What Seo Jun saw was a black silhouette reflected in the translucent glass door.

That person watched inside through the slightly opened door gap and disappeared without a trace, and it was then that So Yeon, who had only confirmed the faintly shaking door by a hair’s breadth, turned her wide-open eyes to Seo Jun.

Knock knock.

Someone knocked on the practice room door.

Seo Jun walked over briskly and opened the door wide, and the person standing right in front of him was none other than Gu Won Hoo.

The entire CN building was well-secured, making it impossible for outsiders to enter. Moreover, wasn’t the 7th floor and above a controlled area where affiliated celebrities could only enter and exit by prior reservation? At this time, in this area, only Eom So Yeon and himself should have been there.

So it was strange for someone to be lurking in the 9th floor corridor in the first place. But if it was Gu Won Hoo, it could be possible.

“Was it you?”

“What?”

“Did you run into anyone on your way here?”

“Not at all.”

“Why are you here anyway?”

“I’m hungry for drinks.”

Won Hoo, who had just arrived at the practice room after trying to leave from the representative’s office, responded briefly with a puzzled expression, as if Seo Jun’s series of questions seemed completely out of the blue.

“The training is far from over, what drinks are you talking about?”

“It’s getting late, so I thought we could go together if you were done.”

“There’s a rat busily running around the company, if you’re free, why don’t you catch that.”

“What? A rat? There’s no way something like that would be in our company.”

“Not a mouse, but a human rat.”

Won Hoo, thinking that rat might be referring to him, snickered as if the joke was tasteless. However, Seo Jun’s expression, without a trace of amusement, was taciturn and serious.

“Why, did someone try to snoop around here?”

“If you knew, just do one more security check before you leave.”

“Alright, I’ll be going then. You take it easy on Eom So Yeon, don’t work her to death.”

Someone flashed through his mind. But since it wasn’t certain, Seo Jun sent Won Hoo away without much conversation and resumed practice with So Yeon.

Over an hour passed, and So Yeon’s stiff expressiveness became as natural as flowing water. Acting is about conveying the character’s emotions, and surprisingly, she was doing more than that.

“Okay, let’s call it a day.”

“Did I improve a bit?”

“Your gaze is completely different now?”

Wasn’t that a very good sign? So Yeon, who had been anxious because Seo Jun’s expression kept looking displeased, could finally relax now.

“I didn’t expect you to praise me.”

“I didn’t praise you though.”

Seo Jun, who had only stated the facts, chuckled with amusement.

“Ah…”

Ah, I must have gotten ahead of myself.

Embarrassed, So Yeon lowered her gaze awkwardly.

Long, dense eyelashes covered half of her large eyes. Seductive, perhaps? The reason for the particularly strong feeling of being drawn in every time she blinked seemed to lie in that.

Wisps of hair from her long ponytail flowed past her neckline onto her shoulders. Her ears gradually turned pink, just like her reddened face.

Seo Jun, who unconsciously recalled the old sensation of touching and tasting her delicate skin, easily remembered So Yeon’s sensitivity that could be easily affected by even the slightest touch. No, his body still vividly remembered every part of Eom So Yeon.

The soft touch of her cuddling up cutely.

The sound of her breathing, unsure of what to do with the unfamiliar excitement.

The lovely smile that tickled and melted his cold heart.

Me, completely falling for everything about her.

That night, her small, plump lips were incredibly sweet. She gave me an intoxicating ecstasy I had never felt before, and without doing anything special, she cut the last reins of my reason.

And then.

That woman who did that.

While I remember that day of yours so vividly like a branding iron, is it okay for you to just demurely lower your eyes? Are you trying to fool me once, is that it?

Seo Jun, who hadn’t indulged a man’s desires for years, had his last time that winter night. Was it because of pent-up sexual frustration? Although he should have been used to his impulses not being well-controlled in front of Eom So Yeon by now, Seo Jun found it particularly severe today.

“By the way…”

Seo Jun, who had been silent for a while, suddenly spoke up but then frowned.

“With those open-toed high heels and all, does Eom So Yeon only have clothes that look half-finished?”

Due to the throbbing pain in some heated part of his body, Seo Jun mixed his sharp tone with dried-up frustration.

“…!”

So Yeon, who couldn’t help but be flustered for a moment, glanced at the large mirror in front. She felt stung because she had put quite a bit of thought into choosing her outfit, rummaging through her entire closet.

The somewhat short skirt and slightly see-through blouse might have been a bit much, but it was a trendy style these days, so it passed. What crime was it if her entire foot was visible in her shoes? Her face without makeup was a bit pale, but thanks to her pink lips, it was passable.

No matter how she looked at it, her attire fell within the normal range, so it was natural for So Yeon to blurt out a complaint when he criticized it.

“What’s wrong with my clothes?”

“You might not think anything of it, but isn’t your outfit a bit excessive for someone who came out for acting practice?”

“I didn’t realize you were conservative enough to interfere with my dress code, Director.”

The area around So Yeon’s eyes heated up, not because she felt hurt as she chewed and returned Seo Jun’s sudden criticism.

Because there was a face that kept coming to mind as she faced him like this. The face of the child that overlapped perfectly with this man’s stirred up her mind. She desperately missed and wanted to see the child in Canada.

Jo Yeon Hee, Eom So Yeon’s birth mother, valued her grandson, but also cherished the life of her daughter who had become a mother at such a young age.

So she, who had to become colder than anyone else, forcibly pushed away her daughter who clung to her crying and wailing, saying she couldn’t live even a single day apart from her child, trying to send her to Korea.

She cried for days and nights, resenting her mother for cruelly trying to separate her from her son.

She even thought about secretly running away with the child. But she had nothing. Without her parents, she didn’t even have a house for her and the child to stay in, let alone the money immediately needed. Reality was that cold.

So she finally made a harsh decision. For her mother and child, and for herself, she would definitely succeed and show them. That’s how So Yeon returned to Korea.

But now, that resolve that had been firm until now was shaken helplessly by a single word from Tae Seo Jun.

Seo Jun felt regretful when he saw So Yeon’s expression.

Did I speak too harshly?

But he would have said the same thing even if she had been wrapped up in a long coat from head to toe. That’s how stimulating Seo Jun found Eom So Yeon’s very existence.

The shape of her pouting lips looked like she was about to cry.

Her teary eyes sparkled particularly brightly, like sunlight glinting off river water. He had felt it from the first time he saw her, but Eom So Yeon was a naturally beautiful woman. Maybe that’s why he fell for her at first sight.

Fair skin, delicate features, the clear emotion her expressive face revealed was unmistakably sadness no matter how he looked at it. Seo Jun slowly reached out towards So Yeon’s face, gently stroking her white, translucent cheek with his finger and lifting her slender chin.

It was an unconscious action from Seo Jun, but So Yeon accepted it without resistance.

“I must have been overly sensitive. I had no intention of making you cry…”

“…”

The gentle touch was unexpected, but the gentle apology was even more unimaginable. Moreover, his halting speech pattern was always excessively seductive, making So Yeon’s already fragile heart pound as if it would burst at any moment.

Seo Jun’s upper body slowly tilted as if drawn by a magnetic force, gradually closing the distance between their faces.

So Yeon remained motionless until the large hand that touched her back slid down and grasped her waist. In fact, she was on the verge of a heart attack, struggling just to support her own body on her two legs.

As much as she wanted to confide everything that had happened and entrust it all to him right then and there. As much as she wanted to cry her heart out in his arms.

Her heart wanted to do it a hundred times, a thousand times. But knowing that the real world wasn’t so easy, So Yeon was startled to realize her own weakness.

If she got involved with this man again. If she came to love Tae Seo Jun even more than now, this time there would truly be no way out.

So Yeon, suddenly coming to her senses, said:

“We… shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Why…”

Seo Jun, furrowing his dark eyebrows and questioning in a quiet voice, buried his gaze deeply into her brown eyes after tracing every corner of her small face.

He was urging her to quickly make him understand why they should stop here, when it was hard for him to stop under normal circumstances.

“You might not care, but I won’t be able to look you in the face starting tomorrow.”

“Why can’t you look at me?”

His low and gruff tone of asking again meant he couldn’t accept her reason.

“Why? It’s obvious things will get awkward.”

So Yeon, making a plausible excuse, pulled her face back, which would touch his if she moved even slightly.

“Ah, right!”

So Yeon, who had barely escaped from Seo Jun’s grasp, quickly went to take out the lunchbox bag she had put in the cabinet.

“Let’s recharge our vitamins. I packed plenty from home so we could eat together when we get hungry.”

“You want me to eat this and leave?”

“No. You’re going to take me home today too, right? This is a small token of gratitude.”

“Ha…”

Seo Jun, dumbfounded, let out a shallow laugh.

The laughter that burst from his handsome lips was the very embodiment of exasperation. Because it was so like her to dodge so skillfully.

It was just then that So Yeon, who had laid out the lunchbox filled with snacks on the table, gestured for him to come sit down.

Seo Jun once again caught sight of a suspicious figure reflected in the translucent glass.

This time it was the window, not the door. Even at a glance, the tall stature and slender build were quite unusual. There was a high chance it was the same guy from earlier.

“That bastard, I’ll catch him!”

Seo Jun, growling quietly to himself, dashed out of the practice room in an instant.

Why?

Why did Yoo Jung Hwa suddenly come looking for me?

With her reputation, there would be plenty of agencies willing to sign her with open arms, so why choose CN specifically? Especially at this time when Tae Seo Jun has returned.

Is she thinking coolly about it because it’s all in the past? Or does she have ulterior motives to reunite with her ex-boyfriend? Or is it purely to try and create a mutually beneficial relationship with the agency?

Lost in thought for a moment, Won Hoo was able to easily reach a conclusion. Even setting aside Tae Seo Jun and Yoo Jung Hwa’s less-than-smooth relationship, his accurate intuition told him that Yoo Jung Hwa was absolutely not an option.

“We’re honored that you’re interested in our company, but what more can CN do for someone already as big as Yoo Jung Hwa?”

CEO Gu expressed the difficult-to-say part flexibly in a roundabout way.

Why wouldn’t she understand that all the talk of honor and being a big star was just setting up for a rejection? But Jung Hwa, knowing she was being rejected but unable to acknowledge it, carefully considered what to do next.

She hadn’t yet raised the money to give to her biological father.

Besides that, she needed a large sum of money.

There was no major problem in maintaining her luxurious lifestyle for now, but the money she had saved up so far had steadily leaked out to silence reporters, and was now nearly depleted.

That’s right.

Yoo Byung Hwan wasn’t the only one blackmailing her with her dark past.

Moreover, Jung Hwa, whose expenses had increased to maintain her image, could not be free from financial pressure.

As a result, after days of fretting, what she came up with was a signing bonus. Coincidentally, her contract with her current agency was nearing its end.

Wouldn’t she be able to receive a large signing bonus from CN Entertainment, the top agency in the industry? Moreover, for Jung Hwa who still couldn’t forget Tae Seo Jun, it was killing two birds with one stone.

Such circumstances were latent in her motives for hurrying to Samseong-dong today.

Money and Tae Seo Jun.

To catch these two rabbits, all Yoo Jung Hwa could do was express her intentions once more without compromising her pride.

“Isn’t it a win-win situation when the top company and top actress join hands? If my name is added to CN Entertainment’s stronghold, not only the company’s awareness but also its stock price will skyrocket. Surely, CEO Gu, you didn’t become a businessman without such ambition?”

“Ambition without the ability to back it up is nothing more than a delusion. If you can’t distinguish between the two, the ship goes up the mountain, and the business goes bust. It also means that our company’s capacity is too small to accommodate you, Actress Yoo.”

What other agency could be bigger and more solid than this? While it could be seen as humility, from Yoo Jung Hwa’s perspective, she had been brutally rejected twice in a row.

Gu Won Hoo’s appearance, which would be more than enough to debut as a model right away, bore a strong resemblance to Tae Seo Jun. However, Jung Hwa, who only knew CEO Gu as Tae Seo Jun’s close friend, had no idea that the two men had a blood relationship closer than friendship.

Just five years ago, was merely a hole-in-the-wall shop that struggled to recruit even rookies, let alone established actors.

At the gathering to celebrate Tae Seo Jun becoming a CN-affiliated actor during that period, he had only introduced Gu as an old friend, as Seo Jun never spoke about his personal life to Jung Hwa.

“…”

Ha! Did CEO Gu just snub me, Yoo Jung Hwa? He’s really grown up!

It was only natural for the top actress, welcomed wherever she went, to wear an incredulous expression.

But CEO Gu couldn’t care less.

Won Hoo uncrossed his arms and checked his wristwatch, straightening his tall frame in the swivel chair while slightly furrowing his brow.

Yoo Jung Hwa, who had barged into the CEO’s office without an appointment. It was understandable, as he was already 20 minutes behind schedule for his departure to the airport due to this unwelcome visitor.

“I apologize. I need to leave for a business trip soon.”

Won Hoo neatly buttoned up his shirt and opened the CEO’s office door wide, politely bowing his head slightly.

It was a courteous urging for her to please leave the CEO’s office.