“Hey, hey, Not kid! Are you okay?”

Jong-woo dropped the box he was holding as if throwing it down and grabbed Hae-som when she staggered. Her tiny face, no bigger than a fist, had gone pale.

“Yes, I’m okay.”

After several days in a row without sleep, both her body and mind were a wreck. She did not even have the strength to lift a finger, but since it was tasting week, she had to keep herself together.

“You don’t look okay at all. Aren’t you pushing too hard? Want me to get you a cup of coffee?”

Instead of answering, Hae-som shook her head and adjusted her grip on the order sheet. Sleepy black worms seemed to crawl across her vision.

By the time her mind drifted back into its haze, Jong-woo’s truck had already pulled out of the parking lot.

Out of the dozen or so boxes, only the last one was left. As she checked the ingredients inside against the list that still had no check mark beside them, her phone suddenly buzzed in her pocket. It was Song Ji.

[Cha Ji-won tantrum mode ON]

So hoping for luck really had been pointless after all.

There had been no word from her for so long that Hae-som thought Cha Ji-won had forgotten. She had not expected her to start looking for Jae-geon the moment she returned to work.

Since she had already decided to take all of this on by herself, maybe it would be better if it just blew up sooner.

After barely finishing putting away the ingredients, Hae-som stepped into the garden and pressed her phone to her ear like someone who had already made up her mind.

Not long after, a voice she could never feel easy hearing rang in her head.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Hello.”

Shade fell around Hae-som as if warning her about what was coming. Even the air felt cold.

“I’m sorry for the late reply. Like I said before, the chef has been busy developing the new menu, so—”

At that moment, Hae-som, who had been facing the stone wall, was suddenly spun around. The sudden force threw off her balance and pulled her straight into a solid chest. The familiar pine scent was so strong it made her head ache.

From the phone, now hanging far from Hae-som’s ear, a woman’s voice drifted out.

“How’s the internship? Is Jung Jae-geon treating you well?”

“She asked you. Is he treating you well?”

The look coming down at her from above was sharp. She felt like her whole body might melt if this kept going.

“Miss Seong Hae-som.”

At that title again, Hae-som could only try to hide her flushed face. The fingertips that had been pushing at Jae-geon’s chest curled tight.

Cha Ji-won, still on the other end of the phone, was the last thing on her mind.

The phone slipped from her hand in her tension and was about to fall into the grass, but Jae-geon quickly caught it. Then he put the call on speaker, as if telling her to listen carefully to the truth herself.

“You haven’t changed at all, Cha Ji-won.”

“Is this your smokescreen?”

There was laughter in Ji-won’s voice, and not a trace of panic.

“Explain it in a way that makes sense. Why are you doing this?”

Hmph. At Jae-geon’s low chuckle, Hae-som felt the blood rushing through her body instantly run cold.

With Ji-won’s subsequent words, the situation only got worse.

Did you sleep?

---

At the talk that made it clear she was nothing more than a toy between the two of them, Hae-som shut out the sound and turned away.

The stone tower she had stacked up with such care had collapsed. It must have happened when Jae-geon forcefully turned her around.

As she replayed his overly sharp reaction in her head, Hae-som clenched her fists until her joints hurt.

No matter how much she turned it over, she could not understand it.

What exactly had made him so angry?

He could not have forgotten that she came to Not through Editor Cha Ji-won, and whatever favor Ji-won had asked in return should have been something he could easily guess.

Since he of all people knew how awful that obsession of hers was, maybe Hae-som had hoped he would notice her trouble first.

That was the point. The one who had a right to get angry was not Jung Jae-geon, who barged in and ruined the call, but the intern who had just been treated like a toy.

She had agreed to be a bridge between them, maybe a messenger. She had never agreed to be their plaything.

She felt wronged and humiliated. Her feet itched with the urge to run straight out of the internship on the spot.

But even if she went back to school, nothing would change. If anything, graduation would only become more uncertain.

Jae-geon or Ji-won—it did not matter. Anywhere touched by the reach of those two major figures in the field could never be a place to hide. That made Hae-som feel even more helpless.

For now, there was nothing she could do except bite her lip and swallow her anger.

The moment she stepped into the hall leading to Jae-geon’s office, her unguarded wrist was seized without mercy.

“Ah!”

The grip gave her no time to resist. Jae-geon slammed the door shut with a bang, as if he meant to crush it, and forced Hae-som up against it while grinding out through his teeth,

“Is that mouth of yours just garnish?”

Hae-som flinched at the cold look pouring down on her. The lips she had been holding shut slowly parted. Her pale face was full of resignation.

“So you’re not the kind who just takes it quietly. What exactly are you?”

“So that’s why you treated me like that?”

“How did I treat you?”

“You put me in the main section because you meant to chase me out from the start. The one you have bad blood with is the editor. Why should I be the one paying for it?”

Jae-geon let out a hollow laugh, like he could not believe what he was hearing. The breath from it lifted her bangs.

“If you didn’t have the nerve to cut her off, you should never have accepted the offer in the first place. Were you planning to get dragged around for the whole internship?”

“What power do I have to stand up to the editor?”

“That’s why you should have told me!”

If he had given her any room to do that in the first place, she would have asked. She had already been struggling to deal with it on her own.

If it had only been her own problem, she would have gladly ignored it. But Song Ji was tied up in it too, which made it much harder to go against Ji-won.

On top of that, Jae-geon looked like someone who had already been hurt badly by Ji-won, so Hae-som could not ask for help easily. And what reason did he really have to help her if it meant putting himself out?

The things he had said just to provoke Ji-won could not possibly have been true.

Hae-som felt hurt all over again. Her wet eyes shone darkly.

“But why did you lie, Chef?”

“About what.”

“You said you liked me.”

“Who says I didn’t?”

“That… that can’t be true. It shouldn’t be.”

Something flickered through his lowered eyes.

“To both of you, I’m just a toy you mess with when you’re bored.”

“……”

“I’m the only one who gets thrown around, broken, and hurt.”

The hand that dragged harshly across his face slammed into the door behind Hae-som with a heavy thud. She did not even flinch at the dull crash and went on in the same flat voice.

“No matter what happens to me, you won’t care, Chef.”

The veins stood out on the hand Jae-geon had braced against the door.

“Who says I wouldn’t care?”

Feeling Hae-som’s small face fill with confusion, Jae-geon forced himself to step back.

“Seong Hae-som.”

His voice came out much rougher than usual. It sounded angry, but in truth it was the sound of him desperately trying to hold back the harsh breathing rising in him.

“Get out. Right now.”

As if that cold dismissal had wounded her, tears filled her wide eyes. The small sound of her footsteps moving away shook something deep inside him.

The moment he heard the door shut, Jae-geon rushed to throw open the window. The breath he had been holding burst out all at once.

Clutching the hook-shaped handle with a fierce grip, he muttered in a low, self-deprecating tone.

The pine breeze brushing against the thin fabric of his pants tickled. It felt as if he were receiving fellatio from a small, firm mouth, or being caressed by soft palms.

‘No matter what happens to me, you won’t care about me, Chef.’

His body, gaunt like a fish with nothing to eat, and his chest, tightly hidden beneath his wide chef’s uniform with not a single silhouette to be found—yet, he was aroused.

What would the flesh that had been moving in and out between his teeth taste like?

Should I say it makes my tongue tingle, or gives me the shivers of a kick?

And how much of the triangular area covered by layers of fabric would it be… …

“……Fuck.”

Unable to bear the pressure pressing down on the front of his pants, Jae-geon leaned his head against the wall. As the slender torso suddenly sprang up, the blood flow that had been blocked in the center of the body instantly became smooth.

July. It was not just the sweltering heat that was running rampant.