Yes…”
Jian nodded as if she hadn’t expected much from him in the first place.
As she continued browsing through the app, her eyes suddenly lit up.
“Wow, look at this. The same seller is also giving away a rooftop garden set.”
On the screen was a set consisting of several small wooden planters, herb seeds, and a vintage-looking watering can.
Sa-heon responded incredulously.
“I’ll buy all of that new for you. No, I’ll buy you an entire field. Do you need farming equipment too?”
“…No, thank you.”
Jian gave up and pulled the phone back toward herself.
Then another little gasp escaped her, this time sounding even more surprised.
“What is it?”
Whatever useless thing had caught her attention this time, Sa-heon asked indifferently.
Jian hesitated before showing him the screen.
“I think someone who’s really good at knitting made this. Isn’t it cute?”
It was a crochet turtle keychain.
The shell had been crocheted with green yarn, while the body was made with ivory-colored yarn. It was cute, though slightly clumsy-looking.
Sa-heon’s brow furrowed slightly.
“It’s not very cute.”
“…I want it.”
Jian whispered so softly that it was barely audible.
Sa-heon squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before opening them again.
＊＊＊
A blue delivery truck pulled up in front of the house, and Jian’s mouth fell slightly open.
Even Manager Choi, whom Sa-heon had dragged along immediately after returning from the supermarket, was sitting in the back of the truck.
Sa-heon stepped down from the passenger seat, while a dark-complexioned middle-aged man climbed out of the driver’s seat with a broad grin.
“That young man from Seoul is handsome, and he’s got one hell of a good personality too! Hahaha!”
What on earth had they talked about on the way here?
Sa-heon wasn’t exactly the sort of person who usually received compliments about his personality.
Jian blinked, trying to make sense of the situation.
“W-What is all this?”
“I brought the things I needed.”
“The things you needed?”
At Sa-heon’s gesture, Manager Choi and the middle-aged man quickly climbed out of the back of the truck and began carrying out a wooden platform.
“A little farther to the right. That’s it!”
After that, the middle-aged man personally carried out the rooftop garden set, a parasol, a sun lounger, and even a cooler.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and flashed them a friendly smile.
“Use ’em well, young man from Seoul!”
“Thank you. Please give my regards to your wife as well.”
“Oh, of course, of course.”
The middle-aged man smiled broadly, waved his hand, and drove away in the truck.
Jian stood there for a moment, speechless, staring at the back of the departing vehicle as it disappeared, leaving only a cloud of dust behind.
“Was he the seller?”
“Technically, he’s the seller’s husband.”
“He delivered all of this?”
“Yes.”
Wasn’t there an unspoken rule with secondhand transactions that the buyer was supposed to pick up the item themselves?
And he had personally brought all of this here?
“What are the other things?”
“I don’t know. They just gave them to me.”
Sa-heon shrugged and smiled.
Jian stared at him in bewilderment for a moment.
His features were striking, his jawline sharp, and even when he smiled, there was something cold about his expression that made him difficult to approach.
Yet, somehow, he also seemed to have a surprisingly sociable side.
He really did have a face that was hard to find even in Dansolli—
No, even in Onryeong-gun.
Jian smiled faintly to herself as though she finally understood the reason.
“Here. The ugly thing.”
Something was suddenly thrust in front of her face.
Jian flinched and took a small step backward.
It was the turtle keychain she had seen earlier.
“…Thank you.”
Sa-heon placed the crocheted keychain into her palm.
Jian gently fiddled with the tiny turtle using her fingers.
Its texture was soft against her fingertips. Seeing it in person, it was even more loosely crocheted—and somehow even cuter—than it had looked in the picture.
Maybe it was because the whole situation was so ridiculous.
Or maybe because the clumsily crocheted turtle was absurdly soft.
Or perhaps it was because the man who had gone all the way there just to get this one little thing had somehow returned with what looked like the entire contents of someone else’s house.
Whatever the reason, the corners of Jian’s lips curled upward before she even realized it.
Why did she suddenly feel like laughing?
“It’s cute.”
Jian finally let out a small laugh and looked up at him, her eyes crinkling.
Sa-heon was staring straight at her.
“At least it was worth the trip.”
He held her gaze for a long moment before murmuring those words.
Jian pressed the back of her hand against her cheek and lowered her eyes.
＊＊＊
Sa-heon lay stretched out on the sun lounger with sunglasses on, his eyes closed.
Two buttons of his white shirt were undone, revealing the line of his collarbone and neck, while his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.
The warm early-summer sunlight bathed him from head to toe.
“Nice weather.”
He murmured contentedly and placed his arms behind his head.
It was a brilliantly clear day without a single cloud in the sky.
The green concrete floor was chipped in places, the railing was rusty, and the noise of an outdoor air-conditioning unit from the neighboring building constantly filled the air.
It was hardly an impressive space.
And yet, with Sa-heon lying there, it looked almost like a private poolside at a five-star hotel.
How long had it been since he had felt this relaxed?
He couldn’t remember ever really taking a proper break, even after entering university.
A cold can of beer would be perfect right now.
Should he ask Jian to have one with him?
Even when he closed his eyes and tried to search his mind for any memories that might surface, his thoughts inevitably circled back to one woman.
He gave a self-mocking chuckle inwardly.
Then he heard footsteps coming up the stairs leading to the rooftop.
Sa-heon sat up and turned around.
His eyes met Jian’s as she climbed the stairs carrying a bag of bread in her arms.
“My sister asked me to give this to you.”
Today, Jian was wearing a pure white T-shirt with jeans.
Under the sunlight, she looked unbelievably beautiful.
“Jian noona!”
A booming voice suddenly came from behind her.
The bespectacled student Sa-heon had seen a few days ago was hurriedly running up the stairs.
“Why are you carrying something heavy all by yourself, noona?! You should’ve asked me to help!”
“What’s so heavy about a bag of bread? Still, you’re getting big, trying to help your noona like this. Our Ba-ul is all grown up.”
Ba-ul’s face darkened at being treated like a little child.
Sa-heon, who had been sitting on the sun lounger, slowly straightened up.
“Please thank your sister for me, Ms. Jian.”
The two buttons undone on Sa-heon’s shirt revealed the firm lines of his chest, while the solid muscles of his forearms, exposed by his rolled-up sleeves, gleamed healthily beneath the sunlight.
