When she came to her senses, she found herself in his space. Da Jung thought this might be a dream. She was in a state of half-lost sense of reality.

In front of her eyes, Lee Jae Ho comes and goes holding a coffee cup.

“Do you like coffee?”

“Yes.”

“That’s good.”

What’s good about it? Lee Jae Ho is making coffee. For her.

Da Jung shook her head vigorously. If this was a dream, she wanted to wake up. But the more she shook her head, the clearer her mind became, yet Lee Jae Ho still didn’t disappear from her sight.

This isn’t a dream.

So, after leaving Lee Jae Ho’s fan cafe to live by the sea for a month, here is Lee Jae Ho.

Da Jung stared at Jae Ho for a while, as if watching TV. She knew his shoulders were broad, but seeing them in person, they were unrealistically magnificent.

The muscles that filled his shoulders, upper body, and forearms were fatally beautiful. This was the very body Da Jung had been exclaiming every day that she would have no regrets if she could touch it just once.

She was breathless.

“Make yourself comfortable.”

As their eyes met, Jae Ho spoke kindly. Da Jung couldn’t tear her gaze away from those eyes that seemed to pierce through one’s heart. As she kept staring, he chuckled again.

This is crazy. Why is he smiling like that?

Da Jung quietly swallowed. Although she had seen Lee Jae Ho countless times before, she had never encountered him in such a comfortable situation, so everything felt unfamiliar.

Until now, Da Jung’s real-life sightings of Lee Jae Ho were limited to him quickly passing through event venues or leaving the airport with his hat pulled low.

The longest she had seen him was during fan signing events, for the duration of signing… At that time, Lee Jae Ho was perfectly styled from head to toe, so his image was very different from now.

‘This is the first time I’ve seen him this natural.’

It’s unfamiliar. It felt as if this wasn’t the Lee Jae Ho Da Jung had known until now. And strangely, it also felt familiar.

A peculiar feeling, as if she had seen him from before he became the celebrity Lee Jae Ho. Especially those eyes, as if…

The shadow of some past, veiled like fog, flickered.

Even though it couldn’t be possible, she kept having strange thoughts.

‘How could I have known him from before!’

My brain has gone crazy today. That’s the conclusion Da Jung came to. How could Lee Jae Ho be personally familiar? Lee Jae Ho’s past was thoroughly veiled, with not even his high school known, but rumors starting from financial district gossip circulated that he was from a chaebol family.

Of course, the chaebol rumors were surely exaggerated, but for such rumors to circulate, it was obvious he must be from a fairly well-off family. So he probably graduated from the famous Wharton School. The tuition alone must have been no small sum.

He was such an amazing man.

Today was just like a dream, and because she had accidentally fallen into a strange country, she kept having these odd thoughts.

“There’s a good coffee machine here. In this pension.”

“Yes.”

Da Jung, more composed than before, awkwardly replied. Then she gradually widened her gaze to look around the entire living room. The houses were built with the same structure, so the interior was almost identical, but only the sofa was different.

Da Jung’s lodging had a deep yellow sofa, but here it was blue. She had the small thought that a single sofa could change the atmosphere of a house so much.

A coffee cup was placed in front of her eyes.

“I hope it suits your taste. It’s good beans.”

“Thank you.”

Da Jung picked up the cup and took a sip of coffee. As he said, the flavor was very good. A small smile appeared on her lips.

“Then shall we introduce ourselves now?”

“?”

“I’m Lee Jae Ho.”

As she put down the cup, a hand suddenly approached her. Da Jung’s eyes widened. Though she knew it was a light handshake, she couldn’t dare to respond readily. She felt like she might die from electric shock if she grabbed that hand.

The large, firm back of his hand and long fingers felt like they were tickling her bare skin. If just looking at it felt like this, what would happen if she actually grabbed it? Maybe her heart would burst out. Da Jung still wanted to live longer.

“What’s wrong? Is my hand embarrassing?”

“!”

Is, is that aegyo? That tone just now.

I’m going to faint…

Da Jung suddenly felt dizzy, like the day after drinking heavily. In the end, she carelessly stretched out her hand, grabbed his hand, and quickly greeted him.

“Y-Yoon Da Jung.”

She quickly withdrew her hand and hastily grabbed the coffee cup. She brought the cup to her mouth in a hurry and gulped down the coffee, not realizing it was hot. Her ears were getting hot. Probably because she drank something hot.

It was a common question among fans. Da Jung, who had said all sorts of things about holding hands, hugging, and even linking arms, was now barely able to breathe properly. Da Jung laughed hollowly at how pathetic she was.

“Yoon Da Jung.”

Unaware of Da Jung’s feelings, Jae Ho called that name quietly and smiled slightly.

“It’s a pretty name.”

“Ah, yes.”

“You’re pretty, Ms. Da Jung.”

“Yes, yes. Yes… What?”

As Da Jung was surprised, he laughed again. Strange. He wasn’t an actor who smiled this much. He had a strong cold and arrogant image, but his everyday self was so generous with smiles…

C-cu… Is it okay to think he’s cute?

“By the way, are you perhaps my anti-fan?”

When Da Jung remained silent, he asked seriously. Da Jung, who had been endlessly chattering inside, was shocked and gaped.

“You’re so quiet. I thought maybe you disliked me.”

An anti-fan? To herself, who prided on being in the top 1% of Lee Jae Ho’s devoted fans, an anti-fan?

She couldn’t say she was a fan, but she couldn’t not say it either. It was like sitting on pins and needles.

The reason she couldn’t say it was because she knew well that Lee Jae Ho was extremely averse to revealing his private life. The moment he knew she was an obsessive fan, Lee Jae Ho would be greatly uncomfortable.

Anyway, whatever she became, she could never be an anti-fan. She’d rather die than that.

“No. I think Lee Jae Ho is… a good actor.”

In the end, Da Jung answered strangely.

“That’s a relief. You weren’t smiling at all, so I thought you disliked me.”

“Ah, no! Absolutely not. How could I. I mean, I…”

As she waved her hands wildly and babbled, Lee Jae Ho just stared at her without any intention of stopping her. Da Jung thought about how ridiculous her hands flailing in the air must look.

“I mean… I don’t dislike Lee Jae Ho.”

Even a baby just learning to speak might speak more logically than this. Yoon Da Jung. What on earth are you saying…

“Yes. You don’t dislike me but don’t like me either. Well, most people are like that.”

Lee Jae Ho smiled a bit bitterly as he looked at the coffee cup. Why is his smile bitter? Did the fact that she neither disliked nor liked him make him bitter?

But she didn’t want to burden him with worries about exposing his private life, as they would have to face each other here for a while.

“I-I like you because you act well. I mean, as an actor.”

One or two questions came to mind. Whether there were any other schedules after the recent movie filming, how he ended up at this pension, if he came alone, how long he would stay… But Da Jung didn’t have the courage to ask all of these directly.

“I came because I needed a break. I’ve been working non-stop for nearly 3 years. I wanted a quiet place, and my manager found this place. I used to travel to Taean often.”

As if reading Da Jung’s mind, he spoke first. Da Jung unconsciously nodded and answered.

“Ah, yes. Since you just finished filming a movie recently…”

“How do you know that?”

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Da Jung’s heart, which had just barely started to calm down, began to race again. Her pounding heart seemed determined to either jump out of her body or sink into the ground.

Right. How do I know that? What should I say?

“Uh, I think I saw an article recently. An article.”

Now there was no more coffee to drink. Da Jung buried her gaze, which had nowhere to go, in the empty coffee cup and cursed herself inwardly.

“That’s strange. The release is still far off, so there shouldn’t be many articles. I don’t remember doing any interviews either.”

“Well, somehow just…”

A small laugh, “pfft,” was heard, and Da Jung slightly raised her head. Did she hear wrong? Lee Jae Ho just looked expressionless.

Or not. Is there a slight smile at the corner of his mouth? She couldn’t tell.

“I see. You could have found out somehow.”

He brushed it off as if it wasn’t a big deal. Da Jung inwardly sighed with relief. Fortunately, her heart was still attached to her body.

Meeting Lee Jae Ho like this…

She had never even dreamed of it. The most wonderful thought Da Jung had ever had was Lee Jae Ho remembering her name at a fan signing event. Of course, she knew it was an unrealistic thought. Still, one could dream.

‘But Lee Jae Ho has a good personality too.’

She was relieved that he wasn’t a man who only put on airs in front of the camera. She didn’t know he was such a considerate man to offer tea to someone he just met. She had thought he would have a moderately indifferent and cold personality.

To think he’s so kind while his eyes and body are completely that of a bad boy… Her heart was melting sweetly, but Da Jung suddenly became scared.

‘This isn’t something to be completely happy about…’

She didn’t want to be privately enchanted like this without any preparation. If this time prolonged, it was only a matter of time before she would like Lee Jae Ho the man, not Lee Jae Ho the celebrity. And that would be the most tragic event that could happen in Da Jung’s life.

‘Why put an unreachable man in my heart?’

She didn’t want to have a painful love. She was already sick of pain because there had been enough trials in her life. The reason she consistently rejected Kyung Mi’s blind dates was partly because of Lee Jae Ho, but in fact, it was more due to her defensive psychology of not wanting to give her heart to a man.

She didn’t even dare to start because she was afraid of the pain that would come after a breakup. Losing someone is as painful as having your heart torn apart.

The same goes for Lee Jae Ho. It was enough to just look at him as a fan, so Da Jung deliberately composed herself and maintained an expressionless face.

He said he came to rest, so it would probably be 2-3 days, at most a week. Although it would be uncomfortable for that period, seeing his picture-like face a few more times could be considered lucky. So it was something she just had to endure for a few days.

It’s not like she would be here with Lee Jae Ho for the entire month of her vacation, it’s just for a moment. After that, she would have time to empty herself entirely for herself…

“How long are you staying, Ms. Da Jung? I plan to stay for about a month.”

Jae Ho shattered Da Jung’s thoughts.