His body bent forward as if asking to have his head patted, and my hand nearly rose on its own — but I held it down and looked away.
He smiled at that, the corners of his lips curling up for whatever reason I couldn’t fathom, and a car pulled up in front of him.
“You must be tired. Get in.”
The man seemed to have no intention of hiding his identity any longer.
A faction member who knew me personally opened the rear door.
I hesitated for a moment — get in or not? — but the man pressed against my back didn’t look like he was going to move, so I obediently climbed in.
He settled into the seat beside me, the door shut, and the car pulled away.
“Home.”
I was surprised by how naturally the command came out of him. Up until now, I’d only ever seen him drive himself — he’d never once had a chauffeur.
I was sneaking glances at him when our eyes met.
Before I could turn away, he took my face in both hands and pressed his forehead to mine.
“You’re warm. Like a baby.”
A — a baby?
I stole a glance sideways toward the faction member in the driver’s seat and, of all the rotten timing, our eyes met dead-on.
Both of our expressions were filled with pure horror.
Don’t get the wrong idea! I’m not a baby!
I was desperately trying to convey that with my eyes when my chin was firmly grabbed and turned back toward him.
“You keep looking at other guys. Hmm?”
That’s not it — if I don’t clear up this misunderstanding right now, what the hell is he going to think of me?!
Peck —
I was about to unleash the torrent of words storming through my head when soft lips brushed mine and then pulled away.
“Mmph!”
I slapped both hands over my mouth, but the lip that had already been stolen was slick with his saliva.
Without thinking, I started to turn my head toward the driver’s seat again — and was stopped a second time when my chin was caught.
“Tsk. You’ll get punished.”
That’s not it — that guy in the driver’s seat might have just seen us kiss…! What if he goes around spreading rumors? I mean, sure, everyone probably already knows, but there’s a difference between knowing and actually seeing it with your own eyes! Give me back the image I’ve built up all this time!
I wanted to grab my own hair and scream.
The owner of that hair kept shifting in my mind — first me, then the man in front of me, then the one currently driving.
Never mind me, but Jaeho — you’re supposed to be the boss of the Gangho faction! Is this really okay? Is Director Kang’s image seriously fine like this?!
He seemed to have forgotten his title of director entirely, caring nothing for appearances, and bent his head toward me again.
Because of that, I covered my mouth even tighter and shook my head from side to side.
A clear refusal.
But then I unconsciously glanced toward the driver’s seat again — and his lips found mine.
Over the back of my hand, he pecked at it again and again like a bird pecking at feed — peck! peck! — and I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them.
There is literally a person in this car! And I probably smell like alcohol right now!
Even through the relentless barrage of kisses, I refused to lower my hands.
So the man slowly dragged his tongue from my wrist all the way to my fingertips and asked,
“Don’t you want to do it in the car tonight?”
His lips closed around the tip of my middle finger and sucked.
My shoulders jerked.
What he’d licked was the back of my hand, what he’d sucked was my finger, and what we’d exchanged was nothing but a look — and yet my body was already threatening to react.
Even through all of it, his gaze stayed locked on my eyes.
Tonight, he says……!
“When did we ever kiss in a car…! Mmph!”
Dozens of instances of car sex flashed through my mind in an instant, but there were ears listening, so I was trying to play dumb and shout — and then I realized my mistake.
I had lowered the ironclad wall of my own hands.
“Haah — mm—”
I urgently grabbed his shoulders and tried to push him away, but far from being pushed back, he only drove his tongue in deeper.
I clenched my jaw shut with all the force I had, but my lips parted in the end.
Trying to retreat from the invading tongue was useless — this was a mouth he’d already claimed more times than I could count.
He began to sweep through it with practiced, shameless familiarity, like a thorough inspection. He teased the roof of my mouth, pressed his tongue against mine in a way that felt obscenely like grinding, and I shuddered again and again.
“Hnt—”
The wet sounds between our lips were embarrassingly loud — loud enough to fill the entire car, loud enough to drown out the pounding of my own heart.
“Mm — wait — just — mmph!”
My lips were swallowed over and over and I couldn’t finish the words just stop for a second.
He kept sucking and licking at my lips like he was savoring a piece of candy he couldn’t get enough of.
Chuu — chu — gulp — the sounds of mixed, swallowed saliva, the soul-stealing kiss — I could only take it helplessly.
Before I knew it, I was clinging to him as though enchanted.
The hands that had been pushing him away were now gripping his collar, and the mouth that had stubbornly stayed shut had been open for a long time.
His lips didn’t separate from mine until he was satisfied — until he’d tangled his tongue with mine as much as he wanted.
All we’d done was press our lips together and move them — and yet I was gasping for air like I’d just sprinted a hundred meters at full speed.
“Hah — hah — I told you to stop……!”
I wanted to raise my voice but bit it back, conscious of the other person in the car, and said through gritted teeth,
“I told you to stop.”
“Hmm? But you were begging me to kiss you.”
“When did I?!”
I finally snapped and let out a yelp, and the man looked at me with eyes that said he genuinely didn’t understand.
“Just now. With these eyes. You were practically pleading — kiss me, hurry —”
He’d ignored everything I’d said and done as refusal and instead claimed to have read my eyes.
My jaw dropped in disbelief.
Then — worried that might get interpreted as another invitation for a kiss — I quickly shut my mouth again.
He traced my lips with his thumb, watching the blank look on my face at his unexpected answer.
He wiped the glistening saliva away with his hand like it was nothing, then met my eyes as if to say, what’s the problem?
I could’ve pushed that face away with all my strength, the same way I did with Bulgom — but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Ha……. Of course not. How am I supposed to refuse? Why would I push away a face that handsome? Just looking at it makes me happy.
“See. Even now.”
I had been gazing at his elegant face, lost in thought, and flinched as I turned away.
Damn, was my expression really that obvious? This is bad — things can’t keep going in this direction. With the mood like this, it’ll definitely escalate to the next stage! It always starts with a kiss and ends with… in the car……!
Three years’ worth of data produced a preview that played out right before my eyes.
Even if he didn’t initiate it, if I kept staring at that face, I’d definitely be the one to kiss him first.
That was not acceptable.
Damn it, why — why do I still like you, even after that lie? To the point where I can’t even refuse a kiss. Why do I like you this much?
The question, with nowhere to go, echoed through my head.
“I never did.”
I said it deliberately, stiffly, and pulled back.
“Why do you keep moving away? Lee Gang smells nice, so I want to stay close.”
“What?”
There’s no way I smell good! No — who says something like that in such a roundabout way?!
He kept trying to close the distance, and I kept barely managing to create it — and without thinking, I grabbed my shirt collar and brought it to my nose, sniffing.
It was because I’d been happily downing drinks with the others until just a moment ago, and it was bothering me.
Ugh, do I smell that strongly of alcohol? No — if it’s just alcohol, I’d be lucky. I’d been running around all day, so I was probably sweaty too.
The thought that I might smell awful to myself worried me.
But my nose had gone numb somehow, and I couldn’t smell anything.
Wondering if I smelled as strongly of booze as Bulgom, I sniffed around at myself in every direction — then gave up.
Why should I care about impressing that liar anyway?!
But the harder I tried not to think about it, the more it nagged at me.
On top of that — maybe because of that kiss just now — the car felt unusually cramped tonight.
I pulled back as far as I could, then tried to shift the mood by turning the question around.
“How did you know I was here?”
Worried the alcohol smell might reach him, I blurted it out — and immediately covered my mouth with both hands.
I made sure to put a little edge in my eyes too.
Did he squeeze it out of the faction members? Or was I being tailed?
Neither of those things seemed remotely like the sweet, harmless boyfriend I’d imagined him to be.
But for Director Kang, something like that would be even easier than lying down and eating rice cake.
Suspicion piled on suspicion and climbed all the way up to the corners of my eyes — and then the man let out a big laugh, ahahaha — and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
I watched him, distrust written plainly on my face.
What is he doing?
My head tilted to one side without my realizing it.
He tapped the screen a few times, then held the phone out in front of me and showed me the display.
“Huh?”
“The app you installed, Lee Gang — I tried it too. Pretty useful, isn’t it?”
He said it playfully, even giving the outstretched phone a little shake.
On the screen, two hearts were stuck right together.
And then fireworks burst across the display, and the message appeared:
— Distance between each other: 0km —
That line had never felt so devastating.
