A bright, carefree smile rested on her face as she slowly turned around. The perfectly curved line of her eyes and the arc at the corner of her lips made it plain she was happy without needing to ask.

He simply stood there and watched her, and uncertainty crept into those light-colored eyes. The worry that he might be about to say they should head back showed plainly on her face.

Hwido stepped toward Yeon-ah where she stood. Then he recited back to her the very words little Baek Yeon-ah had said to him long ago.

“You said you’d come marry me when you grew up.”

At that, her already round eyes went wide as a rabbit’s. Her slightly parted lips would not close. The expression asking what on earth he was talking about was vivid enough that he let out a laugh and continued.

“Is flirting your hobby by nature? Or were you just born that way.”

“…Wh, who are you talking about?”

“Who else, you were singing about becoming my bride. Said to shut my mouth and hand over my co…”

“Eek, stop!”

Baek Yeon-ah came rushing over and thr*st out her hand to cover his mouth. A couple passing nearby made embarrassed faces and took a wide detour around them.

“N, no! Who are you even talking about right now? Why are you bringing up something that has nothing to do with me…!”

Yeon-ah, her hand still clamped over his lips, glanced around at the people nearby. Hwido pulled her hand away and let a sneer curl at his lips.

“Nothing to do with you? I’m talking about you right now. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten throwing a fit about wanting to marry me?”

“What… did you have a dream or something?”

Yeon-ah furrowed her brow and tilted her head. With an added layer of surprise, as though she were genuinely worried about him.

“Seems like whenever you can’t remember something, you blame it on a dream. Is that a habit of yours?”

It was at that moment.

The wrist he had grabbed just moments ago was pulled toward him. She ended up completely in his arms, exactly as though she had thrown herself at him.

“Wh, what do you think you’re…!”

Yeon-ah refused to back down and lifted her chin, and his face drew slowly closer, tilting at an angle.

Just before their lips could meet, his mouth veered away at the last second and found her ear, whispering in a way that was meant to torment her.

“Why don’t you just say last night was a dream too.”

Yeon-ah froze.

“Th… that… it wasn’t a dream…”

She had been hoping against hope.

This morning, Seo Hwido had looked at her and acted as though nothing had happened.

She herself had been no different from usual, so she had simply written it off as a dream. The way men had those dreams, she had thought what happened while dreaming of a handsome man was no different from that.

So if she just kept her mouth shut, no one would know. Forget the dream as fast as possible. That was why she had deliberately tried to have a little party with just Yul.

She had not been able to refuse the child’s request to invite his uncle too, and she never could have imagined that accepting would come back to her as such a sweeping chain of consequences.

Yeon-ah could only move her lips without getting any words out, and Hwido leaned close to her ear and spoke so only she could hear.

“You can feel it without me having to say it, can’t you? What state my c*ck is in right now. You’ve touched it enough to know. You know what it’s like when it wants to be buried inside something.”

That had been real, not a dream?

Yeon-ah suddenly recalled his face, eyes gleaming as he savored every inch of her body. What did this man’s expression look like then? She had not been able to look closely, lost in the pleasure, but it had certainly been the face of a child delighted to have a sweet treat right in front of him.

But wait, so what? It’s not like I asked him to do that. It just… happened because of the mood. Is that my fault?

Yeon-ah wiped away the embarrassment and changed her expression as though nothing had happened. Then she parted her lips with perfect composure.

“How would I know anything about that? I’ve never even seen it. You’re accusing an innocent person!”

She quietly steered the conversation away. She also pretended not to know that she had grabbed his member in her sleep without realizing it.

“And when I fell in the water as a child, I think Seo Hwido-ssi was the one who saved me… I was so young back then, I must have said some foolish things. I probably never even thanked you properly. I’m truly grateful. And…”

How old had she even been then. Why had he been staying at her grandmother’s house as a guest. She was about to lay it out as a card to get out of the current situation.

“So that’s how you’re going to change the subject?”

“Th, that’s not what I’m doing, I’m trying to say thank you right now…”

“So. The childish words from a little girl who clung to the person who saved her life and begged to marry him, those get written off as the nonsense of a child, and the mature adult Baek Yeon-ah of today is saying she won’t let a word of that marriage nonsense leave her lips. That’s what you’re saying right now.”

“Ah… yes, exactly. That’s exactly it! I’m more mature now. I’m saying I want to apologize for those thoughtless words back then.”

“Is that right? So mature that you went and soaked everything, letting me have a taste of that aged sweetness.”

“……?”

Yeon-ah was appalled by the obscenity she could not even bring herself to repeat.

How does he say something like that so casually?

The saving grace was that he had whispered it quietly enough that the people passing by could not hear, and the thing that was not a saving grace was that the eyes of every woman walking past were fixed on him.

This is why I can’t even slap him if I want to.

Yeon-ah wanted to run to every woman looking at Seo Hwido with admiring eyes and expose exactly what he was.

A pervert and a lecherous deviant.

“It was so sweet I thought I could s*ck on it all day.”

Yeon-ah grabbed the shoulder of the man about to spout more obscenities and shoved him hard, raising her voice.

“Are, are you out of your mind?”

Hwido simply laughed as he watched the color of her flushed face shift by the second.

She had said she wanted to walk along the beach, and he had let her, yet instead of sobering up she was only getting more heated.

In that moment an urge surged up in him to twist those pouting cheeks until she wailed.

“Maybe it’s just me.”

Hwido tightened the arm wrapped around her slender waist. With that, beyond mere closeness, his c*ck pressed flush against her felt ready to burst at any moment.

“You look a little wronged.”

At the murmured words her shoulders gave a faint tremor.

“…Of course I am. If I had known it was real and not a dream, I would have thrown you out right then and there!”

She seemed to be glaring at him as fiercely as she could manage, but something must have gotten into his eyes. Why did even her anger look adorable to him?

He had to be losing his mind.

“Oh, so anything goes in a dream?”

“No, why does the conversation keep going like that…!”

“Yeon-ah.”

Yeon-ah’s face had been cycling between red and pale, and at the sound of her name her mouth snapped shut. Like a pet responding to its owner.

“Listen carefully. I tasted candy for the first time in my life, and it got taken away before I’d barely had any. How do you think that feels?”

“That would be the feelings of the one who got it taken…!”

“Obviously it would feel like hell, right? The brain addicted to sweetness would go wild, and the tongue still tingling would be screaming to have it back. If I’d never known the taste it would be one thing, but I already know what it tastes like now.”

At that moment Yeon-ah’s body lifted off the ground.

“What are you doing right now? Put me down!”

“Alright, let’s see. That candy is right in front of you. The sweet candy you tasted for the first time in your life. How do you think it feels? Wouldn’t you want to tear off the bothersome wrapper and s*ck on it right now?”

At the sound of his voice, which carried something close to madness, Yeon-ah moved her lips.

“To begin with, is that candy actually yours, Seo Hwido-ssi?”

“You’re the one who gave it to me, and it’s exactly to my taste, so it’s mine. Who would dare touch what’s mine. Not unless they want to die.”

His voice had risen as though he did not care who heard, and the women who had started whispering lit up with bright eyes.

“Fine, I get it… hurry, put me down!”

“Sure, just say the word. Where should I put you down?”

Seo Hwido looked down at her as he walked. His face was expressionless, yet in those ash-grey eyes holding the night sea, something like flames seemed to flicker.

Watching that unfamiliar look, Yeon-ah took a moment to collect her thoughts.

Seo Hwido desires her.

Openly enough that anyone would notice. And yet why did that feel welcome?

She could not make sense of any of it, but two things were certain. That this situation, with just the right amount of alcohol and the mood ripening around them, was not unpleasant. And that she wanted this moment of being held by Seo Hwido to continue.

Right. So don’t back down. Be honest about your feelings. You can do this, Baek Yeon-ah.

“A hotel… let’s go to a hotel.”

Comfort, stability, and a sense of being held safe. Feelings that could not be reduced to a single word came crashing over her like a tidal wave and swallowed her whole.

***

Bang!

The moment the hotel room door slammed shut, lips pressed over hers and pulled her in. Like a beast that had found an oasis after a long wandering, a slick tongue forced its way through lips sealed tight together.

A parched and rough, unrefined and raw desire came through without a filter. Yeon-ah was trapped between the front door and his solid chest and was swept along helplessly wherever he led.

“Ha… w, wait a moment.”

Crack. Before the words were even out, Yeon-ah’s shirt was torn open. Only the small buttons flying through the air let out their silent screams.