His voice was colder than before. Sharper. It scraped lightly against Seo-ah’s chest.
“If you don’t like Traun, I’ll send you somewhere else. There are plenty of places. The Autrion Isles. Nice. Dieta. Choose whichever you prefer.”
He listed them casually. Then, suppressing whatever boiled inside him, he smiled. A very sweet smile.
“They’re all good places.”
“No… No, Your Excellency.”
She shook her head. Tears fell, round and steady.
No, my ass.
There was no reason for her to be here.
Oscar tilted his head toward Seo-ah, who had bowed her head deeply.
“There’s no reason for you to stay, is there?”
A pause.
“Is there a reason?”
The whisper slid into her ear. Seo-ah forgot to blink.
Thump.
Thump.
The sound of her heartbeat filled and confused her ears. She stood still frozen and the world felt still.
She stood on the edge of something.
Her insides felt hollow, like the turned black. Cold sweat seeped out like water from her back. It felt as though the ground beneath her feet was giving way.
“Sometimes instinct gives you the answer.”
As if by a lie, a familiar voice surfaced in her mind.
“When you’re cornered and there’s no visible path, instinct shows itself.”
Her teacher’s voice.
Thump.
Her thoughts broke apart. She felt her reason shattering into foam with the violent pulse.
Thump.
Is there a reason?
Thump.
As for his question, what answer should she give?
Thump.
What should I say?
Thump.
Why?
Thump.
The moment she lifted her eyes, she met his blue gaze. Though the eyes that held his blue irises were strained, for some reason, she first thought they were remarkably clear and deep rather than frightening.
The man’s blue eyes were clear, deep, and astonishingly beautiful.
Thump.
Thump.
Her gaze remained on him. After that, she could not look away. Her thoughts narrowed until there was nothing else in her mind but him.
Oscar.
Why was he trying to send her away now?
What about me was troubling him so much?
Was it because she had pressed his head earlier?
No. It didn’t feel like that.
For a moment, her sense of self grew indistinct. It felt as though she had forgotten where she ended and he began. Her thoughts narrowed until they circled only around him.
Several memories surfaced without warning. Times when her gaze had followed him without thinking. Moments when her gaze was stolen as if she were falling for him.
The man, as large as a mountain peak, lowered himself to meet her eyes without hesitation. The brief moment their eyes had met through the train window.
Before she understood what she was doing, words slipped out.
Words she should never have said as the daughter of Han Hong-heon, the pillar of Yongcheon.
“…I want to stay by your side.”
Her voice trembled faintly, pierced the air filled with cold.
She did not know why she had said it, or what it truly meant.
She only saw his blue eyes widen. The cold indifference cracked for an instant on his handsome face, which had been etched with annoyance and anger. Something shifted behind his pupils.
That was why she had spoken, merely following her instincts.
“I… I want to stay by your side, Your Excellency.”
The world of Seo-ah, and the world of the man who had seized her, seemed to pause and solidify at that moment.
The air between them seemed to harden.
—
Oscar stood still.
He stopped. He forgot to breathe. Forgot the passage of time.
The word by halted him.
The single syllable, which he had torn from his own life, stopped him.
Time, which had enveloped him, began to flow again only after his brown eyes, which had met hers, fell to the floor.
Oscar looked down at Seo-ah’s pale face, tilted downwards, and a thought surfaced, simple and immediate.
He should crush her. He must trample her.
So, she would never try to climb up again.
He stepped forward towards the woman. Seo-ah stepped back. Despite having come to him of her own will, despite calling out to him repeatedly even as he tried to ignore her, she retreated now.
As something boiling inside him swelled, Oscar strode towards Seo-ah and closed the distance at once, and instantly swept her away.
The boundaries of others were broken with laughable ease. A distance where their bodies would touch with the slightest movement, the two worlds narrowed to just that distance. In a world where the boundaries of others collapsed, breaths mingled, unique scents mixed, and if one went a little further, even their individual temperatures would blend.
Oscar watched the breath flowing through her trembling lips. Her eyes, holding teardrops, wandered aimlessly, and finally, the hanging tears fell. The tears finally fell, sliding down her cheeks and dampening her lips—then disappeared.
Seeing her lips, which had uttered such bold words that no prostitute could, tremble faintly, Oscar looked up. He glanced once at the ceiling, then at the floor beneath it, and saw their tangled legs.
His foot encroaching on the hem of her skirt, and a pair of ridiculously small shoes compared to it.
The heat inside him swallowed what remained of his reason.
Something began to boil and bubble over his blue eyes. Oscar leaned his head towards the woman, who looked as if she wanted to flee, placing his hand on the wall behind Seo-ah.
A large, sharp shadow, like a sheer mountain peak, tilted as if to swallow a small, round shadow. She was cornered.
He saw her brown eyes, which were approaching, widen rapidly. Their noses touched, and their breaths mingled. Unfamiliar breath seeped into his lungs—
“……”
“……”
Just before their lips met, she turned her head.
He stopped.
Oscar, who had been leaning in, stopped dead. Then, he glared at her profile, turning her head, with only his eyes.
The water trail along her rounded profile sparkled.
Oscar stared fixedly at the sparkling water trail and finally laughed again.
A laugh that no longer felt like laughter entered Seo-ah’s ear, shaking her cheeks and the hair by her ears. Like prey caught by a predator, she could only breathe shallowly, unable to even think of moving.
To her, Oscar whispered in a languid tone. Slow and low.
Seo-ah also opened her mouth, but as if her throat were choked, she could not utter a word.
“I thought it was something else.”
She merely shed round tears silently. Oscar desperately grabbed the turned cheek with one hand and brought it back towards him. Looking at her clear face, stained with tears, he twisted his lips and smiled.
“Ah. Is this also because you’re naive about the world?”
He felt a faint tremor in his grip. The trembling told him how afraid she was.
Then why not just stay quiet and take the money?
If ones were treated well, they should know their place and behave accordingly.
Those cynical thoughts passed through his mind as he prepared to let go of her cheek, as if brushing her away.
At that moment, the woman’s lips parted.
His gaze lingered briefly on her upper lip as it trembled, touching and separating from the lower one. Then a voice, smaller than a breath, escaped.
“I… I want to be here.”
Oscar laughed again, out of habit.
Foolish was not enough to describe her. She was stupid.
And he—himself, was no less of an idiot.
Her pale face remained in his grasp. Tears continued to fall. Her lips were parted, her expression unfocused. The sight struck him with unexpected force, even though she looked so helpless.
The small measure of reason he had barely recovered collapsed again. As his reason was underground, the hand that had been about to release her tightened instead.
She struggled weakly in his hold, clutching at his wrist with both hands and twisting her body.
At the pitiful sight, Oscar let out a low, cruel laugh and spoke close to her ear, each word deliberate and sharp as blades. Syllable by syllable.
“If you’re going to act like a whore, do it properly. If you’re just talking nonsense because you’re naive, be careful.”
The smile that hadn’t reached his eyes disappeared before he finished speaking.
She froze. Her blank expression, which made her appearance idiotic, darkened his vision. Before he realized it, he was leaning toward her.
He didn’t want to stop.
What does it matter? It’s not like I’m killing her.
Their lips touched.
Dry.
Still.
Their breaths did not mingle, as if neither of them was breathing. The air around them seemed to stop all its flow.
He remained there without moving on the woman’s completely frozen lips.
There was no hint of desire. No urgency. No sign of aggression.
He simply stayed.
Then, as though nothing had happened, he pulled away his lips and straightened.
He rolled his hunched shoulders once, looked up at the ceiling, then at the wall, then back at the ceiling.
The veins along his exposed neck throbbed.
“…Darn it….”
—