Weren’t You the One Who Was Dying? – Chapter 17

Author: Asternkm

“Haha…”

“…….”

“What’s that you’re holding, Ehit?”

I tried to change the subject, but Ehit just looked at me quietly with his arms crossed, cold eyes fixed on me.

As if a stopwatch were ticking, his fingers twitched a few times.

“I truly don’t know. Do you not know every time, or are you pretending not to know?”

“Know what?”

His mocking gaze gained an extra layer of sharp irritation.

Well… even to my own ears, I’d been responding in a slightly loose-screw way, repeatedly asking, ‘Me? What?’

“Then who else is here?”

Still, even if my reaction was strange, Ehit suddenly showing up in the middle of the night and then questioning why I wasn’t letting him in right away wasn’t exactly normal either.

‘Should I just shut the door?’

As I hesitated for a moment, I suddenly realized something much more important.

‘Wait. My hair right now—’

I have a bald spot!

“Uh—wait a second!”

I hurriedly spun to the left. This was an immediate crisis.

The bald spot was on the left side of the back of my head, right? Not the right?
It wasn’t the right, was it?

‘The left side feels emptier. It’s the left.’

I glanced at Ehit with just my eyes. He was standing there calmly, as if my tension wasn’t even worth reacting to.

“What are you doing right now?”

“W-what do you mean?”

Did he see it? He didn’t, right?

I casually swept my hair back with a tired expression, then stopped my hand right over the bald spot, naturally covering it.

Very naturally.

“So, what are you doing, Ehit? Why aren’t you coming in?”

That sounded natural too, right?

Even to my own ears, my voice sounded relaxed and unhurried.

Still keeping my hand pressed to the side of my head, I gestured inward.

“Hurry up and come in before bugs get inside.”

I saw Ehit’s expression stiffen slightly. Ah—maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned bugs.

‘Trying to sound natural and I end up saying something way too realistic.’

In Ehit’s house, where servants were always around, leaving the door open and worrying about bugs wouldn’t even be a thing.

I cleared my throat once and slowly shuffled backward, stepping inside first.

“Come on, hurry—”

“Wait.”

Ehit grabbed my arm as I backed into the house.

“…!”

Of all things, the arm he grabbed was the one covering the side of my head. I felt an instant sense of danger. I reflexively yanked my arm away, and for once, a flash of surprise crossed Ehit’s face.

He shook his wrist a couple of times where I’d slapped it away and asked,

“You want me to come in? At this hour?”

“Isn’t that why you came here in the middle of the night?”

“…….”

“……?”

Ehit kept staring at me with a what are you even doing expression, while about eighty percent of my brain power was devoted to my bald spot and the remaining twenty percent struggled to process his reaction.

And then, a moment later, I finally realized what kind of awkward meaning this situation carried.

I’d been too distracted by my bald spot to notice, but this was—

A situation that could very easily be read… strangely.

Even if temporary, Ehit and I were engaged.
And I lived here alone.

Inviting an engaged man into a woman’s house late at night…

“W-why are you here?!”

Only now grasping the implication, I suddenly shouted.

Ehit pulled me out of the house and slammed the door shut behind us.

“I didn’t come here to sit and chat in a place that barely even has a proper sitting room.”

The loud bang snapped some sense back into me.

In other words, I finally understood how bad this could get—and what I needed to do now.

“I do have a sitting room.”

“Even so, it’d be better to talk at a teahouse down the street.”

“No!”

“I wasn’t planning on talking for long any—what did you just say?”

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t have to be talked about right now, does it?”

“Is there really a difference between something that needs to be discussed today and tomorrow?”

“Guess not.”

“What?”

“Then let’s talk another time.”

Before Ehit could grab me again, I hurriedly darted back inside.

“I’m sorry, but right now I’m, um… really busy. So, bye.”

I almost bowed, stopped myself, just gave a small nod instead, and slammed the door shut. Then, like a hermit crab scrambling back into its shell, I rushed inside—

“Ugh!”

—and slammed my left elbow, which was still covering my head, hard into the wall.

A cry slipped out before I could stop it.

Ow… the pain was bad enough to make my eyes sting. I sank to the floor, clutching my elbow.

Ugh. That hurts.

“What is it?”

“….”

“Are you alright?”

Ehit’s voice came from outside.

I wanted to roll around on the floor from the pain, but I swallowed my groan and answered first.

“Y-yeah… I’m fine.”

“Are you really fine? Open the door.”

Bang, bang, bang!

Compared to Ehit’s strength, my door was far too fragile—it sounded like it might break any second.

I struggled to my feet and shouted through the door.

“I said I’m fiiiine…! You’re busy, so you should go…!”

“Open the door. Now.”

“I said I’m fine! Cough cough.”

Trying to shout while enduring the pain felt like my dry throat was being scraped raw.

It came out sounding almost angry, but I could leave the cleanup for tomorrow-me.

When the pain in my elbow finally started to ease, I heard footsteps moving away.

Dragging myself up, I staggered toward the mirror.

“Ugh…”

Holding my elbow, I tilted my head slightly downward and to the left. My angled gaze landed on the back of my head in the mirror.

Between the light brown strands, a small empty patch stood out clearly.

‘He didn’t see it… right?’

I felt a bit bad for making Ehit come all this way, but it couldn’t be helped.

‘If I’d gone after him just now, he definitely would’ve noticed the bald spot.’

And that wouldn’t just be embarrassing—it would give him another weakness to grab hold of.

He already had more than enough reasons to push me around. Adding one more would be bad.

Looking out the window, I saw Ehit getting into a carriage. He didn’t even look back as it drove away.

Sitting by the window, I leaned against the cold glass and let out a long breath.

‘But seriously… why did he come?’

I’d think about that tomorrow. For now, I should just sleep and think again after resting.

Who knows—maybe when I wake up, all of this will have been a dream.

This smooth, strange thing on my head. This thunderbolt-like engagement with the male lead of a novel.

****

Morning.

I woke up early.

I’d had a strange dream about pulling weeds, and one second after opening my eyes, I realized exactly why.

I stood in front of the mirror. The surface was almost cloudy with desperate handprints, showing just how shocked I’d been last night.

I wiped it with a cloth and let out a deep sigh.

‘Ehit will probably come again.’

If he came even in the middle of the night, he’d definitely come back. Avoiding him forever wasn’t possible. In that case, it might be better to go see him properly prepared rather than facing him unguarded.

‘Then first, I need to hide this.’

I turned my head slightly to the left and tilted it down. My smooth scalp made its presence loudly known. Beneath the light brown hair, the empty spot stood out clearly… painfully clearly…

“Sniff.”

It was only coin-sized.

But when a coin sat right in the middle of your head, it felt way too powerful to ignore.

‘What even is this.’

After letting out a heavy sigh, I glanced at the hats sitting on the shelf in my wardrobe.

‘Would this look weird?’

I tried pulling one down over my head, then took it off again. A wide-brimmed hat looked too dressed up, and smaller ones didn’t match any of my clothes.

If this was Ehit—the same man who once said my perfectly fine dress looked like seaweed—he’d definitely frown.

“Then…”

The most natural method was using my hair itself.

I carefully lifted the hair at the crown and gently swept it over to cover the coin-sized spot on the side.

‘This might actually work. I just need to fix it in place.’

Where’s a pin? I definitely bought one for five harks the other day… where did it go?

These things always disappear when you need them.

I gathered whatever pins I could find in the drawer and tied my hair half-up. It was a style I’d never tried before, so it felt awkward—but still…

It didn’t look too bad.

“Phew.”

With a nervous heart, I stumbled out of the house.

I stopped by the bakery to buy bread for breakfast, took a deep breath, and was just heading out when someone suddenly blocked my way.