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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: Tender and Desperate
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The kiss, which began as cautiously as a first kiss, quickly grew fierce. Their heated breaths intertwined in a sticky embrace.
The two explored each other with wild abandon.
As tender and desperate as the time they had spent longing for each other, each in their own space.
Seonghyeok pressed in hard, giving Yeongin no time to collect herself.
Yeongin's mind went blank, so oblivious to the pain from her back pressed against the hard wall that it felt completely empty.
Rough gasps and thick moans escaped their lips each time they parted.
The motion-sensor light in the entryway, flickering on and off, intensified the heat.
Yeongin, lost in a trance, snapped her eyes open the moment she realized her blouse buttons were being undone.
Yeongin gasped for air and quickly grabbed Seonghyeok's hand.
He paused his movements and slowly lifted his gaze. His eyes, consumed by passion, fixed on her.
Seonghyeok, barely regaining his composure, rested his forehead on Yeongin's shoulder and regulated his breathing. As he calmed down and stepped back, Yeongin hastily straightened her disheveled clothes and rushed out of his apartment.
Her face was flushed crimson as she hurried towards the elevator. A frantic urgency clung to her fingertips as she pressed the elevator button.
“Are you crazy…?”
Yeongin touched her swollen lips as she stepped into the elevator.
***
Seonghyeok dragged his stiff body out of the bedroom.
His head felt heavy from a sleepless night. Even after taking a cold shower following Yeongin's hurried departure, he hadn't been able to fall asleep easily.
After going to the kitchen for a glass of water, his foggy mind cleared a little. Only then did he remember his jacket was still by the front door.
He went straight to the entrance and picked up the jacket from the floor. His gaze lingered briefly on the wall where Yeongin had leaned the night before.
Pulling his phone from his jacket pocket, he saw a message from Yeongin. The message had arrived twenty minutes ago.
He regretted giving her the information that Chae Yeongin wasn't the type to procrastinate but rather to get things done immediately.
“If I’d known this, I wouldn’t have told her…”
Seonghyeok grumbled as he called Yeongin. But she didn't answer.
***
Seonghyeok's anger began to flare, and his mood soured.
He had clearly realized that Yeongin was determined to ignore his calls. She didn't answer his calls, and she didn't reply to his messages.
He knew she regretted what happened last night, and he understood she was resolved not to give him any more leeway, but he felt a childish spite.
Was I the only one who enjoyed it? Was I the only one who felt like I was losing my mind?
Immature thoughts rattled his fragile composure.
The lustful and wild desires he had suppressed from yesterday's events boiled over. It felt as if every cell in his body had awakened.
He had clearly confirmed last night that Yeongin wanted him too, yet today she was openly trying to pretend otherwise, which made him feel disappointed and annoyed.
He was considering calling Yeongin to his office under the pretext of work when Yun Jisang came to visit.
“You don’t have a lunch appointment, do you? Let’s go eat.”
Seonghyeok didn’t move his back from the sofa, only shaking his head from side to side.
“I don’t feel like it.”
Yun Jisang narrowed his eyes and plopped down on the sofa.
“Don’t tell me your appetite’s gone because you won’t see Yeongin for a few days, or something like that?”
“Why wouldn’t I see Yeongin for a few days?”
“You don’t know Yeongin went on a business trip to Jeju Island?”
“A business trip?”
“Seo Jingyo and Baek Huiran went with her. It’s a photoshoot for a fashion brand they’re modeling for, I heard. It’s a two-day trip, they left on a morning flight today and will return on an evening flight tomorrow, so she’ll probably be back in the office on Monday after the weekend.”
Seonghyeok frowned, clearly displeased.
“Why do you know this, and I don’t?”
He naturally didn’t know that Yeongin had come early in the morning to leave her car, that she had gone straight to the company to take her own car to pick up Jingyo, or that they had gone directly to the airport from Jingyo's house.
“Who reports every single team leader’s business trip to the CEO? I heard it from An Haeyun this morning.”
“……”
Seonghyeok had no retort and fell silent.
Not seeing Yeongin for a few days was certainly annoying, but Seo Jingyo and Baek Huiran going with her was just as irritating.
***
The film crew, who had departed from Seoul on a morning flight and arrived in Jeju Island, unpacked their luggage at the hotel and immediately headed to the shooting location.
Today's shoot was scheduled at a horse ranch, and tomorrow's at a forest resort.
While the staff set up equipment and the actors had their hair and makeup done in the car, Yeongin stepped out to bask in the warm sunlight and gentle breeze.
Blue skies, green fields, and horses peacefully grazing.
She thought that if peace had a form, it would be this very scene. Being in the refreshing natural environment made her complicated mind feel a little more at ease.
However, the peaceful moment didn't last long. Despite her efforts to avoid it, Seonghyeok's face flickered before her eyes again.
“Haa…”
She knew she couldn't avoid his calls forever, but today she just couldn't muster the courage. If he brought up what happened last night, she would have nothing to say.
She had barely managed to hold on, only to completely crumble last night.
Recalling how she had clung to him, Yeongin squeezed her eyes shut.
***
The photoshoot began.
Thanks to Jingyo’s consideration, the schedule was set for Huiran’s solo shoot, then the couple shoot, and finally Jingyo’s solo shoot.
Huiran, who finished her shoot first, sat in a folding chair under a large tree and gave instructions to her stylist.
“Go get Chae Yeongin.”
“Yes, Eonni.”
The stylist brought Yeongin, who had been watching Jingyo’s shoot, over to Huiran.
“Ms. Chae Yeongin.”
Huiran frowned, pressing her temples.
“I have a terrible headache, could you get me some medicine? It’s truly inconvenient without Jo Hyeonsim Eonni here.”
Jo Hyeonsim couldn’t come to Jeju Island because she received news that her maternal grandmother had passed away this morning and had to go back to her family home. So, only Huiran’s stylist and on-site manager were accompanying her today.
Of course, Hyeonsim’s absence was merely an excuse to pick on Yeongin; Huiran didn’t have a headache at all.
Her stomach had simply turned when she saw yet another article about Min Sahi’s eulogy recitation at the Memorial Day event the day before yesterday. It gnawed at her, knowing that the glowing article was also Yeongin’s doing.
“I have headache medicine. I can give it to you.”
“What is it?”
“Tylenol.”
“I only take Panpyrin.”
“Panpyrin? You mean the liquid in the small bottle?”
Huiran’s eyes crinkled in a smile.
“That’s right. That’s what I mean.”
“I don’t think many people carry that around for portable use. And I doubt there’s a pharmacy nearby.”
This place wasn't a tourist spot but a secluded ranch, so isolated that even locals barely knew about it.
“Someone among the staff might have it, though. Could you ask around?”
Yeongin wasn't angry. She just found it contemptible and ridiculous.
“Of course.”
Yeongin walked casually towards the staff, intending to ask a couple of people out of courtesy, when she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes, filled with bewilderment, fixed on the man striding towards her.
Why was someone who should be in Seoul here?
Yeongin looked up at Seonghyeok, who had stopped in front of her, her face dazed.
“Why aren’t you answering my calls? Why aren’t you replying to my messages?”
A hollow laugh escaped Yeongin’s lips as she collected her scattered thoughts.
“Did you really come all the way to Jeju Island just to scold me about that?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you following me around like this?”
“I’m starting to wonder if I’m a childish brat or a madman.”
“……”
Yeongin was speechless, seeing him actively agree with her instead of being offended.
“I also came because I was anxious you might get other ideas if I left you alone.”
“……”
Yeongin realized Seonghyeok was about to bring up yesterday’s events and lowered her gaze to the ground.
“Whether you regret it now or not, you’ve already taken a step forward. You can’t go back now.”
Seonghyeok then drove the point home.
“If you’d been drinking, you could have blamed it on alcohol, but you were completely sober yesterday.”
Yeongin had to convey that yesterday’s events should not be given any significance. So, she desperately squeezed out an excuse.
“I guess I just missed a man.”
“You missed me.”
“……”
Of course, it was just a last-ditch effort; she knew it wouldn't work on him.
“Keep going.”
“……”
There was nothing more to say.
Yeongin bit her lower lip, then turned her back on him, his smile annoyingly relaxed, and walked away with a dejected step.
***
The two people’s reactions to Seonghyeok’s appearance were sharply divided.
“Oh, Daepyo-nim!”
Huiran's face brightened, wondering if he had come to see her, while—
“How did you even get here?”
—Jingyo made no effort to hide his displeasure.
Seonghyeok changed the subject naturally without much response.
“Let’s go to the hotel in my car.”
Everyone else was to travel by the chartered bus, as they had on the way to the photoshoot, but Jingyo, Huiran, and Yeongin were to leave first in the car Seonghyeok had rented.
Jingyo immediately took the passenger seat, so Yeongin had no choice but to sit in the back with Huiran.
The four arrived at the hotel in a quiet atmosphere.
Jingyo, who had been silent, finally spoke.
“Yeongin, let’s talk in my room.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now.”
“Okay.”
Seonghyeok felt a sudden surge of anger. He didn’t like Jingyo deliberately provoking him, nor Yeongin's ready compliance.
It was then that Huiran made an enticing offer.
“Daepyo-nim, I also have something important to discuss with you. Shall we have dinner together tonight?”
“I can hear it now.”
“Now?”
“Would it be alright to talk in Ms. Baek Huiran’s room?”
“Yes, of course.”
The four people took the elevator up to the 6th floor, then split into pairs, entering rooms 602 and 603.
