“Tell me. Why do you need cash?”
“I’ve always had a hard time trusting people. So I prefer to keep it on hand. Is that not okay?”
“What if it gets stolen?”
“You’re going to be on the first floor from now on anyway.”
I looked at Moon Dowon as confidently as possible, pretending not to be intimidated, as if it wouldn’t be a problem at all.
When I gazed at him with a look of deep trust, he finally gave a reluctant answer.
“Fine. Let’s do that.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s not like it’s a difficult request.”
Contrary to his calm tone, Moon Dowon seemed to be in a good mood.
Fortunately, it seemed I had passed his suspicion without issue.
I let out a silent sigh of relief and lightly steered the conversation.
“Why did you bring me to the first floor?”
“To show you. I’m planning to turn this place into a hideout until the house is finished.”
“That’s not bad.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Moon Dowon looked slightly flustered, as if my answer was far from what he had expected.
He looked dissatisfied, perhaps feeling like I was just giving him a half-hearted response, but he entered the first-floor apartment without saying anything else.
He said he had called a cleaning company, and the place was so clean there wasn’t a single piece of trash in sight.
“It’s spacious.”
It looked about twice the size of the unit I was living in.
As I stood there blankly looking around, Moon Dowon walked to where the living room and kitchen met and pointed toward the ceiling.
“I’m planning to drill through here.”
“Then won’t the floor of my place be pierced…? Are you planning to connect them?”
“Yeah. If we build a staircase, we can go back and forth easily. It’ll be convenient.”
“That would be a massive renovation, though. You’d need permits and everything…”
“That’s nothing to me. But I wanted to consult with you first. Since it’s the house you live in.”
It meant he didn’t intend to force an interior change.
Thinking back, even when it came to the GPS tracking, Moon Dowon had always asked for my opinion.
Well, except when it came to sexual preferences.
“I’m fine with it.”
Since I was planning to leave anyway, I agreed easily.
At that, Moon Dowon’s eyes darkened ominously.
It was a persistent gaze, as if he wanted to read every single hidden detail inside me.
“……Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I was wondering if that was all.”
“Then what else…?”
“What about where you’ll stay during the construction? Don’t you have anything else to ask?”
“……Um. Right. I didn’t think that far ahead.”
I tried to brush it off by laughing like an idiot.
The more I did, the more Moon Dowon’s furrowed brow remained fixed as he shifted into a crooked posture.
“If you have nowhere to go, come to my house.”
“Yeah. I’ll think about that too.”
“Hah. You’ve got to be joking right now.”
Moon Dowon swept his hair back as if he found me ridiculous.
His neatly styled hair became disheveled by his rough touch, with a few strands falling over his forehead.
“Don’t you think it’s strange? Why is everything so easy? In the past, you would’ve had a thousand excuses and resisted doing anything.”
“……It’s because you’re the landlord.”
“Is that really all?”
“Isn’t that obvious? What power do I have? If the landlord says he’s going to do it, then he does it.”
“…….”
“You said you’d return the deposit, too. That means I’ll eventually be in a position where I’m just crashing at your place. Is it so strange that I’m willing to do whatever you say?”
I tilted my head and blinked as innocently as possible.
If I weren’t planning to run away, I would have threatened to find a new house, saying I couldn’t live with the three of them—let alone share a hideout.
Suppressing my dark ulterior motives, I gave a bright, eye-smiling grin.
“I’m a good listener when it comes to the building owner.”
“…….”
“Hey, relax your eyes. You’re scaring me. You said we’d live together once the house is finished. We’re going to live together anyway, so we can just think of this as practice.”
“Did something happen with Kang Taeyun? What did he do to make you change so much in such a short time?”
Moon Dowon seemed annoyed, but he soon let out a short breath as if to drop it and walked over to the window sill.
Looking closely, I saw a gift box sitting there.
“I prepared a gift for you.”
“……I’m okay without that kind of thing.”
Perhaps because I had been so burned by Yoo Joohwan, my body reacted negatively just by hearing the word ‘gift.’
Even though it was the first gift from Moon Dowon, I didn’t feel like taking it.
“Are you only cold toward me?”
“It’s not that, it’s just that I haven’t given you anything. I feel bad receiving things like this…”
Trailing off, I made a prim expression as if I were gauging his mood.
I didn’t think the gift Moon Dowon was giving would be as bizarre as Yoo Joohwan’s, but I couldn’t easily reach for it.
“Take it. I bought it in Busan to give to you.”
“……Busan?”
“Yeah.”
As if telling me to open it quickly if I was curious, Moon Dowon grabbed my hand and forced the box into my arms.
It felt quite heavy.
‘He has a pure personality, so it shouldn’t be anything weird… right?’
Suppressing my worries, I placed the box on top of an empty dresser.
Since the box wasn’t tied with a ribbon, I opened it immediately, and inside was a camera.
“You don’t seem to be carrying a camera around lately. I saw that you didn’t even have one at home today.”
That was the old Seo Siho’s item.
I wanted to throw it away when I was burning the photos, but I couldn’t, so I hid it deep in the closet.
But to think he was looking for it… I blinked rapidly in panic.
“I bought one for you. Since it was a hobby you enjoyed.”
“……Ah.”
Just by looking at it, it seemed to be a high-end product.
I didn’t like taking pictures, but it wasn’t that I didn’t know how.
My late mother had loved photography.
As I stared down at the camera, Moon Dowon asked in a much lower voice.
“You said I occupied a lot of space in your photo gallery.”
“…….”
“From now on, don’t take them secretly. Take them openly. If you want, I’m ready to have my picture taken anytime.”
“……Is that why you bought it?”
“Well, it’s for both reasons.”
It was an honest answer.
When he wore the rash guard in Busan, I thought he was someone with a lot of self-love, but I didn’t know his narcissism was this deep.
Well, I didn’t hate it that much.
Rather, I felt a smile coming on as I watched Moon Dowon tidy his hair as if waiting for a photo.
“Do you like having your picture taken?”
“No.”
“Doesn’t seem like it?”
“I’m only letting you take them. If it were any other bastard, there would be no chance.”
For someone who said that, he seemed to be quite worried about how to get the best shot.
While I was fiddling with the camera, Moon Dowon came up behind me.
“Since it’s the first photo, it’s better if we take it together.”
Moon Dowon pressed his back against mine, saying it would be more meaningful that way.
He was so close that I could even feel the movement of his breathing through his firm muscles.
When I hesitated to move, he gently covered my hand that was holding the camera.
“Should I press it if you’re uncomfortable?”
“No. I’ll do it. Let me set the timer—”
“Just take it. Like this.”
Moon Dowon leaned down slightly and rested his chin on my shoulder, saying natural was better.
His finger, which was touching mine on the button, pressed down firmly, making a clicking sound.
Without even knowing what kind of expression I was making, the first photo with Moon Dowon was captured on the camera.
“I’ll print out the photos we take and hang them here from now on. Since this is our hideout now.”
“…….”
“So don’t worry about what others think and take a lot of photos to hang up. You can even bring the photos you took before and hang them.”
He spoke as if he were doing me a favor, but secretly he seemed to want me to fill the place with photos of himself.
At the unappealing suggestion, I put down the camera and created a bit of distance from him.
“Actually, I don’t really like taking photos. Taking photos of you guys in the past… it must have been because I wanted to be with you in that way.”
Since I couldn’t be sure, I spoke in the past tense, and Moon Dowon closed the distance I had created.
Whatever he was thinking, his deep gaze was excessively quiet, causing the atmosphere to drop low.
“Then what do you like?”
“……Huh?”
“Why do I feel like all the information I researched doesn’t match you? They said you loved taking photos, but that’s not it. They said you’re greedy and can’t rest until you have everything others have, but it doesn’t really seem like that either.”
“…….”
“They said you live with a curse on your lips every day, but I’ve never heard a harsh word come out of your mouth. They said you have anger issues and break things because you can’t control your impulses when you’re mad, but that’s not true either.”
I didn’t know Seo Siho had such a personality.
Just as I was wondering if that was why he was a villain, Moon Dowon asked chillingly with a voice full of tight tension.
“Then who are you?”
“……Dowon.”
“The Seo Siho I researched and the Seo Siho now. Which one is your real self?”
