I’m exhausted but should be about to pass out, yet my mind is too clear.
It’s quieter than I expected, but the presence of another person on the bed is still too bothersome. I had this custom-made bed ordered specifically for this situation—the size of two queen beds pushed together—but it’s still irritating.
Jaehyuk was aware that he was particularly finicky. But that was like an innate temperament.
And temperament isn’t something that changes easily. So he had no choice but to wait until he got used to it.
After all, humans are creatures of adaptation.
Thinking that after about a month, he would become somewhat accustomed to another person’s breathing and movements, he took off his bathrobe and lay down on the bed. Then he turned off the room lights and closed his eyes.
The next moment, his consciousness sank as if by magic.
* * *
When Jaehyuk opened his eyes to the beeping alarm sound, he blinked for a moment while still lying down.
He definitely closed his eyes and opened them again, but the alarm was ringing.
This was a very rare occurrence. He couldn’t even sleep when he sensed movement outside the door, yet he had fallen into a deep sleep despite having a stranger lying right next to him.
This was a groundbreaking event for him.
So he sat up and looked beside him just in case, but Junghyun was still asleep in the same position as when he fell asleep yesterday.
Lying toward the right, today again like a corpse, without the slightest movement.
He thought it was a special case the day before yesterday, but seeing this pattern for two days now, it should be considered a phenomenon.
Or a change.
“What’s going on?”
Anyway, he had slept deeply and thanks to that, his condition was good relative to his sleep time.
Having missed workouts continuously last week due to being busy, Jaehyuk quickly turned off the alarm and got out of bed.
Then he immediately put on clothes and left the room.
For his early morning workout after a long time.
* * *
“Did you have a good workout?”
When he returned home after finishing his workout, Sujin was in the kitchen preparing a meal, as expected.
Seeing this ordinary, everyday scene no different from before marriage, Jaehyuk took out a water bottle from the refrigerator, opened the cap, and naturally greeted her.
“You came early again today. I need to go to work a bit early today, so please prepare breakfast lightly.”
At Jaehyuk’s request, she nodded with a benevolent face, as if she had expected this, while preparing a salad.
“Of course. By the way, I see Junghyun hasn’t gotten up yet.”
“Yes. He tends to sleep in.”
“Even with that alarm sound?”
At her question with a slight smile, Jaehyuk paused while drinking water.
It seemed that even she had heard that terrifying disaster alert sound.
Well, she would have gone to work by the time the alarm went off, so if she hadn’t heard it, there would be a problem with her hearing.
If there was any advantage in this situation, it was that Director Jang’s hearing was still sharp. And the disadvantage was that she had found out that guy was strange on their first morning.
While it wasn’t bad for the future, it still needed to be addressed.
“Chiwa—I mean, Junghyun is very, no, extremely hard to wake up. I’ve agreed to wake him up starting today, so you won’t have to hear that sound anymore.”
“That’s a relief. I was really surprised yesterday. I thought there was an earthquake or something.”
“I’ll take care of the alarm, but there will probably be quite a few more surprises in the future. He has some… unique qualities, so he might do a lot of strange things. Just try to accept whatever he does. I’m still surprised every time I see him.”
Since she would be spending quite a bit of time with Junghyun while he was running late, Jaehyuk laid the groundwork in advance.
He’s a strange guy even when you know him; it could be quite harmful to a senior like Director Jang if she didn’t know what to expect.
Of course, the same goes for the reports going up to grandfather.
“As a matter of fact, I was surprised again today. I mistakenly came to work too early, and he didn’t even notice when I came in—he was still sleeping.”
After finishing preparing the salad, she asked with a gentle smile on her face, and Jaehyuk desperately racked his brain for a moment to understand the intent of her question.
It was within expectations that she would come to work early in the morning, using the excuse that she had seen the time wrong or was confused.
But the fact that he hadn’t woken up…
“…I came home late yesterday.”
At his awkward excuse, she smiled as if finding him cute.
“You have been busy with wedding preparations and company work all along. But no matter how busy you were, you used to wake up at the slightest sound of the front door opening, so I was surprised that you showed no signs of waking up even when I opened the front door. Of course, I didn’t open the bedroom door. I just thought you must be sleeping deeply because there was no response.”
“…I seem to sleep deeply when I sleep with that guy. I find myself falling asleep as soon as my head touches the bed.”
As he was trying to use this opportunity to make an excuse about the excessively clean bedroom, she continued to move her hands and spoke kindly.
“That’s a good phenomenon. I was worried you might not be able to sleep well after marriage, but I’m glad. The Honorary Chairman will be relieved too.”
“Yes…”
He was still bewildered about what this all meant, but in any case, sleeping well was better than not sleeping.
Both in terms of condition and in various other aspects.
“By the way, Junghyun’s belongings seemed very few… Are there more coming later?”
Hearing her question as he finished the water bottle, Jaehyuk gave an excuse-like response with a “just as I thought” mindset.
“No. That’s all. I told him to throw everything away and just bring himself.”
“Even so, he has too few clothes. He seems to have almost no personal belongings. Even for a newlywed home, having just two suitcases excluding the board seems… too minimal.”
“He’s quite tidy. He doesn’t like messiness either.”
That’s exactly what Junghyun’s personality was like, as far as Jaehyuk had observed.
He doesn’t buy, keep, or look at unnecessary things. Junghyun only takes the minimum of what he judges necessary for living. Additionally, he doesn’t engage in meaningless actions.
He was the type who moved according to cost-effectiveness and efficiency in everything.
But Sujin’s opinion seemed a bit different.
“A moderate amount of belongings can be considered tidy, but having that few belongings means he doesn’t create belongings. And people who don’t create belongings usually don’t stay long. That’s why they minimize their belongings in the first place.”
At her sharp observation, Jaehyuk hastily gave a plausible answer.
“He tends to pursue minimalism. Even the house he lived in only had minimal furniture. He said he lived there for 15 years, but there weren’t many belongings there either. Instead, he actively goes out to exercise. He likes baseball, exercise, and drinking. He’s an outdoor type like me, so he doesn’t seem to accumulate belongings at home.”
In a gentle tone, as if reporting to a close grandmother, Jaehyuk was asking for understanding about Junghyun.
He did wonder why he had to do this, but for now, he needed to pretend they were getting along well.
Grandfather also knows that this is a marriage done urgently out of necessity, and that there isn’t much affection, but he gave permission without looking at other conditions because Junghyun is the most suitable person for him right now. Still, they need to at least pretend to be getting along well.
Since he doesn’t know about the contract.
“Being neat and rational, he won’t trouble people. Oh, but please manage his drinking while watching baseball. He really loves alcohol. And when he gets drunk watching baseball and collapses, it’s not a pretty sight.”
In reality, Junghyun as seen on their blind date was worse than a vagabond—he was a hooligan.
For some reason, whether his team was winning or losing, he would get angry, and as the score gap widened and his team started losing, his face would become so demonic it was actually creepy.
It wasn’t just about throwing eggs at the team bus; he looked like he might actually set something on fire.
Seeing Junghyun having a fit at that time, Jaehyuk briefly wondered if he should proceed with this marriage, but it was precisely because of that personality that he decided to go ahead. Additionally, he proceeded with peace of mind since the season was about to end.
If it had been during or at the beginning of the season, he definitely wouldn’t have gotten married.
“He must really like baseball, huh?”
“Yes. Quite a lot.”
He was about to say that Junghyun seemed a bit crazy but softened it with a more appropriate word. Just then, Sujin approached the refrigerator, took out eggs, and gently changed the topic.
“You remember Huigyeom, right? Our second grandson.”
“Yes, I remember. Come to think of it, he must have grown quite a bit by now.”
“He’s grown a lot. He’s in his first year of high school now, and that boy really loves baseball. So if you go to his room, the walls are covered with baseball player posters, and his room is filled with baseball—from signed uniforms of his favorite players to slogans, signed balls, and even photo cards. His room is all about baseball to the point where it might seem a bit overwhelming…”
The implication was that Junghyun didn’t have any of those things.
Though she wasn’t doubting Junghyun, her tone suggested something was bothering her, so Jaehyuk spoke honestly about that part.
“I found that strange too, but he’s not the type to collect such things. He’d rather drink and act like a hooligan.”
“And he doesn’t have a favorite player either?”
Jaehyuk paused at that question.
Come to think of it, he had only said he was a fan of the Hanju Elephants, but he had never heard him talk about liking any particular player.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
