Three hours ago.

The room of the high-end bar, which had been bustling until just now, fell silent.

It was a thoroughly soundproofed room, so it seemed like even the sound of air flowing could be heard.

All of this was because of Do Hyun, who was sitting at the head of the sofa.

He had tried to order expensive drinks with the company card for the first time in a while, but Do Hyun showed up without any sense of the situation.

The executives sitting on the plush sofa surrounded by walls shifted their bottoms, looking uncomfortable.

“Are you uncomfortable somewhere?”

Everyone tensed up at Do Hyun’s question, thrown into the large room.

“No. Not uncomfortable at all.”

“That’s a relief. I would have been very disappointed if you had said you were uncomfortable.”

Even though the corners of his mouth were drawing a smile, the executives were still stiffly frozen.

They were so uncomfortable they could die. They wanted him to leave. It was their first company dinner in a long time, but they had to drink while being conscious of his presence.

They wanted to protest until their throats burst, but they all wanted to work at this company for a long time.

It was so quiet that the sound of ice melting and clinking inside the glass could be heard.

“Aren’t you going to drink?”

“We, we should drink!”

The executive vice president sitting closest to Do Hyun hurriedly picked up the whiskey bottle.

Lifting his bottom, the executive vice president brought the mouth of the whiskey bottle to Do Hyun’s glass.

“I’ll pour you a drink, CEO.”

Finally, liquid was poured into the glass that had been empty for a long time.

As the executive vice president sat down, Do Hyun looked around at the executives sitting awkwardly.

“Everyone, raise your glasses.”

The executives politely held up their already poured glasses with one hand.

Only after clinking glasses a few times and the alcohol going in did the expressions on the executives’ faces slowly relax.

Since it was the first time in a while that Do Hyun had attended a company dinner, the executives tried to form a rapport.

However, due to that effort, the flow went in a very bad direction.

“You’re getting along well with your wife, right?”

Do Hyun’s hand, which was bringing the glass to his lips, stopped moving.

Instead of Do Hyun, who remained silent, the other executives chattered away excitedly.

“Isn’t this the time when you’re at your best? If not now, when would it be good?”

“You’ll be anxious since you have to return to Clark soon. Your wife is quite pretty!”

“Oh my. Don’t be anxious. If my wife had the looks of your wife, I would have taken her to Clark. Don’t you agree, CEO?”

Bang!

When a sound like lightning rang out loudly, the executives’ shoulders trembled.

The executives, who had pursed their lips meanly, rolled their eyes as they looked at Do Hyun sitting in the center of the sofa.

Gripping the crystal glass, Do Hyun brought the whiskey bottle in front of him and filled the glass to the brim.

Only after filling the whiskey to the top of the glass did Do Hyun speak.

“Let’s all drink together.”

“Ah, yes, yes.”

The executives hurriedly poured alcohol into their glasses and quickly tilted their arms toward Do Hyun.

With a light clinking sound, Do Hyun downed the whiskey poured into the glass in one shot.

His thick Adam’s apple moved up and down, and the large amount of alcohol quickly disappeared. Do Hyun, who had put the glass down on the table, looked around at the motionless executives.

“Am I the only one drinking?”

“We’ll drink.”

“We should drink!”

The executives, suffering from the suddenly chilled atmosphere for no reason, emptied their glasses. The alcohol flowing down their throats felt like poison.

The unfair thing was, if you drink poison, you at least die, but with this, they had to keep drinking with a feeling like they were going to die.

“The glass is empty.”

The executives retraced their actions for the past week. They wondered what great wrong they had committed for Do Hyun to be punishing them.

Do Hyun personally poured alcohol into the executives’ glasses.

Ugh. Yeong-ju’s mom, I’m going first.

Mi-young, it’s hard to make a living.

The executives thought of their families as they downed the alcohol.

***

Returning to Do Hyun’s house, where he is heavily drunk.

Chief Kang wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead with the blue handkerchief in his back pocket.

“Usually the CEO drinks in moderation, but I wonder what happened today that he drank so much.”

Chief Kang, who had pushed both hands into the inside of Do Hyun’s arm, tried to pull him toward himself with all his might.

“I’ll escort you to your room.”

He didn’t want to refuse the kindness, but the day was already ending.

From the perspective of a fellow company employee, he wanted to quickly end the difficult overtime work.

“It’s late, so you should go soon.”

“No. It will be hard for you to take care of the CEO alone.”

Chief Kang, who had come out to the front door, bent his straight waist.

“I’ll be going then.”

“Have a safe trip.”

Chief Kang, who had kindly closed the front door with both hands, left, but Joo was still with her back against the wall.

Even though she wanted to move her feet, she couldn’t budge due to the weight of the collapsed Do Hyun.

“Sunbae. Try to get up for a moment.”

Do Hyun, who had fallen into a deep sleep, was sticking closely to Joo like wet cotton.

Joo stood next to Do Hyun, holding his arm to somehow support him and take him to the bedroom. Joo had to moan because of Do Hyun, who had entrusted his entire body to her.

“Sunbae. Try to stand up straight for a bit.”

Is he a bit tall? Due to the significant height difference, Do Hyun’s legs were being dragged on the floor.

Only then could she understand why Chief Kang had a face that looked like he was about to faint at any moment.

Suppressing the urge to call Chief Kang back, Joo managed to come out of the hallway.

Screech, screech, the tips of Do Hyun’s feet, wearing dress shoes, scraped the floor.

Whether the floor got dirty or not, whether Do Hyun’s feet dangled like a doll or not, there was no time to care.

Joo entered Do Hyun’s bedroom, straightening her knees that wanted to buckle.

As soon as she reached the side of the bed, Joo practically threw Do Hyun onto the bed.

The sound of panting, as if she had bounced around to her heart’s content, filled the bedroom.

Do Hyun was sprawled on the wide bed with his eyelids closed.

Would he even know what was going on? There’s no way he would know. If he knew, he would have woken up!

“This is revenge, isn’t it? Because I got drunk and made a scene, you’re doing the same thing now, right?”

Joo, who couldn’t catch her rough breathing, grabbed Do Hyun’s dress shirt and shook it.

She had no strength to even stand, so Joo plopped down on the edge of the bed.

Her listless focus wandered here and there like an airplane, then landed on Do Hyun’s feet.

The feet still wearing shoes on the white bed bothered her.

Even though she didn’t have the strength to even move a finger, as a Korean, she couldn’t tolerate it. Joo took off Do Hyun’s shoes and put them on the floor.

After covering him with the blanket, she noticed the trench coat he was wearing.

Joo first untied the knot of the black tie that was choking his neck.

Unlike the tie that was easily pulled off, the trench coat required turning Do Hyun’s body this way and that like meat being grilled on a griddle.

“I’ll never drink and get drunk again.”

Paying him back like this, only Joo was at a loss.

She managed to take off the trench coat and undid the neatly buttoned dress shirt buttons.

As Joo was unbuttoning the second button, she slowly raised her head at the hot gaze felt from the top of her head.

Do Hyun, who had been sleeping soundly until she threw him on the bed and grabbed his collar, had his eyes wide open.

“Why are you attacking me?”

Perhaps because of the fatigue that had hit him, his locked voice was hoarsely cracked.

It was unfair that she was being misunderstood on top of the hard work of moving him from the front door to the bedroom.

“I wasn’t attacking you, I was just undressing you because you were drunk, sunbae.”

Do Hyun closed his eyelids as if he understood and nodded his head.

“Ah. Shin Joo undresses people when they’re drunk. Finish undressing me.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

What does he mean by ‘finish undressing’?

There was nothing to gain from arguing with the heavily drunk Do Hyun.

The wise thing to do was to quickly leave.

“Go to sleep. I’m going to go to bed too.”

When Joo got up from the bed, Do Hyun’s hand gripped her wrist.

It was a reflexive action that had sprung out to stop her from leaving. Do Hyun’s hand holding her wrist couldn’t grip tightly, but he couldn’t let go either.

“Don’t go.”

“……”

“Stay with me for a little while.”

A desperate plea flowed out.

Joo was reflected in Do Hyun’s moistly wet eyes.

Unlike usual, his words clinging to her mournfully and his plea that followed desperately softened Joo’s heart.

She had to refuse, she had to push him away, but she couldn’t reject the warmth being conveyed.

As Do Hyun raised his upper body, he pulled Joo.

Do Hyun’s hand carefully touched her back, and his face was buried in her shoulder.

Do Hyun’s breath broke over her neck. Joo came to her senses with a start at the breath touching her delicate skin.

“Let me go.”

“Just 10 minutes.”

“No.”

“Just 5 minutes.”

“I said no.”

He was drunk. So drunk that words couldn’t get through to him at all.

Joo pushed Do Hyun’s chest with both hands, rejecting him coldly.

But Do Hyun didn’t budge like a huge tombstone.

Rather, Do Hyun was supporting Joo’s waist even more firmly so that she wouldn’t fall away.

“Alright. Just 1 minute.”

“…Only 1 minute.”

1 minute, 1 minute should be fine.

The strength drained from the arms that had been pushing Do Hyun away.

The longest 60 seconds ever passed by.

Do Hyun’s heartbeat was fully conveyed to the palm of her hand that was against his chest.

For some reason, as it got closer to 1 minute, the thumping got faster.

It seemed like 1 minute had passed, but Do Hyun didn’t let go.

The moment Joo tried to pull her lips away, Do Hyun hugged her even more strongly.

“Yesterday, were we strangers?”

“……”

“Are we strangers today too?”

When she straightened the elbows she had been bending, Do Hyun easily backed away.

Do Hyun’s head that had been buried in her shoulder was raised.

His sharp gaze was reading Joo’s expression. It wouldn’t have been strange even if a single teardrop hung from those eyes.

Do Hyun, who was always upright, looked like a reed about to collapse today.

Joo corrected her heart that was trying to weaken.

“We’re strangers, of course.”

A voice mixed with disappointment filled the quiet bedroom.

“I don’t like that. Strangers.”

“……”

“I want to become something to you.”