A Portrait Stolen, A Bombshell Announced

"I had no idea my oppa's friend was such a sly fox."

Lee-jin shot Kang-hyun a fierce glare, but for all the force she put into it, her flushed cheeks robbed the look of any real menace.

Did she have any idea that expression only stoked a man's desire further?

"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not usually like this. Only with you."

Far from letting her go, Kang-hyun pulled her in even tighter. His hand really had moved purely on reflex, which meant he could stand there with a clear conscience.

He pressed light kisses to her cheek and the corner of her mouth, and the glare she'd been holding melted away as if it had never existed.

"C-Coffee?"

"Come to think of it, I don't need any."

With one hand, Kang-hyun lifted her trembling chin and kissed her deeply. Lips met lips, breath mingled with breath.

He pressed in relentlessly, as if determined to melt her stubborn lips and swallow them whole.

Lee-jin's shoulders flinched at the intruder pushing into her. The kiss crashed over her so fiercely that she couldn't gather her thoughts at all.

Shivers rippled down her spine, then a ticklish warmth bloomed in her belly, then her senses dissolved into a hazy blur — over and over.

"Mmm…."

A suggestive little moan slipped out, though Lee-jin was too far gone to even notice it. How long had it been like that?

"Breathe."

Kang-hyun pulled back and smirked. Already gasping for air at the very edge of her limits, Lee-jin could only suck in a breath, too dazed to think of a reply.

"You'll get better with practice."

So he was planning to keep kissing her from now on?

She blinked like something in her had short-circuited, and she was so adorable doing it that any thought Kang-hyun had of letting her go evaporated on the spot.

"What? Don't like the idea of improving gradually? If you'd rather cram it all in at once—"

When he leaned in as if to kiss her again, Lee-jin jolted and shoved at his chest. Not that it moved him an inch.

His gaze lingered for a long while on her hand, still wriggling against his chest.

"Whew…."

Without warning, he let out a long sigh and released her.

She'd pushed with all her strength and he hadn't budged — and now he'd given in so easily. Caught off guard, Lee-jin hesitated for a moment.

"Right. I do need that coffee after all."

His sudden declaration that he had to drink coffee made no sense, but she sprang into motion anyway, desperate to shake off her embarrassment.

"O-okay. Just a minute."

As she went to fetch the coffee, Kang-hyun grimaced in apparent agony and dragged both hands down his dry face.

"I swear, such a kid."

He'd promised to storm in and shake her world like a tempest — only to end up caught in the storm himself. Honestly, she could stand to be a little less pretty.

Clicking his tongue, he lifted his eyes to the window. The weather, past the height of spring and tipping into summer, was brilliantly sunny.

He stared out at the vivid blue sky, the blazing sunlight, the busy stream of cars and pedestrians, and worked to recover his composure.

Thankfully, by the time Lee-jin returned with the coffee, he was able to face her with a perfectly easy expression.

She watched him sitting there with his legs crossed, absorbed in something, like a still from a photo shoot, and set the coffee cup down on the table slowly.

Looking at his immaculate face, she found it almost funny how hard she'd tried to shake off the echo of that kiss while brewing the coffee.

But the moment she realized what he'd been looking at was her own portfolio, the thought dissolved like mist.

"How did you find that?"

"Didn't you leave it here for me to look at?"

"Er, well…."

She'd gone quiet with thought, and then remembered what had happened earlier. She'd been carrying the portfolio, intending to put it somewhere else, when Baek Jin-hee kicked up a fuss and she'd set it down for a moment — and then Kang-hyun had arrived and it had slipped her mind entirely.

She stole a glance at him and asked,

"Did you look at all of it?"

It didn't really matter — she'd been planning to show him the ceramic sketches she intended to make for Cheongjukje anyway. What concerned her was the different sketch tucked into the very back of the portfolio.

"Yeah, all of it."

Her fragile hope that he might not have flipped to the last page was mercilessly shattered.

"And from the sketches alone, I can tell you're about to create ceramics that suit Cheongjukje perfectly. Seo Lee-jin, you really are something."

Kang-hyun praised her with an easy smile. Which, Lee-jin thought, meant the sketch in the back must have gone unseen. Otherwise there was no way he'd be talking only about the ceramics.

"They're just sketches for now. The finished pieces have to be even better."

Ceramics only come into being through a long, painstaking process. Sometimes the same steps are repeated countless times just to obtain a single satisfying piece. So Lee-jin had long since grown accustomed to a modest attitude.

Hiding her embarrassment behind a smile, she took her portfolio back from his hands and quietly flipped to the last page.

But the sketch she'd tucked in there was gone?

When Kang-hyun saw her startled expression, he smirked and drew a single sheet of paper from inside his jacket.

"Looking for this?"

"…!"

Lee-jin lunged to snatch the sketch away, but the physical disadvantage doomed her to failure.

"Weren't you going to give it to me?"

"No! No, I wasn't?"

She cursed her short arms and waved the hand she'd frozen midair in pointless frustration.

"So you drew my face to admire it in private, then?"

"No, that's not it either!"

Embarrassment scorched Lee-jin's face.

She'd been sketching ceramics when he'd drifted into her mind, and before she knew it, she'd drawn him.

Her drawing skills weren't anything special, but it had turned out pretty well, so she hadn't been able to throw it away — that was all.

Denying his words, she rounded the table and came to his side. Sitting across from him with the table between them, snatching anything out of his hands had proved utterly impossible.

"It's just — I drew it for fun. It's not even that good."

Lee-jin hung onto Kang-hyun's arm, trying to wrest the sketch back. Rather than struggle, he surrendered it willingly.

"Still, I want to keep it. Can't you give it to me?"

"Huh?"

Lee-jin froze stiff and could only blink. That face, wearing that pleading, wounded expression — wasn't that just cheating?

The sketch had been returned to her hand, yet somehow it no longer felt like hers. While she hesitated, Kang-hyun pulled her toward him.

In an instant, Lee-jin found herself perched on his lap, flustered and trembling.

"A family heirloom, passed down for generations—"

"Absolutely not!"

Is he insane? Kang-hyun snorted at her appalled expression, then murmured, his eyes smoldering,

"Then I'll keep it where only I can see it."

Faced with a man who could beguile anyone with sheer beauty, further resistance was pointless. Lee-jin let out a short sigh and nodded.

Then, realizing how compromising her position was, she tried to climb off his lap.

But Kang-hyun refused to let her go, and there was no escaping his embrace.

With a languid smile, his eyes fixed on her lips, he asked,

"What happens when you get this close to me? Remind me."

Lee-jin recalled what had happened earlier and answered haltingly.

"A… reflex?"

"Good memory."

As if in praise, he ran his thumb slowly across her lower lip — then closed his mouth over hers.

She would soon make him regret biting into these forbidden lips, but alas, the option of refusing her mouth simply did not exist for Kang-hyun.

Cheon Eun-jung had waited for the whole family to gather in one place before making her momentous announcement.

"I have something to tell you all."

At once, every eye turned to her with the look of what have you broken this time.

The eldest, Cheon Mi-jin, had been designated the next successor of Ohsong Group early on and was undergoing formal succession training. The youngest, Cheon Woo-jae, had only recently returned from studying piano abroad.

Cheon Eun-jung, sandwiched in the middle, had nothing particularly remarkable about her — except that she'd inherited her father's temperament more than anyone else, with an inability to stand by in the face of injustice that had flared up and caused public scenes more than once.

It had never sat well with her.

All the family expected of her was a strategically useful marriage — and lately, even that expectation had taken on a doubtful air.

What's so wrong with me, exactly?

Exhaling sharply through her nose, she spoke with cool dignity.

"You all know I was set up with the youngest son of Moonseong Group a while back, right?"

"Why? Don't tell me you fought with Moonseong Group's youngest son."

"Please say you didn't kick him in the shins for pestering you."

He honestly couldn't understand why they were all so pessimistic. What exactly had she done to earn this?

Cheon Eun-jung heaved a deep sigh and enunciated each word clearly.

"That's not it. I've decided to officially date the youngest son of Moonseong Group."

"What?"

"Why?"

"How?"

"Is that even possible?"

The barrage of skepticism, far heavier than anything moments before, made her temper snap.

"Why is everyone answering with question marks? Can't you answer with an exclamation point for once?"