Not a Single Word Worth Hearing

There hadn't been a single word worth hearing. Taejun had left the dinner table midway and waited for Chaeyoon, who still hadn't returned. When he heard she'd gone out to meet a friend, he'd nearly let a laugh slip before he could stop himself.

So she wasn't planning to be the one getting trampled every time, after all.

The smile that had tugged at the corner of his eyes hardened in an instant. What he had seen and felt tonight went beyond that. The dinner table had painted a vivid enough picture of exactly the ordeal she must have endured, just as he'd predicted.

And yet Yoon Chaeyoon had never once said a word of it to him.

She had simply smiled brightly whenever he came home. Taejun could only imagine what was churning beneath that smile. How rotten her tender young heart must have become before she left those divorce papers behind and walked away.

Maybe it wasn't resentment toward them. Maybe it was disappointment in me.

Taejun let out a long, slow breath.

A kind and loving husband. That single sentence was supposed to hold everything Yoon Chaeyoon had ever wanted.

It was also the portrait of a husband furthest removed from the man Taejun actually was. But it wasn't something beyond his reach.

Only…

"Oh… when did you get home?"

Chaeyoon had returned, her face a little brighter than before.

"Before dinner."

"Ah…"

She dropped her gaze as if apologetic.

"You went out to see a friend?" Taejun asked.

"Yes. I just felt a little stifled, that's all."

"Good for you. You should have called me, though. We could have met up and had dinner together."

Chaeyoon looked up at him, eyes wide with surprise.

"I came home because I thought you'd be alone. Because you weren't there."

"Ah…"

Chaeyoon only nodded. She hadn't skipped the dinner on purpose. Not a single person there had been on her side. Of course, she hadn't forgotten that Taejun would be attending the meal, but tonight of all nights, she hadn't wanted to face his family.

"My conversation with my friend ran a little long," Chaeyoon said, her cheeks puffing out slightly. Taejun studied that pouting face for a moment, then took her hand and seated her beside him.

"What did you talk about?"

His voice was so tender. Chaeyoon lifted her eyes and stared straight at him, caught off guard by the unfamiliar warmth in it. He raised an eyebrow, as if to ask, why?

"Oh… this and that. But wait—were you waiting for me?"

At that, Taejun broke into a soft laugh. Chaeyoon gazed quietly at his face. It overlapped with the moment she'd fallen for him at first sight. The moment her heart had pounded like mad the instant she saw him. The night she'd lain awake until dawn because of it.

She had wanted to see that man again. No—she had wanted to spend her whole life looking at him.

Yes. It was this face, exactly this face.

Beneath the lamplight, his face was more dazzling than it ever was in sunlight. Chaeyoon stared at it as if spellbound, then leaned in and pressed a light kiss to his lips.

A brief kiss, there and gone. The impulse had leapt out of her before she knew it, and the one most startled by it was Chaeyoon herself. In the next instant, his hand caught her chin.

His lowered gaze traced her lips slowly, as if confirming them all over again.

"Yes. I waited."

At that low voice, Chaeyoon's heart plummeted. She couldn't manage an answer, could only swallow, and Taejun slowly bowed his head toward her.

This time, it was he who claimed her lips.

Their soft, meeting mouths tilted at a leisurely angle. There was no urgency in it. If anything, it was calm and relentless. The kiss that had begun as a light brush deepened before she realized it, and Chaeyoon found herself clutching his shoulder without meaning to.

Taejun's hand wrapped around her waist. Held by that firm grip, her body drew close to his. Their breaths tangled. The tip of his tongue traced slowly along her lower lip.

"Mmh…"

A small breath escaped between their lips. The moment he heard it, the look in Taejun's eyes sank even darker.

This time her lip was drawn in with a little more intensity.

The soft, wet sounds filled the room. Chaeyoon was swept helplessly along his current. Her head tipped back, and his hand glided slowly down her spine. His body heat seeped through the thin fabric, and her skin flushed hot.

His fingertips, holding her close, rubbed slowly along her waistline. A touch that seemed careful and yet, all too subtly, was melting her.

"Chaeyoon."

Her name slipped through the deepening kiss.

His voice was so tender that, for a moment, she wanted to cry.

Chaeyoon wrapped her arms around his neck with her eyes closed, and Taejun received her lips and pressed in deeper still. Her breathing grew more and more ragged.

His thumb stroked slowly down her cheek. The way he looked at her—her wrecked breathing, her flushed face—was impossibly sweet.

"I don't think I can hold back."

A low, roughened voice brushed her ear.

"You don't have to."

Chaeyoon's heart pounded like crazy.

Only after the words left her mouth did she realize what she'd said. Heat flooded her face in an instant. Fortunately, Taejun didn't laugh. Instead, his eyes grew even darker.

"You won't regret it?"

The question slipped out before he could help it. Because he remembered, all too well, what heart she had carried when she asked him for a divorce.

Instead of answering, Chaeyoon only tightened the arms looped around his neck and shook her head. That small gesture was answer enough. Taejun pulled her into his embrace.

Their bodies met with no gap left between them. Warmth passed directly from his skin to hers. The firm planes of his body pressed through the thin fabric, and Chaeyoon's breath faltered. Their lips found each other again.

This kiss was far deeper than the last. It went on slowly, relentlessly, without a single chance to breathe. Chaeyoon's back met the bed. His hands closed gently around her shoulders, and her body shivered at the touch.

"It feels like it's been so long."

Chaeyoon couldn't bring herself to answer. She only lowered her head a little, and his fingertips lifted her chin again.

"Has it really been that long? Hm? Tell me. Yoon Chaeyoon."

At the feeling of his thumb gliding slowly down her burning cheek, her eyes fluttered shut.

His lips traveled down to the tip of her chin next.

The slow, trailing sensation made her throat bob. A breath spilled out of her unbidden.

"Mmh…"

With a small moan, Chaeyoon gripped his shoulders. Clearly pleased by the reaction, Taejun let out a low, held-back laugh. He was in no hurry at all.

If anything, he moved as if deliberately taking his time to melt her. Every time his lips touched hers and drew away, Chaeyoon grew more restless. She was unsettled by how much she wanted him—by how wanton her own desire felt.

At some point, his hands had wrapped around her waist, holding her in a firm embrace.

Chaeyoon felt utterly enclosed in his arms. And yet, strangely, she didn't hate it.

No—it was far too warm. In the end, Chaeyoon couldn't hold back any longer and clung to his lips first.

At that, the look in Taejun's eyes wavered, dark and intense.

"Chaeyoon."

"……"

This time his voice sounded like a warning.

But Chaeyoon didn't stop. With her small hands around his neck, she pressed her lips to his again and again, hungry for more.

And then she understood.

Just how much she had missed this man.

How desperately she had wanted to be held by Moon Taejun.

She had tried to turn away, tried to believe she'd forgotten, pushed the feeling out of her heart again and again to keep from being hurt—and yet she had never once truly let him go.

Not his breath, not his warmth, not the way his eyes had always searched for her.

She still loved him. Every last piece of him belonged to Yoon Chaeyoon and no one else.

If only she could have him, she wanted him forever. She didn't want to yield him to anyone. She refused.

In this moment, Chaeyoon had no intention of pushing her own heart away.

"Hold me."

She clung to him with everything she had. Taejun's eyes deepened, and his hands burned their way into her body.