“Ah… it hurts!”

Hi Ra glared at Lee Han as she forcefully shook off his hand.

“Cha Hi Ra, what are you doing? Why are you meeting Ba Ha?”

“Then what are you doing?”

The flowing tears wouldn’t stop. His expression as he looked at her, his voice as he spoke. None of it belonged to her. The only thing that was hers was the red mark left on her wrist from his strong grip.

“Do you want to shoot that commercial so badly? Then you should have told me!”

“Cha Hi Ra.”

“When I’m here. When you have KH Group behind you! Are you doing this on purpose? Right? You’re doing this to make me angry!”

She hated him for refusing even if she offered him everything. She hated him for being different from those who try to take more.

“I told you I’ll give you everything. You just have to accept it, is that so difficult? Fine. Go shoot it. If you want to do this commercial so badly, do it. By my side.”

If only he had been shallow like others, perhaps she could have desired him less.

At least then her heart wouldn’t be crumbling like this.

“Oppa, you said you wanted to work on Director Ha’s project, right? Go shoot that. The script will be sent to your office.”

“…Cha Hi Ra.”

“I told you. Just stay by my side. Just be happy accepting what I give you. It’s not hard.”

She just wanted to see him smile once.

That day, his smile was so beautiful that she became greedy just once.

That’s why she became even greedier. She wanted to be the reason for the smile on his face. Hi Ra wiped away her flowing tears and turned her back on him.

“Next time it won’t end like this. This is the last time. That I’ll put up with it.”

[This is the timeline separator]

“Alright, let’s start again!”

The director instantly focused the noisy atmosphere. The murmuring sounds gradually decreased, and Hi Ra stood to the side with her arms crossed, staring at Lee Han.

Next to her, Manager Seul Gi sighed and stood by Hi Ra’s side.

“Yes! I’m sorry!”

Feeling sorry for the delay in filming caused by Hi Ra just before shooting began, Lee Han looked at the staff members and apologized with a full bow, his fists clenched tightly.

“Alright! Let’s begin! Rea…dy! Action!”

That was the look.

As soon as filming started, Lee Han in his crisp three-piece suit focused immediately, as if he wasn’t even aware of what had just happened.

“Ha… as expected, he’s impressive.”

Ba Ha, watching this scene, felt bitter yet proud. This was exactly why we had been hiding our love all this time, and it was an understandable excuse.

‘Oppa, I’m really okay! We love each other, right? So I’m really fine.’

At first, she didn’t want to interfere with his work, and later it became the norm, missing the timing to break out of the shell and come out to the world.

Ba Ha really hated him, but seeing that figure, everything he had built up seemed so cool, and on the other hand, a small smile spread across her face with pride.

Ziiing-!

As the filming was in full swing, Ba Ha was busy focusing on Lee Han while checking the progress with Doo Na, not even paying attention to Tae Un. Tae Un, watching this scene from a slight distance, pointed at his phone while looking at Ba Ha.

[ Aren’t you staring too intensely? ] [ Vice Chairman, you shouldn’t do this~ I’m just doing my job with company loyalty! ]

Ba Ha took her eyes off Lee Han and shifted her gaze to the chat with Tae Un. As if she had already gotten used to his honest approach, Ba Ha’s face gradually spread into a smile at his expressions that he never tired of giving.

[ You came all the way here today, don’t I deserve a reward? ] [ A reward? ] [ Have dinner with me today. Give me the rest of your time today. ]

She must have been bewitched by a fox.

Those simple words made her shy, and Ba Ha felt embarrassed again about her relationship with Tae Un that others in the same space didn’t know about.

Her face was slowly starting to turn red, and when Ba Ha took her eyes off her phone and looked at Tae Un, their eyes met.

At that moment, Ba Ha’s face, which had been warming up, suddenly turned bright red as if it had exploded.

“Senior, are you sick? Why is your face so red! There’s a team dinner after we finish today, will you be able to come?”

Surprised to see Ba Ha’s reddened face, Doo Na whispered to her quietly so as not to disturb the filming.

“Team… dinner?”

At the mention of the team dinner she had completely forgotten about, Ba Ha looked at Tae Un carefully with a disappointed expression and pointed at her phone.

[ There’s a team dinner, they say… ]

Feeling like nothing around him was helping, Tae Un sighed and moved his fingers busily.

[ Then I’ll come to that team dinner too. ] [This is the timeline separator]

It was noisy.

The restaurant where everyone gathered after the shoot was over was bustling with conversations between people sitting next to each other. Tae Un, who had followed Ba Ha, sat at the same table as the director, far from her, making his reason for coming here seem meaningless.

Unable to show their relationship, he had to sit apart from her, and Ba Ha took a seat with Doo Na slightly away from Tae Un.

“Senior… this isn’t a dream, right?”

Hi Ra, upon discovering Ba Ha, took a seat opposite her, bringing Lee Han along. Unaware of Hi Ra’s dark intentions, Doo Na grabbed Ba Ha’s hand with trembling fingers and said.

“It’s not a dream.”

Ba Ha deliberately continued talking more with Doo Na sitting next to her, trying not to pay attention to the two people in front of her. When Doo Na kept poking her side shyly in response to Ba Ha’s playful words, laughter burst out at Doo Na’s reaction, which was like that of a high school girl.

“Alright everyone, please be quiet. You all know it’s rare for the Vice Chairman to come to the filming site, right? In that sense, the Vice Chairman will say a few words!”

The director stood up and shouted from afar.

As soon as he heard the director’s sudden words, Tae Un momentarily furrowed his brow before quickly returning to normal. As someone who despised anything embarrassing, he was annoyed at the director’s abrupt request without any prior discussion.

“Haha…”

Already in an irritating situation, why did he have to say a few words to add to the annoyance?

He wanted to shout ‘Let’s dismiss right now,’ but when his eyes met Ba Ha’s, who was looking at him with an amused smile as if finding this situation funny, he held back what he wanted to say and continued speaking.

“What need is there for long words? Please eat to your heart’s content and submit the expenses. Thank you for your hard work.”

“Wooooah!”

At Tae Un’s brief greeting, everyone at the team dinner clapped and cheered, and so began the uncomfortable dinner in earnest.

The bright red meat placed on the grill was gradually shrinking, grilling to a golden brown while retaining its juices.

Ba Ha and Doo Na looked at the meat and swallowed their saliva simultaneously. When their eyes met, they exchanged mischievous glances and grinned.

Ding dong-!

“Can I get a bottle of beer here, please?”

Ba Ha disliked this uncomfortable gaze from across the table, the uncomfortable hunger that felt empty no matter how much she ate, and this uncomfortable thirst that persisted no matter how much she drank.

Hiding her desire for this uncomfortable dinner to end quickly, she filled her glass with beer and clinked it with Doo Na’s.

“Ah… that’s refreshing. So refreshing.”

As Ba Ha put down her glass with a bright smile, Lee Han burst into laughter at the sight.

The fact that he had ruined that face he could see anytime with his own hands followed the laughter, and his smiling face gradually hardened.

“Ms. Ba Ha, I’m sorry about earlier.”

Annoyed by Lee Han’s laughter, Hi Ra smiled sweetly and poured more beer into her glass. The honorific came from Hi Ra’s mouth, who always called her unni, and Ba Ha just gulped down the beer Hi Ra had poured, finding it absurd how Hi Ra was apologizing in such a fake manner.

“It’s fine. You’re starting a new project these days, right?”

“Pfft…”

She wasn’t going to just take it.

Doo Na, sitting next to her, immediately understood Ba Ha’s words and spat out the beer she was drinking. She had no intention of being naively used for Hi Ra’s obvious attempt at image-making that wouldn’t work anyway.

It would be better for both of them if they just kept quiet and didn’t say anything, but why was she so desperate to do this? Ba Ha wanted this uncomfortable conversation to end quickly, but she also wanted to be the winner of this conversation.

“I’m fine. I understand it’s a sensitive time for you.”

With a slight eye smile, this time Ba Ha filled Hi Ra’s glass in front of her with beer.

Hi Ra inwardly trembled with shame from Ba Ha’s indirect criticism and Doo Na trying hard not to laugh next to her, but she masked her expression as if nothing was wrong.

“I guess I can be sen…sitive at times. I’m sorry. And was it Doo Na? You must have been very surprised earlier?”

“Huh? It’s, it’s fine!”

Doo Na, finally relaxing, blushed and stammered again when Hi Ra addressed her. She sent a desperate look towards Ba Ha, but Ba Ha, not wanting to mingle with the two anymore, avoided that desperate gaze.

Very obviously.

“Doo Na, do you have a boyfriend? From what I heard, Ms. Ba Ha…”

“Hah…”

At Hi Ra’s remark, Lee Han next to her sighed and grabbed her wrist.

It seemed like this fight would only end if one of them moved to another table or if this team dinner just ended, and if he ignored it once more, it felt like the same situation from earlier would happen again.

“Get u…”

It was tit for tat.

Hi Ra, her face crumpling at Lee Han’s action, shook off the wrist he had grabbed. As if not even caring about the situation unfolding before her eyes, she looked at Ba Ha, who was nonchalantly stuffing her cheeks full of meat and chewing hard, and smiled brightly.

“Congratulations. I heard you’re getting married, Ms. Ba Ha?”