CHAPTER 24

After washing the dishes and brushing her teeth, Yeonseo started to feel bothered by Taeheon, who seemed to have no intention of leaving.

She quietly walked around him, but he remained fixated on his tablet without budging. After a small, meaningless cough, Yeonseo decided to speak.

“Well then, I’ll go inside and rest.”

As she finished speaking, Yeonseo turned around to flee, fearing that Taeheon might say something difficult to handle.

When she was about to fully open the door, Taeheon approached from behind and his large hand overlapped with her small one on the doorknob.

He slammed the door shut again and spun her around. Though his grip on her slender waist wasn’t forceful, she couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed and squirm.

He was staring intensely at her. His deep gaze, his scent, and his aura of dominance seemed to penetrate every cell in her body.

She wondered if this was just fear or if it was an emotion much more considering everything is related to Taeheon.

Amidst all the other things she needs to worry about, Taeheon kept barging into her mind.

What am I going to do about this?

Taeheon finally opened his mouth.

“Don’t mess around elsewhere. Consider this a warning.”

“Manager Woo Seungbin… Are you talking about him?”

“Yeah, don’t get involve with him and make matters worse.”

“It’s not my intention. I haven’t done anything… Why…”

“If you are harmed in anyway, then it’s my fault too because I didn’t take care of my person properly.”

“My person?”

Yeonseo’s questioning voice trembled like flower petals. Taeheon’s expression seemed visibly displeased.

Still, it was better than nothing. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Taeheon was hard to read and seemed more distant. Taeheon’s wariness of Seungbin felt like hope to her.

Yeonseo bit her lip as she realized she was foolishly harboring futile hopes at the mere mention of “my person”.

Yeonseo didn’t know what to do of why was she so drawn to a man not at her level.

This is hatred. That’s why my heart hurts like this.

His fingers dug between her lips, which were pressed so tightly together that they bled. Gently, he peeled off the soft flesh from the wound and delicately caressed the wet inner flesh.`

Her faint breath flowed like an electric current.

“Whoever bothers you, tell them you slept with me.”

“…What?”

“Tell them that we’ll continue to be well and that we’re in a s*xual relationship going forward.”

“What…….”

“There will be a lot of people coming to the Yongin house from now on, and there will be some unkind comments about you, and I’m sure Seungbin will be all over you.”

“Are you really asking me to play the role of your mistress?”

“It’s an easy task.”

Yeonseo’s eyes widened slightly. He was asking her to say out loud, in front of everyone, that she was seeing Taeheon, not Seungbin.

And not just as a simple partners.

“To tell everyone that I’m sleeping with the you, that’s what……. It’s ridiculous, who would believe me?”

Whether it was Taeheon or Seungbin, they were both unsuitable partners for her.

“You don’t mind if rumors spread about you and Seungbin having petty lovers’ quarrels?

“What do you mean lovers’ quarrels…….”

“It wouldn’t make any sense no matter what. So, just say we’re hanging out. Han Yeonseo, you’re my hired person, after all.”

She finally understood the meaning of “my person” at the mention of “hired”. Her heart tingled like a burst of carbonation at his words.

You’re insane, Han Yeonseo.

“…Even though we didn’t actually do it, what do we do to make people think we did?”

Yeonseo asked with a sharp tone. Taeheon chuckled, amused by her reaction.

“It’s not that difficult to pretend we’re having s*x.”

Taeheon was like a glass flower filled with poison. Beautiful but deadly, touching it would lead to inevitable self-destruction from its intoxication.

Her heart fluttered like the wind, tempted to touch his alluring figure. Yeonseo couldn’t deny the fact that she was drawn to him.

But Yeonseo knew the ways of the world well enough not to willingly step onto the path of destruction. Perhaps painfully so.

She could easily envision how that pretty glass flower would sting her. She knew her position—just a girl temporarily playing around with a third-generation chaebol, someone who would stay for a short while and then disappear. That was where Han Yeonseo stood.

Knowing the fountain well meant not taking on unnecessary chances, which is why she had no desire to become Woo Taeheon’s official mistress, not even in the tiniest bit.

“I don’t want to.”

“You don’t have a choice.”

“At this point, there’s no difference between you and Woo Seungbin to me.”

“No difference?”

“I’m only sticking by you because at least you won’t hurt Mrs. Kang. You won’t harm her, unlike Seungbin, so I chose to be by your side.”

“Instead of trying to build worthless pride, it would be cuter to ask for help.”

Taeheon sneered. His gaze at Yeonseo was as intense as ever.

Like deep and dark waters, she couldn’t fathom his depths. Just like a winter forest where darkness descended, Taeheon was cold and merciless.

Amidst it all, Yeonseo felt like a damsel in distress. She averted her eyes first, afraid that he would soon realize that she was falling for him.

But Taeheon gently lifted Yeonseo’s chin to face him directly.

“Thinking too hard is just a waste of time. There’s an easier path right here, why look for trouble elsewhere? Just take the easy way.”

“I’m not your puppet, and you have nothing to gain by tangling with me.”

“All your misfortunes, they mean nothing to me. Don’t you understand?”

Yeonseo’s biggest burden was her debt, an enormous sum left behind by her father, Moon-sik.

“If I ask you to help me with my debt, and if we have s*x…”

If that happens, will she be able to stop relying on Taeheon after receiving help from him?

For now, she’s trying to maintain her pride and resist, but if Taeheon manages to intrude even the parts she wants to hide, Yeonseo will admit her own weakness.

Countless debts, a lonely life, an uncertain future.

And Taeheon, who promises to settle it all.

The closer she gets to him, the more she hope and want him to save her from her shitty life and welcome her into his world.

Once she receives his help and gives herself to him, her meager pride will vanish without a trace.

And she will live in constant fear of being abandoned by him.

To love, to be in love. It’s all so complicated.

If it’s going to end in loneliness, she wouldn’t want to start it in the first place.

Yeonseo didn’t have the presence of mind to willingly choose the path that would likely lead to her being driven away from Taeheon’s world. After concluding her thoughts, she prepared herself to take a step back.

The more she was drawn to him, the more she was afraid of deepening a relationship that could easily end. By admitting her feelings, the path she should take seems to be more certain.

She almost wished Taeheon would be meaner to her. Yeonseo stretched out her arms and pushed him away. Taeheon obediently stepped back.

“You just don’t want Seungbin to get tangled up with me, and I’ll take care of that problem.”

“I fulfill my desires, and you receive help. I think it’s an ideal relationship. Why do you have to make it to be so complicated?”

Desire. It was an affirmation that she was just an outlet for his s*xual desires. Tears welled up in her eyes, and her heart felt heavy.

“I’m not really into it. That’s why I can’t give in to you.”

The difference between Taeheon and Seungbin was slight. While Seungbin threatened over Mrs. Kang’s health, Taeheon pressured her based on her circumstances.

As long as she didn’t harm Mrs. Kang’s health, Taeheon had no business with her. It was an agonizing reality for Yeonseo.

“Wasn’t it you who used to get tangled up every time we kissed?”

Taeheon slowly slid his hand along one side of Yeonseo’s hips, his straight fingers tracing the roundness of her pelvis.

“Should I stop?”

“Sir Taeheon.”

“Fine, say what you want.”

His high nose approached Yeonseo’s face. She had plenty of time to push him away, but she didn’t. Her long, soft eyelashes trembled as she parted her lips.

Even though she promised herself to push him away, with just one glance, it became so easy…

“I can’t say it.”

“….”

Silence was the signal. Taeheon swallowed her lips. It was the hot sensation that had been on her mind all along.

And it felt good. Yeonseo parted her inexperienced lips as Taeheon’s scent entered her nostrils, and the tingling excitement grew as his firm tongue met hers.

Their lips clumsily clashed as they playfully teased each other. Their noses brushed against each other as if they were about to touch but not quite. Their glossy lips moved back and forth as they caressed and then parted again.

Even though Taeheon is no different from Woo Seungbin, her body react differently to his temperature.

She became aware of how her heart could ache so painfully.

Yeonseo let out a trembling breath as he gently delved into the gap between them.

One day, while swinging on a swing, a man appeared, covering the blue sky. His sudden arrival reminded Yeonseo that the sky wasn’t entirely blue.

The sweeter their kiss, the more she felt her heart surrender, and the more she feared its inevitable end.

Then just for today, only for today.

Yeonseo weakly raised her arms and wrapped them around his neck. Taeheon took a long breath, briefly separating their lips.

With her heels lifted, Yeonseo leaned her weight on his chest. Not knowing what was getting tangled, she breathed heavily, releasing quick, heated breaths.

“May I?”

Taeheon asked, his voice hushed. He had always left room for her to decide. Testing Yeonseo from beyond a certain line, he hesitated as if unsure of crossing it.

It was as if he was waiting for the moment when she would reach out to him. He was probably confident that she could cross the line at any moment, which is why he was so relaxed.

But impatience was not a word that fit Taeheon. If this relationship progressed even a little further, Yeonseo was undoubtedly in a different category from those who could easily break away from him, as she couldn’t imagine cutting ties with him.

No woman would want to start a love affair that was bound to hurt.