Room Sharing
Director Seo Jisu.
The moment she walked in, the temperature in the room dropped a solid five degrees.
Elise's heat and Seo Jisu's cold aura collided, filling the air with taut, crackling tension.
"Director, what brings you here?"
I started to climb down from the bed to salute, but Seo Jisu flicked her hand and stopped me.
She crossed her legs with elegant composure and lifted her chin.
"Stay seated. You're a patient."
"Thank you."
"How's the body?"
"Much better, thanks to you. The potion bill must have been considerable…"
As I trailed off, Seo Jisu adjusted her glasses and answered without a trace of concern.
"Don't worry. The invoice has already been handled."
"What? By whom?"
"Number 001 paid it."
Seo Jisu's gaze slid toward Elise.
Elise went hmph and turned her head away.
"How? Prisoner Elise must be completely broke."
"She agreed to pay with her 'body' instead of money."
"What?!"
"Don't entertain any strange ideas. She agreed to cooperate as a test subject for my mana research. For the next three months."
My jaw nearly hit the floor.
That Elise?
She had bent that pride of hers just to keep someone like me alive?
"…Is that true?"
"Don't get the wrong idea."
Elise snapped at me, voice sharp and dismissive.
"I just had mana to spare, so I donated it. You're no fun when you're all weak and sickly."
"Still, thank you. I'll repay this kindness no matter what."
"Of course you will. Spend your whole life paying it back. Work yourself to the bone."
Seo Jisu watched our exchange with open interest. Then she drew a document envelope from her coat and held it out to me.
"And this is your share. Consolation money for the Park Minseok incident, plus a reward for suppressing the situation early."
I opened the envelope. Inside was a check.
Seven zeros. Ten million won.
Separate from the bonus that had hit my account yesterday.
"Whoa… Director, you have my absolute loyalty."
"Keep the loyalty. Just do your job well."
Seo Jisu smirked. But her expression hardened almost at once.
"Now for the real business."
"Yes?"
"The matter of Number 001's quarters."
Ah.
Right. The penthouse had burned to the ground.
Elise had gone berserk and torched the place, which left us freeloading in this VIP visitation room.
"Repairs will take at least two weeks. We have to bring in special materials."
"So we stay here for two weeks?"
"No. The security rating here is too low for long-term occupancy. Per regulations, Number 001 must be temporarily transferred to a solitary cell on Basement Level 7."
"No."
Elise's answer was instant. She clamped onto my arm and growled.
"I'm not going back to that damp solitary cell. It stinks and it's cramped."
"It's regulation. Endure it until the penthouse is fixed."
"I said no. If I absolutely have to go, put him in with me."
Elise pointed straight at me.
Seo Jisu's eyebrow twitched.
"Put a warden in solitary? You're insane. Mixed-gender cohabitation is absolutely forbidden."
"Then I'm staying right here. Try dragging me by force. I'll burn this place down too."
Whoosh.
Elise's hair blazed a vivid red.
It was a threat. If she rampaged again in here, the VIP room would be next on the ash heap.
Seo Jisu pressed her temples as if nursing a splitting headache. She seemed to run a few silent calculations, then looked at me.
"Warden Kang Jinsoo. What's your opinion?"
Suddenly the hot potato landed in my lap.
I turned the problem over carefully.
Basement Level 7 solitary? Absolutely not. That was a real prison cell.
But I couldn't let Elise go berserk here either.
Then the layout of the penthouse flashed through my mind.
"Um, Director. The penthouse bedroom burned completely, but… that room should still be intact, right?"
Seo Jisu's eyebrow twitched again.
"That room? Don't tell me you mean the panic room."
The emergency isolation chamber. The panic room.
"Yes. It was designed to withstand even an S-rank rampage, so it should have survived the flames. And the warden's duty room sits right next to it."
I glanced at Elise and added,
"She could stay there until the penthouse repairs are finished. It's cramped and bleak, but I'll be right next door."
Elise's ears seemed to perk with interest.
What mattered to her wasn't the size of the room.
It was whether her personal air conditioner would be stationed immediately next door.
"The panic room, huh…"
Seo Jisu rested her chin on her hand, weighing it.
The panic room was built for emergencies — no furniture, nothing but bare walls. Security-wise, though, it was flawless. More importantly, with only a single wall separating it from the duty room, it was the ideal setup for me to stand by around the clock and keep Elise calm.
"Hmm… Not bad. The penthouse sector is exclusive to Number 001 anyway, so she won't cross paths with other prisoners."
"Exactly. And more than anything…"
I grinned at Elise.
"Prisoner Elise will feel much more at ease knowing I'm right next door. Isn't that right?"
"…Next door?"
Elise's lips moved faintly.
Not the same room — but next door, with only a wall between us.
A hundred times better than being locked in solitary.
"A door."
"Pardon?"
"Put a door between the rooms. So I can go in whenever I want."
At Elise's demand, Seo Jisu started to shake her head.
Elise added, flat and final,
"Otherwise I'm not going."
"…Haah. Fine. Use the emergency connecting door between the panic room and the duty room. But I control the lock."
Seo Jisu surrendered.
Elise was not satisfied.
"If it's locked, what's the point of being next door?!"
"You can still hear each other. If it's truly urgent, use the intercom."
"Don't be ridiculous. Unlock the door. Or I'm not going in."
Elise was completely unreasonable. She turned those gleaming eyes on me.
"Hey, Air Conditioner. You tell her. Tell her to open the door."
"Um… Director. If the door stays locked, I can't respond to emergencies. You know that if I'm three seconds late, I burn to death."
When I asserted my basic right to survive, Seo Jisu had nothing left to argue. In the end she sighed and changed the master key settings.
"Fine. I'll unlock it. But…"
She looked between the two of us and delivered the warning with ice in her voice.
"Just because the door is open does not mean you get to sneak back and forth at night doing anything strange. I will be watching on the CCTV."
"Understood."
"Especially at night. If I hear any suspicious sounds, I will come freeze you myself."
She left that blood-chilling threat hanging in the air and vanished.
Once the door shut, silence settled over the room again.
"Next door, huh…"
Elise muttered. She rested her head against my shoulder and giggled.
"Not bad. I can come over whenever I'm bored."
"Please knock first. Privacy still matters."
"Nope. I'll do whatever I want."
She took my hand and toyed with it. The way her fingers traced each knuckle was strangely ticklish.
"Hey, Air Conditioner."
"Yes."
"Thanks."
It was a very small voice.
I looked at her, half-convinced I'd misheard — but she was already pretending to study the window. The tips of her ears had gone faintly red.
"For what?"
"Just. For not dying."
Her rough, unpolished sincerity.
I chuckled and clasped her hand in return.
"Thank you too. For saving me."
Worry still sat heavy in my chest, but the warmth from our joined hands wasn't bad at all.
At least in this hellish place, it felt like I had gained one person on my side.
"If you're grateful, peel me more apples."
"…Yes, ma'am."
Of course, serving my master would continue exactly as before.
The penthouse was a disaster.
The living room had been reduced to a lump of charcoal, and furniture worth tens of millions of won had melted into something resembling modern art.
The only things still intact were two massive steel doors set into the corner.
One led to my duty room.
The other opened onto the emergency isolation chamber where Elise would be staying — the so-called panic room.
"…Hey."
The instant Elise cracked the panic room door, her face curdled.
"Sleep here? It's a coffin."
She wasn't wrong.
Gray alloy on every surface, and the only furniture a bed bolted to the wall and a toilet. It was a box for locking up S-rank prisoners mid-rampage — human comfort had clearly never entered the design brief.
"It's temporary quarters. Just endure it for two weeks."
"No. I can't breathe in here."
Elise recoiled in pure disgust. Then, without a second of hesitation, she yanked open the door to my duty room.
It was the size of a cramped boarding-room studio, but apparently that still beat the coffin.
"I'd rather sleep here."
"Absolutely not."
I planted myself firmly in her path.
"This is my personal space. And did you forget the Director's warning? Cohabitation is strictly forbidden."
"Hmph. Why should I listen to that old maid's hysterics?"
Elise pouted, but she didn't force her way inside. Instead she jerked her chin toward the emergency door connecting the two rooms.
"Then leave that door open."
"It should be closed when we sleep."
"Leave it open."
Her red eyes blazed.
"Or I'll melt the wall and turn this into a studio apartment."
"…I'll leave it wide open."
You do not mess with a crazy woman.
I obediently tucked my tail between my legs.
Unpacking took almost no time at all. My belongings amounted to a few changes of clothes, and Elise's things had burned to ash. When I tossed her a prison uniform and some basic necessities, she sat on the edge of the bed wearing a face full of complaints.
"I'm bored."
"Shall I get you a book?"
"Looking at letters makes me want to throw up."
"Then what…"
She heaved a deep sigh and stared straight at me through the open doorway.
I was sitting at my desk, grinding through overdue reports. A searing gaze bored into my back.
"Hey."
"It's Kang Jinsoo."
"Hey, Air Conditioner."
"Yes. What is it?"
"Come here."
I stopped typing and turned my chair around.
"What is it?"
"I'm hot."
She fanned herself with her shirt collar. Beads of sweat dotted the pale line of her nape.
The panic room's air conditioning was running at full blast, but it clearly wasn't enough to cool a human furnace.
No — she was probably just throwing a tantrum out of sheer boredom.
I swallowed a sigh, dragged my chair across the threshold, and stepped into the panic room. The moment I crossed over, a wave of stifling heat slammed into me.
"Hand."
She held hers out as if the request were the most natural thing in the world.
The second I took it, her expression went soft and gooey.
"Haaah… Now I can live."
She pressed my hand against her hot cheek. Soft. Warm. It felt like touching a freshly steamed rice cake.
"Prisoner Elise."
"What."
"I have work to do. The report deadline is today."
"Do it here."
"My desk is over there."
"Bring it."
There was no reasoning with that level of stubbornness.
In the end I hauled a folding table out of the duty room and set it up beside the bed. Left hand held captive, right hand alone free to type — a thoroughly bizarre work arrangement was complete.
Tap. Tap.
Only the sound of the keyboard filled the silent room.
Elise lay on the bed, fiddling with my fingers. Tracing each knuckle. Tickling my palm. She was having the time of her life, treating me like a favorite toy.
"You."
"Yes?"
"Why do you work here?"
"To make money."
"What are you going to do with the money?"
"Pay off my debts, eat good food… live an ordinary life."
She snorted.
"Ordinary? With abilities like yours, you're going to live ordinarily?"
"My ability isn't anything special. I'm just a little cool, that's all."
"Are you stupid? Even S-rank ice-type Awakeners struggle to withstand my flames. That Seo Jisu woman would get burned if she touched me for more than ten minutes."
She made a little chomping motion at my finger.
"But you're fine. You even enjoy it."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"It is a compliment. So stay by my side forever."
I paused at the sudden line. She continued as if nothing had happened.
"I'll give you money. I'll buy you a house, buy you good food. You just stay next to me and breathe."
"Isn't that treating me like a pet?"
"You don't like it?"
"…The terms aren't bad."
Honestly, I was tempted.
Rather than grinding myself down in this hellish prison, living as a wealthy witch's personal cooling pack sounded like a pretty sweet deal.
But the image of Director Seo Jisu's cold eyes behind her glasses floated up, and I shook my head.
"Enough joking around. Go to sleep. It's already eleven."
"I'm not sleepy."
"I am. You're a patient — you need rest."
I tried to pull my hand free.
She wouldn't let go. She only gripped tighter.
"Don't go."
"I'm right next door. And I'll leave the door open."
"Still no. It's too… quiet here."
Her voice trembled, just barely.
I looked into her eyes. In those always-arrogant red irises, a faint fear lingered.
The panic room.
A cramped space sealed on every side.
It must have reminded her of the underground solitary cell where she had been locked away for so long.
Even the great witch couldn't escape her trauma, it seemed.
"…"
After a moment of hesitation, I pulled my chair closer to the bed.
"Alright. I'll stay until you fall asleep."
"Really?"
"Yes. But tomorrow morning, you have to behave."
"Okay."
Only then did she bury her head in the pillow, looking relieved. Her hand, though, stayed laced tightly through mine.
"Sing me a lullaby."
"I'm tone-deaf."
"Then tell me an old story."
"I don't know any."
"Useless air conditioner."
She grumbled, but a smile hung on her lips.
With my free hand I carefully brushed her hair back. My cold aura seeping through those hot strands must have felt good, because her eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
"…Hey."
"Yes."
"Don't go anywhere."
"I won't."
"If you lie… I'll burn you."
With that bloodthirsty sleep-talk as her final words, she sank into a deep sleep.
Once her breathing evened out, I quietly let out a sigh.
This is going to be a more exhausting cohabitation than I thought.
I tried to free my trapped hand, then gave up and closed my eyes, leaning against the chair in an uncomfortable sprawl.
Next door with just a wall between us, huh.
In the end, the wall meant nothing.
Three in the morning.
I woke up thirsty.
Half-asleep, I tried to sit up — and something heavy and soft was pressing against my chest.
Sleep paralysis?
No.
A familiar heat. And a sweet shampoo scent tickling my nose.
When I opened my eyes, red hair filled my vision in the darkness.
"…"
It was Elise.