Chapter 57.1

Chapter 57.1

“Yoon Suho.”

Seok-kyung half-spat the name, as if even remembering it left a bitter taste.

“From now on, stay away from him. Don’t go near him. Ever.”

Ara stared up at him, more bewildered than ever.

She couldn’t make sense of him.

She’d only wanted a simple catch-up after so long apart, but instead, he’d picked a fight over nothing, grilled her about her every move, and now, after barging in uninvited, he’d made both her and her senior unbearably uncomfortable.

‘Baby.’

Why joke around like that?

‘Our kids are waiting at home, stretching their necks for you.’

Why talk in ways that begged to be misunderstood?

‘I live with this woman.’

He wasn’t foolish enough not to know how that would sound to others-or to her.

Ara bit her lip, swallowing down the sob rising hot in her throat.

Her fragile heart, ridiculous as it was, wanted to find hope even in those careless lines. She wanted to twist his words into something else, trick herself with wild assumptions and fragile wishes.

“Kim Seok-kyung.”

“What.”

“Are you… jealous of Suho?”

Of course not. Absolutely not. And yet…

“What?”

His brows knit hard, his voice sharp with disbelief.

“Then why keep picking fights? Why smash my hairpin, why throw out lines that make my senior misunderstand?”

Maybe that grim expression was answer enough to her desperate question.

And she knew it. Because she knew it, she pushed harder.

If it really was impossible, then let him shove her away, cold and final. Let him leave no room for even the tiniest hope. Let her heart stop leaping at every meaningless word.

Please, she begged inside. ‘Please, do not confuse me anymore.’

“Na Ara.”

His voice came back, low and steady.

“Looks like you’re set on playing house with that piece of trash.”

The words pierced her chest like a blade.

“That man isn’t the person you think he is anymore.”

She had wanted him to push her away cruelly, but the icy stare he fixed on her was more than she could bear.

“Wake up. You think you’re here on some holiday? What’s inside that-”

“Stop with the holiday crap already!”

Ara’s cry tore out of her throat, breaking into sobs she couldn’t hold back.

“I know! I know I’m just supposed to shut up, cook when you tell me, and that’s it!”

The feelings she had bottled up for so long came spilling out raw and jagged. Her vision blurred, smeared with tears like rain on a windowpane, and she couldn’t even see Seok-kyung’s face anymore.

…It was probably a look of disgust anyway.

She bit her lip so hard it bled, the metallic taste cutting her tongue.

And maybe that was for the best. She didn’t think she could face those cold eyes. Better to hide, clinging to the scraps of kindness and duty he offered, even if it meant burying feelings that were too much, too foolish.

“If I’m just the housekeeper, then I’ll act like the housekeeper, no need to-”

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Her heart suddenly slammed against her ribs, pounding out of rhythm. Her chest locked up, like a stone wedged inside her lungs.

Heat and pins of fire spread down every vein to her fingertips and toes, but her limbs wouldn’t obey her anymore. The sensation was so wrong it felt like venom seeping in, paralyzing her from the inside.

“…Na Ara?”

Even his familiar voice sounded far away now.

“I-I kn… ha… I kno-”

Her throat tried to force the words out, but only ragged breaths and broken fragments fell past her lips.

“What’s happening to you? Look at me. Breathe deep.”

Dizzy. Burning.

Was it grief, the sudden flare of anger? Or punishment, for daring to reach too far, ungrateful for the life he’d saved?

Ara didn’t finish the thought. The collapsing walls of her consciousness gave her no time, not even to call the name she wanted most.

“Na Ara!”

The last thing she felt was something firm catching her near the shoulder blades. Then the world vanished, swallowed in black.

***

After Seok-kyung and Ara stormed out of the café, Suho quietly gathered the attention left hanging on him and tidied the table.

“Thank you. Have a nice day.”

He was still smiling as the staff bowed him out. Carrying Ara’s bags filled with seasonal vegetables, he looked every bit the kind, reliable man everyone believed him to be.

But once the last curious glance faded, once no one remained who might whisper about the earlier commotion-

He shoved the bags straight into the nearest trash bin. With a clatter, plump vegetables that had soaked up warm sunlight tumbled to the ground.

Flicking his reddened palms, marked faintly by the handles, he stared down at his hand.

‘Interesting. You thought you could play hide-and-seek with me?’

The spot where the goblin king’s Kangmun had grazed looked perfectly fine. Just as the stories said, goblin purification left no scar on an innocent human body.

But beneath the unmarked skin, deep in the veins and muscle, part of the spirit hiding there had been seared black.

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