As evening came, Se Hee began to prepare to head to the dinner venue.

Se Hee had packed quite a few outfits, knowing in advance that there were dress codes for parties held every night on the cruise ship and for each onboard restaurant.

But now that she was actually here, she felt like she had prepared too modestly.

Whether the people on this particular cruise ship were especially fancy, she couldn’t tell.

The blouse and H-line skirt she had brought for work, thinking a formal outfit would suffice for the dinner restaurant, now seemed utterly unwearable.

“Sigh. How would I have known without ever having been on a cruise before? I should’ve packed more dresses instead of swimsuits.”

Se Hee had no choice but to take out the pink evening gown she had been saving to wear to the event party she really wanted to attend.

A soft pastel pink dress.

She had impulsively bought it when it caught her eye at the department store, thinking it would suit an upscale restaurant well.

After putting on the dress, she finished her look with the pearl set she had received as a gift.

Having completed her preparations, Se Hee left her cabin and headed to the 21st floor lounge.

The top 21st floor housed a few VVIP cabins, the grand ballroom, and Francois, the most luxurious restaurant on this cruise ship.

Stepping out of the elevator, a spacious and beautifully decorated gallery space appeared.

Seeing this space for the first time, Se Hee’s eyes widened.

It was a gallery of a scale reminiscent of any famous art exhibition hall.

Seemingly works by renowned painters, lengthy biographies of the artists were displayed next to each exhibited painting.

Slowly walking while appreciating each piece, Se Hee stopped in front of a small painting hung at the end.

It was a painting that exuded a slightly different atmosphere from the works exhibited earlier.

The red and yellow hues blended so exquisitely that it even looked mysterious.

Se Hee felt as if she could sense a warm energy holding a faint longing from that work.

The piece hanging alone without any artist biography or introduction somehow looked even more poignant.

As she was deeply absorbed in appreciating the painting, someone called out to Se Hee.

“Se Hee.”

Turning around, she saw Seong Jae walking towards her in a splendid suit.

“Seong Jae?”

Seong Jae looked so different now from when he was in casual travel attire.

They say clothes make the man, and the well-dressed Seong Jae seemed to have even changed his gait, looking impeccable without a single flaw.

“I hurried, thinking you might come out early. I was right indeed.”

Seong Jae smiled gently.

“Would you grant me the honor of escorting the beautiful Se Hee?”

If it had been Seong Jae from Mykonos, it would have surely sounded like a playful remark, but the Seong Jae standing before her now exuded an elegant grace.

“Ah… Yes. Thank you.”

Se Hee couldn’t bring herself to refuse Seong Jae, who was politely extending his arm.

In the brief moment Se Hee was about to turn around holding his hand, Seong Jae felt someone’s intense gaze.

A sharp gaze that couldn’t be ignored.

Seong Jae turned his head slightly and met an eerily cold stare.

An unfamiliar man was glaring at Seong Jae intently.

As the man’s gaze intertwined with Seong Jae’s, a dangerous, invisible current of tension swirled.

But that energy, that look in his eyes somehow felt familiar.

Who was it?

It felt like an energy he had clearly encountered before.

A mysterious blend of Western and Eastern features.

But Seong Jae soon turned his head away.

What mattered now was Se Hee standing beside him.

* * *

Surely until yesterday, no, even this morning, he had received reports that she had gone on a shore excursion alone.

But now she was with a man who seemed close to her.

And he was Korean too.

Kyle became curious about her relationship with that man.

“What kind of…”

He blurted out without realizing.

Hearing that, Dave standing next to Kyle was momentarily flustered.

Dave had also witnessed the passenger from Room 1305 heading to the restaurant with an unfamiliar Asian man.

But it was unimaginable for Kyle to be distracted by something else before an important business meeting.

“…Yes. They are the representatives from the Mykonos hotel. As in the materials prepared for you in advance, those attending today are…”

Having made his decision, Dave began to explain in detail about the delegation waiting in the private room.

Kyle’s eyebrows twitched for a moment.

“…We’re late.”

Kyle hastily moved his steps.

The representatives from the other side, including their leader and working-level staff, had already arrived in the private room.

This meeting was just ahead of the final review of the Mykonos resort project explanation.

As Kyle arrived, the representative from the other side immediately stood up.

Having heard rumors about Kyle, who pushed forward like a bulldozer without giving the other side time to think with his meticulous preparation, even an experienced businessman with years under his belt couldn’t relax.

Not long after the meeting started, Dave was astounded.

The other side’s delegation was being overwhelmed by Kyle’s momentum far too much.

Kyle’s approach today was exceptionally aggressive.

Kyle, who usually skillfully led to compromises rationally and coolly, now wasn’t even giving the other side time to breathe.

The representatives from the other side were already pale, faced with Kyle’s unparalleled charisma pushing forward without an inch of concession.

The meeting ended in an instant.

At a point not even half of the planned time had passed.

“Please review the contents we’ve proposed once more and contact us. I hope you have a pleasant dinner.”

Wishing them a dinner that could absolutely not be pleasant, Kyle wrapped up the meeting with a cynical expression.

Only after Kyle had left his seat did sighs of relief finally burst out here and there.

“Sir, do you perhaps have any unofficial schedule after this?”

Dave, who had followed Kyle, cautiously asked.

“If my secretary doesn’t know my schedule, who would?”

Kyle asked sharply.

“Ah… Well, I was wondering if there was a separate reason you shortened the meeting time.”

“Time?”

Kyle checked his wristwatch.

As Dave said, it was easily half the time of a usual meeting.

His brow soon furrowed.

He thought he wasn’t paying any attention to her being with that unfamiliar man, but was that not the case?

Dave only tilted his head at the sound of Kyle’s small sigh.

* * *

Se Hee, Jung Yeon, and Seong Jae were leisurely enjoying an excellent dinner course.

But Seong Jae was unsettled by the gaze of the man he had encountered before entering.

“What’s wrong? Your expression has been odd since earlier?”

Jung Yeon couldn’t miss that.

“I saw a man on the way in, and he looked familiar somehow. Ah, no. It can’t be. It’s probably not him.”

“Why? Was he so strangely good-looking that you can’t forget him after seeing him just once?”

“My, my friend, why do you only have such negative thoughts? There are many men in this world far more handsome than that guy who went to Alaska, you know.”

Seong Jae said, narrowing his eyes.

“Then it’s the opposite? Where, where? If there’s such a man, you should have immediately confessed to this noona. You rascal.”

Jung Yeon looked around noisily.

Se Hee was reminded of Kyle at Seong Jae’s words.

If it was looks that would stand out even to men.

“Have you attended any events here?”

Unable to find the man Seong Jae mentioned no matter how much she looked around, Jung Yeon changed the subject and asked Se Hee.

“I attended the Cocktail Night once.”

Of course, an incident occurred so she couldn’t stay until the end…

Se Hee swallowed the latter part of her words.

“Ah… I skipped it since I don’t drink weak alcohol.”

Jung Yeon chuckled.

“This cruise ship really prepared a lot of various events and parties. Do you know about that? The wedding event?”

Se Hee tilted her head at Jung Yeon’s words.

It was an event she was hearing about for the first time.

“They hold the wedding that participants want through a lottery among the passengers. Real weddings for engaged couples, and virtual weddings for those just doing it for fun.”

Seong Jae added an explanation.

“Ah… There’s an event like that too?”

Se Hee’s eyes sparkled.

“You can wear a wedding dress by a super famous designer. And everything related to the wedding is provided by the cruise. Even though I’m not really interested in the partner, I participated because it’s an event I couldn’t miss.”

Jung Yeon said that while glaring at Seong Jae.

“What? I told you to write someone else’s name. You’re the one who insisted on writing my name.”

Seong Jae bristled, disliking Jung Yeon’s look.

“You have to write the applicant and their partner together. Would you like to enter too, Se Hee? If you choose me as your partner, it would truly be an honor.”

Seong Jae bowed his head and raised it again, giving a greeting like a medieval nobleman with a serious expression.

“Yes… I’ll think about it.”

Se Hee smiled brightly.

“Maybe because the price of the wedding dress is astronomical, it seems like everyone applied even if they’re not couples, just to try on that dress. I think the entry boxes are already full.”

“Really? I really didn’t know. I thought I was looking up information pretty hard.”

Se Hee cutely shrugged her shoulders.

“Oh my goodness! It’s unthinkable to go on a cruise trip without such information. First, tonight…”

And so Jung Yeon explained in more detail to Se Hee about the various parties and events taking place on the cruise ship.

Seong Jae earnestly expressed his highly subjective opinions about them from the side.

The three of them didn’t even notice the dinner time getting longer because the time spent together was so enjoyable.

After spending a pleasant time with the two of them and parting ways with them as they headed to today’s event party, Se Hee slowly made her way to the gallery.

She was reminded of that painting she had seen before going to the restaurant.

She thought she could calmly appreciate the painting alone at leisure now, when there would be no people around.

Thinking there would be no one here at this late hour, she came, but there was someone who had arrived at the gallery before Se Hee.

It was that person Se Hee knew.

“Mr. Graham?”

Se Hee called out to him in a welcoming voice.

But he seemed too absorbed in appreciating the painting to hear Se Hee’s voice.

As she slowly approached his side, which hadn’t moved at all, the painting he was appreciating came into view.

It was that painting Se Hee had also taken notice of, and had come back to see again.

Se Hee gazed at him, deeply immersed in appreciating the painting.

He was just standing there, but even that pose was perfect.

As Se Hee took one more step closer, Kyle’s gaze finally turned to Se Hee, sensing her presence.

But Kyle’s gaze looking at Se Hee seemed rather dry.

“You seem to like this painting. I really like it too. When I first came to the gallery in the evening, I couldn’t leave from in front of this painting for a while, you know?”

Excited that Kyle was also interested in the painting she had taken notice of, Se Hee shared her impressions of the painting, unaware that his gaze had turned cold.

“It was smaller than the other paintings and not in a good location, but strangely I couldn’t just pass by it. An attraction, you could say? It’s a painting that makes you feel at ease, warm, and in a good mood while looking at it.”

Though he hadn’t asked, Se Hee’s expression as she spoke about the painting with a bright smile was filled with sincerity.

Warm and at ease?

Perhaps that sincerity was conveyed, as Kyle’s cold gaze looking at Se Hee gradually softened.

“But, the other works had the artist’s biography introduced, while this work didn’t have any introduction about the artist.”

Se Hee said, seeming curious.

“Because it wasn’t a renowned artist.”

Kyle’s voice flowed low.

“Do you know the artist?”

Kyle quietly nodded at Se Hee’s question.

“Oh… So they were an acquaintance. What kind of person were they? From what I feel from the painting, the artist seems like they would be a warm and nice person too.”

Se Hee smiled brightly.

For a moment, something like a resonance was transmitted to Kyle’s heart.

The small resonance was now gently spreading its ripples of vibration in Kyle’s chest.

Flustered by this unfamiliar feeling, Kyle turned his gaze back to the painting to hide his expression.

He had met quite a few Koreans so far, but not a single one gave him the same feeling as Se Hee.

“What do you think of this painting, Mr. Graham?”

This time Se Hee asked.

Kyle’s deep eyes like the abyss slowly turned to Se Hee.

“…I like it.”

Kyle’s languid voice seemed to blow into Se Hee’s heart like an untimely spring breeze.

He was clearly talking about the painting, but perhaps because of his gaze directed at her, Se Hee’s heart fluttered strangely.

Se Hee’s cheeks quickly turned a rosy pink.

Then, suddenly, an utterly unexpected provocative question flew from Kyle.

“…So, was the date enjoyable?”