Da Jung, who had been lying in disarray, got up again. She couldn’t sleep at all.

This isn’t right.

After loosely tying back her disheveled hair, she turned on the auxiliary light. She also drank a glass of cold water.

Though her mind felt numb, she thought it was right to sort out her position before Jae Ho arrived. After all, she needed to decide how to face him. Da Jung paced back and forth in the living room, mulling over the situation.

[I’m leaving now. I’ll arrive around midnight.]

She checked the message Jae Ho had sent earlier. It was 11 o’clock now, so there was about an hour left.

Her hand trembled as she approached the suitcase and took out the envelope again. Still, she mustered the courage to unfold the paper once more.

The words she had skimmed over without reading properly now caught her eye.

[Lee Jae Ho is a bad man. He reassures you that he won’t break up, but once he goes to Seoul, he barely keeps in touch. He only comes around when he needs a bedmate.]

Lies.

[He creates a situation where the woman has no choice but to break up first. He only lusts after your body, constantly making you feel miserable. I too couldn’t bear it anymore and announced our breakup.] [I realized later. This man had decided to discard me at the end of our countryside trip from the start. He just dragged it out because ending it abruptly would have been too obvious.]

Da Jung’s fingers slightly crumpled the edge of the paper.

[I hope you end up less miserable than I did. It would be better to end things first rather than being strung along.] [He’s a very cunning player.]

She wanted to ask why they were doing this to her.

From her perspective, she wanted to say that someone who makes such a one-sided declaration is just as cunning. That this way of communicating, speaking alone without allowing for any questioning, is also a kind of violence. That you too are a perpetrator.

Why make such a miserable end and confuse people when she would have left him even without words like these.

I don’t believe it. It’s a lie.

Her gaze, desperately trying to deny it, finally landed on the real estate registry and shattered.

He’s not a bad man.

The desire to believe that also lost its strength against the real estate registry. Even if all the claims in this letter were false, the fact that the pension was owned by Lee Jae Ho and that he had deliberately deceived her was ultimately a fact.

Why did he deceive me?

“What should I do…”

Her eyes welled up with tears.

Then she realized another important fact. Even if she put aside the content of the documents for now, the fact that their secret meetings had been discovered was itself a danger signal for Lee Jae Ho.

An actor’s career could end with just one sensational headline. Although she didn’t know who this person was, the fact that they had found this lodging and left documents was real, and Jae Ho needed to know about it.

I have to tell him.

Regardless of how suspicious his approach was, she couldn’t let him fall into danger. It was right to let him know so he could prepare. But how, where to start…

As Da Jung stood holding the documents with a bewildered expression, a car entered the lodging, making the sound of gravel being crushed. Startled, Da Jung looked up.

The headlights shone brightly through the window before turning off with the car’s engine. Hurried footsteps led to the front door, and soon the door lock was pressed. They had set the same front door password a few days ago.

Beep beep.

The front door opened cheerfully. Da Jung finally came to her senses and crumpled the documents back in. She hurriedly closed the suitcase and sat on the edge of the bed just as the man opened the room door.

“You’re not asleep…?”

Naturally, it was Lee Jae Ho.

Suppressing the tears that were about to burst forth, Da Jung averted her gaze. The man, carrying a faint musk scent, approached without hesitation and embraced Da Jung. His embrace, which she had missed terribly, somehow felt rough, and Da Jung couldn’t bring herself to hug him back.

“I thought you were sleeping. I came just to quietly see your face.”

“…”

“Why didn’t you reply if you weren’t sleeping?”

Why did you come to me without even taking off your jacket?

He seemed to have been genuinely worried and longing to see her all this time. Moreover, his voice was so tender that she wanted to cling to him and sob loudly.

“How did you get here so quickly? It’s not even midnight yet…”

She tried hard to forget the contents of the documents. Nevertheless, the fact that his actions no longer seemed pure came as a frustration. What could be true? The Lee Jae Ho before her eyes seemed increasingly distorted.

“I missed you, so I pushed myself to come.”

“…”

“I usually don’t drive fast, but I just couldn’t bear it anymore.”

The man pulled Da Jung’s chin with his index finger, meeting her eyes and smiling. Then he gave a questioning look at her eyes, still brimming with tears.

“Were you crying? Why?”

His dark eyes filled with concern.

He let go of Da Jung’s chin and threw his suit jacket on the floor. His gaze remained fixed on Da Jung’s face. Using minimal movements, he removed his watch and cufflinks, tossing them to the floor, then leaned forward to observe Da Jung’s face.

“No. I just yawned.”

Da Jung waved her hand in denial. But the man easily saw through Da Jung’s small lie and furrowed his brow.

“An explanation is needed.”

…You. Did you intentionally lure me here?

Da Jung raised her blurred gaze to meet Jae Ho’s. Again, she concluded that she couldn’t say those words. It was contradictory to demand sincerity from him after already preparing to end things.

Just as I hid my feelings appropriately, you must have done the same.

“There’s something I want to ask.”

“Yes?”

“…Do you, by any chance, have anything to tell me?”

The one question she managed to utter was miserably pathetic.

The man’s unwavering eyes scanned every corner of her face. Why is he looking at me like that? What does he want to find? Before he could discover the terribly clinging lingering affection, Da Jung pulled up the corners of her mouth.

“…Not really.”

“Ah.”

“Is there something you want to hear?”

“I thought you might be hiding something.”

The man let out a chuckle through his teeth. Having never visited the fan cafe since being with Da Jung, he had no way of understanding her anguish.

“If anyone’s hiding something, it would be Yoon Da Jung. Why were you crying?”

She thought that briefly meeting an unreachable man was a once-in-a-lifetime luck, and so her life had been spring, if only for a moment. She didn’t want to shatter that precious illusion.

“…Being alone was a little scary.”

The man who had come so close that his breath tickled her, kissed her.

“So you cried because I wasn’t here.”

“…”

“I’m a pervert, you know. Ms. Yoon Da Jung.”

Why is that good?

The man laughed loudly, delighted by the fact that she had been scared because of his absence. Surprisingly, her heart raced at the man’s confidence, which should have been brazen.

“Then why don’t you cry in front of me now?”

The man said, slowly unbuttoning his shirt.

“You’re good at it. Crying prettily.”

“…”

“Are you perhaps a bit tired?”

He added that from now on, he wouldn’t leave her alone. That there would be nothing to be scared of anymore. That he would protect her. That he would stay by her side.

Da Jung’s eyes blurred. Even though she knew better than anyone how murderously busy he would be once he returned to his main job, unable to even sleep. With local shoots and overseas locations, his schedule would be brutal.

Far from being by her side, it would be difficult to meet even once a week. Even when she had thought she wanted to stay by his side a little longer, she never expected to meet every day.

He told lies without much guilt.

“You must be tired. You drove for a long time…”

Da Jung indirectly refused. However, the man, having completely removed his shirt, pounced on her and buried his face in her neck. Hot breaths poured out.

He quickly heated up the body he had trained to perfection. He accurately scratched only the ticklish spots that made her moan before she could offer any other objection.

As her body moved according to his intentions, it became frustrating, but as her body grew hotter, even that thought crumbled. Da Jung finally grabbed his hair and let out a moan.

The touch that skillfully handled the woman’s body as if playing with a toy was heartbreaking.

Da Jung closed her eyes tightly at the dizzying sensation and struggled to open her mouth.

“Ah, Jae Ho. Wait… How many… women have you been with?”

The breath pouring onto her most tender skin was as hot as lava. Da Jung gripped the bed sheet and held back her bursting moans. As if already knowing the excitement hidden behind her voice that was trying so hard to hold back, the man laughed low.

“You make sounds so well, why are you holding back?”

“How many… women… have you been with…”

“You’re the first.”

Then, as if to burn away all the useless thoughts densely packed in Da Jung’s head, he poured out an intense pleasure. Her brain turned white.

The hand gripping the sheet lost its strength. Finally, Da Jung sobbed.

“Why ask such an obvious thing?”

Despite performing such lewd acts, his voice alone was unbelievably neat. Embarrassed by her flushed and disheveled appearance, Da Jung curled up her body. He laughed and easily subdued her.

“You’re all my firsts, Yoon Da Jung.”

Pleasure rushed in to the point where nothing more could be done. Da Jung could no longer hold back her moans and burst into tears. Her body, which had been swelling as if about to burst, finally trembled.

So easily, in less than ten minutes, without even fully undressing himself, he brought the woman to climax and said it was his first time.

If there hadn’t been that envelope. Would I have believed this?

The pleasure, almost like pain, remained in her body for a long time, crumbling into small pieces.

“I’ll do the rest after I shower. Wait just a little, even if you’re impatient.”

He said, continuing to give soft kisses to ensure Da Jung fully experienced her climax.

“I’m sorry. We’ll sleep when the sun rises. I can’t let you sleep soon today.”

“Ah, no. No. Wait…”

Da Jung, grabbing Jae Ho who was about to get up, looked at him with eyes still filled with tears.

“I have something to say.”

“…Okay. Go ahead.”

He asked, trying hard to suppress his desire which was already hot with excitement.

Ah.

Da Jung looked at that place for a moment before turning her gaze away. Nevertheless, she finally opened her mouth.

“Someone is watching us. I think… they’ve found out that Lee Jae Ho is here with a woman.”

Jae Ho sighed briefly as he looked at Da Jung speaking while covered in the red marks he had left.

“It could be a reporter, or maybe someone following us…”

How did Da Jung notice?

He had already received reports through the guards hired by Manager Jeong. They said suspicious individuals were lurking around the lodging. He had immediately ordered an investigation, so they should be moving now. Whoever they are, it shouldn’t take long to find the mastermind.

“I’m worried about your safety.”

Is that why she cried?

“How did you find out, Ms. Yoon Da Jung?”

“…I saw someone lurking around.”

Her wavering eyes were filled with anxiety. Jae Ho embraced Da Jung’s shoulders to comfort her.

“I’ll take care of it.”

He couldn’t hold back anymore, loving Da Jung so much.

“So everything’s okay. Just trust me.”

Jae Ho said, gently detaching Da Jung. A long night awaited them.