There were many flowers to choose from, but of course he had no idea what was what, so he told the owner he wanted something for his wife and walked out with a bouquet of roses she handed him. It felt strange. He had never once imagined buying flowers with his own hands. He had rushed in with quick steps, anxious to get home, and then stopped cold at the sight of Yunjoo.

Yunjoo in her dress, the light filtering through the fabric, her face lit up with a happy smile, turned Kangwook into a boy meeting his first love, and his heart began to pound like mad. He caught Yunjoo just as she was heading into the kitchen and held out the bouquet of red roses he had brought. It was so far beyond anything she had imagined that she stood there wide-eyed, not even thinking to take them.

“Not going to take them?”

“……”

She stared at him blankly, only managing to hold her hands out in front of her, her eyes still fixed on Kangwook. This man had walked in carrying flowers. She wanted to ask if this was really the man she knew, Choi Kangwook.

“Is this really Mr. Choi Kangwook?”

“It is.”

Only after he confirmed it did her eyes move to the flowers. The roses were red, deeply, intensely red, and their rich fragrance filled the air. Then she lifted her head again. Today was not supposed to be the day she received flowers.

“But today is your birthday, Mr. Kangwook.”

“It’s a gift for the person making my birthday happy.”

“You’re giving me a gift on your own birthday?”

“There’s no rule that says you can’t give gifts on your birthday.”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

Kangwook watched Yunjoo holding the roses and gazing up at him, then plucked one stem and tucked it into her hair, and pressed his lips to her cheek. The red rose suited Yunjoo in her black dress perfectly.

“Cha Yunjoo, do you know how irresistible you look right now?”

“Mr. Kangwook, what are you…”

Kangwook smiled at the sight of Yunjoo’s flushing face, and her heart made a sound like ice cracking on a midwinter lake. When he stirred something like that in her, she found it hard to look at him straight. Her reddened face tilted up, dark ink-black eyes looking up at him, and he had to press down the urge that was becoming hard to hold back.

“I’ll go wash up. Let’s eat.”

Even after Kangwook went in, Yunjoo couldn’t move from where she stood and stayed there for a long while. She was still standing there in a daze when the sound of Kangwook coming out snapped her back, and she went into the dining room, called to him, and sat down across from him.

“Wow! Our Yunjoo worked hard. This looks wonderful.”

“Eat plenty.”

She got through the meal without quite knowing how, then brought out some simple snacks.

“You pick the wine, Mr. Kangwook.”

Sitting across from him with her glass, Yunjoo kept looking away. If only he hadn’t brought the roses, she would have felt a little less guilty.

“What’s wrong? Why that face?”

“Um, I didn’t manage to get you a gift.”

“What gift? Haven’t I already received one?”

“I really wanted to give you something, but you don’t seem to be missing anything, so…”

“There is actually something I really want as a gift…”

Yunjoo didn’t notice that Kangwook’s eyes were darkening as he spoke. She only heard that he wanted something and thought she could buy it for him. The idea that she could just go out and get it tomorrow made her eyes light up, and she leaned forward toward him.

“What is it? Tell me.”

“Cha Yunjoo.”

Kangwook’s gaze settled on Yunjoo’s eyes and cast a deep shadow. Since coming back from Hong Kong, he had never once let this side of himself show. Living under the same roof, he had spent night after sleepless night. He didn’t know how it was for Yunjoo, but for him, those had been days of enduring and holding back with everything he had.

Even now, Kangwook was torn over whether to say it. His first concern was whether Yunjoo would hear his words and startle, pulling back from him.

“Go on, say it.”

“Yunjoo… I want you.”

Kangwook’s voice, carrying the depth of dark chocolate, drifted around her ears, and her widened eyes locked onto him and went still. The only sound in the space between them was their breathing. At Kangwook’s words, Yunjoo forgot to breathe.

He held her eyes so they couldn’t escape from him, and reading the anxiety filling those captured eyes, Kangwook let out a long breath and laughed, the tension dissolving out of him.

“Cha Yunjoo, breathe.”

“Mr. Kangwook, I…”

“I know. I’ll wait. Until you come to me.”

“……”

Kangwook had no intention of pushing Yunjoo. But seeing the anxiety in her eyes, his heart dropped with disappointment. He had held a small hope that by now she might let him in. But Yunjoo seemed to have frozen solid.

At Kangwook’s words, she had looked away first and bowed her head, and she felt like a fool for it. These days even a high schooler wouldn’t freeze up like this at something like that, and here she was, unable to even meet his eyes.

‘Cha Yunjoo… honestly, how embarrassing.’

She was berating herself for not liking who she was being when Kangwook’s soft voice reached her.

“Yunjoo, lift your head. It’s okay. So look at me.”

“Mr. Kangwook, really…”

She wanted to say it. She wanted to tell him it wasn’t that she didn’t want him. Kangwook’s eyes went wide at Yunjoo’s small, murmured words.

“Yunjoo.”

“I’m… a little scared. But I want to try trusting you.”

“Cha Yunjoo, do you know what you’re saying right now?”

Kangwook’s voice came out a little louder from the shock, and Yunjoo bristled and lifted her head to meet his eyes. She had been acting a bit like a scatterbrain, but she wasn’t a woman who couldn’t understand plain words. And she wasn’t a child either.

“I know. Do you think I’m some kind of little kid?”

“If you think you’ll regret it, say so now. This will be your only chance.”

“I won’t.”

He took her lips, her eyes unmoving as she looked at him. He wanted to be quick but gentle, not wanting to startle her. But his heart ran ahead of his movements. He was anxious and restless, worried her feelings might change.

The sensation of slowly, softly sweeping through her mouth sent electricity rising gradually from the tips of her toes. Kangwook tried to savor Yunjoo the way you take the smallest bites of ice cream to make it last. He drew her lips in, then swept her hair aside and moved down to her neck, pressing against the pulse beating rapidly there. At the heat of his lips, a m*an escaped her before she knew it.

“Mmh.”

It wasn’t only his heart that was impatient. At Yunjoo’s m*an, Kangwook gathered her in his arms and carried her toward the bedroom.

“I want to learn with you what it means to share love.”

Kangwook had never spent a night that meant sharing love. He didn’t know what it was to hold someone with care and respect and genuine feeling. And so this moment, right now, left him breathless and trembling, his heart pounding.

Even as he walked to the bed with Yunjoo in his arms, he kept her lips held against his and set her down gently on the bed. Their eyes pulled apart for a moment, then tangled together, burning. Kangwook lifted his lips briefly and looked at Yunjoo with eyes gone deeply dark.

“Cha Yunjoo, what were you thinking, wearing this dress? Do you know you look just like Carmen?”

Kangwook slipped a hand beneath her back, drew down the zipper of the dress, and brought his lips down onto the pale shoulder coming into view. It was something he had wanted to do from the moment he saw her in that black dress. As Kangwook’s lips pressed hot against her skin, a soft m*an slipped from Yunjoo’s lips.

Why was it so hot? Why was she breathless, why did everything feel so strange? Her mind was emptying out at the unfamiliar feelings stirring inside her. Everywhere the dress fell away under Kangwook’s hands, his hot lips followed, and the red flowers were waking Yunjoo up.

With the dress gone, Kangwook looked at Yunjoo in nothing but her black bra and underwear, and the desire swelling inside him was past containing. Yunjoo felt the weight of Kangwook’s gaze and found it overwhelming, embarrassing. The lights were off so it wasn’t bright, but she could tell his eyes hadn’t left her.

He grew impatient. Kangwook stripped off what he was wearing in quick succession, his eyes never leaving Yunjoo the entire time. The fact alone that Yunjoo lay bare in his bed, of all places, already had him on the verge of breaking.

“Haa, Yunjoo.”

The sound of her name, breathed out like a sigh, drifted through the air in a haze. Kangwook moved alongside Yunjoo as she lay bare, removed her undergarments, and took hold of the soft, rounded swell of her chest. The feeling of it filling his hand just right made him tighten his grip.