DDB Ch 19

Since they said they would prepare the basic necessities for the work, Jiwoon listed only the things she particularly needed.

After much contemplation, she wrote “<Baek Ishin>” at the end of the list and handed it over to Ishin after breakfast.

His eyes scanning the list paused and slightly crinkled at the last line.

“Until the studio is ready, you have free time. If you need anything, talk to Shanti.”

With that, Ishin, dressed impeccably from head to toe, left the house to go to work.

Work.

‘He must be heading to the main office of [Heritage Beyond] on Yusando.’

He would also meet that beautiful woman who had shouted out a challenge.

“…”

She stood there, dazed, until the car completely disappeared from sight around the lake, feeling quite pathetic.

However, one thing was clear: she had been granted a perfect right to sleep.

Thanks to burying her face in his chest and inhaling that provocative scent last night, she had slept like a log.

Even after sleeping for over six hours in the afternoon, she still felt sleepy. If she slept just a little more, she might recover from the grogginess due to sleep deprivation she’d experienced. Her mind felt surprisingly clear.

But the clearer her mind, the more her worries piled up, especially about her inexplicable feelings.

It had been like this since the day she first saw Baek Ishin.

Clearly, it was the first time they met, and she had never seen him before, yet her emotions surged as if they had known each other for a long time.

It felt like a first love she had hidden deep in her distant memories, making her feel both nostalgic and sorrowful. Even when looking at his back, she felt a tender affection.

Seo Jiwoon…

Could the crazy doll of Florence, Seo Jiwoon, feel like this?

Apathy and insensitivity.

A slight tendency towards aggression and high self-defense.

Someone who rarely feels fear or pain, lacks empathy and self-love… a sensory disorder patient.

Could such a Seo Jiwoon feel this way about a man?

‘If Myungja heard this…’

She could already hear Myungja’s loud, squawking voice.

Jiwoon, who had been sitting quietly at the desk, suddenly stood up.

“Cell phone.”

Come to think of it, she hadn’t thought about her phone at all. On the day she was kidnapped, she had received a call from Myungja, placed it on the table to drink some water, and then went down to the underground parking lot. And it had been three days since then.

‘Myungja, that girl must be going crazy by now.’

Jiwoon emptied her shopper bag, which she had noticed last night but hadn’t looked at, onto the floor. Her phone rolled out, its battery dead.

🐬🌊🐳
She opened her suitcase and unpacked her belongings. Having spent eight years in Florence, her luggage was surprisingly sparse.

She had embraced a minimalist lifestyle, but Jiwoon, who suffered from sensory disorders, had almost no desire for material things.

Eight years ago, when she first arrived in Florence, she had nothing with her.

Although her grandmother had personally taken her to Giovanni’s workshop, she hadn’t even brought a small handbag. Instead, she was given a wad of cash to procure what she needed locally.

Back then, she bought a few clothes and essentials, all chosen for comfort in work. She still wore those clothes with stretched-out necks.

Then she met Myungja, and thanks to Myungja, who was known as a fashionista in Florence, she acquired a few decent outfits.

But even those weren’t many. Instead, she invested quite a bit in pajamas, which might have been an expression of her desperate desire for sleep.

Having unpacked easily, Jiwoon decided to have a few crumpled clothes ironed by Shanti, thus finishing her organization.

In jeans and a loose knit, Jiwoon picked up her now-charged phone and left the room.

Downstairs, Shanti was giving instructions to the servants.

“Shanti.”

When she called him, he tilted his head back to look up at her.

“Can I go for a walk just to the lake?”

After a moment of thought, Shanti nodded.

“Yes, as long as it’s just to the lake.”

Just to the lake…

As she vaguely heard yesterday, Ishin’s house was described as a ‘sanctuary’. A place where the eyes and ears of [Heritage Beyond] couldn’t reach.

Is that boundary the lake?

Jiwoon captured the distant view of the lake through the large window at the end of the corridor and hurried her steps.

🐬🌊🐳

— You crazy bitch.

Upon answering, she was immediately met with a round of curses.

After enduring an onslaught of expletives, Jiwoon momentarily pulled the phone away from her ear.

She brushed off the snow from a bench by the lakeside and sat down, then brought the phone back to her ear as the shouting subsided.

Where are you?

Where was she?

Somewhere near the outskirts of Seoul, close to Incheon Airport.

Not in the mountains, but a place surrounded by tall trees like a fortress, with a mansion and a lake.

A place where the landscape was covered in beautiful white snow.

“…Winter Kingdom?”

— ….

Maybe because Jiwoon’s voice sounded a bit dreamy, Myungja, after a pause, asked in a tense, hushed tone.

— Did you have narcolepsy again? With sleepwalking?

Sitting on the bench, Jiwoon, who had been staring blankly at the mansion, chuckled.

It was a natural question from her only friend and the one who knew her best.

Who was Seo Jiwoon? The crazy doll, the madwoman who made the police and firefighters in Florence tremble in fear.

Narcolepsy with accompanying sleepwalking, and delirium, which is hallucinations, that come as a set with sleepwalking.

Myungja was worried that Jiwoon had gone mad again with her mention of ‘Winter Kingdom’…

That she hadn’t slept, her mind was messed up, and now she was wandering around in a snowfield.

— Jiwoon.

“Myungja.”

So, she had to reassure her.

“I slept. Not just once, but for two days in a row.”

— ….

“Do you know how long I slept? Over ten hours each time.”

No sleepwalking, no hallucinations. Her mind was clearer than usual, and she felt refreshed.

“I might be able to… regain my senses now.”

Jiwoon’s voice trembled with excitement at the end.

Maybe because of that, Myungja didn’t readily believe her words. Instead, her concern multiplied, and her nagging reached its peak.

— Crazy bitch. What did you do there? I told you to stay quiet, didn’t I? Did you eat something strange? Or… did you take whatever they were handing out on the street? I told you not to eat those things. What if it’s drugs… or something like that?

“It’s not that.”

Now leaning back comfortably against the bench, Jiwoon had the leisure to observe the mansion in detail.

“I found a powerful sleeping pill with no side effects.”

— You crazy girl. Those are the most dangerous. Where in the world is there a strong sleeping pill without side effects? They’re all bundles of side effects.

Hearing her scolding tone, Jiwoon chuckled.

“There is. There was.”

Her voice was certain yet calm.

“I thought I’d die coming back to Korea. How could I live without painting? But when I actually got here, I found my medicine here.”

Still not reassured, Myungja sighed deeply and went into confirmation mode.

Send me a photo of what medicine it is. Let me check it out. Did you get a prescription from a doctor…

“It’s a man.”

— …huh?

At that, Myungja’s words cut off abruptly. Then, a scream came through the once quiet phone.

Aaaaaah!

— Crazy. What do you mean by a man? Suddenly, what man?

Words poured out like a machine gun.

— Tell me quickly, girl, before your friend chokes to death!

“Um…”

Jiwoon’s gaze still fixed on the mansion, she recalled Ishin leaving for work this morning.

“He’s tall. About 192 cm? His face is handsome, and his body is even better.”

That wasn’t what she was asking about, but irrelevant information came out naturally.

“He’s probably several times more handsome than your Italian actor boyfriend. David’s statue would turn around and cry.”

— Stop with the nonsense and tell me who this guy is, where and how you met him. And how far things have gone.

At Myungja’s urgent, breathless voice, Jiwoon giggled.

“And above all, his scent is really nice. When I smell him… for some reason, I get sleepy. My chest feels a tingling sensation.”

Isn’t it strange?

Jiwoon laughed brightly.

— Strange? That Seo Jiwoon found a man in just ten days of being back in Korea? And that she falls asleep just by smelling him? Seo Jiwoon, the ultimate in sleep disorders? And her heart tingles too? Is that even possible? For Seo Jiwoon, the sensory disorder patient? Isn’t it not strange but rather bizarre?

“Really?”

— Isn’t it just bizarre? Falling asleep by smelling someone, sounds like some kind of kinky novelty.

Kinky… Even Baek Ishin called it that.

“Is it that kinky?”

— Yes, it’s not just kinky; it’s super kinky. Like, when you rank perverts, this is the top-tier kind…

Jiwoon bit her lower lip hard, furrowing her brows.

‘No, why is that kinky?’

Do you people understand the pain of someone who can’t sleep?

If I weren’t so desperate, would I have asked to bury my nose in his chest? If I didn’t want that, would I have asked what perfume he uses?

— You didn’t, by any chance, ask him to let you sleep with your nose in his chest because his smell helps you sleep, did you?

“…N-no?”

— No, you already did, didn’t you?

“…”

Tsk tsk.

The clicking of Myungja’s tongue from the other side of the phone was enough to hurt her eardrum.

If it’s kinky… does that mean it’s not attractive?