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Episode 3 (English Translation)
All weekend long, Iryeong didn’t budge from her room. She kept sighing as memories of the stormy weekend flooded back.
She had stayed in bed for a full two days, but the shame refused to fade.
“Humiliation. Humiliation. Total humiliation!”
Even yelling at the ceiling at the top of her lungs didn’t make her feel any better.
“Never forget—acting like that only excites men more.”
Honestly, she had been more than halfway swayed by the executive director. She thought he was deliberately trying to seduce her.
“Did you really think I’d actually kiss you?”
His deep voice echoed in her head.
“Chae Iryeong! You’re insane! Totally insane!”
She was so mortified she wanted to scream.
So instead, she decided to think about Dongha—someone she wouldn’t mind tearing apart.
She tried to erase the executive director from her mind by remembering both Dongha and Ari, who had gone from being a colleague to a mortal enemy.
“That bastard… And to get her pregnant, of all things?”
The image of the two of them gazing sweetly at each other came to mind.
She couldn’t even blame anyone else; the biggest fool was herself, for not realizing her boyfriend was cheating.
“Haa…”
The curse she’d been muttering against Dongha melted into a sigh.
They had gone from friends to lovers, only for him to dump her unilaterally.
“You bastard.”
Her throat tightened, and tears welled in her eyes.
“I should’ve dumped you first. I should have…”
Her empty cry echoed through the room.
It had been three months since she transferred to AE Cosmetics. Starting out as a temp had left her no time to breathe.
She used work as an excuse to see Dongha less often. She thought he understood—but that was a mistake.
He’d gone and slept with her friend.
“Enough. It’s over now…”
Their relationship was beyond repair. Knowing he’d even gotten someone pregnant, she didn’t even have the energy to confront him anymore.
Iryeong leaned back against the headboard.
Outside, the winter night pressed thick against the window.
“…This won’t do.”
She got out of bed and grabbed the phone she had tossed aside. She’d turned it off since Friday night. After a moment’s hesitation, she powered it on.
[You cheated on me, didn’t you?]
[Who’s that guy?]
[Did you bring him on purpose?]
[I thought you were a prude, but turns out you’re a slut too?]
No matter how many times she reread the messages, the sender was Dongha.
Realizing those cruel words he’d spat at her back then weren’t just out of anger but his true feelings made her skin crawl.
“…Psycho.”
You see what you want to see, she thought bitterly.
She deleted every message he’d ever sent her, old ones included, her annoyance boiling over.
Then she blocked his number to put a firm end to things.
“Don’t ever think about him again. If I start remembering a bastard like that…”
She’d be just as crazy, she told herself firmly, sitting back down on the bed.
She stared silently out the window.
When had winter crept in like this? She’d been so busy learning her new job and rushing to site visits that the season had nearly passed her by.
“You’re doing fine. Just hang in there…”
Her calm voice filled the room, then faded into quiet.
She closed her eyes and let the silence settle.
The stillness of the house wrapped around her. Her parents ran a small snack shop nearby; they left at dawn and came home past midnight, weekends included.
Tonight, the quiet pressed in harder than usual, and the loneliness cut deep.
“Time to move.”
She couldn’t keep wallowing like this forever.
She tied her long hair up into a bun, a few soft strands slipping out to frame her pale, slender neck.
“First, food.”
Only now did hunger catch up with her.
“Spicy chicken feet? Or maybe spicy pasta sounds good.”
She was absorbed in scrolling through the delivery app when—
Knock knock.
Her gaze shifted to the door. She didn’t need to ask who it was.
“Yeah, come in.”
At her permission, the door opened cautiously.
It was her younger half-brother, Jungmin, who would soon be taking his college entrance exams.
“Noona, I brought some tteokbokki from the shop. Do you want some?”
He held up the package of spicy rice cakes proudly.
“I’m fine, don’t worry. You eat.”
“It’s too much for me alone. I’ll give you a portion. Please eat some.”
As always, Jungmin was careful and tentative.
“I’m just not hungry.”
“You haven’t eaten all weekend…”
Jungmin, the son of her stepmother, came over every weekend. It had been almost ten years, but he always kept his eyes down, avoiding her gaze.
“Then set some aside. I’ll eat it later if I feel like it.”
For the first time today, she smiled gently at him.
“Then… Noona! Mom made some gimbap just for you. At least have this.”
Her smile made him grin too, and he waved the small black bag eagerly.
She couldn’t refuse. She felt guilty for the boy who had spent ten years living apart from his mother, constantly reading the room because of her and his stepfather.
“Okay, I’ll have that. Thanks for bringing it.”
She knew the snack shop didn’t sell gimbap. Her stepmother must have made it specially for the awkward daughter and the son who came home on weekends.
“Water or Coke? Gimbap alone can get dry.”
He looked so excited—even over something as simple as giving her food.
“I’ll have water, thanks.”
“Okay! I’ll get it right away.”
His long legs carried him quickly to the kitchen. He was well over 180 cm now.
When had he grown up like that?
Watching him, Iryeong’s thoughts tangled.
Her father had remarried when she was in her senior year of high school. She’d lashed out at him, asking why now, in the middle of exam stress.
The result: they married but left then eight-year-old Jungmin behind. She had insisted on it.
“Noona, here. Drink whichever you want.”
Jungmin still acted awkward around her, just like his mother used to.
“Why’d you bring three cups? Fine, I’ll drink them all this time since you brought them.”
Cold, warm, and lukewarm—he’d brought all three kinds of water.
What more thoughtful gesture could there be?
“Thanks. Tell your mom it was delicious.”
“Okay, I will.”
Seeing him smile brightly filled her heart with conflicting feelings.
Why had she been so stubborn back then, when they were bound to live together anyway?
Her mother had died giving birth to her. Heavy bleeding during labor had taken her away, leaving only a newborn behind.
Being born without a mother and living apart from an existing one were two very different things.
As he closed the door to leave, guilt gnawed at her more than usual.
“He’s not even my real brother… This is enough.”
There was no way to ease that guilt. But after ten years of distance, bridging that gap overnight was uncomfortable for her.
Alone again, she unwrapped the gimbap.
“Why did she have to remember this…”
It was tuna gimbap—the kind she’d once mentioned liking in passing.
She forced down the lump in her throat and stuffed the rolls into her mouth, washing them down with the water Jungmin had brought whenever she started to choke.
Once she was full, she leaned back against the headboard again. And, of course, her mind wandered.
“Why did the executive director come to the restaurant that night?”
She unconsciously thought of Seo Ijun, and the scent he carried.
“If we kiss now, does that make me the biggest bastard in your life?”
She pressed her lips as she remembered his words. They still tingled with warmth.
“Maybe he was on a matchmaking date?”
Fitting for a handsome beauty company executive—he’d smelled amazing up close.
“He’s thirty. That’s possible.”
Her curiosity about Ijun grew as she touched her lips.
He was popular at the company.
The men admired his leadership, and the women treated him like some kind of unicorn.
“He’s the heir, after all.”
AE Cosmetics’ CEO, Lee Jeong-ae, was his mother. Everyone assumed he’d succeed her, bypassing his incompetent older brother.
The tint product he’d developed and marketed himself had been a huge hit, cementing his reputation independently of his mother’s influence.
His promotion to executive director had been inevitable.
“God, I’m losing it.”
She was shocked at herself for remembering so many details she’d only heard secondhand.
“Do you want to kiss me?”
Even in the dark, his handsome face had glowed.
She vividly remembered how she’d taken his teasing question seriously.
Her fingers froze against her lips.
“I’m seriously losing it.”
Her ears and nape burned.
“I had no intention of kissing you. What on earth were you thinking?”
Just thinking about going to work tomorrow made her face heat up.
They were on the same team, but they rarely interacted. In the three months since she’d joined, that Friday’s business trip had been their first real encounter.
“Aaagh! How am I supposed to face him?!”
She kicked her blanket and punched the air wildly.
She could just go on another business trip after clocking in, but even that brief time of being in the same space as Ijun tomorrow made her want to crawl into a hole.
“Why did I close my eyes?!”
Remembering how she’d puckered up made her want to die of embarrassment.
“This is all his fault. Why did he have to—”
Why did he lean in like he was going to kiss her and confuse her like that?
Why did he have to breathe so hot and heavy, making her expect something?
“I guess it’s best not to tease you here.”
Then she remembered his gentle touch—the way his fingers had carefully brushed her, how her heart had wavered at that moment.
Alone in her room, she squeezed her eyes shut.
It was like she’d caught a fever. She couldn’t understand herself. It had only been two days since the breakup.
Why was she suddenly consumed by heat thinking about a man she’d barely interacted with?
