Chapter 61 - Let's have a new agreement

Ahn Hana doesn't answer him. She didn't expect that he would ask that question. His hands are hot against her skin. His gaze is equally colder.

Is she interested?

"Yes." Her voice is bȧrėly a whisper. "Come to my room."

She walks into her room. Do Sejin fists his hands. He takes three deep breaths before he goes into that room. She is sitting on the bed and fiddling with a scarf in her hand.

"Let's have a new agreement." She tells him quietly, "I don't care if you go to other women. You shouldn't care if I have other men in my life. My only condition is that you must wear this blindfold whenever we are together."

He stands there, frozen. Her words are repulsive. If it was old him, he would have accepted this agreement happily. But, he is disgusted by his old him. "Why must I wear a blindfold? Haven't I seen everything?"

She climbs down the bed and comes to him. "Then, there is nothing new to see."

"Why are you doing this?" He takes the scarf from her hand. "Do you love him?"

She doesn't say yes or no. "If you aren't interested, just leave."

"If you love him, you wouldn't be sleeping with me." He ties the scarf around his eyes. "You want me to stop asking questions."

Ahn Hana undoes the buŧŧons of her shirt one by one. Her shirt falls on the floor. Her back is full of scars. But, Do Sejin can't see it. She removes the pieces of his clothes one by one. There is silence. Only a foreboding silence. The man and woman are familiar and yet stranger. Do Sejin isn't the same boy. Ahn Hana isn't the same woman. He lies down on the bed. His hands don't move. She kisses him on his lips again. When he doesn't kiss her back, she sighs and lies down beside him.

"You have changed." She takes time to observe his face.

"You too." Do Sejin turns his back on her, not wanting to feel her gaze on him.

"Why did you come to my room if you don't want to do it?"

He feels her cold finger on his back, drawing lines with her tip of his finger. He realizes that she's tracing crisscrosses on his back with her finger.

"Do Sejin, do you know that I want to feel the heat kept by fresh blood pouring out of a body?"

She waits for him to say something. Perhaps, he will be afraid. He might run out of the room and call the police. It's better if he does that.

Why did she come back?

She is afraid of being found.

She wants to protect her child.

She wants to feel someone's blood in her hands.

Do Sejin turns to face her. He doesn't remove the blindfold. Maybe, she can say these words because he can't see her. He takes her into his arms. His fingers touch the skin on his back. He freezes for a moment before he finds the courage to run his palm on the scars. He traces every single line of crisscrosses.

Angry tears glide on his skin and drop on the space between their faces.

Ahn Hana sighs and moves away. She finds her clothes first. She glances at the man who is still silently crying. She remarks, "I was wrong. You are still a boy."

She leaves the apartment and walks to the alley where Seol A was killed.