Even If It's Not Love

Yoo-hwa looked at the wall in front of her with an indistinct gaze. Woo-hyun clearly gave a brief explanation about the room before leaving.

“There are clothes you can change into in the room next to the bathroom.”

At that time, Woo-hyun pointed in this direction and said it was the dressing room. But when she actually came to it, it was just a wall.

She looked around everywhere, in case she had heard wrong, but she couldn’t see a single piece of clothing, let alone a dressing room. He clearly said it was next to the bathroom, so it was definitely here.

She snooped around here and there, in case there was a doorknob she didn’t see, but the result was the same. She wondered if she should just give up, but he said there were clothes prepared for her to change into, so she couldn’t do that.

And even so, she couldn’t give up on washing herself.

She heard that she had been asleep for a day after going through that rough incident, so she wanted to shower and get over it. She felt like she could come to her senses if she did so.

Her skinny hand fumbled around the wall. Let alone a doorknob, there was nothing she could grab.

She stared at the door for a moment, wondering if she should ask Woo-hyun, but she couldn’t move. Whether it was because she didn’t want to call him for something like this or because she didn’t want to face him, she couldn’t figure that out either.

Just in case, Yoo-hwa tapped on the wall with her fist, and then stopped. One side of the wall came forward, slanted. When she put her hand through the gap and pulled it, what previously looked like a wall folded in half, and a long hallway-style room appeared.

As she fumbled around the wall and turned on the switch, she saw clothes densely packed in hangers lined up along the walls. From underwear to achromatic colors, and many clothes that she could comfortably wear; but strangely enough, there were no coats. Overwhelmed by the number of clothes that seemed to be enough to last for several years, Yoo-hwa entered the room with a hardened face, without realizing it.

But if it was only a dressing room, why was it hidden?

Yoo-hwa walked inside the dressing room and tapped on the innermost wall. She felt a solid wall. Turning around, Yoo-hwa wondered, and then tapped on the wall behind the hangers. It felt a little different from tapping on a solid wall.

However, perhaps it opened in a different way from the dressing room, as it didn’t open when she tapped. This house was a labyrinth. He was not witty enough to turn a house that should be comfortable into a maze, so it was meant for camouflage and escape.

It was fancy, but it was dangerous.

This house, Woo-hyun, and somehow even his life.

Feeling uncomfortable because she had a glimpse of Woo-hyun’s life, which he had never told her before, Yoo-hwa headed straight to the bathroom. After opening the bathroom door and as she was about to go inside, Yoo-hwa stopped. The bathroom was glamorous enough to make her wonder if it really was a bathroom, if not for the toilet and sink. She didn’t expect the bathroom here would be fancier than the house in Gamjeon-dong where she used to live. She let out a fake laugh, even though it didn’t fit the ridiculous situation.

She didn’t dare imagine how uncomfortable he must have been when he lived next door to her, having lived in a house like this. It meant that he had to endure washing in such a slack and poor bathroom.

The mind that wanted to get closer to her and hurt her.

A wind blew over her heart, which had dried up to the point that it didn’t shake anymore. A bitter smile leaked out as her broken heart scattered like sand. Since she was in Woo-hyun’s house, she couldn’t stop thinking about him for a moment.

Yoo-hwa staggered and went inside the bathroom, looking around. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and towels were all provided, just like someone who knew in advance that she would want to wash up.

She could use it. He told her to use what she needed.

As she opened the door of the shower booth and was about to step inside, Yoo-hwa stopped in front of the unfamiliar shower.

There were three places where the water could come out. One that looked like a faucet, one like the showerhead she saw in the bathhouse, and something round like a tray was placed over her head. She hesitated because she didn’t know what to press to get the water to come out of the showerhead.

Wondering if she should just touch anything, she touched here and there.

“Ah!”

The top of her head hurt. She belatedly realized that the cold thing flowing down the back of her neck was water. She took a step aside while touching things, and water poured down from the round tray above her head. The embarrassed Yoo-hwa pressed something that looked like a button.

She had missed it before because it was small, so she pressed it down tightly. Then, the water poured out of the showerhead.

“Ah!”

Cold water soaked her hair and flowed down her neck and shoulders. She stepped aside, her lips tightly closed at the sudden chill, but she couldn’t avoid the splashing water. Cold and taken aback, she was flustered, unlike usual. Her skinny shoulders rolled inwardly. Her hands urgently fumbled around, but instead of turning it off, the water came out alternately from the three places, making even more of a mess.

As Yoo-hwa hurriedly reached through the flowing water, trying to turn off the showerhead once again, a large hand overlapped over her hand. Opposite her own strength pulling it down, the large hand applied strength to push it back. It was not until the water lever went backwards that the water pouring from the showerhead stopped.