The Smoke Screen

"Is that so?"

Cha Ji-hoon brushed the remark off as nothing.

Just as he himself had recognized Moon Kang-hyun's face, it was entirely plausible that someone else might have as well.

What bothered him far more was the strange air between the two of them.

No. It couldn't be.

He bit his lip as he watched Lee-jin and Kang-hyun's retreating figures.

Seo Lee-jin had been everyone's darling. She'd been friendly with every sunbae and hoobae in the club, yet no one had ever crossed the line into something more with her.

Which was why he'd never imagined that a man who hadn't been anywhere near her all through college would suddenly appear and claim the seat beside her.

His plan had been simple. She had suffered the unbearable loss of her family, so he would draw her close in that vulnerable moment and offer her comfort. Surely her heart would drift toward him then.

But ever since that man showed up, everything had come undone. Cha Ji-hoon was glaring at Kang-hyun's back with a twisted expression when he flinched.

Moon Kang-hyun had just turned his head, as if by pure coincidence. Their eyes met exactly.

As though mocking the fury in Cha Ji-hoon's gaze, the corner of Kang-hyun's mouth curled upward. Then, deliberately, deliberately, he wrapped an arm around Lee-jin's shoulders.

It was a gesture that reeked of possession. Or perhaps a warning: keep your eyes off her from now on.

"Ha."

Cha Ji-hoon let out a bitter breath. Something unnameable was boiling up from deep inside him.

"Professor Cha, is something the matter?"

"No, nothing. Shall we go?"

Realizing that senior university officials were standing right beside him, Cha Ji-hoon hastily composed his face.

For now, attending to them came first.

"You're hungry, aren't you? Let's get something to eat."

Leaving the gallery, Kang-hyun guided Lee-jin along with easy familiarity. They drove to an elegant restaurant.

A great tree stood at the center of the high-ceilinged building, and the fountain and gardens arranged around it blended with the music drifting from inside until it felt as though they'd wandered into a forest.

"Welcome. We're delighted to have you."

As though he'd been waiting for them, a man who appeared to be the restaurant's chef greeted them at the door.

Lee-jin was caught off guard — she hadn't expected the head chef himself to come out and personally welcome them. Reading the surprise on her face, the chef smiled.

"The architect who designed this building was none other than Moon Kang-hyun. Thanks to him, the restaurant's been thriving."

He led the two of them to the best table in the house, then excused himself to the kitchen, saying he intended to show off his skills.

The floor-to-ceiling windows, the rich wood-toned interior, the warm glow of the lighting — everything conspired to make her heart flutter for no good reason.

"You designed this place?"

Kang-hyun smirked as Lee-jin looked around in disbelief.

"Want me to guess what you're thinking?"

At that, her eyes went round. So innocently befuddled was her expression that Kang-hyun nearly laughed out loud. A possessive urge crept up on him — he didn't want anyone else ever seeing that face — but he kept it buried and went on.

"You thought I only built places in the style of Cheongjukje, didn't you?"

"N-no, I didn't."

She deflected at once, but she realized the stereotype had been lurking in her mind all along.

Since she'd been in and out of Cheongjukje so often, she'd pigeonholed Kang-hyun's architectural style into hanok and classical imagery.

Fortunately, he didn't press further, and the courses began arriving one by one. The food was superb — a feast for the eyes as much as the palate.

Partway through the meal, Kang-hyun spoke up abruptly.

"You never answered what I asked you earlier, by the way."

"Oh, right. I didn't know you had such a wide range in your architecture, that's all—"

"Not that one."

Kang-hyun's mouth tilted at once into something crooked. He propped his cheek on one arm, and his whole body tilted toward Lee-jin.

The simple motion carried the unmistakable air of a predator cornering its prey.

"Spending your weekends at Cheongjukje. With me."

"Ah..."

Lee-jin exhaled the breath that had caught in her throat. It wasn't that she'd forgotten the question. If anything, it had been weighing on her so heavily that she'd simply hoped it would slide past unanswered.

Confronted again with the question she'd wanted to avoid, she found herself at a loss. Back when Lee-hwan had kept strict watch over her outings and overnight stays, the answer had been simple. Now that he was gone, she had no idea what she was supposed to do.

She couldn't tell whether this was allowed. But in the end, she made her decision the way her heart was already leaning.

"Okay. I will."

Truthfully, wanting to be with Kang-hyun played its part in the decision — but the bigger factor was the prospect of spending her weekends away from her mother.

Dealing with her mother at home was becoming harder by the day.

"Good. Then starting next weekend."

Watching Kang-hyun smile until his eyes crinkled, Lee-jin tilted her head. Had Moon Kang-hyun always smiled like that?

A smile that maximized an already handsome face was, apparently, hazardous to the heart.

Sunday afternoon, Cheon Eun-jung walked into the place where she'd agreed to meet Kang-hyun, grumbling under her breath.

"Seriously, the least he could've done was pick literally anywhere else."

And she had a point — the meeting spot was the very hotel sky lounge where her matseon had taken place.

He hadn't spared even a moment's thought in choosing the venue, which was exactly why she couldn't stop griping.

"You're here."

Kang-hyun, already waiting, muttered mechanically at the sight of her. From the look of it, he didn't feel a greeting was necessary and had simply said whatever came out.

"Yep. Here I am."

She said it with a sniff, set her bag on the table, and took her seat. Oddly enough, though, Kang-hyun's gaze wasn't on her.

When two people meet, making eye contact while talking is basic courtesy. Yet his eyes were fixed, unbelievably, on the bag sitting on the table.

That bag happened to be Cheon Eun-jung's most treasured luxury handbag.

"What— what are you doing?"

Seized by some inexplicable sense of danger, she clutched the bag to her chest protectively.

Maybe it was just her imagination, but Moon Kang-hyun looked ready to rob her of that bag like some common street thug at any moment.

"Hmm. What brand is that?"

"Since when do you care about handbags?"

She hid the bag behind her back, face pale with alarm.

"Fine, don't tell me."

He answered with total indifference. For someone who'd been eyeing the bag so intently, he showed no desperate need to learn the brand after all.

Only once she was certain the bag wouldn't be seized did she straighten up awkwardly in her chair.

And now that she thought about it, she had nothing to say to him.

"......"

"......"

After several minutes of silence, her throat began to feel strangled. Being this out of things to say, this awkward — it was exhausting.

Cheon Eun-jung clicked her tongue quietly and broke first, unable to endure it any longer.

"Do you really have nothing to say to me? You could at least go over the plan — what we're going to do from here on out, how we handle situations when they come up. Something."

At that, Moon Kang-hyun slid a document envelope across the table.

"I've got it roughly all laid out in there."

When she opened it, she found pages recording what amounted to a behavioral manual.

"What I want most is a smoke screen to blind my mother. Everything else — I couldn't care less how it goes."

In truth, the manual existed purely for Cheon Eun-jung's convenience; he clearly didn't feel bound by its contents in the slightest.

"Shouldn't be too hard, anyway."

Cheon Eun-jung nodded. Aside from the official title of two people dating with marriage in mind, there was nothing difficult about it.

All she had to do was meet him regularly and show her face at public events like corporate functions.

Handling Jin Ae-ran would be the hardest part — though even that didn't feel especially daunting to her.

"Six months or so. That should be enough."

It was a shorter run than she'd expected for the performance. She pictured in her mind what she'd need to accomplish within that window.

"When I need you and I call, you answer. That's the deal."

"Of course."

Kang-hyun nodded without protest. At that, Cheon Eun-jung began mulling over clever ways to get the better of her parents and her older sister, Cheon Mi-jin.

Her parents, for one, were fully convinced she would die an old maid. Dating Moon Kang-hyun would shatter that conviction completely.

The thought of flaunting it in front of her family put her in an excellent mood.

"And one more condition."

Cheon Eun-jung brought up the thing she'd been mulling over the whole time. Kang-hyun gave a slight tilt of his head, as if to say, go on.

"If anyone gets burned by this, it's going to be you. I'll make sure of it."

"You're stating the obvious."

From the moment he'd proposed the contract relationship, Kang-hyun had never intended for Cheon Eun-jung to lose out because of it.

The arrangement existed because of his proposal, so he figured every risk that came with it was his to shoulder. He had one clear goal, and as long as that was achieved, nothing else mattered.

That was why he'd said it went without saying — but Cheon Eun-jung just stared at him, bewildered.

"Hey. Are you actually Moon Kang-hyun? You agreeing this readily to everything is honestly suspicious."

"Want me to say no, then?"

"No! That's not what I meant."

Then what on earth did she want from him? Kang-hyun regarded Cheon Eun-jung with a coolly indifferent expression.

There were very good reasons the two of them were like oil and water.

"......"

"......"

Once again, silence settled over the table.