“If someone saw you, they’d think I’d left you in my care or something.”
Liam grumbled, but still tossed a T-shirt down from the second floor.
“You don’t need to return it.”
“I’ll definitely come back to return it.”
“You seriously never listen to a damn word anyone says.”
I dried my damp skin and got dressed. I looked so neat and fresh it was practically an advertisement announcing that I’d just showered.
“Liam. I’m heading out.”
When I knocked on the stair railing, Liam sat on top of it and slid down like it was a playground slide.
“I sincerely hope you finally understand that my house is not a rest stop.”
“See you this weekend. I’ll tell Noah you agreed to join us too.”
I brushed my lips lightly against the left side of his jaw and pulled away.
“Save the affectionate behavior for your manager.”
“I won’t. Not with him.”
“Anyway, make up with him. Or fire him.”
“Bye. Sleep well.”
Ignoring his advice, I walked off lightly. Outside, the scenery was wrapped in the orderly darkness fitting for an upscale residential neighborhood.
Running a hand through my still-damp hair, I crossed the street toward Eden’s car. After confirming that the passenger-side window was slightly lowered, I asked him:
“Are you going to take me home?”
As I bent down, the window lowered further. Eden’s stiff profile stood out sharply in the darkness. Still staring ahead as if he were driving, he brushed a hand dryly over his cheek.
“I thought you were planning to spend the whole night in the car today.”
There was exhaustion buried in the casual remark. It even sounded like he let out a small sigh.
“If you don’t drive me home, I’ll take it as jealousy.”
I clenched my hand into a fist before it could accidentally reach toward him and made my move. If I’d been smaller, I might’ve climbed straight through the window into the car, but the best I could manage was pushing one shoulder and my head inside.
A moment later, the locks clicked open.
Let’s not say that even if he did drive me home, I’d still interpret it as jealousy.
“You look sleepy. Want me to bring you something to wake you up? If I search Liam’s place, maybe there’s someth—”
“Enough. Get in.”
Like a dog shaking water from its fur, I shook out my wet hair and sat in the passenger seat. I pushed my damp bangs back from my forehead, checked my reflection in the side mirror, and rolled the window up.
I’d relaxed, assuming Eden would keep staring straight ahead, but the moment he turned his head our eyes met immediately. I flinched; he remained calm.
“You’re the one who got caught sneaking looks. Not me.”
“I wasn’t sneaking looks.”
Apparently that was why he looked so shameless.
A shameless stalker.
The bizarre combination made a laugh slip out of me. Pressing my twitching lips together, I endured Eden’s gaze.
He slid his fingers beneath his glasses and pressed firmly at the corners of his eyes. He was touching under them, but his brows twitched. The gesture carried both fatigue and faint irritation, and that made me happy.
“The clothes…”
“Sharp eye. I borrowed them.”
This was the moment to stay composed, but I was so excited that I answered too quickly. Still, Eden had figured out my condition, so the operation had been successful in its own way.
“You borrowed them.”
Like a parrot mimicking words, he repeated me.
I smiled subtly at him. I wished something would show in his eyes when our gazes met again after he lowered his hand. But Eden smoothly erased even the slight irritation he’d shown earlier and revealed nothing at all.
His expressionless face felt like armor.
The lenses of his glasses felt like a fortress wall.
Deciding to retreat for now so I could advance further later, I leaned comfortably back against the seat. Eden’s car smelled beyond merely clean—it smelled good. Most stalkers would probably skip showers to spend more time digging into someone’s life, but he was different.
Maybe it was thanks to an accomplice.
The suspicious silhouette I’d seen in the dark suddenly came to mind, stirring my curiosity. I tried to create tension through silence, but my mouth itched too much to endure it.
“Who was that person you met earlier? The colleague who lent you a car last time?”
Caught between conflicting impulses, I settled on the most casual tone possible after considerable deliberation. But all my effort was wasted, because what Eden returned to me was silence.
He built an invisible wall that blocked out my voice and started the car.
Naturally, his refusal to answer even such a simple question—one where he could’ve just admitted it if it were true or denied it if it weren’t—twisted my mood into knots. Thanks to him, my emotions were swinging wildly all over the place.
“I happened to see you. I was just glancing out the window and noticed you with someone. It didn’t mean anything, just…”
The muttered explanation sounded pathetic even to me. But staying silent too only made the frustration inside me worsen.
You’ve got mountains of information about me, so why are you such a mystery?
Even with rough calculations, the balance between us was nowhere near fair.
“Is there anything about yourself you’d actually tell me?”
I asked lazily, resting the side of my head against the window.
I resolved to stay in that position all the way home, even if my neck stiffened from it. I absolutely would not look at Eden.
But that determination quickly collapsed.
Because of a single sentence he threw at me.
“It bothered me when you were clinging all over Liam Dalton and fooling around with him.”
Eden’s quiet voice rang through my ears like a shout through a megaphone, so loud it felt engraved directly into my eardrums. His flat tone teetered on the edge of losing the balance between calmness and displeasure.
And somehow, the way he pronounced Liam’s name sounded like he was grinding it between his teeth.
Maybe I was imagining it.
I had to force down the corners of my lips before they curled upward. Thankfully, the engine noise would hide the sound of my heartbeat.
Carefully making sure none of my emotional upheaval leaked outside, I shifted into a more comfortable position.
Pretending to flirt with Liam, deliberately showering and creating the impression that I’d just come from sex—it had all been a trick.
And Eden had fallen for it completely.
Just like the last time he’d nearly gotten into a car accident, he must’ve become so emotional that he lost his judgment.
In the end, the proud, arrogant man had fallen.
The sense of accomplishment blooming from the fact that I’d manipulated him exactly as I intended flooded me with exhilaration.
“It bothered me!”
The more I replayed Eden’s confession in my mind, the larger my delight swelled, like a snowball rolling through fresh snow. Barely restraining the boiling heat in my chest, I offered him elegant advice.
“You should try being honest more often.”
Then maybe we’d finally be able to communicate with each other.
Instead of orbiting around one another like mysterious beings from different planets, we could face each other while truly feeling that we breathed the same air and lived in the same world.
Eden, of all people, should want that.
If he wanted the good fortune of maintaining a healthy relationship with the person he stalked, then naturally he should.
Feeling triumphant, I finally laughed out loud.
The fact that I’d lured Eden in through dishonest means pricked at my conscience a little, so I rubbed at my chest once to soothe myself.
But my lies came entirely from good intentions, so I had every right to feel shameless about them. If even a stalker could act shamelessly, why couldn’t I?
“So you called your colleague out because you were upset and needed to vent? If that’s the case, I can see why it’d be hard to talk about.”
“…Who knows.”
“It’s too late to deny it now.”
Without answering, Eden turned the steering wheel smoothly. This time, his habitual silence didn’t irritate me.
He was shy, that was all. A kind-hearted person like me should understand.
He ought to be grateful for my extraordinary generosity.
The drive toward Chelsea felt peaceful, almost like traveling down a quiet country road. There were enough cars on the street for the headlights to push back the darkness completely, but that was simply how my mood felt.
Sitting with my arms folded confidently, I enjoyed the silence with the composure of an adult. In between admiring the New York scenery like a tourist, I stole glances at the man in the driver’s seat.
If there were collectors who bought and sold human beings, they would definitely covet him.
His flawless beauty would provoke possessiveness, and collectors would surely flock together and gladly pour out enormous sums to own it.
And if their competition grew so intense that his price soared through the roof, and he ended up being sold off to some awful bastard, then I’d empty every last cent of my trust fund, take out loans, get down on my knees and beg my mother—
Imagining myself like some gaudy knight plated in gold, I shook my head.
By the time I cleared away those useless thoughts, the car had already stopped in front of my building.
“Ah, I must’ve fallen asleep with my eyes open for a second.”
I scratched my head while rambling out the flimsy excuse. My hair was still damp. As I wiped the moisture from my fingers onto my thigh, Eden got out of the car first.
Silently gathering the luggage, he looked like an experienced secretary or chauffeur.
“It’s fine. I’ll do it.”
I hurried out and opened the backseat door, but I was too late. Only a single paper bag remained behind—something that belonged to him.
After taking the rest of the luggage from the trunk, he handed me the paper bag and said:
“Once it gets late, New York’s public safety becomes terrible. Not that it’s especially great during the day, but still.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Even a well-built adult man isn’t safe wandering around after dark.”
There might be countless well-built adult men in the world, but it was obvious the man Eden was referring to was specifically me.
“You’re telling me not to stay out late? You said something like that before too. Seriously, you worry too much. Worry too much about me.”
“I just don’t want to spend another night sleeping in the car.”
“Sure, let’s go with that. Trying to hide your embarrassment by deliberately—”
“No.”
Eden cut me off firmly and pushed his glasses up.
Looking directly into my eyes through the clear lenses, he said:
“I said what you wanted to hear, so do one thing for me too. Once you’re done with whatever you’re doing, quietly go home.”
Idiot.
You think you’re perfect, but you’re wrong.
Bargaining with me by saying you’d told me what I wanted to hear? Seriously, that sucks.
So your confession that seeing Liam and me together upset you wasn’t sincere—it was something you made up to suit me?
Did you even think about how disappointed that would make me?
That’s just how Eden Reed is.
He gives me clues that make it seem like this hopelessly tangled relationship might finally start to unravel properly, then suddenly snatches them away again.
Just when we barely create a decent atmosphere, he stumbles right before parting and wrecks everything all over again.
I struggle to catch up to him and finally stand beside him, only for him to shove me off a cliff.
The higher I’d climbed, the crueler the fall became.
I knew perfectly well how meaningless it was to expect things from someone I shouldn’t expect anything from, yet I’d almost done it again like a fool.
Fuck.
Bastard.
Just how far are you planning to drag me down?
The crude trap I’d painstakingly set to deceive Eden ended up attacking not him, but me.
I’d been caught in my own trap.
“Go to hell.”
I snatched the paper bag from him roughly and turned away. Debating whether or not to say goodbye was a luxury.
I walked off without hesitation.
Pathetically enough, my steps toward home felt heavy.
The wind brushing against my cheeks was cold.
