Chapter 15

Jae-man looked baffled.

“The dog I’ll let slide, but who on earth is this…?”

The CEO had never once brought an unfamiliar woman to the company. Park Jae-man’s radar, a sharp eye for detail that didn’t match his bulk, locked onto the snow-white wrist in Jun-hyeok’s grip, and his eyes went round.

“None of your business.”

Park Jae-man craned his neck out like a turtle. Jun-hyeok pushed his head away as if swatting a nuisance and turned to Seo-ha.

“Is Dodam shy with strangers?”
“He’s a little wary of men. But he usually warms up to people fast.”
“Good.”

Jun-hyeok slid Dodam’s harness out of Seo-ha’s hand as though it were the most natural thing in the world and turned to Team Leader Park, whose ears had pricked up.

“You heard her? He doesn’t like men, so try not to get bitten. While you’re at it, give him the full service. Take the harness off and walk him, nice and easy. I’m asking you.”
“Hold on, you tell me he bites, and that’s how you ask a favor? Talk about high-handed—”

Park Jae-man, still staring past Jun-hyeok’s back, hadn’t even finished grumbling when Jun-hyeok cut him off.

“Ah, my mistake. Not a favor. An order.”

Park Jae-man snorted at the sheer gall of it, his grievances stacking up. Then again, if his boss were the type to care about that sort of thing, he would never have talked so heartlessly in the first place.

His boss walked off without a backward glance, the woman picking her way carefully after him. Jae-man watched them go with narrowed eyes and muttered.

“Something’s off. There’s something familiar about her.”

Jun-hyeok had thrown up such an ironclad defense that Jae-man hadn’t gotten a proper look, but he was sure he had seen her somewhere. He sniffed and looked down at the harness that had somehow ended up in his hand.

“Huh…. Come to think of it, you’re a guide dog for the visually impaired, aren’t you? A guide dog that bites?”

He looked once more toward where the two of them had vanished, and a question Jun-hyeok had asked him not long ago came back to mind.

‘She didn’t come across like someone who couldn’t see, did she?’

Oh-ho. Something was going on here. Definitely something.

In all his years, the hunches of yours truly, Park Jae-man, had never once been wrong.

The moment she followed Jun-hyeok inside, the air changed.

A stillness pressed on her ears, so deep that even the sound of her own breathing became noise. Ever since her eyes had begun to fail, her hearing had sharpened, and Seo-ha preferred quiet places because of it, but she had never been anywhere this silent. She could feel it on her skin: every sound in here was under perfect control.

“…Dodam doesn’t bite.”
“I know. And even if he did, Park Jae-man’s not the type to let himself get bitten.”

Jun-hyeok answered as if it were nothing, and soon after, Seo-ha’s steps slowed without her meaning them to.

“But… where are we?”
“My private office.”

His low answer cut through the hush.

The office was kept past cool and into chilly, like an exhibition hall guarding something priceless. Faint gooseflesh rose on Seo-ha’s arms, and she rubbed at the pale skin with her hand.

She lowered herself carefully onto the cold leather sofa he guided her to. The chill seeped through her thin dress, and her shoulders gave a small shiver.

“What.”
“Ah, it’s just a little cold.”

Only then did the chill in the office ease off a little; Jun-hyeok must have adjusted the temperature.

She turned her head to take in the room, but only blurred outlines reached her eyes. Even so, the feel of the place took clear shape in her mind. This room was sealed off from the outside world, a fortress in the most literal sense.

“It feels like an impregnable fortress in here.”

Seo-ha murmured it quietly, feeling almost as if she had been locked in, and Jun-hyeok gave a low laugh.

“Dumb as a post half the time, and then at moments like this you catch on fast enough.”

A drawer slid open and shut somewhere near her ear, and then Jun-hyeok’s footsteps came closer. He was right in front of her, so close that Han Jun-hyeok’s scent brushed the tip of her nose and there was no mistaking him. Seo-ha strained to track every small sound of him.

“Just like you said, in here you can scream all you want and nobody out there will hear a thing.”

Once again Jun-hyeok sat down not on a chair but on the table in front of her. Maybe perching wherever he pleased was a habit of his. While Seo-ha mulled that over for a moment, he went on.

“And the door’s double-reinforced and bulletproof, so nobody gets in without my say-so.”

Seo-ha’s fingertips fidgeted on her knees. An unfamiliar tension seemed to crawl just beneath her skin.

“Just you and me, nobody else, in a place like this. What does that make you think of?”

Forcing herself to keep her composure, Seo-ha lifted the corners of her mouth.

“…I’m honored you’d bring me somewhere like this yourself.”

Jun-hyeok let out a dumbfounded laugh.

“Figures. You haven’t got the sense to be scared.”

Perhaps the business with the dog had worn him out, because his voice settled low and a little tired.

“When you’re alone with a man in a place like this, show some nerves. And quit advertising what a brazen little thing you are.”

As the scolding went on and on, Seo-ha felt the pressure ease instead. Relieved that Han Jun-hyeok hadn’t caught her clumsy nerves, she answered back lightly.

“You’re the one who said we should go sign the contract first, Han Jun-hyeok-ssi. Or were you planning to do something else with me, in an office with perfect soundproofing and a double-reinforced door?”

She had meant it as a joke, but no retort came back, which only made it more awkward. This time it was Seo-ha who was thrown.

“I mean… you’ve treated me like a child this whole time. The idea of trying anything with a little kid like me is absurd—”

Jun-hyeok stopped her flustered babbling with a single syllable.

“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry…?”
“That’s what I came here for. Problem?”

He agreed so flatly, spitting it out as if stating the obvious, that Seo-ha bit down on her lip by reflex, and at once his thumb pushed between her wet lips and pried them apart.

“You. I’m pretty sure I’ve told you more than once, that’s a genuinely bad habit. Do it in front of other men and you’ll have a real problem.”

Startled by the sudden move, Seo-ha grabbed the wrist of the hand that had invaded her parted lips. She tried to shake it off, but against her strength his hard wrist didn’t budge an inch.

“Please don’t.”
“Then how about you stop doing it first.”

Her heart thudded, and her breaths came shorter and shorter.

“You don’t know this, do you.”

His voice, pitched lower than usual, resonated dully in her chest.

“That the more you try to climb up over me, the more I want to drag you further down.”

Jun-hyeok’s firm thigh pushed in between Seo-ha’s legs. However hard she tried to close them, it was a game lost before it had even begun.

“Since we’re here, I think it’d be more fun with you pinned under me.”

A sharp tightness gathered low in her belly, and the bridge of Seo-ha’s nose creased ever so slightly. The sensation was strange and new, something she had never felt before, and she shuddered faintly.

“You’re the one playing grown-up so damn hard every day, so maybe I’ll do you the favor of pretending not to know and letting myself be fooled.”

Despite his words, the finger that had been stroking her lips withdrew. In the heavy, pressing air, Seo-ha drew in a long, steadying breath. But in the same moment a soft cry escaped her lips, because Jun-hyeok’s hand had slipped past the hem of her dress. Someone else’s fingers were touching the sensitive stretch of thigh she had never let anyone near, and Seo-ha trembled all over.

“Wait. Just a moment.”
“What now.”
“I misspoke. I didn’t mean to put you in a bad mood….”
“People call a slip of the tongue that keeps repeating ‘conditional intent’.¹”

In that instant, Seo-ha was lifted clean up.

Slightly dizzy, she ducked her head, and her forehead landed on Jun-hyeok’s shoulder. He had shifted to sit on the sofa himself, and he scooped Seo-ha up with no effort at all and settled her on his lap. Finding herself astride his thighs with her legs spread, Seo-ha yanked her skirt down in alarm.

“Bit late to be getting embarrassed now, isn’t it?”
“I said it was a mistake.”

Feeling that her clumsy words had only made things worse, Seo-ha spoke urgently. It wasn’t that she had no intention of going all the way with him, but at the very least she didn’t want it to happen in his office.

Jun-hyeok paid that no mind either and sneered.

“Since you followed me here so obediently to put down a seal, go ahead and put one down on something.”

Instead, Seo-ha closed her eyes.

With a curtain of pitch-black darkness drawn all the way across her sight, her mind settled somewhat. Slowly she braced both hands against his firm chest. Under her palms, Han Jun-hyeok’s heart was pounding. The realization that she wasn’t the only one trembling gave Seo-ha a small comfort.

Even if it was nothing but her own delusion.

For a while neither of them spoke, and only the sound of their breathing passed back and forth in the office.

Jun-hyeok’s hand, which had gone still, touched the small of her back.