When The Phone Rings Temp 1

Chapter 38

Baek Sa-eon subdued the attacking dog by letting it bite his bag and pinning its neck underfoot.

Two men arrived panting, belatedly fastening the leash around the animal. One of them stammered out a question.

“Are… are you alright? Is the child hurt anywhere…?”
“She could’ve died.”

The sharp, irritated tone of his voice only heightened the relief that washed over her. Exhausted, Heeju slumped limply against his shoulder.

‘Sa-eon’s words might seem rude but..’

For a brief moment, the thought crossed her mind, but Heeju couldn’t lift her gaze.

Fortunately, Baek Sa-eon didn’t seem to mind. Without a word, he gently steadied her small frame against him.

“I had no idea this ridiculously expensive neighborhood was this dangerous. Whose dog is this? Chairman Seo’s? Or maybe Minister Han’s?”
“I sincerely apologize.”

The property manager bowed his head deeply, looking thoroughly embarrassed.

“We’ve met before, haven’t we?”
“Pardon?”
“You look familiar… Ah, I see. This must be CEO Kang’s dog.”

While gesturing at the dog with his chin, Baek Sa-eon fixed his piercing gaze solely on the man before him.

The man was at a loss for words.

“CEO Kang isn’t exactly known for being a dog lover.”
“I-I truly apologize. Please forgive me.”

Without further comment, Baek Sa-eon turned away coldly. Suddenly, Heeju felt a sharp sting on her cheek.

“The dog didn’t slap you with its paw, did it?”

He lightly brushed the part of her cheek that had swollen from the slap earlier, where her lips were puffed against his shoulder.

Heeju, utterly drained, could only take shallow breaths. The cheek that was red and swollen was the one hit by her mother.

“Hit them back.”
“…!”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s your sister or your mother. From now on, be ready to strike back—whoever it is.”

He spoke with shocking ease, his words were brazen and unapologetic.

“The chance for revenge always comes.”

She rested against his shoulder, and the coldness of his voice resonated through his body like a chilling echo.

“Someone with ambition shouldn’t live quietly like you.”

The warmth of Sa-eon’s body was cozy. I felt like I was about to doze off. Perhaps it was because of this warmth that, the closer they got to her house, the tighter she clung to his collar.

‘But I couldn’t hang onto him forever…’

Swallowing a sigh, Heeju prepared to get down. But the boy grabbed her hands as she was about to turn away.

‘……!’

He walked straight past Chairman Hong’s gates without hesitation. A confused Heeju kept glancing back and forth between the gates and the boy.

“Happy birthday.”
‘……!’

The sun was already setting, painting the sky in hues of amber and crimson.

As though pierced through, Heeju stared blankly at him, but the boy stubbornly kept his eyes forward.

Baek Sa-eon glanced up at the dusky sky and said flatly,
“Your cheek looks like that sunset.”
‘…….’
“Red.”

Perhaps because of the sunset light spreading across one side of his face, he looked almost as if he was festering. On impulse, Heeju gently blew a puff of air at him.

With a slight frown, he turned his gaze toward where her ticklish breath had brushed.
This time, she blew toward the sky.

‘Ahh.. so even he can make that face.’

At that, Baek Sa-eon pulled up one corner of his lips. For the first time, his perpetually cold expression softened, making him look like the eighteen-year-old boy he was.

“Was this you blowing out the candles?”

Heeju thought the smile that broke apart the rigidity of his face was beautiful.

The sunset-painted sky,
his firm embrace,
and the smiling boy—

This watercolor-like moment lingered vividly in her mind’s eye for a long time.

That night, Heeju was feverish.

Her empty longing, admiration, and yearning for someone swirled incessantly in the hollow space within her chest.

It was on that day that her first menstruation began.

 

***

 

‘Ugh……!’

I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. Before she had time to dwell on her surroundings, a groan escaped her lips.

My head was throbbing and my arms and legs were covered in bandages. The sight was unbelievable.

‘What do I do now…?’

Her first thought was about the briefing broadcast she needed to deliver.

As she groaned and struggled to sit up, the door to the hospital room opened, and Baek Sa-eon stepped in.

“……”
“……”

As their eyes met, Heeju’s last memory came flooding back.

Even in the direst of circumstances, Heeju internally applauded herself for not losing her “406” persona. She wanted to burst into laughter but maintained a calm façade instead.

“How are you feeling?”

She nodded, indicating that she was fine.

“Is that so?”

He muttered in a peculiar tone before turning to lock the door with a click. With an unreadable expression, he strode over to stand by her bedside.

“Then I guess you can handle this much.”

Before Heeju could even react—

“……!”

He suddenly leaned down and captured her lips.

The warmth of his touch was startlingly intense. With one hand, he gently kneaded the nape of her neck while softly pressing against her lips.

She reflexively pushed his shoulder, but he remained as still as a stone. In an instant, hot flesh slipped through the crack of his parted lips.

‘Hmph…!’

Before he could resist, their wetness tangled. The tightly pressed lips sought to devour the entire mucous membrane.

His teeth scraped hurriedly, pulling against the smooth insides of her mouth, while his lips greedily drank her in. Unaccustomed to such intimacy, Heeju gasped for air, frantically pounding on his chest.

But the more she resisted, the rougher Baek Sa-eon became, forcing his tongue deeper. He explored the heated insides of her mouth, teasing the ridges of her palate.

“Mmnh… stop…”

The heat gathered around her eyes, and her breaths came out in broken gasps.

Each time she exhaled, Sa-eon’s brow furrowed, and his movements grew more relentless. He intertwined their mouths with intense ferocity, sucking and pressing against her delicate skin.

The slick sounds of their lips colliding and parting echoed in the otherwise silent hospital room.

When he tilted his head to deepen the kiss further, Heeju used all her strength to shove him away.

“Stop it… I said stop…!”

Her voice rang out sharply, louder than she intended.

The sound of her own defiant outburst left her frozen and she felt completely bared.

And then, their eyes met.

He was wiping his glistening lower lip, a strange, satisfied smile spreading across his face. There was something unsettlingly about his expression.

“Ah.”

A low murmur, almost like an epiphany, escaped his lips.

“Heeju, was it fun?”
“……!”

Despite the curved smile on his lips, his gaze was anything but warm. It was chilling, sharp enough to make her skin crawl.

His cold gaze made an inexplicable chill run down her spine, and she found herself unable to decipher his thoughts.

“When someone speaks to you, you should answer.”

He leaned down to meet her eye level.

“After all, Heeju is very eloquent.”
“……!”

Baek Sa-eon slowly reached out, gently brushing his fingers along the arch of her eyebrows.

Heeju’s pulse raced wildly, echoing through every fiber of her being. She swallowed dryly.

“When did it start? How old were you?”

Though her lips moved, no sound escaped this time. Only cold sweat trickled down her temples.
He lightly brushed her warm forehead with his hand.

“Are you feeling uncomfortable?”
“……!”
“You can’t speak properly when you’re uncomfortable, is that it?”

His thumb pressed firmly against the flesh near her wrist. Though he seemed to be exerting minimal force, it left a deep indentation that ached.

“Do you know who found you in the mountains?”

Baek Sa-eon’s gaze was unyielding, locked onto her as though nothing else existed.

“406.”
“……!”
“The same person who kept me up at night with her harassing calls.”

He raised a brow mockingly.

“If it weren’t for those calls, you wouldn’t have been found. The mountaineering team didn’t even know about that hidden cliff hollow. That stalker, 406, gave it away.”

Heeju lowered her head, unwilling to meet his gaze. At this moment, looking at him felt insurmountably difficult.

“So now I’m wondering… what should I do?”

Baek Sa-eon’s piercing stare lingered on her pale face.

“Should I turn the stalker over to the police, or—”
“……!”

Heeju flinched at his deliberate pause.

“Should I give 406 what she wants?”

Without blinking, his inky-black pupils conveyed a strange sense of discomfort.

“What should I do with her?”

His grip on her wrist tightened, refusing to let her go.

 

***

 

The verification was completed. When Baek Sa-eon stepped outside, his expression was blank.

“Stop…!”

Hearing that vivid voice sent a chill down his spine. The voice sounded exactly like the files he had been listening to all night.

“Hey, were you waiting for me?”
“Just let me out! Please, just let me out!”

406 and Hong Heeju – the threats, and pleas, they all belonged to the same person. Yes, it was unmistakably the same voice.

Unclear emotion then surged to the forefront of my mind making an almost uncontrollable wave of excitement coursed through my veins. His entire body felt hot due to the sensation.

Hong Heeju certainly knew how to talk.

No, more precisely- “Hong Heeju was threatening me.”

That same child who couldn’t even do basic addition was now fearlessly threatening him.

Baek Sa-eon ran the tip of his tongue along the inside of his cheek, where his wife’s scent still lingered faintly.

Then he hummed the melody from the police car radio.

“You can ring my be-e-ell…”

The black box had recorded everything, right up to the moment when Heeju began to unravel in panic. All the analyses were complete— threats and coercion, lingering somewhere between voluntary and forced.

Suddenly Sa-eon’s expression turned grim.

“What kind of deal did she strike with that b*stard…?”

His hand clenched into a fist at the memory of the black box recording: the erratic radio, the jittery walkie-talkie, and Heeju struggling with hyperventilation.

At first, it must have been the work of the real blackmailer. But somewhere along the line, a deal was made. And now, Heeju was cooperating with the arsonist captured on the CCTV footage.

Even when the car tumbled, her husband was suffocating, and her father was injured— she never called for help. Something was holding her back.

“To undo the arranged marriage… to restore things to how they were before.”

Baek Sa-eon’s expression darkened further.

He had a bad feeling. A sharp instinct, honed like a blade, warned him this was no ordinary scheme.

He could state with confidence that even he had orchestrated such plots himself in the underground bunkers of the Blue House.

This felt all wrong.

Heeju was wedged between layers of blackmail and manipulation. And she needed to be saved.

Which meant only one thing for Sa-eon, ‘Fine. For now, I’ll play along.’

But 406’s desires will never be fulfilled.

The key was to draw the real blackmailer out. Recalling the sequence of events that led to the office fire, the solution was straightforward.

Whenever the blackmailer encountered a hurdle, they were forced to appear.

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TL/N: ENJOYY~