IMFOBO | CH 69 | Warmth

Tae-san grabbed Eun-cho’s wrist and pulled her towards him.

Her soul utterly gone, Eun-cho stumbled and almost fell into Tae-san’s embrace.

The vehicle, without slowing down, sped past them and out of the parking lot.

“You almost got seriously hurt!”

His deeply angry voice pierced her ears.

Only then did Eun-cho, returning to reality, blink and look up.

Her heart, still pressed against Tae-san’s body, continued to pound wildly.

She had grasped the full truth, yet she still resented her father, and her grandmother, whom she couldn’t hate, was suffocating Eun-cho.

She felt utterly alone, left stranded in a dead end with nowhere else to go.

“Lee Eun-cho. What happened?”

“…”

Tae-san cupped Eun-cho’s cheeks as before, meeting her gaze.

So tender, unlike the rogue he seemed to be.

Concern laced his usually monotonous and low voice.

Eun-cho’s eyes, clouded with layers of confusion, trembled endlessly.

It was a strange thing.

All the way down, she hadn’t felt any sense of reality, and because she didn’t want to break down again, she had held it all in…

“Heuup.”

Her vision blurred, and a sound like a sob escaped through her gritted teeth.

The moment she saw Ryu Tae-san, tears burst forth.

Like someone whose insides were completely broken and misaligned.

The man, seeing Eun-cho’s tearful face, wore a subtle expression.

They were so close that their breaths almost touched.

“Hey, Lee Eun-cho.”

He hugged Eun-cho’s back as if he couldn’t help himself.

Leaning into Tae-san’s embrace without any awkwardness, Eun-cho closed her eyes in the familiar warmth.

Streaks of tears flowed down her cheeks.

The hand patting her back was careful and gentle.

She realized now that there wasn’t just a strange tension between them but also this tender affection.

Was that why?

Once the tears started, they showed no sign of stopping.

Her throat tightened, and she trembled again.

It felt as if she had been lost and wandering, only to finally meet Ryu Tae-san at the end of that path.

Absurdly, she even felt fortunate that she hadn’t come alone today, that she was with this man.

It was a thought too dependent and sentimental for Lee Eun-cho, who had never leaned on anyone before.

“Mr. Tae-san, I don’t like it here.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

The man, who had taken a step or two in sync with her, frowned slightly.

Whatever displeased him, he stopped and then suddenly lifted Eun-cho into his arms.

At any other time, she would have made a fuss and demanded to be put down, but right now, she didn’t want to.

Eun-cho clung to Tae-san’s nape and pressed her forehead against his.

She had struggled so much not to lose her heart to him, but now, all those reasons seemed to fade away.

A man who lived in a world that felt like a parallel line, never meant to intersect with hers.

A man constantly surrounded by women.

A future with a man who offered pleasure and thrill rather than stability was hard to imagine.

A temporary husband, nothing more, nothing less.

“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to, but let’s make one thing clear.”

Tae-san’s soft voice slowly settled in her ear.

Eun-cho, still with her forehead pressed against his, focused on his voice.

“It’s not your fault.”

There were people who had said that her very birth was a sin.

Madam Jung had been one of them, and so had her aunt, who always grumbled about how her mother’s back was breaking raising a child so late in life.

She never imagined there would be someone who would listen without judgment and unconditionally take her side.

And for that someone to be Ryu Tae-san, she couldn’t believe it even as she saw it.

“Take me somewhere where no one is.”

Ryu Tae-san, who seemed so arrogant and untroubled by the world, was tender.

It felt like he would always be on Eun-cho’s side like this.

Even if this was just a fleeting whim, she felt like she could handle it.

Because the heart that had been frozen solid was melting away, crackling with warmth.

She didn’t want to miss this absolute warmth that she was experiencing for the first time in her life.

She wanted to impulsively trust and rely on him without any complicated calculations.

She hadn’t had a single drop of alcohol, but she felt completely drunk.

She couldn’t believe she was doing this with a clear mind.

Tae-san placed Eun-cho in the passenger seat and then leaned over to fasten her seatbelt.

Click. The sound echoed in the quiet space.

“So, where are we going?”

“My place.”

The words “my place” felt so natural.

Ryu Tae-san’s house in Hannam-dong.

She had been there before, but she hadn’t set foot inside since it was decorated as their marital home.

“I changed the security company.”

“Ah…”

“And the door lock, too.”

Such a meticulous man.

Eun-cho smiled faintly and closed her eyes at his subtle reassurance that his mother wouldn’t barge in like last time.

“Okay, let’s go.”

A fortress-like place where no one could enter.

Yes, today, a place like that felt right.

Tae-san, noticing Eun-cho hunching her shoulders against the cold, scowled fiercely.

He took off his coat and draped it over Eun-cho’s body.

A comforting warmth spread, and his strong cologne scent filled her nostrils.

It felt just like being held in Ryu Tae-san’s arms.

* * *

She wanted to forget everything.

Her father’s hidden circumstances and the truth that her grandparents had kept secret from her her whole life.

If only this vast loneliness, as if she were isolated in the world, would disappear.

She felt like she could do anything.

As the two entered the foyer, the sensor light flickered on.

Eun-cho tiptoed and wrapped her arms around Tae-san’s neck.

It was the moment she was about to press her lips to his, with the distance between them completely gone.

Tae-san lightly blocked Eun-cho’s mouth with his hand.

As she looked up at him with trembling eyes, he removed his hand and gently lifted her into his arms.

Her vision swayed, and Tae-san’s unique scent softly permeated the air around her.

“There’s something I need to make clear.”

Eun-cho blinked and looked at Tae-san.

Despite being a married couple, they hadn’t shared any particularly deep emotions so far, nor had they promised a future together.

They had only agreed to share a bed, so his sudden refusal even of that felt quite new to her.

Wasn’t this warmth supposed to be hers?

“I want to have a child who looks like you.”

“……!”

She hadn’t expected him to cut to the chase like that.

Even more unexpectedly, she hadn’t imagined that Ryu Tae-san would be dwelling on the words she had rejected.

The man was direct.

As if he had no intention of hiding his true feelings from the start.

“I won’t force you. I’ll wait until you want to.”

Hearing Ryu Tae-san say that he sincerely wanted a future with Lee Eun-cho, it felt like the dam she had built up so firmly was collapsing.

“……Just hold me so I can’t think about anything.”

No sooner had she finished speaking than Tae-san’s lips met hers.

Holding her so fiercely that she couldn’t think was what this man did best.

Thump.

Eun-cho’s back hit the wall with considerable force.

Yet, she didn’t even feel the pain.

Their noses brushed precariously, and then their lips met again at a different angle.

It was so hot.

As if she were being burned.

All she could see was Ryu Tae-san.

She never thought the day would come when she would desire this man so desperately.

Sweet saliva mingled without reservation, and the touching flesh tingled intensely.

He carried Eun-cho in his arms, kissing her as he went, all the way into the master bedroom.

“Haa…….”

The soft mattress enveloped her back.

In the dimly lit room where boundaries blurred, only Ryu Tae-san was clearly visible.

She had wanted things to be a mess.

She had wanted him to hold her with his usual roughness, with his raw, unrestrained desire…

But the way his hand gently and warmly ruffled her hair made her feel like she would burst into tears again.

Eun-cho wrapped her arms around Tae-san’s neck once more and kissed him.

She was impatient.

She wanted all the things that filled her head to be swept away without a trace.

Cho-ok, cho-ok.

In the stillness of the enclosed space, the soft, sticky sound of wet flesh meeting and slowly parting echoed with quiet intimacy.

Tae-san silently accepted Eun-cho, who was acting like someone being chased, just like his name.

Unlike usual, he tightly clenched his teeth for a moment as he wrapped his arms around Eun-cho’s waist, who was kissing him actively.

As if he were inwardly biting back and swallowing a surge of curses.

“Don’t cry.”

“Ah…….”

She hadn’t even realized she was crying.

Tae-san licked away the tears that had flowed onto her cheeks with the tip of his tongue.

As if he would even swallow these for her.

It was strange.

The more they touched, the more parched she felt.

No matter how much she filled and refilled, it felt like it wouldn’t be enough.

“I’m okay, so don’t stop.”

As if those words were a fuse, Tae-san kissed her fiercely again.

The more their soft tongues intertwined and rubbed together, the more a strange warmth spread inside her mouth.

The heat that had sparked from the meeting of damp flesh spread slowly, steadily through her entire body—

As though her blood were simmering from head to toe.

And so, Tae-san steadily heated Eun-cho’s body.

He didn’t rush at all.

All through the night, as if he were comforting a crying Eun-cho.