Love is Madness (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 13

Late at night, two in the morning.

Tae Joon lay on the sofa, wide awake, staring up at the ceiling.

This wasn’t the picture he’d envisioned. When he’d said he’d stay over—using President Baek as an excuse, using his male pride as an excuse—he never meant sleeping on this damn sofa!

Yet, unintentionally, that’s exactly where he ended up.

At first, he’d been slightly surprised by her unexpectedly easy agreement. But then she’d immediately crushed his hopes by cheerfully insisting there were plenty of rooms available.

Of course—he’d never really believed things would get that far. They’d agreed to marry, yes, but it was all one-sided on his part; to Seo Rin, it was just another business arrangement.

Still, he’d held out a sliver of hope: maybe being in the same space would reawaken old feelings. After all, he’d occasionally caught her acting strangely tense whenever they were together.

That tiny thought—that perhaps his feelings weren’t entirely one-sided, that maybe they could return to the happiest time they’d once shared—had inflated his expectations beyond reason.

He’d pushed aside those crude thoughts that had filled his mind since seeing her again. He’d even suppressed, time and again, the urge to steal her warmth while they were together.

His priority now was getting through to her heart by any means necessary—so he’d resolved not to care about methods or propriety.

But tonight, she was utterly unresponsive—exhausted, perhaps.

So despite her telling him to take a room, Tae Joon deliberately chose the sofa, calculating that she might peek out at least once if he slept somewhere uncomfortable.

But it turned out to be a complete miscalculation.

Hours passed, and she never once came out to check on him.

Though the sofa sat prominently in the spacious living room—large enough to accommodate his unusually tall frame—it offered him little comfort, no matter how soft it actually was.

He even regretted it now—if he’d known this would happen, he’d have swallowed his pride and just gone back to the hotel.

‘Ugh, what a damn lunatic. Seriously, the neediest guy alive.’

He felt like a lonely little kid desperate for attention.

A child throwing tantrums just to be noticed: “Look at me!”

And when met with nothing but indifference, sulking alone like a big, awkward child whose body had grown but whose heart remained tiny.

Even he found it ridiculous. How had his heart stayed so small while the rest of him grew so large?

Baek Seo Rin… why do I lose my cool so completely whenever I see you?

I want to touch you, possess you, hold you.

Am I the only one like this? Seriously, am I the only one?

It felt like singing an endless loop of the same song. Though repetition should’ve worn him down, his stamina was inhumanly resilient—he simply didn’t tire.

Damn it!

He bitterly cursed under his breath and covered his eyes with his arm.

Just then, a faint click sounded, followed by the subtlest trace of footsteps.

Contrary to Seo Rin’s expectation that a warm shower would knock her out like the dead after such exhaustion, sleep refused to come. Every sense in her body was oddly alert.

‘He’s so damn stubborn—insisting on sleeping in the room like that.’

The sofa in the living room was extra-large, befitting the size of the officetel, but no matter how big, could it ever rival a bed in comfort? Still, he’d insisted on the sofa, claiming it would help him muster the restraint not to “pounce” on her.

Well, she hadn’t forced him—it was his own choice.

Yet she couldn’t help worrying.

Eventually, Seo Rin got out of bed and slipped on a silk robe.

Quietly, carefully avoiding any sound, she opened the door. Under the soft yellow moonlight, a striking silhouette lay stretched out on the large sofa—utterly still, seemingly already deep in dreams.

Worried he might be cold sleeping in the living room, Seo Rin checked the digital display: temperature and humidity were both perfectly optimal.

Still, she couldn’t pull herself away. Silently, she approached Tae Joon.

He was asleep, one arm draped over his eyes. The blanket she’d given him was haphazardly wrapped only around his waist.

Back then, he’d always run hot and frequently kicked the covers off. She still vividly remembered how his half-covered, nearly bare body used to look dangerously alluring.

Today, unusually for him, he’d kept all his clothes on—but the blanket was still just an accessory, barely clinging to him.

“Ugh… not covering up again.”

With such sharp temperature swings these days, it might not be cold now—but by morning, it could drop sharply. Worried he might catch a cold, Seo Rin finally reached out.

She intended only to pull the blanket up to just below his chest. Any higher, and he’d just kick it off again with those long legs, complaining it was suffocating.

Gripping the blanket, she carefully lifted it without waking him. Once she’d managed—ever so delicately—to raise it just below his chest, something else caught her eye.

His shirt—stretched taut across his torso.

Because his arm was raised, the already snug shirt now looked ready to burst. Especially the button over his chest—it seemed on the verge of flying off at any second.

Normally, that shirt accentuated his lean muscles perfectly—but for sleeping, it was clearly terrible. Watching him, she felt not just uneasy but downright suffocated on his behalf.

For a moment, Seo Rin shifted her dark eyes to his face. Though his eyes were covered, she could see only from his nose down—but his steady, rhythmic breathing confirmed he was deeply asleep.

Without a spare shirt on hand, he might very well wake up half-naked tomorrow if a button popped off.

‘That just won’t do.’

Having Tae Joon half-naked in her sanctuary—her most private space—was especially dangerous. After all, hadn’t her body instinctively responded to him just last night in his hotel room?

She wanted, above all, to avoid that situation.

Carefully, Seo Rin reached out her hand—making sure her fingers barely grazed his bare skin—and gently unfastened a button.

Tae Joon was the kind of deep sleeper who wouldn’t wake even if someone carried him off. Still, just in case, her touch grew even more cautious.

She absolutely didn’t want their eyes to meet while she was unbuttoning his shirt.

Just imagining it made her cheeks burn with embarrassment.

Thankfully, she managed to loosen his shirt down to just below his chest without incident. As the tension in the fabric eased, his tightly defined pectoral muscles came partially into view—sharp and sculpted enough to steal her breath away.

A body like that couldn’t be forged without relentless daily training.

Then and now, it had always provoked her intensely.

But sexual attraction alone didn’t mean she could let this man back into her life.

If only you’d been a little more selfish.

If only my guilt weighed a little less.

Wouldn’t our relationship have been a little easier?

But Kang Tae Joon was still Kang Tae Joon.

Still overflowing with warmth, still blindly in love with her—so much so that using him like this made her feel unbearably pathetic.

“Sleep well, Tae Joon.”

She murmured the quiet farewell, certain he wouldn’t hear, and slipped back into her room.

But as soon as the door clicked shut and her presence vanished completely, his motionless lips finally parted, releasing a low sigh.

“Ha….”

The breath escaping his lips carried more heat than ever before.

From the very moment he sensed her presence—when she tugged the blanket over him—and especially when her fingers reached for his shirt buttons—time itself seemed to freeze, pulling everything into that breathless, burning instant.

He could almost see her slender fingers moving, even with his eyes covered. He felt no actual touch on his skin—yet that very absence made him ache with unbearable tension.

He couldn’t lower the arm shielding his eyes. If he looked into hers, he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold back anymore.

Seo Rin wasn’t a woman he could simply take just because he wanted her.

She wasn’t someone he could always hold whenever he pleased.

He had to wait.

Until she willingly came into his arms—he’d need superhuman patience, walking the path of a monk.

But if something like tonight happened again… he couldn’t promise anything.

‘How am I supposed to handle this… after you tease me like that and just leave?’

For him, it was a night of exquisite cruelty.

Morning.

As soon as Seo Rin got out of bed, she went straight to the living room to check on Tae Joon.

She’d been worried—what if he’d fallen off the sofa? What if he’d caught a cold from the chilly night air? But the moment she saw him asleep, she realized her worries were pointless.

He was lying facedown, the blanket she’d carefully pulled up now tightly wrapped only around his waist, sleeping soundly as if the world didn’t exist. In fact, he must’ve found it uncomfortable—he’d even taken off his shirt, leaving his back muscles fully exposed.

Ah, so that’s why he seemed fully dressed last night.

Knowing his habit of sleeping naked, she almost wanted to applaud him just for not stripping off his pants at dawn.

He looked so peacefully childlike that she couldn’t bring herself to wake him.

Besides, his usual neat hair was now sticking up in odd tufts—and for some reason, it looked unbearably cute.

“Pfft!”

She nearly let out a loud laugh.

Quickly muffling it, Seo Rin quietly retreated back into her room. He was sleeping so deeply—there was no need to wake him. Instead, she began getting ready for work more quietly than usual.

He remained sprawled on the sofa like a child, motionless, even as she left the officetel.

At the entrance, she ran into Director Park, who’d been waiting.

“Good morning. Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah. Not bad. How about you, Director Park?”

“I, well… same as always.”

“Same as always is good. A life that flows peacefully without drama isn’t so bad.”

Director Park nodded in agreement.

Just then, her phone rang. Apparently, Tae Joon had just woken up.

“Yeah.”

[Where are you?]

“On my way to work.”

[You should’ve woken me.]

“You were sleeping so soundly. Besides, I told you to go back to the hotel—why insist on the sofa?”

Director Park, gripping the steering wheel, widened his eyes in shock—but she ignored it.

[Yeah, well—if I keep clinging to my ‘male pride’ like this, my whole body’s gonna fall apart.]

“Was it that uncomfortable?”

[Yeah. Not the sofa—the clothes. Sleeping fully dressed was worse.]

“Well… by morning, you were half undressed anyway.”

[Had to breathe somehow.]

Right—so that’s why I unbuttoned your shirt for you at dawn, setting your muscles free.

Just remembering that made her want to laugh again. Honestly, why were they being so dramatic over something so trivial?

Looking back now, it seemed silly—but in the moment, she’d been so tense from that heat welling up inside her alone.

“So don’t come by today.”

[Then let’s meet outside. How about dinner?]

“Again?”

[Yeah. Gotta see you every day. That’s how feelings grow—even if there weren’t any before.]

She’d forgotten—this was exactly Tae Joon’s style.

Over ten years ago, when they first started dating, he’d come to her campus nearly every day without fail to take her out.

She’d thought, “He’ll get tired of this eventually,” but that was only because she hadn’t truly known him.

He never got tired. Rain or shine, busy or not—he was always utterly consistent. She remembered her friends once joking he was a superhuman capable of weathering natural disasters.

A man who, once he set his mind to something, would see it through to the end.

Therefore, refusal was just a waste of time.

“Fine. Let’s have dinner together.”

[I’ll call you later then.]

“Okay.”

As soon as she hung up, the piercing stare boring into her made her skin prickle. At this rate, red lasers might start shooting from Director Park’s eyes any second.

“For heaven’s sake, Director Park… focus on driving. Tomorrow’s the interim shareholders’ meeting—if we crash and die now, all our hard work goes to waste. I’d die feeling way too bitter to accept that, got it?”

Director Park, caught off guard, cleared his throat awkwardly and tightened his grip on the wheel—but the question mark still plastered on the back of his head wouldn’t budge.

Seo Rin offered no further explanation. They’d already announced their engagement; in her mind, that was more than enough reason for the current situation.

Just then, her phone rang again.

Had Tae Joon forgotten something?

She glanced at the screen—but the caller wasn’t him. The oddly familiar yet unfamiliar title made a faint crease appear between her brows.

“Hello.”

[It’s me, Executive Managing Director Baek. Would it be possible to meet briefly this evening?]

An unwelcome call.