Chapter 10: The Lamp

"Why don't you answer your phone?" Yeo-reum asked.

It was Monday night, and she stood in the doorway of apartment 402 with her sneakers in her hand.

It was the first time she had been invited inside.

The room was nearly bare.

There was a low bed with a gray cover, a desk with a laptop on it, one armchair, and no pictures on any wall.

The kitchen was a hotplate and a burnt pot.

Jin-woo took her sneakers out of her hand and set them by the door.

"I answer texts," he said.

"I know. You send the shortest ones in Seoul."

"Voices on a phone are small," he said. "I am bad at small."

"That's what Gong meant?"

"Gong means to make you wonder. It is what he does." He glanced at her face. "Does it work?"

"A little."

"Ask me anything you want to ask me."

"I want to ask you why your doorbell has a lamp."

She pointed.

Next to the front door, a round white lamp was screwed into the wall, wired to the bell.

When she had pressed the button five minutes ago, the lamp had flashed, and a second later he had opened the door.

"It is a quiet building," he said.

"It's a doorbell lamp."

"I like quiet."

She looked at the television on the desk.

A small show was running with white captions at the bottom, and no sound.

"You watch with subtitles."

"I read faster than people talk."

"And what's this?"

On the shelf over the bed there was a flat gray case the size of a soap dish.

She flipped it open with her thumb.

Inside, in a bed of foam, lay two tiny beige pieces shaped like commas.

"Mine," Jin-woo said, and closed it gently in her hand. "For sleeping."

"Earplugs?"

"Something like that."

She set it down on the shelf.

She had a feeling there was something he was not telling her.

But it was the first night in his home, and she let it go.

She turned, put her arms around his neck, and said, "Take me to bed."

He stared at her.

"I wanted to wait until you saw the apartment."

"I've seen it. It's four things and a pot."

He laughed, a short, rough laugh, and the whole bare room felt warmer.

He kissed her slowly, lifting her until her feet left the floor, and she felt how much he had been holding back for three days.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Webtoon Hero Is the CEO Next Door from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.