CH 77

Kwon Chae-woo gritted his teeth as he continued, “But I feel wronged. I feel like I am just starting out clean but since you know about my past and I don’t, it has already caught up with me without me getting a chance to be something else. How do you expect me to willingly accept that?” His voice was dry.

“I am so sorry,” he said. “I think I will go all the way with you. This is where I stop being considerate.”

His large hands grabbed her waist tightly and pulled her closer. The heat in his eyes scared her. Lee-yeon grabbed the hem of his shirt with her cold hands.

“You didn’t hit me!” she said. “That’s a… misunderstanding. Where did you even get the idea?”

“I didn’t?”

Lee-yeon opened her mouth as if to say something then shut it again. She remembered the time when they had first… met. He had been burying a body. She found out. She was almost murdered.

Kwon Chae-woo grabbed her chin as she tried to avert his eyes. He turned her face to look at him. He leaned down to her as though he was going to slam into her. He was so close.

“Then tell me why you are so scared of me,” he said in a low voice. “From the time I regained consciousness until right now. Why do you flinch at my slightest touch? Why did you keep calling me ‘Mr. Kwon Chae-woo’ as though you deliberately wanted to put distance between us? You always try to run away from me. I need to hear it. Tell me the truth.”

His eyes looked shard. Lee-yeon wanted to run. She regretted coming out of that café. The raindrops hit her face so hard it stung.

“That’s because… I…”

He stared unwaveringly at Lee-yeon. Her small attempt at distinguishing between her fear and her fluttering heart had failed. Whenever she saw him, her heart pounded. It kept messing up the boundary that she set up. She was scared and yet glad to see him. She wanted to run away and yet she felt like she needed him. Everything crashed together.

“What are you trying to hide from me?” he asked. Her guilt grew.

“I… I have been lying to you!”

“I know that.”

“No! We never even signed a marriage license!” she closed her eyes and shouted. It was the first time she had spat out the truth. She didn’t dare open her eyes. The rain streamed down her face. After a while, when she could only hear silence, she opened her eyes to see Kwon Chae-woo smiling.

She got goosebumps. His expression wasn’t that of surprise or shock. He looked as though he expected something like this. He looked at her as though she had lied again.

“I really can’t be nice to you, can I?”

***

She didn’t know how they arrived home. “Ahhh!”

His lips crashed onto her violently. His tongue was inside her mouth and trying to devour her. Her lips were bitten continuously. His weight crushed her. This felt more like a punishment than a kiss.

His kiss became frantic and even more aggressive. She pushed him with all her might but Kwon Chae-woo only held her tighter.

The wrist he had grabbed during the taxi ride home smarted. He had looked out of the window the whole ride while Lee-yeon had stolen some cautious glances towards him.

Lee-yeon had rationalized. Maybe he feels cheated because everything he knew was now a lie. Maybe the truth of the matter had hit him hard. Lee-yeon realized that she needed to give him time to process the information about their nonexistent marriage.

But the moment they reached home, he pinned her against the wall and kissed her. “Kwon…!”

She hadn’t even been able to call his name. His thick tongue was in her mouth. She poked at his shin with her toe. He finally pulled away, sucking her lips hard.

His eyes were dark. Lee-yeon tried to catch her breath. “Let’s talk about that misunderstanding.”

The cold eyes were unyielding. Lee-yeon felt so small in front of that gaze. “Kwon Chae-woo, please…”

“What I am trying to say is that there are couples who live together even without signing a marriage license…”

Kwon Chae-woo sighed. “Wouldn’t it be better if you just shut that mouth of yours?”

Lee-yeon lowered her head dejectedly. Kwon Chae-woo stared at her lowered head for a while. He then turned around and took his wet shirt off. Lee-yeon shivered with cold. She instinctively knew what Kwon Chae-woo was going to do. She felt the air pierce through her skin.

“I’m sorry for lying,” she said.

Inwardly, she hated being so submissive. But she had to prioritize. Rather than pulling on his leash, it was better to let go a little. Kwon Chae-woo was shaken by her words so she needed to tread carefully.

“You are quite enjoying the fact that I have no memory of my past, aren’t you? You keep lying to me about outrageous things,” he said sarcastically.