“Even now, when you say you want me, it’s still the same.”

It wasn’t an accusation or resentment. She was just stating the unchanging reality. She gazed steadily into his unfazed eyes.

“What will it take for you to believe?”

Ki Joo’s unexpected words almost moved her, causing a flutter in her chest.

“That hidden weakness of Kwon Ki Joo you mentioned last time. Tell me that, and I’ll consider it.”

Eun Chae bluffed like a child wielding power without discernment. Truthfully, she wasn’t curious about that anymore. It wasn’t important anymore.

She was about to tell Ki Joo to lighten up, seeing his face harden at her joke, but then she hesitated.

“……You know, don’t you.”

This time, Ki Joo brushed his hair back with a hint of irritation. His dark eyes flickered dangerously, holding back something.
Ki Joo’s throat bobbed as he emitted a somber voice. His massive chest swelled and fell repeatedly.

A volatile desire.

Eun Chae noticed it just as Ki Joo hastily reached out to her. His hands, grasping both her cheeks and the back of her head, were unusually hot.

Ki Joo devoured her lips. Eun Chae’s jaw dropped helplessly as she matched his intensity. Gripping Ki Joo’s firm shoulders to stabilize her crumbling body, she felt him gulp down a rough breath.

But that was brief.

Soon, Ki Joo was savagely and persistently licking and sucking her lips. The fierceness was both agonizing and liberating.

Frozen by the strangeness, Eun Chae’s eyelids twitched. She slowly embraced his shoulders that she had been stiffly holding. With lips that had just been parted, she gently rubbed against Ki Joo’s.

Her vision blurred with a soft sensation.

She would not hold back from moving forward for fear of getting hurt.

Even if it leads to her breaking apart.

Eun Chae, who had curled up at the edge of the bed, struggled to open her eyes. The sky outside the window was a pale blue. She was alone.

She looked around and then buried her face back into the pillow. Her eyes fluttered slowly before she fell back to sleep.

Eun Chae awoke in the morning. After a quick shower and changing clothes, she went downstairs for breakfast.

She sat down with a simple plate of mushroom soup, scrambled eggs, a few slices of bacon, and a croissant.

Just as she was about to eat, thinking it was a refreshingly clear morning, an uninvited guest noisily sat across from her.

No manners at breakfast.

Eun Chae expressed her displeasure by sipping water.

“You look well.”

Han Seung Yoon leaned on the armrest and spoke mockingly. Eun Chae ignored him, eating her soup, and biting into the bread and bacon.

Seung Yoon watched her chew silently with an amazed expression. Even in this situation, the woman did not lose her dignified composure.

Was it admirable or shameless?

“How does it feel spending the night at the resort with a stranger, instead of your fiancé?”

“Not bad.”

“So you’re going to openly hang around with him now that you’ve been caught?”

Eun Chae stared as if she could do just that.

“Do you want it to be known? It would smear your face more.”

Seung Yoon leaned forward, almost pleading.

“Why would that bodyguard guy like a woman about to be a married woman? Use your head.”

“Young women liking men about to be married men – it’s similar, isn’t it?”

Unyielding in every word. Seung Yoon glared at her as if his mouth harbored a razor blade.

Eun Chae, continuing her meal steadfastly, paused her fork and gave Seung Yoon a glance.

“And people like us, if not for our family backgrounds, no one would even glance our way.”

It was stark how a woman not yet forty spoke so acutely of the harsh reality. Seung Yoon stared back, bewildered and incredulous.
Eun Chae responded with a smile to the waitress’s question about whether the food was to her liking.

By this point, Seung Yoon was genuinely curious about the workings of her brain. Watching her, who seemed either incapable or too capable of discerning the situation, his appetite waned.

Finally, Seung Yoon got up abruptly, leaving her alone as he crossed the restaurant. A worry suddenly struck him.

If she was acting this way now, as if under some spell, what if she completely lost it later and decided to run away in the name of love…

Seung Yoon, with a throbbing headache, hurriedly left.

Chairman Song Myung-hwan, returning from Jeju, unexpectedly headed to the greenhouse. It was his first visit since ordering its demolition. His face, filled with anger, scanned the greenhouse as if looking at a despised enemy.

It had been years since Kang Hye-ran passed away, but the chairman was sick of her lingering presence. It wasn’t easy to decide on the demolition because Song Eun Chae, who he had added to his family register out of necessity, clung to the greenhouse as if it were a substitute for that woman. Even in death, she was persistent and annoying.

About to turn away in disgust, the chairman suddenly twisted his head. He locked eyes with Haman-daek, who was stepping out with a watering can. She paled as if facing a snake, hastily hiding the can behind her, but it was too late.

“Hwang, you’ve worked in my house for a long time.”

“Chairman…”

“Have you gone senile? Doing what I told you not to.”

“I was just…”

“Shut up!”

Haman-daek clammed up, unable to utter a word at Chairman Song’s thunderous scolding.

It was true; there had been instructions not to maintain the greenhouse in any way as a condition of keeping it.

Haman-daek had thought she could sneakily take care of it, but that was the root of the problem. Who was Chairman Song Myung-hwan? A man with a controlling nature, wanting to manage everything from one to ten. Her secretive efforts were doomed to fail.

“Team Leader Kwon.”

Ki Joo, standing behind, observed Haman-daek’s trembling, wrinkled hands holding the watering can.