Yuri carefully opened her mouth, steadying her trembling voice.

“The emergency board meeting held yesterday…”

“That went well too. That’s why I suggested popping champagne. Oh, look, it’s already prepared.”

He chuckled softly, seemingly having just noticed the champagne in the ice bucket.

Kwon Jeho hugged Yuri and approached the dining table, picking up the champagne bottle. He gazed admiringly at the elaborately decorated table.

“Did you prepare all this by yourself?”

“There wasn’t much to prepare besides cutting the fruit.”

Yuri quietly watched Jeho as he uncorked the champagne. He filled two glasses on the table and handed one to Yuri.

“Let’s toast first.”

“You should tell me the reason for the celebration before that.”

“The reason for the celebration…”

For a moment, Jeho’s eyes sparkled as he looked at her. Yuri subtly averted her gaze, trying to hide her nervousness. But she couldn’t stop her heart from racing uncontrollably.

“KG Group might have looked fine on the outside, but it was rotting from within. Yesterday, we removed part of that diseased tissue.”

Did he manage to remove Executive Kwon from his position even with the fake ledger?

Yuri held her breath and listened intently to Jeho’s words.

“There was a lot of corruption and embezzlement during this Arcadia Mall project. Most of it was Minwoo’s work, but my uncle also joined in from time to time. All of this was revealed at yesterday’s emergency board meeting, and my uncle was forced to step down from his executive position.”

The Arcadia Mall project? Not the incident from 10 years ago?

As Yuri’s eyes widened, Jeho smiled gently and leaned towards her. At the same time, he clinked his glass against hers.

“My uncle seemed to think I was only digging into the incident from 10 years ago, so he didn’t take any precautions regarding other matters.”

“Then that ledger…”

Too shocked, Yuri didn’t realize what she was saying. Only after his expression subtly changed did she realize what had come out of her mouth. But it was already too late.

“Of course it’s fake. The real one was burned 10 years ago…”

Jeho cupped Yuri’s flushed cheek with his hand and whispered softly.

“What does it matter? You held onto it till the end. Just hand it over.”

“I… I…”

Was the shock too great? Words wouldn’t come out properly.

He knew not only that she had switched the ledgers but also that she had been hit by Executive Kwon in the process.

Yuri could only stare at Jeho, moistening her trembling lips with her tongue.

“Why didn’t you take out your anger on me like that? I wouldn’t have minded. Even after finding out why I approached you, why?”

“Did you… know everything?”

Jeho slowly nodded and took the glass from Yuri’s hand, placing it on the table. After setting down his own glass as well, he pulled her into his arms.

“Since when?”

“Since that night you came looking for me in Jeju Island in the middle of the night.”

This can’t be! He had known everything from the beginning.

Thinking she had been fooled again, she didn’t even feel angry anymore. She just felt empty, her mind going blank and her vision blurring.

“Compared to what I’ve done, switching ledgers is really nothing… In the end, did I hurt you again?”

Hearing Jeho’s whispers pouring over her head, Yuri struggled to calm her trembling body.

She felt foolish for dreaming of revenge alone, not realizing he had been aware all along. Although she had changed her mind at the last minute, it didn’t erase the mistakes she had made.

“I realized, albeit late, that this kind of revenge isn’t right.”

“Who cares about what’s right when it comes to revenge? You just pay back as much as you’ve been hurt.”

“Of course I wanted to pay back as much as I was hurt. I wanted to hurt you as much as I had been hurt. But I didn’t want to lower myself below my standards just for the sake of revenge.”

Yuri broke away from Jeho’s embrace and glared at him with bloodshot eyes.

“Because I’m different from you.”

Jeho, who had been silently looking down at her, nodded gently with a soft smile.

“Yes, you’re right. You are different from me.”

He turned his gaze to the carefully prepared table with a bitter expression.

“Then what’s all this? Some kind of last supper?”

“Yes. Even if it’s the end, shouldn’t we end it properly?”

Yuri picked up the champagne glass Jeho had put down. She handed one to him and clinked her glass against his, just as he had done earlier.

“I guess this toast is for both of us.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. For our last night.”

Yuri raised her glass full of champagne and downed it in one go. At first, Jeho just stared at her, but eventually followed suit and emptied his glass.

“What angers me the most is…”

Yuri paused for a moment and bit into a strawberry-shaped chocolate. She needed the sweet chocolate to neutralize the bitter words about to pour from her mouth. Not that it would change reality.

Slowly melting the chocolate in her mouth, Yuri continued in a dry voice.

“That you would have acted the same way even if Minwoo’s fiancée had been another woman. Huh, in the end, it was just kindness you would have shown to any woman. And I, like a fool, got excited…”

Just saying it made her feel devastated, as if the days she had leaned on him were crumbling meaninglessly before her eyes.

“You probably won’t believe me if I say this now.”

Jeho’s expression gradually distorted, even though Yuri was the one who had been truly wronged.

“Yuri, if it hadn’t been you, I wouldn’t have approached anyone like that.”

“Do you expect me to believe that now?”

For a fleeting moment, Yuri wished she was foolish enough to fall for his words again. Shaking her head vigorously, exasperated at herself for still not coming to her senses.

“No. I can’t believe anything you say anymore.”

“I know. It’s natural that you can’t trust me.”

His melancholic gaze fell upon her.

Is this really the end?

Yuri hopelessly looked at the table, which remained almost untouched except for the one glass of champagne each had drunk. She had wanted to end things amicably, but everything had gone awry.

An awkward silence settled between them.

“Still…”

After a long while, Yuri was the one to break the silence. She brushed her bangs back with one hand and looked at Jeho.

“We should spend the last night together before parting. We agreed from the start to meet casually without thinking about the future, right?”

Jeho furrowed his brow at her words, as if asking if she was serious. Even though she felt like slapping him right then and there, she looked at him with a faint smile.

“I’ll leave tomorrow morning, so let me stay here tonight.”

Things had gone off track unintentionally, but she couldn’t end it like this.

She had decided that after today, she would erase him completely from both her heart and mind. To leave no regrets, she needed to burn everything cleanly.

Be it desire or hatred.

Or perhaps… love.

Although it hurt inside as if she were burning up, thankfully her eyes didn’t redden. No tears came. She only worried that she might burst at the slightest shock.

“I never said it was the last.”

“That’s for me to decide. I think I have at least that much right, don’t I?”

Yuri was right. He had no intention of letting her go, but if she desperately wanted it, it was right to step back for now. That way, she wouldn’t get hurt anymore.

Both Kwon Minwoo’s overseas assignment and Kwon Woosik’s dismissal were based on Yuri’s sacrifice. The problem here was that the main battle hadn’t even begun yet.

Instead of answering, Jeho raised his hand and gently caressed the cheek that had been hit by Executive Kwon yesterday.

“If this is really the last night, I won’t be considerate. Are you okay with that?”

“That’s what I should be saying. Since it’s the last…”

The rest of her words couldn’t come out because of Jeho suddenly pressing his lips against hers. As if swallowing her words, he whispered softly while covering her lips.

“Acting tough again. Even though you’ll regret it later… I warned you clearly. I won’t be lenient tonight even if you cry and beg.”

Jeho made Yuri lean her back against the wall, then put his hand under her knee and lifted one of her legs. He lowered his head and once again captured her lips.

Was it because she thought it was the last time?

Wherever his lips touched, wherever his fingertips passed, she felt extreme pleasure. Even before they properly made love, Yuri felt as if everything before her eyes was burning white.

“Let’s not do this here… Let’s go to the bedroom.”

“I clearly said I wouldn’t be considerate.”

He flatly refused her request and tightened his arms around her.

The strongly rushing sensation spread quickly throughout her body, frightfully swallowing up the last shred of reason in an instant. Her legs felt so weak she could no longer support herself.

“Jeho…”

“Is it hard to stand?”

When Yuri nodded, Jeho lifted her up as she was and headed to the bedroom. After laying Yuri on the bed, he quickly took off his shirt and positioned himself over her.

“If you don’t want to, tell me even now. I’ll stop.”

Was it because she had decided it was the last time?

He was unlike his usual self, urgent and somewhat rough to the point of pain. But that made it better.

Because he seemed to be shaken like her. Because he seemed to have lost his reason. Because he seemed to be hurting together with her.

Yuri curved her lips and gently kissed him as an answer that it was okay.

“Ah, Yuri, you.”

He muttered her name as if sighing and hugged her tightly as if he might crush her.

And so, their last night slowly began to burn.

Their raw desire filled each other roughly, like scratching with sharp nails, and hatred and passion intertwined like their entangled bodies.

Is it their hearts clashing with a sound? Or their base bodies consumed by lust?

I don’t know how many times they reached the peak. They fiercely reached the end and shattered brilliantly. But the closer their bodies got, the further their hearts seemed to drift apart.

The more that happened, the tighter they held each other.

As despair dug deeper into both of them, the pain became even more solid.

Eventually, a small sob escaped Yuri’s lips.

“You can’t finish first. I haven’t even started yet.”

But he didn’t stop. As he had warned, there was no mercy.

Every time Yuri felt like saying, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ she bit her lip. She hated showing weakness, and she knew that the moment those words came out, their precariously connected relationship would end.

Instead of pushing him away, she clung to him even more tightly. Even when her vision blurred and she couldn’t move a finger from exhaustion, she couldn’t let go with her own hands.

“Hah, Yuri.”

Along with his rough breathing, he whispered her name in a tender voice.

“Even though it was a misaligned start, will you believe me if I say I’ve come to truly love you?”

Perhaps his words might be true. Even if it wasn’t at the beginning, he might have come to love her now.

But what good would that do?

He had deceived her, and she had deceived him too.

Just as she couldn’t trust him, he probably couldn’t trust her anymore either. A relationship without trust can never last.

“No. I don’t believe you.”

“What should I do to…”

Before he could finish, Yuri raised herself and kissed him. Jeho mumbled something as he pulled away from her lips, but Yuri shook her head and pressed her lips against his again.

After this movement repeated several times, whether he gave up or whether desire ignited again, his hands grasped her slender waist. Once more, the sorrowful act continued.

A moment later, whether from unbearable pleasure or from the turbulent mix of emotions, tears fell from Yuri’s reddened eyes.

Jeho lowered his head and pressed his lips to the tears flowing down her cheeks.

It was sweet. The tears were sweet, and she was sweet.

It felt like drinking poison, so maddeningly sweet.

It was so sweetly poisonous that he wished to never open his eyes again.

It was their last night, so sweet yet so bitter.