The face that no longer smiled was terribly still.

Seo Jun focused on one place.

Until the maid who cleared the table set out wine, fruits and cheese that went well with it, and stepped back. The only woman who could make his heart beat fiercely in any sense, So Yeon Eom, who was insanely cunning but absolutely could not be hated.

Seo Jun had imagined this situation countless times in his head.

You and me.

A secluded place where no one could interfere.

Bringing So Yeon Eom to the secluded Yangpyeong villa was a calculated result of not leaking anything out, no matter what he did, and an insatiable possessiveness.

So now it was time to get to know her heart.
“You didn’t eat well. Didn’t you like the food?”
The villa, which had only the two of them, was quiet enough to hear even the sound of swallowing water, and his voice, lowering, was calm like this night.
“I’m feeling strange.”
“What is?”
“You keep dropping formal speech.”
“Then it should keep feeling strange. I’m not in the mood to use honorifics now.”
Seo Jun, who slowly brought his wine glass and held the red liquid in his mouth, passed his soaked voice over the wide dining table.
“We first drank this wine. You probably don’t remember, Ms. Eom So Yeon?”
Château Lafite Rothschild.

Why wouldn’t I know? Not only the hotel initials elegantly stamped on the goldplated fork, but even his soft breath, which he let out occasionally, was unforgettable and a night to cherish even after death.

‘It’s a charming wine with a unique aroma and rich color that comes from the perfect blend of cedar and grape juice over a long period of time. But do you know what? Ms. Eom So Yeon is the exact opposite of this wine. At first, you seem delicate, but the more I look at you, the stronger and more mysterious you appear.’

So Yeon remembered exactly what he said on that night when snowflakes were falling.

But why call up that day from this place after being silent so far? The only thing she could do, as her mounting tension rose to the back of her throat, was to avoid the events of that day.
“I don’t know. It’s been a long time.”
She responded calmly with a rounded voice, but her delicate hands gathered under the table were already soaked with cold sweat.
“Then we should have a deeper conversation about that day.”
“What, what are you talking about…..”
So Yeon’s face turned pale in an instant.

The moment she met Tae Seo Jun by chance on the company rooftop, So Yeon felt choked up rather than surprised.

Because he called her name without forgetting it. Because she was so grateful and happy. Because the time she missed him unknowingly alone was so sad.

However, a bigger fear covered all those feelings. Even though she was sure that he could not know about the existence of the child, she couldn’t overcome the anxiety of ‘what if’.

So Yeon, who was much more anxious than then, took a few sips of water into her esophagus because her mouth was dry, and spoke in a somewhat mechanical tone.
“Do we need to bring up the past?”
“Why do you think so?”
“Because it was fake from the beginning.”
If her insane tongue moved on its own, it would be this moment. Because even the speaker didn’t know that such words would pop out of her mouth.

But some of it was true, and since it was spilled milk, So Yeon did not bother to correct it.
“Fake?”
The word seemed to irritate Seo Jun very much and he frowned his thick eyebrows in an instant.

“Yes. Fake. Everything about that day between you and me.”
“So even the stuff we did in bed was fake?”
“……!”
Her brown eyes, which had lost their place, swayed. Seo Jun’s straightforward expression awakened the shame and guilt that had been dormant in her.

Her gaze, which fell below, bounced off the smooth surface of the dining table.

Overwhelmed by intense emotions, she denied everything. She knew better than anyone that Tae Seo Jun couldn’t be fake.

Above all, she shouldn’t have said such things considering the child. So Yeon, who felt pitiful for herself for being so, kept her lips tightly closed and wore a disappointed look.

Could it have scratched the bottom of Tae Seo Jun’s nature sharply? His voice, suppressed to barely maintain composure, was icy.
“Did Eom So Yeon, who slept with me many times, find that one night nothing? Was it so terrible to pretend it didn’t happen? Did you hate me so much that you disappeared without a word!”

So Yeon, who had spit out a blunt statement without changing a single expression, stared at Seo Jun’s face in a straight line, clutching the hem of her dress and raising her voice.
“I told you I don’t remember anything!”
But that’s not it.

She wanted to tell him how much she loved being in his wide, sturdy arms, how the large hands that caressed her like her own flesh, the soothing voice that comforted her saying she was pretty and fine, the excitement from the intimate contact, even created feelings that were not there before.

She was just afraid that this ridiculous desire would grow bigger, so she left before he woke up from sleep.