Chapter 6

“‘A man? What on earth is going on?’”

Raine’s eyes widened as she cautiously turned her head to look beside her.

Silver hair was spread messily across the bedsheets.

His flawless, pale skin, straight jawline, and beautiful, thick silver eyelashes were all on display, his eyes gently closed.

Even with his eyes shut, there was something intimidating about him. The corners of his lips were slightly raised.

He looked like he was enjoying a pleasant sleep.

Seeing his peaceful expression, Raine unconsciously relaxed and smiled fondly. But the next moment, her mouth fell open in shock.

He was just as naked as Raine was.

‘S-Surely not?’

Startled, Raine carefully lifted the thin blanket.

His firm, attractive upper body came into view.

Unable to stop herself from staring at his impressive physique, Raine’s mouth fell open as her gaze slowly traveled downward.

Then she was even more startled and clamped a fist over her mouth.

For now, it was lying peacefully, but between his legs slept something that looked like a ferocious beast that would be anything but harmless once it woke up.

‘Oh, my God! Surely I didn’t sleep with this man?’

As Raine desperately tried to calm her increasingly trembling body and carefully began climbing out of bed—

“……”

Raine realized there was an unmistakable sensation lingering in her lower body.

‘Did I really do it with that man…?’

The fact that she had apparently had a random one-night stand was absurd enough, but an even greater turmoil was raging inside her.

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t believe this situation was real.

When she caught sight of herself in the mirror on one side of the bedroom, she understood the man even less.

‘No, seriously. Why would such a handsome man sleep with me? What could he possibly like about me?’

Feeling utterly bewildered, Raine tiptoed quietly into the living room.

There, she spotted her neatly folded clothes on the table beside the sofa.

She had no idea what state of mind she had been in when she left.

Before she knew it, she had already put on her freshly washed clothes and fled the building as though running for her life.

The summer morning sun beat down on her with piercing intensity.

Raine shaded her eyes with one hand against the blinding sunlight and looked back at the building she had just escaped from.

It was the entrance of the very building where she had tried to jump yesterday.

Across the ten-lane road stood the headquarters of H/N Entertainment, Ju-ha’s agency.

Raine stared blankly back and forth between the two buildings.

Then she spotted a bus across the street that would take her toward home and hurriedly searched for her wallet.

That’s when she realized she had left her bag behind.

“My phone and wallet are both in there…”

She needed to go back and get them, but she couldn’t bring herself to walk inside again.

‘I’ll just walk home. It’s not that far if I take the subway…’

She desperately needed her transit card and phone, but going back to retrieve them was simply too embarrassing.

“It’s not like I have anything but time anyway.”

Raine decided that she would return for her bag once she felt less embarrassed and started walking home.

Then she noticed a group of female fans gathered beneath a shade canopy in front of the entrance to H/N Entertainment.

Without realizing it, she stopped and couldn’t help looking in their direction.

The placards they were holding read things like:

‘HARRY ♡ Harry’

‘Mr. Ju-ha, You’re So Handsome’

‘Oppa Ju-ha, I Love You.’

They were Ju-ha’s fans.

Sunglasses, hats, parasols, drinks filled with ice, ice packs, portable fans…

They had clearly come prepared to stand beneath the scorching midsummer sun for as long as necessary.

Seeing them there also made Raine think that Ju-ha might appear soon.

‘I’ll be able to see Mr. Ju-ha?’

For a moment, she forgot that just yesterday she had been cursing him while holding up her middle finger.

The feelings she thought she had finally put behind her began to waver.

Perhaps she couldn’t overcome the affection that had accumulated over all those years.

Her heart began to pound at the thought that she might at least be able to catch a glimpse of how that bastard was living.

Once she thought she might see him, the memories that came to mind first weren’t the times when he had treated her cruelly.

They were the times when he had smiled brightly.

Raine was immediately flustered by herself.

‘What the hell? Am I crazy? He’s the one who left because he didn’t want me!’

Even she thought she was being incredibly stupid.

But despite what she told herself, Raine crossed the crosswalk without realizing it and blended into the group of fans.

The shade canopy and occasional breeze made it bearable for Raine to stand among them.

As she wandered around restlessly, she suddenly remembered the warmth of a hand clasped tightly with hers.

The hand they had affectionately held together in bed the night before.

He had been on top of Raine, holding down both of her hands with his fingers intertwined with hers.

[“It’s Hayden. You don’t remember me?”]

At his cautious question, Raine had shaken her head.

[“Um, not really… I’m Lee Raine.”]

[“I know.”]

His voice had become slightly husky when he answered that he knew Raine’s name.

The softly glowing mood lamp made the two of them, dressed only in robes, look even more gentle.

[“Are you really going to sleep with me?”]

[“You said you wanted it.”]

There had been an indescribable emotion in his moist gaze as he looked at Raine.

He also seemed strangely happy.

[“It’s my first time, but I’ll do my best.”]

[“Your first time? You’ve never been with anyone before?”]

[“No. Everything is a first for me.”]

[“Even kissing?”]

At Raine’s question, Hayden’s face flushed slightly.

[“I know the theory, though, so somehow it’ll work out.”]

[“Wait.”]

Raine had checked his intentions once again.

[“Are you really okay with doing this with me? If it’s your first experience, shouldn’t you treasure it more…?”]

At that moment, Hayden tightened his intertwined fingers around Raine’s hands.

His lips covered hers like two lovebirds affectionately rubbing their beaks together.

Before long, he was kissing her with such intensity that his claim of it being his first time seemed almost absurd.

Raine held her breath at Hayden’s unexpectedly bold actions.

He acted as though he had been waiting and waiting for this opportunity, leaving Raine more than a little bewildered.

After lingering against her lips for a long time, he pulled away and lightly licked his now-moistened lips with his tongue.

Bathed in the glow of the mood lamp, Hayden’s lips glistened with a damp sheen.

The corners of his lips lifted as though he was happy about kissing Raine, and he gently rubbed the edge of his mouth with his thumb.

When their mingled saliva remained on his fingertip, he licked it off and swallowed it.

The motion made his throat bob visibly, leaving a striking impression in Raine’s eyes.

[“My first kiss and my first experience. I’m treasuring them all, so you don’t need to worry.”]

For some reason, the polite speech he had been using suddenly changed to casual speech.

But before Raine could question it, the scent of the whiskey they had shared became mingled in their breaths once again.

“……”

Having remembered this much, Raine wondered if she had drunk far too much the night before.

Of course, she had been drunk.

But she hadn’t done what happened unconsciously.

She was certain she hadn’t drunk enough to black out, either.

The events of the previous night came back as vividly as if she were rewatching a drama.

The more she recalled, however, the hotter Raine’s face became.

That was how their relationship had begun.

He had showered Raine with intense physical affection.

Again and again.

[“Raine, my beloved Raine.”]

Perhaps he was the type of person who fell in love through physical intimacy, because despite it being their first night together, Hayden expressed such deep affection and emotion toward Raine.

Raine found herself thinking that even though she had once had a lover named Ju-ha, she had never heard a man’s voice filled with such deep affection before.

Moreover, perhaps the two of them were simply incredibly compatible, because it was the first time Raine had ever experienced such an exhilarating night.

Her final memory was the overwhelming climax brought on by Hayden.

His claim that it was his first time seemed almost laughable.

Raine had felt so completely fulfilled that it was as though she had gained everything in the world from Hayden.

Judging from the fact that she remembered nothing afterward, she had probably fallen asleep as though she had passed out.

Raine covered her burning cheeks with both hands.

No matter how much she thought about it, she simply couldn’t understand what had happened.

Anyone would have thought the same.

How could the young, handsome, and extraordinarily virile owner of a thirty-five-story building willingly spend the night with a woman who wore size 99 clothes?

And not just any one-night stand, either.

He had acted as though he had fallen in love with her for life.

‘No, seriously. How did things even get that far?’

Raine searched further back through her memories.

The night before, Raine had sipped whiskey while eating chocolate as a snack and told him everything about her past.

Hayden hadn’t said anything, but he occasionally nodded to show that he was listening carefully.

“That must have been very difficult.”

By the time Raine finished her story through a mixture of alcohol and tears, a large pile of chocolate wrappers had accumulated.

Hayden nodded as though he understood all of Raine’s emotions.

“I understand. When you feel completely abandoned, there are times when you want to die.”

Hayden’s response was truly unexpected.

Raine hadn’t expected him to understand her.

But when his surprisingly warm words reached her, she felt as though some of her wounds were beginning to heal.

However, that lasted only for a moment.

“Even so, that kind of extreme method of revenge is truly horrifying. Don’t ever think about doing something like that again.”

His tone in the following words was tinged with displeasure and coldness.

“You thought that by throwing away your precious life, you could make the situation into a huge issue. But in reality, it would only be a lonely death that could be buried without anyone even noticing.”

“How can you be so sure?”

It wasn’t as though Raine had never considered the possibility that her death might become a lonely one.

But hearing him say it so bluntly made her bristle, and she couldn’t help arguing back.

“I know it might not become a huge issue. But even so, someone died. You’re saying no one would hear about it at all?”

Hayden shook his head without hesitation.

“You’re saying that because you don’t know Hyena. She’s from a chaebol family. She’s also a major shareholder of H/N Entertainment. It wouldn’t take her long to quietly bury something that happened in the early hours of the morning.”

At Hayden’s prediction, Raine let out a deep sigh.

It was common knowledge that Hyena was the daughter of a chaebol family.

“Even so, it’s unfair to just let myself be the one who gets hurt.”

“Even so, it can never become important enough to justify giving up your own life.”

Hayden frowned and downed the whiskey he had been sipping neat.

“If you want revenge, you’d be better off using a different method than something as foolish as that.”

Being told so bluntly that she had been foolish made Raine’s mood sour again after it had just begun to improve.

She also downed her whiskey in one gulp.

“Then what am I supposed to do? I feel like I’m going to explode from frustration.”

“In that case, it might be worthwhile to live even better, just to show them. Become successful and more famous, become richer, or date and marry a better man… If you live so well that the man becomes insignificant in comparison, wouldn’t that be revenge?”

“If things actually worked that way, maybe I could do that. But it’s easier said than done. That’s the kind of thing that only happens in romance novels.”

After briefly considering his examples, Raine pouted.

“I’ve lost everything. There’s nothing I can do now. Honestly, I desperately want to stay alive and get revenge too, but in reality, I’m in a state where I can’t even take care of myself.”

“You desperately want revenge?”

At Hayden’s question, Raine’s voice naturally rose.

“Can’t you tell? I was even going to die just to make it into an issue.”