Yoo In looked up at Ki Yeon with a terrified face, as if she had seen something she shouldn’t have.

She tried to ask why he was here, but the words all fell apart and just swirled in her throat.

Ki Yeon looked down at Yoo In, who was blankly blinking, with an inscrutable expression.

He seemed annoyed, but also amused. But what was amusing?

“Who are you?”

It was Ji Han who broke the suffocating silence that had fallen with Ki Yeon’s appearance.

Startled by the voice mixed with wariness and discomfort, Yoo In looked around at her puzzled friends before finally opening her tightly closed mouth.

“Ah, um… guys. This person is… the director at my sister’s agency.”

“Huh? Your sister Yoo Jin’s agency? Illang?”

“Yeah.”

As Yoo In nodded, Jae Hee, quick to adapt, greeted him first with a still dazed face.

“Hello.”

“Hello, nice to meet you.”

Ki Yeon’s polite smile and gaze passed over Jae Hee and landed on Ji Han.

Ji Han just gave a perfunctory nod in response.

Ki Yeon smiled even more brightly than before and turned back to Yoo In, who was staring at him with flushed cheeks.

“Looks like you came to have a meal with your friends.”

“…Yes. But why are you here, Director?”

“I’m here for something similar to you.”

That wasn’t what she had asked. Yoo In’s eyebrows furrowed slightly at the evasive answer.

The image of the man and woman who looked like an ideal couple to anyone reappeared in her mind, which she had momentarily forgotten while chatting with her friends.

Yoo In’s mood, which had been cheerfully excited, rapidly sank and spread gloomily.

Ki Yeon, who had been quietly watching, laughed briefly and lightly patted the delicate shoulder he was still holding as he spoke.

“I’ll tell the manager, so eat whatever you want to your heart’s content.”

“No… you don’t have to do that.”

“Don’t refuse today.”

Unlike the leisurely deep voice, the hand on her shoulder gripped tightly before letting go.

“Then enjoy your time. Yoo In’s friends.”

“Goodbye.”

As Jae Hee’s farewell, who had been reading the atmosphere, ended, the man who seemed about to turn around made a phone shape with his hand and tapped it with his other finger.

What could that mean? Yoo In, who had been staring at Ki Yeon, looked down at her phone resting quietly on her lap. When she raised her head again, he was already exiting the restaurant entrance.

Yoo In watched until Ki Yeon’s jacket tail disappeared from view. As soon as she turned her head back, an excited Jae Hee pounced and asked:

“Hey, hey! That person is really the director of Illang Entertainment? Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Really? He’s so young for a director? How old is he?”

“…He said he’s 31.”

“Wow. I’d believe it if you said he was in his 20s. But more than that, his face is completely insane! And he’s so tall, that suit fits him perfectly! He could be a celebrity himself.”

Jae Hee kept exclaiming in admiration, saying he was the best-looking and most stylish man she’d seen recently.

Yoo In nodded along to her friend’s words, but her mind was elsewhere.

Starting with ‘Why did the man who was with a woman who’s likely his girlfriend at the hotel come all the way here to greet me?’ and growing to ‘Why is he contacting me and telling me to eat good food when he has a girlfriend?’, her questions multiplied, inexplicably souring her mood.

“If he’s the director of your sister’s agency, why is he grabbing your shoulder?”

The usually gentle baritone voice flew sharply to her ear, cutting through her chain of thoughts.

Startled, Yoo In looked to the side to see Ji Han with an angry face.

“Shoulder? Ah, he did… that.”

Yoo In trailed off awkwardly and glanced at Jae Hee. Why is he angry? She asked with her eyes, but Jae Hee just shrugged, seeming not to know either.

“What do you mean ‘he did that’? How do you know that person? And how do you know his age?”

“Hey. He’s from her sister’s company, so she probably got to know him through her sister.”

Jae Hee cut in, trying to help the flustered Yoo In, but that seemed to annoy Ji Han even more as he frowned deeper.

“Nam Yoo In, you answer.”

“Hey, what does it have to do with you? Does Yoo In need your permission to meet someone?”

“Han Jae Hee. Are you Nam Yoo In’s spokesperson? Stay out of this.”

“What do you mean stay out? Do you report to Yoo In every time you go drinking with girls? Or has Yoo In ever interrogated you about what you do? If you’re friends, keep appropriate boundaries.”

“When did I ever drink with girls? Did you see it? Are you trying to piss me off?”

“Do I have to see it to know? And you’re the one who got angry first, you jerk! You ruined the mood and now what?”

Yoo In sighed deeply and rubbed her temples, caught between her friends arguing over her.

She didn’t understand why Ji Han was suddenly angry, or why Jae Hee was so upset, and her head ached from the man who had left after turning her finally calmed feelings upside down again.

Just as their war of words was in full swing, a short vibration sounded on the skirt of Yoo In’s dress.

Yoo In moved only her hand from that position with her head lowered and tapped the notification.

The hand gesture from earlier must have been a preview of this – it was a message from that man.

Yoo In was conflicted. Should she just ignore the man who had left her confused and even seemed despicable, or use the courage inflated by alcohol to resolve her curiosity without substance.

The two kept arguing and Yoo In’s rational judgment was becoming increasingly blurred. Perhaps that’s why the deliberation wasn’t very long.

As Yoo In, holding her phone, pushed her chair back with a scrape and stood up, her friends who had been arguing with veins popping abruptly stopped their angry words.

“Yoo In?”

“I’m going to the bathroom. Make up by the time I get back.”

Yoo In gave each of them a stern look as if warning them, then left her seat.

As she stood up, her head spun and she felt dizzy and dazed.

Seeing her stagger as soon as she stepped on the thick carpet, Jae Hee asked if she wanted her to go together, but Yoo In waved her hand behind her.

Patting her cheeks with both hands to try to clear her head, Yoo In was slowly making her way to the entrance when suddenly her arm was strongly grabbed and she was pulled somewhere.

“Eek!”

When she opened her eyes that had reflexively closed in surprise, she saw the scenery of a room she had seen before along with a chest in a snow-white shirt and vest, and heard the sound of a door closing.

Before she could even realize what was going on, her back hit the wall and the face of the person who had practically kidnapped her from the middle of a famous hotel restaurant came very close.

“…Director.”

At the small voice that was almost a whisper, the bold kidnapper smiled slightly and opened his smooth lips.

“Nam Yoo In is drunk again.”

It was a deep voice, as if it had sunk to the bottom. It felt completely different from the fresh and neat appearance he had shown when he came to Yoo In’s table.

Was it because she had drunk too much wine? Yoo In, who had forgotten everything she was going to say and only felt her throat burning, bit her lip and swallowed once.

“You just spoke informally to me again.”

“I know.”

“If you know, why do you do it?”

“Should I not?”

The calm and quiet eyes gleaming pitch-black made her words get stuck in her throat.

Trapped between the wall and the man close enough to feel his breath, Yoo In just chewed on her lips.

Then, instead of the answer she couldn’t think of, she pushed firmly against the man’s shoulder area. Ki Yeon chuckled and obediently backed away.

“Why did you drink so much when you can’t handle alcohol?”

“I didn’t drink that much.”

Yoo In said sulkily, pressing her palms against her cheeks that were still flushed like ripe peaches.

“But is it okay to just come in here?”

“It’s fine if you’re with me.”

“You were… having a meal here, weren’t you?”

“No, that’s not it.”

Yoo In waited for his next words, but Ki Yeon just stared at her reddened eyes without continuing.

Unable to withstand the gaze that reached her without a hint of wavering, Yoo In looked away first. The man exhaled a breath that sounded like a sigh and tilted his head as he spoke.

“Did you do it on purpose earlier?”

“Do what?”

“Pretending not to know me when you saw me in the lobby.”

At his words, whether alcohol affects honesty as well as courage, Yoo In’s soft eye corners drooped pitifully, unable to hide her hurt feelings.

Slightly surprised by the unexpected reaction, Ki Yeon was about to ask what was wrong when he heard a small murmur.

“I thought the person you were with might be uncomfortable.”

“What? Who… Ah.”

Ki Yeon, looking bewildered, took a step away from Yoo In and then burst into loud laughter.

He couldn’t stop laughing for quite a while, until the dumbfounded Yoo In’s mood turned sour and she complained, “Why are you laughing?” Only then did he stop.

“It’s not that kind of relationship. That person is my friend’s fiancée.”

“…”

“We were supposed to meet because I had a favor to ask, but my friend stood us up saying he was busy, so I saw you on my way out.”

As Ki Yeon’s explanation mixed with laughter continued, Yoo In’s already pinkish face turned even redder.

Unable to bear the embarrassment, she bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood and hung her head low.

Ki Yeon tapped her bright red crown and said playfully:

“Is the misunderstanding cleared up now?”

Yoo In, who just wanted to disappear from this place, misunderstanding or not, gave no response.

She couldn’t shake off the feeling that she shouldn’t have said anything. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been such a laughingstock in front of others, but it probably wasn’t as embarrassing as today.

As Yoo In hung her head low, enduring the embarrassment, Ki Yeon chuckled lowly and called out, “Yoo In.”

When she didn’t answer, he called again, “Nam Yoo In.” Only then did she reluctantly raise her face.

Seeing Yoo In with her cheeks, eyes, and even lips all red, Ki Yeon smiled as if he couldn’t help it.

Sensing an inexplicable hesitation in that smile, Yoo In didn’t avoid his gaze this time and looked back at him.

However, before Yoo In could read anything, Ki Yeon erased it as if washing it away with water and opened his mouth.

“Have you thought about what I said?”

“…Which part?”

“The part where I said it was your fault.”

Yoo In rolled her moist, gentle eyes.

A few seconds later, when Yoo In made a small “Ah” sound, Ki Yeon, who seemed to understand her thoughts just from that sound, asked mischievously:

“Did you already forget?”

“I didn’t… think about it. Wasn’t it just something you said?”

“Why would I say something like that for no reason? I’m not that idle of a person. Hasn’t Nam Yoo Jin told you anything?”

While her sister had told her countless things, most of them were curses, so Yoo In just pressed her lips tightly shut, lowering her long eyelashes.

Ki Yeon, with a smile that had subtly bloomed on his lips, gently brushed away the disheveled hair near Yoo In’s temple.

“Think about it carefully from today. Okay?”

“…Yes.”

Yoo In nodded like an obedient student, watching the fingers that touched her briefly and then pulled away.

Ki Yeon smiled contentedly, having gotten the answer he wanted.

Then he naturally stood behind Yoo In and lightly grasped both her shoulders.

“I want to take you home, but that friend from earlier will probably be waiting with fire in his eyes, so I’ll let you go today.”

“Fire in his eyes? Who, Ji Han?”

“Aha. So that friend is Ji Han?”

Yoo In found it suspicious that the man pronounced Ji Han’s name as if he knew him, so she looked over her shoulder with a questioning gaze.

“…Do you know Ji Han?”

“No. How would I know your friend?”

Before she could ask anything more about his glib response, Ki Yeon reached out and opened the sliding door.

Just before stepping out into the restaurant corridor, Yoo In felt warm breath on her ear and lips pressing close, and her neck stiffened.

“If I don’t contact you, you contact me. That’s fine too.”

The voice that penetrated her eardrum along the curve of her ear made all the fine hairs on Yoo In’s nape stand on end.

The man patted her shoulders that he had been holding as if in encouragement, then let go of Yoo In.

When she quickly turned around, she saw incredibly charming dimples deeply embedded in Ki Yeon’s face as he headed towards the exit.