He cut off the stares from other tables with a look and thought about what to do with this utterly scatterbrained woman. Was this really the same woman who had been living in his house for three years? He even found himself wondering if there was someone out there with the same face.

But no matter how hard he tried to make sense of it, the absurdity of the scene left him at a loss for words. Kangwook called the driver, got the friend into the car, carried Yunjoo out of the place, brought them both home, settled the friend in the guest room, laid Yunjoo down in her room, and stood beside the bed looking at her.

Really, the friend was something else too, cut from the same cloth. How could two women sit in some pub and drink themselves senseless without a care in the world. A hollow laugh escaped him at the thought that this was something happening to him. Who would ever call Choi Kangwook drunk, and who would ever think that Choi Kangwook, the world’s greatest block of ice, would go out to pick up a drunk woman?

There was probably no other woman in the world who would do that. Cha Yunjoo—and with that thought came the memory of Yunjoo’s circumstances, and he found himself thinking it was a good thing that the person she felt comfortable enough to show everything to, even drunk, was him. Alcohol or not, the fact that she had let him see a side of herself she shouldn’t have shown anyone meant, to him, that he had gotten that much closer to her.

Kangwook found this scatterbrained, impulsive side of Yunjoo entirely new. And so, without realizing it, his lips curved upward. She was lovely even drunk, and she had caused a scene, and it was still fine. But this kind of thing could not happen again. It had been genuinely dangerous.

‘Cha Yunjoo, you’re going to get a talking-to.’

Smack!

Even as he said he was angry, Kangwook pressed his lips to Yunjoo’s forehead, and the face he wore as he left the room carried a smile.

“I’ve got it bad. Everything about her is lovely and it’s a problem.”

* * *

Her head was splitting and her stomach was turning, and Jeongeun opened her eyes with a grimace to find an unfamiliar room. She lay there in a daze for a moment, then shot upright in shock.

‘Where am I? I have to remember. Lee Jeongeun, remember! Remember!’

The last thing she could dimly recall was a man who had come to the pub. Yunjoo’s husband. Then was this Yunjoo’s house? It wasn’t a hotel, and it didn’t make sense that she would be here alone. Having her memory go completely blank from drinking was a first. She had gotten carried away in the excitement of seeing Yunjoo after so long.

‘I’m losing my mind!’

At that same hour, morning light was streaming into Yunjoo’s room through the uncurtained windows, and she was slowly coming awake, an arm draped over her forehead as she squinted against the brightness. She opened her eyes bit by bit through the haze of a hangover, then opened them all the way at once with a start, and a soft smile seemed about to bloom on her face before her expression quickly went stiff.

Along with the relief of finding herself in her own room came the anxiety of a missing memory crashing down on her.

‘But I don’t remember coming home…….’

She had no memory of coming home. As Yunjoo lay there with a stiffening face, trying to piece together the night before, she remembered calling Kangwook. And from there, she didn’t want to remember any more. She had called him herself and said in a slurred voice that Jeongeun wanted to see him. And then, oh no—d*mn it all—she had told him without any hesitation that he was handsome.

“Insane, Cha Yunjoo! What were you thinking? Oh no, and she had a promise with Mr. Kangwook too and forgot about that.”

This was exactly the kind of moment that made you want to kick your own blankets. Alcohol was the enemy. Calling him just because Jeongeun said to, without any filter on what came out of her mouth. She felt like tearing out every strand of her hair. Which meant, of course, that the person who had brought her home and put her to bed was also Kangwook.

She had lost her mind, completely lost it. She had sworn this had never happened even once before, so why did this man keep seeing only the worst of her. She had shown Choi Kangwook far too many embarrassing sides of herself.

Getting drunk late into the night, or showing someone her drunk self so freely—that was something she would sooner die than do. If she had ever done something like that, her father would have not only told her to stop going to school but would have had her truly locked inside the house.

From the moment she had asked for a divorce, the house had stopped being a prison she could leave after serving a three-year sentence and had become a place she actually lived in. 

Whether it was from the moment she started seeing Choi Kangwook, who had seemed carved from ice, begin to smile, or from the moment she declared she was done being Choi Kangwook’s wife, she wasn’t sure, but living comfortably felt good. Everything was good, but she had no idea why she kept being like this. Yunjoo lay there like that, then snapped her tightly shut eyes open and shot upright.

“I’m going to lose my mind. But where’s Jeongeun?”

“Wait, what time is it?”

She checked the clock on the table. Thankfully, it was late enough that Kangwook would have already left for work. The relief of knowing he wasn’t home first made her take a deep breath, and she dialed Jeongeun’s number. The line didn’t ring long before Jeongeun’s voice came through.

“Jeongeun, where are you?”

She had made it home herself, but she had no idea what had become of Jeongeun. She would get a serious earful from Kangwook later, but she had no clue how Jeongeun had gotten home.

— It’s not a hotel or a motel. Since it’s somewhere I’ve never seen before, it must be your place.

“What! He brought you here too?”

She was so startled that she tried to get off the bed, caught her foot, and tumbled down.

“Ow!”

— What? What happened?

“I fell off the bed. I’m fine.”

Even hearing that Yunjoo had fallen off the bed, Jeongeun’s first thought wasn’t concern but Yunjoo’s husband.

— Your husband, where’s your husband?

“I don’t know, it should be time for him to have left for work.”

Jeongeun tilted her head at the odd way Yunjoo said it. If it was a bedroom, it would be a shared space, but Yunjoo was talking about it like it was someone else’s business. But more important than that was the fact that he apparently wasn’t there.

— So he’s not next to you?

“Of course he’s not next to me.”

— He went to work, thank goodness.

“He must have. That really is a relief.”

It was a relief, just as Jeongeun said. If Kangwook were home, she wouldn’t even be able to step out of the room.

— Anyway, oh, what are we going to do? Yunjoo.

“Come out. I’m coming out of my room too, hang up.”

If he hadn’t put them in the same room, there was only one room where Jeongeun could have slept. The room she used as her studio. The moment they stepped out, the two of them took one look at each other’s wrecked states and started laughing. They were truly a sight. As they stood there laughing at each other, their expressions wiped clean in the same instant and turned serious.

“Hey, Lee Jeongeun, how are you here?”

“I don’t know, your husband must have brought me. The last thing I remember is seeing this incredibly cold-looking man staring at you with a terrifying look in his eyes.”

All that came out was a shriek. Jeongeun remembered something she herself had no memory of. She didn’t need to see who the man with the terrifying look was. Choi Kangwook.

“Aaah! I’m going to lose my mind. Anyway, come downstairs and let’s get some coffee and try to pull ourselves together.”

Her stomach was churning and her head was a tangled mess of thread, and she needed caffeine first. The two of them went downstairs, got the coffee machine going, and collapsed face-down on the dining table. Jeongeun had her own thoughts crowding her head, and Yunjoo had hers.

“Aren’t you going to have some hangover soup?”

At Kangwook’s voice, the two of them shot upright faster than they ever had and froze on the spot. Yunjoo turned her head toward the sound and looked at Kangwook, and her face became that of someone who had seen a ghost. 

Why was he home? He was not someone who should be home at this hour. Cold sweat ran down her back, and her head was attached to her face only because it was supposed to be. Every thought stopped. She was a blank white page. Watching her, Kangwook’s lips curved upward without a sound.

“Why……?”

“Asking if I went to work?”

She nodded instead of answering. Kangwook raised an eyebrow at Yunjoo’s face, so startled she couldn’t even manage a proper reply with her mouth hanging open.

“Mr. Kangwook! You haven’t left yet?”

It was the only thing she could ask.

“My wife had gone and drowned herself in a bottle, so I pulled her out and was waiting to get her some hangover soup before heading out.”

“I’m fine, you can go. You’re busy.”

“Which is exactly why it’s not something the person who’s kept a busy man home should be saying.”

“That’s…….”

It would have been easier if he were angry, but the man was being too gentle about it. The discomfort and self-consciousness made her want to disappear on the spot. On top of that, she felt terrible about forgetting their promise yesterday.

“Mr. Kangwook…… about yesterday’s prom…….”

The words she was about to say were swallowed up by his. The gaze that had been on her the whole time shifted to Jeongeun beside her.

“You must be Lee Jeongeun. I’m Choi Kangwook.”

“Oh, yes, I’m Lee Jeongeun. I’m so sorry for the terrible first impression…… haha. But Yunjoo was bragging about how handsome her husband was even when she was drunk, and I can see why.”