* * *
“Lo…ve…?”
Saewoo’s eyes widened as he blankly stared at the phone screen.
Just from the emoji, he could guess who it was, but… a heart and… “love”?
The title was so embarrassing he couldn’t even bring himself to say it out loud.
“Saewoo, what’s wrong?”
While Saewoo hesitated, Minho looked at him curiously and asked.
“Oh, uh, it’s nothing.”
Snapping out of it belatedly, Saewoo hurriedly covered the phone screen with his hand and stood up in a rush.
Thud!
“Ahhh!”
Maybe because he stood up too quickly—his right knee slammed hard into the table.
“Ah! Saewoo! Be careful…!”
“Ow…ugh….”
Saewoo sank to the floor, groaning at the sharp pain.
It didn’t seem like anything was broken, but the throbbing ache told him he’d definitely have a nasty bruise soon.
“Geez, you should be more careful… You okay?”
“Squeak, squeak.”
Minho, Heungwon, and even the little mouse family all looked at him with concern.
“Ugh… Yeah, I’m fine… I just need to take this call real quick. Minho, you can go over the contract at your own pace.”
“Oh, okay! But you can take the call here, you know….”
“Haha… No, it’s fine. I’ll be right back.”
Saewoo gave an awkward smile at Minho’s concern and stepped onto the balcony.
Every step sent a dull ache through his knee.
He made a mental note to put on a pain relief patch later and shut the balcony door behind him.
“Haa….”
Even as he let out a deep breath, his phone continued to ring.
Swallowing nervously, he finally answered the call.
“…Hello?”
—Mmm, hey, love.
“……”
As expected, it was Jibeom.
It seemed like, at some point while Saewoo had been asleep that night, Jibeom had taken his phone and changed the contact name on his own.
—Huh? What, did the call drop?
Even though it was the first time in two days that he was hearing Jibeom’s voice, the man sounded completely fine.
Saewoo hadn’t planned on responding, but before he knew it, a tiny sound escaped from his lips.
“…Tsk.”
—Tsk?
Jibeom repeated after him, and Saewoo simply pursed his lips in silence.
After dropping Saewoo off at home that night, Jibeom hadn’t contacted him at all for the past two days.
Saewoo had even tried calling first the next day, but either the call had gone unanswered, or the background noise was too chaotic to have a proper conversation.
The first day, he let it go, thinking Jibeom must’ve been busy.
But when the second day passed without a single message, he found himself getting angrier the later it got.
In the middle of the night, he had fumed and kicked aside the blanket Jibeom had gifted him, pulling a new one over himself instead.
By this morning, he had just been staring dejectedly at his still-silent phone.
—Hmm… Sounds like Saewoo is seriously sulking.
Somehow, Jibeom had figured it out just from a single syllable.
He let out a dry chuckle before asking,
—Did you at least eat the dumplings and eel that day?
“……”
Saewoo didn’t respond at first.
—Wait, don’t tell me you didn’t eat them?
“…I ate them.”
—And did you ventilate properly? You said there was a lot of smoke.
“I opened the kitchen and balcony windows, so even if there was smoke, I handled it fine. Is that why you called?”
—Nope.
“Then why—!”
—I just wanted to hear your voice.
Creak.
“……!”
At that moment, the balcony door suddenly opened, making Saewoo jump in surprise.
“Ah… Saewoo, sorry to interrupt your call. Can we have more jujube tea?”
Saewoo quickly clutched his phone to his chest and nodded frantically.
Minho, noticing the sudden flush on Saewoo’s cheeks, blinked in confusion before quietly shutting the balcony door again.
Saewoo paced in quick little circles before letting out a deep breath and putting the phone back to his ear.
—…So anyway.
It seemed Jibeom had been talking nonstop even in that brief moment.
Saewoo silently listened as Jibeom went on,
—…I really am sorry I didn’t contact you. I had a bunch of things to deal with, and before I knew it, time just flew by. I even pulled all-nighters.
“You… pulled an all-nighter?”
Saewoo’s eyes widened.
—Yeah, technically, I didn’t sleep for three days.
“Three days…?”
Saewoo blinked rapidly.
The past two days of radio silence made sense, but one more day…?
—How could I sleep peacefully when Saewoo might run away after eating me up?
“W-what do you mean, ‘eating up’?! And why would I even run away? You’re the one who disappeared for two days without a word…!”
Saewoo tried to keep his voice down as he protested, but Jibeom only chuckled.
—So that’s why you’ve been sulking all this time?
“……”
In the end, Jibeom saw right through him.
Saewoo’s face instantly turned red, then pale, then red again.
He crouched in front of the rosemary plant, plucking at its leaves in frustration.
“Obviously… If you just… don’t respond… at all… like that….”
—Yeah? And then?
“…Then, obviously… I’d misunderstand…”
Saewoo mumbled, his lips jutting out in a pout.
—You’re right. Listening to you now, I have no excuses. Even if I had ten mouths, I wouldn’t be able to talk my way out of this.
“…It’s one mouth, not ten.”
Saewoo corrected him with a sigh, feeling ridiculous for how much he had sulked.
Still, he was relieved that it had all been a misunderstanding on his part.
His expression visibly brightened.
‘…But more importantly, what exactly was he dealing with?’
Saewoo grew curious.
What kind of problem had Jibeom been solving that kept him up for three days straight?
What had been so important that he couldn’t even spare a moment to reply?
The original novel never went into detail about the villain’s background, so he didn’t know much about Jibeom.
Maybe it had something to do with Hoyoon, the white leopard beastman.
After all, he had always wondered—why did Jibeom so easily hand over his territory to Hoyoon?
“…Jibeom. I have a question.”
—What is it?
“I heard this from Jinho, so don’t take it the wrong way, okay?”
Just in case, Saewoo set up some safeguards.
—Hearing about another guy is already a turn-off… but fine. I won’t take it the wrong way.
Jibeom joked, laughing softly.
Saewoo hesitated, then finally asked,
“…Why did you leave that place?”
—Ah.
Even with just that vague phrasing, Jibeom seemed to understand what he meant.
He paused as if gathering his thoughts before answering,
—It’s a long story….
“I don’t mind if it’s short.”
—Hmm… To put it simply, Ye Taekwon and I were both after the same territory.
It was that place, the one mentioned in the original novel.
The very same territory Saewoo had convinced Ye Taekwon to give up on….
“But isn’t he giving up way too easily?”
“……”
“From what I know, that bastard isn’t the type to yield to anyone, no matter what.”
Jibeom was right.
That was exactly how Ye Taekwon was described in the original novel.
But everything had changed the moment Na Jinho entered his life—when someone who never conceded anything suddenly had something he was willing to give up.
“At first, I took it, but it just didn’t sit right with me… Then, some guy I really didn’t want to see kept pestering me for it, so I just gave it to him.”
It sounded like ‘some guy I really didn’t want to see’ referred to Hoyoon.
“After that, things got all tangled up… and somehow, I ended up running into that little wren.”
“……”
“By the time my rut was ending, this tiny little wren—who wasn’t even enough for a single bite—picked me up. And damn, that perky little ass caught my eye. So I came on real strong, but wow—he was impossible. Kept trying to run away at every chance. And for someone so weak, he sure was all over the place… Saying he wanted to keep things casual, but in the end, he was the one who first—”
“Ack! Ugh, s-stop! I get it! That’s enough!”
Saewoo had been listening as if spellbound, only to snap back to his senses and yell out in protest.
Meanwhile, Jibeom burst into hearty laughter, clearly amused.
Even though Saewoo couldn’t actually see Jibeom’s face, he could picture that mischievous grin all too well, which somehow made it even more frustrating.
“So, did that answer all your questions?”
“Yeah… I think so. Thanks for telling me.”
Hearing Jibeom’s explanation, things finally made some sense.
To put it simply, this entire situation unfolded because of Saewoo’s involvement.
In the end, it all worked out, but for some reason, he couldn’t shake off the lingering guilt…
“Then can I ask you something too?”
It was then that Jibeom let out a long yawn before speaking again.
“I’m really damn sleepy right now…”
“Then go home and slee—”
“Can I sleep over at your place tonight?”
Jibeom’s sly voice hummed in his ears.
* * *
