Chapter 43.2

Chapter 43.2

“…I can’t sleep.”

“I shouldn’t have let you outside. Sorry you had to go through this.”

“……”

“Seeing you this pale, it makes me go soft. Call it hazard pay—I’ll cut your contract short by a month.”

Heeju let out a laugh that sounded more like a sigh.

“You’re in the mood to joke at a time like this?”

“I’m not joking.”

“Wasn’t the forty million won a month supposed to include hazard pay?”

“Not this kind of hazard.”

“……”

“For a naïve kid tangled up with trash like me, what I’m paying you is too cheap anyway. If you can get free a month earlier, that’s a good thing. Just be glad for it.”

Turning her gaze to the window, Heeju muttered,

“Thank you for your generosity.”

“Look at you, all grown up. Even knows how to talk back now.”

“You sound like you raised me yourself.”

“Raising a kid isn’t easy.”

With that quiet murmur, silence filled the car. Soon the familiar gates came into view, and Gukhyun pulled to a stop in front of the mansion.

From beneath the gates, a dark figure stepped out. It was Yunam. He opened the passenger door and gently pulled Heeju from her seat.

“Let’s go inside.”

Her body, light as paper, leaned helplessly into him. Half-leaning against Yunam’s arm, Heeju clutched at him and hurriedly looked back.

“What about him… the Executive Director?”

“Executive Director said to see you safely inside.”

Yunam, talking about something else, guided Heeju toward the gate. She tore herself from his arm and ran back to the car, yanking at the door handle. It rattled uselessly; at some point it had been locked from the inside.

She knocked on the driver’s-side window. Jiiing—the glass slid down. Gukhyun, leaning an arm on the steering wheel, looked at her sidelong. Even now, sitting there so calm and unbothered, something about him made her throat tighten and anger rise for no reason.

“What’s your plan?”

He answered as if she’d asked something trivial.

“What do you think. I’m bringing Gang-ah back.”

“Alone? You’re just going like this?”

He looked like a man walking to his own death.

“You’ve got plenty of men. You should take someone—”

Heeju glanced back. Yunam was standing a distance away, phone pressed to his ear, speaking to someone. He kept running a hand over his hair with a serious face, looking far less composed than usual.

“Hey. Baby.”

Gukhyun called to her. When she turned sharply, her eyes were rimmed red. Looking at those fragile eyes, he felt the urge to press his lips to them. Instead he exhaled like a sigh.

“Why do you think they only sent Gang-ah’s ear?”

Moisture welled slowly in his clear brown eyes.

“If they meant to kill him, they wouldn’t have bothered cutting off just an ear and sending it. That’s an invitation. A warning. A threat.”

Heeju stared at him without blinking, as though looking at something that would vanish like a lie if she closed her eyes.

“If I’m going to bring him back alive, I have to go alone.”

“And you? What happens to you?”

“Worried I might die?”

Her throat burned as if she’d swallowed a hot stone. She clenched her eyes to hold back the tears. He looked as if he didn’t have a single attachment to his own life—so why was she the one so anxious, so afraid?

“Come here.”

Gukhyun reached out and cupped the back of Heeju’s head. He pressed his lips gently to the corner of her eyes. Then to her heated eyelids, her damp lashes, the reddened tip of her nose. Looking into her eyes, he whispered,

“Weren’t you supposed to think my c0**’s the only thing worth loving?”

“God, you’re so f#@king annoying.”

“I’m not gonna die.”

Soothing kisses brushed against her, short and soft. Chup, chup—his lips touched hers and pulled away again, leaving little sounds behind. Then he pressed their noses together.

“They’re not killing me yet. I’m still too useful.”

“……”

“I’ll be back. Stay here.”

“Don’t get hurt.”

“Yeah. I’ll come back in one piece.”

He ran his thumb slowly over her lips, then pushed her shoulders back.