“It has already been paid for.”

Ji Hyun gripped her wallet tightly as she looked at the staff. She didn’t need to ask to know who had paid.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and come out…”

The man who had come out first and was observing her still had a mischievous smile on his lips.

‘Should I feel good or bad about this?’

She was relieved that a large sum of money wasn’t spent, but the aftertaste of feeling indebted to Seung Ho was not very pleasant. Feeling her complex emotions intersecting in multiple directions, Ji Hyun approached him. Standing under the clear blue sky without a single cloud, Seung Ho was exceptionally dazzling. Ji Hyun approached him and awkwardly stammered.

“When did you pay?”

“Does that matter?”

It was a remark typical of Shin Seung Ho, who had never lost his composure. Ji Hyun bit her lips tightly.

“I’ll pay you back.”

“…”

The smile on Seung Ho’s lips disappeared as he looked down at her. His playful eyes, which were uncharacteristically flickering, quickly regained their usual appearance.

“Alright. If it really makes you uncomfortable, I won’t refuse.”

“But with coffee instead.”

“…What?”

Before the startled Seung Ho could answer, Ji Hyun ran to a nearby cafe and returned with two Americanos in her hands. Seung Ho’s lips curved up crookedly as he watched Ji Hyun carefully walking with short steps, afraid she might spill the coffee.

“Drink it. Be careful, it’s hot…”

“You’re not trying to pay for a meal with just a cup of coffee, are you? Choi Ji Hyun, you’ve become quite brazen.”

Although her cheeks stung from Seung Ho’s blatantly teasing gaze, she pretended not to notice and drank the Americano while only looking ahead.

Anyway, it pricked her conscience to brush off a five-digit meal with a single cup of coffee, but it was better than puking up the entire cost of the meal or unconditionally being indebted.

‘What’s a little pride compared to that…’

For Ji Hyun, pride was something that ceased to exist from the moment she entered the mansion at the age of eighteen, following Hyun Sook.

When she had taken a few sips, a low voice was heard from above her head.

“It doesn’t taste good.”

The takeout cup she had handed him was precariously perched on his fingertips as if he were about to throw it away at any moment.

“I can’t tell if this is coffee or water brewed with charcoal.”

Seeing Seung Ho grumbling and furrowing his brow, Ji Hyun put on a serious expression.

“Don’t throw it away and drink it all. The person who bought it put in effort.”

On normal days, it was an Americano that she would hesitate several times to buy and drink due to her tight budget. Seung Ho, who had no way of knowing that fact, sneered.

“Effort? That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day. The coffee should at least be a double shot. Can a cheap single-shot Americano compare to the sushi you ate?”

‘Ugh, that stings.’

Her conscience, which could no longer pretend to be unaware, poked at Ji Hyun.

“Next time I’ll buy you a double shot.”

Seung Ho, who had been staring at Ji Hyun as she mumbled and swallowed her last words, not knowing when that would be, nodded his head with an arrogant expression.

“Next time… I’ll look forward to it.”

As if to tell Ji Hyun not to forget, he deliberately sipped the coffee close to her.

“Hah, there’s no end to this.”

His words about having to work overtime were not empty.

Ji Hyun, who had returned to Seung Ho’s apartment, spent a lot of time finding the data he ordered.

The first task he assigned was a logic model related to the social marketing business that White Rose’s CEO had contracted.

Although she had already meticulously analyzed the data she had gathered in one sweep, this time she had to find out how much impact the changes in operations according to his thoughts would have on the company.

In addition, he told her to print out all the data on the types of drugs that bio companies in the U.S. and Europe focus on and the drugs published in international journals. As an employer and superior, Shin Seung Ho was a perfectionist who handled work in a meticulous and thorough manner. As a result, Ji Hyun had even more work to do.

From the very beginning, he had threatened her to just scrape data from the Internet, but he made her search international journals one by one on foreign websites, collect data, and edit it.

When Seung Ho requested data on the immune substance pk-3no, Ji Hyun finally remembered that most of the people he sponsored were researchers at bio companies.

‘What is the relationship between acquiring a small marketing company and the immune substance he mentioned? More than that, why is he taking a difficult and complicated path when the easy path of being a corporate owner is prepared for him? Is this also one of his eccentric hobbies?’

The small curiosity that began grew and reached Shin Seung Ho.

“Um, I have a question…”

“Go ahead.”

Seung Ho replied without taking his eyes off the mountain of documents.

“Putting aside the scholarship foundation, why did you acquire the marketing company?”

Even among the servants at the mansion, Seung Ho was secretly known as the internally appointed successor.

Even if the scholarship foundation helped his image as the future owner, the rest of his moves were things Ji Hyun couldn’t understand. As if it was a question he had heard often, he answered nonchalantly, still with his eyes on the documents.

“Because it makes money.”

“…Huh?”

There was no further explanation. He simply left those words about money and closed his mouth again.

Seung Ho was exhibiting amazing concentration in the papers densely filled with languages from other countries. Taking advantage of this, Ji Hyun’s gaze turned to the Han River outside the window.

Because it was winter and the sun set early, the outside showed a beautiful night view reflected by the Han River’s water. Ji Hyun, who had been blankly admiring the lights, unconsciously turned her gaze to the wall.

‘Hmm?’

Something felt off. The luxurious and clean background of the cream-colored silk wallpaper, which had nothing unusual about it, gave Ji Hyun an unfamiliar feeling. It felt very empty, as if something other than a painting should be there.

Her eyes, which had been looking at the clean wall without anything hanging on it, became lost in thought again.

“Looks like you have free time to just space out.”

Startled by the sharp voice that sounded like a growl, Ji Hyun turned her head. Seung Ho had been narrowing his eyes and looking at her for who knows how long. As she opened her mouth to ask what he needed, he spoke first.

“I’m hungry. Go out and buy some late-night snacks.”

Come to think of it, they hadn’t eaten dinner. The sudden hunger brought on a severe appetite.

“What menu would you like?”

Perhaps displeased that she had been resting alone while he was working frantically, Seung Ho didn’t soften his sullen expression.

“Anything.”

Ji Hyun squeezed her eyes shut.

Hah, here we go again.

In the end, she had to raid the convenience store multiple times to buy snacks before he finally selected stir-fried noodles and triangle kimbap. Having completed her mission, Ji Hyun plopped down on the sofa and looked at Seung Ho with resentful eyes.

He seemed indifferent, holding a triangle kimbap in one hand and typing on the keyboard while looking at the monitor.

‘If he was going to be like this, he should have told me to go home.’

However, if she spoke first, it might lead to the disaster of him assigning her one more task.

Ji Hyun nestled into the sofa and waited for him to speak. The fatigue that had been building up since early morning quickly made her body drowsy.

Without even looking up, Seung Ho grabbed a stack of documents and held it out in front of him.

“Find if there’s anything similar to this in Biomedical Science.”

It was quiet around them. Ji Hyun, who should have promptly come, didn’t come to receive the documents. Only then did Seung Ho lift his head to look for her.

“Hah, you look quite comfortable.”

Seung Ho, who had found Ji Hyun, let out an absurd chuckle. She was lying curled up on the spacious recliner sofa. He put down the documents he had been looking at on the desk as if throwing them and slowly got up from his seat. Ji Hyun, whom he had seen up close thinking it couldn’t be, was really asleep.

Perhaps because her body temperature had risen while sleeping, her cheeks were flushed red and her breathing was steady.

“How dare you do this in a sacred workplace?”

Seung Ho, who grumbled as if growling, reached out towards Ji Hyun. He wanted to grab her by the scruff of the neck and wake her up right away, but his hand ended up touching her cheek instead. That’s when it happened.

“Mmm…”

Feeling the warmth from the lightly touching hand, Ji Hyun tossed and turned, unconsciously rubbing her cheek against it. For a moment, Seung Ho’s consciousness flickered. His breathing became so ragged that he couldn’t breathe for a short while. Feeling the pain in his left chest, he resented Ji Hyun even more.

“Do you feel sleepy at a single man’s house?”

Seung Ho, who murmured in a low voice, gently brought his fingers to Ji Hyun’s eyes and brushed them. Unlike his rough words, his touch was very cautious. The closed eyelashes trembled, following his touch.

After staring at Ji Hyun for a long time, he sat down on the floor under the sofa as if giving up and closed his eyes. Memories that had been worn out resurfaced one by one in his mind.

The white snowflakes that had gently settled on long eyelashes, the warmth of lips that had touched his fingertips, and the transparent, watery eyes that had driven the young boy crazy.

It was still snowing in Seung Ho’s heart.

Tossing and turning in her sleep, Ji Hyun suddenly opened her eyes, feeling that the sensation on her back was too soft. What she saw was not the familiar low-ceilinged room, but an unfamiliar and high ceiling.

‘Where am I?’

After blinking for a while to grasp the situation, Ji Hyun remembered that she had sat on the sofa last night waiting for work to end. In other words, this place was Shin Seung Ho’s home.

“Oh my gosh!”

As Ji Hyun got up in surprise, a thick blanket fell from her body to the floor. It seemed she had fallen asleep just like that.

Where could Shin Seung Ho be?

As she took a step to find him, the sound of pressing the number keys was heard from the entrance. She wanted to deny that she had misheard, but before long, the sound of the front door opening with a click was heard from afar. Ji Hyun’s gaze, full of tension, turned towards the entrance.