LUST - 6

06. Snare

“Ms. Song.”

“Yes, I’m going now.”

Na-yeon closed the pharmacy door and fastened her cardigan. The day after submitting her resume, she had received a call to come for an interview. After receiving a call telling her to start work next week, she had bowed her head several times into the air in thanks.

Na-yeon had told Yeon-seok the news in bed, whimpering with joy. Her voice was hoarse, and she couldn’t even convey it properly before collapsing into his arms. On the morning of her first day, he had assigned her a personal driver. Of course, the man driving was also one of Yeon-seok’s underlings. A gangster, in other words.

To think she would ever ride in a car with a gangster as her chauffeur. Na-yeon locked the pharmacy door and looked around unnecessarily. It was strange. Last night, Yeon-seok hadn’t come home. He hadn’t contacted her either. She had waited for him and dozed off, only to wake up in the morning to find him gone.

“Ms. Song?”

“Ah, yes. I’ll have the same.”

Habitually reaching into her pocket to find her phone, Na-yeon realized it was empty. Had she left her phone at the pharmacy? It was the phone she had been holding onto all along, hoping he would call. Na-yeon put down the warm coffee and readjusted her bag.

“I think I left something at the pharmacy.”

“Go ahead.”

Na-yeon bowed her head and left the cafe. She went back into the pharmacy and picked up her phone. There were still no calls. Just one text from Mina asking if work was okay. Where on earth had the man who wasn’t answering his phone gone?

She sat in the dark pharmacy, just staring at her phone, when it rang as if by a lie. It wasn’t a saved number, but hoping it might be him, she hurriedly answered.

“Hello?”

• .......

“Director?”

There was no sound from the other end.

“Director, are you okay? Yeon-seok...”

The continued silence sent a shiver down Na-yeon’s spine.

• ...Na-yeon-ah.

“...Tae-min oppa?”

Ha Tae-min. The man she had missed and resented for the past two years after he had left.

If he was going to abandon her and leave like that, he should have lived coldly. Why did he have to dig into and touch her weak and sentimental heart like this? So she couldn’t push him away coldly.

But it wasn’t an international number. Had he returned to Korea?

“Why did you call?”

• Na-yeon-ah, can we see each other for a moment? I’ll come to you.

“...I have nothing to say. What business do we have meeting after we broke up two years ago?”

• It’s not over for me yet. I know it’s not for you either. I broke off the engagement a long time ago and even abandoned my parents to come back to you. I don’t need this damn family anymore. I’ll show you everything I did just to see you. I gave up everything except you, Na-yeon-ah.

“...Stop it. It’s all in the past anyway.”

• You wanted to have a child and live an ordinary life like everyone else, didn’t you? Let’s live like that. That’s why I came back. Let’s live like that now. I’ll come to you. Let’s meet and talk.

“I’m busy. I’m hanging up. Don’t come. I won’t see you even if you do.”

Na-yeon pressed the end call button repeatedly with trembling hands, trying to calm her startled heart. After he had left, she had hoped that Ha Tae-min would face the full force of the breakup. That he would regret it belatedly and try to hold onto her, and she would turn her back on him coldly and sharply. She had definitely thought she would say even harsher words than just now.

Na-yeon buried her sweaty forehead between her arms.

She had met Ha Tae-min in her first year of university. That man, already famous at school, had approached Na-yeon from their first meeting after she transferred to the pharmacy department. Handsome looks and the only son of a well-known professor’s family. Unintentionally, she had monopolized the attention and love of the most popular man at school.

She had finally taken the hand of the man who had followed her around for a full six months, but about two years after they started dating, a friend told her she had seen Tae-min coming out of a motel near the school with another woman. She didn’t believe it. She was sure it wasn’t true, that her friend had seen wrong.

But the next day, Ha Tae-min appeared before her holding that woman’s hand. He said she was his fiancée, arranged by his family. While dating Na-yeon, he had been meeting that woman all along due to his family’s arrangements.

Ha Tae-min had chosen his family over Song Na-yeon. He had thrown away their two years together as if they were a piece of paper, and he had left for America with the other woman, holding her hand, for their future.

“Na-yeon-ah, I’ll treat you well. Please just give me a chance. Huh? Huh? You just smiled, didn’t you?”

It was the voice that had tormented her for the past two years.

If that was the case, he shouldn’t have clung to her so desperately from the beginning, saying he liked her. If he was going to throw her away so easily, he shouldn’t have said things like he was going crazy for her from the start. He shouldn’t have given her any feelings from the beginning. She had opened her heart with difficulty and given him all the feelings she had, only for Ha Tae-min to leave her. He had abandoned her so easily. And now he was... now he was here.

Mi-joo had said that to forget a bad guy and live well, she had to become more vicious than him. More ruthless.

Na-yeon raised her head, which had been buried, and came out of the pharmacy again. She closed the door and stood quietly looking at the glass door when she felt a presence. The man walking unsteadily out of the darkness was Cha Yeon-seok, that man. His white shirt was wrinkled, and his usually neat hair was wet and disheveled as he walked slowly.

“...Director.”

He slowly closed and opened his eyes and was already right in front of her.

“What is this... you didn’t come home yesterday...”

“Worried?”

When she nodded, he abruptly grabbed Na-yeon’s arm.

“D-Director!”

“Quiet. It’s echoing.”

“Are you hurt somewhere? Why are you like this...”

She followed him into the pharmacy, which she hadn’t locked yet. Her arm was still held.

His eyebrows furrowed as he slumped into the customer chair. He let out a small groan and looked tired. Na-yeon, with a hopeful thought, unbuttoned his shirt, but thankfully, she didn’t see any cuts or wounds. Judging by the lack of signs of being hit, she figured he had either unilaterally dealt with someone or his subordinates had taken good care of him. He was naturally gifted at using his body, so this was probably the extent of it.

“Go home and take a half-bath today. It’ll help your muscles relax quickly...”

“Ah...”

He slightly bent his waist and winced. Na-yeon was surprised and grabbed Yeon-seok’s shoulder.

“Does it hurt? Where, where does it hurt?”

“Here.”

He took her hand and placed it on his cock, breathing roughly with his eyes narrowed as if he was really in pain.

“R-really.”

“My cock hurts. I think it’ll feel better if you touch it.”

He lowered his head slightly and gently rubbed her wrist, then slowly raised his head. His smiling eyes looked ruthless. She slapped his shoulder with a “thwack,” and he chuckled, running his hand through his hair.

“You surprised me.”

“It really hurts. I think it’ll feel better if I cum.”

She could feel his cock, which had become slightly hard, even through his pants, and that made her even more embarrassed.

“When on earth...”

“You shouldn’t take off a man’s clothes so carelessly. Don’t you know that even after sleeping with me so much?”

“That wasn’t taking it off, it was a ch-checkup...”

Without even listening to her excuse, he simply lowered his zipper and forcefully put Na-yeon’s hand inside. With that force, Na-yeon was pulled to sit next to him. A gasp escaped her lips at the sudden action.

His firmly erect cock was swollen as if it would ejaculate any moment with just a little sucking. She lightly touched the skin of his scrotum and rubbed the base of his shaft, and his cock pulsed in her hand. The one she had taken into her hole and thrust hundreds, thousands of times...

“Ah!”

She quickly pulled her hand away, remembering the CCTV. Even though she was facing away from the CCTV attached to the right edge, it was too risky. As her eyes darted around, he immediately noticed the security camera and smiled dangerously. Thump-thump. If they were caught, her job and everything else would be over.

“What’s wrong with it? Just helping a sick guest relieve himself.”

The once dry look in his eyes was now overtaken by a decadent sensuality. Watching him open and close his eyes again made her swallow hard.

“I’m not a pharmacist right now. I’m off work, and I just came to pick up something I left behind. Just, just... so please don’t say it like that.”

“You’re facing away anyway, so I can’t see what you’re doing. If you adjust the angle well.”

“Still...”

“I’ll cum quickly. Ah, my dick are hard, it’s coming. Na-yeon-ah.”

He groaned, narrowing his eyes as he openly seduced her. Haa, his deliberately exhaled breath was obvious.

“Touch it. It’s real.”

“......”

Even as he urged her to touch him quickly, the accompanying chuckling laughter was vicious. Yes, the word ‘vulgar’ suited him perfectly.

Na-yeon turned further, sitting at an angle that completely blocked the CCTV. Her heart pounded as if it would burst. Unlike his erect cock, which was pointing straight up as if ready to fire, he leaned back in his chair, looking excessively relaxed.

To utter such blatant lies with such leisurely eyes and lips. She wasn’t in her right mind either, unable to refuse even though she knew he was vulgar. Na-yeon wrapped her hand around the underside of his dick. Humid and hot air clung to her fingertips.

Na-yeon quickly moved what she was holding. She could see his testicles pulsing, as if ready to shoot out semen at any moment. From what she had seen so far, after such movements, he would soon spray his semen and leave his mark wherever he desired – inside her vagina, on her nipples, her clit, anywhere.

“I think I need you to touch my dick to cum.”

His face drew closer as if to kiss her. But there was no kiss. The fact that a huge cock was hidden between their facing bodies brought a sense of frantic excitement along with anxiety.

“Haa, kuh.”

His bursting moans stirred her ears. Na-yeon rubbed his urethra with her thumb and touched his dick as he wanted. As if waiting, pre-cum leaked out in streams. She pulled on the slick, mucous-covered dick and pumped. A squelching sound came from between her fingers as they rubbed quickly against the pre-cum.

Watching that incredibly obscene sight, he spoke in a damp, wet voice.

“Why, do you want to take it all the way into your throat and swallow it down?”

“...You said you’d cum quickly, hurry...”

“Say it lewdly, ask me to cum.”

“Director, no, Yeon-seok-ssi.”

“If you don’t, I won’t cum. I’ll just keep holding back, I guess.”

His tightly furrowed brow showed his determination. Ha Tae-min had said he was coming to the pharmacy. If they stayed like this, they might even have a three-way confrontation. Suddenly realizing that, Na-yeon felt a cold sweat break out.

“Whisper in my ear.”

He ordered with a sly look as she hesitated and parted her lips slightly. His requests were so specific.

Na-yeon shook his cock and brought her lips to his ear.

“Please cum.”

“Don’t you think something’s missing before that, even in your opinion?”

“...Please cum a lot... generously on my hand.”

“Good girl, our Na-yeon.”

Only after hearing the words he wanted did he ejaculate. Semen flowed down, not only wetting her palm but also staining her cardigan. Na-yeon panted as if she had just come, looking at the thick semen clinging between her fingers.

“Suck it. Each finger, right in front of me.”

“...Director.”

“If you don’t, I’ll tell you to suck it while watching the CCTV.”

At his words, Na-yeon hurriedly put her fingers, dripping with thick semen, into her mouth. It was better to show him this shameful act than to show it in front of the CCTV.

Na-yeon put her tongue between her fingers and sucked the thick flowing semen, licking her fingers in front of him with a “slurp, slurp.” Every time her tongue passed between her fingers, it tasted strong and fishy. A satisfied smile spread across his lips.

Cruel.

“...Cha Yeon-seok, you idiot.”

“Let’s go home.”

Na-yeon, who had walked to the car, belatedly puffed out her cheeks. It had only been a day since she last saw him, but she was happy to see Seong-shik as if it had been a long time. She closed the pharmacy door and got into the familiar car.

“You have an evening meeting at the M Hotel conference room in one hour. I will be waiting outside.”

One short hour was given.

Returning home, she tripped over him in front of the entrance before even reaching the bed. She could still sense his subordinates outside, guarding the house, but the thinly stretched fuse in her head had already snapped.

He hurriedly lowered his zipper, took out the cock Na-yeon had just touched, and kindly put it in her mouth. Na-yeon swept her tongue heavily over the urethra that had just shot out semen violently in her hand. Using her palm as support, she held his shaft and licked and rolled her tongue over the sensitive spot, making him curse between his teeth. Na-yeon deliberately licked and sucked his shaft, occasionally spitting. He liked it when she sucked his cock messily with saliva. She didn’t forget to subtly make eye contact with him while her mouth was on his dick.

“Damn it, Song Na-yeon. When I suck your cock...”

The call from Ha Tae-min and his voice, which she hadn’t heard in a long time, were all confusing.

She needed sex that would drive her crazy. Please don’t shake me anymore. Ha Tae-min. Please don’t come any closer than this. Na-yeon muttered desperately. Please.

She greedily licked him down to the base, making a sucking sound. The heavy shaft, which kept bobbing due to its weight, pressed against her palate and tongue every time she closed her mouth. Her panties were already damp from just oral sex.

Na-yeon quickly lifted her skirt and pushed her panties aside. She placed her saliva-covered dick on her vulva and wiggled her hips, inserting his cock deeply. The feeling of his cock sticking thickly to her vaginal walls sent shivers down her spine. The sensation of his loose scrotal skin rubbing all around her intimate opening was also incredibly blissful.

“Ah, ah!”

She didn’t want to think about anything. Na-yeon quickly moved her hips back and forth, oblivious to the fact that her vulva was soaked with fluids and his scrotum was covered in sticky secretions.

Don’t think about anything. Don’t waver like a fool.

“Deeply poke me with your cock, make my pussy feel good, shake hard, ah!”

She stumbled through the words she had learned from having sex with him over the past time.

As the sobbing Na-yeon tightly gripped her heaving breasts, he took off all her upper clothes so she could touch herself comfortably. Na-yeon fondled one of her overflowing breasts and thrust his cock inside her frantically as if she would devour it.

“Hoo, Song Na-yeon, was your inside lonely because I didn’t put it in for a day? Look at your hole opening up, wanting to eat my cock.”

“Yeah, euung. It feels good.”

“Do it while spreading your pussy with your hands.”

No matter how wet she was, his cock was a difficult size to handle. Moreover, her vagina wasn’t even loosened up. Na-yeon lowered both hands and spread her vulva wide, accelerating the thrusting motion.

Her mind went blank. Only the dizzying physical sensations, so intense she couldn’t think of anything, dominated her.

“You wanted to eat me from the pharmacy, Ms. Song. Huh?”

Yeon-seok liked it when she became honest during sex.

“Heeuung, euung, I wanted to eat, heuaaa!”

He hugged Na-yeon’s waist and abruptly lifted her up. His cock was still inserted.

He leaned her head against the firmly closed gate and made her bend forward, sticking her butt out. Her cheek rested against the cold metal gate. Her barely standing legs trembled.

“Shake your butt.”

“H-here, standing like this?”

“If you moan and cry too loudly, they’ll hear. Try to endure it skillfully. They’ll try to touch themselves again if they hear your moans.”

Groping the metal door, she lifted and wiggled her hips. Yeon-seok’s many subordinates, who were intimidating just to look at, must be standing guard outside this metal door. Na-yeon used her core strength to move the inserted cock, rotating her pelvis in circles and pushing, pulling and releasing the suctioned dick. Oblivious to the whitish lubrication mixed with her saliva dripping down around her vagina as the shaft was sucked in, she was engrossed in the penetration.

“Hnng, uh, haa, ah.”

The cock was sucked endlessly deeper inside, and the tendons stood out even more tautly as it came out with a squelching sound. Her breasts slammed against the metal door, pushed by the force of the insertion. Still, her lower body, intertwined like primal naked beasts, was only hot.

She also liked the feeling of his bare cock plunging into her. She had never done it without a condom with Ha Tae-min, even while taking birth control.

A man who shattered even her reason. But she couldn’t say such a thing out loud. This ghost-like man probably already knew without her saying it.

He was a man she had latched onto like a deviation, trying to forget someone with someone else, but sex with him was a more intense snare and trap than anything else. Just a moment ago, her head had been in turmoil with thoughts of Ha Tae-min, but this wanton body was now raging mad with sex with Cha Yeon-seok. Her body and mind were separate. It felt exactly like she was having an affair.

“Ah... so, delicious.”

“Then you have to ask politely for me to cum.”

“Semen, inside...”

“What? I can’t hear you. What did I tell you to say, smart Ms. Song?”

“Deep inside my pussy, haaah... cum, please cum... aah!”

“Shake it more, more lewdly, more. That way, the semen you want will come out, right?”

A man who coaxed and demanded what he wanted, and ultimately got it.

Even as he said that, he plunged his cock in with all his might. Her body, unable to keep up with the speed of his thrusts, could only release tearful moans. Aaaah! The moan that hit the metal door echoed in the hallway. Na-yeon squeezed her eyes shut, shuddering with pleasure.

________________________________________

“That will be 3500 won.”

Na-yeon handed the customer their change and glanced up at the camera.

The colleague pharmacist she worked with had asked why she hadn’t returned to the cafe. She had made a vague excuse that she had an upset stomach due to nerves from starting the new job and couldn’t possibly go. Instead of being concerned, her colleague had laughed, saying she was cute.

“You did your practical training, though.”

“...It’s different from practical training, though.”

“If you did well during your training, you have nothing to worry about.”

Na-yeon picked up her vibrating phone. It was the same number that had called last night. Ha Tae-min.

She silenced the incoming call and put it back in her pocket.

“One digestive aid, please.”

The pharmacy, located in a prime spot in a building lined with hospitals in Gangnam, was busy both in the morning and afternoon.

It was all thanks to her parents, who had worked day and night to support her tuition in their meager circumstances. Getting into pharmacy school and being able to work at a pharmacy like this. She had vowed next to her father as he closed his eyes that she would work hard and definitely open her own pharmacy.

Yes, let’s just focus on working hard and not think about anything else.

She had a long way to go, needing to work hard, open her own pharmacy soon, and make money.

“Na-yeon-ssi, what should we have for lunch today?”

“Hmm, how about gukbap (rice soup)? Yesterday, Teacher Jin said she wanted gukbap.”

“Oh, that’s right. She did. You remembered? Ms. Song has a good memory.”

Na-yeon quickly finished her remaining tasks to have lunch with the pharmacy director and other pharmacists she worked with. She entrusted her work to a pharmacist who had returned after finishing their meal first and left the pharmacy. The scent of spring was already in the breeze.

She entered a nearby warm bean sprout rice soup restaurant. Teacher Jin always said that nothing beat bean sprout rice soup when the weather got cold. Bean sprout rice soup, she used to eat it once a week with Ha Tae-min whenever it got cold.

She needed to pull herself together. Why was she reminiscing about the guy who had abandoned her? She didn’t even want to see the soft-boiled egg with the yolk floating on top that Ha Tae-min had liked.

Na-yeon barely touched her rice, just fiddling with the soup before leaving the restaurant.

“Ms. Song, you barely ate. Are you okay?”

“Yes. My digestion hasn’t been great lately. I’m fine.”

“A pharmacist who can’t even take care of their own body. Take a digestive aid.”

“I’m okay.”

After the rush of customers subsided a bit, the pharmacy had a break time, finally able to take a breather. They were organizing prescriptions while having a cup of coffee each when Na-yeon felt a somewhat familiar gaze that made her spine tingle. She looked up. Her eyes met Yeon-seok’s, who was sitting in the customer waiting area with his arms and legs crossed, looking at her.

“......!”

Sitting in the very spot where they had done naughty things last night, he was acting as if he knew nothing about it. Dressed in his usual neat suit, he attracted attention. The man in the flawless attire shone even without doing anything. A passing pharmacist glanced at him and went into the dispensing room.

He had clearly said he would be late before she left for work this morning. She could only stare blankly, not understanding the situation, when he stood up and strode towards her. His black tie came right up to her nose.

“Give me anything that’s good as a supplement.”

“Yes?”

“A supplement.”

“If it’s a supplement, I bought a lot at home...”

Na-yeon felt a bead of cold sweat trickle down her back. She clamped her mouth shut, afraid she might say something foolish, and looked up at him.

“Do you have any particular area that’s not feeling well?”

“I feel like my stamina has been a bit low lately.”

“I don’t think you need that, though.”

As she muttered, looking at his perfectly straight tie, he chuckled. Na-yeon handed him a vitamin that was easy to take. He might think it was a joke, but Na-yeon was serious. The man who hadn’t come home all day yesterday... how many times had they done it last night? It had started with her, but it had ended with him.

He had left the house after their lovemaking due to work, returned after finishing his schedule, and stirred her from her light sleep again. In the end, she had to beg him to stop, saying she couldn’t do it anymore. Only when her lower body was a mess of semen, overflowing and unable to contain it any longer, did the deeply embedded cock finally withdraw from her body.

To think that this man, whose cock she had sucked with her mouth and bottom, and who had rubbed her so much that her upper and lower parts felt raw, could be so energetic.

“...3000 won.”

She quickly handed him the change as he crunched down on a pill and offered a hundred-thousand won bill.

“What’s with the fuss?”

He seemed to have forgotten that this was the pharmacy where she worked.

Na-yeon suppressed the words that were about to burst out of her mouth and took his hand, placing the change directly in it. From the moment he had taken out his money from his wallet, he hadn’t even looked at how much he was taking out. The excuse about coming to buy supplements was clearly just a pretense.

It was a relief that the pharmacy was quiet. Na-yeon subtly looked around and followed him out of the pharmacy. Seong-shik and his subordinates were guarding the front. She walked with him to the car parked by the roadside. Naturally, his subordinates followed behind.

“Didn’t you say you’d be late today? I still have an hour left until I finish work.”

“I’m late.”

“Did you just come out for a bit?”

“I’ll go straight home after work.”

Had he just come out to see her face? Na-yeon nodded.

“Answer me.”

“Yes, I will. Are you going to the company now?”

“Yeah. I have a meeting. I don’t have time, so suck my tongue quickly.”

He urged her to kiss him quickly because he didn’t have time. The subordinates standing stiffly like robots were probably used to this, but this was in front of a pharmacy, on a roadside where people passed by.

“Here?”

“I told you, I don’t have time.”

“Even so, not here...”

He scanned her face as if to accommodate her as much as possible and then got into the back seat of the car. Na-yeon, deliberately ignoring the subordinates who rushed to open the car door, followed him inside.

“Did you come all the way here just to kiss?”

“No, sex. But we’re short on time.”

He nonchalantly caressed her earlobe and smiled. Her gaze naturally shifted to his slightly tilted jawline. It was the sharp jaw she had licked and kissed passionately last night.

“How about we have dinner together tonight?”

Did he have to say that line so sexily?

“Your advances are too blatant.”

“Do you like this? Blatant and explicit advances.”

The face that asked while rubbing his chin seemed ready to shower her with affection if she said yes.

“...No. And it’s already blatant and explicit enough right now. ...You said you were busy this evening.”

“I have enough willingness to make a special exception for blatant and explicit advances.”

“Oh, really... And from now on, no more than kissing at the pharmacy or in front of it, or anywhere around here. You have no idea how much I...”

“You say absolutely not, but you were just rubbing and shaking my balls with your hand?”

He was definitely a completely different type of man from Ha Tae-min. It was strange how he was the complete opposite of that man, who was always warm and gentle. She had struggled for two years, unable to escape Ha Tae-min, but when she was with this man, her thoughts vanished as if by a lie. Well, maybe it wasn’t just that; maybe he was just a man born to prevent her from thinking anything at all. Her normal thought circuits couldn’t keep up.

“I sometimes wonder who fills your head.”

“Yes?”

“If it’s another guy, you know it won’t be fun, right?”

Looking into his eyes, it didn’t seem like he was asking out of genuine curiosity. Na-yeon thought she saw the corner of his eye subtly narrow.

“What are you doing? Weren’t you going to suck my tongue?”

He had spoken vulgarly, telling her to kiss him, but the man’s parting lips were more elegant than anything. And the red tongue waiting for her inside.

Na-yeon lifted her head and moved towards his lips, which were waiting for her.

She waved goodbye to the pharmacists who were leaving for drinks on the weekend and left the pharmacy. She politely declined their offer to join them, saying she had a prior engagement. Na-yeon pulled her coat tighter against the increasingly strong wind and walked towards the bus stop.

If she hadn’t run into Ha Tae-min standing in front of her, Na-yeon would have been able to get on the approaching bus.

His face was one she hadn’t seen in so long that her hands trembled uncontrollably. She tried to walk past him, but her arm was grabbed.

“Let’s talk.”

“I have nothing to say.”

“Na-yeon-ah.”

“I’m busy. I have somewhere to go.”

“Are you going to meet that man?”

“What?”

“That director person. The one you were looking for on the phone.”

“...It’s none of your business.”

She pulled her arm away and walked, but he stood in front of her again. His face was more gaunt than when he had left her. If he was going to leave her anyway, he shouldn’t have brought his fiancée.

“I went to look for you yesterday, but you weren’t there. Were you with that man?”

The woman was from a National Assembly member’s family, a good match for his family, which made her feel small. She resented him even while understanding his position. Still, was it selfish of her to have wished he would have stayed by her side instead of that woman? He was all she had.

Her dead mother, her father who might pass away any day, her half-brother who was worse than a stranger. He was the only one who had promised to stay by her side for life.

She had been prepared to give up everything and take his hand, but he had too much to lose to have only her. Yet, he had clung to her, even swearing to her, when she had tried not to even start. In the end, she faced the very outcome she had initially feared. The man who had sworn he wouldn’t leave her for family reasons had completely forgotten his promise and let go of Na-yeon’s hand.

“Let’s talk for a moment. I’ll take it all. Hit me as much as you want. So, Na-yeon-ah.”

How much she had loved him. How much her deceased father had relied on her. All those many days she had been left alone, unable to forget him and longing for him.

Yes, maybe it had all been her own greed. That was why she hadn’t been able to hold onto him the day he told her goodbye.

As always, Na-yeon and Tae-min sat facing each other with two Americanos between them.

“How did you find out where I was?”

“Sang-yoon told me. I went and asked him.”

Tae-min didn’t take a single sip of his coffee until it had cooled down.

“I begged him to tell me, even though he didn’t want to. He said you were having a hard time.”

His hand holding the coffee cup was trembling. It had been the same the first time he had confessed to her. He had held the hot Americano cup tightly, his hand shaking, not even realizing it was hot. It was funny. Ha Tae-min looked the same as he had four years ago. She couldn’t have imagined it back then.

“I came to beg you too. If that doesn’t work, I’ll even grab onto your pants leg.”

“What about your fiancée? You said you were getting married right after graduation.”

“I broke off the engagement. I missed you so much, Na-yeon-ah, I couldn’t bear it.”

Then and now, this man had a neat and tidy appearance. Back then, he had begged her to love him; now, he was begging her to love him again. He even pleaded with her, calling her name at the end, just like he used to.

“I have a boyfriend.”

“Na-yeon-ah.”

“We slept together.”

His pale face was filled with despair. Ever since he had left, there had been a time when she had wanted to say these words to him. Revenge, she had wanted. Unlike her ideals, reality had been living day by day, stupidly clinging to the lingering feelings he had left behind, but these were words she had wanted to say.

“Didn’t you expect this when you left? Did you think I would remain chaste after you left?”

Well, maybe that was true. After he left, all she had done was struggle to escape his memory. She had just studied, tormented by the traces he had left behind. She was finally starting to forget. She was finally starting to feel like she could live again, so what kind of twisted intention was it for him to appear now?

“Is that the director person you were talking about? What company does he work for?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“No. You didn’t sleep with that man. How could you have when it wasn’t me?”

“Think whatever you want. I’m not your woman anymore anyway, and we won’t be meeting like this again. I have to go. I have a date with him.”

“Don’t pretend to be sincere with that man when you’re not. I do that because...”

“Live well, no matter which woman you meet. I mean it. I hope you won’t come looking for me again.”

She stood up from her seat without taking a single sip of her coffee. She was pretending to be calm, but her hands were trembling as well. She clenched her fists inside her sleeves to hide it.

As she walked towards the cafe door, she heard him call her from behind. Na-yeon quickened her hesitant steps, trying not to hear his voice. She heard him follow her out of the cafe.

“Song Na-yeon!”

Her arm was grabbed, and she was spun around in an instant.

“I gave up everything. My family, my fiancée. You’re all I need. I told you, didn’t I? I’d protect you by your side for life. I’ve come back to protect you, even now. So, leave that man.”

Na-yeon-ah. How much she had longed to hear that voice. She had done everything she could to forget him. What was the point of all that now? The man who had belatedly appeared mumbled with unfocused eyes, as if he were bewitched.

“Director or executive director or president, whatever he is, you give it all up like I did. How long do you think that man will keep you by his side? No, he’ll abandon you too when he doesn’t need you anymore.”

“So you didn’t need me back then.”

“...Yeah. I can’t say I didn’t. I don’t deny that I abandoned you. But I came back, didn’t I? I appeared like this.”

“...Oppa. Please, stop now.”

“Yeah. It’s oppa. Oppa’s back, Na-yeon-ah.”

“Get away from me.”

“You missed me a lot, didn’t you? That’s why you had a hard time, right?”

She was even angrier that she couldn’t deny his words. Ha Tae-min knew her too well.

Mina’s words came to mind, saying she was pathetic for not being able to forget a man for two years and living with his shadow. Those words were exactly right.

“So, what do you want me to do about it?”

“Let’s start over. That’s why I came, Na.”

Na-yeon couldn’t bring herself to push away Tae-min, who was standing there with tears streaming down his face.