The Fox's Ambush
It was late, so the fact that no one else had come out for a swim was my misfortune. This was the result of my ironclad belief that Cha Jun-jae wouldn’t show up. On the outside I looked perfectly fine, but my soul was on the verge of fainting. Whether he knew how flustered I was or not, I had skipped even a greeting. Cha Jun-jae simply kept toweling off his body with leisurely grace.
That was just like him. He wouldn’t actually care what song I’d been humming under my breath. As far as I knew, there was only one thing on this earth that ever held his interest.
Someone else’s shiny, sparkling possession.
“Did I startle you by showing up without a word?”
Maybe my silent staring made him uncomfortable. Cha Jun-jae draped the towel around his neck and asked the question carefully. All the while, I knew he didn’t feel a thing inside. His perfectly calm eyes and peaceful expression, unchanging day after day, struck me as utterly detestable.
“Ah. I thought only my aunt and uncle were coming. Aren’t you busy?”
Don’t be surprised that I could still sound kind to Cha Jun-jae—the same man I had cursed and torn apart in my head thousands of times. This was my survival strategy. After all the years I’d suffered because of him, I had learned a few countermeasures. Throwing a tantrum like a lunatic was the fastest road to defeat. Crying, however, was forbidden by my pride. Even if he stripped away every last scrap of dignity I possessed, I would act as if it didn’t matter. If there was one secret to my endurance, it was looking down on him with the serene gaze of a benevolent Buddha.
“I wanted a vacation, so I was checking out different places… and I heard Mother and Father would be here.”
Cha Jun-jae picked up his towel and discarded shirt, his face characteristically indifferent. Yet the way his fox-like eyes narrowed seemed to add, I didn’t come here for you. I simply followed my parents. Don’t misunderstand.
Facing that emotionless expression, I wanted to snap back:
Yeah, right. You heard I was here and came to keep tabs on me.
In Korea, Cha Jun-jae lived in the north and I lived in the south. My mother, who lived somewhere in the middle, would occasionally pass along news of him. Jun-jae was wondering how you’re doing. That conscienceless bastard who would wring a flea dry was still after my liver.
“Eun-dam.”
“Yeah?”
“Are you going to swim?”
I swallowed the words If you swim, I’ll go back to the lodging. If you go to the lodging, I’ll swim. Instead I deflected his question with the relaxed smile I had cultivated over the years.
“Ah, you must be tired after coming all this way, Jun-jae. I’m staying somewhere else, so I was about to head back there.”
“Somewhere else?”
Cha Jun-jae tilted his head as if hearing this for the first time and closed the distance between us. The bag slung over one shoulder made his steps quicken. In the blink of an eye he was right in front of me, completely foiling my plan to slip quietly aside.
He had grown so tall it made my neck hurt just to look at him. All those years of drinking milk and eating anchovies to catch up to him now felt like a heartbreaking waste.
“Where exactly is your lodging?”
“Oh, it’s… on the opposite side of the island.”
“Which part of the opposite side?”
“There’s a place. It’s nothing special. This is the most expensive and nicest spot on the island. The water quality over there is terrible, and the mosquitoes are awful…”
I scratched at my mosquito bites with exaggerated vigor, playing it up for him. Cha Jun-jae listened with a blank face, then nodded and started walking ahead. Of course. A man who had grown up comfortably in Seoul would never tolerate mosquito bites or dirty water. No matter how much he coveted what belonged to me, even Cha Jun-jae drew the line somewhere.
I was busy making a triumphant face behind his retreating back when his feet suddenly stopped halfway up the stairs that led to the resort garden.
“Aren’t you coming?”
“Huh?”
“You’re not going to swim, are you?”
My lips froze; I couldn’t come up with a decent excuse. It wasn’t the question itself—it was the chill I felt from his moonlit eyes. The suspicion that he had seen through me kept my feet rooted in place. Then, as if the coldness had never existed, Cha Jun-jae smiled again.
“I’ll walk you to your lodging.”
What kind of nonsense was that? I waved my hands frantically.
“There’s no need. I have lots of friends here, so there’s nothing to worry about. You just arrived—you should rest.”
I employed every dramatic gesture I could think of to persuade him. But he fixed his gaze on me with frightening intensity and refused to budge.
“Where are these friends of yours on such a dark night?”
“Ah… what?”
“Do you know every single person who lives on this island? Are they all acquaintances no matter whose house you walk into?”
“…Not exactly.”
See? I was right. No matter what I said, Cha Jun-jae was determined to escort me all the way to my door. This was my own fault. I never should have spoken to him. The moment I greeted him I should have sprinted back to the lodging. His back as he strode down the stairs, mission accomplished, filled me with resentment. He deserved to be slapped. If he pushed all the way to the front-most lodging, I would lose the one place I could truly relax.
“Um, Jun-jae.”
Plenty of people walked around shirtless in just swim trunks. Cha Jun-jae knew that and had chosen to dress comfortably. But I wanted no part of it. Even if the odds were one in ten thousand, I had no desire to walk the night streets alone with him—especially not with him half-naked.
“I’m planning to sleep here tonight.”
“Here?”
“In my mom’s lodging. I heard there are tons of rooms… and apparently they added me to the reservation and paid the difference.”
“Really? Why the sudden change of heart?”
I didn’t want to share the same space with Cha Jun-jae for even a second, but revealing my actual lodging to him was an entirely different problem. In that case, losing just one night was the lesser evil. Forcing a smile at the stubbornly persistent man, I performed my little act. I wasn’t the only one skilled at acting, after all.
“I actually had a few beers and completely forgot. I’ll head back to where I’m staying tomorrow morning.”
Even after I finished speaking, his eyes continued to scan every inch of me in silence. Someday, when I finally cut ties with him, I wanted to ask just once: why did he always look at me like he was dissecting every word I said? Did he realize that his gaze made me tense up like a child giving a school presentation?
“Eun-dam.”
What did that cold, quiet stare he showed when no one else was around really mean? I had pondered it for days and months until I made myself sick. The answer remained lost in a labyrinth, and Cha Jun-jae would stay forever silent.
“You know I’m in the same lodging, right?”
That was exactly why I hated him—like an enemy waiting for me on a single-log bridge.
“Yeah. I know. But we have separate rooms.”
“I know.”
Escape had failed. Tomorrow morning would be my chance. I would simply have to wake at dawn, jump on a bicycle, and run. Cha Jun-jae turned away from the path that led outside and began strolling through the resort garden instead. We walked between palm trees larger than any I had ever seen, both of us keeping our mouths shut. When the yellow ground lights revealed a quick-footed lizard, a mischievous idea occurred to me. I hoped the city boy who had grown up like a frog in Seoul would be startled by it.
“Cute.”
“What is?”
“That lizard.”
Cha Jun-jae never once failed to meet my expectations. I secretly scoffed and stepped onto the stone path leading to the lodging. The dark night kindly hid the rough, angry rhythm of my footsteps.
Bicycles were parked at intervals along the long pebble path. Only after passing through the arched wooden gate did the actual lodging building appear. The adults had reserved a large multi-room villa that occupied the very end of the stone walkway. I had nothing to say to Cha Jun-jae, yet the path felt unbearably long. I let out a bored sigh, and a sharp gaze immediately pierced me.
“Ah, I’m just a little tired thinking about escorting the adults around tomorrow. We’ll only be doing ordinary, boring routes that match their stamina.”
I slipped in the subtle suggestion that we should go separately tomorrow. Cha Jun-jae simply smiled without answering. The sight made my blood boil; my fists clenched.
“By the way, Jun-jae, the last boat should have already left. How did you get here?”
From what I’d heard, the boat my parents took had been the final one of the day. It wasn’t as if he could have swum between islands.
“I flew to the larger island across the way and rented a private boat from there. It was ridiculously expensive. I think I got scammed.”
“Wow! I didn’t know you could do that. Why didn’t you just stay nearby for the night and take the boat tomorrow?”
Paying three times the normal price just to get here—how foolish. When we reached the lodging I frowned and shoved the key into the lock. The loud click sounded like thunder in a clear sky. I prayed desperately for the adults to return soon.
“Eun-dam.”
I had just confirmed the key had turned and was opening the door when a large hand shot out and grabbed the handle before I could. Only half the view of the private pool villa was visible. His arm—whether by accident or design—blocked the entrance so I couldn’t pass.
“Want to have another drink with me?”