CHAPTER 8
I don’t know how things ended up like this.
Seo-eun was conscious of Hee-mok standing behind her as she reached for the door lock.
Her hand trembled with every number she entered.
Beep.
The sound of the door lock being released sounded like a death sentence.
I must be crazy.
Should I tell him to go back?
Maybe he regrets this, too.
No, I can’t do that.
How can I, after bringing him all the way here?
Even as she opened the front door and stepped inside, Seo-eun was torn.
While she hesitated, he followed her in, and the door lock clicked shut behind them.
Seo-eun couldn’t bring herself to take off her shoes and turned around.
“Um….”
She had just managed to open her mouth, intending to apologize and say it had been a mistake, when he took a step toward her.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to say we should stop now.”
Was it written all over her face?
Caught exactly where it hurt, Seo-eun stammered.
“Uh… well… of course not….”
“That’s a relief.”
“I was worried you might seduce me and then say something completely different.”
As Seo-eun finished in a tiny voice, Hee-mok raised the corners of his lips slightly.
At that moment, Seo-eun couldn’t take her eyes off his handsome smile.
Had Cha Hee-mok always been this attractive?
His eyes are like a mist-covered lake.
Come to think of it, he had always been popular.
Whenever his academy classes ended, girls were always gathered in front of the classroom where he studied.
The man who had passed through the fresh days of youth and the difficult seasons of life now carried the unmistakable atmosphere of autumn.
A gentle hand touched her hair.
Seo-eun flinched in surprise, making Hee-mok hesitate for a moment, but he eventually tucked her hair behind her ear.
The sensation was so ticklish that she almost wanted to shrink her neck.
“But why are you so stiff?”
“Me…?”
No matter how much she pretended otherwise, she couldn’t completely hide how nervous she was.
“Was I…?”
“If not, never mind.”
Looking at him, Seo-eun asked herself a question.
Could I really sleep with this man?
You do know that sleeping together doesn’t mean simply closing your eyes and holding hands, right?
Whatever it meant, sharing body heat with someone while their skin touched would surely be far more than anything she could imagine.
I’m ridiculous.
I’m trying to give this man something I couldn’t even give Kang Do-yoon.
“You seem pretty familiar with situations like this, oppa.”
“Why?”
“You just look like you are.”
“How would you like me to be?”
“Um… that’s….”
Seo-eun raised her gaze.
“I’d like you to be… experienced, oppa.”
“Why?”
It was strange how easily a person’s feelings could turn upside down.
“Because I’m more… forward than I look.”
There were two reasons Seo-eun had changed her mind after considering whether to send him away.
She wanted him to be disappointed by how loose she was and run away, or, even if he encountered a different side of Han Seo-eun tonight, she wanted him to forget it afterward.
“That’s good.”
“……?”
“Because I’m quite fond of women who are forward.”
At that moment—
Click.
The sensor light in the entrance went out, plunging the two of them into darkness.
The fiery look that had seemed ready to burn disappeared from sight.
Seo-eun reached out toward him.
As soon as she moved, the sensor light came back on.
At some point, he was standing right in front of her.
“…Mmph.”
The moment their lips met, Seo-eun felt an intense pull she couldn’t resist.
He tilted his head and kissed her deeply, his large, warm hands cupping both her cheeks.
Their breaths tangled hotly in the close space between them.
The kiss gradually became more passionate, and Seo-eun found herself unable to catch her breath.
It was then that Hee-mok stepped farther into the apartment.
Seo-eun’s high heels slipped off as she followed him inside.
Still lost in the kiss, the two of them eventually ended up on the bed.
“Haa… ha.”
Hee-mok was looking down at her with desire shining in his eyes.
Is it starting now?
What will happen to me now?
Where will Han Seo-eun disappear to after tonight?
As she looked at him with complicated emotions, he asked,
“Do you want to shower first, or afterward?”
It was a question that made her think about many things.
Perhaps he was truly a free-spirited soul, since he was already thinking differently from her from the very beginning.
“What does that….”
“I mean exactly what I said.”
“If you want, we can shower first.”
“But if I get carried away in the shower, I think I’ll torment you for a long time.”
His blunt words made Seo-eun’s face flare red.
What did he mean by that?
Her mind seemed to buffer as though it had rusted over.
“You’re talking like you’ve planned this from the start.”
A faint smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
“Of course.”
His gaze, as though seeing right through her, settled on Seo-eun.
“I have no intention of leaving this place until I’m satisfied.”
Her expectation that one encounter would solve everything turned out to be wrong.
She had thought that if she simply closed her eyes and endured it like riding a terrifying amusement-park ride, she could take back what Ji-yu had stolen from her.
But she had been mistaken.
“…Promise me.”
“Promise what?”
Rather than regret it afterward, she wanted to spend this night without regrets.
“Promise that once tonight is over, you’ll forget everything.”
“As promised, it will be just one night.”
“Perhaps it would be better to melt away so completely that I forget who I am.”
“…I’ll promise.”
“Then you have nothing else to say?”
At the question that sounded like a final verdict, Seo-eun nodded.
Seeing the resolute expression on her face, as though she were heading into battle rather than anything else, Hee-mok reached for his shirt.
With unhurried movements, he undid the buttons one by one, briefly revealing the skin beneath.
For a moment, muscles incongruous with his refined features came into view, and then he shrugged off his shirt.
His broad shoulders, almost like those of a swimmer, overwhelmed Seo-eun.
And it wasn’t only his shoulders.
His entire body looked tense with restrained desire, like a wild animal that had just returned from a hunt.
“What about you?”
“Will you take yours off, or should I?”
Seo-eun swallowed hard.
For all his free-spirited nature, Cha Hee-mok in bed was far more unexpected than she had imagined.
He was simply honest about his desires.
“I-I’ll… take it off myself.”
Afraid that he might do it for her, Seo-eun quickly reached for her shirt buttons.
Unlike his relaxed movements, her own hands refused to cooperate.
When she finally managed to undo the last button, his hand reached toward her and suddenly lifted her shirt.
A deep heat appeared in his eyes when he saw the pale curves she had kept hidden beneath her underwear.
“Oppa….”
The momentary fear she felt at that look quickly disappeared.
He lowered the fabric covering her body.
“Ha.”
The sudden touch of cool air made her breath catch.
Even the slowly moving air seemed to stop.
She instinctively drew back, embarrassed by being exposed to him, while her heart raced fiercely beneath her skin.
As though her body were only just beginning to bloom.
“Um, Hee-mok oppa….”
He stopped her words.
“Do we really need more words?”
Hee-mok lowered his lips to her skin.
His gentle, coaxing movements made Seo-eun’s body tremble.
“Ah…”
Responding to her reaction, he continued to draw closer, and a tingling sensation rose from her toes, making her legs instinctively tense.
Unintended sounds kept escaping her.
Her voice, thick with emotion, only seemed to heighten his desire.
Hee-mok drew her close as he began undoing his belt.
Soon, their heated bodies came together.
—
When Seo-eun opened her eyes again, everything outside the window was bathed in blue.
Perhaps because her mind was hazy and her body exhausted, the dawn sky looked simply beautiful.
How many times had they been together?
She remembered Hee-mok repeatedly reaching for protection, and she could feel a dull ache somewhere in her body.
Yet she wasn’t worried about tomorrow because Hee-mok was still holding her tightly in his arms.
He hasn’t left yet.
She had told him to forget everything after tonight, but could she really do the same?
Probably not.
So perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to simply endure this moment until morning came.
Seo-eun nestled deeper into his arms and slowly closed her eyes.
If everyone had to die someday after being born, she thought that perhaps it wouldn’t matter if this moment were her last.
—
“Ha.”
The moment Seo-eun remembered Hee-mok’s presence, she shot upright.
They had clearly fallen asleep together, but when she looked at the empty space beside her, an inexplicable emptiness came rushing over her.
The apartment, brightened by the morning sunlight, was as quiet as a grave.
Her shoes were neatly lined up at the entrance, and the glass he had used had been washed clean and turned upside down.
No matter how carefully she searched, there was no trace of him.
She had briefly awakened during the early morning.
Then did he leave sometime during those few hours?
“Hee-mok oppa….”
Seo-eun softly called the name of the man who had appeared in her life like a dream.
She even wondered if perhaps she had simply dreamed the entire thing herself.
“Haa.”
A hollow sigh escaped her.
Perhaps it really had been a dream.
Perhaps being betrayed by her family and Kang Do-yoon had driven her to the point of madness.
But one thing was certain.
That passionate dream she had shared with Cha Hee-mok had changed her.
Seo-eun entered the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror.
The marks scattered across her body made her realize that it had not been a dream.
Yes, she really had spent the night with Hee-mok, tangled up with him in a way she had never imagined.
“Oppa, this is too… strange….”
“Haa… you don’t like it?”
“There’s no way I could like something like this… Ah…!”
“See?”
“Your body is telling you that you like it.”
Hee-mok had been just as passionate in bed as his tense body had suggested.
He had taken the lead and filled her with intense sensations.
“Haa, oppa, slowly… please, slowly…!”
Remembering those intimate moments made a strange sensation gather in her lower abdomen.
As though it had been engraved into her body.
In the end, she had become completely immersed in the pleasure he gave her, and after that, she thought she had simply enjoyed herself.
Perhaps that was why she felt as though she had changed a little after being worn down by such a restrained life.
After washing up, Seo-eun opened her wardrobe.
As she looked through the clothes hanging neatly in a row, her hand landed on a dress she had never worn.
It was a dress she had bought after much deliberation because she had planned to wear it on the day Do-yoon proposed to her.
“Wow, Executive Director Seo’s secretary must live on nothing but dew.”
“I think it would look good on you too, Seo-eun, if you tried wearing an office outfit like that.”
She remembered how quietly she had tolerated Kang Do-yoon comparing her to another woman.
Why did I put up with that?
Thinking about it now, I was utterly pathetic.
But the Han Seo-eun of the past was gone now.
Seo-eun pulled the dress from the wardrobe and closed the doors without a trace of regret.
