When Jieon opened his eyes, he was momentarily flustered by the excessively quiet air in the room. What was supposed to be just closing his eyes for a moment had turned into sleeping straight through for several hours, and outside the window already looked like dawn past the night. All he’d done today was be discharged from the hospital, but even just that seemed to have exhausted all his energy.
As memories returned one by one through his dazed mind, the first thing that came to mind was the fact that he’d left Shin Mua lying on the floor. To have fallen asleep defenseless when he didn’t know what that crazy bastard might do.
Jieon, whose spine suddenly went cold, carefully rose. He was very much looking forward to seeing where Shin Mua, who insisted he didn’t remember this house at all, was sleeping.
After marriage, Shin Mua became Cinderella and was quite intoxicated with his appearance as the so-called ‘mistress of a chaebol household.’ The fact that this was a contract marriage with an end didn’t seem to be in his consideration at all.
He especially praised this giant castle-like newlywed home received as a wedding gift as if it were the result of his own efforts, and among all spaces, the one he loved most was Mua’s—his own room.
He recalled the day he’d reassured Shin Mua, who couldn’t hide his joy saying this room was much bigger than the house he used to live in, that even after this contract ended, he wouldn’t have to live in hardship like before. It was a time when Jieon and Mua’s relationship wasn’t yet bad.
Surely he would have wanted to sleep comfortably in his own room, but he was curious about what Shin Mua would choose between the room he loved so much and the concept he had to thoroughly maintain. Jieon slowly rose and headed outside his room.
“……”
However, as soon as Jieon opened the door and came out, he could feel something was wrong. As if wind were coming in from somewhere, a bleak energy seemed to brush past his nape.
The living room was empty. But someone’s presence was felt from the kitchen direction.
Right now, the only ones in this house were Cheon Jieon and Shin Mua. The housekeeper who would take care of housework until the two fully recovered would only come when morning came. Then it was naturally reasonable to expect the owner of the presence felt in the kitchen to be Shin Mua.
But what was he doing in the kitchen at this dawn hour? Had he come out to drink water or something? Of course, that wasn’t strange, but Jieon couldn’t relax his strange tension.
The accident. Shin Mua who insisted he’d lost all his memories. The terrible and horrifying stalker who used strange speech as if he’d become a completely different person and continued disgusting acting.
All of that layered over the silent air of dawn made this moment like a scene from a thriller.
The villain taking out a kitchen knife in the kitchen at this dawn hour to deal with an opponent who wouldn’t be fooled by the acting. It was such a common scene there was no need to even imagine it. And finally, Jieon, who had killed his footsteps and reached the kitchen, saw it.
In the darkness, Shin Mua sitting stock-still in the middle of the kitchen island table, scooping up white rice from a bowl placed before him and eating it.
Goosebumps rose along his spine. On the table, there was nothing except the rice bowl. Just with a single bowl of rice placed there, Shin Mua was mechanically shoveling white rice into his mouth. Like a ghost eating ancestral rite food.
Jieon unconsciously stepped back. It wasn’t a conscious action. Instinctive fear arose. Dark shadows rippled around Shin Mua, and he couldn’t tell if it was the shadow of dawn or a hallucination seen because of fear.
The light wasn’t even on, so he couldn’t see his face in detail. Perhaps that’s why. Jieon suddenly felt Shin Mua’s appearance too unfamiliar.
Was that person before his eyes really Shin Mua? Wasn’t it someone else with a similar build to Shin Mua? But who would infiltrate this house soundlessly at this dawn hour to eat rice?
Jieon’s head was dizzy. That being was creepy whether it was Shin Mua, and if it wasn’t Shin Mua, it was an even bigger problem.
What should I do? Should I just quietly go back to my room? Or should I try speaking? When Jieon stepped back a few more steps while repeating confused worries, Mua, who sensed the presence, looked at him with flashing eyes.
“Ah!”
At the same time, Jieon fell backward with a single scream. He didn’t scream because he was scared—his feet just got tangled while backing up awkwardly. He wasn’t really frightened. Really.
“Ah….”
Jieon groaned while curled up on the floor, clutching his ribs. It seemed the impact had hit the place injured in the accident when he fell. While he was groaning in irritating pain, he heard the sound of a chair being pushed back with a scraping noise. Jieon looked up in shock.
The person who had been sitting at the table, who had been eating white rice like a ghost receiving ancestral rites, Shin Mua with a face like a completely different person, was rising and slowly walking toward Jieon.
Jieon held his breath. While the desire to run away and the pride that he couldn’t show a more pathetic sight than this fiercely confronted each other, Shin Mua approached right in front of Jieon.
“Wh-what, fuck!”
Jieon reflexively spat out a curse. He did it because he was too scared and his pride was hurt. Since he usually didn’t curse much, the curse spat into the air was awkward and shabby. His face heated up warmly.
Even until then, Jieon’s pride was hurt even more by Shin Mua’s appearance showing no reaction at all, and he shouted again.
“Crazy bastard, what the hell are you doing right now!”
Shin Mua tilted his head slightly to the side, then opened his mouth.
“I was eating rice because I was hungry.”
“……”
“Is that something to be cursed at like this?”
“What…?”
“I thought you just lacked manners, but you’re heartless too.”
Having finished speaking, Mua’s brow crumpled harshly. Though it was a bit embarrassing to have been caught secretly eating rice at dawn, more than that, aggrieved feelings surged first.
His situation of having been living well as a grim reaper and suddenly ending up like this was pathetic, and Cheon Jieon’s behavior of suddenly appearing and shouting curses when they say even dogs aren’t bothered while eating was grievous.
“I couldn’t eat a single meal all day and vomited, and now I’m finally eating one bowl of rice—is it precious to you?”
“N-no….”
“You call yourself a chaebol, but you’re such a petty bastard.”
Hmph.
So Mua hid his true feelings and muttered as if nothing was wrong. He didn’t want to admit that such a narrow-minded human had made him feel aggrieved. He was upset because of the Afterlife leaving him in a human state, absolutely not because of this human before his eyes.
Only then did Jieon recall that Shin Mua hadn’t eaten breakfast either, and had even thrown up what little he had because of motion sickness. And the fact that he’d left someone who was groaning from feeling unwell just lying on the living room floor.
But was that his fault? It was purely Shin Mua’s own will to ride in a car on an empty stomach knowing full well he’d get motion sick, all to do acting that didn’t even work. And now to shamelessly blame others. As expected, that shamelessness hadn’t gone anywhere.
Moreover, even if he had been truly cold-hearted, considering what he’d been subjected to all this time, this much was nothing.
“Think about all the things you’ve done. Is that something you should be saying to me?”
Jieon said while standing up abruptly. Pain spread through his entire body again, but he opened his eyes wide as if nothing was wrong.
“And, what are you doing in the middle of the night without even turning on the light? You’re doing this on purpose to pretend to be crazy, right?”
Jieon looked at the table where only a single bowl of rice still remained alone. Looking at it again, it was still a creepy sight, but the person himself seemed to have no particular thoughts and shrugged his shoulders.
“I was just trying to fill my stomach quickly.”
Shin Mua speaking like that was like an old person who had comprehended the entire world and had no desires remaining.
The Shin Mua that Cheon Jieon knew wasn’t like that. He who had lived in poverty all his life never ate carelessly after marrying Jieon, even for a single meal.
“You… you’re really terrible.”
“What did you just say?”
“I said terrible. You really have no intention of doing this moderately. The more you do this, the more disgusted I get—do you think this kind of thing is meaningful?”
“You have a talent for making words incomprehensible. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Hah….”
Jieon let out a sigh with a face that seemed to have aged ten years in an instant and ran his hand through his hair. For some reason, he felt completely deflated. He felt utterly pathetic for having felt fear, even for a moment, toward such a person. It seemed his energy had been depleted from the accident.
“Forget it, let’s stop talking. What more is there to say to someone who says he doesn’t remember anything?”
“You were the one who came and bothered someone eating rice well alone.”
Jieon, who had been glaring for a moment at Mua who didn’t concede even one word despite being a fraud, soon shook his head and replied.
“Whatever, is your body okay now? I’ll give you divorce papers tomorrow, so just stamp them obediently.”
“Divorce?”
“Yeah. We were trying to divorce anyway, and it would be uncomfortable for you to live with someone you don’t even know when you have no memories, right?”
“Mm….”
“If you just divorce me, I’ll set you up so you can eat and live for the rest of your life. So know that and I’m going to sleep.”
Jieon didn’t even wait for Mua’s answer and turned around. There was no need to talk more anyway since communication didn’t work.
The reason Shin Mua was doing this terrible acting was all to avoid divorce, so what would he make as an excuse in front of the divorce papers? He’d surely spout some nonsense again, but it would be useless.
Jieon wanted to end this dragging standoff this time for sure. He planned to make him stamp the papers even if he had to be somewhat forceful.
Having organized his thoughts like that, Jieon, who was returning to his room, paused at the presence felt from behind and turned his head. In the kitchen visible in the distance was Shin Mua, who had sat back down at the table and was eating the remaining rice again.
The sight of Shin Mua eating white rice without even turning on the light was still creepy beyond measure.
“…Creepy.”
Jieon, who got another chilling feeling, hurriedly returned to his room and closed the door. Still not reassured, he locked the door and even checked if it was properly locked.
To think he had to spend the night in the same house with someone who was half-crazy from obsessing over him. If he’d known it would be like this, he should have told Suchan to stay over. Not because he was scared, just because there was nothing wrong with being careful.
Jieon shook his shoulders several times at the feeling of goosebumps rising repeatedly and even locked the windows. To say it again, it wasn’t because he was scared. Anyway, that’s how it was.
