They Threw Out the Maid's Daughter, Now She Sits at Their Table novel · Chapter 14 of 32

Chapter 14: Salt Air

The inn on the coast road had four rooms and a landlady who asked no questions.

A heated floor that Ye-rin lay on in her stockings until the cold went out of her.

They had stood on the Haeseong site that afternoon for an hour without speaking.

She had asked to see it.

He had brought her, and when she looked at the square of weeds she thought only that her mother had walked out of this place with her in her arms.

Then the rain had come in off the sea, and the road had flooded at the bend.

The landlady had said there was nothing for it but a room.

The window looked out over black water.

Waves broke on the rocks below with a long, slow sound, and the whole room smelled of salt.

Seo-jun sat on the edge of the futon with his jacket off.

He had not touched her since the car.

"You haven't said anything in three hours," Ye-rin said.

"Neither have you."

"I'm thinking," said Ye-rin.

"About what?"

"That I'm afraid of you," she said.

He looked up sharply.

"Not that way," she said. "I mean I know how this goes. You tell me the worst thing about you. You've told me. I stay anyway. And then the day comes when I find out that I'm standing at the wrong end of a corridor."

She sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees.

"I'm afraid I'll love you before I know what it costs."

He did not say anything clever.

He crossed the floor on his knees, took her face in both hands and kissed her forehead, hard.

"I'm afraid of it too," he said against her skin.

"Is that in the terms?"

"Cancelled. You said you'd tell me when," he said.

"I'm telling you."

He drew back and looked at her.

She took his hand, put it flat against the open collar of her blouse and held it there.

"Now."

He kissed her.

It was slower than the first time, and quiet, and his mouth opened hers with a patience that made her chest ache.

His hand slid up the side of her neck and into her hair.

She heard the rain on the roof and the sea on the rocks, and she heard herself make a small sound against his lips.

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