While the team members were growing curious about the romance between the two, Yura was pouring out her pent-up frustration unfiltered onto Lee Hyun.

“Why did you butt into the conversation and ruin the flow?”

“Were you planning to keep it a secret from the team members?”

“If possible, as much as I can. You said you wouldn’t let my face appear in the media anyway.”

Despite Yura’s reproach, Lee Hyun kept smiling as he looked around the office carefully and said nonchalantly as if his actions were no big deal.

“Those who should know already do. Even the president’s secretarial office knows of your existence. There’s no need to keep it secret and face resentment from the team members later.”

Yura felt irritated by Lee Hyun’s statement, which seemed like a cat caring for a mouse. She wondered why a busy person had to come all the way to the company to reveal that he was her marriage partner.

“Whether they hear it or not, that’s my problem.”

“I don’t like it.”

At Lee Hyun’s firm answer, Yura belatedly came to consider his position. Soon, her relationship with Lee Hyun would be revealed to the world. Yura knew there was no such thing as an eternal secret.

So the criticism or resentment that would be poured on her would go beyond a simple personal matter.

It could lead directly to criticism of CH. That wasn’t very pleasant for Yura either. After all, no one would feel good about others being criticized because of them.

Yura felt a bit sorry, thinking she might have been too sensitive, when Lee Hyun sat on the desk and spoke in a serious voice.

“I don’t like not being able to see my wife freely.”

For a moment, Yura blinked slowly, wondering if she had heard wrong. She wondered if this was really Baek Lee Hyun, who was casually using the word ‘wife’.

It was strange and unfamiliar to see him speaking as if he was the most domestic husband in the world while treating people with an icy demeanor.

Lee Hyun wasn’t considering that he would be pointed at because of her, but was taking issue with not being able to see her comfortably.

Yura couldn’t understand Lee Hyun’s behavior of acting like an affectionate couple. She found it difficult to comprehend why he thought that way, why he thought of coming to see her.

On the other hand, she felt afraid to pinpoint that part clearly. She didn’t want to face what Lee Hyun’s true feelings were. Somehow, she felt an ominous feeling that if she heard it, something would go terribly wrong.

“Ugh, that gave me goosebumps. Don’t use such words carelessly.”

Yura rubbed her arms and changed the subject.

“Then what should I call you? Do you like ‘honey’?”

“Don’t use that either!”

Conscious of the office staff, Yura gritted her molars and threatened in a low voice.

At some point, whenever she thought of the word ‘honey’, she felt a heat in her head. It seemed like a headache was spreading, and she felt a strange chill. Her whole body felt itchy.

Yura looked at Lee Hyun, who was still sitting on the desk, with a deeply furrowed face.

His faintly held smile was so attractive it was dazzling. The red lips shining in the hot midday sun drew an arc, and the more they did so, the more Yura felt thirsty.

“I think ‘honey’ is good.”

Lee Hyun let out a sly laugh as if he couldn’t give up, and again brought up the title that Yura was horrified by. Yura called Lee Hyun’s name with a serious face.

“Baek Lee Hyun. Call my name, my name. Let’s do as we’ve been doing. Please.”

“Yura.”

Yura unknowingly held her breath, wondering if her name had always been this sweet. Was it Lee Hyun’s voice that was the problem, or was it her ears? She couldn’t understand why the name she always heard now sounded so unfamiliar.

“Like this?”

Yura found it hard to look at Lee Hyun’s face, smiling with his eyes.

“Y-yes.”

As Yura turned her head away as if avoiding Lee Hyun’s gaze and bit her lips, a dark shadow fell over her face. Lee Hyun had closed the distance in an instant and was right in front of her nose. His head tilted slightly as if matching her eye level, throwing a sticky gaze.

“W-why are you doing this?”

Yura retreated step by step and stopped, blocked by the bookshelf. Lee Hyun, who had come very close to Yura, whispered softly.

“I like ‘honey’.”

Yura reached out and pushed his chest.

“Move. This is the company.”

Lee Hyun, who didn’t budge at all, gently grasped Yura’s hand that touched his chest.

The sensation of his touch on her fingers seemed to make her hair stand on end. Yura felt strange from this small contact, and felt dizzy as if seasick.

Her heart had been racing madly since earlier, and despite the cold wind still blowing, heat spread across her face. While she was looking for an absurd reason, wondering if the indoor temperature was too high, Lee Hyun stroked the back of Yura’s hand with his thumb.

At that sensation slowly caressing her, Yura felt like her heart would burst. She felt anxious that he might hear the pounding sound that was making her ears deaf. Yura felt her breathing getting faster and deliberately tried to hold her breath.

“I know. No one will come in.”

Startled by the whisper filled with intimacy, Yura urgently called Lee Hyun’s name.

“Baek…!”

Chu. With a sensual and sticky friction sound, Yura’s voice scattered helplessly.

On the day Lee Hyun proposed marriage, he had come close as if he would kiss her right away, but this was the first kiss with Lee Hyun.

No, she had never once imagined that a day would come when she would kiss Lee Hyun like this. His skillful leading movements and his hand around her waist felt so natural.

Yura felt her mind become distant from Lee Hyun’s breath digging deep.

It wasn’t her first kiss, but her mind went blank as if it was her first kiss. As if this is what a kiss is like. She should have pushed him away, telling him not to make such sudden contact, but the lips locked as if to swallow everything were maddeningly sweet.

Yura’s hand, which had reached out to push him away, had already fallen down helplessly. When Lee Hyun gently stirred inside her mouth, Yura trembled at the thrill that enveloped her whole body. In this unfamiliar world she was encountering for the first time, she fully accepted Lee Hyun’s kiss.

Sejin’s eyes, staring at the office building of Songrim Art Center, were filled with deep anger.

He felt thoroughly violated by the schemes of Baek Jin Ho and Jin Yura. Thinking that they had reassured people with the excuse of work while plotting an enormous scheme behind their backs made his hands tremble with rage.

On the morning when he was preparing to go to the practice room, Sejin heard shocking news from Jin Woo.

“Hyung, it seems Team Leader Jin Yura is getting married.”

“What?”

Startled, Sejin dropped the coat he was holding and urgently questioned.

“What are you talking about? Marriage? Where did you hear that?”

“I heard it when I went to Songrim. Seems like it’s with someone amazing. That’s all everyone’s talking about.”

If it was a conversation among Songrim employees, it probably wasn’t a lie. But she had been preparing for marriage without anyone knowing, completely secretly.

“Ha, is she really marrying that bastard?”

For a moment, madness flashed in Sejin’s eyes. He resented himself for not moving faster.

On the day they were together in the practice room, he had accidentally overheard Yura’s phone conversation mentioning marriage with Baek Lee Hyun. Her father, who found out belatedly, seemed to be furious. She didn’t express agreement, but that call had been bothering him all along.

When that matter turned out to be a fait accompli, Sejin was completely out of his mind. He mercilessly pushed off the red rose vase on the table decorated beautifully regardless of the season.

“H-hyung! Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Jin Woo rushed over at the loud shattering sound. Looking alternately at the messy floor and Sejin with worried eyes, he said,

“Let go of your lingering feelings now. Okay?”

“Shut up! What do you know.”

Sejin pushed away Jin Woo who was giving presumptuous advice and left the room, picking up the coat that had fallen on the floor.

“Hyung, where are you going? I’ll drive…”

Ignoring Jin Woo’s desperate plea, Sejin took the wheel himself and headed to Songrim. However, he couldn’t easily enter and was in the car, trying to subdue the boiling anger.

Yura had accompanied Sejin to his practice room only twice. He had been asked by President Baek Jin Ho to understand that Yura wouldn’t be able to accompany him to the practice room for a while.

The reason was that she was too busy with piled-up performance planning issues, but something felt off. However, he decided to endure it because it was said to be a work issue and she would only be unable to accompany him for a while.

It was unbearable to realize now that it wasn’t a work issue. Thinking about how he had been fooled by the words of the cunning Baek Jin Ho made his stomach churn.

Thinking he couldn’t just take this lying down, Sejin got out of the car and headed to the planning team. As he reached the elevator after passing through the lobby, he spotted Yura with the planning team staff in the elevator that had just arrived.

The first to greet among the other staff was Yura.

“Hello, Pianist Oh Sejin.”

“Hello, Team Leader Jin.”

The staff bowed politely and left first. Sejin didn’t hesitate to request a conversation with Yura.

“Could you spare a moment?”

“If you have something to say, I suggest you discuss it with the president.”

Yura clearly drew the line.

“Let’s talk, us two.”

Sejin stepped forward and whispered quietly.

“I have nothing to say.”

“Jin Yura.”

As Sejin slightly raised his voice as if he wouldn’t back down, Yura’s expression hardened slightly. He didn’t want to do it this way, but Sejin had no choice as she wouldn’t give him any room.

Yura said to Sejin as she headed out of the building.

“Then, let’s talk outside.”

Yura sat down with Sejin in a corner of the cafe where employees’ eyes couldn’t reach as much as possible.

The moment she saw him, Yura sensed that he had something to say about her marriage. And before she could even take a sip of her drink, Sejin asked the expected question.

“Are you really getting married?”

It wasn’t surprising as it was such an obvious question.

“Yes.”

“Yura, think again.”

Sejin’s reaction, not much different from last time, was amusing. She couldn’t understand why he was being so sensitive about her marriage issue with what right, in a relationship that had ended 5 years ago.

“Congratulate me. Then I’ll listen. If not, I’ll pass on unnecessary meddling.”

“Jin Yura. It’s all for you…!”

Unless he was completely thickheaded, he should understand by now. Yura coldly cut off Sejin’s words, which were just repeating the same thing.

“I said clearly. It’s not your business to meddle. Whatever results this marriage brings, it’s my judgment and my decision.”

Sejin spoke in a low voice, his eyes flashing as if threatening.

“You’ll regret it.”

At the word regret, Yura couldn’t help but laugh.

It sounded like he was saying he regretted abandoning her and choosing the piano back then. As she bit her lip as if it was ridiculous, a chilly voice flew in as a shadow fell over Yura’s head.

“If you continue here, you’ll be the one to regret it.”