Untouched [minsung]

Chapter 48

"This is it," Lee Know announced as he pulled into the unassuming, but nevertheless beautiful, cottage that Mrs. Seo...my mother...had purchased for me.

The house appeared to be two stories and was made to look like a real-life storybook home. It looked straight out of a fairy tale with a stone chimney running up the front of the house and ivy growing on the side.

"I love it," I gasped as I took it all in.

"I'll have to get my things out of storage tomorrow," I told Lee Know as he parked the car.

"Already done" he replied.

"How did you even know..." I began but trailed off.

I had allowed myself to forget that Lee Know was hired to get close to me. Of course, he knew about my storage unit.

"My job, which we still need to talk about." He turned to face me with a very serious expression. "You obviously know now that it was my job to get close to you."

I just nodded. I felt dumb for ever having thought that Lee Know would have been attracted to me organically. Obviously, I knew he cared about me now, but I still didn't know what was real and what wasn't. How much of it was fake? Was he still just doing a job?

"I was following you for weeks before the night in the club."

Oh, great.

"That night in the club, I broke protocol. I was meant to be learning about you, studying you, watching out for you as a potential threat to Changbin."

I already knew this of course. Hearing him explain it made it worse. "I know Lee Know. We don't have to talk about it." I sunk into my chair in dismay. It was one thing to know I'd been played and had my heart taken advantage of and another to have it confessed to me so candidly.

Besides, I wanted to remember that night for what it was for me...the night I made out with a stranger, ground on his leg, let him choke me in public, and embarrassed myself.

"We do need to talk about it," he argued. He pulled one of my hands into his and closed another one of his hands on top of it. He watched me with desperate eyes. "You need to understand that I could've been tortured. I could've been strung up and burnt again. I could've been shot. All because I chose to get close to you that night."

I was shocked. I hadn't realized the extremes Mrs. Seo would've gone to just to ensure Lee Know remained professional. Or maybe she was more worried that I would end up being a threat who had manipulated him.

"You risked that much? For me?" I blinked back at him in shock.

Having been tortured, there were few things I'd do to potentially lead me back to that dark room. Being with Lee Know would be at the top of that list.

He took my hands in his and gazed sweetly into my eyes. "That night, I followed you around for a while. I watched you lose yourself in the music and let loose a bit. In the weeks I'd seen you, you'd never been so free. I should never have followed you to the bathroom, but I couldn't help myself. Once I pinned you against the door, it was like I lost all sense of morality and logic. I just wanted you."