“You’re so beautiful—I’d really love to dance at least one dance with you.”

“Well, I’m not very good.”

She had been about to refuse, but changed her mind. Kangwook had disappeared with some woman, so she might as well enjoy herself. Just as Yunjoo reached out to take the man’s hand, someone else took her hand and drew her gently but firmly to their side.

“Mr. Kangwook!”

“I believe I should have the first dance with my wife.”

“Ah…… of course. I didn’t know she was married.”

The moment Kangwook appeared, the man made a quick exit, and Yunjoo stared at Kangwook in surprise, wondering when he had gotten close enough to pull her to his side. He had been nowhere to be found when she had looked for him in a panic, and she had no idea when he had appeared.

“You can’t just dance with any man who asks. I told you to stay close to my side, Cha Yunjoo.”

Kangwook’s gaze landed on her with heat. When Kangwook took her hand and moved toward the floor, Yunjoo’s heart pounded so hard she couldn’t feel her feet moving. His eyes stayed on her the entire way there.

He took her hand and moved slowly, and her heart began to flutter. It wasn’t the party that stirred her the way the red dress had—it was Kangwook. She had attended parties with him before, but she had never once danced with him, never once stood this close to him.

The warmth of Kangwook’s hand resting gently on her waist came through the thin fabric of the dress. With Kangwook standing close as they danced, Yunjoo’s heart thudded. She couldn’t bring herself to look up at him. Unaware of what was going on inside her, Kangwook felt his head go hazy from the dizzying scent she gave off.

“Do you know how dangerous this dress is?”

His low voice reached her ear in a small murmur, and she felt the sensation of swallowing rich dark chocolate, every fine hair on her skin standing on end. Yes, dark chocolate. That was the feeling she got every time she stepped into Kangwook’s room. Yunjoo was at a point where moving at all seemed impossible unless Kangwook held her and led her.

Her heart had started racing and he kept shaking it without giving it a moment to settle, and she couldn’t even bring herself to look up at him. She was desperately curious what expression he wore, what his eyes looked like, but she didn’t have the courage.

“What do you mean?”

“How beautiful Cha Yunjoo is in this dress…….”

“……Mr. Kangwook.”

She had never thought of herself as beautiful. Thinking she must have heard wrong, Yunjoo lifted her head and looked at Kangwook. Kangwook had called her beautiful. Yunjoo’s unusually dark eyes looked up at him with a gaze that could bewitch a person. In that moment, he felt he could give Cha Yunjoo his life if she asked for it.

“What were you thinking, buying a red dress like this? Phew. Cha Yunjoo, do you have any idea how much patience it’s taken me tonight to block all the eyes following you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Let’s enjoy tonight. I want to remember Cha Yunjoo looking this beautiful.”

“…….”

Nothing he said made any sense to her. None of it was understandable except that the dress was the problem. There was one thing Yunjoo did understand. Let’s enjoy tonight. She wanted to enjoy it too, of course. It was a chance that wouldn’t come again.

“And tomorrow let’s go out together.”

“Do you have work tomorrow too? You said it was only today.”

When Kangwook said they should go out together, Yunjoo’s face fell. She had been planning to spend the whole day wandering around Hong Kong on her own tomorrow, so hearing that she would have to attend another dull gathering was something she couldn’t hide from her face.

“I mean let’s go out and have fun. I’ll show you around. If we had more time I’d take you to Macau too, but I don’t think that’ll be possible this trip. A shame.”

“You want to go out and have fun with me! Choi Kangwook!”

She was so startled that informal speech slipped out of Yunjoo’s mouth.

“I do, but dropping the formal speech is a bit much.”

“Oh…… sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

Yunjoo had been following Kangwook’s slow movements, but she stopped short in surprise, and the two of them stood facing each other, eyes meeting. Kangwook looked down at Yunjoo looking up at him, and his gaze dropped to her red lips.

“Yunjoo.”

Kangwook’s voice, deeper now, spread through her like dark chocolate, sweet and faintly bitter. Kangwook’s lips came down to meet Yunjoo, who had stopped and was looking up at him. A light touch, and then it was over. Kangwook’s kiss left Yunjoo frozen where she stood.

His lips, hot enough to feel like a flame, emptied her mind, and when they lifted away, a cool fragrance lingered in their place. The sweet scent of champagne. A mingled fruity fragrance tangled inside her mouth, and her eyes tangled with the gaze Kangwook sent her way.

She felt she could get drunk without having touched a drop of alcohol. Her heart pounded like it would burst, her body went rigid, and her eyes were still caught on him. Just a light kiss, the kind even a child could do, and yet she felt like she was losing her mind. He just did it, just tried it. This much could even count as a greeting. But why did it do this to her?

So many thoughts came and went, then swept through her mind again like a storm, turning everything inside out. She felt like she was standing in the eye of a storm.

“Yunjoo.”

“Mr. Kangwook.”

“I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not that. I’ve never kissed anyone at a party like this—not anyone, not any woman.”

That wasn’t what Yunjoo was curious about. She was still looking at him with uncertain, confused eyes. She even found herself thinking he was treating her carelessly.

“But why?”

“You’re asking why I kissed Cha Yunjoo?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t make that hurt face. I did it because my wife is so beautiful. Enjoy the magical party for now, and let’s talk tomorrow. I’ll tell you everything tomorrow.”

Kangwook hadn’t intended it either. But the moment he saw Yunjoo looking up at him from within his arms, he had kissed her before he knew what he was doing, and now he was flustered. He was this flustered himself, so he could only imagine how startled Yunjoo must be.

But at that moment, no other thought had entered his mind. He knew how shocked Yunjoo would be, knew what she would think, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself. He had wanted to do it from the moment she stepped out of the room in that dress.

But seeing Yunjoo’s face as she asked whether something looked strange, not even knowing how she looked, Kangwook had held himself back. Yunjoo’s mind was too unsettled to sort anything out right now, and she answered that she would, when the shop owner’s words suddenly surfaced and circled through her head.

‘Is it really a spell? The sudden kiss, and Kangwook’s feelings.’

A brief kiss, just lips touching. Yunjoo looked at the dress once more. She had laughed when the owner told her, in what had seemed like a joke, that she had put a spell on it so that the two people would see only each other—and now Kangwook had actually kissed her while she wore it. Back at the hotel, Yunjoo still felt like she was dreaming.

Kangwook sent Yunjoo to her room and stood by the window, held captive by thoughts of what had happened at the party that he couldn’t shake from his mind. The moment Yunjoo lifted her head and their eyes met, her dark eyes caught him, and before he knew it, he had pressed his lips to hers.

Kangwook had come to understand something from facing Yunjoo directly. Her eyes, darker than anyone else’s, drew people in—and in that moment, he had seen just how beautiful she was. But he had also seen her eyes go wide with surprise at even that light kiss.

The moment his lips touched hers, she had turned to ice, and afraid she would startle and pull away, he hadn’t been able to go further. He let out a sigh at the thought of a woman who turned to ice at something that small. Kangwook himself had found it no easy thing to stop, not with Yunjoo’s sweet scent so soft and breathtaking all around him.

‘Ha, Cha Yunjoo. She put on a dress like that without a single thought for how she might look to the men around her, and then she stops me in my tracks and asks if something looks strange on her. What am I supposed to do with a woman like that?’

He looked toward Yunjoo’s room and sighed again. Seeing Yunjoo step out of her room in that dress had felt like the blood stopped in his heart. Her bare shoulders and the deep neckline that revealed her décolletage were breathtakingly captivating. Her skin, made to look even fairer against the red, made Yunjoo stand out all the more. Because of Cha Yunjoo, Kangwook experienced heaven and hell at the same time tonight.

‘Cha Yunjoo really showed me heaven and hell today.’