A faint light emanating from the living room.

Gyeo Wool pressed her body tightly against the wall and only turned her head to look towards the living room.

The TV was left on. But with the volume completely lowered, no sound could be heard.

Lady Lee was sitting on the sofa.

The bowl placed on her thighs was filled with shriveled bellflower roots.

“If you bought these, you should have peeled them right away. Don’t you know how precious other people’s money is?”

It seems the previous helper had bought them but left them untouched without preparation.

Lady Lee grumbled while moving her hands busily.

“They’re all dried up, it’ll take hours to peel them.”

Hours?

Gyeo Wool had no choice but to return to the bedroom in frustration.

“Why?”

Tae Wook was curious about the reason Gyeo Wool came in empty-handed with slumped shoulders.

“The lady is peeling bellflower roots in the living room.”

“Is that so? Well, there’s nothing we can do. Don’t waste your energy on something that won’t work out.”

Tae Wook finished speaking and turned his body towards the bathroom.

It seemed he was planning to sleep wearing only a bathrobe, as he mentioned earlier.

“Sir…”

Gyeo Wool urgently grabbed his arm.

“Let’s… sleep together in the bed.”

[This is the timeline separator]

The bedroom dimly lit with lowered lighting.

Tae Wook tossed and turned, uncomfortable with his lying position.

As he did so, he could feel Gyeo Wool’s body next to him tense up with a slight jerk.

She was lying so close to the edge of the bed that it seemed she might fall off with the slightest movement.

Moreover, unlike Tae Wook who was tossing and turning, she was lying perfectly still without moving an inch.

She must be uncomfortable…

Though he was in bed, Tae Wook couldn’t fall asleep.

Having suffered from insomnia for a long time, he could accept not being able to sleep.

But the problem was that Gyeo Wool also couldn’t fall asleep.

How could he not know that the reason she couldn’t sleep was because of him?

The two people lying on opposite ends of the bed, leaving the middle empty.

But even with such a wide bed, they were still within reach of each other with just an outstretched hand.

“If you can’t sleep because of me, don’t worry. I won’t move a muscle.”

“It’s, it’s not like that.”

“Yeah, right.”

Tae Wook abruptly sat up.

Startled, Gyeo Wool flinched even more than before.

He, exasperated by her reaction, took the pillow he had been using and placed it between himself and her on top of the blanket.

“This should do it, right?”

Though crudely done, after creating a boundary, Tae Wook lay back down on the bed.

“It’ll be difficult, but try to sleep.”

“Yes. You should sleep too, sir.”

The two closed their eyes simultaneously.

While worrying if sleep would indeed come.

[This is the timeline separator]

Knock knock!

Knock knock!

The sound of someone knocking on a door repeatedly came from somewhere.

Who’s making such a racket knocking on the door?

Gyeo Wool frowned and struggled to lift her heavy eyelids.

A navy blue fabric appeared in her blurry vision.

Why was something like this in front of her eyes?

She tried to turn her body, still half-asleep.

Huh? What’s this…

A rhythmic breathing sound coming from above her head.

A broad and firm chest that rose and fell with each exhale and inhale…

Ch-chest?

Gyeo Wool’s eyes flew wide open in shock.

Good heavens!

“Mmph!”

She nearly let out a scream. She quickly closed her parting lips.

Gyeo Wool was in Tae Wook’s embrace.

No.

To be precise, she was hugging his waist.

She could clearly feel Tae Wook’s firm and warm body under her palms.

How did this happen?

She clearly remembered lying motionless like a corpse at the edge of the bed.

But had she crossed over the pillow boundary to Tae Wook’s side while sleeping?

And even hugged his waist at that.

There was no way she could recall what happened in her sleep, no matter how hard she tried to remember.

And that wasn’t the important thing right now.

She needed to get away from him without waking Tae Wook up.

She held her breath and slowly pushed her hips back.

The gap between Tae Wook’s body and her lower abdomen was gradually widening.

Now if she could just slightly lift her legs and pull them back…

Bang bang bang!

The sound of someone pounding on the door with their fist, not just knocking.

“Director Tae Wook! Young lady!”

Lady Lee’s booming voice penetrated through the door and echoed throughout the bedroom.

Of course, Tae Wook’s eyes snapped open.

It would be abnormal not to wake up to such a commotion.

“Secretary Han?”

Tae Wook looked down at Gyeo Wool, who was in an odd position with her hips pulled back.

“Don’t, don’t get any strange ideas. It’s, it’s just…”

“Would you mind removing your arm from around my waist first?”

Gyeo Wool removed her arm from Tae Wook’s waist at the speed of light.

Not only that, she abruptly got up and stood next to the bed.

In contrast, Tae Wook leisurely raised his upper body.

“I really wasn’t intentionally hugging you, sir.”

Gyeo Wool’s face turned as red as if it had been burned.

Her eyes wandered here and there, not knowing where to look.

Why aren’t you saying anything?

Gyeo Wool became anxious at Tae Wook’s silence.

It seemed as if he didn’t believe her words.

“I don’t know why I was like that either. I only realized when I woke up.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to simply say it’s a sleeping habit rather than explaining with many words?”

Tae Wook said as he got off the bed.

“A sleeping habit? No, I don’t have such a habit.”

Gyeo Wool even waved her hands in denial.

However, far from believing her words, Tae Wook…

“Then, I suppose it’s a sleeping habit Secretary Han doesn’t know about.”

Tae Wook recalled the time Gyeo Wool had fallen asleep on the sofa before.

At that time too, she had been hugging his waist tightly while sleeping.

He had thought it was strange behavior for someone who was always tense and trying to keep her distance from him.

Seeing it today, it seemed to be a sleeping habit.

“It’s not a sleeping habit, I’m telling you.”

“Whether it is or not, we’ll see later.”

Tae Wook gave a strange smile to Gyeo Wool, who looked almost wronged.

At that moment, the sound of knocking on the door again was heard along with Lady Lee’s grumbling voice.

“How many times did you build the Great Wall of China last night that you can’t wake up even when I’m calling?”

Lady Lee’s voice was far too loud for a self-mutter.

The Great Wall of China? How many times?

Gyeo Wool couldn’t help but understand what kind of imagination led Lady Lee to say such things.

“I’ll, I’ll go out and wash up. You should wash up and come out too, sir.”

Her face had turned the color of a ripe tomato, beyond just burning red.

“Pfft.”

As Gyeo Wool fled the bedroom, Tae Wook burst into laughter that he had been holding back until now.

“It’s fascinating.”

Tae Wook murmured with a smile still lingering at the corners of his mouth.

Surprise. Embarrassment. Indignation. Shyness…

How could Gyeo Wool display such a variety of emotions in such a short time?

For him, who had monotonous emotional colors, such diverse colors were simply fascinating.

He hadn’t even imagined that so many things were hidden beyond the ice wall Gyeo Wool had built.

Every time he encountered a new side of her, it was a series of surprises.

“You hid it so well.”

If they hadn’t met again, would he have lived thinking that the image of her he saw before was all there was to her?

While holding onto the past where he was hurt and angry at her, no less.

Tae Wook ran his fingers through his hair, disheveled from sleep, and looked around the bedroom.

How strange.

It was a view he saw every day, a space where he had slept and woken up for years.

Yet it felt like he was in a different place.

The empty feeling too.

Even the air that had been filled with loneliness was no longer felt.

Rather, it seemed to be filled with a warmth that made him want to linger here for a long time.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow morning. Gyeo… Wool.”

The moment Tae Wook changed how he called her name.

A ticklish, fluttery feeling spread throughout his body from his heart.

Why am I like this?

He placed his large hand over his heart, flustered.

An abnormally rapid heartbeat.

“This has never happened before…”

He couldn’t say he disliked the unfamiliar and awkward feeling, but Tae Wook frowned, furrowing his brows.

He had no idea what was causing this reaction in his body right now.

Especially since he had never even experienced a one-sided love before.

[This is the timeline separator]

As lunchtime was ending.

Gyeo Wool was about to enter the annex after eating lunch and brushing her teeth.

Her eyes met directly with Tae Wook, who was receiving documents from an employee.

Grin.

Tae Wook smiled, stretching his lips, then entered his office.

Gyeo Wool’s face turned bright red as she went to her desk.

Then she plopped down on her chair with a thud, still holding her toothbrush case.

“Why do you keep smiling? It’s distracting!”

Gyeo Wool grumbled into the air, upset.

She wanted to say it to Tae Wook’s face, but since she couldn’t, she had no choice but to grumble like this.

“He was doing it while eating lunch too… Please stop.”

What could be so amusing?

Tae Wook had worn an expression of finding everything hilarious whenever their eyes met while eating lunch.

Occasionally, he would chuckle to himself with a ‘heh!’ as if recalling what happened in the morning.

Gyeo Wool couldn’t tell if her lunch had gone down her nose or her mouth because she was so distracted by his laughter.

“Surely… it’s not really a sleeping habit, right?”

Though she had waved her hands in denial to Tae Wook, his words asserting it confidently were quite bothersome.

-It must be a sleeping habit Secretary Han doesn’t know about.

“I was so tense until I fell asleep.”

She doesn’t know how hard she tried not to move, lying perfectly still.

Yet despite such efforts, she had ended up sleeping while embracing him.

His waist, no less.

“Ah, I don’t know, I don’t know.”

Gyeo Wool shook her head vigorously, trying to forget the vivid morning scene that came to mind.

“Let’s work. Work.”

While focusing on work, she wouldn’t think about anything else, right?

Gyeo Wool opened her desk drawer to put away her toothbrush case.

And as she was about to close the drawer, a rectangular envelope labeled [Congressman Choi Min Wook’s Office] caught her eye.