“Hey.”

“I said my name was Kang Hyewon.”

It’s not like he didn’t know her name, but she had to remind him.

“Yes, Hyewon.”

Eun-hyuk had to say her name, even if he didn’t want to.

“Do you have men’s underwear?”

She acted deaf.

Hyewon flicked on the desk lamp and prepared to focus in earnest.

“Is it a habit to just ignore others’ words? It’s gross.”

She dropped her head as if she were about to be sucked into a book as if telling him to leave her alone.

“Where can I dry this? Don’t you have a hanger?”

Hyewon barely squinted as he folded the w*t shirt in front of her.

Then, she stared at Eunhyuk’s n*ked upper body.

“You’ve never seen a man’s body before? You can lick it.”

“Please.”

Annoying at the thought of what he would say if she let him be any longer, Hyewon scrambled to her feet and grabbed his w*t shirt.

After roughly brushing off the dripping shirt and putting it on a hanger, she turned back to her desk.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The sound of water dripping from the shirt on the hanger resonated through the room like the sound of rain.

It was whatever.

He didn’t want to talk to this woman who didn’t care about anyone else.

Eunhyuk grabbed the dead cell phone and lifted it this way and that, trying to get a signal. Dedication, with the flick of his hand, he repositioned it, until he finally gave up and slumped back to the floor.

Only an hour had passed.

Not even a radio, in this cheap little place.

For Eunhyuk, who had everything he could ever want at his fingertips his entire life, this seemed like the worst hardship to bear, and Hyewon took it in stride.

What on earth was she doing in this place without even a television?

Eunhyuk leaned against the wall and watched Hyewon’s back with bored eyes.

“Hey.”

“Kang Hyewon.”

F*ck he knew it. He memorized it.

“Yes, Hyewon.”

He just felt more comfortable saying “Hey,” but he needs to remind himself of her name again. Kang Hyewon.

“What are you doing, sitting there?”

“I’m studying.”

“Studying what?”

Lying stiffly, jaw clenched, Eunhyuk focused his attention on Hyewon. He forgot that he had vowed not to talk to the girl just a moment ago.

“I’m studying for the civil service exam.”

He almost laughed. Public service?

“Sounds like a job for you. Civil servant.”

The mocking comment caught her off guard, and she bit her lip to stop herself from opening her mouth.

Eunhyuk, convinced it was just a show of pride, kept his eyes peeled to see if Hyewon would do something else. He wanted to laugh at her for being so focused.

Instead, she sat motionless for a good three hours, digging into her book.

He couldn’t even stand it for one hour, much less three.

She had a level of concentration that made him feel embarrassed about his own ramblings.

Eunhyuk, who had reached his peak of restlessness, shifted his seat to sit behind Hyewon and look at the book she had her nose buried in.

Unlike Eunhyuk, who was frantically brushing his hair out of his face because his w*t, sagging bangs were getting in the way, Hyewon didn’t even flinch.

He wondered if she was sleeping. She didn’t respond to his pretense of interest. The sound of a pencil rolling across the square sheet of paper drew louder. It was only a casual glance, but she must have been paying attention.

As the distance closed, a heavy and sweet scent wafted past the tip of Eunhyuk’s nose. Her body scent is quite strong, reflecting the theme of being cut off from the outside world and living in a remote mountainous area.

As he thought about it, Hyewon’s head snapped down.

That’s right. Was that all she could do without falling asleep?

First nodding off, then slumping down,… almost slamming her forehead into the desk.

The woman’s cheek rested on Eunhyuk’s outstretched palm.

He should’ve just left her there. Why did he reach for her?

The woman, who had her back to him, was fast asleep despite her cheek crushing his hand.

The familiar face of Kang Hyewon, so close to him, as if the boundaries had suddenly collapsed, seemed to resemble the photograph of Soonok that Woongyu had shown him before. Maybe it was just that her face seemed so common.

“Fearless girl.”

A man is in the room. Why is she falling asleep?

In front of the guy she was just fighting with, nonetheless.

Eunhyuk thought about his hand away and giving her a hard time, but since he was at least grateful that he hadn’t been thrown back out into the wind and rain, he decided to endure the discomfort for a while.

Cross-legged and leaning his back against the wall, Eunhyuk looked around, bored.

As his eyes darted this way and that, he spotted a small timetable taped to the wall.

“What’s that?”

Two hours of sleep a night. The rest of the day was labeled “study” time.

So, today, she slept for two hours, got up and studied, and cooked for him. As if that weren’t enough, she found a letter from her grandmother’s first love and gave it to him.

He remembered the red face of the woman he had mistaken for a flower snake and had vented his anger out on with other emotions. He couldn’t help but feel a pang of remorse as he admitted he couldn’t rationally think about the situation.

Dammit. He should’ve kept his anger in check.

The first thing that popped into his head was the unlikely excuse that he couldn’t control his anger, like when he sometimes lost his cool and his grandfather had to clean up after him.

His mind spun a narrow-minded thought circuit that said if anyone else was in this shitty situation, they weren’t expected to be rational.

After trying to come up with all sorts of flimsy excuses, Eunhyuk realized that his words were too far, and he wanted to take back both words and actions in hindsight.

Eunhyuk grew serious with himself and stared down at Hyewon’s face as she soundly slept, using his hand as a pillow.

He reflected on his belated self-objectification; it was beyond his comprehension how she could be so unguarded in the presence of a stranger.

“She’s so funny.”

She’s naive. She’s stupid.

The image of Hyewon peacefully sleeping, unafraid of men, was a stark contrast to the feisty, yet cold impression she was doing.

The smell of her scent against his nose numbed his sense of smell. The sensation of his palm against her cheek was almost too much.

He had to admit it.

She was pretty.

“Holy sh*t.”

He never thought about this with others, not even when he’d been mixing with all the pretty girls in Seoul.

Kofi