With a clatter, Young In inserted the key into the front door.

Even that didn’t fit well, and as she slowly opened the door, Do Ha added a comment.

“Why don’t you ask to have it changed?”

Can’t even say that much to the landlord.

As he added the trailing words, Young In chuckled.

“The landlady is a bit stubborn. She says if we want to fix it, do it, but consider restoring it when we leave. It’s easy to make an old thing new, but hard to make a new thing old.”

Young In, who had difficulty opening the front door, waved her hand to turn on the entrance light and looked back.

“She said not to change anything because it’s a house filled with memories of her husband.”

Is it because of the entrance light?

Young In’s eyes trembled with a faint light as she looked at Do Ha.

The shadows on her face were somehow sorrowful.

“So what can we do? We have to live like this.”

Her lips, moving as she spoke, were too red.

Without realizing it, Do Ha raised his hand and touched Young In’s forehead.

He was worried she might have a fever again.

Looking at Young In, who flinched and narrowed her shoulders in surprise, Do Ha curled up one corner of his mouth.

“It would be troublesome if we end up in the emergency room again. For both of us.”

Do Ha, speaking as if teasing, brushed past Young In and stepped into the house.

Do Ha slowly scanned the interior, bathed in yellow light, and swallowed.

It might be a bit silly to say he’s gotten used to it when it’s only the second time.

It would also be funny to say he felt a bit relieved that this cramped and shabby place looked better than the first time.

Do Ha stopped in front of the shelf and took in the family photo, while Young In passed by him and entered the kitchen.

“Coffee, alcohol, or food. What would you like?”

Young In, who had put her bag down on the two-person dining table, turned to look at him.

He lightly touched Young In in the family photo with his fingertip and glanced at her.

“All three.”

Her large brown eyes trembled slightly at his answer.

“Let’s go with food, alcohol, and then coffee in that order.”

While she smiled so brightly in the family photo, the real Young In doesn’t smile.

Come to think of it, he couldn’t remember seeing this woman smile.

She only wore an extremely businesslike face with a fake smile, that’s all.

Or she would copy someone else’s smile and imitate it.

He left the shelf and slowly approached Young In.

He approached her, who was still reaching for her bag on the table, and gently grasped her hand.

Young In tensed up and flinched, putting strength into her hand.

“Small, moist, and soft Seo Young In.”

Speaking slowly, he firmly held her gaze.

Her clear eyes, engraving him, fluttered and trembled.

Is it tension making her tremble, excitement, or both?

Maybe he’s the one trembling.

Because a bad desire to hold Young In, no, to embrace her in this worn-out house, was frantically welling up.

“I’m hungry, so hurry up and make something.”

But not right now.

He pulled Young In’s hand and led her to the sink, trying hard to suppress his rising desire as he continued speaking.

“I might eat Seo Young In in one bite because I’m so hungry.”

Watching Young In’s shoulders stiffen at the half-joking, half-serious remark, Do Ha let go of her hand.

It was the first time an empty hand felt so lonely.

* * *

Her heart was beating so fast and so fiercely that it was embarrassing.

She was tensely on edge, worried that Cha Do Ha might hear her heartbeat.

Young In took vegetables and meat from the refrigerator and made omurice.

She thinly fried an egg, put the fried rice in a pretty bowl, and topped it with the egg.

Her hand, which was mindlessly drawing a heart with ketchup, suddenly stopped.

Young In, flustered alone, glanced back.

Cha Do Ha was sitting quietly at the two-person dining table.

While she was cooking, he had been looking around the living room, talking on the phone with someone, and looking out the window, but for a while now, he had been sitting in the chair like that, quietly watching her.

As if all the nerves in her body had gone to her back, it was uncomfortable cooking the whole time with his gaze tickling where it touched.

Young In, who had endured that tickling sensation, put two bowls of omurice on the table.

She took two cans of beer from the refrigerator and returned to the table, where Cha Do Ha was staring at her face. His black eyes were full of playfulness.

“What is it?”

“I was wondering about the meaning of this crumpled half-heart.”

Cha Do Ha slightly pointed to the red heart that she had started drawing but left unfinished.

Young In, who was biting her lip in embarrassment, carefully opened her mouth.

“Originally.”

She didn’t want to lie.

“It’s supposed to be completed by drawing a pretty heart.”

She had intended to draw a heart.

She had been elated with joy at cooking for someone at home after a long time and eating together.

If her back hadn’t been tickling, she might have even hummed a tune.

“But as I was drawing it, I thought a heart between the director and me seemed… not right.”

“So you stopped halfway?”

“Yes.”

Young In nodded.

“Why?”

The black eyes asking why seemed to momentarily grow even darker.

“Because then it would be like…”

Looking into his eyes that seemed to be pressing her, Young In calmly voiced the sad reality.

“We’re dating, right?”

“Are you saying dating is not allowed between us?”

“Yes.”

Young In nodded nonchalantly and opened a can of beer, holding it out to Cha Do Ha.

Cha Do Ha, who had taken the beer can, turned it this way and that for a while without saying anything.

Then he slightly tilted his red lips and smiled.

“Well, neither you nor I are in a position to date.”

Cha Do Ha raised his can as if making a toast and slightly tilted it towards her.

“I’ll enjoy the beer. And… Seo Young In’s half-heart too.”

* * *

Seo Young In’s half-heart was quite delicious.

He was a bit surprised by the taste that far exceeded his expectations.

It seemed that those small, moist, and soft hands were good at cooking too.

In the end, Do Ha emptied the bowl cleanly along with the beer.

A mug was gently placed in front of Do Ha.

“Have some coffee.”

Looking into the yellowish liquid in the cup in front of him, Do Ha let out a chuckle.

It was the very coffee he had tried alone this morning, as per Young In’s message.

“You’re diligent.”

Seo Young In was diligent.

As he had said, food, alcohol, and then coffee. She had busily made them and dutifully served them.

Although he had sung about instant coffee, instant coffee, what he really wanted to taste wasn’t this damn instant coffee.

Do Ha, who let out a cool laugh, raised the cup, and clear brown eyes watched him with expectation.

Looking straight at Young In like that, he took a sip of coffee.

The strong and astringent taste wasn’t bad.

It was better than what he had made and drunk in the morning, but it wasn’t the taste he had expected either.

The taste he had expected was sweeter, moister, softer… like Seo Young In’s lips.

“Is it not good?”

Perhaps because his face showed no particular reaction, worry densely filled Young In’s smooth brow.

“I guess… it doesn’t suit your taste?”

“Well. Maybe Seo Young In made it wrong?”

Do Ha, who took the cup from his mouth, slightly frowned.

“Is this the right taste?”

He spoke in a somewhat cold voice, deliberately putting on a serious face and holding out the cup to Young In.

It was half a joke rather than a complaint.

“That can’t be.”

Young In, tilting her head at his joke, brought her lips to his cup.

Her hands lightly touched his hands holding the cup, and her red, plump lips carefully sipped the cloudy coffee.

She slowly rolled it in her mouth as if savoring it, then swallowed the coffee and held the cup out to him again.

“This is the right taste.”

A faint smile settled on Young In’s lips.

A smile that seemed a little dejected and a little shy spread prettily along with the coffee aroma.

“As expected, this cheap coff…”

That was exactly the limit.

The limit of what he could endure.

He could no longer tolerate Young In smiling prettily while carelessly crossing that limit.

Do Ha, grasping her hand, stood up and pressed his lips against hers.

The scent of instant coffee mixed with Young In’s body scent, erotically stimulating his taste buds.

It’s a different taste from before.

To taste it more deeply, he slowly sucked in while embracing Young In.

Inserting his fingers into her nape, he dug in more firmly and deeper, moving his jaw stickily.

The body that had been stiff was now trembling in his arms.

Is this tension or excitement?

Was it tension or excitement last night when she accepted everything from him without rejecting, even though he had told her to push him away if she disliked it?

Is she uncomfortable now?

Was she uncomfortable yesterday too?

While roughly crushing her sweet lips, Do Ha thought and thought again.

But he couldn’t come to a conclusion.

He didn’t know whether Young In’s heart was uncomfortable because she was too tense or too excited.

A woman who wants to run away from him but trembles at his kiss. A woman who freezes up but eventually melts languidly. At least for now, he didn’t want to let her go.

And that damn instant coffee.

It seems he’s going to start liking the taste of that cheap coffee he feels on Young In’s tongue from now on.

It was sweet enough to make his tongue tingle, and the taste was deep enough to make his head spin.

* * *

The long kiss continued erotically.

Young In’s mind had been going blank since earlier with the sensation of their lips intertwining and clashing.

She had stiffened her body in surprise at the sudden press of lips, but before she knew it, her arms were wrapped around Cha Do Ha’s neck.

Having surrendered everything to the erotic yet soft kiss he was giving, she led him to her room.

A small and narrow room, with an even smaller bed inside.

Young In, who had led him to that intimate place, lay down on her bed and continued their erotic kiss.

Cha Do Ha’s scent filled her room, which might be smaller than his dressing room.

His body odor clung to the blanket she covered herself with every day.

Young In completely melted under the touch of hands roaming here and there on her body and the sweetly continuing kisses.

Humid air filled the small room, and her old bed kept making strained noises.

The pendant-type light fixed to the ceiling shook roughly, driving her senses to the extreme.

To think it could feel this good.

It’s crazy.

Her once pure bedroom was now indulging in naughty acts.

Here, with Cha Do Ha…

Young In tightly closed her eyes.

Tears of ecstasy flowed down along the corners of her eyes.