A breeze blew at that moment. A subtle wind that drifted somewhere between cool and warm. And then, the instant she confirmed the face of the man standing before her, her heart pounded as though it would burst.

Seo Hwido. It was Seo Hwido.

The face she had missed so terribly.

In an instant her vision blurred and tears ran down her dry cheeks.

She wanted to tell him everything she had never been able to say, but the words would not come. Her lips only opened and closed without sound.

Don’t go, please take me with you too.

She kept murmuring words that could not be heard. She gripped tightly whatever solid thing had come into her hand. She thought she heard a faint sigh, but that did not matter at all.

The only thought in her mind was that she could not let go of Seo Hwido in front of her.

“Hic… d, don’t go. I, I want to come too… m, my lord…”

“…Oh.”

The heavy voice that struck her ear reverberated through her eardrums. At that sound, Yeon-ah thrashed and reached out to grab Seo Hwido before he could vanish like a mirage.

“Baek Yeon-ah.”

Her consciousness returned at the voice that struck her eardrums once more. Her body seemed to have responded on its own to the voice calling her urgently.

But when had she fallen asleep? She was fairly certain everything had gone dark the moment Seo Hwido placed his hand on her head.

Tears from the sorrowful feeling she had carried through the strange dream rolled down, tracing the corner of her eye.

But Yeon-ah did not open her eyes. If she opened them now, what else was there but to snarl and fight with Seo Hwido.

If she stayed like this, he would probably leave on his own soon enough. Yeon-ah was letting the last of the tears at the corners of her eyes fall and steadying herself when it happened.

“Could you let go of my d*ck before you cry?”

Huh? Di… di what?

At the solid, unfamiliar sensation in her grip, Yeon-ah’s eyes flew open.

“Wh, whoa!”

Why… why is my hand…!

She had definitely grabbed onto something while shouting at the Seo Hwido in her dream not to go. But hadn’t it been a scabbard?

A round, hard, elongated scabbard, she was certain of it, so why, why of all things did she have to grab something so obscene!

Yeon-ah barely held back the scream rising in her throat and sat up.

“I, I didn’t do it on p, purpose…!”

She wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear. She swore she had not grabbed it intentionally, yet of all things it had to be his genitals.

And swollen with what seemed like considerable irritation at that.

Her face burned so hot she felt it might burst. Had he been sitting there the whole time, from when he entered the room until now?

Yeon-ah swallowed a dry gulp and tried to calm her pounding heart.

“It’s not the first time, so why the fuss?”

“W… what?”

“I’m saying it’s not the first time you’ve had your hands on my c*ck.”

“Th, that makes absolutely no…”

“So why not confirm it while we’re at it.”

“Confirm w, what?”

“Why you like my c*ck this much. And why this c*ck stands up the moment it sees you.”

“Are, are you a pervert?”

Her throat clenched so tight the words barely came out.

Yeon-ah’s face had gone scarlet and she was stammering when Seo Hwido looked down at her steadily and curved the corner of his mouth.

“Who was it that was demanding c*ck, trying to get a taste? And who’s calling who a pervert?”

She had no idea what was going on. But the most incomprehensible thing of all was the state of Seo Hwido right in front of her.

He was not someone who had much expression to begin with. For reasons unknown, the man’s mouth, which had always been set in a flat line, was curved softly.

“Yeon-ah.”

No, seriously, what was this. Was he just deciding to drop formality now? What was that form of address between the two of them, who were far from close enough to drop surnames.

“Why… why are you calling me that? Were we ever close enough to use first names?”

“We were.”

“Did I… did I say something awful? If I did, I’m truly sorry. I must have said something in my sleep while I was dreaming.”

“My lord, please… take me with you too. That’s what you said.”

Oh no, she had been talking in her sleep too. And Seo Hwido had heard it.

What else had she said in the dream? Yeon-ah searched her memory and her face burned hot. Because those words had been said to none other than the Seo Hwido in her dream.

But why had she dreamed that? Unlike the usual dreams where she became Hwiryeong, tonight she had been Bun, running and running.

But more pressing than that was the Seo Hwido right in front of her now.

The eyes of the man who had always been too busy glaring sharply whenever their gazes met were now soft and unguarded. And on top of that, talk of genitals. The conversation she could not follow at all was throwing her mind into chaos.

Could this be… a dream too?

“Th, that was just sleep talking. It’s nothing for Seo Hwido-ssi to concern himself with. So please go now. I have to get up early tomorrow, Yul and I are going on a picnic.”

“Then would you say that again?”

“…Say what?”

“What I just said.”

“Wh, why would I…”

The smile that slipped from the man was unfamiliar. Was it because she was looking directly into the moonlight? It almost felt like seeing a vision.

But before she could think, the words tumbled out on their own.

“M… my lord… p, please…”

There was no time to be flustered at the words that had come out on their own. At that moment a large hand reached out and gently cupped her cheek.

“Go on, let’s hear more.”

The gaze looking down at her burned so intensely she could not bear it.

Her heart felt ready to burst. The form of address she usually used in the dream had been orabeoni, she thought. Had the sleep talking just now touched something in Seo Hwido.

“I… I want to come too…”

Before the words she had murmured in a daze could finish, soft lips came down on hers. Yeon-ah startled and tried to push him away, but the tenderness in his touch made it impossible.

It felt like the slightest push would send him retreating easily.

Because Seo Hwido had never once been warm toward her, she felt a wish stir inside her to be given that warmth by him, even now in what had to be a dream.

The cool feeling and the warm one layered over each other at the same moment. His lips, touching her slightly parted ones, carefully drew her in.

It was entirely different from the kiss she had performed while pretending to be his lover. A warm tongue that gently parted her lips entered like a knock, tapping against her teeth before slowly coming inside.

Two tongues slid against each other and stoked the heat between them. It was her first real kiss with him, yet he was so skilled at it. Simply following where he led, she felt her breath run short and a dull warmth gather in her lower belly.

But was this all right? Why did it feel like she was doing something wrong?

She did not know, and she did not want to know. Right now she only wanted to be with him in the dream without thinking about anything complicated.

“Hmm…”

Just as that thought crossed her mind. A weak m*an escaped at the force that gripped her chest over her shirt. This was truly absurd, yet the increasingly forceful movement of his tongue and the sound of his rough breathing made it impossible to come to her senses.

Yeon-ah covered the large hand gripping her chest with her own and moved her lips, which were blocked by his.

“Wa… hh, wait a…”

The man’s hand slipped inside her shirt and touched bare skin, and with a swift tug pulled her bra cup down.

The momentary release made Yeon-ah shiver, and he, with a full handful of her br*ast, caught her stiffened n*pple and twisted it.

“Ah… hh…!”

The breath that burst from her was ragged at the strange sensation she was feeling for the first time.

She knew she should tell him to stop, but memories of all the moments she had spent anxious watching him in the dream came rushing back, and she even found herself wanting him to touch her more.

“Shh… you’d better keep quiet. Kim Yul is sleeping in the sarangchae.”

“Th, that’s why. Hh. Stop…”

She whispered softly. Her whole body trembled to her fingertips from the pleasure she had never felt before, and she could not hold back the sounds.

“You’re soft.”

The lips that kept grazing her ear made it impossible to form any reply.

“Your n*pple is as soft as your tongue. Makes me want to taste it.”

“…Hh.”

The sensation of kneading her br*ast while rubbing the n*pple at the same time, the small kisses trailing down along her neckline, turned her vision white.

She needed to say something.

That this was no way to behave. But she had never known that the arms of this man who had only ever been cold to her, and his hands, could be this warm, and she only wanted to melt into them.

But… was this really all right?

In Hwiryeong’s dream, his gaze had been directed only at Bun. In contrast, the eyes he turned on her had always been cold.

How was she supposed to make sense of those cold ash-grey eyes now burning fiercely right in front of her. Was this gaze truly directed at her?

For some reason it felt strange.

“Wait, just a moment.”

The instant his hot lips touched near her collarbone, Yeon-ah pushed against his chest.

“…This is a dream, right? This is a dream, isn’t it? Seo Hwido. It’s a dream, right?”

“Right. A dream.”

In that moment her t-shirt was pulled up, and beneath it her already-tugged-down bra and her bared br*asts came into view. And her pink n*pples, pressed and worked in every direction by his fingers. The n*pples stiffened by even the smallest stimulation seemed to be crying out to be sucked.

“And Seo Hwido is real.”

Hwido wasted no time and took the stiffened peak into his mouth. A short gasp came from her, and nothing more.

“And starting now, the one getting her n*pples sucked is Baek Yeon-ah.”