However, the reason why Lee Hyun-woo was so skilled, as Kim Ah-young thought, was because he had experienced a past life.
That was why he could grasp the atmosphere just by holding hands.
Kim Ah-young quickly spoke to calm her pounding heart.
“Wow… Shall we have some wine?”
“Sure.”
Leisure is Lee Hyun-woo’s strength.
He smiled and reached for Kim Ah-young’s body.
Flinch. Kim Ah-young couldn’t help but stiffen.
But then, hearing Lee Hyun-woo’s voice,
“It’s warm here. Should we take off our coats?”
“Huh? Oh…”
Her heart pounded again.
Why does the word ‘take off’ keep sticking in her head?
Also, Lee Hyun-woo’s touch while taking off her coat felt oddly suggestive.
‘Why am I like this, Kim Ah-young? Are you going to keep having strange thoughts?’
Labeling it as a strange thought made her words and actions awkward.
When you think about it, there was no way a young man and woman would just hold hands after entering a hotel room together.
This was a green light signaling that they were ready to allow everything.
With this in mind, as soon as Lee Hyun-woo took off her coat trying to move more naturally,
“You should take yours off too, right?”
Her attempt at reciprocation came out weirdly without a subject.
Kim Ah-young’s face turned red.
Unable to take back her words, she reached out for Lee Hyun-woo’s suit jacket.
Luckily, Lee Hyun-woo stood still with a smile on his face.
As if watching to see what Kim Ah-young would do.
Swish.
After they took off each other’s clothes and hung them on the hanger, the two sat in chairs with a table between them.
Just then, the doorbell rang and the wine arrived, and by this time, Kim Ah-young’s heartbeat started to return to normal.
“Shall we have a strong drink?”
“Sure.”
Soon, Lee Hyun-woo opened the wine, and Kim Ah-young raised her glass to an appropriate height.
When she was with Lee Hyun-woo, they usually drank soju, beer, or soju-beer mix, but today, the type of alcohol had finally changed.
Moreover, since it was a romantic drink, it carried additional meaning.
‘The fact that we’re drinking wine instead of soju or beer tonight means…’
Why do these thoughts keep coming to her?
Fearing that her heartbeat, which she barely managed to calm, would speed up again, she downed the wine in one gulp.
“Huh? How can you drink wine like that?”
“Huh? Ah, I was… thirsty.”
“Hahaha.”
Lee Hyun-woo laughed brightly.
Today, he seemed like a player.
A player who often stirred a woman’s heart.
Kim Ah-young knew through Lee Hyun-woo’s brother and from his own mouth that he had no past girlfriends.
‘He’s good at everything, even handling women well.’
Hoping that he would continue to treat her like this, she accepted the second glass of wine and downed it again.
By the time one glass turned into two, she started to feel the effects of the alcohol.
From the third glass, she found a courage she never had before.
She smiled bashfully for no reason, crossed her legs, and looked at Lee Hyun-woo, even clearing her throat.
“Do you remember? The day we first met?”
“Of course, it was at your hotel, wasn’t it?”
“Pfft, did you know you ignored me then?”
“Ignored? I didn’t do that. I greeted you politely because you were a hotel director and only went in for the workshop.”
Kim Ah-young pouted.
To her, that was ignoring. Wherever she went, other men would try to look at her one more time or make an effort to start a conversation.
But that piqued Kim Ah-young’s interest, leading to today.
Now, she could easily say what she had kept inside.
“You seem like a player.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you seem really good at handling women.”
“I’m not.”
“No, it’s a lie that you never had a girlfriend, right?”
“Well, in my past life, maybe.”
“Pfft, you’re changing the subject again, like last time.”
Whenever Kim Ah-young subtly tried to probe, Lee Hyun-woo would talk about his past life like this.
Although it was true, no one believed him.
Not even his girlfriend would believe it.
Lee Hyun-woo smiled and looked straight at Kim Ah-young.
After continuously drinking wine, her face was flushed and she looked really beautiful.
Among them, her plump lips were so attractive that he wanted to kiss them quickly.
‘I’ve held back for too long…’
Going back to the past made him younger, and being younger made him passionate.
Having a charming woman like Kim Ah-young as his lover, but not being able to spend time like this for various reasons.
That’s why the passion he had held back was now bursting forth, dominating his body and mind.
Lee Hyun-woo moved his chair along with his body.
Thump, thump, thump.
Kim Ah-young raised her eyebrows.
“What… are you doing?”
“Trying to get closer to you.”
“……”
She didn’t ask the obvious question, what he would do after getting closer.
She just looked at Lee Hyun-woo with a gaze mixed with various emotions.
Expectancy, excitement, and a slight fear of how Lee Hyun-woo would see her if she was clumsy.
But this was only for a moment.
As Lee Hyun-woo quickly approached, faster than she imagined, and brought his face closer, her complicated emotions and thoughts flew away.
Her eyes closed automatically.
And then.
‘So soft…’
She had worried her pounding heart would burst, but instead, she was enjoying the rhythm of her beating heart.
Closing the emotional distance between a man and a woman wasn’t as difficult as closing the physical distance.
That night, the two became one.
The next day.
One purpose of Lee Hyun-woo and Kim Ah-young’s visit to Jeju Island was to find a place to build 【Jungle World】.
It was more spacious than expected, and Lee Hyun-woo smiled and asked Kim Ah-young,
“Are you really going to lease this place long-term?”
“I promised, so I have no choice.”
“Huh? Originally, were you planning to charge a lot?”
“Well, you do make a lot of money.”
Even if their conversation had no meaning, it was enjoyable for two people who had closed the distance between their bodies and hearts.
But soon, people who would interrupt their conversation appeared.
“Pr… President!”
“D… Director!”
Han Se-jin and Park Min-sook.
When they turned on their phones as soon as they woke up today, they got a call just as they were leaving the hotel.
After revealing their destination and asking them to come secretly away from reporters, they arrived now, stammering as they called out to the two.
“Ah, Manager Han, sorry. My battery died.”
“Mine too, Manager Park.”
“……”
“……”
Would these two believe such an absurd excuse?
But they didn’t say anything.
Because they thought it wouldn’t be right to ruin the happy expressions on Lee Hyun-woo and Kim Ah-young’s faces.
Of course, on the way back, they subtly brought up the reporters.
“The reporters are very upset.”
“They are openly looking for you two now. Today, they even asked if you were sick.”
“Sick?”
“There was no other excuse.”
“You two are too much. You should have at least informed us.”
Unlike Han Se-jin, who reacted obediently, Park Min-sook was more assertive.
A secretary who could sharply point out mistakes, Lee Hyun-woo liked that attitude.
That’s why he immediately took on the blame.
“I’m really sorry. I told Ah-young I wanted to send just the two of us.”
After taking all the blame on himself, Lee Hyun-woo proposed a new plan.
“I’ll make it up to the reporters. I originally said I wouldn’t do interviews, but I’ll set aside some time for them. How about that?”
“Sigh…”
“Ugh…”
When the two secretaries saw that Lee Hyun-woo was truly remorseful and talking about offering the reporters a carrot, they couldn’t say anything more.
In fact, these two hadn’t committed any crime.
Rather, it was the surrounding people who couldn’t guarantee the lovers’ time together.
‘They’re more interested than celebrities…’
Park Min-sook thought.
If it were only about Kim Ah-young, the reporters wouldn’t have gathered like this.
That’s how much media attention Lee Hyun-woo was receiving.
Politics, economy, society, culture, and even entertainment sections were all trying to cover Lee Hyun-woo.
With this kind of attention, it was inevitable that their time and space for just the two of them would disappear.
‘The answer is to get married quickly.’
The problem was that even if they hurried, they had to wait their turn after Kim Tae-hyun.
Until then, Park Min-sook decided to do her best to protect the privacy of these two.
Although she wasn’t sure how easy that would be.
As Park Min-sook anticipated, the media’s intense interest in the two was no joke.
They captured their lunch scene in photos, and later conducted an interview at a coffee shop in a casual meeting format.
“Do you have any plans for marriage?”
“How long have you been dating?”
“Who confessed first?”
“Have your parents met each other?”
“Can you give us a hint on where you secretly date?”
They seemed to have so many questions.
Should it be said that it was fortunate?
Lee Hyun-woo was truly adept at handling them.
“We haven’t been dating for long, and I think it’s too early to talk about marriage. I confessed first, and our parents, as you know, we visit them occasionally. I’d like to have a secret date. Please cooperate, reporters. Hahaha.”
Of course, the reporters were persistent. They asked trivial questions and clung to his every word.
Even so, Lee Hyun-woo handled it with ease, without showing any unpleasant expression, and eventually threw out another bait.
“But no one is asking about the real purpose of our visit to Jeju Island.”
“The real purpose?”
“Wasn’t it a public date?”
“Why would we go on a public date with reporters around? I clearly informed you.”
Informed? When did he say that?
The reporters fell silent for a moment.
Then, Choi Yong-bum, the reporter from 【E-Daily】, who had initially passed on the information, unintentionally spoke up,
“Real estate transaction? Is that right?”
“Ah… that’s right!”
“It was a real estate transaction, wasn’t it?”
Now everyone remembered.
Yes, Lee Hyun-woo and Kim Ah-young had said they came to Jeju Island for a land transaction.
The reporters didn’t take it at face value.
As the reporters recalled this, Lee Hyun-woo began to explain the specific plans.
“Yes, that’s right. It’s because of a real estate transaction. I’m leasing a plot of land owned by 【Guseong Group】 for the Jeju Island headquarters project. That’s why Director Kim Ah-young and I came together.”
“Jeju Island headquarters project?”
“Are you planning to build a headquarters in Jeju Island?”
“Where is it?”
“To what extent are you planning to build?”
“But there’s no proper business infrastructure in Jeju Island, building there?”
“Exactly. It’s going to be very inconvenient.”
Whether it was a surprising announcement, everyone started speaking at once, making a fuss.
However, the local media in Jeju Island looked positive and bright-faced as they spoke.
“Infrastructure will be quickly resolved if 【Guseong】 and 【Jungle】 join hands!”
“That’s right. We welcome CEO Lee Hyun-woo’s decision!”
“If you are to proceed with this project, you will have to meet the governor and seek cooperation from local lawmakers.”
“You’ll be visiting Jeju Island often.”
“The residents of Jeju Island will be very pleased!”
Seeing them organize things on their own, laughter bloomed on the faces of Lee Hyun-woo and Kim Ah-young.
