Jae-geon lay on his side beside Hae-som, who slept soundly, her soft breathing rising and falling in a steady rhythm as her slender chest lifted with each breath.

You drive someone right to the edge of madness… and then you fall asleep just like that.

He ought to have been annoyed. He ought to have resented her for it. Instead, every little puff of warm breath she let out melted his irritation all over again.

She must have been exhausted. Every now and then, she even let out a tiny snore, and somehow even that made him smile.

Giving up on holding her, Jae-geon reached over and pulled her hand away from the sheet without thinking, slipping it into his own.

Her hands were always cold.

Not today.

Maybe the sex had finally gotten her blood circulating.

Of all things…

“So cute.”

Had he fallen victim to some kind of night magic?

Or maybe he’d been doomed from the moment he’d first laid eyes on her. He just hadn’t realized it.

He’d slept with more than a few women before, but none of them had ever stirred this possessive streak in him. They were always the ones who approached first, and if they happened to be his type, he saw no reason to turn them away.

Those encounters had always been casual, almost always outside his home. He had never wanted strangers inside the one place he considered his sanctuary, nor had he liked the thought of someone leaving traces of themselves all over what belonged to him.

Hae-som—

No, Seong Hae-som was different.

This was the first time he’d looked at a sleeping face and felt such tenderness.

The way she’d asked to spend the night—not for sex, but simply to sleep—had caught him off guard. yet somehow she’d left him helpless.

He’d brought her home almost as if under a spell.

Two meetings.

That’s all it had taken for him to fall this hard.

His fingertips brushed over her lips, coaxing them apart. They parted with a tiny smack, and the tip of her pink tongue peeked out.

Then she mumbled,

“I like it…”

She really had a gift for driving him insane in every possible way.

His hand drifted lower, following the soft hum of her breathing.

Just as he started to part her long, deer-like legs, a faint crease appeared between her brows.

“It hurts…”

“You like foreplay… but not sex?”

Already pulled back under by sleep, she gave no answer.

Did she even know who she was talking to?

If she started calling for “Eun-ho Oppa” again in her sleep, he’d have a problem.

The unfamiliar stab of jealousy made him kick the covers aside and get out of bed.

Outside, dawn had only begun to brighten the horizon. Morning still felt impossibly far away, and watching the clock’s hands crawl forward was enough to make him dizzy.

Nothing kills time better than housework.

He gathered the clothes they’d scattered around the room the night before and started the washing machine.

He moved everything into the dryer.

Folded the warm, freshly dried laundry.

Even then, the night still hadn’t ended.

For the first time, Jae-geon felt like he understood what it was like for Hae-som to spend sleepless nights.

---

She’d never slept so soundly before.

Not in the last four years.

Maybe not in her entire life.

“Nothing beats the orgasm of a good night’s sleep.”

She’d thought he’d only been joking.

Apparently not.

Apparently, he’d proven it with painstaking care.

Everything hurt.

After being worked over by a body built like six solid pillars of muscle, there was no way she’d wake up feeling fine.

The places that had rubbed together all night burned worse than an actual burn.

A low groan escaped her throat.

Curled into a ball, Hae-som tried to sit up, only for all the strength to leave her arms and legs.

She flopped face-first back onto the bed.

“Ugh…”

From her sideways view, something on the bedside table caught her eye.

Magnum XL.

Jae-geon’s voice echoed in her ears.

“It wouldn’t fit anyway.”

Only now did she realize he hadn’t been bluffing.

She buried her face into the pillow.

“I’m insane…”

It had felt incredible—she couldn’t deny that.

But she’d practically clung to her boss, begging him to give her more.

Mortified, her eyes darted around the room before settling on the wing chair across from the bed.

“…Ha.”

Her clothes had all been washed, dried, and neatly folded.

Not just the chef’s jacket she’d worn.

Even the spare clothes she’d stuffed into her backpack.

Even her underwear.

Did he never sleep in?

Doing all the laundry from start to finish had to have taken at least a couple of hours.

He’d handled everything with practiced ease.

How many women has he done this for?

What a player.

After changing in record time, Hae-som carefully composed her expression as though nothing had happened and slipped out of the bedroom.

She expected to find Jae-geon basking in the morning sun in the kitchen like before.

He wasn’t there.

“Chef? Cheeef?”

Her hoarse voice echoed through the house.

No answer.

She smoothed down the goosebumps on her arms and awkwardly dusted off her shoulders.

“Did he go out? Or… did he leave because of me?”

Maybe he’d spared them both the embarrassment by giving her space.

After all, having a much younger junior beg him for sex couldn’t have been the easiest thing to process.

Even if he hadn’t meant it that way…

There was no chance she could face him while completely sober.

She shoved her feet into shoes that were still damp, hurried across the rain-speckled garden, and left.

---

If Song Ji had been here, she would have summed up Hae-som’s tangled emotions in two words.

Death by embarrassment.

Her period arrived on top of everything else, leaving her feeling absolutely miserable.

Like a bear hibernating through winter, Hae-som stayed curled beneath her blankets and slept for two straight days.

Knowing how badly their daughter struggled with insomnia, her parents were almost relieved to see her sleeping so much.

She’d hidden from reality by sleeping through her days off.

Unfortunately, she’d only had two days off.

Today she had to return to work.

To avoid being alone with Jae-geon, Hae-som made a point of taking her time getting ready. Instead of showing up early like she always did, she planned to arrive exactly at her scheduled start time—ten o’clock.

But that morning the highway was almost empty.

The drive from Bundang to Seochon took less than an hour.

It was only nine.

Maybe heaven was telling me to get it over with.

Resigned, Hae-som made her way toward the restaurant.

Sure enough.

Jae-geon was already there.

He had finished organizing the ingredients—a task Hae-som usually volunteered to handle—and was just coming out of the walk-in refrigerator.

She stepped out of the changing room in fresh chef’s whites.

Their eyes met.

Three seconds.

Hae-som was the first to break the silence.

“…Good morning.”

Jae-geon answered with a silent nod before walking past her without another word.

The faint scent of pine lingered just long enough to leave her light-headed.

She found herself staring as he stopped behind the bar.

With the same fingertips that had teased her clitoris, he tapped the espresso machine’s power button before picking up several coffee bean samples and examining them.

After choosing one, he tore open the package and poured the beans into the grinder.

Why does even opening a bag of coffee beans look… sexy?

Then he dipped a fingertip into the freshly ground coffee and touched it lightly to his tongue.

“Haa…”

Her throat went dry.

Heat rushed to her face.

She fled to the walk-in refrigerator.

The blast of cold air cooled her skin, but it did nothing for the warmth burning inside her.

“What am I even thinking? Get to work!”

Determined to get herself together, she grabbed two radishes.

They were meant for the radish purée, and just like the carrots before, they were perfect for practicing her knife work.

She trimmed away the bruised spots and cut the radishes into easy-to-cut pieces, the rich aroma of coffee drifted over her shoulder.

Before she even realized Jae-geon had approached, a glass of iced Americano appeared beside her green cutting board.

I thought he said coffee was off-limits…

“You didn’t sleep much, did you?”

Ironically, Jae-geon himself looked exhausted.

Did he have insomnia too?

Maybe he’d offered to help her sleep because he understood exactly what it was like.

Her throat was parched more than anything else.

Without refusing, Hae-som accepted the drink.

“Thank you, Chef.”

“…”

She thought he was about to leave.

Instead, he turned back.

Standing behind her, he caught both her shoulders with his hands.

His broad thumbs pressed firmly into her shoulder blades, opening up her chest.

Hae-som bit down on her lower lip to keep from making a sound.

Meanwhile, he patiently worked the tension from her stiff muscles, tilting his head as the bridge of his nose brushed the back of her neck.

For something that looked so intimate, his voice remained perfectly calm.

“If you keep holding your knife like this, you’ll blow out a disc. One year if you’re lucky. Three at the most.”

His solid thigh slipped between her legs.

Hae-som froze like a wooden statue.

Any head chef would correct a trainee’s posture.

But every touch dragged memories of that night back into vivid focus.

The man who had stripped away her chef’s jacket…

Removed her bra…

Filled his hands with her breasts…

Pressed his lips between her thighs and savored her…

She couldn’t erase him from her mind.

Unlike Hae-som, who felt ready to die of embarrassment, Jae-geon remained as cool and composed as ever.

The only giveaway was the tiny smile that tugged at his lips whenever she flinched.

His hands traveled from the rounded bones of her neck down her spine, pressing gently against her lower back.

She tightened her core without thinking.

Her crooked stance straightened.

If this had been the Jae-geon she knew from a few nights ago, he would have turned her around and kissed her first.

If he was the same man who had taken her body that night, he might have taken her right here.

“If you want to wreck your wrist too, keep gripping the knife like that.”

But there wasn’t a trace of desire in his voice.

Did he want them to go back to being nothing more than head chef and trainee?

Had sleeping with a complete beginner been too disappointing?

Then again…

The warmth of his body resting against her waist told a different story.

What did any of this mean?

The moment she let her guard down, the hand supporting her waist moved to cover her own.

Her smaller hand disappeared completely inside his.

“You keep trying to cut with your whole arm instead of your wrist. That’s why your posture’s a mess.”

He nudged her index finger into the proper position on the handle, adjusted her thumb and middle finger, then stepped away.

“Pay attention to your positioning while you work.”

“Yes, Chef.”

Still dazed, Hae-som watched him walk away.

All she could see was his broad back and the muscles shifting beneath it.

What he was really thinking remained impossible to read.