Chapter 1 (Part 2)

Escaping during the family’s dinner time was easy.

It was partly thanks to Hwa-woong’s miscalculation, thinking that since he held Hyo-young as leverage, Seo-hye wouldn’t easily leave his side.

Sneaking out through the back door of the house, she got into a taxi she had called in advance.

Her aimless escape was driven by her subconscious, and it was only after she got out of the taxi that she realized she had come to Seonghan Hotel.

“Sigh.”

There was no way to stop the sigh from escaping.

“This is my first time seeing a painting by Painter Lee Hwa-woong in person. I’ve heard of his fame, but… it’s like the painting is speaking. I understand why he’s famous. But isn’t it the first Oriental painting in a long time?”

“Right. Ever since the accident, he’s only been painting Western styles day and night. I guess he decided to showcase his specialty again as a gift for his future grandson-in-law.”

“Ah, yes. But it seems a bit unfair. They haven’t even officially announced the marriage yet. Isn’t this just tying them down with a verbal engagement?”

Two women who appeared to be in their 40s whispered as they passed behind Seo-hye.

Though dressed in plain clothes, if they knew such details about the group, they were likely long-time employees.

Drawn by their words, Seo-hye hurriedly moved to the lobby to find the subject they were discussing.

Before long, she saw her painting hanging near the path to the executive lounge.

Pushing through the crowd admiring the painting, Seo-hye stood in front of it, staring with a heavy heart.

And then… she cried for a long time.

Though it was something she had always done, she was appalled at herself for being saddened by losing just this one thing.

***

With her eyes swollen and red, she went straight to the high-floor sky lounge bar.

She sat abruptly at the bar and ordered the strongest cocktail.

It was her way of rebelling, but even drinking didn’t improve her mood.

As she pondered what could possibly lift her from this dreadful feeling, the murmurs of people began to fill her ears.

It was when she absentmindedly turned her gaze to the entrance. She locked eyes with a man who had just walked in.

“……”

His height was indeterminate, but he was very tall. His posture, as if set by habit, was so upright that it created an artistic form that seemed out of place anywhere.

The perfectly tailored high-end suit he wore added weight to his presence.

He was far from ordinary.

And even further from someone she would be connected with.

Yet, as if he were part of her group, he naturally sat next to her and ordered whiskey.

Their eyes didn’t meet. He kept his gaze fixed straight ahead, not looking at her.

Yet Seo-hye, without any resolve, took him in with her eyes.

From his smooth forehead to the straight line of his nose. The tip of his nose cutting sharply through the air. His distinctly lined, slightly reddish lips beneath a deeply indented philtrum.

It was a face she wanted to draw.

It was the first time she felt the desire to capture a person in a drawing. A thrill swept over her, akin to the excitement felt when encountering a magnificent landscape.

“No matter how much I look at it, it doesn’t make me cry.”

The deep voice resonated at that moment.

“The painting, I mean.”

The man’s serene eyes locked onto her.

Only then did Seo-hye realize that this man had seen her lingering sentimentally over the painting, unable to let go.

Rather than feeling embarrassed, she was bewildered by the fact that her painful emotions had somewhat eased at some point.

When she didn’t respond, the man’s gaze returned to the front.

Even though she missed the opportunity to converse, she continued to glance at the man quite openly.

“I’ll have just one more drink and then leave.”

Even as she watched the man kindly inform her of his departure, Seo-hye couldn’t bring herself to speak.

Soon, the man finished his last drink and stood up.

The further he moved away, the more anxious Seo-hye became.

Because she was strongly convinced that he was the only thing powerful enough to make her completely forget today’s anguish and her lingering attachment to the painting.

She grasped the top of the bar to stand up. Her eyes caught sight of something he had left behind.

“!”

She grabbed the item he left behind with a firm grip and hurriedly left the bar. Just in time, she saw him about to enter the elevator.

“Excuse me…!”

The moment she grabbed his wrist tightly, he swiftly wrapped his opposite arm around her waist and pulled her in.

Her light body was quickly drawn into the elevator.

The man’s eyes, now facing her up close again, were dangerously deep and ominous.

It made her feel insignificant, as if she were prey about to be swallowed whole by a snake.

As if it were a predetermined sequence, the man’s gaze slowly descended.

His eyes faintly crinkled upon seeing the room key in her hand.

“Do you know what it means, picking that up?”

“…Room key.”

“Exactly, it’s a room key. But do you know what happens in a room?”

With a man she just met at the hotel…

As a word flashed through her mind, her heart pounded heavily.

If she didn’t like it, she could press the open b*tton and run away. But she couldn’t.

For the first time in her life, she was pressed against a man, and her inner thighs were so tightly clenched that she couldn’t move.

In fact, rather than running away, the friction heat from her intertwined thighs surged up to her lower abdomen, making her mind even more hazy.

She wanted to cling to him right away and ask him to do something about her increasingly strange body.

“…Are you… good at it?”

At Seo-hye’s blunt question, one of the man’s eyebrows raised.

“I mean, are you good enough to make me forget everything?”

He laughed lowly. Then he tilted his head down and brought his lips close to her ear.

“Experience it for yourself.”

Before she could even respond, a moist sensation slowly traced her ear.

As if touched by poison, her leg muscles completely relaxed, and she almost collapsed. The man, with a gesture that didn’t match his noble face, grabbed her by the nape and made her look at him.

“Open.”

As her lips slightly parted in surprise, he boldly entered the gap and entwined his tongue. The sticky noise quickly blurred her rationality.

The man was persistent and rough. He pulled her in so strongly that it felt as if her tongue might be swallowed by him.

Even when they reached the room, he pushed her against the wall, parted her lips again, and inserted his tongue deeply, making it hard for her to breathe.

“Ah, uh, mm.”

As the man’s weight seemed to crush her chest, her breathing became labored, and she felt like she might faint.

Only then did the man’s face slightly pull away.

“I went to see the painting, and this happened.”

The man’s swollen center pressed so strongly against her already tightly clenched lower abdomen that it felt like a groove would form.

“!”

“Does it make sense? I went to see the painting, but because someone was lingering and crying in front of it, this happened.”

Seo-hye didn’t know what expression to make, so she could barely let out her hot breath.

Looking at her red, flushed eyes, he bit her lips deeply again and then released them.

He repeated this several more times.

She didn’t know why he was doing it, but each time he bit, she offered her lips more, and when he let go, she exhaled the breath she had been holding.

She marveled at the man who had so effortlessly pulled her from her endless self-reproach in front of the painting just an hour ago.

“Hmm. You really are thinking about something else. Do you have the mental space for that?”

Seo-hye’s breath was abruptly cut off.

Only then did she realize why the man kept teasingly biting and releasing her lips.

She steadied her blurred gaze and spoke.

“Sorry, ah…!”

The blouse that had come undone slipped off her arm and fell to the floor.

The man’s gaze landed on the plain black bra. His eyes, which had been looking down at her deeply cut cleavage, slowly rose.

“Is it your first time?”

Seo-hye’s heart started to pound wildly.

The man seemed experienced in such matters, and she feared that if she admitted it was her first time, he might lose interest and stop.

“Of course not. How old do you think I am…”

The man, locking eyes with her intensely, pulled down her bra.

As her tightly bound chest revealed its presence tautly, the man’s eyes darkened with lust.

“So, how old are you?”

“…Old enough to be tired of this kind of thing.”

“It’ll be obvious once we get down to it anyway.”

The man gave a small laugh, teasing her.

Seo-hye bit the tender flesh inside her mouth, then hurriedly bent her knees and placed her hand on his waistband.

“…Sh-should I go first? Guys… seem to like this kind of thing.”

At Seo-hye’s provocation, the man’s expression momentarily hardened.