Boiling Desire (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 10
Ha Joon found the moment of sharing a blanket with Seo Ah more painful than it was for her.
The heat that had instantly pooled in his lower abdomen the moment he lay down on the bed.
Should he have drunk more wine? Should he have kissed her longer earlier?
Recalling his kiss with her made him feel even more strained, and he let out a deep sigh inwardly.
Had about two hours passed like this?
Seo Ah, who usually slept easily, instantly fell asleep, while Ha Joon, who suffered from insomnia, kept tossing and turning until he finally sat up.
“Huh? Madam.”
Seok Hoon had just sent the doctor away when he found Seo Ah.
“W-what’s wrong?”
Seo Ah asked, forcing her trembling body to calm down as she stepped into the study one foot at a time, praying it wasn’t the situation she feared.
Seok Hoon hesitated briefly. Ha Joon hated having his personal matters shared with others, and this certainly wasn’t good news—if he told the truth, Ha Joon would definitely be furious…
“Well… um…”
He had never made this kind of mistake before—not once—and never even imagined he would, precisely because Ha Joon was the sort of person who demanded perfection even in minor things, and thus would hate others knowing even more. Yet Seok Hoon chose to tell the truth.
“Young Master forgot he’d drunk wine and apparently took his sleeping pills on top of it. In fact, he took more than his usual dose, causing temporary breathing difficulties.”
Insomnia stemmed from emotional distress, and Seok Hoon hoped Seo Ah could heal him with the power of love—seeing how Ha Joon had changed recently made him feel it might actually happen.
“Whaaat?”
Seo Ah immediately entered the study, and Seok Hoon followed her in.
“He’s now received a sedative and fallen asleep, so you don’t need to worry.”
“Are you sure he’s really okay?”
A single tear rolled down Seo Ah’s cheek from her wide eyes.
Seok Hoon’s heart softened warmly. It was a happy thing to have someone who’d cry for you when you’re unwell. He became certain Ha Joon’s insomnia would soon improve.
“Of course.”
“But… if he’s unwell, shouldn’t we move him to his room? Sleeping here…”
“Ah… I’m sorry, but I can’t carry Young Master… and if we move him now, we might disturb the sleep he finally managed to get.”
Seo Ah pouted slightly, her eyes brimming with tears as she looked back and forth between Seok Hoon and Ha Joon.
Their size difference really was extreme. Why hadn’t they brought him to the bedroom together when the doctor was here? There were plenty of other rooms—maybe she should suggest moving him herself right now? But since he’d only just fallen asleep, she decided she should quickly turn off the study light instead.
Though he knew he shouldn’t think this way, Seok Hoon found Seo Ah’s gaze shifting between him and Ha Joon rather adorable.
Now he understood why Ha Joon had rushed into marriage. Even waking up mid-sleep, she looked lovable—no wonder the once stoic, stern Ha Joon had started smiling more often.
“Ahem, then I’ll take my leave now.”
“W-wait!”
Seo Ah whispered softly as she checked on Ha Joon.
“Secretary Kim, just in case… could you sleep in the first-floor room tonight?”
“Oh, yes. Of course. Please contact me immediately if anything happens.”
“Thank you.”
Once Seok Hoon closed the study door and left, Seo Ah immediately turned off the lights.
She then sat huddled on the floor beside the table next to the sofa where Ha Joon lay.
He looked so healthy—like someone who wouldn’t bleed even if pricked with a needle—but it seemed one shouldn’t judge people by appearances alone.
She hadn’t realized insomnia could be this frightening. Feeling guilty, she wondered if Ha Joon had drunk alcohol and taken extra pills because she’d insisted on sleeping together, making him anxious.
Ha Joon’s eyes snapped open from deep sleep. Glancing at the clock on the study wall, he saw it was already 6 a.m.—too late for his workout.
“Haaah…”
He sighed deeply and recalled what had happened a few hours ago.
After taking his pills, he’d fallen asleep, only to suddenly wake up gasping for breath. Though startled, he calmly picked up his phone and called Seok Hoon. Unable to speak and only wheezing, Seok Hoon must have understood and brought a doctor…
Trying to figure out why this had happened so abruptly, he sat up—
And something caught under his foot.
Seo Ah was curled up asleep on the floor.
Startled, Ha Joon checked her condition. She seemed to be breathing normally and didn’t appear feverish—had she really slept here?
He scooped her up and carried her to her room.
Carefully laying her on the bed, he covered her with a blanket. She slept so soundly without even stirring—thinking she’d stayed up worrying about him made his chest ache.
Before he realized it, he gently kissed her round forehead—then, shocked by his own action, he flinched and hurriedly left the room.
As soon0 as he closed the door, he immediately called Seok Hoon.
Instead of answering, however, he heard someone coming upstairs from the first floor. Thinking it might be Yeon Suk, he was surprised to see it was Seok Hoon.
“Are you feeling alright?”
“Secretary Kim, you’re still here?”
“Madam asked if I could sleep in the first-floor room, worried about you.”
“Oh, right. But… why did that happen to me?”
Seok Hoon glanced around. It was almost time for the house staff to arrive.
“Let’s go inside the study first.”
Ha Joon walked into the study, and Seok Hoon followed.
Lowering his voice significantly, Seok Hoon spoke.
“You really don’t know?”
Seok Hoon had assumed Ha Joon surely knew—understood what he’d done wrong. Though he’d made a mistake, he thought Ha Joon would have realized it quickly on his own.
“You drank wine last night and took more pills than usual…”
“Oh. The wine…”
Ha Joon felt as if he’d been struck on the head with a hammer. How could he have made such a basic mistake?
Normally, Ha Joon rarely fell ill, and even when he did, his pride kept him from showing it. Strict with himself in everything—health, studies, work—he never tolerated even the slightest error.
He’d never considered insomnia an illness; becoming the heir of a major conglomerate naturally meant sacrificing sleep. Taking sleeping pills was merely a necessity to ensure he could function well the next day.
But last night…
It was all because of Seo Ah. His mind had been so preoccupied with her every little action that this happened. If he hadn’t gone downstairs looking for her, he wouldn’t have thought to drink wine at all.
Whenever he was with her, he turned into a fool—making mistakes he’d never normally make, becoming unlike himself.
“Haaah…”
Ha Joon sighed deeply and splashed water on his face.
“Did Seo Ah… see everything? She was sleeping here.”
“She left right after your emergency treatment, once you’d fallen asleep.”
“She didn’t say why she stayed, did she?”
Before Ha Joon even finished speaking, Seok Hoon lowered his head.
“I’m sorry.”
Ha Joon’s pupils trembled in confusion and panic. Could it be that Seok Hoon—Seok Hoon, who knew him better than anyone, his secretary whose duty was to protect his boss’s dignity—had told someone else?!
“She was so worried she even cried—I couldn’t help but tell her the truth.”
Just as Ha Joon was about to lash out, the word “cried” made him flinch—he swallowed the words already rising in his throat.
“She cried?”
“Yes. Big, chicken-tear-sized drops kept falling.”
Seok Hoon recalled Seo Ah’s teary eyes from just hours ago. Not telling her the truth then would have made him feel truly heartless.
“Please be more careful next time. Seo Ah isn’t an exception.”
No—there shouldn’t even be a “next time.” He needed to regain his composure. He couldn’t let a woman ruin himself.
Seo Ah, who usually slept deeply, drifted off completely, thinking she’d wake up early to make porridge for Ha Joon.
When she opened her eyes, she was confused to find herself in bed instead of on the study floor. Had it all been a dream?
She immediately went to the study, but Ha Joon wasn’t there. The house felt too calm—as if nothing had happened.
At her own home, if someone fell ill, the place would be chaotic for two days, with everyone bustling about to care for the patient. Wasn’t breathing difficulty a serious, life-threatening situation?
Suddenly, she remembered Seok Hoon’s last words.
– “Please keep this absolutely confidential from others—and don’t let Young Master know you found out. He’s very proud and hates being seen vulnerable, especially since this happened due to a mistake of his own.”
People make mistakes sometimes. They get sick sometimes. Was that really something to be proud about?
Though she didn’t have morning classes, she still needed to leave home early—she and Ha Joon were heading to Jeju Island tomorrow for a two-night, three-day trip, and she didn’t have much time left to study for exams.
Still, since it seemed Ha Joon’s condition was largely because of her—because he’d been worrying about her—she felt she had to do something.
That night,
Ha Joon arrived home after work—and the moment he opened the front door, an unfamiliar scent made him flinch.
Yeon Suk and the housekeepers said Seo Ah had sent them home early again, and as expected, Seo Ah was nowhere to be seen.
As he walked upstairs, the fragrance grew stronger.
Entering the bedroom, whose door was wide open, he found department store bags scattered across the floor and the table stacked with herbal teas and diffusers.
Even a quick glance confirmed they were all items known to help with insomnia—the very things Seo Ah must have bought from the department store that morning.
“Haaah…”
Ha Joon sighed deeply, walked into the dressing room, and roughly undid his suffocating tie, quickly removing his accessories by himself.
Doing things alone was this fast—yet whenever he did them with Seo Ah, everything slowed down and he fumbled awkwardly. He resolved to just handle everything himself from now on.
He was quickly unbuttoning his shirt down to his chest—
Crash!
Startled by the sudden sound from outside, Ha Joon’s eyes widened.
Without hesitation, he hurried toward the noise.
Assuming it came from the study, he flung the door open—and the sight inside was shocking.
Glass shards were scattered everywhere, and in the center sat Seo Ah, looking up at him with tear-filled eyes.
Worried she might be hurt, he immediately checked her hands and feet—and sure enough, blood was dripping from her right index finger.
“What are you doing!”
His booming voice startled Seo Ah, making her flinch.
“I-I’m sorry! P-please don’t come closer—you’ll get hurt!”
As Seo Ah reached again for another glass shard with her bleeding hand, Ha Joon had already stepped forward, grasped her slender wrist, and pulled her away from the broken glass.
He hastily grabbed some tissues and tightly wrapped her finger to stop the bleeding while scanning the room.
It turned out a glass cup had broken—one that hadn’t been in his study before. His eyes moved upward to see a thermal carafe on the shelf. She must have brewed the insomnia-relief tea he’d seen earlier in his room and brought it here to keep it warm for him.
“O-oww…”
Her whimper made Ha Joon flinch. He turned to look at her.
Seeing her pouting with tear-filled eyes made his heart drop like a stone.
If only he’d gone straight to his room instead of searching for her in the study, she wouldn’t have gotten hurt.
If only he’d simply asked her to help him with his clothes as usual…
No—better yet, if he hadn’t made that mistake last night, Seo Ah wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble in the first place!
In that moment, his resolve to stay calm completely crumbled.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
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Girl…. lol. How? She’s so comfortable. Haha. In a deep sleeper too but this? I’m giving the crown to her. Haha 🤣
I’m cackling…. Hahaha 😂 He better be pretending to sleep. Hahaha… I can’t imagine this. Lmfao.
I’m feeling giddy imagining all of this too. lol. Who wouldn’t?