His tilted gaze looked at Da Hae. A quiet worry rippled in his pitch-black eyes.

“The seasons return.”

A man accustomed to hiding his emotions.

“The seasons we’ve experienced are over. No two summers are exactly the same.”

A woman whose defense mechanism is denial of emotions.

Adept at turning away, but infinitely inexperienced in sharing. It was a kind of trauma.

Like how the experience of nearly drowning makes one reluctant to dive later.

If the dam breaks, they will eventually be swallowed by the endless depths below.

So we thought we should keep to our parallel lines. That we were people who should go our separate ways without intersecting.

So, this is where it should rightly end.

That’s what we thought.

Darkness had fallen deeply. The row of streetlights all lit up at once. The heavy silence continued for a while.

Hmm… The man stared into space, his throat rumbling low. His decision ended the stillness.

“Let’s end the contract here.”

Da Hae said she would do as he wished. That’s right.

Since they had already achieved their ultimate goals, there was no reason to maintain the contract.

The melted Melona stuck stickily to her palm, formless. Like lingering attachments rooted in the abyss.

“The documents-”

“Let’s end the contract here.”

Cutting off her words, Jae Kyung lowered the plastic bag he was holding to the ground.

His now-free hands gently cupped the face of the woman who was looking away. Two gazes of different heights turned toward each other.

“Let’s date. Us.”

“…”

Her small brow furrowed deeply. Slightly parted lips and slowly blinking eyes.

For someone who had just been confessed to, her reaction was utterly bland. She looked a bit broken.

Thinking how Kye Da Hae-like it was to be overthinking even at a moment like this, Kang Jae Kyung chuckled.

At last, a sigh like a breath escaped. It was an indescribable kind of relief. Kye Da Hae felt relief. Then suddenly her throat tightened.

To hide what would surely be an awkward expression, she bit her lip, and one of the hands caressing her face moved to the top of her head.

“Remember the unicorn?”

The day she went to Kang Jae Kyung’s house over the wedding ring incident.

‘They should have some brains. And quite a bit of wealth. Their looks should be decent enough. Apart from family background, they should have potential. And of course, good character is a given,’

The conditions Kang Jae Kyung had listed in response to the trick question of whether just anyone would do.

‘Such a person only exists in legends. Like a unicorn.’

Kye Da Hae’s answer to that.

“That’s me. The legendary unicorn.”

His handsome face smiling was enough to make it feel unreal. As much as a unicorn would.

Da Hae let out a small laugh and retorted playfully.

“…Tch. What confidence.”

She felt like she might die with her heart beating so fast. It felt like all the blood was draining from her toes.

Some dark place, whether in her stomach or throat, was tingling, making Da Hae chew on her innocent lips.

The man gently urged her on. Patting her head or pressing her cheeks with the fingers cupping them.

Da Hae, who had been lost in thought alone with her hair ridiculously spiked by static and lips like a carp’s, slowly began to speak.

Her pronunciation was muffled by her rounded lips.

“…People always part ways eventually.”

A woman who vowed never to create another being to part with due to the trauma of losing family.

“We’ll think about that when the time comes.”

A man who habitually distrusts others after growing up under family scrutiny.

“That’s irresponsible.”

A woman too deeply scarred by loss to give herself to another, and

“I’ll take responsibility. For everything.”

A man who craves love but cannot trust people.

“…So.”

They faced each other firmly at the turning point of their relationship.

In the realm of streetlights that seemed impenetrable.

Scattering the silence so quiet even breaths seemed muted, a low voice settled calmly.

“Give me a chance.”

Hm? Raising his eyebrows, he urged an answer while lightly shaking his broad shoulders.

Mismatched aegyo made her pale face frown before breaking into a “pfft” laugh. Then Kang Jae Kyung, bending at the waist, laughed like a breath.

Da Hae primly crossed her arms and muttered as if to herself, staring into the distance. Let’s see, should I or shouldn’t I. Pretending to think deeply.

“Let me think about it?”

“Huh?”

Kang Jae Kyung let out a small laugh. As if to say, see?

Da Hae took a few confident steps, saying they should eat first, but her body rebounded greatly before she could take more than a few steps.

By the time she realized the arm wrapped around her waist, she was already held deep in a firm embrace.

The whole process happened in an instant, without time to be surprised.

Kang Jae Kyung’s face filled her widened vision. Hot breath pouring over the bridge of her nose. Slowly rising eyelids as he traced her lips.

“Close your eyes. I’m going to kiss you.”

As if he never intended to hear an answer, he impatiently pressed his lips to hers.

The warmth moving from her upper lip to her lower lip hotly split the closed seam.

Their mingled breaths tasted of Melona. Sweet and cool, an addictive taste that never gets old no matter how much you eat.

Her slender arms naturally wrapped around the back of the man’s neck. As if not wanting to let go of what she had left to melt in her grasp.

The convenience store front was bustling with people heading home. Their gazes naturally turned to the two.

That night at the end of summer, feeling drunk without a drop of alcohol. That day when they were soaked in each other alone.

Da Hae decided to be fooled.

By that sweetness she didn’t want to refuse.

* * *

On pure white bedding. The man with his arm folded under his head stared at the ceiling with a colorless face.

A single ray of light that had seeped through the slightly parted curtains stretched long across his body.

In the full day that had passed, Pil Seung had neither slept nor eaten. All he did was move his eyelids from his lying position.

“…Who could it be.”

The carefully prepared plan had vanished without a trace.

It shouldn’t be like this. At the end of the countdown, fireworks should explode or a bell should ring, what was hoped for should happen.

When it’s ruined so desolately like this, the disappointment is immense.

On the day of the shareholders’ meeting, Samyung Entertainment’s main server should have been hijacked.

Considering the time, money, and sincerity spent to recruit someone capable of that. Something should have happened.

What could it be… Who. How.

His clenched teeth ground together with a chilling sound.

How did they know?

He learned only after everything was over that an emergency task force had been formed the day before the shareholders’ meeting due to server issues.

Even if information had leaked, wouldn’t the time have been woefully insufficient to respond?

Thanks to the yet unidentified rat, the champagne he should have popped went to Kang Jae Kyung instead.

Deciding to deal with finding the meddler later since it would be no trouble, Pil Seung unfolded his arm from under his head and grasped his phone.

An old-fashioned flip design. A clean, so-called burner phone.

Connecting to the number dialed multiple times, he opened the device wide and laid it by his ear.

“It’s Pil Seung. Do one more job.”

The other party asked what was needed.

Money is so good. Because it can so easily obtain the means to ruin someone.

His lowered eyelids closed completely before slowly opening. His expressionlessly closed lips curved into a smile, revealing interest.

What’s needed.

“A person with no ties, desperate for money.”

I’m going to push them away. Anything that interferes. No matter who.

“Someone I can communicate with. Hmm, open-minded? …You understand?”

The other party showed no signs of being flustered at the strange order. They only replied that they would look into it, along with saying it might take some time.

After ending the call, Pil Seung got up for the first time in a full day. He stretched, cracking his neck left and right, and drew back the curtains.

“I should return the favor.”

His light brown eyes, absorbing the pouring sunlight, shone brightly.

“With something really spectacular.”

* * *

Da Hae’s hands were full.

In one hand, a large bag containing stacked boxes of donuts. In the other, a shopping bag with a lunchbox.

After barely managing to park in the crowded underground parking lot, Da Hae came up to the lobby and approached the front desk. The employee asked her business.

“Um, I can’t reach them, so could you hold onto this for me?”

When she showed what she was holding, the receptionist handed her a form. Asking her to leave information about who would pick it up and her own identity.

Setting down her bundle of packages on the floor and taking the form, Da Hae scratched her temple with the back end of the pen.

This place where Team Leader Kye was classified as an outsider. Samyung Entertainment’s office building.

Even though it wasn’t lunchtime yet, there was a lot of movement from employees wearing ID badges.

The many donuts she bought were to be delivered to the development team in return for macarons.

The reason she came in person instead of using a quick service was because of the embarrassingly homemade lunchbox.

She had planned to just call Kang Jae Kyung to the parking lot to hand it over and leave quickly, but he was unreachable, probably in a meeting, so she ended up coming inside.

The homemade lunchbox, something she’d never done before, was the product of a bet.

The game was naming capital cities. They started saying it was childish, but as they played, their competitive spirits ignited.

The man who finally claimed victory demanded a handmade lunch.

When she told him not to be ridiculous and to ask for something else, he boasted that with his wealth and fame far exceeding hers, what could he possibly want from her, so he’d ask for something money couldn’t buy.

When he acted generous, saying if she didn’t like that she could pay with her body instead, he was so lewd.

Choosing the lunchbox was half out of spite.

Kye Da Hae, who does everything earnestly, woke up at the crack of dawn and even looked up videos to make something resembling cooking. It was a time of endurance.

The pen that had been spinning between her fingers stood its tip up and filled out the form.

− Employee: Kang Jae Kyung

− Department: CEO

− Visitor: Kye Da Hae

− Contact: 010-2xxx-xxxx