TUW | CHAPTER 10

Chapter 10

Already Drunk?

Do-hyun laced his fingers together and rested his arms on the table, as if settling in to really listen.

“Most men, no matter how old they are, turn into panting dogs the second they see a woman.

Eyes rolling back like they’re in heat.”

“And what does that have to do with you, Secretary Lee?”

There he went again, cutting straight to the bone.

The bluntness of his question lit a spark in Lee Yeon’s chest, alcohol fanning the flame.

For a moment her hand twitched toward her wig, almost tearing it off in frustration.

Don’t.

You’ll regret it if you slip up drunk.

Control yourself.

Instead, she let out a brittle laugh.

“From the front, maybe not.

But from the back… don’t you think it looks like it matters a little?”

She turned in her chair, deliberately showing him her back.

She already knew whatever came next wouldn’t be flattering.

“…Not really.”

His flat response clamped her mouth shut.

Fine.

If he’s saying that, then my disguise really is perfect.

That’s basically a compliment.

“Thanks for the compliment,” she said with a small smile.

His brow twitched at her words.

“It wasn’t a compliment.”

“Yes, it was.

And you wouldn’t know this, Vice President, but I actually have quite a slim waist.”

Stop.

Lee Yeon bit down hard on her lips.

Why on earth was she bragging about her waist?

What did she even expect him to say?

Waistline to Do-hyun?

The alcohol-soaked haze clouding her mind had stripped away reason.

He had asked why she dressed the way she did, and somehow she’d convinced herself she had to prove it to him.

She couldn’t rip off her glasses and wig, so she grasped at straws trying to justify herself with the only thing left, her silhouette.

As the words left her mouth, Dohyun’s eyes flicked downward toward her waist.

Catching the movement, Lee Yeon gasped and slapped her hands protectively over her chest.

“Hey!

That’s dangerous territory!”

His brow twitched again, this time with exasperation.

He was stunned.

Outraged, even.

She’d invited him to look, then branded him shameless for doing exactly that.

And to top it off, she’d already changed into a long hoodie dress earlier claiming her outfit was uncomfortable after a bottle and a half of soju.

With sleeves to her wrists and a hem brushing her ankles, there wasn’t even a waist to be seen.

“There’s nothing remotely threatening here.

And wrapped up like that aren’t you hot?”

LEE Yeon understood exactly what he meant.

It was summer-weight fabric, sure, but still: long sleeves, and a skirt that swallowed her all the way to the ankles.

Most of Yeon’s clothes were the kind that covered her body from head to toe.

With the sweltering weather, they looked stifling at just a glance.

“The air conditioner… the breeze was too cold.

So I turned up the temperature a little earlier.”

Do-hyun nodded as if he understood.

A quiet lull fell over them.

It was Do-hyun who broke the silence again.

“I’ve noticed this before.”

His low, baritone voice rippled through the air, and Yeon flinched, slowly lifting her eyelids.

“You get talkative when you drink.”

“I… do get a little chatty, don’t I?”

Strangely, the heavy pressure she usually felt around him wasn’t there tonight.

When had that started?

“You’re kind of amusing, actually.”

The corners of his eyes curved as he let out a small laugh, and Yeon’s chest fluttered and quivered at the sight.

“Sometimes you’re even funny like right now.”

Ah… so this was why everyone kept saying Ahn Do-hyun, Ahn Do-hyun.

Those eyes, those smiling eyes, were unfair.

Yeon found herself staring, spellbound, at the gentle curve of his lashes.

“And another thing.”

Another thing?

“Were your eyes always that big?”

Oh no.

All her careful efforts to make her eyes look smaller were undone, betrayed by this cursed alcohol.

Flustered, she darted her gaze away.

“No, anyway why don’t you finish what you were saying earlier?”

“Earlier… what was I talking about again?”

Then it struck her.

She had been explaining why she always wore such loose clothing.

“Well… my father runs a Chinese restaurant, and there used to be this regular uncle who came by a lot.

One day, he… made a mistake with me.”

“A mistake?”

Dohyun’s brow furrowed, as if he already grasped the real meaning behind that word.

Yeon told him what had happened that day.

Aside from Hayul, it was the first time she’d ever spoken about it, but the words spilt out without hesitation.

“So… that’s why.”

“That bastard.

Men like that disgrace us all.”

The roughness in Dohyun’s voice startled Yeon.

She hadn’t expected such anger on her behalf.

Well, knowing Do-hyun’s personality, it wasn’t surprising.

A man who couldn’t even control a base urge like that, of course, Do-hyun would curse him without hesitation.

Still, hearing him vent so sharply on her behalf gave Lee Yeon a rush of satisfaction, as if a weight had been lifted off her chest.

A faint smile tugged at her lips.

“And then, not long after, one of my closest guy friends, someone I’d been close with for years, suddenly confessed to me.

I was shocked.

I never even realised he liked me.

I thought we were just… really good friends.”

She didn’t know why the words came so easily tonight, but somehow her past kept spilling out to Do-hyun as though it had been waiting for the chance.

“Never would’ve guessed.

Didn’t realise you were that irresistible.”

They say when a man calls you charming, it’s just another way of saying you’re not pretty.

“Maybe…”

But the rest of the thought withered before it left her lips.

Do-hyun drained the last of his glass.

Lee Yeon followed suit, emptying hers as well.

One drink led to another, their conversation stretching on until, before they knew it, the bottles of soju were gone.

“We should open that wine you bought, too,” Lee Yeon said, her eyes flicking toward the shopping bag he had brought in.

Alcohol calls for more alcohol, they say.

She wanted just a few more sips enough to stumble into bed and knock out cold.

It felt too abrupt to end here.

Maybe it was the chatter that had sobered her back up, maybe something else.

Was it really the alcohol she wasn’t ready to let go of?

Or was it this moment with him?

Either way, she wanted the night to last a little longer.

Her gaze drifted toward the display cabinet in the corner of the living room.

“What’s that?

You’ve got quite the liquor collection.

A lot of whiskey, too?”

In other words, go on, bring one out.

“You’re already tipsy.

Whiskey hits harder.”

Lee Yeon tightened her eyelids ever so slightly.

She didn’t want him to see the haze in her gaze, didn’t want to admit she was even a little drunk.

She wanted to say I’m fine.

I’m still okay.

Just one or two more glasses, then she’d call it a night.

She only wished he’d keep her company until then.

“I’m fine.

Really,” she said softly.

Do-hyun poured one last drink, calling it the final round.

He dropped a few ice cubes into the glass, then pulled a container of freshly cut watermelon from the fridge something the housekeeper had left ready as a snack.

Perfect.

The moment he handed her the glass, she clinked it against his and downed it in one go.

The whiskey burned instantly, searing from her lips all the way down her throat.

Heat flared up from her chest to her nose, making her scrunch it up against the sting.

“You shouldn’t swallow that much all at once.”

And you couldn’t have said that a little sooner?

Too late now she had already tossed back the whiskey he poured for her as if it were soju.

The glass dangling from Lee Yeon’s hand was already empty, nothing but clear glass catching the light.

“No wonder my throat felt like it was burning.”

Dohyun actually laughed at that, a low, unguarded sound that slipped out of him.

The rumble of it tickled Lee Yeon’s ears, warm and strangely pleasant, making her eyes flutter shut for a brief second.

She forced them open again, refusing to sink into the haze.

Silence stretched.

Lee Yeon just sat there, blankly staring at the rind of a watermelon slice, her mind drifting.

Then Dohyun broke it, his voice weighted with something darker.

“Dogs aren’t the only ones who go into heat.

Cats do too.”

…Cats?

Before she could puzzle out his words, he reached for the bottle and poured himself another drink, this time with a heavier hand than before.

He wasn’t drinking for taste anymore; he wanted to get drunk.

“I saw it,” he said flatly, without warning.

“My mother.

Rolling around in bed with another man inside our house.”

The confession landed like a stone.

Lee Yeon froze, the shock striking her harder than the car accident story Sujin once told her.

“You must’ve been just a kid…” she whispered.

He’d said his mother died when he was still in elementary school.

Which meant he had seen that betrayal before then.

At an age when a boy should have been fed with nothing but his mother’s love.

Her chest ached at the thought.

She wanted to say something, anything, but no words felt big enough to reach him, let alone soothe him.

Was that why he hated marriage so much?

“Young Vice President… you’re so pitiful…”

Her words slurred, her tongue heavy.

The liquor she’d knocked back all at once was rising fast, seizing control.

She wanted to hear more, to understand the depth of his hurt, but the alcohol weighed her down.

Her eyelids betrayed her, falling shut as her forehead sank onto the dining table with a dull thud.

Thunk.

“Secretary Lee?”

Do-hyun pushed back his chair and caught her by the shoulders.

He shook her gently, tapped her back, but she wouldn’t budge.

“…You’ve got to be kidding.

You’re drunk?”

His hand raked through his hair in frustration.

Lee Yeon wasn’t the type to collapse after a few drinks if anything, she held her liquor better than most.

But that last glass of whiskey… it must have tipped her over the edge.

He cursed himself.

He shouldn’t have given her that last drink.

He never expected she’d actually pass out.

These days, Yoo Lee Yeon had a way of defying every one of his expectations.

***

[“Let’s have dinner together tonight.”]

At first, he thought it couldn’t be Lee Yeon.

Have dinner together?

But then another message followed, suggesting they simply eat at home.

Only then did Dohyun slip his phone back into his pocket.

He could sense the effort Lee Yeon was making.

That growing ease between them, the quiet comfort of it.

It wasn’t unpleasant at all.

From the moment he saw her message, Dohyun couldn’t concentrate on a single word of the meeting.

She had said something simple, let’s just eat lightly, but still… they were barely at the stage of sharing scraps of information with each other.

As he mulled it over, a thought struck him: there was a small charcoal grill at home.

Beef would be the right choice.

And wine… she likes wine.

He remembered how easily she’d handled her glasses at the restaurant, the way she savoured them without hesitation.

He decided to stop by the department store meat first, then a bottle of wine.

That should be simple enough for a dinner, shouldn’t it?

By the time Dohyun finally stepped into the house, his arms full of groceries, he froze.

A foreign smell hung in the air.

The housekeeper knew how much he disliked lingering odours, so she never cooked anything pungent in the house.

Even after a mild stir-fry, she would air out the rooms before leaving.

So for him, this scent, warm, homey, unfamiliar, was something he hadn’t encountered in years.

At the sound of the front door, Lee Yeon came running out.

And when Dohyun saw her, he couldn’t help but laugh.

In one hand, she clutched a ladle.

A bright yellow

apron was draped over her figure, a cheerful teddy bear dancing right across the middle.

Her hair, usually falling loosely around her face, was tied back in a simple knot.

His gaze trailed down the line of her outfit, and that’s when he realised what felt different.

He had never seen her with her hair tied up before.

Dohyun’s eyes lingered far too long on the delicate angle of her small, slender jaw.