“Abel Sting… it’s ruined.”
One of the backup agents muttered the words. The others nearby nodded in agreement.
“It was already ruined yesterday.”
“That’s true, but today feels like a total failure. Look at that timid girl glaring like her eyes are about to pop out.”
The whole backup team burst into laughter. They were standing quite far away, yet Seo-ah’s expression was readable even from a distance—pure disillusionment and thinly veiled resentment.
“She’s going to start swearing soon.”
“She can’t. She doesn’t know how.”
“If she did, she definitely would.”
Yes. She probably would.
Seo-ah stared quietly at the back of Abel Sting’s head.
His shiny golden hair reminded her of a freshly peeled lychee.
Her grandfather used to say even a single chestnut fallen on the mountain should be treated with care. If you didn’t respect even one small thing, poverty would creep up like a barbarian and strike from behind.
“Wait a moment. Since we’re here, should we get another pair of shoes too?”
That barbarian called poverty felt as though it were already swinging its club at her back.
Abel glanced behind him and caught the look of disappointment on her face. He smiled brightly.
“Okay, okay.”
In just one day, everything had flipped.
And with the reversal of position, everyone’s attitude had changed as well.
“Honey, are you tired?”
Abel smiled at her as though he might melt, practically wagging an invisible tail.
Bystanders blushed. The only person who didn’t was the one he actually wanted to react.
Seo-ah turned pale instead, fists clenched tight.
“Please stop saying that…!”
But that reaction only made it more amusing. This was more fun than blushing.
“Huh? What? Are you tired?”
The word slipped out again.
The moment she heard it; she reacted as if she had touched something she was allergic to.
Just like now.
The brown pupils, deeply set in the large eyes, shook as if an earthquake had occurred. The skin beneath them reddened. She looked absurdly serious, as though facing some life-or-death decision, being so serious all by themselves.
All because of a single word. On such a topic, it seemed as if the word could not be uttered.
Abel pressed on, deliberately.
“That earlier thing.”
“Huh?”
“You know.”
When you increase the dosage slowly at times like this—
“That earlier thing? What was it again?”
“……”
“I don’t know, honey?” Abel could see the woman who acted as if it was a big deal to look into someone's eyes getting angry
She finally snapped.
“Mr. Sting!”
Her eyes shone as if tears might fall at any moment. She clenched her teeth, trying to hold herself together.
It was so pitiful it was almost cute.
Abel nearly applauded himself.
This ridiculous talent.
He couldn’t believe he was getting such a reaction from someone who hated even holding hands and usually responded like a stone statue.
Today was incredibly productive.
He’d secured the word “honey.”
And dropped the formalities along with it.
Feeling pleased, he smiled even more beautifully. The more he smiled, the worse her expression became. If she was going to grit her teeth, she might as well punch or kick him —but instead she kept trying to reason with him gently, looking on the verge of tears.
That was the funniest part.
“Those kinds of words should be saved for the woman who’ll become your wife someday, not said carelessly to just anyone…”
“Then will you marry me?”
“……”
For the first time, Seo-ah felt how heavy words could be.
Even drifting dust in the marketplace seemed heavier than that sentence.
She walked past him without answering. Still, Abel followed, bending down beside her, completely absorbed in teasing.
“I’ll treat you well every day.”
Seo-ah clutched the hem of her skirt and hurried down the stairs. Just like with that word, she quickened her pace as if fleeing from the department store that was so tiresome.
The unfamiliar civilization that had once overwhelmed her had long since faded into the background. The golden interior only hurt her eyes now. The thick perfume in the air made her dizzy.
At first, she had thought Abel was taking revenge on her.
You should experience it once.
She had been certain he meant to torment her.
Yet he never complained.
He simply kept trying on clothes.
“How is this?”
“It looks good on you.”
“This one or the last one?”
“…Which one are you talking about?”
“This one’s better.”
“Then why did I even ask?”
By the time they finished, it was already the fifth shop.
She felt as though she had seen and tried on more than enough.
“I understand. For now.”
Abel left the shop with that strange remark.
Seo-ah soon realized that the “for now” referred not to agreement, but to a number.
“I understand. For now.”
“Let’s look around a bit more first.”
“I do like that outfit, but… let’s hold it for a moment. There’s one more place to stop by.”
First store.Second.Third.Fourth.
It wasn’t even a staircase, yet Abel kept counting them off as though each shop were another step in some grand ascent.
Around ten o’clock, he finally bought something.
The price alone made Seo-ah’s hands tremble.
Then shouldn’t this be enough?
But Abel behaved like a man on a mission to spend the entire day here.
In the distance, she spotted the revolving door. For some reason, it looked like the mouth of a cave. Without thinking, she quickened her pace.
Behind her, Abel kept teasing, following close. The more she reacted, the more amused he became. In the end, she chose to ignore him completely and simply kept walking.
Her steps grew faster.
She slipped lightly through the crowd. Abel’s relaxed expression shifted. He started following in earnest.
Seo-ah crossed the main floor at a speed that forced Abel Sting to chase after her. She stepped onto the revolving door just a beat ahead of him.
“Hey—!”
“You’re in danger, please step back!”
A security guard grabbed Abel as he tried to enter right behind her.
It happened in an instant.
“You’re not letting go?”
Abel shook the guard off roughly, anger flaring.
By the time he looked up, Seo-ah was already outside. Beyond the dim glass, she stood alone, small and uncertain, like she didn’t belong. She looked like a stranger, standing alone beyond the dim glass, appearing anxious.
“Stay there! Don’t move!”
The darn crowd surged and twisted, people trying to leave colliding with those trying to enter. It looked like the meeting point of a river and the sea.
Guards blew whistles.
Ignoring them, Abel forced himself onto the next rotating section.
His eyes never left Seo-ah, beyond the glass door.
Ten seconds.
That was all it would take to reach her.
Then—
the door that had been rotating smoothly suddenly stopped.
“What the hell.”
He pounded on the glass furiously.
It didn’t budge.
“What is it?!”
“A lady’s hem is caught! Please wait! Don’t push the door!”
The guards shouted behind him. Abel pressed himself against the glass, teeth clenched.
Outside, a sea of people stretched endlessly. Seo-ah, lonely as she was, was tossed about inside it. Even standing still seemed difficult as she was pushed this way and that. Then a cluster of bodies surged between them.
Because she was small—
she disappeared.
Abel’s whole body burned.
A backup team waited outside, yet anxiety gnawed at him.
If the door didn’t open, he vowed that he would break it and get out if it did not.
Fortunately, it began turning again.
The moment there was space, he pushed through and plunged straight into the crowd, shoving people aside.
Just a few more steps. He should be able to reach the small woman.
“……”
A chill drained the color from his face.
“……!”
She was gone.
Thirty seconds.
That was all it took.
Abel forced his way through the mass of people, uncaring how violently the crowd swayed.
“Seo-ah!”
For the first time, he shouted her name, veins standing out along his neck.
Still—
no answer.
It was as if she had vanished on her own.
—
Seo-ah stood in the current of people.
Barely keeping her footing, she watched Abel trapped behind the glass.
Ten seconds.
In ten seconds, he would come out, and they would return to the mansion together.
Her thoughts were simple. She had no other thoughts.
There are so many people.It’s hard to stand.
Nothing more.
“……?”
Then, within the waves she thought were empty—
something felt wrong.
Within the moving crowd she had thought empty, something else existed. The moment that realization struck, everything else receded.
The man behind the door.
The people brushing past.
The noise.
All of it fell away. All receded into the background. The world grew distant and muffled.
A world where everything had subsided.
Seo-ah held her breath.
A wave of bodies passed in front of her.
And from within that wave—
something that had been holding its breath within the waves —
shot out and seized her wrist.
—