So Pretty It's Dangerous

"Ha, Seo Lee-hwan... handsome, right? He's handsome, but don't you think his handsomeness is a slightly different flavor from mine?"

There was so much pride wrapped up in Kang-hyun's remark about his own looks that Lee-jin burst out laughing in sheer disbelief.

"Aren't you supposed to keep comments like that to yourself?"

"Maybe, but I'm the kind of guy whose outside matches his inside."

Kang-hyun shrugged with a shameless expression.

If Seo Lee-hwan had been a handsome man with a bright, sunny radiance, Moon Kang-hyun was a handsome man who gave off something dark and quietly dangerous. People had gone so far as to call the inseparable pair "light and shadow."

Lee-jin, however, had never given the matter any real thought. What little sister ever pondered deeply over her brother's face? She'd simply been grateful that he was good-looking enough that she never felt embarrassed going anywhere with him. And since that was how she saw Lee-hwan, her eye for his best friend Moon Kang-hyun wasn't all that different.

"I had no idea you were that confident about your looks."

"With a face like this, of course I am. What about you?"

"Hm?"

The question came back at her so fast that it took a moment for its meaning to sink in, and Lee-jin blinked rapidly.

The playful lilt that had been lacing his laughter vanished, and dense air rushed in to fill the space it left behind.

"I asked whether you think the same thing about yourself. You're beautiful."

She could have laughed off a man complimenting his own face, but being told so bluntly, without a moment's hesitation, that she was pretty was another matter entirely. It was something she had no immunity to whatsoever, and her face flared hot.

"M-me?"

At that pointless, reflexive protest, his gaze deepened and fixed squarely on her face.

"You. Are. Beautiful."

Meeting her eyes like that, in a voice so utterly certain of it — it was hazardous to her heart.

"Me?"

Even as she fired off another meaningless retort, instinct sounded the alarm: everything about this man — the energy he radiated, the look in his eyes — was dangerous.

As if to prove the point, Kang-hyun gently traced her eyebrow with a long, thick-knuckled finger.

"Your eyebrows are pretty. Your eyes are pretty, too..."

His finger migrated along with whichever feature he was naming.

"Your nose is pretty, and your lips..."

Sliding down along the bridge of her nose, his finger came to rest on her lower lip. As he teased the soft swell of it, his eyes sank dark and heavy with wanting.

The atmosphere tipped into something dangerously ambiguous in the space of a heartbeat.

"O-oppa..."

She'd meant the word to stop him. It did the exact opposite — her trembling voice and wavering eyes only stoked the wild thing Kang-hyun kept caged inside him.

"If you keep calling me that, I can't let you go, Lee-jin."

He drew close, his finger still resting on her lips. Like a small animal fallen before a predator, Lee-jin's shoulders gave a fine tremble.

Tension climbed to its peak, and heat bloomed between their bodies, pressed so tightly together that their breath mingled.

"You shouldn't have been quite so pretty. If you weren't, maybe I wouldn't have completely lost my mind."

Murmuring that, he bit down on Lee-jin's lip. Why was it that these lips, the more he swallowed them, left him thirstier still?

The longer the kiss went on, the thirstier Kang-hyun became — aching, starving. To fill the savage hunger, he drank down even her thin, wavering breaths.

One hand wound around her waist while the other cradled her fragile nape, leaving her nowhere to retreat, and then he explored her, encroached on her.

"Ah— hn..."

A soft, suggestive whimper slipped from her. It was precisely the kind of sound that made an already-unhinged male spiral further.

I want to make my Lee-jin make more of those pretty sounds. I want her looking up at me with glassy eyes, begging. I want her calling my name until she's sobbing and her voice gives out.

In an instant, his head filled with tangled, indecent imaginings.

If this kept up, he was going to sweep the workbench in her studio clean and lay her down on it.

Well — it was bound to happen someday, just not today. Today was only their second day of dating, after all.

On a day like today, he had to pretend to have a conscience even if he had to scrape one together from nothing. That thought was all that anchored the gossamer-thin thread of Kang-hyun's reason.

With great effort, he pulled his body away and studied her face, still dazed and uncomprehending.

The rise and fall of her chest with her ragged breathing was a rather fine sight indeed.

Damn it all.

He tore himself free of the gaze pinned motionless on him and forced his eyes to meet hers.

"Let's go on a date this weekend."

Lee-jin, cheeks glowing pink, gave a small nod.

"Where do you want to go?"

He meant somewhere other than the Ceramics Biennale — that exhibition wouldn't open until autumn, most likely.

Lee-jin blinked slowly, lost in thought. The storm of a kiss seemed to have swept away even her capacity to think.

"On Gallery."

It was the only place that sprang to mind. She'd been wanting to visit, ever since she heard the artist she'd long admired was holding her very first solo exhibition there.

"Ahh, a gallery this time?"

With a short laugh, Kang-hyun brushed her cheek as if she were something adorable.

"If I leave the date itinerary to you, we'll end up doing nothing but exhibition halls and galleries. Not that I'd complain about that, exactly."

Smiling, he smoothed down her mussed hair and straightened her rumpled clothes. Having her disheveled by his hands only to be tidied again gave her a strange feeling — she couldn't quite name it.

Not knowing exactly what that feeling was, Lee-jin went on discussing their date plans with him.

Jin Ae-ran glared at her phone, which was entirely blameless in the matter.

The call log glowed on the screen, and nowhere on it was the name of the youngest son she was waiting for. Apparently her son was never going to be the one to pick up the phone first.

Waiting around for him will be the death of me. Sighing, Jin Ae-ran dialed the easier, more agreeable Cheon Eun-jung instead of the son who was such an ordeal to deal with.

At that, Eun-jung's eyebrow gave a twitch.

He went on and on about contract dating, and he hasn't told his mother a single word yet? Seriously, how does this idiot handle anything! Grumbling furiously to herself, Cheon Eun-jung kept her voice honey-sweet.

"Yes, we're both busy during the week, so we're meeting this weekend."

"Really? And was it Kang-hyun who suggested meeting?"

"Ah... yes, that's right, Chairwoman."

Ugh, whatever. It's Moon Kang-hyun's mess to clean up. Cheon Eun-jung answered with a spirit of pure que sera, sera.

He was the one who'd reached out his hand first, so he was the one who should tidy up after it. With a certain brazenness, she simply shaped the situation to fit: she'd say he had shown interest in her on the spot, and that was that.

As the conversation continued, she could sense Jin Ae-ran's voice growing brighter.

How much grief has he put that woman through, that she sounds this happy over nothing? Moon Kang-hyun, seriously — be a filial son for once. Clicking her tongue inwardly, Cheon Eun-jung poured every ounce of strength she had into saying everything the woman would want to hear.

"I'm so glad you two are building such a lovely connection. I took a liking to you, Eun-jung dear, from the very first moment I saw you."

"You're too kind, ma'am. And please, speak comfortably with me."

"I will — we'll be seeing a lot more of each other from now on, after all. Won't we?"

Ha-ha, ho-ho — warm, harmonious laughter flowed back and forth.

"I'll come visit you next time, Mother."

"Yes, let's do that."

By the time the call was wrapping up, she noticed, the form of address had somehow become "Mother."

"Yes, yes, take care now, ma'am."

Cheon Eun-jung cooed her goodbye with a sweet little lilt in her nose, but the instant her thumb hit the end-call button, her expression froze solid and she heaved a long sigh.

"Wow, your acting's gotten better in record time. Look at me, I've got goosebumps."

Her younger brother Cheon Woo-jae, seated on the sofa across from her, scrubbed his forearm with a look of disgust.

"Shut it. I'm busy, so either keep your mouth closed or get out — pick one."

Cheon Woo-jae apparently couldn't be bothered to move, because he just pushed out his lips in a pout and offered no further protest.

It made sense, after all: the only son and youngest of three siblings, Woo-jae ranked dead last in the Cheon household hierarchy. Years of being cuffed around by his tigress sisters had taught his mouth to stay shut all on its own.

Cheon Eun-jung, worried Jin Ae-ran might call Kang-hyun directly, rushed to send him a message first.

"What? Ha. Unbelievable. Absolutely ridiculous."

The curse exploded out of her out loud, she was that flabbergasted, and Cheon Woo-jae shook his head slowly at her from across the room.

"So he gets to slurp up all the honey while I'm stuck doing all the dirty work? Is that it?"

Watching her snarl at her phone, Cheon Woo-jae finally rose quietly from his seat.

"Melodrama or soap opera, I don't care — just, please, keep it to yourself."

With a tchk, Cheon Woo-jae slipped out of the room at the perfect moment — right before his sister's fury could come barreling his way.