It looked like Kangjoon was going to pull down his pants before she could even answer. So Taeryeong covered her face with both hands.

“I don’t understand!”

Even though she had completely blocked her vision, the image of her husband’s body that she had already seen flickered before her eyes. Her even breaths instantly became disordered, and her heart pounded. It was the first time she had seen a man’s naked upper body this close, especially with such an amazing physique, right in front of her.

“I absolutely... can’t look.”

But there was no reply from her husband. He hadn’t already taken off his pants, had he? The moment an unknown anxiety filled her throat, her husband asked calmly.

“My body must be so disgusting that you can’t even bear to look at it while covering your eyes.”

Feeling like she had overreacted too much, Taeryeong had no choice but to slowly lower her hands. Thankfully, her husband, who was still wearing his pants, was looking at her with his hands in his pockets.

“It’s not that it’s disgusting, it’s actually...”

Taeryeong stopped speaking and bit her lower lip tightly. What should she say to reach a compromise? Unable to wait even that short moment, her husband asked persistently.

“Actually, what is it?”

Letting out a soft sigh, Taeryeong lowered her gaze slightly. Even if she said that his handsome upper body, worthy of being touched, was disgusting, he wouldn’t believe her. If he was indeed a Seo family man who lived thinking he was all that, just like Yeonsuk had said. Then perhaps being honest was the way to go.

“Kangjoon-ssi’s body is perfectly my type.”

The moment she uttered those words, Taeryeong inwardly exclaimed, “Oh no!” She shouldn’t have said “perfectly.” Along with regret came a belated realization. Her husband’s face and body, and his unique aura. Even his large hands and long, firm fingers. Everything about her husband was her perfect type, and she was saying this now of all times.

“So my eyes keep going to it, and I’ve been trying my best not to look.”

The man, who was usually so smooth with his words, maintained a subtle silence at this moment. Feeling unnecessarily embarrassed, Taeryeong quickly continued speaking.

“Don’t worry. It’s not like I want to see or touch Kangjoon-ssi’s body more...”

But suddenly, her husband cut her off and asked leisurely.

“Do you want to see and touch my body?”

Taeryeong’s eyes narrowed slightly, a hint of mischief in them. It felt like her husband was teasing her again.

“Is there a rule that only men have instincts? Women have instincts too. When we see something we like, we want to look at it more and touch it.”

As Taeryeong answered, she suddenly had a thought. If she gave that body a good smack, would he finally come to his senses and put on some proper clothes?

“So, even if it’s a little uncomfortable, please wear both a top and bottom.”

“......”

“And I have very quiet sleeping habits, can I trust that Kangjoon-ssi does too?”

When there was no reply, Taeryeong raised her head, her eyes widening. Her husband, who had rubbed his face as if washing it and turned his head, seemed to have a slightly flushed face.

Could it be... was he embarrassed? No, that couldn’t be. Why would that man be?

“But if I sleep wearing both a top and bottom, it’s uncomfortable and I can’t sleep. So I’ll just sleep wearing pants.”

She tried to argue, but Kangjoon had already turned off the light and lay down on the bed. Having no choice, Taeryeong also lay precariously on the far left side of the bed and closed her eyes. It would be troublesome if she argued and her husband took off even his pants. *** Kangjoon didn’t need an alarm. If he mentally set a time before falling asleep, he would wake up the next day at that exact time. But today, he woke up earlier than usual and recalled the events of last night. When had he fallen asleep? The occasional soft snores and the rustling of the blanket coming from right beside him. He must have fallen asleep while listening to those sounds. He had thought his wife’s presence in the same bed would bother him, but it didn’t at all. Just then, a form clinging tightly to him in his arms made its presence known. Looking down without thinking, Kangjoon thought he was seeing things. His sleeping wife had buried her face in his bare chest and was holding him tightly. What was even more unbelievable was himself, embracing such a wife as if it were natural. Since when had they been sleeping while holding each other?

“Wife, you said your sleeping habits were quiet.”

She really couldn’t even give a proper answer. But why couldn’t his embracing arms stay still? Because of the small hands that busily moved even in her sleep, he felt like he was going through hardship from the morning. Did she like the feeling of being caressed, or the warm heat? His mind was blank, but his body felt strangely hot. He had never slept with anyone before, so this situation and this feeling were also firsts. Maybe that was why she had asked him to wear clothes. But he couldn’t get angry, as his sleeping wife’s expression was too innocent. The moment the suspicion that this might also be an act crossed his mind, his wife’s hand moved further down.

“......I’m going crazy.”

With truly precarious timing, Kangjoon abruptly raised his upper body. Was this woman really trying to drive him insane? Even in the midst of all that, his wife had cleverly wrapped her arms around his waist and was still asleep. No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t seem like she was pretending to sleep. Such a wife was both baffling and annoying, and also made him laugh.

“Should I tell her about this, or not?”

After pondering for a moment, Kangjoon leaned over and brought his lips close to his wife’s ear.

“Hey, Yu Taeryeong-ssi.”

“......”

“Do you even know what you were just about to do?”

“......”

“You almost woke up a sealed beast, you know.”

How dangerous that beast was. Even with his warning, his deeply asleep wife didn’t even stir. With a hopeful thought, he gently tapped the tip of her cute nose with his index finger, but she didn’t even twitch an eyebrow. This time, he lightly stroked her soft cheek with his fingertips. Did she feel that? His wife’s long eyelashes fluttered, and then she fell into an even deeper sleep.

“She’s quite sensitive to sleep.”

Unlike his frowning expression, his grumbling voice towards his wife was soft. Kangjoon tried to overlap the image of a woman with a history of many men onto his sleeping, clear-faced wife, but he failed.

“I can’t just have this fun for one day.”

Now that he had found something to tease her with, it was time to commit the perfect crime. Kangjoon carefully laid his wife back in her original position and pulled the sheet up to her chest. As if nothing had happened.

“Sleep well, wife.”

For the perfect crime that his wife would never know about, he would have to change his commuting time starting today. *** Taeryeong, who woke up to the sound of the alarm, first checked her position and posture. As expected, she was lying straight on the far left side of the bed. And even with the sheet pulled up to her chest.

“Whew, that’s a relief.”

So my sleeping habits were quiet after all. Taeryeong, letting out a sigh of relief, then quietly looked at the empty space beside her. She was a light sleeper, but considering she had slept soundly last night, her husband’s sleeping habits must also be quiet.

“I slept so well and felt refreshed for the first time in a while.”

But it was a bit strange that she slept better sleeping with her husband than sleeping alone. Taeryeong pondered, thinking it was a morning where something unbelievable had happened.

“It must have been because it was warm.”

Taeryeong, who didn’t usually have a high body temperature, felt particularly cold when sleeping. No matter how warm she made the room, she would toss and turn because of the cold. She had tried electric blankets and hot water mattresses, but she gave up because she would inexplicably feel pain the next day. But last night, she seemed to have slept soundly and warmly without waking up once.

“So this is why it’s the master bedroom.”

It seemed the difference between the sub-bedroom and the master bedroom wasn’t just the size. Thinking there must be some secret in the design, Taeryeong got up and prepared to go to work. She had slept well, and her husband, whom she had encountered every morning since they started living together, wasn’t there. Taeryeong’s condition this morning was at its best. *** After smoothly handling her morning schedule, Taeryeong drove somewhere herself. The place she arrived at was a nursing hospital on the outskirts of Seoul. It was more like a well-furnished resort than a hospital. The moment Taeryeong arrived in front of the VIP room that occupied an entire floor, she heard a loud noise.

“Bring me something that’s actually food!”

A shrill, hysterical scream and the sound of dishes shattering. Taeryeong, without showing any surprise, knocked and opened the door, revealing a woman sitting on the bed, huffing and puffing. Her gaunt and pale face was innocent-looking, but her vicious eyes and expression made her look fierce. The woman got up from the bed and walked right past Taeryeong. Taeryeong also followed the woman out without saying a word. The two sat facing each other in a lounge that was decorated like a cafe. The woman glared at Taeryeong with fiery eyes.

“You pretended to dislike it so much, but your face is beaming. Just like Mom said, you must be having fun imitating me, aren’t you?”

The woman in front of her was Madam Jo’s real daughter.

“I’m living like this, unable to even die properly.”

If eyes could kill, hers would have done so. Regardless, Taeryeong calmly asked how she was doing.

“How are you feeling?”

Madam Jo’s daughter scoffed as if it were ridiculous.

“Don’t pretend, it’s disgusting. As if you care even a speck about me.”

Around the time of her arranged meeting with Seo Kangjoon, Madam Jo’s daughter had been diagnosed with stage 2 stomach cancer. It was Madam Jo who had pushed forward with the fraudulent scheme of using a substitute for a marriage that could never have been. Madam Jo, who had persuaded Chairman Yu of Ino and her husband, even pretended to be a virtuous and pitiful housewife. She had entrusted her daughter’s role to the illegitimate child born between her husband and her twin sister, someone she loathed even looking at. All under the guise of sacrifice for Ino.

“So this is why you wanted to see me? To make me angry and slow down my recovery, so you can somehow hold onto this position longer.”

“That’s not it, Sister. My husband... Hng!”

“What did you say about a husband! You stood in the wedding hall in my place, and now you act like you’re the real wife!”

Madam Jo’s daughter, who had jumped up, roughly grabbed Taeryeong’s hair.

“He’s my man, my husband! Do you even know what I gave up to get that man?”

Where did such strength come from those emaciated hands? Taeryeong bit her lower lip and barely swallowed a groan.

“Mom said my husband is so mannerly, kind, and perfect, right? Did you fall for him? Are you coveting him?”

“I think Seo Kangjoon-ssi has negative feelings towards me. I felt it at the wedding, but I definitely felt it this time.”

Even with her hair being pulled, Taeryeong continued speaking calmly without losing her composure.

“So I came to ask if there was something else between the two of you that I don’t know about. That way, I can also deal with things flexibly.”

“Keep talking nonsense, and I’ll rip out all this luscious hair of yours. Huh?”

Madam Jo’s daughter was smiling brightly. She needed another target to vent her anger on, so Taeryeong’s excuses didn’t work at all. Not until she mentioned that name.

“Do you perhaps know someone named Heo Kyung-soo, Sister?”

She didn’t say anything, but her trembling eyes urged Taeryeong to continue. To keep talking.

“Seo Kangjoon-ssi said he was his most cherished younger brother, and he definitely seemed to want some kind of answer from me.”

“......”

“So when I replied that I hoped to see him someday, Kangjoon-ssi said that his brother was dead and I would never see him.”

The emaciated hand that had been grabbing her hair dropped with a thud.

“Heo Kyung-soo is dead?”

“Yes.”

A hint of moisture seemed to well up in her bloodshot eyes filled with venom.

“Get out of my sight.”

The moment Taeryeong tried to look more closely, Madam Jo’s daughter left the lounge. Left alone, Taeryeong indifferently looked out the window where the afternoon sunlight was languid.

“The weather is nice.”

Why didn’t people know? The nature of weeds that desperately want to raise their heads the more they are trampled. The cruel human instinct to want to take more when you try to protect something.

“Seo Kangjoon wasn’t part of the plan...”