Chapter 3

Jei.

She was a beauty with a delicate impression, her softly falling jawline leading into a slender nape.

Her eyes were especially striking, with a faintly folded double eyelid and clear, distinct brown pupils.

Her unusually moist eyes sometimes gave the illusion that tears were welling in them.

When she smiled, the long outer corners of her eyes folded like crescent moons and gently melted the hearts of those who saw her, but when she did not smile, she looked strangely sorrowful.

It had been that way half a year ago, and it was that way now.

The only difference was that her face had grown much thinner than before. Faint shadows lingered under her eyes.

Taking his eyes from Jei’s face, Iheon looked at her hands clutching his. Her small, white hands, too, had become thinner than before.

It was absurd that such things bothered him in this situation. The thought that she had abandoned him for something like this made his jaw muscles twitch.

The most pathetic part was his own fucking state—whether he was looking at her or not.

And yet, the fact that he still wanted to hold this woman was just as fucking pathetic.

“This—”

Iheon coldly shook off Jei’s hands, which were holding his.

“Was this the kind of thing that could be resolved just like that?”

Yes. At first it was worry. Then suspicion. Then anger.

And from some point on, all those feelings tangled together and became a mass to which he could give no name.

Every time the call would not connect.

Every time there was no reply to his messages.

Every time he looked again and again at the single-page divorce agreement.

Did she believe she could make up for that time, when even his pride had worn away to nothing, with a single word?

He had not been waiting. He had only been standing his ground there, unwilling to admit that he had been abandoned.

Without knowing what kind of feeling that had been, she now asked what she could do to make him feel better.

I missed you, I’m sorry. The words from her mouth sounded not like an apology but like mockery.

“Don’t misunderstand.”

His gaze, carrying a bitter sneer, lingered briefly on Jei’s swollen lips, then pierced through her dark brown eyes.

“Don’t pretend to be pitiful, and don’t pretend to be unaffected. Both make me feel like I’ll go insane.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“…….”

“You told me not to pretend to be pitiful or unaffected.”

It was neither an angry tone nor a resentful one. She was chewing over the words he had spat out.

“Get as angry as you want. I never thought it would be resolved with one word. I just want to take responsibility for what I did.”

“Responsibility? You should have said that before you left me—no, before you came back out of nowhere like this—or at least before you sent the divorce papers.”

“I know.”

“If you know, how—”

“But it’s already past. The present matters more to me. What I said about missing you—I meant it.”

You left without a word because you needed time, and now you come back saying this moment is what matters?

How disgustingly cheap sincerity is.

How the hell am I supposed to accept this nonsensical bullshit?

“I understand all your anger, Iheon. I would have been angry too. So even now, I’ll bear it. Your resentment and hatred, all of it.”

“The word ‘bear’ sounds quite noble, but if it’s my heart you’re talking about, you’ve got the direction wrong.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Iheon’s arm shot out.

Jei’s waist caught in his grasp, and their separated bodies pressed together in an instant.

Before she could even swallow a breath, Iheon lifted her and set her down on the island table as if throwing her.

The food laid out on the table was pushed off, plates and all, and fell to the floor.

Crash—. The plate hit the tile floor with a loud noise and shattered to pieces.

Not a single person lowered their gaze at the sound of the breaking plates.

Iheon, carrying a mockery cold enough to chill the bone, crushed the broken pieces under his shoes and pushed his waist between her knees.

Through her disheveled hair, Jei looked up at the man who had come close with a ferocity that seemed ready to devour her.

It was not a frightened face. It was a damnably clear face that seemed ignorant of any sin of her own—even carrying a bold look that said, Do it if you can.

Jei seemed not unaware that it provoked Iheon even more.

“Yes. You were always like this.”

Iheon seized Jei’s slender chin in one hand and yanked it up roughly. As strength entered his fingertips, her head tilted all the way back.

“You show up shamelessly with a calm face and only smooth words.”

“Iheon……”

“Did you think I’d let you off?”

Jei slowly closed and opened her eyelids once. Even under the heavy gaze locked close to her, she did not look away.

With a sorrowful face that looked as if it would break under pressure, she looked up at Iheon with eyes that ultimately did not yield.

She neither avoided him nor begged. She did not waver either.

That made it all the more infuriating. Her face truly seemed to believe she could set something right, even now.

That utterly proud belief touched the base, vulgar impulse sunk at the bottom of Iheon.

He wanted to make her cry. He wanted to ruin her.

Until those seemingly innocent eyes were a mess with tears. Until no more calm words could come from those small lips.

He wanted to make her know to the bone how absurd her words were, how light the word “bear” had been.

Iheon pressed his thumb painfully into Jei’s swollen lower lip.

“If you’re that confident.”

He wanted to punish her.

Even knowing that his trampled pride could never be restored by doing so.

He wanted to make her know.

How ridiculous I became because you left.

And how shameful it was that I still wanted you.

He wanted to engrave into her, even by the most violent means, the things he could never bring himself to say.

“Let’s see you bear it.”

Before the words shot out like a warning had even cooled, Iheon’s lips covered Jei’s.

Savagely, like a long-starved beast tearing into prey, Iheon delved into Jei’s swollen lips.

Without anything like affection. The whole process of stealing her breath and ravaging the inside of her mouth was closer to vomiting out all the emotions rotting inside him.

Under his shoes, the broken plate shards were crushed fine. The dry cracking sound vanished amid their roughened breathing, and the cooled dinner scattered across the marble tiles was crushed along with it.

Jei’s head tilted back. The large hand holding her chin dug deep into her hair and bound her more strongly. It was a heartless touch that would give her no room to escape.

With the hand that had been braced on the table’s edge, Jei clutched Iheon’s shoulder. The neatly pressed dress shirt was crumpled into a mess in her grasp.

“Hn….”

Wet breaths tangled sloppily. Beyond their crushed lips spread a metallic taste. Tongues rubbed together recklessly.

As if her words about bearing it had not been a lie, Jei took the violence poured onto her whole.

That calm compliance—no, it was too stubborn to call compliance—drove Iheon even crazier.

Without taking his lips away, Iheon gripped Jei’s pelvis with his other hand and pulled her close to him.

With one pull, he undid the knot of the apron caught on his fingers. The piece of floral cloth that had pretended to be a tender everyday life slipped off limply and was thrown to the floor.

Jei’s eyes wavered for the first time. Iheon did not miss that wavering.

“Are you scared now?”

“No. If this is what it takes to cool your anger, I can bear any—”

“I look forward to seeing how long you can keep spouting that fucking bullshit about anger and bearing it.”

Iheon did not hide the gleam of vulgar desire in his eyes. He had no need to hide it, and no wish to.