I 01

Chapter 01

*Ding-a-ling.* The door of the café *Lilac* opened.

“I’m sorry, but we’re closed for the—”

Chayun nearly dropped the cup she was holding.

A man of immense build and towering stature stood there, blood streaming down his forehead.

Startled, she gasped, her eyes widening as she covered her mouth with both hands.

“Turn off the lights. It’s dangerous if anyone sees.”

With long strides, the man walked past Chayun and switched off the light switch by the counter.

Darkness rushed into the space that had been bright just moments before.

“Can I go in?”

Gyobeom pointed toward the changing room with a tilt of his chin. It wasn’t a question—it was more of a notice.

“Oh, yes, yes.”

Chayun barely regained her composure and nodded. Gyobeom stepped inside. She quickly followed him in.

*Click.* As soon as the door closed, Chayun opened a small cabinet in the corner and pulled out a first-aid kit. The series of movements looked remarkably familiar and natural.

In the meantime, Gyobeom unfolded a folding metal chair by the door and sat down.

“Uh, how did you get hurt?”

“It’s always the same pattern. Grudges, threats, and wounds.”

Even as the blood streaming from his forehead trickled down his cheek, he spoke as if it were nothing. Chayun found it both frightening and absurd.

“Wouldn’t it be better to go to the hospital?”

“You didn’t go either.”

“That’s different! Falling down and scraping your knee is not the same as having your forehead split open!”

Chayun raised her voice without realizing it, and Gyobeom let out a snort of laughter.

“Y-you’re laughing? Is this something to laugh about?”

“Good. Because you’re being comfortable with me.”

The corners of Gyobeom’s eyes softened slightly. It wasn’t often that he smiled like this. He seemed genuinely pleased.

“Just wipe off the blood and apply the ointment properly.”

He looked up at her from where he sat and asked.

“You’ll do it, right?”

Chayun bit her lip, then let out a long sigh and stepped closer to him.

“Lift your head a little.”

With a smirk, Gyobeom obediently followed her instructions.

“Okay.”

Chayun carefully wiped Gyobeom’s forehead with a white cloth.

“That’s a relief. Compared to the amount of blood, the wound isn’t that bad.”

“It just grazed me. The blood from the other guy splattered on me, so it looks worse than it is.”

“How can you, a managing director, keep putting yourself in such dangerous situations…!”

Chayun stopped herself.

*Forget it. I won’t say anything. He wouldn’t listen anyway.*

He always does whatever he wants, and he’s the kind of person who can get away with it.

The only one who gets upset is me. And this man doesn’t even see me being upset.

She had realized that fact long ago, yet she still couldn’t let go of her feelings for him. She felt like the most foolish person in the world.

“Next time, don’t come—”

“This is the only way you’ll pay attention to me.”

“…Excuse me?”

“Because it’s only at times like this that Hong Chayun looks me in the eye and voluntarily touches my body.”

A subtle silence fell.

Chayun’s lips parted, but no words came out.

Gyobeom stared up at her steadily.

“Hong Chayun.”

His large hand grasped her white, delicate fingers—the ones pressing firmly against his forehead—and lowered them.

“Chayun-ah.”

At the low voice calling her name, Chayun’s heart plummeted.

Every time he spoke to her so gently like this, she felt like she would start deluding herself again.

She desperately tried to remember the past.

—

*”What meaning? My father said it. That I need to know how to handle people. So I was just using you as practice.”*

—

Her heart steadied a little.

*It’s just a fleeting whim.*

There was no way this man—the sole heir of the Guseong Group—would look at her that way.

One of her friends had once said that her reactions were entertaining, which made him want to keep poking at her.

Gyobeom probably felt the same way. So she mustn’t misunderstand.

Because the one who would get hurt again would be her.

Chayun pulled her hand free from his grasp, took antiseptic from the kit, poured it onto gauze, and slowly pressed it to the spot where she had wiped away the blood.

Without so much as a flinch, Gyobeom kept his eyes fixed on her, unmoving.

“This is the last time.”

“…”

“Coming here like this every time. It makes me uncomfortable.”

After applying ointment and a bandage, Chayun tidied the first-aid kit and turned to put it back in the cabinet.

*Click.* Her wrist was grabbed.

“The reason I’m uncomfortable.”

She turned her head to find Gyobeom looking at her with burning eyes.

“Tell me.”

“Do you really need me to say it out loud?”

“How am I supposed to know if you don’t say it?”

With a light sigh of disbelief, Chayun spoke.

“In a superior-subordinate relationship, the subordinate finds everything the superior does uncomfortable. Even as I say this, I’m trembling, afraid I might displease you.”

“So you’re saying you’re the subordinate?”

“Then am I the superior?”

“By that logic, you’re the superior.”

He tilted his head slightly. It was a gesture he made when he had made up his mind about something.

“Everything you do makes me anxious and uneasy. I’m always watching to see if I’ll meet your expectations—if that’s not being a subordinate, what is?”

Rather than fluttering, her first emotion was incredulity.

*That’s ridiculous.* The sole heir of the Guseong Group—a man who had stood above everyone else from birth, looking down on them—was watching someone else’s moods?

“And the reason you find me uncomfortable—”

Gyobeom’s hand slid down and gripped hers tightly, as if to swallow it whole.

“—isn’t because I’m Chairman Gu Gwangpyo’s son. It’s because you think of me as a man.”

This, too, wasn’t a question—it was a certainty.

Chayun’s face flushed red. She covered her face with her free hand.

“That’s what I think.”

“D-don’t think that everything you think is right, Managing Director.”

“I told you not to call me that. Do you think I won’t cross the line just because you draw one?”

*That’s right.* Gyobeom was the kind of person who, the more you drew boundaries, the more ruthlessly he would breach them.

“You’re stuttering. That means I hit a nerve.”

He pulled her hand—still in his grasp—and guided it to his shoulder.

Chayun suddenly found herself standing between his legs. She blinked blankly for a moment.

“Chayun-ah.”

At the thick heat and desire laced in his voice as he called her name, her head grew hazy, as if drunk on strong liquor.

“Then start thinking about it now.”

“Ab-bout what…?”

“About me. As a man.”

Chayun hastily pulled her hand away from his shoulder, but Gyobeom caught her retreating white fingers and pressed his lips to them.

“Ah…”

At the heat of his lips, she let out a faint whimper, her eyes squinting slightly.

“If you truly hated it, you would have kicked me in the shin right away. That’s how Hong Chayun is.”

He was right. Chayun never let someone she disliked touch her body carelessly.

And this was Gyobeom. The man she had had a crush on since childhood. How could she pull away when he was looking at her with such fervent eyes and meeting her lips?

“Give me a chance.”

“A chance for…?”

“A chance to make up for all the times I’ve upset you.”

“Sunbae—”

At the word “sunbae,” Gyobeom held his breath and waited for her next words.

“—is a really bad sunbae. From the very first time we met, all the way until now.”

Gyobeom, who had been slowly stroking the back of Chayun’s hand with his thumb, wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her onto his left thigh.

“S-sunbae!”

“My head hurts a little.”

Their breaths mingled as they gazed into each other’s eyes from close range.

“Chayun-ah.”

“…Please don’t call me that.”

“Why. Because you get nervous?”

*Oh, really…!* As Chayun bit her lip and glared at him, Gyobeom’s Adam’s apple bobbed heavily.

“It’s okay.”

“What’s okay about—”

“I feel the same way.”

*Swoosh.* His dark eyes dropped to her small, red lips.

The blatant meaning in that gaze was impossible to miss.

“If you don’t like it, punch me in the eyelid. It’s the softest and most vulnerable spot on the face.”

“What are you suddenly talking ab—”

Something hot and soft touched her lips. Startled, Chayun parted her mouth slightly without thinking, and a damp pleasure rushed in like a wave.

Chayun gripped his shoulders tightly and closed her eyes. His large hand firmly supported her back and pulled her even closer.

Her whole body tensed. A strange sensation spread through her inner thighs. The more persistent and intense Gyobeom’s movements became, the more frequent Chayun’s whimpers grew.

A low, simmering sound rumbled from Gyobeom’s throat, and soon his large hand disappeared beneath her shirt.

His hand, which had been stroking the narrow curve of her waist, moved higher. It met the undergarment encasing her skin.

“Chayun-ah.”

Gyobeom broke the kiss slightly and whispered to her.

“I’ll just be a bad sunbae.”

—

***Three months earlier.***

After sending the part-timer home early, Chayun was left alone in the café to clean up.

As she was sweeping the floor, her phone vibrated.

It was her grandmother.

*- Dear.*

At her grandmother’s subdued voice, Chayun straightened up. *No way…*

*- The chairman has passed away.*

Her eyes widened briefly before returning to normal. *So it’s come.*

“When?”

*- The hospital contacted us early this morning.*

Guseong Group Chairman Gu Daehan had been hospitalized at a university hospital for two years due to a chronic illness, and in the last three months, his condition had deteriorated rapidly—he could have died at any time.

But her expression had fallen not because of Chairman Gu’s death.

Because she could anticipate exactly what her grandmother would say next.

*- When are you coming?*

Chayun opened her mouth to respond, then closed it, repeating the motion.

If she went there… she would see *him*.

The man like an elegant beast—refined, and dangerous.