Chapter 22

At Sunwoo’s simple remark that she was beautiful, Jaye’s face turned as red as the winterberries covering the flower wall.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to give me your phone?”

“Ah, yes, yes.”

Jaye took her smartphone out of her handbag, opened the camera, handed it to Sunwoo, and stood in front of the flower wall.

She stood straight and looked directly at the camera.

Knowing that he was looking at her from behind the camera made the tips of her toes tingle inside her shoes.

“Okay, I’ll take it.”

Sunwoo knelt on one knee on the hotel’s marble floor and held the phone camera at an upward angle to make Jaye look taller.

Naturally, his chestnut-colored coat brushed against the floor.

“Okay. One, two, three.”

She was supposed to lift the corners of her lips and smile, but her facial muscles had stiffened, and she couldn’t manage it.

The shutter clicked a couple of times.

After taking the pictures, Sunwoo held out the phone and approached her.

“Check and see if you like the pictures.”

“They must have turned out well. The place is so pretty.”

“I told you—you’re pretty today too.”

Instead of checking the pictures on her phone, Jaye looked up at Sunwoo’s face.

She had never once told Sunwoo that he was handsome or anything similar.

It was obvious, after all, but she had always been careful because she was afraid her feelings might show if she said such things to him.

Unlike Jaye, Sunwoo had no hesitation about telling her that she was pretty.

Having grown up as the only son of a chaebol family, he was confident about expressing his feelings. He was in a position where he didn’t need to have his opinions validated, so perhaps that was why he could simply say what he thought.

Even though Jaye knew that his compliments about her being pretty carried no particular meaning or deeper thought, his words still made her heart flutter.

The unfamiliar place, the clothes she normally wouldn’t wear, and the man beside her who looked impossibly handsome made Jaye feel like Cinderella who had wandered into a ball.

“Shall we go, then?”

“Yes.”

Taking Jaye’s heels into consideration, Sunwoo walked more slowly than usual.

As they passed the hotel reception, a hotelier who recognized Sunwoo approached them. Sunwoo returned the greeting with a slight nod before politely declining the hotelier’s offer to guide them.

The two of them stopped in front of the staircase leading underground.

An ivory-colored marble staircase spiraled down from the first floor to the LL floor, the first basement level.

“Be careful on the stairs.”

Sunwoo positioned Jaye closer to the railing and took her other hand.

Thanks to Sunwoo escorting her, Jaye descended the stairs comfortably despite wearing heels.

When she had heard that they were going to drink cocktails at a hotel, Jaye had imagined a lounge bar on one of the upper floors.

Unexpectedly, however, the place Sunwoo was taking her was located underground.

Sunwoo led Jaye through the hotel’s basement corridor.

After a while, he stopped at a dead end at the end of the corridor.

There was a plain door in the wall that looked like the entrance to a supply storage room.

“What’s in here?”

Jaye knew Sunwoo would never take her somewhere strange, but the crude-looking door made her suspicious.

No matter how she looked at it, the door didn’t look like it led to a place where cocktails were served.

“Sunwoo, weren’t we supposed to go drink cocktails?”

Without saying anything, Sunwoo pulled open the door that looked like the entrance to a supply room or perhaps a freezer storage area.

The heavy door swung silently inward.

Beyond it was nothing but darkness, so deep that Jaye couldn’t see even an inch ahead.

Without realizing it, Jaye grabbed the collar of Sunwoo’s coat.

“I think this is kind of strange.”

In crime movies about chaebol families, illegal parties involving drugs and sex were often held in hidden places like this.

“Your first drink is supposed to be something you have in secret. When I was seventeen, I used to lock the door and drink with my friends.”

“No, but still…”

Jaye trusted Sunwoo, but the pitch-black space beyond the storage-room door filled her with an inexplicable sense of fear.

Just then, she sensed movement in the darkness.

A man dressed in a suit approached them.

Tense, Jaye hid behind Sunwoo.

The stranger’s face was invisible in the darkness, which made the situation even more frightening.

“You’re Department Head Jung Sunwoo, correct?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll show you to your table.”

Still clutching Sunwoo’s coat collar, Jaye followed him into the darkness.

She could hear what sounded like Sunwoo giving a quiet chuckle, but her palms had already become sweaty from tension.

They walked only a few steps.

Then the entire atmosphere suddenly changed.

“!”

The place they emerged into from the darkness was so lavish that Jaye had to blink several times.

The bar had a secretive, almost clandestine atmosphere, with a glittering golden arched ceiling, black marble floors that reflected the ceiling like a mirror, and heavy mahogany furniture.

The bitter scent unique to strong liquor lingered in the air, stimulating her senses.

“Where are we?”

“Where else? A bar.”

Several bartenders stood behind the counter of the dimly lit hotel bar, expertly mixing drinks. Behind them, shelves were stacked with every kind of liquor imaginable.

Music with a beat resembling a heartbeat drifted lightly through the air.

The bartenders prepared the drinks with serious, precise movements.

About half of the lounge tables were occupied, and every guest seemed engrossed in conversation while holding long-stemmed cocktail glasses.

“Wow…”

The place looked like somewhere the upper class might secretly gather for illicit dealings.

The languid, vaguely sensual atmosphere of the place made Jaye’s heart beat faster on its own.

“This way, please.”

The man in the suit led them to a spot well away from the other guests.

At Sunwoo’s request as a VVIP, the bar had adjusted the seating arrangements to create a private space for them.

There was enough room between their table and the tables where the other guests were seated for a couple of tables to fit, but those tables had been removed and the distance between their table and the others had been widened so that no other guests could sit nearby.

“Do you like the seating arrangement?”

“Yes. I like it.”

“Then I’ll have the cocktails and food prepared as requested. Please enjoy your evening.”

Once Sunwoo sat down at the table, Jaye took the seat opposite him.

Although the lighting was dim, Sunwoo’s face was still relatively clear from across the table.

Seeing him smiling pleasantly, Jaye wondered if he had deliberately chosen a place like this.

“I never imagined there would be a place like this behind that storage-room door.”

“Honestly, this is my first time here too. I’d only heard about it.”

“Your first time?”

“Yes. Manager Park recommended it.”

When Manager Park had told him about a bar designed with the same concept as the speakeasies of 1920s New York during Prohibition, Sunwoo had merely thought of it as an interesting fact.

Sunwoo generally didn’t like places built around elaborate concepts. He found such things childish.

But he had changed his mind after seeing how much Jaye enjoyed the café that had been converted from a bathhouse.

For some reason, he had a feeling Jaye would like this place too.

And, as expected, she was looking around with shining eyes in the darkness.

“It’s supposed to be designed like the places where people secretly drank during Prohibition. It’s called a speakeasy bar. The concept is that people use it discreetly, as if they’re keeping it a secret.”

As Sunwoo explained the place, Jaye nodded with an expression of understanding.

Only then did she understand why the entrance looked like a storage-room door and why they had stepped into complete darkness upon entering.

“I heard the bartenders here are very skilled.”

“I see.”

“The only disappointing thing is that it’s too dark for you to take the authentication photos you like so much.”

“No, I’m not disappointed. Just coming here already feels like a special experience. It feels like I’ve stepped into a movie.”

Sunwoo stared at Jaye’s face for a long time as she looked around with wide, curious eyes.

Whenever Sunwoo went somewhere or met someone, his secretarial staff always provided him with enough information beforehand.

Because of that, he had almost never experienced the kind of pure wonder Jaye displayed.

Wherever she went, Jaye reacted without pretense and openly expressed her amazement.

Lately, Sunwoo had come to enjoy seeing her untainted reactions.

Just as Jaye was exploring her surroundings with the curiosity of a newly hatched bird, a handsome, middle-aged blond man approached their table.

“He’s the bartender they invited from New York. He came over to greet us.”

The bartender placed a sheet of paper listing the food and cocktails that would be served in front of the two of them, politely greeted them, and began explaining the cocktail pairing.

Jaye wasn’t bad at English, but she had had very little exposure to it, so she was quite rusty.

As a result, she couldn’t help missing most of what he said as he continued speaking in American English.

Sunwoo, on the other hand, sat across from Jaye and conversed comfortably with the bartender.

As she quietly listened to their conversation, Jaye’s ears perked up at the word wife that came from Sunwoo’s mouth.

After the bartender left, Jaye leaned toward Sunwoo.

“What did you talk about?”

“That my wife had been starving so much that her stomach was practically stuck to her back.”

“I told you I wasn’t starving…”

As soon as Sunwoo finished speaking, an appetizer platter was served.

The dish was made by melting sugar into a sphere and covering it with a golden dressing, resembling the round spheres Jaye had seen hanging from the ceiling in the hotel lobby.

“They didn’t bring the food this quickly because you told them I was starving, did they?”

“That’s right. I threatened them and told them to bring the food quickly.”

“Oh, seriously.”

Jaye broke the sugar sphere with her fork.

A salad dressed with oil spilled out from inside, filling the plate beautifully.

A little while later, the bartender from New York approached again, pushing a trolley filled with various liquors and cocktail tools such as jiggers and shakers.

With swift yet careful movements, he prepared a sunset-colored cocktail and poured it into a blended glass.

Soon, cocktail glasses were placed in front of both of them.

“It’s a cocktail inspired by the Italian aperitif Aperol Spritz.”

Sunwoo immediately translated the bartender’s explanation for Jaye.

“He says they used Aperol liqueur, which has a citrus flavor.”

Jaye wrapped her fingers around the long, smooth stem of the cocktail glass.

She took a sip.

Just as Sunwoo had explained, she could taste and smell the citrus.

“Very nice. Thank you.”

Jaye smiled at the bartender and offered an awkward greeting in English.

The bartender wished them a pleasant evening before returning to the bar.

Once he was gone, Jaye finally let her shyness disappear and expressed her genuine admiration to Sunwoo.

“Wow, wow! This cocktail is really delicious.”

Sunwoo smiled as he picked up his own glass.

When he extended his glass toward Jaye, she gently tapped hers against his.

Clink.

A clear sound rang out between the two of them.

The hotel cocktail bar staff served the courses at a leisurely pace.

The two of them slowly ate their food and savored each cocktail paired with each dish.

Jaye had avoided alcohol while living at Unamjae because she had always been careful about her conduct.

By the second pairing cocktail, she began to feel as though she were floating.

But because it was her first time drinking, she didn’t even realize that what she was feeling was the beginning of intoxication.

“How did Manager Park find such a fun place?”

“The chairman of HW Group, whose headquarters is nearby, is serving as the head of the business association this year. The breakfast meetings he hosts are held at different hotels around this area.”

As the alcohol began to take effect, Jaye dragged out the ends of her words more than usual.

“Ahhh… So that’s when he found it.”

“Yes. I guess Manager Park was told about the cocktail pairing event when he came here.”

“I seeee.”

“Well, honestly, when Manager Park first told me about this place, I wasn’t particularly interested.”

“Really? Then why did you come here?”

“Because I thought you would like it.”

“!”

“That’s why I came.”

“Because I thought you would like it.”