Chapter 13
Yugam's words sounded like an order.
After hesitating, Jaekyung finally accepted the jacket and draped it over her shoulders.
“...It's warm.”
The familiar scent and cool warmth felt unexpectedly comforting.
Yugam answered in the most Yugam-like way possible.
“The fabric is designed to maintain a stable body temperature.”
Jaekyung couldn't help laughing.
“That answer really suits you.”
Then she relaxed slightly.
“Still... I'm not scared since you're here.”
“That's fortunate.”
Yugam's voice lowered.
“We're used to being together in the dark.”
The words defining their relationship through the past made Jaekyung's heart drop.
“I... think I'll move out of your house.”
Yugam looked at her.
“The audit office hasn't contacted me anymore.”
She had survived one week.
But living under the same roof as her ex-husband was still too difficult.
“Just stay for three months.”
Yugam's voice remained calm.
“How do you know the vice principal or parents' association won't file another complaint with the audit office?”
“But you're uncomfortable too, and I...”
“I'm not uncomfortable.”
He cut her off.
“Just focus on work.”
Jaekyung was about to argue when the lights suddenly began turning back on one by one.
A door clicked open in the distance.
“Is anyone inside?”
A security guard called.
Jaekyung immediately stood despite her aching ankle.
Being pressed close to Yugam suddenly felt embarrassing again.
She hurried to the storage-room door as though she had been waiting for the lock to release.
“Yes! We're here.”
“The power company repaired the voltage equipment.”
The guard called back.
“A crow messed with it.”
“Thank you.”
Noise slowly returned to the gym.
Jaekyung removed Yugam's jacket and handed it back.
“Here.”
Yugam stood close.
His gaze lowered to Jaekyung's red lips, where white breath still faintly appeared.
“Next time, don't come in here alone.”
Jaekyung found the command ridiculous.
Was he telling her she couldn't even enter the gym alone now?
Still, he was standing so close that her breathing trembled.
He seemed to notice.
“...I won't.”
Yugam's cold gaze deepened.
Then he asked,
“By any chance...”
His voice dropped.
“Do you like that man from earlier?”
Jaekyung blinked.
“Wh-Who?”
Did he see me talking with Minho this morning?
“The math teacher.”
“Oh! No.”
Jaekyung quickly shook her head.
“What are you talking about?”
Yugam stared at her with complete distrust.
“Lie.”
“Teacher Choi would be offended if he heard that.”
She sighed.
“We're not involved at all.”
Yugam still didn't look convinced.
“Then why are you this nervous in front of me?”
Jaekyung froze.
“You must be hiding something if you're trembling.”
“That... that's...”
Yugam slowly ran one finger beneath her chin.
The cold touch sent a shiver through her.
“The math teacher said something different.”
Jaekyung frowned.
“He said Seo Jaekyung is his type.”
Her eyes widened.
“So I wondered if that's why you rejected the proposal.”
“That's a misunderstanding.”
She quickly explained,
“I haven't been dating my boyfriend for long. And besides...”
She stopped.
Yugam clearly didn't believe her.
There was no reason to explain that she had broken up with Minho today.
Jaekyung looked directly at him.
“Do I have to explain everything to you?”
“I think I have the right to hear it.”
Yugam's tone was matter-of-fact.
“I'm your husband.”
“You don't have that right.”
Jaekyung raised three fingers directly in front of his face.
“We're going to end soon.”
Her voice became firm.
“In exactly three months, we'll be nothing to each other.”
Yugam's eyes darkened.
“Nothing to each other?”
His voice sharpened.
“We're clearly married by law.”
Then he asked,
“What if I change my mind and refuse the divorce?”
Is he threatening me?
Jaekyung's heart began pounding under his sharp gaze.
She needed to complete the divorce without angering Yugam any more than necessary.
“I'll work hard enough to make you agree.”
Then she added,
“You're too close. Move back...”
Yugam didn't.
“Does being close to me make you uncomfortable?”
“Of course.”
Yugam's eyes shifted.
“So that's the problem.”
Slowly, he leaned down toward her.
There was barely a centimeter between their lips.
Their breaths touched.
Heat rushed through Jaekyung's body.
Still, she refused to look away.
The moment Yugam noticed that, something in his gaze broke.
Just before their lips touched, he suddenly dropped the hand resting beneath her chin.
“Let's go.”
Jaekyung's voice was hoarse.
“...Where?”
Yugam's voice was lower than usual.
“If we stay here, I won't be able to stop.”
His face remained as cold as always.
But his voice sounded as deep as the bottom of an ocean.
Jaekyung quickly adjusted her sportswear, grabbed the lunch bag Yugam had brought, and walked out of the gym as though she hadn't been shaken at all.
“Seo Jaekyung.”
She stopped at Yugam's voice behind her.
If she turned around and faced him, she felt as though the memory of that humiliating moment would make sweat pour down her whole body.
“Don't misunderstand.”
The words made her freeze.
Jaekyung stared numbly at the dark sky ahead.
“...Misunderstand what?”
Yugam answered,
“Don't think I'm going to fall for you again.”
Jaekyung spun around.
His interpretation was so absurd that she couldn't believe it.
“Don't worry.”
She met his gaze.
“I wouldn't imagine something like that even in my dreams.”
Then her expression turned serious.
“And honestly...”
She hesitated.
“Isn't passion one of the most frightening things in the world?”
Her parents had loved each other with desperate passion when they were twenty.
Jaekyung herself was the result of that reckless passion.
But not one of the three of them, her father, her mother, or Jaekyung, had ended up happy because of it.
Yugam was silent for a moment.
Then he said,
“...Rejecting me that sharply makes me think about it even more.”
His tone became dry again.
“I'll see you at home.”
Jaekyung bowed and turned away.
Fall for me again?
He spoke as though they had once shared something special.
He really was strange.
Yugam watched Jaekyung's troubled back as she walked away.
Then he turned in the opposite direction toward a dinner meeting with executives.
If not for her ankle, he would have brought her along.
No.
Maybe he should use her injured ankle as an excuse to drive her home personally.
But after what he had just said, she would probably refuse.
Passion.
His father, Do Junwoo, Chairman Do's only son, had died when Yugam was eight.
Yugam remembered his voice.
“Yugam, you're my life.”
“I love you. My only son.”
He had been a kind and affectionate husband.
A loving father.
He had fiercely loved Jin Heeyeon and Yugam.
And at the same time, he had passionately loved another woman and another child.
Yugam had been happy because of his father's love.
But in the end, everyone became miserable.
Love that couldn't protect the person it claimed to love wasn't real love.
That love had left a hole in Yugam's chest, and he had spent years simply breathing through it.
Was that the passion Jaekyung said she was afraid of?
Yugam gave a humorless laugh.
“She was right to be afraid.”
He pulled out the phone he had claimed not to have in the storage room.
Then he called Chief Kwon.
“Have the car waiting in front of the main building.”
He remembered Jaekyung's round, startled eyes in the moonlight after the storage-room lights went out.
He had immediately recognized the emergency locking sound.
Being trapped wasn't the problem.
The problem was that Jaekyung was beside him.
“Are we trapped?”
He liked the sound of her clean voice in the darkness, just as he had five years ago in bed.
In the silent room, every small movement Jaekyung made had felt amplified, stimulating every one of his senses.
“Ah... my ankle still hurts a little.”
The moment she touched her ankle, Yugam's body reacted as though every cell remembered Jaekyung's voice and scent.
He hadn't planned to sit beside her on the mat.
But somehow, his hands had already guided her there.
He had laughed.
Even if it had only been mocking, the fact that he laughed at all meant his defenses were weakening.
That was a bad sign.
He needed to cut off his body's reactions to Jaekyung.
He had confidently insisted she could never shake him again.
Yet he kept failing.
It was going to be another cold night without sleep because of Seo Jaekyung.
Yugam clenched the hand that still seemed to carry her heat.
His face returned to its usual expression as he walked toward the main building.
“Teacher Seo!”
A strange man's voice called Jaekyung from behind.
Yugam instinctively turned around.
It was the math teacher from earlier.
He came out of the gym and approached Jaekyung, who was walking toward the auditorium.
“Is your ankle all right? Would you like me to drive you home?”
Under the lights, Jaekyung smiled awkwardly.
“Oh, no. I'm fine.”
Yugam knew that technique.
That clear smile that perfectly matched her innocent face.
The way she slightly tilted her pretty face as though shy.
That beautiful smile that had almost fooled even him.
Yugam walked toward them with a sharp expression.
“Not Teacher Seo.”
The teacher turned.
Yugam continued,
“Secretary Seo. The chairman's direct secretary.”
“Ah! Chairman, hello.”
The math teacher stopped in surprise.
Yugam's voice was polite.
But the warning inside it was clear.
“Please refrain from making private suggestions to female employees on school grounds.”
