In the dark office. This place, which should have been void of any signs of life, was filled with the lewd sounds of saliva being exchanged.

Even though it was already the second kiss and he knew the taste, the woman was still incredibly sweet. With each suck, sweet juice overflowed like fruit juice.

To taste her more deeply, he pulled her neck and turned his head. He bit and sucked on her soft lower lip. It was the woman who was sucking, but it was Woo Jin who felt a tingling pain.

He could feel her tightly gripping his suit lapel. Not only that, but her trembling was fully conveyed to the inside of her thighs, which felt heated. Even though both of them were safely armored with fabric except for their hands and faces, it felt like their bodies would burn from the hot heat.

Eventually, when she opened her mouth to catch her breath as her breathing became heavy, he smoothly dove in.

From that point on, he couldn’t think of anything. His mind went dark and he focused all his senses on this amazing feeling the woman was giving him.

Hot and damp breaths went back and forth between them. Eventually, the woman trembled in his arms and collapsed with a thud.

Woo Jin easily picked her up. In the process, his hand touched her buttocks, but the woman didn’t seem to mind anymore. No, she didn’t seem to have the capacity to mind.

Briefly parting his lips to let her breathe, she exhaled all at once the breath she had been holding.

“Ha…”

But even that exhaled breath made him go crazy. The moment that formless breath touched his lips, he felt a heat that seemed to melt him.

Really, what is so sweet.

From one to ten, there was nothing that wasn’t sweet. From the skin that touched, to the trembling lips, to the frightened eyes, and now even the exhaled breath was driving him crazy.

When he brought her to the office, he had no intention of doing this. But the moment the woman turned her back on the glamorous night view of Seoul, he reached out his hand without realizing it.

If he had known this would happen, he would have gone to a hotel.

His body was already heated up to the point where he felt a heavy pain. In the brief moment, the woman didn’t pull her body back despite trembling. She just kept taking deep breaths with unfathomable black eyes as if she couldn’t believe this situation.

The urge to find her lips again consumed his blinking reason. But instead of kissing, he brushed her disheveled hair back.

If he started kissing again, it seemed like he wouldn’t be able to end it with just kissing this time, so he mustered up his patience that had hit rock bottom and barely managed to gather his scattered reason.

But when he looked down at her, who had turned as red as possible with her eyes down, he felt thirsty again. Because the woman who had ripened red because of the marks he left was so pretty.

But that’s it for today.

Looking down at the woman whose neck had turned red, he playfully asked in a voice that had not yet lost its desire.

“Shall we go to a hotel?”

From the beginning, he had no such intention. He just wanted to tease the flushed woman because she was so pretty.

As expected, the startled woman answered in a trembling voice.

“Ah, no. Please take me home.”

At her unexpectedly sharp expression of will, a low chuckle escaped Woo Jin’s mouth. It seemed that tonight, like that day, his heated body because of her would have to cool down alone.

* * *

Deep into the night.

Tae Eun tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. The memory of that kiss she shared with Woo Jin in his office late in the evening still lingered and tormented her.

The second kiss.

Even today, which was deeper and hotter than the first kiss, she couldn’t feel any rejection at all. Ah, rather, she almost sat down on the floor because her body seemed to melt due to the heat. Fortunately, Woo Jin held her up and she was able to barely endure it, but thinking of that moment made her face redden.

His hand was clearly on her butt, but at that time, she didn’t even know it was embarrassing because of the heat of the kiss.

And that’s not all. Compared to the skilled man, how clumsy was her reaction again this time. Moreover, this time she fully felt the hardened body of the man.

If it had been another man, she would have ran away in shock. But even after the kiss ended, she couldn’t think of leaving his arms for a while.

When she overheard her aunts’ conversation in the bathroom, she was worried that she might come to hate him while trying to control her heart, but it was a needless worry. She didn’t dislike the man. She still didn’t feel rejection either.

No, strangely, it felt like she had taken a step closer to the man.

-So, Min Tae Eun… Just close your eyes and trust me for once.

Those words the man had said at some point dug into her mind.

Even if her aunts’ concerns were true, she had no ability to change it. The only thing she could do in this situation now was to try to trust him.

As she made up her mind that way, the anxiety subsided. Only then could Tae Eun close her eyes and fall asleep. It was a really deep and exhausting night.

* * *

The next day.

After finishing a meeting and just returning to his office, Woo Jin took a brief break to look down at the bright Seoul landscape and let out a snicker.

Throughout the day, Min Tae Eun kept coming to mind. The memory of her, who had flushed red to the point where it couldn’t be hidden even in the darkness, came to mind, and heat rushed in even when he was still.

“This is driving me crazy.”

It really was driving him crazy. He tried hard to shake it off, but that memory that came to him unexpectedly was almost irresistible.

Ha, I should have held back. I guess I touched her unnecessarily.

Knowing the taste is more frightening, and that feeling was so vivid that it caused an unquenchable thirst. In the end, Woo Jin took off his suit jacket, loosely pulled his tie, and took a deep breath.

But then, the secretary informed him that a visitor had arrived. It was a bit strange since it was an unscheduled visitor, but before the secretary could leave, the office door confidently opened and Seo Young Ja, his eldest aunt, revealed herself.

Yeah. Someone of that level could push her way in here without an appointment.

“What brings you here?”

Actually, he had some idea. It was the first time Young Ja had set foot in his office, and it happened to be the day after the formal meeting, so he could more than predict the topic she wanted to talk about.

“I came because I have something to say.”

Young Ja dismissed the secretary who was about to prepare tea and faced him with an expressionless face. Then, true to her bulldozer-like personality, she threw a straightforward question.

“Why, why her? I just can’t understand. No matter how much I think about it, the reason you chose her.”

“…”

“Are you trying to take revenge on us like this for making you break up with Park Seo Woo by opposing it?”

It was a question that made him frown involuntarily. Moreover, he couldn’t believe such words were coming out of Seo Young Ja’s mouth of all people.

What on earth does Min Tae Eun have to do with Seo Woo?

Woo Jin’s brows, who was sitting at the desk, furrowed in response to that question as if displaying his uncomfortable mood. However, Young Ja did not retract the words she had uttered. Rather, she dug in more provocatively.

“Park Seo Woo was a child who didn’t fit into our family. So you’re marrying such a child? Anyone is fine as long as it’s not Park Seo Woo, is that it?”

The words were prickly as if they had thorns attached, but as expected of Seo Young Ja, she never raised her voice. Therefore, the fury she harbored was utilized with much greater genuine value than other people, in a brutal and threatening way.

Woo Jin could fully read that fury harbored by Young Ja. However, he could not join in that fury. Above all, he could not tolerate Young Ja’s words and actions that disparaged Tae Eun.

“She will be my wife. How can you say anyone?”

“No, the expression ‘anyone’ is the most considerate one I could choose thinking of that child. I could have used an expression worse than that. You saw it too. That family.”

“But you still took Tae Eun’s side, aunt.”

“Don’t make me laugh. I didn’t take her side because she’s pretty, but because the way that woman, her new mother, was acting was so absurd that I couldn’t just stay still. In this day and age, is she the only one raising someone else’s child? And when you marry a man with a child, you should be prepared to embrace that child as well. How dare she take credit for it. So blatant and vulgar.”

Thinking about it again, Young Ja’s brows furrowed slightly as if she couldn’t believe it. It felt like the unpleasantness she felt yesterday was being vividly reenacted.

“They will be a flaw to you for a long time to come. And furthermore, they could become a disgrace to our family. You saw it. Openly declaring to enter politics.”

“…”

“Is that all? When the wife is like that, at least the father should be in his right mind, but that father is completely immersed in his new wife’s skirt and has no time to take sides. Ha… They are truly one of a kind in my life. And yet, do you still have to go through with this marriage?”

“Yes. I have to.”

“What on earth is the reason? If you’re doing this because of Park Seo Woo…”

“I don’t understand you more, aunt. Why are you mentioning Park Seo Woo when I’m marrying Min Tae Eun?”

“You don’t know? I’m doing this because I think you’re deliberately picking such a family to upset me since I said Park Seo Woo won’t do.”

“Aunt. You raised me so closely like that, and yet you still don’t know me?”

He slowly rose from his desk. Then, his already large body seemed to overwhelm everything around him.

But who was Seo Young Ja?

She was the person who had raised Woo Jin closely like her own child since he was young. Therefore, his aura that approached others in a threatening manner could not exert the same level of influence on her.

“That’s why I’m saying this. I know you better than anyone. Why do you have to marry such a child when you’re not lacking anything? Do you think I raised you so closely to see you bring home such a daughter-in-law?”

“No. You don’t know me at all, aunt.”

“What on earth do I not know?”

“Even now, you think Park Seo Woo and I broke up because of grandmother and you, don’t you?”

“Isn’t it?”

“If I liked it, aunt, no matter what kind of threat you and grandmother made, I absolutely would not have let go of Park Seo Woo. I would have held on tightly and made her mine no matter what. Just like how I’m doing to Min Tae Eun now.”

Young Ja accurately grasped the hidden meaning contained in that slow but clear voice. It was Woo Jin’s indirect threat that he would never let go of Min Tae Eun no matter what anyone said.

Young Ja’s well-groomed eyebrows rose slightly. It was unlike her to lose her composure and fail to manage her expression.

“So I really want to tell you that I didn’t choose Min Tae Eun instead of Park Seo Woo. I’m not stupid enough to drive my life into a sewer just to take revenge or something, aunt.”

“…”

“It’s marriage. Where is there room for revenge or something to intervene in choosing a lifelong companion?”

His voice was as firm as the conviction he held, without any shaking. Rather, a leisurely composure was felt in his stance of crossing his arms in front of his chest while talking to Young Ja.

As if no matter what anyone said, he would not be shaken, as if no one could dare to break him no matter what.

Today, Woo Jin’s shadow looked unusually huge. Young Ja’s eyes looking up at him were misaligned. It was because she instinctively realized that choice could not be reversed.

Nevertheless, unable to understand, Young Ja asked again.

“Then, just answer one thing. Why on earth… her?”

It was a voice in which suppressed anger was firmly revealed.

That’s how special Woo Jin was to Young Ja. The child born from the heart of her who had to get a divorce due to infertility. That’s why he was more special and that’s why she clung to him more desperately.

Even if he were to marry a daughter from a well-off family, she would be sick with worry that she was not good enough for him, so Min Tae Eun was truly an unthinkable match.

Therefore, after the formal meeting, she couldn’t sleep a wink yesterday. She was on the verge of getting an anger disorder because of that family that was even lower in status than Min Tae Eun. Especially, Ji Eun, who pretended to be elegant while acting like a fox, was truly incompatible with Young Ja. So, as a last hope, she came to persuade Woo Jin.

Woo Jin also knew that feeling. Even though their relationship was a bit strained now, to Young Ja, he was always a nephew for whom she wouldn’t mind giving everything.

Sometimes he thinks. If only Young Ja’s way of favoring him had been a little more flexible, so that no one would have been hurt by it, could they have faced each other in a slightly different way?

That’s why he was never relentlessly cold to Young Ja. Even though he was so hurt by that distorted affection, his sharpened heart always dulled a little.

Even at this moment, it was like that.

The urge to give Young Ja the answer she wanted and the urge to tell the truth collided as she looked at him with shaking eyes. But the moment he thought of Tae Eun’s gentle face, the answer became clear.

“If it’s Min Tae Eun…”

“…”

“…I think I can love her.”

Even if she clicked her tongue saying he was crazy about her, he couldn’t help it.

Because that was his true feelings.