Fake Dating - Chapter 32

“I’ll ask just one more time, answer properly. Then I’ll forgive what happened earlier.”

“…What is it?”

“If it wasn’t me but someone else…, would it have been possible? The kiss?”

“Someone else…?”

So Yi blinked her eyes. Her black, round irises shone transparently.

As if enchanted by that light, Si Heon’s gaze, which had been looking at So Yi’s eyes, slowly traveled down the bridge of her nose. It soon stops on her small, plump lips.

Red. It’s a red I want to possess.

Neither too dark nor too faint, appropriately red and vivid lips.

So Yi’s lips, which seemed to hold all the vitality, flushed red, were right before his eyes.

At a precarious distance, Si Heon fixed his gaze on So Yi’s lips and asked again.

“Answer.”

“No. Actually… I kissed you because it was you, CEO…”

Before So Yi could finish speaking, Si Heon’s lips devoured her small, plump lips in one swoop.

Si Heon, who doesn’t like sweet things, had never eaten a marshmallow, but he had held one in his hand before.

He was curious about what the soft, squishy thing would taste like in his mouth, but since he usually avoided foods that weren’t good for his body, he had never eaten one.

Why did he feel like he knew the taste even though he had never eaten it?

So Yi’s soft, plump lips were sweet like a marshmallow.

As someone had said, once you start tasting it, you can’t stop and keep eating, it was maddeningly sweet.

Thinking he might lose his senses at this rate, Si Heon painfully pulled his lips away.

Si Heon gently brushed his thumb over So Yi’s lips, now even more flushed red.

“Why… did you kiss me?”

So Yi asked, blinking her surprised eyes.

“You said you missed me. A service for saying pretty words.”

Suddenly, Si Heon’s words from some time ago came to mind.

‘If you pretend to date me for a month, I’ll give you a kiss as service occasionally.’

“Ah…”

Si Heon slowly raised his body and reached out his hand to So Yi, who was looking up at him with a dazed expression.

“Get up.”

So Yi slowly took his hand.

“We have to go on a date.”

Her lips still felt burning hot as if scalded by fire.

The thump of her fallen heart echoed to the top of her head, leaving her dazed, but her legs moved, pulled along by Si Heon who held her hand.

His words about it being a service made her heart sting, but she still felt happy.

Her heart was melting into a pink hue from the warmth of Si Heon’s body temperature transmitted through their interlaced fingers.

Upon returning home, So Yi was still preoccupied with calming her pounding heart.

The CEO had become strange. He held her hand throughout the entire drive. Even though no one was watching.

It was the same earlier. After not contacting her for days, he kissed her with a pleased expression.

‘If it wasn’t me but someone else…, would it have been possible? The kiss?’

At first, she didn’t know what he meant, but then she remembered answering that it was acting when he suddenly kissed her last week.

Could it be jealousy?

Holding onto a thread of hope, she answered honestly.

‘No. Actually… I kissed you because it was you, CEO…’

But he devoured her lips before she could finish speaking.

She was confused. What did it mean?

To throw out words like jealousy, listen to her answer, and then immediately kiss her again.

So Yi, who had barely collected herself, mustered up the courage to ask. Why did he kiss her?

‘You said you missed me. A service for saying pretty words.’

Foolishly, her heart fluttered again at those words.

Though it was just a service-level kiss for him, she was simply happy that he said her words were pretty.

This is why I can’t help falling for him.

Someone might say I’ve lost my mind, but just kissing him made me feel as happy as if I owned the whole world.

“I’m so naive. Even after hearing that…”

Wall guilt, levels. Despite hearing all sorts of strange words, I’m crazy about him.

Even though he probably kissed me without any feelings at all.

It’s too late to give up now; his kisses were too sweet.

Maybe… I’ll just fall a little bit longer like this.

Other people like celebrities they have no hope with. They love celebrities who never even glance at them or hold their hand.

It’s only for a short while anyway. Can’t I just immerse myself in this sweet happiness during the contract period without thinking of anything else?

It might be a bit painful and hard. But I’m so happy right now that I just can’t stop.

I know better than anyone that there’s nothing but a dead end at the end of this road I’m on, but I can’t stop. Because the path I’m on is too sweet.

Intoxicated by the sweet scent, not knowing where I’m going, I just want to go a little further like this. I hate myself for feeling this way.

So Yi let out a deep sigh as she stroked her still rapidly beating heart.

Last night, there was an internet outage at some small business stores in Siheung City.

As a result, card payments and POS machines, as well as app orders, were not working, and So Yi was busy without a moment’s rest due to the complaints.

By the time she had finally finished processing the compensation claims for the affected business owners, it was nearing the end of the workday.

“You said you’re not going on a date with the CEO today, right?”

Hye Na asked as So Yi was turning off her computer and tidying up her desk.

“Yeah, he said he had an important appointment today. He was going to meet with directors from the company he used to work for.”

“Then how about a drink with me?”

So Yi laughed as Hye Na made a gesture of drinking alcohol with her hand.

“Okay, let’s go.”

After work, So Yi headed to a restaurant near the company with Hye Na.

“You left home?”

So Yi asked with surprised eyes at Hye Na’s words while they were drinking.

“Yeah, my dad was trying to set me up on another blind date. The guy is forty. So I just left home.”

“Then where are you staying?”

“Chahan Hotel.”

“You should have come to my place.”

Hye Na replied playfully to So Yi’s words.

“I have some sense. You don’t go burden someone who has a boyfriend.”

There’s absolutely no need to be considerate like that. So Yi asked with a bitter smile.

“Then what are you going to do from now on?”

“Sigh, I don’t know either.”

Hye Na grumbled as she filled the glass in front of her with alcohol.

“Why don’t you try dating? Tell your father you want to have a love marriage.”

“If he was the type to accept that, I would have done it already. If I even try to get a boyfriend, my dad immediately goes to find him and says all sorts of nasty things. Who could stay by my side?”

At Hye Na’s story about her father saying all sorts of nasty things, So Yi suddenly remembered meeting Si Yeon.

Someone should give me an award for enduring by the CEO’s side despite hearing such nasty things.

So Yi muttered to herself as she accepted the drink Hye Na poured.

“But why are you in a bad mood? Did you fight with the CEO?”

Hye Na carefully asked, noticing So Yi’s expression suddenly darkening.

So Yi just smiled awkwardly and shook her head.

We didn’t fight, but I wish we had. If we had fought, we could talk it out and resolve it.

But that’s not it for me.

I’m anxious and uneasy about a relationship with a visible end, but I can’t see any other way, and that’s even more painful.

“What’s this. You’ve been sighing all day. It wasn’t because of the compensation processing?”

Hye Na asked, narrowing her eyes.

That was true. All day long, while handling the flood of complaints at the customer service center, her mind was entirely elsewhere.

The gentle touch caressing her cheek. The warm breath. The passionate kiss.

She kept feeling greedy and reluctant to let go.

“Really? Did you actually fight?”

As So Yi’s expression grew more bitter, Hye Na tilted her head.

“What happened? Tell me.”

“We didn’t fight… I’m scared. That I keep liking him more and more.”

“Who? The CEO?”

“Yeah… I’m scared I’ll fall too deep.”

So Yi murmured, staring down at her empty glass.

“What are you scared of? Isn’t it good to like someone more and more?”

So Yi chuckled at Hye Na, who was chattering excitedly.

“Instead of worrying about that, it would be better to honestly confess even one more time – I miss you, I like you, I love you. I can’t do that even if I want to.”

Hye Na picked up the bottle and refilled So Yi’s glass.

“I didn’t know I’d be like this either. I think I finally understand what it means when they say you’re just as scared when you really like someone.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never liked someone that much before.”

Hye Na held out her glass, saying she envied even that painful feeling, whatever it was that was troubling So Yi.

So Yi silently filled the glass, and Hye Na continued speaking.

“But if it were me. If I came to like someone so much that I was scared. I think I’d try everything I could first.”

So Yi looked at Hye Na as she slowly put the bottle down on the table.

“Think about it. Something you want is just within reach. Are you just going to give up?”

“…”

“You wouldn’t, right? You’d try to reach out and grab it somehow.”

So Yi nodded silently.

“They say you’ll regret it later if you just watch and give up, thinking your hand won’t reach. So try showing your feelings more honestly now. It’s too foolish to give up on anything in advance out of fear.”

Hye Na downed her glass of soju and made a “keu” sound.

“At least you have someone you sincerely like, what about me? A blind date with a forty-year-old man, really.”

So Yi chuckled as she listened to Hye Na grumbling complainingly.

Show it honestly…

As if mulling over Hye Na’s words, she poured the alcohol into her mouth.

Whether it was because of Hye Na’s words that seemed to clear out some blocked corner, the soju she swallowed cooled refreshingly down her throat.