Chapter 63: Extreme

The house was quiet. The sky, which had been a brilliant color just a little while ago, had now turned a dull gray.

After looking around the house for a moment in the chillingly subdued atmosphere, I found a note on the dining table.

—I’m going to look around since I’m in Seoul. I’ll be back late, so don’t worry about us and just do your own thing.

“Don’t worry about it. I gave them the password, and they’ll be back when it’s time.”

Unni, who had spoken nonchalantly, headed straight for the bathroom.

“Dojin.”

“Yeah, unni. Why?”

“You should wash your hands first when you come home. And if you have to go to the bathroom, do it now. I’m going to take a shower.”

As soon as I washed my hands and came out, the bathroom door was slammed shut. At her cold attitude, I had no choice but to walk away as if I had been kicked out.

“…”

I sat down on the living room sofa and calmly replayed the events that had taken place in the park earlier.

Unni didn’t trust me. She was under the illusion that I was by her side purely out of guilt.
So I proved it, and asked her to believe me.

That was all. That was all, but.

…Did I make a mistake somewhere?

A sigh escaped me reflexively. The sound of the shower, echoing faintly from beyond the living room, felt like it was soaking my entire body.

Unni hadn’t said a single word on the way home from the park. I had tried talking to her a few times to gauge her reaction, but all I got in return was a cold breath.

If she had reacted as passionately as Han Yeoreum or Yu Garyeon, I could have continued the conversation with sophistry.
But forcing words in this situation would be like pouring water into a bottomless pit.

As I tossed and turned for a while, desperately searching for a solution, I heard the sound of a door opening from beyond.

“Dojin.”

Unni, who had thrown on a large t-shirt, spoke while drying her hair with a towel.

“Uh, uh. Unni.”

“You… smell like sweat.”

“Huh?”

“Go wash up. Quickly.”

****

As I stepped out of the door, a cool breeze brushed against my skin. It wasn’t an unpleasant sensation. In fact, it felt like it was cooling my heated head.

Yes, I just had to calmly resolve this. As I always had.

“Dojin.”

Suddenly, a stiff voice came from the distance.

“If you’re done washing up, come here.”

The voice was coming from the bedroom.

“Hurry.”

At the slightly urgent tone, I quickened my pace. The hallway, with not a single fluorescent light on, was pitch black.
And so was the bedroom.

“Unni?”

Someone’s hand firmly gripped my palm as I tried to turn on the fluorescent light out of frustration.
Startled, I turned my head and saw a faint, swaying strand of ivory hair.

Unni, her face buried in my back, spoke in a low voice.

“Don’t look this way.”

“Unni…?”

“Turn your head, quickly…”

A strange pressure was present in her trembling voice. After confirming that I had turned my head by touching my face with her palm, she reached over my back and closed the door.

Soon, the door was locked with an ominous click.

“Unni, what is this…”

“Stay still.”

I felt a soft touch on my back, which had been tense with nervousness. Before I could resist, she started pushing my back, moving forward.

Something was wrong. That premonition brushed against the back of my neck.

“Un—”

“I told you to stay still!”

I felt a slight pain in my arm. Unni had twisted my arm behind my back.
Unni, who had subdued me like a detective transporting a criminal, soon threw me onto the bed as if tossing me aside.

“If you just stay still, I’ll take care of everything…”

A white silhouette was faintly visible beyond the deep darkness.

The firm, raised chest stimulated a primal instinct, and the curvaceous figure below it exuded a sensual atmosphere.

She wasn’t naked. She was still wearing her underwear.
But rather, that, the sight of her covered in a thin cloth that looked like it would fly away with a faint breath, intensified the strange atmosphere.

My entire nervous system felt like it was swelling up at the sight of a woman’s semi-nude body for the first time in my life.

“What are you doing?”

But contrary to that physiological reaction, the words that came out of my mouth were coldly subdued.

“I’m sorry if I disappointed you. But this is all I can give you now…”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.”

“…Still, men like this, don’t they?”

I felt a vein pop on my forehead.

“I-I’m not unattractive. I-I’ve been confessed to a lot, and I’ve been asked to be a model several times. S-So, Dojin, you’ll definitely—”

“For such a reason,”

I grabbed the hand of unni, who was on top of me, trying to lift her clothes.
That hand was trembling.

“Do you do this to anyone?”

“No!”

A trembling voice echoed through the room.

“You, you’re the only one.”

Unni’s desperate voice proved that her words were true.

“You’re the first person I’ve wanted to give something to, even forcefully, because you’re so kind. I-If I didn’t do something like that, I…!”

That’s why, I might have been even angrier.

“…You’re always like this, aren’t you, unni?”

At those words, unni’s ragged breathing, which had been filling the room, suddenly ceased.

Unni, who had been staring blankly at my eyes for a moment, soon started trembling and catching her breath.

“Then…”

Her voice, which came from between her clenched lips, was tinged with moisture.

“Then what should I do?”

And it seemed to be tinged with a hint of resentment.

I don’t care. It’s the same for both of us anyway.

“You said you don’t need money, you don’t need letters of apology, you don’t need anything, anything, anything. Then what on earth should I do!”

“I never asked you for anything like that.”

“That can’t be true!”

Unni, who had pushed my hand away, cupped my face with both hands.

“…You know, I knew.”

“…Knew what?”

“That you hated vegetarian food, Dojin. That you sometimes threw up in the bathroom because of it. That the movies I brought didn’t suit your taste. That you harbored resentful feelings towards me for meddling in your hobbies. I knew it all along.”

Unni continued, her words soft yet direct, as if to make me listen carefully.

“But I pretended not to know. No, I tried to pretend not to know. I thought it was no big deal. Because I thought it was for your own good. Because I thought it was right. So I installed a GPS app on your phone without your permission and monitored your every move. And I went through your computer records whenever I had the chance, using the excuse that I was worried you might be visiting strange sites. Later, when I thought that wasn’t enough, I even followed you myself, and I even stopped you from buying a car because I was afraid you would leave me without my knowledge. As if I were someone important…!”

Tears falling from unni’s eyes streamed down my cheeks.

“Even when you left, I didn’t try to admit it. I didn’t want to admit it was my fault. Because then I would have no means of holding onto you. It was only after you were completely gone that I saw reality. That it was all my fault. That there wasn’t a single thing that wasn’t my fault. That someone like me shouldn’t have appeared in front of you, Dojin. But in the end, I can’t live without you. I don’t have the confidence to live with my head held high. I’d rather die. So I clung to you. I shamelessly appeared before you and begged for your forgiveness, even though I knew I couldn’t. And as if that weren’t enough, I’ve now involved you in a strange incident. I acted all nice just to get a little bit of your attention, and I’ve done so many creepy things.”

Unni, who had been clinging to my chest, suddenly screamed as if in despair.

“If you didn’t want something, you wouldn’t be by the side of a crazy woman like this!”

“Then what about you?”

The words I had wanted to say for so long, since I first met her.

“Why were you so good to me when you didn’t know anything about me? What on earth are you doing now!”

A surge of emotion came up my throat. I was now speaking, almost vomiting out the words.

“What exactly am I to you…”

Extreme.
Acting on emotions in a situation on the verge of reaching each other’s limits is an incredibly dangerous act.
Perhaps, it could shatter everything we had built up until now.

But change is ultimately accompanied by shock. What is broken can be rebuilt.

If I couldn’t even bear that much effort, I wouldn’t have even started.