Clink. The long fingers rolling ice cubes in the glass and the wrist revealed beneath the shirt. She skimmed over his angular shoulders and face that seemed meticulously sculpted by someone.
He was certainly an attractive man. His qualifications were even more attractive.
Though it wounded her pride, there was nothing more certain than marriage with this man as a means to immediately overcome her trapped situation.
“First, you need to make the other person feel attracted, you know? Appeal with intellectual charm first…!”
Intellectual charm. Should she really have tried to appeal with such a thing?
Yuri pressed the call button, trying to erase the tangled, pointless thoughts in her head.
An employee waiting outside the door came in and quickly replaced the empty bottle Dokyung had finished with a new one.
She brought back the glass that had been taken from her and ostentatiously filled it with fresh alcohol. Each time she swallowed the liquid without hesitation, the strong alcohol burned her narrow throat.
After several rounds of emptying her glass and refilling it, Dokyung briefly sneered as he watched Yuri’s defiant drinking.
Taking advantage of that moment, she directly questioned his reason.
“May I ask why?”
“Is there any point in asking?”
“I’m still willing to negotiate with you, Mr. Lee.”
The corner of his mouth curved slightly. He looked as if he was witnessing something quite interesting.
“What do you want? What does Lee Dokyung need?”
“If I need something, I suppose you’ll accommodate everything?”
“If it’s possible, yes.”
“You’re certainly zealous about everything, Ms. Han Yuri.”
It wasn’t just her miserable inferiority complex that made his words sound mocking.
“Tell me. What conditions would work?”
“Do you think I agreed to the design change because I was satisfied with the conditions Shinyu offered?”
A sudden, seemingly tangential answer came.
It meant that his rejection of her proposal wasn’t solely due to her inadequate conditions. Rather than making sense, it made her even more puzzled. What else besides calculation was needed for a deal?
“Then what is it? Why are you rejecting me…?”
“Because I’m not turned on by you.”
Yuri’s brow furrowed deeply at his dry response. She finally understood the meaning behind those gazes that had swept over her appraisingly multiple times.
Shame welled up. No, she even felt humiliated.
She realized it clearly now. He was actually less offensive when he was calculating and nitpicking, discussing her vastly inadequate conditions like some materialistic person.
Crazy bastard.
A crooked smile formed on Dokyung’s lips as he steadily observed the changes in her expression. He had clearly understood the curse her eyes had uttered.
The man, after scanning the table one more time, straightened his upper body.
“You seem to have had enough to drink. Let’s get up.”
“Though this was what she wanted too, she glanced away, remembering Lee Yeonjae who hadn’t returned yet. The seat that Yeonjae had excused herself from briefly was already clean.”
Judging by his nonchalant reaction, Dokyung had known this from the beginning.
Yuri rose to her feet, ignoring the man she disliked in every way. As she picked up her handbag and tried to step away, her vision suddenly spun from the alcohol rising unexpectedly.
As her legs wobbled, a large hand firmly grabbed her wrist.
“…!”
With the sound of something rolling and falling to the floor, bodies collided, and inevitably, the distance between them narrowed. The heavy scent of cologne that had lingered at the tip of her nose all evening now engulfed it completely.
When she looked up, Lee Dokyung had tilted his head askew and was scrutinizing her face. Her body stiffened involuntarily, and heat rose to her cheeks.
“Are you drunk?”
Despite his quite mischievous gaze, his deep voice gently penetrated her ears. Yuri looked directly at his hatefully smooth face and replied.
“No.”
“Your face is red.”
Those eyes again. Eyes that strip and scan a person.
As she faced those pitch-black eyes that once again prodded her cheek, an inexplicable defiance arose. Suddenly, a strange competitive spirit began to override her meager pride.
It was an impulsive desire. Probably fueled by intoxication.
“Mr. Lee.”
“…”
“Want to sleep with me?”
A faint laugh escaped through the man’s teeth. His slightly lowered eyes even revealed a hint of mockery.
“You really are drunk.”
In response to Dokyung’s murmur, Yuri raised her voice as if insisting that her mind was clearer than ever.
“You said you’re not turned on by me. Let’s sleep together and see if that’s really true.”
“You seem more greedy than I thought.”
Dokyung mockingly sneered at her.
“Do my words sound like a joke?”
He carefully observed Yuri’s face as she snapped back. Though he had provoked her with the word “greedy,” what he read in the reddish eyes of the woman was desperation. Something like an obsession that she had to accomplish something, anything, somehow.
“You always conduct business this roughly, I see.”
“When necessary.”
“If necessary, you don’t mind sex either?”
“So. Do you dislike that?”
As if that could be. Both her reddish-brown eyes and rose-colored lips. Just a brief fantasy of embracing and rolling around with the woman before him was enough to make his lower body tense.
Perhaps if it had merely been a temptation to enjoy one passionate night, he might have accepted easily.
But since it wasn’t, he just wanted to provoke the woman a bit more. He wanted to see her clinging to him out of desperation, begging, pleading, and ultimately crying underneath him with a clear face.
Suddenly, a mischievous desire he had never even imagined before raised its head. It was a very strange and unfamiliar impulse.
“No, I’m not interested.”
“…”
The woman’s expression was transparent as she bit her lip. Her face, which had grown even redder from her scratched pride, fully revealed the displeasure she couldn’t hide.
Despite knowing this, he deliberately stared at her impassively, and she shook off his hand with a slap and stepped back.
“Let’s go. I’ll drive you.”
“No, thank you.”
She turned away mercilessly and was leaving the room without even saying goodbye. No. Was she running away?
He could have followed her, grabbed her thin wrist again to turn her around, and tormented her a bit more, but that was enough for today.
This much was sufficiently entertaining.
Dokyung’s eyelids blinked slowly as he took in the sight of her round, thoroughly annoyed back of the head as if savoring it. Indeed, she was interesting.
***
Dokyung’s footsteps came to an abrupt halt as he walked through the quiet hotel lobby. On a sofa placed in one corner of the lobby sat Han Yuri, who had disappeared earlier showing her back rudely, now with her eyes closed.
He changed direction and approached her. Despite his clear presence, the woman showed no reaction.
With her head leaning against a pillar, her face was full of the effects of alcohol as she breathed lightly, “Ssaek, ssak.” She was completely out of it.
“Ms. Han Yuri, are you sleeping?”
“…”
“Ms. Han Yuri.”
“…”
“Han Yuri.”
“…”
She said she wasn’t drunk.
A laugh escaped him out of incredulity.
He found it absurd how stubbornly she had tried to pretend she was sober in front of him. When she would collapse like this after barely taking a few steps.
Suddenly, a vibration sounded from somewhere. Having found the source of the sound, Dokyung took the phone out of the woman’s purse, which she was clutching like a sacred object.
Jung Hyuk Sunbae
Dokyung’s eyebrows twitched slightly as he confirmed the name on the screen.
Whatever spiteful urge it was, he pressed the call button without hesitation and brought the phone to his ear.
“Han-yul, where are you? I’m almost there. Outside…”
“Ms. Han Yuri is in the lobby right now.”
The other person paused momentarily, apparently surprised by the unexpected voice. Dokyung deliberately continued without revealing who he was.
“Ah… yes…”
“She’s either sleeping or not waking up when called.”
“But who…”
“What should we do?”
“Ah. Well, I’m almost at the hotel now. Just a moment. I’ll be right in.”
Not long after hanging up, the figure of a man entering the hotel entrance came into view. A young man with a tall stature. He approached with heavy steps and first nodded a greeting to Dokyung.
“Hey, Han Yuri! Wake up, huh?”
He shook the woman’s shoulder and arm. It was a familiar gesture, as if he had experienced this many times before. After being called several times, she finally opened her eyes slightly and exhaled a languid breath.
“Sunbae…?”
Her voice calling the man was strangely drawn out.
Standing one step away, Dokyung’s eyes, which had been watching their interaction without missing anything, began to fill with subtle irritation.
“Get up. Let’s go home, okay?”
After helping Yuri stand, the man slightly bowed his head toward Dokyung. Dokyung merely lowered his eyes with a stiff face, without giving any response. The dark hand supporting the woman’s arm was quite displeasing. The round head slightly leaning on the man’s shoulder was significantly annoying as well.
Through the window, he could see the woman being led by the hand of the man—whether senior or lover—getting into a car.
In reality, the identity of the man she had called while completely intoxicated was obvious.
So she had a boyfriend?
“Want to sleep with me?”
Yet she had the nerve to say such cute things to him…
He had mischievously provoked her because he found it amusing how she reacted exactly as provoked. But perhaps he was the one who had fallen for her provocation instead.
Walking out of the now-empty lobby, Dokyung took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. His cheeks hollowed as he inhaled the filter, and the exhaled smoke dispersed acridly.
In his outstretched hand, his gaze looking down at the object the woman had left behind was unusually prickly.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
