Episode 126. Karma (7)

“Winnie.”

I hear his voice.

“Winnie? Open the door.”

I can’t open it.

“Winnie, what’s wrong? Let’s talk face to face.”

I don’t even want to see his face. No, it’s not that I don’t want to see it. I just don’t have the confidence to look him in the eye and hear that story. The story that he doesn’t need me anymore. The words can be heard through the door, so if I really didn’t want to hear it, I would have gone inside already. But there I am, Winnie, glued to the door, listening to Edward’s voice.

“Winnie? Are you really not going to answer?”

“If you don’t answer, I’m going to force my way in. You know how strong I am, right?”

“…I don’t want to.”

Suppressing her tearful voice, Winnie answered with a choked voice. Edward, who was worried that Winnie might have gone inside, stood in front of the tightly closed door and felt relieved.

“Winnie. Why are you doing this? I have something to say, can you please open the door?”

“…I won’t listen.”

It was a bewildering reaction for Edward. Why is she suddenly like this? It’s completely different from what I expected. I knew she was having a hard time, but why is she awake at this hour and refusing to talk?

But Winnie was half-terrified. Afraid that the words she least wanted to hear would come out of Edward’s mouth. The remaining half of her expectation, that maybe she had misread the situation, that she couldn’t confirm it until she heard it directly from his mouth, kept Winnie rooted here. If he’s really angry, doing this now will only make things worse.

Reaching that point, Winnie brought up the words she had been preparing to say to Edward if she saw him. She was worried that she might be bringing up bad memories for no reason, so she couldn’t bring herself to speak. But Edward’s gentle words gave her courage. And once she parted her lips, speaking was easier than she thought.

“I’m sorry for trying to cast that weird curse on you back then.”

“…”

“I didn’t know any better back then. I didn’t know it would turn out like this, and back then, I just hated all men, but then suddenly Edward, you barged in, so I did that.”

“Winnie, that’s…”

“I liked… Monica. You know that too. But now, I like Edward much more than Monica. No, I love him. I’ll never do anything like that again.”

As I spoke, my emotions welled up. Emotions that had reached their limit in an extreme situation overflowed from my chest and began to leak out of my mouth.

“I really, really won’t do that again. Heuk, I’m sorry…”

“Winnie. Open this up.”

But the more Edward said that, the more Winnie clung to the door, determined not to open it.

“I really won’t do that again. I love you, Edward. I’ll have the baby and raise it well. I’ve already thought of a name. So, so…”

“Winnie.”

“Don’t abandon me… Heuk, heu-euk.”

Winnie, who had poured out all the thoughts in her head as they came to her, began to sob while holding onto the doorknob. It was a very awkward situation for Edward, who was listening to it all through the door without even seeing her face.

“Hoo…”

덜컹- (Deolkeong-)

“Hic!”

Winnie, as if to say she still wouldn’t open the door, went one step further and even locked something.

“Hoo… I didn’t want to resort to this method…”

Winnie tensed up at Edward’s voice, which sounded like he was sighing and getting annoyed. What method is he going to use?

“If you don’t open it… you know what’ll happen, right?”

You know? What? What is he going to do? Winnie’s anxiety amplified with Edward’s one word, and she began to imagine all sorts of things on her own. What is he going to do? No matter how strong Edward is, can he really force open a door locked with such a thick bolt?

Or… is he just going to leave? Abandon her? Saying he doesn’t like women who are annoying and bothersome like this? Even she thought it felt like that.

“Ah, no…”

덜컹, 덜컹- (Deolkeong, deolkeong-)

With trembling hands, Winnie unlocked the bolt she had just locked. Whether it was because her hands were shaking or because the bolt was heavy, it didn’t work as she wanted. Winnie, who thought it was an unnecessarily large bolt, cursed the bolt in her mind and barely managed to unlock it, and the door opened with a bang.

콩- (Kong-)

“Ahyat!”

Winnie bumped her forehead on the suddenly opened door. In Winnie’s eyes, who fell backward and sat down on her butt because of it, she saw Edward’s figure, who had come straight in through the opened door.

A height much taller than hers, and similarly, a much larger, knight-like physique. And straight eyes looking directly at her.

“Sorry.”

Winnie was taken aback by the sudden apology. Why is Edward apologizing to her? She’s the one who did wrong? Winnie was so surprised that her tears stopped flowing.

“I’m sorry for making you feel uneasy, Winnie.”

Saying that, Edward’s touch as he pulled her into his arms left Winnie with no choice but to entrust herself to him. All the tension in her body was released, and the tears that had stopped began to flow again.

“Heu-euk… heu-heu-euk…”

As I wrapped my arms around his back and hugged him, Edward hugged me even tighter. With my face buried in that broad chest, Winnie sobbed for a long time. But it felt different from when I cried alone. Winnie, who had released all her tension, took all the strength out of her body in relief. It was as if she was entrusting her body to Edward, and he had to bear all the weight, but Winnie’s weight, who had lost weight, was nothing to him.

“Heup, huu-euu… huu… hic!”

Winnie, who had calmed down, came to her senses and stepped away from Edward, and as soon as she did, she began to hiccup. Edward, who still had her in his arms, looked at her with loving eyes and said.

“I’m sorry. I reacted strangely for no reason, and made our baby mama worry for no reason.”

“Ugh… hic.”

“So, what’s the baby’s name?”

“Ah, I’m not going to tell you.”

“Why? Then what am I supposed to call it?”

“It’s still, a nickname… I’ll tell you later.”

When I hugged her tightly, I felt that the lower abdomen area was a bit more protruding than before. Edward was only more sorry that he was confused whether this was because the baby was growing or because Winnie was thin. If I had known she would have such a hard time, I would have come a little earlier. No, I shouldn’t have gotten angry about something that didn’t even happen in the first place.

Looking at Winnie, Edward made a firm resolution. This time, don’t jump to conclusions and place blame on things that didn’t happen. The things that happened before the regression were all gone a long time ago, starting from that day. Even if I hate Winnie for something she didn’t do, it will only lead to uncomfortable results for both him and Winnie.

‘…And for Monica too.’

“…Smells like cigarettes.”

Winnie frowned. Edward quickly apologized, wondering if she didn’t like this either.

“I’m sorry for smoking. I only smoked one cigarette, just one.”

“Only one here, you didn’t smoke a lot when I wasn’t looking, did you?”

“Really, today is the first time in months.”

“…”

Winnie glared suspiciously, but there’s no way she could figure anything out. She could only smell his body odor, which still felt like a good fragrance, even though it was slightly mixed with the smell of cigarettes. Slightly turning her head, Winnie said with dissatisfaction.

“You promised me you’d quit…”

“I didn’t even smoke half of it earlier. And I threw it away right away.”

“…Okay.”

But Winnie still had a dissatisfied expression. Edward kissed her to change the subject.

쪽- (Jjok-)

“Winnie. I missed you.”

“M-missed me.”

Why does my heart flutter for no reason at the words of a womanizer who smokes cigarettes all the time, saying he missed me. Still, it was a very pleasant thing to hear. But Winnie still had an unresolved problem in her heart.

“Really… did you miss me?”

“Of course. I kept looking at you even when we were eating earlier. It was so hard trying to steal glances without Monica noticing.”

‘Really?’

In her memory, Edward never looked at her even once. Are those words really true? Anyway, rather than an unverifiable truth, there was something she definitely had to ask him.

“…But why didn’t you come to see me even once for five days?”

“Th, that’s…”

Winnie’s eyes narrowed again, and Winnie hit Edward’s chest.

“…You didn’t have time to come see me, but you saw Vera-unni every day! And on top of that, you’re adding more women!”

‘She saw everything.’

Since Winnie had only come into the castle this afternoon, Edward guessed that she had been looking through that telescope or something again. Winnie continued to hit Edward, but he didn’t deny or apologize, and she didn’t have enough strength to hurt him at all.

“Eueu…”

Edward looked at her with a mischievous expression. She felt slightly resentful at that sight, but Winnie’s emotions melted away as soon as Edward took out a ring from his arms.

“I was a little late because I was waiting for this.”