“Th… that’s… no, why……”

Fragmented words scattered before being completed.

Unlike someone who had just heard an exciting confession, Yoo In’s face turned to shock, then quickly flushed red like a ripe tomato.

Yoo In slapped away the finger touching her chin and covered her mouth tightly with the back of her hand.

Ki Yeon saw her ears and nape turning pink with heat through her hair, and smiled leisurely as he stepped back.

“I answered because you asked, so you don’t have to say anything now.”

“……”

“It’s not like I want to hear anything anyway.”

“…Why?”

Though she mumbled barely audibly, Ki Yeon understood and asked back.

“What do you mean why?”

“…You don’t know anything about me.”

“Do I have to know everything to like someone? Is that how it is for you, Yoo In?”

It was a simple and unpretentious answer.

Yoo In had no words to respond to Ki Yeon’s question. Having never liked anyone before, she didn’t know what it meant to fall for someone.

Can you like someone without knowing anything about them? Is it really that easy? Yoo In was simply confused.

Ah, he had been like that from the start. A person for whom everything was easy. Taking interest in someone, saying he liked them, having his feelings rejected. All of it.

For Yoo In, these were all difficult things. Everything.

“…What about Yoo Jin unni.”

“What about her?”

His calm voice, bordering on arrogance, settled thickly in her ears.

“This has nothing to do with Nam Yoo Jin. This is between you and me. Don’t bring Nam Yoo Jin into our business.”

“……”

“Do you understand?”

His deep voice wanted the desired answer as always, but Yoo In only bit her lip hard.

All the emotions she felt now were nameless, unidentifiable ones without labels.

Most things he gave her were like that. Things she didn’t know the names or meanings of.

What was this feeling that was neither good nor bad? What was the name of this emotion that made her chest tight, breathless, wanting to run away?

This person who seemed to know everything and found everything easy – did he know the name of this?

“Are you… always like this, Director?”

“Like what?”

“…Taking interest, being nice, liking someone… Can you decide all that so quickly?”

Her muttered words were barely audible.

Ki Yeon quietly gazed at her slender neck, still flushed with heat, and spoke.

“What’s so difficult for Nam Yoo In?”

Ki Yeon grasped her thin shoulder, still damp, and turned her towards him.

Yoo In shrank back, not wanting to turn, but couldn’t overcome the strength of his large hand.

Having finally turned Yoo In to face him, Ki Yeon met her eyes.

Unlike her large eyes, unsettled and shaking, Ki Yeon’s gaze was straight and firm.

“Just because I realized the answer first doesn’t mean it’s easy or wrong. Only I know that process.”

“……”

“I simply accepted my state quickly. Because I clearly know why I’m like this. Don’t apply strange standards thinking this is light or simple. Nam Yoo In, you don’t know how I feel.”

Ki Yeon’s lips curved up lazily into a smile.

His dark eyes, glowing softly, were full of conviction.

“It must be difficult for you now, Yoo In, to accept anything. So follow along slowly. You just need to watch me closely. I’ll wait until you come.”

Yoo In felt like she was sinking deeper into a maze at his confident words.

His arrogance that thoroughly excluded the possibility of her rejection, his confidence that she would come to him, was unpleasant yet squeezed her heart achingly.

Amidst all these unanswerable things, Yoo In’s brow furrowed, and Ki Yeon smiled quite politely as he lightly stroked her cheek as if to comfort her.

“Think about it slowly. Don’t try to run away.”

“…Run away?”

As his cold fingertips passed, Yoo In’s shoulders trembled finely.

Ki Yeon seemed to like even that reaction, smirking as he started the car.

“Put on your seatbelt.”

Yoo In just stared blankly at Ki Yeon gripping the steering wheel, not understanding what he meant.

Seeing her foolish look, Ki Yeon laughed out loud and said “What are you doing?”, which finally snapped her back to her senses.

Outside the window, the rain had weakened and her damp knit and hair had almost dried. The magical time he had cast was over, and now they had to move on to reality.

“Ah… yes.”

Though she answered, her dazed hand floundered helplessly in the air. Then a hand suddenly popped out from the side, stopping Yoo In, and fastened the seatbelt for her.

Ki Yeon’s car skillfully exited the school and soon merged onto the road where traffic was moving slowly due to the rain.

A strange silence flowed in the car as it repeatedly stopped and went, and Yoo In fixed her gaze outside while fidgeting with the blanket like before.

Ki Yeon glanced at the small white fingers moving restlessly and spoke casually.

“But why haven’t you dated?”

Yoo In’s answer came after a beat of silence.

“…Do I have to?”

“Not necessarily, but. Did people really leave Nam Yoo In alone?”

Ki Yeon smiled, either in mockery or admiration.

“I’m not interested in that kind of thing.”

“Why aren’t you interested?”

“I don’t know why I should invest time and effort in emotions that will change and fade anyway.”

Yoo In’s voice was close to resignation.

Though she was talking about the framework of dating now, for Yoo In, all relationships with others were like that.

At first they’re good, fun, exciting and happy, but in the end they fade and change with groundless words or absurd rumors – she had already experienced such instant-like relationships to the point of nausea.

It was comfortable having no one. That’s why she went around alone in her department. She disliked explaining herself in detail, and there was no need to.

The fact that she was family to a famous celebrity, the secret of the deep wound she harbored – the two people beside her now were enough to know these things.

“Do you think it will be like that this time too?”

As Yoo In looked at Ki Yeon, his languidly lowered eyes met hers as well.

“Do you think I’ll change too?”

It wasn’t pressing or angry, just an indifferent question, but she couldn’t readily say yes.

There was no sign of hurrying either, so Yoo In hesitated for a long while, swallowing dryly, before finally opening her mouth.

“…I don’t know.”

“That’s right.”

“……”

“No one knows if things will change or not until the end. That’s natural, so why give up before even starting? What are you so afraid of?”

Ki Yeon looked ahead again, but Yoo In kept staring at his profile.

It had been a long time since she was afraid of meeting someone new, but what part of her looked like that in this man’s eyes?

She had lived hiding it well and was still doing so, but his words, which had no trace of difficulty or shadow of failure, kept seeming to uncover her depths as if peering into them.

Where did his firm resolve come from, Yoo In suddenly wondered, and as she stared for a long time, Ki Yeon laughed lightly and tapped Yoo In’s cheek with his index finger.

“What’s with that fervent gaze? Are you hoping I’ll promise to never change?”

“No.”

With an immediate response, Yoo In turned her head the other way.

Then a low voice, neither light nor heavy but of just the right weight, came from behind.

“Yoo In. Don’t act like you’ve seen it all. You’re only 23 years old.”

“……”

“Don’t mind other things and live how you want, it’s not enough for this world.”

“…Are you living like that, Director?”

Ki Yeon said “Me?” then pulled up the corners of his mouth in a slight smile.

“I thought I was doing so sufficiently, but recently I’ve started to doubt if that might not be the case.”

“Why?”

“When it was time to study, I only did that, and after entering the company, I worked nonstop for years. I wasn’t very interested in much else.”

Yoo In, who had half-turned her face, blinked her large eyes and asked “And then?”

“But I found there’s something in my life that gives me more joy than that.”

Ki Yeon smiled deeply, dimples forming, as he briefly glanced at the passenger seat.

“Like canceling a meeting to pick up a girl who hates rain.”

“What? Don’t tell me… you canceled a meeting to come?”

As Yoo In asked in dismay, Ki Yeon just smiled playfully without answering.

“Really?”

“Is that important?”

Ki Yeon spoke indifferently as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.

Even after that, Ki Yeon told Yoo In, who asked several more times, that it was a joke, but Yoo In didn’t believe him and kept looking at Ki Yeon with eyes full of anxiety and distrust.

“Don’t groan. You really are like a puppy.”

Ki Yeon casually spoke as he unbuckled his seatbelt and prepared to get out, and Yoo In flared up with an incredulous face.

“When did I? I didn’t make any sound.”

“No, I can hear it all.”

Ki Yeon grinned mischievously and got out of the car first.

Yoo In, who had been looking around after Ki Yeon left mid-conversation, belatedly noticed they had arrived at the apartment entrance and was startled.

As she hurriedly gathered her things and was about to get out, the car door swung open.

“Get out.”

Ki Yeon was standing in front of the door holding the umbrella they had shared earlier.

The sound of the drizzling rain falling on the umbrella spread, and Ki Yeon was waiting for Yoo In underneath it.

After helping her out of the car, Ki Yeon silently followed Yoo In into the apartment complex.

Yoo In also walked in the drizzling rain shoulder to shoulder with Ki Yeon without saying anything.

As they were nearing Yoo In’s building, Ki Yeon suddenly spoke.

“Ah, I remember that. When I first saw Nam Yoo In, you asked to be taken to the wrong apartment.”

Yoo In immediately frowned and looked up at Ki Yeon.

“…You have a good memory. You can forget things like that.”

“Why forget? I should bring it up when it’s forgettable to see your flustered face like this.”

“You find my embarrassment funny?”

Ki Yeon laughed softly as he looked at her fair cheeks puffed out in a sulk.

“If I say it looks pretty, will you curse me as crazy?”

“…Wow.”

As Yoo In made an utterly dumbfounded face, Ki Yeon laughed so hard his shoulders shook.

The man who said he canceled a meeting and came to shield her from the rain was smiling more comfortably than usual, wearing just a shirt instead of the suit he usually wore like armor, with his hair roughly swept back.

Yoo In felt like she was finally seeing his true self.

Not some company director, not someone looking down from on high.

Just the man Do Ki Yeon himself.

A man standing before the woman he said he liked, smiling with crinkled eyes, radiated a warm and cozy feeling like a sun-dried blanket and exuded a light of joy.

Yoo In wanted to reach out and touch that warmth slightly, but hesitated and couldn’t extend her hand.

She felt like she, always orbiting the same path like a satellite, could never reach the sun that emitted such fiery heat no matter how hard she tried.

“Go in now.”

“…Yes.”

A hand with low body temperature gently patted her back. As she received the affectionate gesture and stepped out from under the umbrella, sudden realization struck.

Ah. She really was afraid, just as he said.

She was saying inside that she was scared of this person who had walked such a different path from her own.

“I’ll contact you.”

Yoo In bit her lip hard, gave a quick bow, then whirled around.

If she stayed by his side any longer, she felt like his burning comfort would transfer to her and take her breath away.