Prologue

— Beep. Beep.

The hospital room was quiet. Only the sound of the heart monitor filled the stillness.

Ji-an had been restless the whole time, sitting down and standing up again, until at last she dropped into the chair for good.

“…He’ll be all right, won’t he?”

She knew there was no point in asking, but she wanted to hear some kind of answer anyway. Chief of Staff Choi Kang-hoon, who had stood silently beside the bed with his arms folded, nodded.

“He’s not a man who goes down easily over something like this. He’ll wake soon.”

Ji-an let out a low sigh, then looked at the man lying in the bed and murmured his name.

“…Managing Director Lee Sa-heon.”

He was unconscious, yet his face was perfectly composed. If not for the pallor and the scrapes here and there, she could have taken him for a man who’d just dozed off for a light nap.

The smooth ridge of his nose, the delicate lips pressed firmly shut, the sharp line of his jaw: all of it gave off an air far from ordinary. Even asleep, surrounded by the noise of machines, he still carried the authority and sheer weight of Hyeongang’s Managing Director, the man most likely to head the company next.

It struck her all over again. Even like this, he was exactly himself.

…I won’t ever curse you in my head for being a workaholic boss again.

Please, just open your eyes, Managing Director.

Ji-an pressed her hands together and recited it silently, like a prayer, and then—

“Oh—!”

Sa-heon’s fingertips moved, only barely, and Ji-an shot up out of her seat in surprise.

“Ch-Chief! Did you see that?”

“I think he’s waking up.”

Chief Choi Kang-hoon stepped quickly to the bedside.

The man’s eyelids trembled faintly, then lifted, heavy. His eyes, faintly unfocused, wandered across the ceiling and slowly began to take in the room.

“Ngh…”

The sound that left his mouth was a raw rasp. Sa-heon went to press a hand to his forehead, but the IV line caught and stopped him short.

“Managing Director, are you all right?”

The chief of staff’s voice was urgent. Sa-heon frowned deeply as his gaze swept the room, and when he seemed to realize he was in a hospital, he exhaled in irritation.

“What is this…”

Only then did his eyes land on Ji-an, who was trembling. When their gazes met, she clutched the hem of her blouse and drew in a breath.

“Managing Director, are you awake? Are you all right?”

She came closer, her face full of worry, and Sa-heon’s head turned to follow her, almost without his meaning to.

A silhouette that seemed soaked through with light, lips caught between her teeth, a trembling breath. As his eyes moved over her face, an unreadable gleam stirred in them.

“Honey…”

“Yes—pardon?”

His gaze seemed to bore straight through her, and the word was so far from ordinary that Ji-an could only ask back, dumbfounded.

“M-Managing Director, I’m Secretary Han Ji-an.”

What did I just hear? Ji-an froze solid, and Chief of Staff Choi Kang-hoon swallowed dryly.

“…Honey, my head hurts.”

Sa-heon dropped another bomb with a perfectly untroubled face, then let his heavy eyelids fall shut.

“…”

The people left behind in the hospital room stood frozen, at a loss for words.