Chapter 7

My Husband Lives Inside the Painting

If you want to catch a tiger, you have to puff out your own mane first.

I had no idea whether this would actually help, but for the time being, I went behind the house, brought back a shovel, and began digging the ground conspicuously in front of the man.

At least it’s good exercise.

Ten minutes after I silently started shoveling, the man, who had been lying quietly, finally opened his mouth.

“But Ob. Maybe you don’t know how strong I am, but I can easily get out of these ropes if I put just a little strength into it.”

“Really?”

“Of course. I only stayed still because I felt bad undoing all the hard work you put into tying me up.”

Whether he did or not, I simply continued shoveling.

Once I got into it, it was surprisingly fun.

Moving my body also made me feel considerably refreshed.

When I gave him no response, the man grunted and strained against the ropes.

“But it’s not coming loose. Hmm. I wonder why?”

“I have no idea.”

“……Hey, could you loosen this a little? I think my arms are about to fall off.”

What a drama queen.

I tried to ignore him again without responding.

But then I remembered that, in my haste, I had twisted his arms halfway behind his back when tying him up, so I glanced back at him.

“Ah, it hurts……”

Seeing Camille’s face looking like he was in pain tugged at my heart, but I steeled myself and answered coldly.

“I don’t want to.”

“Hm?”

“I said I don’t want to.”

“…….”

His expression immediately went completely stiff.

Wow. He really was acting!

While I stared at him in shock, the man fixed his gaze on me as though trying to see straight through me, as if he were attempting to read my thoughts.

There wasn’t the slightest hint of remorse on his face.

Realizing this wouldn’t do, I tossed the shovel aside and crouched down in front of him.

“I’ll untie the ropes. But before that, there’s something I want to make absolutely clear, okay?”

“Something you want to make clear?”

The man blinked innocently, pretending not to know what I meant.

But I raised the bungeoppang mold with a resolute expression.

“If you lie, I’ll hit you with this one more time.”

That was when the expressionless look on the man’s face finally began to change.

“Wait, Ob. Let’s talk this out.”

“You remember how much this hurt, right?”

The man bit his lip and nodded.

“You don’t want to get hit again, do you?”

Nod, nod.

“Then tell me the truth.”

“About what……?”

With one cheek pressed against the ground, he nervously swallowed dryly. He looked so harmless that it was hard to believe he had been cornering me only moments ago.

Anyone who saw us might have mistakenly thought I had kidnapped him and was threatening him.

But there were only the two of us here.

So I asked.

“You’re not my husband, are you?”

“…….”

The man firmly shut his mouth like a clam.

When I saw his deep blue eyes darting around as though searching for an exit, I felt a sense of satisfaction, yet at the same time, my heart grew heavy.

‘I’m the one who asked the question, so why am I the one who wants to run away without even hearing the answer?’

As though giving voice to my tangled emotions, the wind swept through the flower field with a soft, rushing sound.

“……Does that really matter?”

The man answered.

He was probably trying to avoid giving me a direct answer, but that very attitude only gave me certainty.

This man is not my husband. Absolutely not.

“…….”

My hesitation dragged on. Anger made the back of my neck burn, yet my body remained frozen like a stone.

All that vigorous shoveling, as though I were about to dig a grave, had ultimately been nothing but a bluff. I didn’t have the nerve to actually hurt this man wearing Camille’s shell.

‘If only I had pretended not to know. He might have been able to enjoy eternal rest.’

Just as a terrible sense of futility washed over me, the man’s body trembled slightly.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Sorry. Did I disturb you?”

His disheveled pink hair fell almost over his eyes.

“To be honest, I’m laughing because I’m enjoying this a little.”

“…….”

“I never dreamed I’d be counterattacked like this. I certainly never imagined you’d tie me up so thoroughly, either.”

“So?”

“So, the thing is, I……”

A faint blush spread across the man’s cheeks.

“I think I’ve fallen for you.”

At that moment, I instinctively scrunched up my face.

“Are you crazy?”

But my reaction seemed to make him happy instead.

The sight of him letting out a little laugh while his entire body was bound in ropes was proof that he wasn’t in his right mind.

Having regained his composure, the man continued, his eyes curving beautifully at the corners.

“Ob. I admit I was too hasty. And I’m sorry for frightening you.”

Then he looked at me as though he couldn’t understand me at all.

“But you didn’t have any attachment to life in the first place, did you? I made the offer after seeing and feeling that myself. I’m the type who likes to make sure I have somewhere to lie down before I stretch out my legs.”

“…….”

“So why did you refuse my offer?”

I suspected that this might be another attempt to enchant me, but I couldn’t argue with what he said.

Because, in truth, I didn’t know either.

It wasn’t as though I had any great attachment to life, and even if I disappeared just like this, there wasn’t a single person who would come looking for me.

So why?

A strange glimmer appeared in his blue eyes as they met my wavering gaze.

“…….”

He quietly stared at me as though solving a complicated riddle, then suddenly opened his eyes wide as if he had realized something.

“I understand.”

The next moment, his eyes curved gently.

“You want revenge on the person who killed me, don’t you?”

“……What did you say?”

The sensation of my hair standing on end swept through my mind.

“Yeah. Somehow, I thought it was too easy……. A human being is bound to have at least one desire like that.”

The man continued speaking as though talking to himself, a languid smile on his face.

“Especially you, Ob. You wanted to leave behind a trace of me badly enough to paint my portrait yourself. So I can understand your desire for revenge.”

“……!”

The man had astonishingly seen straight through my feelings.

After hearing the news of his death and holding his funeral, all the way until today, I……

‘I never once accepted his death.’

Camille had taken his own life that night after promising me, “I’ll show you my studio tomorrow.”

No matter how I thought about it, something about it was strange.

I had clearly seen the anticipation in his face when he told me he would show it to me.

Camille never made promises to me that he couldn’t keep.

Therefore, his death could not have been his own choice. It had to have been the result of someone else’s hand.

“Then how about this?”

The man tightened his abdomen and used the momentum to pull his upper body upright.

Because his legs were still bound, he ended up looking as though he were kneeling before me, but the eyes visible through his disheveled hair held a cold vitality that did not suit his predicament at all.

“I’ll help you get your revenge.”

“What……?”

“And on the day your revenge is finally complete, I’ll take your soul in return.”

His words flowed smoothly without hesitation, as though he regarded this entire situation as nothing more than a lighthearted game.

“Once you achieve your goal of revenge, you won’t have anything left in your life to cling to, right?”

I couldn’t easily argue with him, but neither could I readily agree.

His low voice quietly slipped into that opening.

“Ob. You don’t want to part with me like this either, do you?”

“…….”

“You have to clear my name. Hmm?”

His words brought back, like fragments, the most vivid of the memories I had forgotten.

“What’s this? A red ribbon?”

“It’s a substitute for holding hands with my wife. You dislike being touched by me, after all.”

Once, that awkward man had brought me a red ribbon out of consideration for me, because I was almost pathologically uncomfortable with physical contact with him.

He tied one end around his wrist and placed the other end in my hand. Then, as though trying to ease my tension, he even made a lighthearted joke.

“Ah, do I look like I’m walking a dog? Considering how dignified you are, my lady, perhaps it does look that way.”

“……What? What does that—”

“If it’s going to look that way anyway, how about putting it around my neck instead?”

Holding the bright red ribbon against his own pale neck, he laughed playfully again.

Back then, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. When the red ribbon touched his slender neck and the prominent rise of his throat, I found myself swallowing without realizing it.

“Uh…… Should I really put it around my neck?”

“Ah.”

The moment I came back to my senses, heat rushed into my face. Trying to hide my embarrassment, I sharply scolded Camille as though blaming him for it.

“Camille, you’re taking the joke too far.”

“But your eyes were definitely shining strangely.”

“Mine? You must have seen it wrong.”

I spoke curtly and turned my head away with a huff. A little while later, I heard the sound of him suppressing a laugh in his throat.

“If that’s what my lady says, then I suppose that’s how it was.”

‘What expression was I making back then?’

I was probably standing there with my arms crossed, looking angry, but in the end, I think I burst out laughing despite myself.

My defenses had always crumbled so helplessly after just a few words from Camille.

“Ob.”

A cloud suddenly drifted over, blocking the warm sunlight.

A deep shadow settled over the ground, and a chilly air began to spread low across the earth.

“You’ll make a contract with me…… right?”

“…….”

This was undoubtedly the whisper of a demon. There was no doubt about it.

Another voice deep inside my heart desperately warned me.

I knew better than anyone that this choice was wrong.

But the face of Camille that appeared in my mind at that moment, and the hand of his that I had ultimately failed to hold……

They blinded me.

‘I have to atone.’

For my own sake—for realizing my love far too late.

As my final apology to the husband who had already left me behind.

“……I will.”

At that moment, the wind blew.

The man before me wore a smile more beautiful than any I had ever seen from him.

At the same time, it was a smile so perfect that it sent a chill down my spine.

“That’s an excellent choice, Ob.”