Although Malaga is one of the hottest regions in Spain, today the temperature was stifling even in the morning.

“This is crazy, absolutely crazy!”

Seo Jun on the boat deck unconsciously gritted his molars and spat out a sigh-mixed voice.

So Yeon coming down to the pier was wearing a rash guard over her swimsuit. Although there was some distance, her slender legs and the precarious curves of her body were instantly absorbed into Seo Jun’s pitch-black pupils.

He was someone who never lost composure even on advertising or movie sets where extreme exposure was commonplace. But now Seo Jun was a completely different person from then. Even though So Yeon’s swimsuit was not even a bikini but of an ordinary level, his reaction was as if he was seeing something beyond that.

Fortunately, there’s no one else around, what on earth was she thinking…….

Seo Jun, shirtless in shorts, exuded an uncommon masculinity as his firm pectorals heaved under the scorching sun. While Seo Jun’s mind was suddenly thrown into disarray by what he saw, the heat converging in one place also played a big role.

As So Yeon gradually approached, Seo Jun’s Adam’s apple involuntarily twitched. He was unconsciously very aware of her swimsuit attire. But So Yeon didn’t board the yacht and stood for a moment on the wooden planks, seemingly gazing into the blue water below.

“If you’ve arrived, why are you dawdling instead of getting on? Should I just throw you into the water?”

As he muttered this under his breath.

At that moment, a splashing sound reached Seo Jun’s ears loudly.

“Danger……”

So Yeon disappeared into the seawater before Seo Jun’s urgent cry could finish.

Not knowing if her swimming skills were perfect, but thinking she’d come up soon since she said she was good, Seo Jun got off the yacht and ran in big strides to where So Yeon had fallen.

But something was strange.

What on earth was she doing under the water? Bubbles were rising little by little, but she showed no sign of coming out of the water. As he bent his knees on the wooden planks and peered down, something wavering caught his eye briefly.

“……!”

An ominous feeling brushed his mind, making it go numb.

Splash!

Seo Jun launched his graceful body without a moment’s hesitation.

Entering the sea with clean diving skills, he quickly disappeared into the water.

Pwa……!

Not long after, the heads of the two people surfaced above the water. On the opposite side of the yacht, a little away from the pier.

“Haa, haa…… Let, go. Haa……”

“……”

Seo Jun gripped So Yeon’s arm more tightly as she gasped for breath and splashed, looking at her gruffly. He was very displeased that she kept trying to break away from him.

As if stung by that gaze, So Yeon suddenly demanded.

“Ha, what’s wrong!”

“You tell me first. Why did you do that?”

As Seo Jun flicked his soaking wet hair left and right and pulled So Yeon close to him, asking back, So Yeon, intimidated by his strong force, stuttered an answer.

“I, I saw the diving rope…… my foot slipped….. Anyway, since I had fallen into the sea, I was trying to practice enduring underwater……”

“Eom So Yeon!”

At the bellowing voice, her small shoulders flinched. That movement rippled through the water and collided directly with Seo Jun’s chest.

“Making people worry! If you did that, you should have stayed still, why are you running away! Am I some kind of monster?”

Seo Jun was alarmed when So Yeon, who had fallen into the water, not only didn’t surface but kept sinking deeper. Thinking she might have had a heart attack. Thinking she might have lost consciousness. Thinking something terrible might have happened.

That’s why Seo Jun jumped into the water, and he only wrapped his arm around her neck to pull So Yeon up. But at that moment, So Yeon let go of the rope she was holding and fled far away like an arrow.

Her swimming skills were beyond just being good. Especially her underwater swimming was no less than any diver. And Tae Seo Jun was also a youth swimming competition gold medalist. The two of them chased and were chased, struggling underwater.

“If a strange object suddenly approaches and pulls you back, wouldn’t you be surprised? I’m sorry if I startled you too, Tae Seo Jun, but do you have to do this?”

Even so, is this something to shout about? So Yeon had never seen him this angry before.

“Why are you just getting angry! There’s no need to be this angry, is there!”

So Yeon shouted back, but the end of her voice was a delicate whimper.

“That’s because you might have become a water ghost……”

At this moment, Seo Jun saw. The moisture filling her clear and clean eyes. The brilliance set like jewels in her beautiful eyes.

His heart ached sharply as if pierced deeply by a sharp awl.

Seo Jun stared directly at So Yeon without blinking once.

The pounding heartbeats were transmitted directly through their touching upper bodies.

They fought but it wasn’t a fight, their voices were raised in exchange but the words weren’t hurtful, their gazes toward each other weren’t pleasant but it wasn’t out of hatred.

It was in that subtle atmosphere that the silence between the two continued.

“Yes, Manager.”

Suddenly, someone’s voice coming down to the pier was heard.

“The yacht is here but I don’t see anyone. What should I do?”

The man on the phone was Park Sung Ho, and without x-ray vision, his eyes couldn’t see So Yeon and Seo Jun hidden behind the yacht.

“What? Don’t go into the cabin?”

Sung Ho, who had brought lunch in a picnic basket woven from rushes, was receiving instructions from Manager Bong.

“Ah, yes, yes, I can sense that too. You’re saying not to disturb their intimate time and just quietly leave the picnic bag on the deck, right? Hehe.”

Do they think we’re up to something on board? Listening to this, with that laughter and all, the conversation seems a bit……

So Yeon’s face flushed red hot.

“Look at that, they’re misunderstanding!”

So Yeon lightly pushed against the sturdy chest.

Willingly pushed back by the weak force, Seo Jun had a different, heavy expression from earlier. So Yeon realized the meaning of that expression the moment she lightly floated her body in the seawater and paddled her arms and legs towards the pier.

“Wait……”

Seo Jun grabbed So Yeon as she hurriedly moved away from him.

“Poof, cough, cough!”

So Yeon choked and coughed as she swallowed water, being pulled back when she should be moving forward. In the meantime, So Yeon was fully enveloped in Seo Jun’s broad chest.

“Salty?”

“Of course seawater is salty. Asking such an obvious thing……!”

The chattering voice cut off abruptly at the touch on her back. So Yeon, tense from the movement of the large hand, asked again in a small voice.

“Why……?”

“Shall I tell you why I was angry?”

“……”

As So Yeon nodded, the perfectly handsome face came very close to her eyes.

It was at that moment when his breath suddenly brushed past So Yeon’s earlobe. Her upper body slipped into his large and firm embrace.

“!”

So Yeon couldn’t help but be startled as the intensely pounding heartbeat transmitted from his chest to hers.

“This is what my heart’s doing. Because of you, my chest is beating so hard it might break.”

“……”

So Yeon, staring intently at Seo Jun’s face, hesitantly stretched out her arms and hugged Seo Jun. And she gently patted his back.

When she first boarded the plane to Spain with Tae Seo Jun, she had two minds. She wanted to show him that no matter how much he shook, she would never fall, that there was no future for them. On the other hand, she was also secretly hoping. She wanted to confirm that this man truly loved her, and could happily accept her and Hyun Woo.

But now it was neither. She couldn’t grasp what thoughts led her to be with this man. She just wanted to convey her heart, opened a span wider than yesterday, to him, hoping his heart would be the same as hers, just feeling excited.

Clear eyes and large eyelines.

The finely trembling pupils within sparkled beautifully like water scales on the sea.

Seo Jun firmly captured those lovely eyes in his pitch-black pupils.

“Let’s stay like this for a little longer……”

As Seo Jun whispered, So Yeon complied with his wish.

Seo Jun’s eyes slowly closed as he tightly embraced the soft and delicate upper body.

Just a few days already feel like years.

Because the time of waiting can only be endured like this.

In the CN Entertainment conference room, Gu Won Hoo and Planning Department Team Leader Ju were having a quiet conversation.

“I hear you’re removing Eom So Yeon from the actor support program. You even said not to accept any advertising offers at all. It seems like you’re trying to kill Eom So Yeon’s career, why did you do this without consulting me?”

Won Hoo spoke in a tone one level lower, smiling awkwardly as if perplexed.

“We’ll have to see the reaction after the drama airs, but already there’s a buzz inside and outside the company about Ms. Eom. In this situation, blindly pushing her is reckless, isn’t it? If reporters start picking at Ms. Eom’s private life, it won’t help our company’s image at all. So for the time being, rather than company support, Eom So Yeon will have to fend for herself.”

Team Leader Ju, lowering his gaze as if it couldn’t be helped, listed point by point reasons that were not excuses but valid arguments.

CEO Gu had promised to support Eom So Yeon in front of Director Yoon and Writer Kwon. However, Team Leader Ju had acted more quickly than Gu Won Hoo, taking measures according to company principles.

It was such a sensitive issue that even the CN representative could face criticism from company executives if he intervened without clear justification, but if Gu Won Hoo had an extraordinary move, it would be a completely different story.

“Keep it quiet and watch? And if there’s no hope, just cut her loose?”

“Shouldn’t we? Personally, I fully understand Ms. Eom’s situation, but since image is everything in this business, I’m also regretful.”

She has a child but no husband.

Team Leader Ju, who only learned this fact now, was truly regretful.

The company had numerous A-list actors. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that their rise and fall depended on the power of their agency.

In this environment, if Eom So Yeon’s personal matters were to be picked up by reporters, if the company’s image were to be affected, it could be detrimental to the existing celebrities who had only been on the rise at CN Entertainment.

It was the job of the planning department head to prevent concerns from becoming reality, so Team Leader Ju had no choice but to act differently.

However, Gu Won Hoo’s attitude in ordering Team Leader Ju as CN’s representative seemed to indicate he had some sharp strategy.

“Reveal everything. But short and intense.”

“Pardon? But……”

“Ms. Eom So Yeon is in the same boat as our company. And the more unfavorable something is, the less it should be hidden. Isn’t the best offense the best defense? We need to quickly bring it into public discussion and make it flow in a direction favorable to us. That way there won’t be any aftermath and if we’re lucky, we might even make a bigger leap.”

“But if it backfires……”

“I’ll take care of the consequences. But that won’t happen.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Ms. Eom So Yeon said this. She can accept being criticized for choosing to become a single mother, but she can’t tolerate her child being criticized. She wants to raise her child proudly, letting them receive the bright sunlight of the world equally. We should approach this with that new woman’s mindset and try to break outdated concepts.”

As Won Hoo hinted as if asking if this was his first rodeo, Team Leader Ju slapped his own thigh.

“Aha! So, Mr. CEO, you’re saying we should shock the public by revealing the whole story at once, presenting her as an honest and confident new image of womanhood?”

“You understand well!”

If a crisis is used well, it can become an opportunity.

As CEO Gu Won Hoo, who excelled at turning ‘disadvantages’ into ‘advantages’, playfully winked one eye, Team Leader Ju already had a refreshing smile on his lips as if seeing the angle.