Seung Ho, who had been lying unconscious, suddenly raised his upper body and leaned his head back with his eyes closed, as if nothing had happened. Compared to his usual flawless appearance, he looked extremely disheveled, but Ji Hyun remained alert and observed him closely.

It seemed like Seung Ho could open his eyes at any moment and scold her, asking why she was there. Above all, his body temperature felt unbearably uncomfortable beside her. The heat from the alcohol instantly melted Ji Hyun’s frozen body.

Ji Hyun moved to distance herself from him as much as possible. At that moment, his large hand, which was lazily draped over the seat, grabbed her hand.

“Eek!”

Startled by the unexpected physical contact, Ji Hyun jumped, but the hot temperature seemed to like Ji Hyun’s cold hand, so instead of letting go, he gripped it tightly.

Noticing Ji Hyun’s frantic movements in the back, the driver looked at Seung Ho through the rearview mirror and smiled at her reassuringly.

“Ah, Ji Hyun, you don’t need to worry too much.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s the Director’s drunken habit. When he’s like this…”

The driver seemed to think that Ji Hyun was surprised to see Seung Ho suddenly sit up, not noticing that he was holding her hand.

“…Drunken habit?”

“It’s quite unexpected, right? He seems like someone who wouldn’t get drunk even if he drank a drum of alcohol.”

Ji Hyun swallowed her saliva.

‘That’s what I’m saying.’

The driver smoothly turned the steering wheel, and Ji Hyun looked at Seung Ho again. With one hand covering her hand and the other large hand covering his eyes, Seung Ho’s appearance was far from looking drunk.

“I think his personality of disliking being disheveled shows up even when he’s drunk.”

“I didn’t know that.”

I didn’t know there was such a strange habit…

“Of course. Actually, it’s something no one knows. Only I know. Haha.”

Ji Hyun and the driver were talking about the same topic but saying different things.

“…”

“Unlike his friends who like to drink, the Director never drank.”

The driver continued speaking in a distant voice, as if recalling the past.

“So I thought he had no interest in alcohol, but there was one time, before he went to study abroad, when he drank an incredible amount. At that time, he was really a mess compared to now.”

“Really?”

Ji Hyun’s ears perked up. Since she had left the mansion before graduating from high school, the side of Seung Ho that the driver was talking about was one that Ji Hyun didn’t know.

“After that, I never saw him get so messed up drunk…”

“Whew…”

Before the driver could finish speaking, Seung Ho’s head fell onto Ji Hyun’s shoulder. It was a moment that contradicted the driver’s words about his drunkenness being dignified.

As he buried his head in Ji Hyun’s small shoulder, she froze stiffly in place. The smell of alcohol was strong with each deep breath Seung Ho took.

The driver, who was checking on Seung Ho through the rearview mirror when the light turned red, turned to Ji Hyun in surprise.

“He’s never like this, but I guess he drank a bit too much today.”

“Yes. I suppose so. Eek!”

Seung Ho exhaled hot breaths and buried his face even deeper. When his rough, hot lips touched her skin, Ji Hyun trembled. It felt like his body temperature was making her heat up too. She couldn’t continue in this position.

Even if it meant waking Seung Ho up, Ji Hyun thought it would be better to get away from him, so she struggled as much as possible, but his huge body didn’t budge. Ji Hyun made a tearful expression and stared at the driver’s back as he diligently drove.

She desperately hoped he would stomp on the brakes and make a sudden stop, but the driver’s skilled driving made the car glide smoothly. Unable to move, Ji Hyun could only roll her eyes to look at Seung Ho.

At first, she thought he was just teasing her, but unbelievably, he was really fast asleep.

‘He only drank champagne…’

Being apart from Seung Ho, Ji Hyun didn’t know how much he had guzzled alcohol like water.

Ji Hyun, who wanted to at least free her trapped hand, wriggled hard in Seung Ho’s grasp, but the more she did, the tighter his large hand gripped.

Giving up on moving, Ji Hyun’s gaze turned to the car window. The flurries of snow had become heavy flakes piling up before she knew it.

“Ah, seriously!”

Ji Hyun grabbed her hair in irritation. The party was over, so it didn’t matter if her well-styled hair got messed up.

The problem was Shin Seung Ho. The driver had struggled together with Ji Hyun to drag Seung Ho to his apartment. As soon as they managed to lay him on the bed, the driver fled to the front door, leaving Ji Hyun behind.

“If the Director finds out I came in here, I’ll be in big trouble.”

“D-driver, what about me?”

Ji Hyun cried out urgently, but the front door had already slammed shut. It was past midnight. The transportation to get home had all stopped running.

She took out her phone and opened an app to catch a taxi, but it wasn’t easy due to the sudden heavy snowfall. Ji Hyun plopped down on the edge of the bed and blankly stared at Seung Ho.

“How does he expect me to get home…”

His face, deep in slumber, looked incredibly gentle.

Seung Ho frowned as he woke up. A burning thirst and a splitting headache hit him simultaneously.

‘How much did I drink?’

The last thing he remembered was heading to the car.

He looked out the frosted window, but it was still too dark to gauge the time.

Getting out of bed and putting his feet on the floor, his vision swayed and he felt nauseous. Holding back the rising queasiness, Seung Ho opened the fridge and gulped down a cold bottle of water.

As the chilled water flowed down his throat, he finally felt a little more alive. The feeling of his hazy mind clearing wasn’t exactly pleasant.

‘How did I get home…’

No matter how hard he tried to recall, he couldn’t remember. Instead, his mind was dominated by a peculiar fragment of memory.

The sensation of gripping a small hand, and the familiar body scent lingering in his nose. Seung Ho knew very well who that scent belonged to. It was Ji Hyun’s scent.

She had a fragrance of wildflowers, a blend of floral and crisp leaf scents.

Even in his faint consciousness, Seung Ho was confused by sensing her scent. In an irritated mood at the thought of her spending time with Ha Jun while he was away, he had clearly texted her to leave first.

Inside the car without Ji Hyun, her body scent kept wafting up.

Usually it was a faint scent that brushed by, but the aroma persistently tickling the tip of his nose strangely stimulated Seung Ho. Unable to even open his eyes, he concluded it was a drunken hallucination. So he inhaled to his heart’s content.

It was strange. The more he smelled it, the richer and sweeter the scent became.

“Damn it…”

Seung Ho shook his head in displeasure, forcibly shaking off the sweet fragment of memory. He was annoyed and disgusted with himself for getting so messed up just from drinking some champagne.

Grumbling, Seung Ho stopped in his tracks as he headed to the living room. Ji Hyun, who had no reason to be here, was sleeping on the living room couch.

‘Am I still drunk and seeing things?’

Dumbfounded, Seung Ho closed his eyes and opened them again. In his restored vision, Ji Hyun was still there in that spot.

She was clearly not an illusion conjured up by alcohol, nor a hallucination. As the memory of longing for her scent resurfaced, he suddenly felt thirsty. Seung Ho quietly approached the couch where Ji Hyun was lying.

Wearing comfortable clothes instead of a dress, she was curled up with one arm under her head, deep in slumber.

‘Why is she here?’

It still felt surreal. Standing in front of the couch and intently gazing at Ji Hyun, he scowled as memories flooded back.

The heavy snowflakes falling outside the car window, the hand he barely managed to grasp for fear of her slipping away, and the crisp floral scent.

That’s when it happened.

“Mmm…”

As she stirred in her sleep, her long hair flowed down her neck. Seeing Ji Hyun’s exposed white neckline, Seung Ho’s face flushed hot.

It wasn’t a misunderstanding. The real Choi Ji Hyun was right there. It was clear that Ji Hyun, not a hallucination, had ridden in the car with his drunken self and brought him to his apartment.

Her eyelashes fluttered as if she were dreaming, and his heart pounded as if it would leap out of his chest.

Unable to endure the pain hammering in his heart, Seung Ho closed his eyes and bit his lip. In front of the peacefully sleeping Ji Hyun, his solid world was on the verge of crumbling.

“Do you like Ji Hyun?”

That one terribly irksome remark. Throughout the party, his attention was entirely focused on Ji Hyun.

He had deliberately kept her away, worried she would catch the eye of that piece of trash Shin Myung Ho, but his gaze unconsciously kept seeking her out.

Yet seeing Ha Jun, who stayed apart from her, looking after her bothered him. Whenever he saw the two of them whispering in conversation, his throat burned and his insides felt hot.

Since when?

Seung Ho thought as he watched a woman confessing her feelings for him.

If the person confessing her heart to him right now was Choi Ji Hyun, if it had been her…

In Seoul where he returned, in London where he studied abroad, and even inside the party venue, whenever he heard those tediously repetitive confessions, one persistent thought dominated his mind.

‘What if it was Ji Hyun saying these words?’

As a result of Myung Ho and Chairman Park’s secret discussion, his engagement to Chae Rin was suddenly called off, and the person most delighted by that was none other than Seung Ho himself.

His Adam’s apple moved slowly as he opened his eyes. Seung Ho bent his knees and lowered his upper body, his gaze never leaving Ji Hyun. His hand trembled slightly as he brushed her hair aside with surprising gentleness.

“Choi Ji Hyun.”

His voice, hoarse with heat, was extremely low and careful.

“I…”