Chapter 30

Placing the tea on the table, Leeyeon added,  

“Yes, I was a bit thirsty too.”  

There were many things Dokyeom wanted to ask Leeyeon, but for now, he simply picked up the teacup filled with honey water.  

The temperature was just right.  

It wasn’t too hot, so there was no need to blow on it or wait for it to cool.  

Even this one cup of honey water reflected the personality of Han Leeyeon.  

A woman who was flawless and moved according to a perfectly set framework.  

But sometimes, such a woman did things that went beyond Dokyeom’s expectations.  

For example, her insistence on coming to his house today out of nowhere.  

And now, instead of just reporting and leaving like she usually did, she suddenly brought out tea.  

It was intriguing.  

What kind of whim had come over her today, making her act so unlike her usual self?  

And this was happening at a time when Dokyeom had recently resolved not to suppress his desire to try something different with Leeyeon.  

Leeyeon, feeling Dokyeom’s intense gaze, raised her teacup.  

Normally, she would remain silent until Dokyeom started speaking, but not today.  

Looking out at the full-length window, Leeyeon spoke first.  

“This house feels very different in the morning and evening.”  

In the morning, sunlight poured in so brightly that it reached deep into the living room.  

In the evening, on the other hand, a deep darkness seemed to dominate, as though it would swallow the house whole.  

“In the morning, the sunlight is so strong it’s almost blinding. There’s nowhere to escape from it.”  

Dokyeom added that the darkness of the night was just the same.  

“You didn’t come all the way here just to admire the living room view, right?”  

Hearing Dokyeom’s low, subdued voice, Leeyeon slowly turned her head.  

At some point, he had come right next to her.  

Leeyeon swallowed hard.  

“So, what is it? What’s the thing you absolutely had to say to me in person?”  

In truth, Cha Heeyoung’s day had been nothing special.  

She had spent it leisurely shopping and then had dinner with her husband after he got off work—that was all.  

If Dokyeom found out that she had come all this way just to report something so trivial, he would surely find it suspicious.  

Leeyeon quickly racked her brain.  

Finally, her full lips slowly parted.  

“A few days ago, I feel like I may have been rude to you, Director.”

Dokyeom raised his eyebrows as if to ask what she was talking about.  

“It’s just that the words you said, Director, about feeling uncomfortable have been on my mind. It’s not that I’m intentionally trying to keep my distance.”  

“Ah, that.”  

Dokyeom stared intently at Leeyeon with obsidian-like eyes, as if curious about why she was bringing it up again.  

Was it because they were standing so close?  

Or was it the quiet atmosphere of the house that was making her uneasy?  

If not that, maybe it was the slightly languid vibe that Dokyeom was giving off, different from usual.  

Leeyeon’s heart was pounding rapidly.  

“For some reason, I feel nervous when I’m with you, Director. I’m sure it’s not just me—probably everyone feels the same way.”  

Dokyeom stared at Leeyeon with a rather heavy gaze.  

Just when that gaze started to feel burdensome, Dokyeom pulled the corners of his lips into a faint smile.  

“What’s the reason for bringing up something that’s already in the past?”  

It was a question asking why she had come all the way here today to say such a thing.  

“I’ve decided to try not to be wary of you, Director, from now on.”  

At the unexpected words, a slightly louder sigh escaped Dokyeom’s lips.  

As if he had encountered something amusing, his lips curved into an arc.  

When Leeyeon raised her head to meet Dokyeom’s eyes, she quickly averted her gaze again.  

Placing her hands on her lap, she began to speak.  

“To be honest, after things ended the way they did with Gu Junho, I resolved not to trust men anymore.”  

She had unintentionally been hurt too much.  

Clasping her hands tightly on her lap, Leeyeon let out a trembling voice.  

“I also realized how easily trust can be broken.”  

“So.”  

“So… I was very afraid of getting closer to you, Director.”  

This was the truth.  

Dokyeom extended his arm and gently lifted Leeyeon’s chin, which kept avoiding his eyes, without causing her pain.  

In the air, their gazes intertwined tightly.  

Leeyeon froze, so tense that she forgot to breathe.  

“It sounds like you were afraid of giving your heart to me.”  

As expected, he was a man who never sugarcoated the things he noticed.  

The sharpness of his gaze made her breath catch in her throat.  

“Is that right? Or did I misunderstand?”

At the weighty low tone, Leeyeon tightly closed her eyes and then opened them again.  

Even so, Dokyeom was still there, standing in the same spot.  

He was a man who neither stepped back nor came closer.  

The tense air wrapped around Leeyeon as if it were choking her.  

“Han Leeyeon, are you not going to answer me?”  

Leeyeon slowly nodded her head.  

Yes, this was the truth.  

She was afraid of giving her heart to Dokyeom.  

But the reason she couldn’t do so wasn’t because of Junho.  

Dokyeom was a man she couldn’t get closer to because of the tangled and complicated ties between their families.  

She couldn’t reveal that truth, so she sold a plausible lie instead.  

“That’s right. Since this is a fake relationship, we’re supposed to maintain this business-like connection until it ends, but I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to do that.”  

Leeyeon grabbed Dokyeom’s wrist, which was holding her chin.  

“To be honest, I only wanted to work with you, Director.”  

“Hearing you suddenly say things like this makes me think you’ve started wanting something else?”  

Faced with the sharp gaze that pierced straight through her, Leeyeon took a moment to choose her words.  

“It’s not that I want to do something right now, but…”  

Her words trailed off.  

It was because Dokyeom had suddenly closed the distance between them.  

Her light brown eyes darted around, unable to find a place to settle, and trembled uncontrollably.  

“Not right now, but you do have something you want to try slowly in the future?”  

Leeyeon’s eyelashes quivered.  

It felt as though she was entirely in Dokyeom’s palm.  

His firm gaze seemed to bind her whole body like a rope.  

The tension was suffocating, as if someone was gripping her neck, and she couldn’t bring herself to respond. She could only nod her head slowly.  

Dokyeom’s eyes sparkled with intrigue.  

“I’d like to know. What is it that you want to do with me, Han Leeyeon?”  

Dokyeom stared at Leeyeon intently with languid eyes.  

“To be honest, when I’m with you, Director, I keep feeling strange impulses.”  

“Impulses?”  

“And I’ve been curious, too.”  

“Curious about what?”  

“What it would be like to sleep with someone like you, Director.”  

Dokyeom was inwardly surprised by her blatant expression of desire.  

He’d grown tired of such temptations from women.  

There had been countless women who recklessly threw themselves at him, desperate to spend just one night with him.  

However, Leeyeon was very different from those women, and clumsy at that.  

Her face showed a strange emotion absent in the eyes of other women who seduced with their bodies.

It wasn’t that she was simply reacting to physical desires—her face was filled with a sense of determination.  

As if sleeping with Dokyeom was some sort of assignment she needed to complete.  

That made him even more curious.  

Why would this woman, who would freeze and flinch whenever he approached, suddenly want to engage in such a blatant act with him?  

But he knew better than anyone that even if he were to ask her directly, she wouldn’t reveal her true intentions.  

Leeyeon bit down hard on her lower lip.  

What made it even more difficult was that Dokyeom didn’t say anything; he just stared at her intently after she had spoken.  

As if he were trying to see right through her.  

Avoiding his piercing gaze, Leeyeon added another comment.  

“Honestly, you’re such an extraordinary person I couldn’t even meet in my dreams, Director.”

As if encouraging her to say more, Dokyeom slowly nodded his head.  

“Being tangled in work and having a fake relationship with someone like you, I think I unknowingly harbored expectations.”

“So, you wanted to try sleeping with me once?”  

“It’s absolutely not some lighthearted curiosity.”  

The words, spoken in her composed voice, were strangely provocative.  

Dokyeom placed the empty teacup, which had held the honey water he had finished drinking, back on the table.  

His deepening gaze shifted toward the empty teacup.  

In other words, the honey water had been the bait.