SATURDAY 43

Clearly, Lili had been sleeping in the middle, and I had left a spot next to me for Mr. Taeseon to sleep, but when I opened my eyes, I was lying straight on one side of the bed by myself.

At first, my vision was blurry. Not a single small light was turned on in the bedroom, so the only light was what seeped in through the door that had been left open less than a span.

That light was incredibly unstable and dim. It only reached the bed where I lay as faintly as a fog. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Then, finally, shapes began to emerge from the shadows.

Inadvertently, I tried to check the pillow next to me to confirm Mr. Taeseon’s warmth, but I was flustered by my body, which would not move. I was experiencing sleep paralysis. And yet, I hadn’t had this happen even once since coming to this house….

At that moment, my gaze turned instinctively. The only things I could move in my body were my eyeballs. In that moment.

The reason I didn’t scream was purely because no sound would come out, as if my throat were tightly blocked. I couldn’t breathe.

Reflected in my wide-open eyes was… Inha, standing straight up, treading on the headboard with his heels, pale and his entire body covered in bruises.

“Gasp….”

Barely a single thread of breath managed to leak out. While standing straight, Inha only lowered his head and was glaring at me with bloodshot eyes. Goosebumps broke out over my entire body in an instant. I struggled somehow to break free from the paralysis. However, the feeling of struggling was only my sensation; in reality, my physical body did not move even a finger.

Before long, Inha hopped down from the headboard onto my body.

It felt as if Inha were entering inside me. To my eyes, which couldn’t even blink, I could see Inha, crouched exactly where he landed on my stomach, slowly turning his head. That neck made a “Creeak, creeak” sound and kept… kept turning until he looked at me.

While sitting facing toward my legs, Inha was looking at me with only his head. The two feet stepping on my stomach—the two feet that gripped my stomach tight like hooks—were chillingly cold and painful. Inha, who had been expressionless, moved only his mouth and grinned broadly. His bright red eyes were glaring at me fiercely.

My breath was cutting off. Inha was extremely heavy. He felt much heavier than when he was alive. My body trembled at the thought that I would be pulled deep into my own body, starting from my feet. No, perhaps the trembling was my delusion. Because I was in a state where I couldn’t move even a single finger. A sense of helplessness spread to the tips of my fingernails.

「Hey, Yoon Inyoung.」

“….”

「Hey, Yoon Inyoung.」

“….”

「Why are you alive?」

“Heuek….”

The monotone way of speaking was very different from Inha’s while he was living. However, the malice hidden in the words remained the same.

Just then, Inha suddenly raised his body. His neck is still looking at me. He began to hop up and down, pressing down on my stomach with two feet as cold as a frozen corpse.

“Ugh, eueek….”

A beast-like sound leaked from my throat. I was completely terrified seeing Inha, who was jumping while looking at me and laughing.

Inha hopped without even bending his legs, as if he were hanging from something by his head. Every time Inha’s two feet stepped on my stomach, extreme pain spread through my whole body. Aside from being paralyzed, it hurt so much that I couldn’t move.

In the midst of that, drowsiness rushed in.

「Sleep.」

“….”

「Sleep, Yoon Inyoung. Fall asleep.」

Watching Inha grin and grin, his mouth stretching up to his cheeks, I felt that I absolutely must not fall asleep. If I fell asleep, I didn’t know what would happen.

Then, suddenly, the room brightened. It wasn’t that it became blindingly bright, but light from the hallway entered. A “Tap, tap, tap” sound of footsteps was heard, and then Lili cried toward me with a fierce sound. Simultaneously, Inha’s form vanished like smoke.

“Gasp…!”

As Inha vanished, the paralysis also broke. My entire body was covered in cold sweat to the point the sheets were wet. Seeing me gasping for breath with a face that must have turned pale, Mr. Taeseon came running in shock.

“Inyoung, what’s wrong? Hey?”

“Ha, haa… Ta, Mr. Taeseon….”

Lili circled the bottom of the bed making “Ae-ung, ae-ung” sounds. The bed in this bedroom was much higher than in other rooms. Lili still couldn’t jump up onto it. Because he was worried about me but couldn’t get up, Lili was just “Aeng-aeng”-ing while scratching the side of the bed “Scratch, scratch.”

Mr. Taeseon scooped up that Lili, placed him on the bed, and came close to me.

“Inyoung.”

“…It’s nothing…. I just had a bit of a nightmare.”

“A nightmare?”

Mr. Taeseon’s face clouded with worry. I placed my hand on top of Mr. Taeseon’s hand that was touching my cheek and managed to smile.

“Yes, it was nothing much.”

I said that to avoid worrying him as much as possible, but goosebumps still remained on my spine. I couldn’t forget the image of Inha’s head turning while making that bizarre sound, his pale and gloomy face, his bloodshot eyes, and his grinning mouth. Nor the intense malice I felt at the moment he was “Thump, thump” jumping on top of me.

With a worried face, Mr. Taeseon pulled my upper body up and hugged me in his arms without ceremony, and Lili climbed up over me, settled on my shoulder, and diligently licked my face with the tip of his tongue. He was licking so intently that it was quite stinging today, but rather, that stinging sensation brought me back to reality.

Normally I would have been surprised by Mr. Taeseon hugging me, but since I was in such a state of shock, I didn’t even have the leeway to be surprised. After grabbing and hugging me, Mr. Taeseon seemed to check my condition for a moment, and once he saw I was being held quietly, he seemed relieved and began to let his pheromones flow little by little.

The arms I was held in for the first time in a long while were very warm. Lili’s body also felt like holding a warm water bottle. As I felt Mr. Taeseon’s thick pheromones along with that warmth, my startled heart gradually calmed down.

“Haa….”

It was nearly 30 minutes later when I completely escaped from the lingering images of the paralysis and nightmare. I let out a sigh and, with a comfortable heart, cautiously leaned my head against Mr. Taeseon’s chest and rubbed my cheek.

Lili, who had been rubbing his head after stopping licking my cheek, tilted his head and stared at me blankly. While stroking Lili on my shoulder, I murmured, “Lili, thank you,” and Lili purred as if in response.

Mr. Taeseon, who had been stroking my back continuously for some time, lowered his head and looked into me.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m okay now. I’m sorry.”

“What is there to be sorry for? I told you not to say you’re sorry….”

Then, after hesitating for a moment, he lightly kissed my forehead. Starting from my forehead, warmth seemed to spread languidly through my whole body. Lili, who was watching that quietly, also brought his own nose and mouth to my cheek with a “Tap.” Laughter burst out involuntarily. Mr. Taeseon laughed too.

I suddenly stopped laughing and looked at Mr. Taeseon. How long had it been since we laughed together like this….

Mr. Taeseon looked back at me and this time kissed my cheek. I also stood on my tiptoes and lightly touched my lips to the area of his chin. It was an action that required considerable courage. The worry of “What if I’m pushed away?” still didn’t disappear.

But instead of pushing me away, Mr. Taeseon hugged me tighter, and Lili began to protest.

“Ang! Ae-ung! Wa-ang! Kka-ok!”

“Hmm?”

“Kkoo-ooo-oong!”

It seemed to mean he wanted a kiss too. After lowering Lili from my shoulder to my arms and kissing him several times, I leaned gently against Mr. Taeseon just like that. He took my weight as if it were nothing and hugged my whole body tight.

∞ ∞ ∞

After a light walk and even stretching with the trainer, it was already noon. Since being discharged, the trainer comes five times a week to help with light exercise, and three times a week I go for counseling with Mr. Taeseon.

The counseling was, of course, about the miscarriage. Actually, strangely enough, no thoughts at all came to mind. Was it because I didn’t know the fact that I had been pregnant?

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say it doesn’t feel real. Even the conversations with the counselor, if summarized, end with things like “How are you lately?” and “I’m fine.”

Am I strange…. The counselor doesn’t say anything in particular about my reaction. We just come out after the three of us share everyday stories.

Originally, marital relationship counseling was also included, but as Mr. Taeseon began to treat me like before, it seemed the counselor had passed this over as ‘no problem’ on their own.

Two weeks passed like that, and the time came to reschedule the wedding date that had been vaguely and indecisively postponed. The Saturday the accident happened was in February. Three months have passed since then, so already the original wedding date could not be kept.

Mr. Taeseon very cautiously asked how I would feel about postponing the wedding a bit more. Since my physical condition is still not great… and….

Because if we hold the wedding now, the name ‘Yoon Inha’ would end up on one side of the groom’s names.

Neither I nor Mr. Taeseon wanted that. Naturally, I wanted to postpone the wedding as long as it could be postponed. It didn’t matter if it was postponed by about a year. If only everything could be revealed and I could hold the wedding under my own name, Yoon Inyoung.

Mr. Taeseon was currently looking for various methods. He said it was not a difficult task. I think so too. Since in the first place, it’s a matter of just confirming a single fingerprint.

However, the reason we cannot do that is because of the Shaman and Ms. Professor Jang.

It was those two who disguised me as Inha. Family, relatives, everyone firmly believed I was Inha, and because of that, I lived as ‘Yoon Inha’ for three months. So a question arises.

Why did those two… try to give me the role of ‘Yoon Inha’?