I slept badly.
To be precise, I did fall asleep.
I closed my eyes, covered myself with the blanket, and even heard the sound of Sowa blowing out the candle and leaving.
But in my head, one person’s voice never went out all night.
‘The more you hate me, the longer I have thought of you.’
‘Perhaps then... I may also be able to bring myself to say that I love you.’
I pulled the blanket up over my head.
After a moment, it felt stifling, so I threw it off again.
“He’s hoarding the words I love you like some precious jewel.”
Did I ask for that?
No. In the first place, I was the one who asked first.
‘Do you love me?’
“…….”
At the thought of that, I covered myself with the blanket again.
“Ah, seriously.”
Last night’s me was definitely not in my right mind.
Was it because I drank? I only had one cup.
Then blame the lanterns.
Those red lanterns that somehow make people act strange.
Or the fireworks.
Or the moonlight.
Anything but Han Noah.
But no matter how many excuses I picked, in the end his face remained. Those eyes that looked a little sorry and a little tired, eyes I hadn’t seen for years.
That person saying, with that face, ‘I never threw you away.’
I buried my face in the pillow.
I had to hate him. For now.
Even if I heard why he left, it wouldn’t erase the years I spent alone, and it wouldn’t make the days I suffered with fever disappear.
Above all—
The fact that he hadn’t left even a single letter was still infuriating.
No matter what circumstances there were.
“I mean, really. Did he not have hands.”
I muttered to myself and sat up.
“He can hold a brush just fine, too.”
Just then, I heard a small laugh from outside the door.
I froze in place.
“…Sowa.”
“Yes, young lady.”
His voice trembled.
He had definitely laughed.
“You just laughed, didn’t you.”
“I did not.”
“I heard you.”
“I think it was a bird crying.”
“A bird goes ‘pfft’ when it cries?”
...
Soon Sowa opened the door a crack and peeked in with just his face.
“Even so, your complexion is better than last night.”
“Come in.”
Sowa came in obediently and set down the washing water.
And all the while, the corners of his mouth kept twitching.
I stared at him silently.
“Why.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Say it.”
“It really is nothing—”
“Sowa.”
In the end, Sowa lost.
“…You were with Young Master Noah for a long time last night.”
My hand stopped.
“Long? Since when.”
“Until the moon had tilted west from high in the sky.”
“That just means the conversation went long.”
“What were you talking about?”
“…Family matters.”
“If you were talking about family matters, why did your face get so red?”
I immediately covered my cheeks with my hand.
“I’m not red.”
Sowa didn’t answer. That silence was even more annoying.
“If you run into Han Noah today, say I’m not here.”
“Even if Young Master sees you right in front of him?”
“…Then you cover for me somehow.”
“I’m a long way shorter than Young Master. How am I supposed to do that?”
“…….”
We were not communicating.
I sighed and put my hands into the wash water.
Cold water soaked my fingertips.
At that moment,
Knock knock.
There was a knock at the door.
“Are you up?”
My fingertips froze in the water.
Sowa and I both turned toward the door at the same time.
“…Why are you here this early in the morning.”
Without realizing it, I muttered very softly.
From outside, Noah said calmly, “I can hear everything.”
“…….”
I want to die.
Sowa bit his lip. His face was trying not to laugh.
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again.
“What is it?”
“Morning greeting.”
“Not needed.”
“Then breakfast.”
“I already ate.”
Sowa looked at me. He still hadn’t brought in the tray.
There was a brief silence outside.
“I see.”
Noah said with all the seriousness in the world.
“So in this house, it seems even empty bowls count as a meal.”
I closed my eyes.
“Young Master.”
“Mm?”
“Is it really that fun to mess with people first thing in the morning?”
“Hearing your voice makes it not all bad.”
“…….”
After pouring out such a heavy story last night, how could he act like that first thing in the morning? He was truly something else.
“If you have no business, please leave.”
“I do.”
“What is it.”
“Wanted to see your face.”
I said nothing. There was no more sound from outside either.
A moment later, Noah’s voice lowered a little.
“I won’t tell you to open the door.”
His tone had lost some of its teasing.
“If it’s uncomfortable because of last night’s conversation, you can avoid me.”
“….”
“I said I’d wait until you had time to think.”
Water slipped quietly between my fingers.
“But.”
He added,
“Don’t ruin today just because of what I said last night.”
“…Are you really not bothered, Young Master?”
The answer came back faster than I expected.
“No. Not at all.”
Such a short answer. I looked out past the door.
“I’m only pretending to be a little more composed than you are.”
For some reason, that settled heavily in my chest.
I heard the rustle of clothes outside.
“Make sure you eat breakfast.”
Then his footsteps faded away. I stared at the closed door for a while.
Sowa said in a very small voice beside me, “He seems like a good man.”
“Say that one more time and you won’t get breakfast today.”
Sowa shut his mouth at once. But the corners of his lips were still raised.
I stirred the water hard for no reason.
Ripples spread everywhere. My heart felt exactly like that.
*
That morning, people came from the house of the Left State Councillor.
They were there to check the measurements for the wedding clothes again and discuss the ornaments and items needed for the pyebaek ceremony.
The inner quarters were instantly filled with silk, boxes, and wrapping cloth.
“Could you raise your sleeves a little more?”
I wordlessly lifted my arm.
The seamstress measured from my wrist to my shoulder with a tape measure.
Red silk was layered over my body, one sheet after another.
Wedding clothes.
At last, they were beginning to take on a form I truly couldn’t avoid.
Marriage was such a strange thing.
The heart of the person was not ready at all, and yet
the clothes, the food, and the date were all prepared so diligently.
“Beautiful,”
the seamstress said.
“Your complexion is fair, so red really suits you.”
An older lady from the Left State Councillor’s house, who was sitting nearby, set down her teacup.
I knew that woman.
I’d heard she was a distant relative of the Han family and often came and went from the main house.
She slowly swept her gaze over me from head to toe.
“It is beautiful, yes.”
Her tone was odd.
“After all, beauty and skill aren’t things that depend on status.”
The air in the room cooled by a fraction.
Sowa’s hand stopped.
I looked at the woman in the mirror.
She was still smiling.
“I heard she’s a daughter of a house that has long handled the royal portraits. They say her craftsmanship is exceptional as well.”
“You flatter me.”
“But the role of mistress of the Left State Councillor’s house isn’t one you keep with craftsmanship alone.”
I slowly turned my body.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
The woman smiled as if satisfied.
“Good. I heard you’re very clever, so I’m sure you’ll understand me well.”
I understood what she meant too.
You are low.
No matter how beautiful and clever you may be, once you enter the house of the Left State Councillor, you must know your place.
It was what I always heard.
Whether said outright or wrapped in silk like this.
I lowered my head.
“Thank you for your valuable words.”
Just then, a voice came from outside the door.
It was Han Noah.
Both I and the woman looked toward the door at the same time.
Noah was standing on the veranda outside the open door.
I couldn’t tell how much he had heard.
He didn’t come inside.
As if keeping proper etiquette because this was a room with women in it, he stood just beyond the threshold and bowed politely.
“Aunt. I didn’t know you were here.”
The woman’s expression visibly softened.
“Young Master. It’s been a long time.”
“Yes.”
Noah smiled.
That familiar,
impeccable smile.
“You seemed to be saying something nice just now, so I heard a little of it too.”
My stomach dropped.
I didn’t want him interfering for nothing. Because of me.
But Noah never once looked my way.
Instead, he said in a very calm voice,
“You said the role of mistress of the Left State Councillor’s house isn’t one you keep with craftsmanship alone, correct?”
“That’s right.”
“Then what is it kept with?”
The woman chose her words for a moment before answering.
“You need the virtues to care for the family’s customs and reputation, and to oversee the inner household in every respect.”
Noah nodded.
“That’s right.”
I narrowed my brow just a little.
What is he doing?
“Then that’s a relief.”
Noah said, still smiling.
“The thing I’m most lacking in our family is customs and reputation.”
The woman’s face stiffened.
“Young Master.”
“If someone like that were to come in prepared, wouldn’t it balance things out?”
I lowered my head deeply.
Don’t laugh.
If I laugh now, I’m dead.
Sowa seemed to be thinking the same thing, because he dropped his head toward the floor and strained his shoulders.
The woman cleared her throat.
“Your joke goes too far.”
“My apologies.”
Noah bowed his head, looking completely unapologetic.
Then, only now, he looked at me.
At me standing there in the red wedding clothes.
His gaze paused for a moment.
Just a moment.
But that moment felt far too long.
“…It suits you.”
I looked away.
“They’re still taking measurements.”
“Still.”
His eyes curved slowly.
“Good thing I found out in advance.”
“For what?”
“That I should keep my wits about me on the wedding day.”
“Why would you say that?”
Noah answered as if it were nothing.
“I might forget my manners from looking at the bride.”
One of the seamstresses jerked her head around.
Sowa covered his mouth.
I felt my face heat up in an instant.
“Get out.”
“Understood.”
“Right now.”
“I will.”
Noah stepped back obediently.
Before turning out the doorway, he moved his lips just a little toward me.
‘Pretty.’
I wanted to throw the nearest needle at him right then and there.
But the bigger problem was that, even though I was angry, I didn’t feel completely bad.
That fact was the most irritating thing of all.
After the wedding-clothes measurements were done, I felt suffocated.
I told Sowa I wanted to be alone for a bit, then headed toward the back of the inner quarters.
Father’s studio.
I had gone in countless times since I was little, but
somehow, at some point, I began going in alone less and less.
Especially after Mother passed away.
When I opened the door, a familiar scent washed over me.
Ink.
Paper.
Glue.
Old wood.
And the faintest smell of pigment.
It was a different air from the world outside.
Whenever I entered here, my mind always settled.
People can lie, but a brush cannot.
If your hand trembles, the line trembles; if you hesitate, the ink pools,
and if your heart grows impatient, the paper knows first.
I looked toward the shelf against the wall.
Father’s brushes were lined up neatly by size.
When I was young, I once secretly touched those brushes and got severely scolded for it.
‘It’s not that a woman must never hold a brush; the problem is that others will ask what she intends to do with it.’
Mother said that.
It was a little gentler than Father’s words, but the meaning was the same.
Don’t do it. Don’t get caught. Don’t even hope.
I slowly opened the small drawer inside the studio.
And took out the hanging scroll hidden inside it.
Han Noah’s face. Han Noah from years ago.
His lines were not yet as sharp as they are now, and traces of youth still remained all over his face.
Noah in the painting was smiling.
Mockingly. Exactly as he was then.
I stared at it for a long while.
“…Because of you, this is still here.”
I could have burned it that day.
After my fever broke once he left, I had even carried it to the brazier.
All I had to do was touch a corner of the paper to the flame.
But in the end I couldn’t do it. I thought I’d never see him again. Wanting to forget, and yet fearing what it would mean to truly forget, were different things.
I picked up the brush lying beside me.
Suddenly, I had the thought that I wanted to paint the current Han Noah.
The moment I thought that, I was startled by myself.
“…Why am I like this”
I put the brush down.
Then picked it up again.
“No, just comparing.”
I don’t even know who I’m making excuses to.
I spread out a fresh sheet of paper.
I loaded a tiny bit of ink.
The eyes.
I drew the eyes first.
They had grown deeper than they were a few years ago.
When he smiles, they’re still light, but when he doesn’t, a very shallow weariness settles under those eyes.
Just like last night.
‘I left saying I would protect you, but in truth I was the one who hurt you most.’
The brush tip paused for a moment.
The ink soaked a little deeper into the paper.
“It shook again.”
It was then.
“I told you it would leave a mark.”
My hand froze.
My heart dropped right then and there.
Very slowly, I turned my head.
Outside the door.
Han Noah was standing there.
“….”
“….”
For a while, no one said anything.
I reflexively covered the paper with my arm.
Noah blinked.
Then, very slowly, he lifted both hands.
“I didn’t look.”
“You did look.”
“Half.”
“That still means you looked.”
“Then I’ll apologize.”
He really did bow his head.
“I’m sorry.”
He was so obedient that I actually had nothing to say.
I hurriedly folded up the new drawing.
Then I belatedly noticed the old scroll spread out beside it.
Too late.
Noah’s gaze was already there.
On his own face in the painting.
This time, the smile disappeared from his face.
I quickly rolled the scroll up.
“Please leave.”
Noah said nothing.
“Young Master.”
“Right.”
“I said please leave.”
“Understood.”
He took one step back from the threshold.
But he didn’t turn away.
“…Can I ask just one thing?”
“No.”
“Then I won’t ask.”
He really didn’t ask.
That was annoying too.
If he’d asked, I could at least have gotten angry.
“Why did you come here?”
This time, I asked first.
“To find you.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought you might have been hurt by what Aunt said earlier.”
I laughed in disbelief.
“So you came to comfort me or something?”
“That was the idea.”
His gaze dropped to the scroll I was clutching, then rose again.
“Looks like I’m the one who needs comforting.”
“What do you mean?”
Noah smiled very carefully.
“To think there was someone in this world who painted my face with such care.”
“…….”
“I feel better than I expected.”
I hid the scroll behind my back.
“Don’t get the wrong idea.”
“Mm.”
“I didn’t paint you because I like you, Young Master.”
“I know.”
“I mean it.”
“Yes.”
The answer was far too obedient.
“Why do you look like you don’t believe me?”
“I do believe you.”
“You don’t.”
“Then why did you paint it?”
I shut my mouth.
Noah spoke at once.
“You don’t have to answer.”
At that moment, I remembered the rule he had set.
The last one.
I looked at him.
“The third rule.”
Noah’s eyes curved slightly.
“You remembered.”
“You haven’t told me yet.”
“Should I tell you now?”
“Go on.”
He stood there just outside the threshold and said,
“Third.”
His voice dropped a little.
“We don’t forcibly pry into what the other wants to hide.”
I tightened my grip on the scroll a little.
“That’s the rule?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds awfully favorable to you, Young Master.”
“Do I look like I have a lot to hide?”
“Very much so.”
Noah let out a small scoff.
“I won’t deny it.”
Then he looked at me for a moment.
“But there is one condition.”
“…Didn’t you say it wouldn’t be fun if I knew in advance?”
“That’s why I’m telling you now.”
His smile faded a little.
“If what I hide ends up hurting you, I won’t pretend not to know then.”
I said nothing.
“And if you get hurt because of something I’ve hidden.”
Noah added slowly,
“I’ll tell you before you ask.”
Last night’s conversation came back naturally.
Things he hadn’t said for years. Why he’d left.
Yun family’s marriage arrangement. His own fear.
“You already seem to have broken it once, Young Master.”
“That’s why I’m trying to keep it now.”
He was so shameless it made me laugh.
“…Don’t retroactively apply rules however you want.”
“If you allow it, starting today.”
I stared at him for a long time.
Then I gave a very small nod.
“Fine.”
He no longer tried to look at the scroll.
“Then I’ll be outside.”
As he turned away, the words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them.
“…It was that day.”
Noah stopped.
I was surprised by myself.
I didn’t have to say it.
He didn’t look back.
He waited. To see whether I’d keep talking or stop.
That waiting somehow made me a little braver.
“The day before you left.”
I said very slowly,
“I drew that picture... then.”
Noah’s shoulders stiffened slightly.
A moment later, he turned back.
His face was different from before.
“The day before?”
“Yes.”
“What I saw in the back courtyard of the painting office was…”
I nodded.
“That.”
Noah’s lips parted just a little.
So when he’s truly surprised, this person goes quiet too.
I learned that for the first time.
“Then back then.”
He said softly,
“You were drawing my face.”
“I told you, I didn’t draw it because I liked you.”
“Mm.”
“Stop smiling like that.”
“I’m not smiling.”
He really wasn’t.
Noah wasn’t smiling.
Instead, he was looking at me with a strange expression.
Eyes that were hard to explain in words.
He seemed happy, and sorry, and like someone who had lost something long ago and only now found it again.
“Why are you making that face?”
Noah asked very slowly.
“You kept it all this time?”
I hesitated for a moment.
“…I did consider burning it.”
His eyes wavered.
“But?”
“I couldn’t burn it.”
“Why.”
I parted my lips.
This time,
I didn’t stay silent.
“Because I was afraid I’d forget.”
The words fell into the studio.
It was such a small sentence, but it echoed strangely loudly.
Noah couldn’t say anything.
I looked away. It was embarrassing.
I hadn’t meant to say something like that.
“Back then, I thought I’d never see you again.”
I added quickly.
“That’s the only reason I kept the picture.”
“…Even so.”
Noah said in a low voice,
“That’s enough for me.”
I lifted my head.
He smiled.
This smile was different from usual.
He didn’t smile prettily, and there was no hint of him teasing anyone.
Just—
the face of someone who is happy. So I couldn’t bear to look.
I turned away first.
“Now please really leave.”
“Understood.”
“And don’t tell anyone about this picture.”
“Of course.”
“Not even Father.”
“Understood.”
“Not the Left State Councillor’s house either.”
“To my grave.”
“…You don’t have to say it that far.”
Noah stopped as he was stepping over the threshold.
“Y-yun-ah.”
“What?”
“The new drawing.”
My heart lurched.
“You said you didn’t look!”
“I only looked at the eyes.”
“That means you looked at it!”
“And yet.”
He lifted the corners of his lips.
Ah. That face—now that was the real Han Noah again.
“You drew me more handsome than before.”
“Get out.”
“I’m going.”
“Han Noah!”
He burst out laughing and slipped out onto the veranda.
I grabbed the nearest pillow and threw it.
Of course, it didn’t even reach the threshold.
I was left alone in the studio again.
After I’d been breathing hard for a long while, I slowly turned my gaze back to the paper.
The newly drawn eyes.
The ink had bled a little. But strangely—
it looked even more like him than before.
Even after evening came, my mood was still strange.
Han Noah had found out.
That I secretly drew pictures.
And of all things, that I’d hidden his face for years.
A normal person would have thought about never coming out from under the blanket again starting tonight.
I wanted to do that too.
But the problem was that Han Noah really hadn’t told anyone.
At the dinner table. In front of Father.
Even in places where servants came and went.
He was exactly the same as always.
Talking with Father about court matters, drinking tea, and teasing me now and then.
Not once did he bring up the drawing.
If anything, I kept getting self-conscious instead.
He really isn’t telling anyone.
He’s really pretending not to know.
That fact was somehow strange.
Usually, once people learn a secret, they try to possess the other person a little bit by little bit with it.
‘I know what you’re hiding.’
That kind of look. That kind of tone. That kind of superiority.
But Noah had none of that.
He really acted like he’d left it outside the door.
As the meal was nearing its end, Father rose from his seat first.
“Because the wedding preparations are urgent, I’ll need to go into the painting office early tomorrow.”
“I’ll check the ledgers.”
When I answered, Father gave a short nod.
“Good.”
With that, he looked at me once.
“These days, your hands are getting stained with ink again.”
My heart stopped.
I looked down at my hand.
Beside my index finger.
There was a very faint ink stain that wouldn’t come off no matter how much I washed it.
“…I got it on me while looking at a book.”
It was a lie.
Father’s gaze rested on my fingertips for a moment.
That brief time felt like several long watches.
Then Noah calmly held out his own sleeve.
“It’s my fault.”
I looked at him.
Father’s gaze shifted too.
There was ink on the cuff of Noah’s sleeve.
“Today, while I was writing, I brushed the inkstone. While Y-yun was putting it away, she got ink on her hand.”
When did he get that on there?
Noah wore an expression of complete nonchalance.
Father looked at the two of us for a moment, then nodded.
“Since the wedding is near, be careful not to hurt your hands.”
“Yes.”
Even after Father left, I said nothing for a long while.
Noah drank his tea.
As if nothing had happened.
“…Young Master.”
“Mm?”
“Your sleeve.”
“Ah.”
He looked down.
“I must have gotten it on there just now.”
“You deliberately got that on there, didn’t you.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Do you think I’m an idiot?”
Noah smiled over the rim of his teacup.
I said in a low voice,
“Why did you lie?”
“I was simply following the rule.”
“The third rule?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t pry into what someone wants to hide.”
“And.”
He set down his teacup.
“If that secret would put you in trouble, I won’t pretend not to know.”
I said nothing.
Noah said nothing more either.
As if it were no great thing at all.
That, in turn, bothered me.
“Why go that far?”
He looked at me.
“For what?”
“Going all the way to Cheongguk to protect my marriage.”
One sentence.
“Pretending not to know about my painting, too.”
Two sentences.
“Even lying to Father.”
Three sentences.
The more I said, the more I felt like I understood what I was asking.
“Why do you keep…”
My voice grew a little smaller.
“Taking my side?”
Noah didn’t answer.
He lowered his eyes very slowly.
Then he laughed.
“That answer.”
He said,
“is the same one I said I’d save for last night.”
I couldn’t breathe.
I immediately looked away.
“Forget it.”
“You asked.”
“I won’t hear it.”
“Understood.”
“Seriously, don’t say it.”
“Mm.”
So obedient. Why was he listening so well today?
Then a few seconds later, he added,
“But I do need to correct one thing.”
“…What?”
“I’m not always on your side.”
I lifted my head.
Noah looked straight at me.
“From the very beginning, you were on my side.”
“…….”
I lost my words.
This man really is something else.
He can kill a person so casually.
I slowly stood up.
“I’ll go in first.”
“Your face is red.”
“It’s hot.”
“It’s early spring.”
“Young Master.”
He shut his mouth.
The corners of his lips were still lifted.
I left the room without looking back.
Only after I walked to the end of the veranda did I cover my face with my hands.
It was hot. Truly, horribly hot.
Night deepened.
I came back to my room and left a book open for a long time.
I couldn’t read a single page.
I knew the words, but the sentences wouldn’t go into my head.
‘From the very beginning, you were on my side.’
I turned the page.
The same sentence came again.
I turned another page. It was still there. In the end, I closed the book.
“I can’t even read because of one person.”
The candle flame flickered.
A faint trace of ink still remained on my fingertips from the afternoon.
Suddenly, I thought of the scroll tucked away in the drawer.
The old Han Noah.
And the eyes I had started drawing today. Between those two paintings lay years.
Over those years, he changed, and I changed too.
And yet the tip of the brush somehow kept returning to the same place.
I slowly ran my finger across the desk.
Maybe hating someone just means you haven’t been able to forget them. You don’t even get angry at someone you’ve forgotten.
There’s no reason to hate, no question left to ask, no answer left to want.
I still had many things I wanted to ask him.
How he lived in Cheongguk. Why he never sent a single message. What exactly his relationship with Yun Seoryeon was.
Why he rushed the wedding the moment he came back.
And—
Whether he truly loved me.
“….”
My face got hot again.
I pressed both hands against my cheeks.
“That can wait.”
I muttered to myself.
For now.
It really wasn’t time yet.
Just then.
I heard hurried footsteps outside.
“Young lady.”
It was Sowa.
A voice different from usual.
I immediately stood up.
“What is it?”
The door opened.
Sowa’s face was a little pale.
“The old master asks that you come to the main guest quarters.”
At that moment, the memory of a few days ago overlapped.
The day I first heard that Han Noah had returned, it was just like this.
A quiet night.
An abrupt summons.
I put on my robe.
“Why am I being called?”
“I don’t know the details either...”
Sowa hesitated for a moment.
“Someone from the house of the Left State Councillor has come.”
My heart went cold.
“At this hour?”
“Yes.”
The road to the main guest quarters felt especially long.
Moonlight lay white over the courtyard.
A strange sedan chair stood before the door.
A sedan chair marked with the emblem of the Left State Councillor’s house.
Han Noah was there too.
The teasing that had been on his face all day was gone as he sat facing Father.
I slowly took my seat.
“You called for me?”
Father opened his mouth.
“A messenger just arrived from the house of the Left State Councillor.”
I gathered my hands neatly over my knees.
“Is it about the wedding date?”
“That is included.”
At that, Noah’s brow furrowed ever so slightly.
Father set the sealed letter down in front of me.
A red seal.
The Han family crest.
“They say they will bring the wedding forward from the originally planned date.”
“…By how much?”
“Ten days.”
I stopped breathing.
“Ten days from now?”
“Yes.”
I instinctively looked at Noah.
If this was news to him too, his face was already stiff.
“You didn’t know, Young Master?”
Noah answered briefly.
“I didn’t.”
His voice lowered.
“So I wasn’t consulted either.”
Father looked at him for a moment, then turned back to me.
“And one more thing.”
It was strange.
Father’s face was much heavier than when he’d merely announced the wedding date.
“The Left State Councillor himself will come in person.”
I raised my eyes.
“…In person?”
“Tomorrow.”
The room went quiet.
The Left State Councillor.
Han Noah’s grandfather.
The man who had first concluded a marriage pact with my family, then changed his mind after seeing the Yun family with greater power.
The man who told Han Noah to break off his promise with me.
And the man who would still stand at the center of the faction that wanted the Yun marriage alliance.
He’s coming in person.
Noah picked up the letter.
His eyes, checking the seal, sank coldly.
“I didn’t think Grandfather would make a move like this.”
Father asked,
“What do you mean?”
Noah did not answer at once.
He set the letter down slowly.
“Bringing the wedding forward by ten days and coming here himself means…”
His gaze met mine.
“He might be coming to congratulate us on the wedding.”
“If not?”
I asked.
The last trace of a smile vanished from Noah’s face.
“He’s coming to set conditions.”
A chill ran down my spine.
Father asked in a hardened voice,
“What conditions?”
Noah was silent for a moment. Then he said very quietly,
“Conditions to break me.”
And his gaze fell on me.
“Or else.”
One beat.
“You.”
My fingertips turned cold.
I clenched my hands tightly over my knees.
If this had been a few days ago, I would have been afraid.
Just the name Left State Councillor would have made me think first of where I stood.
The daughter of a commoner.
Someone lower than the Han family.
Someone they could push out whenever they wanted.
But strangely, tonight the first thing I thought of was something else.
The daytime studio.
Han Noah stopping outside the threshold.
‘We don’t forcibly pry into what the other wants to hide.’
And then that evening.
‘From the very beginning, you were on my side.’
I slowly drew in a breath.
Then I looked at Noah.
“Young Master.”
“Mm.”
“Is the first rule still in effect?”
Noah’s eyes widened just a little.
“Of course.”
“You said you’d follow if I nodded, and stop at once if I refused.”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“Then tomorrow.”
Noah looked at me. This time, I didn’t look away.
“Stay by my side.”
A brief silence passed through the room.
There was a very faint change in Noah’s face.
“I will.”
It was a low, steady answer.
“This time, I won’t go anywhere.”
Even after hearing that, I said nothing.
I only loosened the strength in my fingertips a little.
Moonlight poured long through the window.
Today, for the first time, I told Han Noah to stay beside me.
And tomorrow
the one who once made that person leave us will come before us.
Tomorrow was closer than the wedding ten days from now.
Strangely, I wasn’t afraid.
I thought I understood.
What I was waiting for was no longer only Han Noah’s answer.
This time, I had to say where I stood too.
Episode 7 The Person Left on the Tip of the Brush - End.
