Hari, not wanting it to end, quickly looped her arms around his shoulders.

“I haven’t had nearly enough yet.”

The wheedling in her voice came naturally mixed with a cute little whine.

“You need practice to act naturally.”

She was shameless now, not a trace of embarrassment left, and Jisang laughed in disbelief.

“Who’s the one who wants more right now.”

Jisang dipped his hand into the water and flicked his fingers. The water hit her squarely in the face, and Hari was left completely drenched.

“Ugh. That’s cold.”

Jisang reached up and peeled the wet hair from her cheek, tucking it behind her ear.

“No more swimming practice.”

“Oh, but if that’s the issue……”

“I’m the one who can’t take it.”

“What?”

She was the one who had swallowed water, so why was he the one who couldn’t take it? Was he making excuses because he didn’t want to kiss her anymore?

Confused by the thought, Hari narrowed her eyes at him.

Jisang smiled and cupped her face in both hands, pulling her toward him as he rose onto his heels.

The unexpected kiss caught her off guard, and Hari’s eyes flew open before she slowly closed them and accepted his lips.

Compared to before, when she had held her neck stiffly upright, she received this kiss with far more ease. Maybe she had figured out how to breathe in between. Either way, her head was considerably clearer than before.

When he finally pulled back, this time Hari was the one who tugged him back with a whine.

“More. Until you can honestly say I’m good enough at this.”

He was more than willing, of course.

“As much as you want.”

Until the resort lights came on at midnight, the two of them showed no sign of stopping.

* * *

Hari slept until around noon.

Partly because of the long flight and the full day of shooting that followed, but mostly, she suspected, because she was so full of happiness. She was touching her lips before she was even fully awake.

One or two kisses might not have felt real, but they had kissed so many times right up until midnight that the soft, warm sensation was still vivid and present.

“Ahh!”

She twisted and kicked under the covers. She didn’t know any other way to let out this feeling that was bursting inside her.

I kissed someone! And it was Cha Jisang!

Her heart kept leaping. Her mind was packed full of Cha Jisang with no room for anything else.

“Oh right. I need to get ready.”

Today was a free day.

The night before, as Jisang was heading back to his room, he had asked what she planned to do the next day. Hari had said she wanted to go to the beach pub she had spotted during the shoot and have brunch. She had said it knowing full well he would come with her, a schedule she had crafted on purpose.

She pulled out the deep green floral print dress, another outfit from the shoot, and slipped it on, and a thought came to her.

The photo shoot concept of ‘a holiday with your first love’ seemed to be becoming reality.

At exactly noon, a knock came at the door, and when she opened it, the man standing there looked even more handsome than usual.

“Sleep well?”

Hari smiled shyly and nodded.

“What about you? Bodyguard, I mean. Jisang.”

“I didn’t sleep at all.”

“Why?”

“Just something.”

She tapped the toe of her sandal against the floor and stepped out, and Jisang, as always, walked one step ahead. Hari trotted after him, then quietly came to a stop.

Jisang turned around, wondering what was wrong.

Hari was fidgeting with her fingers, her lips, small and ripe as cherries, moving hesitantly.

“Go ahead.”

At his prompt, Hari spoke carefully.

“Can I hold your hand?”

“Ha.”

“Holding hands on a date is in the script too. And I’ve never done that either…… so I thought I should try.”

It was the exact same excuse as yesterday, with not a shred of originality.

Even so, Jisang reached out and caught her wrist decisively, then took her hand.

“Like this?”

At that, she deliberately folded her fingers one by one and laced them through his.

“No. Like this.”

If cuteness were a weapon, Hari smiling her forsythia smile could conquer the world.

The heat of Southeast Asia was close to forty degrees, and the hands clasped together were growing damp with sweat.

Hari didn’t care in the slightest and bounced along with a spring in her step.

“What are you so happy about.”

Even with her feelings fully exposed, Hari didn’t give a direct answer and looked away.

“It seems like the stalker didn’t follow me all the way here.”

“That’s your reason?”

“Something like that. This kind of freedom is something I haven’t had in a long time.”

“……Ah.”

“I can’t walk around like this back in Korea.”

Since her popularity had grown, she couldn’t even make a comfortable trip to the supermarket. In the middle of summer she had to wear a hat, sunglasses, and a mask, and even then people recognized her.

She still cringed thinking about the time someone had asked for a photo while she was in the middle of buying sanitary pads.

“Almost no one here will recognize me. This lightness, this freedom, I love it so much.”

Koh Samui was known as a honeymoon destination, and the whole walk to the beach pub was filled with couples.

She loved that.

Being surrounded by couples, feeling like one of them.

Just sitting across from him at a table by the beach made her heart lift even more.

“I want this, and this, and this too. What do I do?”

She was usually a light eater, but she found herself chattering about how she actually had an appetite for once. Happiness made the whole world look beautiful, and apparently that was enough to conjure a craving from nowhere.

Jisang ordered all three items she pointed to without complaint, and he did it in impressively fluent English.

Handsome, great body, strong enough to kick down doors, can cook, can swim. A man already overflowing with appeal, and he speaks English too?

“Why would you order all of that. You should have narrowed it down for me.”

“Even if you leave some, eat as much as you want. You could stand to gain a little weight.”

“……I feel bad leaving food.”

Hari explained to his puzzled expression with quiet candor.

“I grew up in an orphanage. There wasn’t enough food for everyone to eat their fill. You had to take only as much as you needed, or even less so your friends could have more. And even then, there were rare times when food was left over. Every time that happened, I felt guilty. Because whatever I left, a friend could have eaten.”

Most people only think about their own hunger, not whether someone else has had enough. Children especially, where appetite is the most immediate need. Even as a young child, Hari had been thoughtful and kind enough to consider others even in that.

“That became a habit, and it’s stayed with me. Even now I can’t bring myself to order freely, even if it means not eating enough.”

Jisang, who had listened without a word, called the server over.

She thought he was going to cancel part of the order, but instead he added two mojitos.

Then he put her mind at ease with a single sentence.

“If you leave anything, I’ll finish it. That settles it, doesn’t it?”

When Jisang had made pasta for her, Hari had said with complete sincerity that she was happy.

He might have thought she was someone who threw the word around too easily, but to Hari it was always the truth.

“Wow. I’m so happy.”

She was happy just looking at the plates filling the table, happy chewing a big bite of panini and finding it delicious, happy taking a sip of the cold mojito and declaring it paradise.

The bright energy she radiated didn’t shine alone. It lit up everything around her.

That was the kind of woman Yoo Hari was.

Jisang hadn’t touched his food. He sat with his chin in his hand, simply watching her eat, lost in thought.

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

Jisang relaxed his expression and answered.

“I was thinking you seem to smile more.”

“I always smile a lot.”

“I wasn’t talking about Yoo Hari.”

“Then who?”

“Who do you think.”

He smiled, and Hari smiled back with a small, pleased curve of her lips.

She naturally found herself thinking back to six years ago.

Back then, this man had carried an imposing, intense quality, as though he had never smiled once in his life.

That was what made the quiet, fleeting smile at the very end so rare and precious, and so much more striking by comparison.

To think that she would one day sit across from him like this, sharing smiles. The feeling was something she couldn’t quite put into words.

A pleasant silence settled over the table full of laughter.

Hari did her best to eat, but Jisang, apparently not satisfied, kept insisting on just one more bite and doing his best to feed her.