Chapter 3 (Part 5)

Suddenly finding herself embraced by him, she forgot to breathe, her lips trembling uncontrollably.

If she exhaled even a little harder, her nose might brush against his sharp one.

“I told you then, didn’t I? That my abstinence was broken.”

“……”

“Can I just have a kiss?”

His alluring voice almost made her unconsciously press her lips against his.

“A simple thank-you kiss would suffice. Honestly, you’re grateful, aren’t you?”

Seo-hye twisted her head to the side and pushed against his chest with her arm.

“……You’re too close.”

But he didn’t budge at all.

“This… this isn’t right.”

“Why not? I’m going to marry you, Ms. Seo-hye.”

“Stop saying you’re going to marry me.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Ah.”

He was relentless. Just as Seo-hye furrowed her brow and tried to push him away harder, he grasped her hands that were pushing against him and whispered.

“If I start, it won’t end with just a kiss.”

It was exceedingly dangerous.

“I won’t tell anyone.”

His coaxing, as if dealing with a child to get a kiss, was intensely seductive.

In the end, she closed her eyes tightly and leaned her head forward.

As their soft lips touched, his lips parted, and flesh pushed its way in.

“Umph.”

Startled, she jerked, but he firmly held her hands and delved deeper.

Her body, which had been sitting precariously, almost fell backward under his weight.

His hand, which had been around her waist, moved up to support her head and returned her to her position.

Then, as if conquering, he opened her mouth wider and penetrated more deeply.

A strange sensation surged up and down from her throat to her lower abdomen, causing continuous moans to escape.

“Hmm, ah. Mm.”

As he circled and sucked her tongue as if he would pull it out, her seized hands trembled, and her hips kept twitching.

Then, suddenly realizing that the secretary was in front, she was so shocked that she couldn’t control her strength and bit his tongue.

His lips finally parted from hers.

He held her gaze firmly and touched the side of his tongue with his middle finger.

It was as if a fox that had just killed was savoring its meal, sending shivers down her spine.

Even amidst this, a warm whirlwind kept swirling in her lower abdomen, making her feel very strange.

To get excited after biting someone else’s tongue… Crazy, Seo-hye.

She shook her head to regain her composure and looked at him again.

“Good thing it was my tongue, imagine if it was this. It would’ve been dangerous.”

His gaze dropped downward.

Seo-hye’s eyes followed soon after, and upon discovering what he meant by “this,” her face turned beet red.

“Are… are you okay? Why did you…! You said it was just a kiss!”

“What can I do when it happens instinctively?”

His shamelessness was awe-inspiring.

Seo-hye tightly pressed her lips together and noticeably turned her body toward the window, focusing only on the passing trees.

Even if that man was always like that, it was his secretary that made her feel extremely embarrassed.

She would have to face him a few more times because of the classes, and she was mortified about how she could look him in the eye.

“But, Ms. Seo-hye.”

Seo-hye pretended not to hear.

“Even after being bitten, this is standing. I guess it happens no matter what you do.”

Her head, which she tried to turn away, automatically turned back, directing her gaze to the front of his pants.

She was aghast at the sight of it bulging as if it would pierce through the fabric of his suit pants.

And then she grimaced and tightly closed her eyes, pretending not to hear even when he called her from the side.

There couldn’t be another man in the world as shameless, promiscuous, and devoid of shame as this one.

After driving for a while, just as they were about to get out at the hotel, she realized one thing.

That when she was next to him, she kept forgetting her miserable situation.

“We’ve arrived.”

As soon as Seok-young finished speaking, Seo-hye quickly got out of the car, strengthening her wobbly legs to take a few steps.

It wasn’t long before she stepped into Do-jin’s hotel lobby.

Seeing her feet on the flawless, clean monotone marble floor, she kept feeling like she was an ordinary person.

Not a scorned illegitimate child, not an unlucky girl who devoured her father.

Just someone dating a man, freely coming and going from this pristine hotel. She felt the illusion of being such a normal woman.

It made her increasingly afraid. Afraid that being next to Do-jin would make her want to throw away all her circumstances.

“Where are we going?”

He gently grabbed Seo-hye’s shoulders and softly turned her direction to the right.

“The elevator is that way.”

She followed him, keeping her lips tightly shut for fear that her wildly beating heart might leap out of her mouth.

While walking, she flinched when she made eye contact with his secretary, but he seemed perfectly unbothered.

As if he hadn’t seen what she and Do-jin had done in the car.

Seo-hye was confused about whether it was time to breathe a sigh of relief, but she exhaled her blocked breath and walked a bit more comfortably.

***

The three of them got off on the floor with the conference room for headquarters staff, not the customer meeting room.

The hallway looked more like a company than a hotel, and she was busy shifting her eyes in wonder.

At the end, they reached the room, and Seok-young opened the door wide.

After Do-jin entered, Seo-hye also stepped inside with a tense expression.

In front of the luxurious dark brown walls was a 10-person table, and next to it was a large window offering a clear view of the adjacent building and road.

The room looked quite similar to a company’s conference room she had only imagined in her mind, and curiosity floated in Seo-hye’s eyes.

Then she noticed the people who had already arrived here. They looked ordinary.

They gave a formal greeting to Do-jin and then showed interest in Seo-hye as well.

“Hello, Ms. Seo-hye. I am Kim Yoo-ra, the head of the PR team at Seonghan Hotel.”

“I am Park Young-jun, a director at the Seonghan Cultural Foundation.”

Compared to the broadcasting station producer and the orphanage director, Yoo-ra and Jae-jun were overly friendly to Seo-hye.

Suddenly, she recalled what Do-jin had said in the car: 

“It means that’s not something I should be involved in.”

In other words, it meant that she had taken the place of a famous artist due to Do-jin’s influence.

Even though it was a short-term program participation, it was no different from being parachuted into the company.

(In Korean 낙하산 means parachute but it’s also the term for when someone gets an opportunity because of their personal connections, usually it’s nepotism.)

“I didn’t know Artist Lee Hwa-woong had a second granddaughter. Now that I look at you, you seem like a celebrity, so he must have kept you hidden.”

At Yoo-ra’s compliment, Seo-hye blushed under her eyes, not knowing what to do.

Everyone, except the shy Seo-hye, agreed with Yoo-ra.

Seo-hye, feeling embarrassed by the excessive compliments, wanted to hide in a hole and shifted her eyes around, eventually meeting Do-jin’s gaze across the table.

He was looking at her with a playful glint in his eyes.

Sweat began to form in their tightly clasped hands under the table.

“The title will be quite bold. We’ll go with something like inheriting Artist Lee Hwa-woong’s talent.”

“Don’t worry, all you need to do is draw a few simple pictures in front of the kids and do some touch-up work on the paintings they’ve made.”

Despite everything, Seo-hye diligently responded with “okay” to the ongoing conversation.

They then informed her of the days and times, kindly explaining the difference between the actual filming time and the airing time.

She had never had the experience of dealing with people other than Director Han due to being trapped in Hwa-woong’s shadow.

So every moment filled her heart with excitement. She felt like a person of worth.

She kept wanting to break away from Hwa-woong, live her own life, and show her paintings to the world.

And Do-jin didn’t miss a single one of those expressions, watching her continuously.