Hanna’s eyes trembled at Ji Ho’s response.

‘He changed after meeting someone he really likes? Then what was I?’

Speechless, she could only blink her eyes when Ji Ho spoke again.

“If you came at Ji Eun’s invitation, just see Ji Eun and go. Don’t mind us.”

Ji Ho spoke in a cold and sharp voice, as if telling her not to interfere.

Feeling like the situation had become like this all because of Hanna, Ji Ho unconsciously became irritable.

Knowing well what Ji Ho would be like when he turned cold, Hanna could not say anything more.

Ji Ho, who said he had changed himself, really seemed like a different person.

His expressions and tone were all things Hanna had never received from him.

‘You weren’t originally that kind of person, you just didn’t like me.’

Lowering her gaze with a dejected heart, Hanna noticed the sparkling rings on their hands.

‘Of all things, why did that have to catch my eye.’

Hanna bit down hard on the soft flesh inside her mouth.

**

‘To think Hanna was Ji Ho’s girlfriend.’

It was such a surprising fact that Yi Soo could hardly believe it even seeing it directly before her eyes.

She remembered seeing an interview on TV where Hanna said she still couldn’t forget her first love.

‘So this is what Min Ji Eun has been wanting to say all along.’

There had been many times when meeting Ji Ho felt like living in a different world, and this time was no different.

Even his ex-girlfriend was far from ordinary.

Yi Soo had sometimes wondered what Ji Ho’s previous girlfriends were like.

What kind of women he’d dated. How he’d dated them.

‘I couldn’t really imagine it, but he dated the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life.’

Ji Ho, who always exceeded Yi Soo’s imagination, seemed remarkable anew.

Even today, he had made Yi Soo a movie protagonist as part of his bucket list, and until the end, he gave her one surprise after another without pause.

Though her feelings were complicated, Yi Soo forced a calm smile.

She didn’t want to show these emotions in front of Hanna.

Ji Ho looked at Yi Soo and asked gently.

“Yi Soo, shall we get up if you’re done eating?”

“Okay.”

Yi Soo didn’t want to stay here any longer either.

“Let’s get up.”

Ji Ho stood up first and pulled Yi Soo’s chair back for her.

If only they hadn’t met Hanna, it would have been a perfectly wrapped up day.

Ji Ho felt heavy-hearted at the unexpectedly tangled situation.

**

Min Ho had moved to the table where his fiancée Won Ju was after Hanna arrived.

Ji Ho, bringing Yi Soo there, put his hand on Min Ho’s shoulder and said,

“Min Ho, we’re going to head out first. Congratulations on your wedding, Won Ju.”

Won Ju smiled and nodded slightly at Ji Ho’s greeting.

Min Ho pushed his chair back and stood up.

“You’re leaving already?”

Min Ho asked, glancing at the table where Hanna and Ji Eun remained.

“Yeah. We’ll go for now and meet up once more before you leave the country.”

“Oh, alright then.”

Min Ho nodded.

“Congratulations again on your marriage. I’m really envious.”

Ji Ho looked at Min Ho and Won Ju with genuinely envious eyes.

He had never envied anyone in his life before, but today seeing Min Ho, he felt that way for the first time.

“Hey, if you’re envious, you can do it too. What’s the problem?”

“Heh heh. I want to do that too.”

Ji Ho laughed as if joking and held Yi Soo’s hand tightly.

Yi Soo was confused in many ways, but she smiled softly at Ji Ho.

“What reason is there that you can’t? You have a house, a car, amazing stocks, you lack nothing. You just need someone you love.”

“Hearing you say that, it feels like I could do it tomorrow.”

Hearing Min Ho’s straightforward words, marriage didn’t seem like such a distant or difficult thing.

With someone he loved too, if only considering the conditions, there was nothing problematic for Ji Ho.

“If you have a good person, what does timing matter? The heart is what’s important. You’ll just waste time if you put it off for no reason.”

Ji Ho raised his eyebrows slightly and nodded at Min Ho’s words that sounded like an adult’s.

“If it was something I could do as I pleased, I’d want to do that too.”

Ji Ho chuckled and gave Min Ho a final greeting before leaving with Yi Soo.

**

Inside Ji Ho’s car.

Yi Soo had been quietly looking out the window since getting in the car.

Driving down the clear road, Ji Ho glanced sideways at Yi Soo.

‘Is she upset?’

While driving and staring straight ahead, Ji Ho’s mind was busy trying to find words to soothe Yi Soo’s mood.

Yi Soo was deliberately staring intently at the night scenery flashing by outside the window.

She needed to focus her attention elsewhere to empty out the thoughts that kept invading her mind.

Despite such efforts, the image of Hanna smiling brightly and showing off her dazzling beauty kept coming to mind.

Then Ji Ho’s face smiling back at her also appeared in her imagination.

The image of the two of them together was captured in her mind like a single photograph.

‘Did he do the same things to Hanna that he did to me?’

Thoughts she didn’t want to think about kept muddling her head.

If it hadn’t been Hanna, would it have been okay?

“Yi Soo.”

Lost in thought, Yi Soo didn’t even hear Ji Ho speaking.

“Yi Soo?”

Ji Ho reached out his long arm and gently touched Yi Soo’s cheek.

Startled by the touch, Yi Soo turned her head to the side.

“Ah! Sorry, what did you say?”

“What are you thinking about so intently?”

“……”

Ji Ho’s voice had sunk low.

What thoughts could have trapped her, making her unable to even hear his voice?

In the quiet, narrow car where even breathing could be heard, what thoughts had closed Yi Soo’s ears?

He could guess, but wasn’t sure how to resolve it.

“Yi Soo, I hope you’re not having useless thoughts.”

“What are useless thoughts?”

“Hmm… The thoughts you’re having right now.”

Ji Ho, who had been looking straight ahead, briefly glanced to the side.

“You talk as if you can see my thoughts.”

Yi Soo laughed awkwardly, feeling embarrassed as if her unseemly feelings had been exposed.

“I can see to some extent. It’s all written on your face.”

Ji Ho held out his palm towards Yi Soo.

Yi Soo, who had been staring blankly, slipped her hand between his fingers.

Ji Ho gently pulled their intertwined hands towards himself.

“Don’t look elsewhere, look at me.”

Warmth transmitted from the tightly held hand.

Just holding hands seemed to make her turbulent heart a bit calmer.

While knowing there was no reason to be anxious with Ji Ho beside her, she couldn’t help feeling uneasy, whether it was because the other person was Hanna or not.

“Are you not feeling well?”

“I’m not sure. What my feelings are right now.”

Yi Soo was also confused whether she was feeling jealous, or if she was just too shocked.

It wasn’t a pleasant thing, but it wasn’t something to be upset at Ji Ho about either.

“I’m sorry. If I’d known we’d run into her, I wouldn’t have gone.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, what are you sorry for?”

Yi Soo felt sorry too, thinking Ji Ho was needlessly worrying because of her.

She thought she would be fine even if a situation like this arose, but maybe because the other person was such a formidable woman, she couldn’t help but feel concerned.

Ji Ho let out a small sigh and spoke calmly.

“Since you’ll find out anyway, I’ll just tell you. I first met Hanna because of Ji Eun, and though we met a few times, I never felt nervous or excited. Then we broke up when Hanna’s dating rumors broke out, and that was the end. In Paris, on the day you said you wanted chocolate, we happened to run into each other in the hotel lobby, but I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think there was any need to.”

Ji Ho squeezed their intertwined hands as he continued speaking.

“I’m saying this in case you misunderstand, but everything I’ve said to you so far has been completely sincere. You were the first to make me feel like I was going crazy with liking someone, and the first I said I love to.”

Yi Soo quietly listened to Ji Ho’s words.

Ji Ho’s confessions that she heard all the time felt unusually long and serious today.

“My true feelings, you’re really my first for everything.”

At the word “first,” Yi Soo suddenly remembered her first kiss with Ji Ho.

She couldn’t forget how it felt so sweet and delicious that her whole body seemed to melt.

How could he be so good at it if it was his first time?

How far did Ji Ho mean when he said “first”?

It’s not that she had wished to be his first, nor had she ever thought such things were important, but imagining that he had such a sweet kiss with someone else made her heart suddenly sink.

“You don’t believe me?”

“If it’s your first time, how can you be so good at it.”

Ji Ho slightly furrowed his brow at Yi Soo’s words mixed with a sigh, as if wondering what she meant, then suddenly burst out laughing.

“What am I so good at? Tell me specifically.”

Ji Ho asked with a playful smile.

“Ah, never mind……”

Yi Soo immediately regretted bringing it up.

The serious atmosphere suddenly turned suggestive.

“I’m good at everything even if it’s my first time. Have you ever seen me be bad at anything?”

Yi Soo laughed incredulously at Ji Ho’s shameless response, at a loss for words.

“Yi Soo, the first night you stayed over at my place. I told you then, right? That it was all my first time too. That’s really true. Cooking and preparing a meal for you, someone sleeping in my bed, playing the piano for you and rushing out to pick you up in the middle of the night – it was all my first with you. You’re the only woman who’s been to my place too. So don’t have any sad thoughts. My heart is only full of you.”

Ji Ho’s efforts to comfort Yi Soo’s heart still seemed unfinished.

Listening to Ji Ho’s feelings in his sweet voice always made her heart flutter and feel good.

Yi Soo turned her body completely to face Ji Ho and looked at him intently.

“Then am I prettier than Hanna?”

She was dumbfounded at herself for asking such a childish question, but she deliberately didn’t swallow the words lingering in her mouth.

She wanted to hear the answer she already knew in Ji Ho’s voice.

Ji Ho burst out laughing at the childish question.

“Wow……”

As if not believing the words came from Yi Soo’s mouth, Ji Ho briefly turned his head to look at her.

“Why are you laughing?”

“You’re so cute when you’re jealous.”

“Tch.”

Yi Soo pouted her lips.

“I’ve told you countless times. To my eyes, only you are pretty. You still don’t believe it?”

“You really have rose-colored glasses firmly on.”

“You already knew that.”

What jealousy over a man like this.

Yi Soo couldn’t hold back the laughter that leaked out from happiness.

Her cheekbones and the corners of her mouth kept rising involuntarily.

“I’m really childish, aren’t I? I didn’t think I’d be like this.”

“I don’t like you being upset, but honestly, seeing you jealous makes me feel kind of good.”

Ji Ho said with a chuckle.

“Then should I keep being super jealous? Want me to?”

Yi Soo leaned her face towards Ji Ho and smiled playfully.

Ji Ho turned his head slightly and smiled while looking at Yi Soo’s lips.

“If you do that, I won’t be able to hold back.”

Ji Ho stopped the car at a red light and pulled the handbrake.

With the click of the seatbelt unfastening, he leaned towards Yi Soo.

As Ji Ho tilted his head, their lips immediately met.

Looking down at Yi Soo’s round eyes widened in surprise, Ji Ho parted her open lips and entered.

Knowing the given time was short, Ji Ho delved in all the more deeply and intensely.

In the blink of an eye, the light changed and Ji Ho painfully separated his lips.

As Yi Soo caught her excited breath, the car started moving again.

“Let’s go to my place. To do what I’m good at.”

Gripping the steering wheel, Ji Ho increased the car’s speed.