Chapter 59.1

Chapter 59.1

Ara shrank back without meaning to, sulking under his sharp tone. It wasn’t as if she’d asked something unreasonable, so why was he being so harsh?

“Do you not remember collapsing in the middle of the street just hours ago?”

“…I do.”

“And now you’re worried about dinner?”

“Because that’s my job.”

She was just a decent housekeeper, a passable cook. That was the role she played in this house. That was all it was supposed to be.

“What you need to do right now is lie here quietly and rest.”

But Seok-kyung’s voice wavered, carrying an edge of gentleness that only made her insides twist harder.

Still clinging, like an idiot…

Ara turned her face away with a long exhale, trying to steady herself.

In the awkward silence that followed, his damp cloth swept carefully over her bony wrists and the back of her hands. The coolness had turned lukewarm, yet he lingered, rubbing along every slender knuckle.

Only then did he speak again.

“Have you been feeling tired lately? Trouble sleeping, no appetite, your body dragging for no reason.”

“Did you put CCTV in the house or something?”

Her eyes snapped back to him before she could stop herself. She’d meant to keep feigning sleep, but he’d hit too close to home.

“Well, yeah, but it wasn’t anything serious. Probably just the change of seasons…”

“It’s not the season.”

He cut her flimsy excuse off flat.

“It’s from being tainted by an evil spirit’s aura.”

The answer was so far from anything she’d imagined that it stunned her.

Since the attack at Daeyasan, she hadn’t strayed far. No walks with Baek-seol beyond the garden, no trips outside except for the market. The goblin’s house was warded too well for anything foul to slip inside.

So how? When could she have possibly come into contact with something like that…?

Ara blinked slowly, confusion etched across her fevered face.

“Yoon Suho has a demon spirit inside him.”

“A demon spirit? You mean… like an evil ghost, something twisted like that?”

“Yes. It’s buried deep, and I didn’t have long enough contact to pin down exactly what kind. But it’s there.”

The haze clouding her half-lidded eyes vanished in an instant.

Her brow furrowed tight, panic flaring fresh across her face.

What is he even saying? A demon spirit inside my senior?

“But I’m certain of one thing. It’s dangerous, and it’s evil. I’ll stake my name on that.”

Ara’s chest tightened. If even the goblin king himself was issuing such a warning, then whatever it was had to be a truly vile spirit.

“That’s impossible. Suho was the same as always. He even met with Lady Baek-seol once. If something strange had been inside him, Lady Baek-seol would’ve noticed.”

She denied it with everything she had. She didn’t want to believe it. She couldn’t.

“You know better than anyone how sharp her nose is. There’s no way she wouldn’t have picked up on such a taint.”

“She probably couldn’t sense it back then.”

Seok-kyung finally straightened from where he had been bent over her.

“Because it must have taken root inside him afterward.”

Step by step, he carried the lukewarm towel back to the basin on the table.

“From his behavior and what Baek-seol reported, everything points to one thing; that thing’s target is you.”

The sound of cloth dipping back into water followed his calm words. The ripple of the basin AND his calm voice made the moment feel strangely unreal.

“Why… why me?”

“How should I know? Unless you’ve been killing people behind my back?”

He twisted the towel tight, wringing it until water streamed out, and glanced back at her.

“Or maybe you conned someone out of their life savings, ruined them for fun, and tossed them aside?”

Ara’s mouth fell open, too shocked to retort. Every example spilling from his lips was filth of the lowest kind.

“Oh. Not the last one. Forget that.”

He even had the nerve to strike one possibility off the list, as though he were genuinely considering them.

Ara glared, her face twisting with indignation. He was mocking her so thoroughly, and still she couldn’t spit out the denial. The more she thought on it, the more the unfairness seared her.

If grudges worked like that, then it should’ve been Kim Seok-kyung who was a hundred times more at risk. She’d only lived with him for a month and already her heart was shaken this much, what about all the women he had bewitched before her?

He must have left behind a truckload of broken hearts by now.

“It’s one of two things. Either Yoon Suho himself is obsessed with you, or the thing hiding inside him is.”

Ara fumed in silence, stewing over petty resentments, but Seok-kyung carried on with cool detachment as he moved back to the bedside.

“So…”

His long, even fingers unfolded the towel, folding it neatly into a square.

“- stop letting yourself get tricked by that man’s schemes.”