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Chapter 08
“……?!”
Jooyoung jumped up in surprise.
The world spun around her. She had gotten up too quickly while still almost completely drunk.
“Ugh…”
Her voice trembling, she held her head in her hands and slowly lowered herself to sit on the edge of the bed.
Hearing her groan, Seonghoon asked,
—What’s wrong?
“Nothing at all.”
Jooyoung didn’t need to tell Seonghoon the truth, so she muttered something vague while gently massaging her temples.
Her head felt like it was shaking along with the spinning world. Even as she opened her tightly shut eyes, the room still wobbled slightly.
Phew, she exhaled deeply.
At the same time, the smell of alcohol lingered in the air. Even after showering and brushing her teeth twice, it hadn’t gone away.
This is a problem.
“Anyway. So, I’m at your place now?”
—Yes.
“You must have found out my address during your previous investigation.”
—That’s right.
Why is he so confident?
Jooyoung was left speechless at Bae Seonghoon’s shameless attitude, which seemed to have no intention of hiding anything.
She, too, had investigated him through Shin, her secretary, so she had no right to say anything.
“I’ll head downstairs then.”
—Are you sure? You might regret it.
“You came all the way here to talk to me in person. Even if it’s not okay, I have to say it’s okay, from my perspective.”
—……
“And I won’t regret the decision I made.”
Jooyoung’s mind was running on a happy circuit.
There was only one reason Bae Seonghoon would come to see her late at night without any notice.
He—Bae Seonghoon—had made a decision.
Whether it was positive or a rejection, she didn’t know yet.
—Alright. I’ll give you twenty minutes. Get ready and come down within that time.
The call ended.
Jooyoung took the phone from her ear and stared at the screen showing the home screen for a moment before getting up from the bed.
Twenty minutes. He had given her twenty minutes to prepare.
Was that why he asked if she had washed? Because he didn’t want to meet her bare-faced?
She had already washed her hair and removed her makeup, but to meet him, she’d have to redo her makeup and change her clothes.
It was indeed inconvenient. If it had been anyone else, she would have just told them to leave.
The man who had talked about consideration and nighttime propriety…
Bae Seonghoon was infuriating.
He analyzed people with his sharp instincts and unnecessarily showed consideration. And that consideration wasn’t always comfortable.
“Let’s go downstairs first.”
Jooyoung quickly finished her electrolyte drink and did her makeup. She hurriedly evened out her skin tone and concealed her dark circles.
After finishing, she took a hangover remedy and brushed her teeth again. Even then, the smell of alcohol didn’t disappear, so she popped a mint into her mouth.
[I’m heading downstairs now.]
Jooyoung changed into neat outdoor clothes and sent Seonghoon a message as she stepped into the elevator.
Without waiting for a reply, she put her phone in her pocket and lifted her head to watch the bright red numbers quickly descending.
What kind of answer had Bae Seonghoon brought? Would it be positive or a rejection?
Her instincts strongly leaned toward positive, but with people, nothing was certain.
Tap, tap, tap.
She moved her toes to calm her nerves. As the elevator reached the first floor, she bit into the mint rolling in her mouth.
The softened candy broke into pieces and slipped down her throat.
Jooyoung hurried, checking if her breath still smelled of alcohol. Before even stepping outside the first floor, she spotted a tall silhouette.
Bae Seonghoon was leaning against a parked car at the entrance.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
Seonghoon, who had been looking at his phone, looked up.
“No problem. I had fun.”
Jooyoung froze for a moment, confused by his answer, then moved toward him.
“Fun?”
“It’s my first time waiting for someone. I think a pretty believable article could come out of this.”
‘An article? What do you mean?’ she wanted to ask, but Seonghoon swallowed the words before they could escape her tongue.
“Ugh!”
Before she knew it, Seonghoon’s large hand wrapped around her shoulders, pushing her forward until her chest hit his. Her head tilted back as his lips captured hers.
What… was happening?
Jooyoung, frozen by the suddenness, tried to pull away.
But his thick arms wrapped around her waist, trapping her. She couldn’t move.
Was it the strength? Or the alcohol? She couldn’t resist, and his lips pried hers open, his tongue sliding over hers.
His tongue even explored the inner flesh of her mouth, touching the back of her throat, making it hard to breathe.
“Haa… haa…”
Only after she gasped did Seonghoon release her.
Jooyoung clutched her chest, inhaling deeply. The combination of alcohol and shock made her vision blur and tears well up.
“Bae Seonghoon… this is—haa…”
Her breath ragged, she couldn’t get her words out. She shut her mouth and glared at him instead.
Seonghoon smirked.
“I told you, you’d regret it.”
“I didn’t expect you to mean this!”
“Shh.”
Just as she tried to raise her voice, he pulled her close again, placing his finger over her lips.
“We’re being filmed. Screaming and getting angry wouldn’t look good, would it?”
He glanced behind her toward the camera, almost signaling her to look herself.
Following his gaze, Jooyoung saw a camera peeking through the bushes.
It was filming. No, it had already filmed the moment she kissed Seonghoon.
“If you’ve understood the situation, don’t get angry—just smile brightly at me.”
“……”
“A woman receiving a kiss from the one she loves would look unbelievable if she glared at him as if she wanted to kill him, right?”
How did this happen? How did Seonghoon know there was a camera?
“So, Choi Jooyoung, smile at me now.”
He twisted slightly so she could see him, flashing a radiant smile.
As he said,
“Really, like a woman in love.”
At that moment, one hypothesis crossed Jooyoung’s mind.
Aware of the camera, she forced a bright smile, hiding behind an angle where her mouth was cleverly covered.
“Bae Seonghoon… did you kiss me knowing there was a camera?”
“I told you, you’d regret it.”
He wiped the tears from her eyes and licked the ones on his fingers, keeping his gaze on her.
Her heart almost melted at his thoughtfulness.
“Twenty minutes was tight, but you managed to prepare well, huh?”
Releasing her waist, he scanned her up and down. Then he muttered to himself, “Not bad.”
“With this, the photos will show your natural self instead of alcohol breath. How much did you drink, and with whom?”
“Hah!”
Jooyoung was at a loss for words. She had plenty to scold him for, but didn’t know where to start.
His shameless comment about her breath was infuriating, yet somehow, she lost the will to argue.
Exhaling deeply, she brushed her hair back and stepped closer to him.
The already small distance between them narrowed further; their shoes almost touched.
Jooyoung lifted her head. So close that their lips could accidentally touch, Seonghoon’s face wavered right in front of her.
“This is… quite—”
Unlike the first forced smile for the camera, this time Jooyoung smiled properly.
Squinting slightly, relaxing her face, she gave her lips a full curl.
Then, she wrapped her arms around his waist, placing her hands on his hips.
“Do I look like a woman in love?”
Choi Jooyoung’s counterattack.
