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Chapter 1: An Indecent Proposal – January 4 – February 13, 2021

Naru had come to school every day that first week of the new year.  With Jungju in tow.  Dropping him off in the morning.  Picking him up in the evening.  If he was trying to use his nephew to get at her, it wasn’t going to work.  However, he kept persevering.  Every single day of the next few weeks.  He faithfully dropped the little boy off and picked him up each day.

Naru also invaded her private domain.  In the sweetest way possible.  But he kept it hidden.  It took her three weeks to notice that anything was different.  Her grandmother and her daughter were now plotting against her too.  For they had both kept secret from her his presence on their property.  Over the course of several weeks.

There were some fences on her grandmother’s farmland that had needed mending.  Miss Choi didn’t have time to walk the back property much, so she didn’t notice that someone had fixed them.  But the leaky sink in the kitchen was another story. She’d been fighting with that thing for months.  One evening after work in late January, she had turned it on, and quite miraculously, it had worked!  Then the toilet in the bathroom stopped running.  And the two squeaky floorboards on the porch failed to announce her presence one evening.  She began to grow suspicious then.  

“Harmony,” she asked one night towards the end of January, “what’s going on?  Have you hired a handyman?”

Her grandma had hedged.  “I found a kind man to fix a few things around here.”

Her head had snapped up.  She had instantly been suspicious of this stranger.  Who did such nice things without expecting a reward?

“Who is this man?  What’s his name?”

“Just a friend of mine, dear.”

“Harmony, spill it,” she commanded, frustrated.

“He’s just a nice, young boy with some extra time on his hands.  He wanted to help an old woman.  Don’t you worry about it.”

Miss Choi might have left it at that, but she witnessed an odd look pass between her grandmother and her daughter.  They were both grinning at each other like the Cheshire Cat.  But her grandma would not loosen her lips, so she finally ceased asking.  

—

Throughout the entire month of January, Naru had faithfully brought his nephew to school each day and picked him up each night.  She was growing used to his presence now.  He never tried to talk to her.  He simply kissed Jungju goodbye in the mornings and greeted his nephew cheerfully at night.  Once in a while, she had to speak to him to report Jungju’s progress, but outside of that, they didn’t even meet each other’s eyes.  After a while, she began to relax.  It became apparent that he was no longer pursuing her.

She heaved a great sigh of relief.  So why did it feel more like…

…disappointment?

But a week and a half into February, she found some papers on the desk in her grandpa’s old office that gave her pause.  Then she began to read them, and her head filled with questions.  She approached her grandmother.

“What are these papers?”

“Oh!  The greatest thing, darling!  I’ve found some people to lease my farmland!  We’re not going to have to sell the land or the house anytime soon!  Isn’t that wonderful?”

“It is,” she furrowed her brow, “but why didn’t you tell me?”

“Oh, I didn’t want to worry your pretty head about it.  And it’s only just come to pass over the last few days.  I was waiting for it to all be settled before I told you.  I knew it would take a load off your shoulders.  Just wanted to make sure it was a done deal first.”

“These papers sure make it look like a done deal,” she tossed them on the table.

Her grandma nodded. “There’s a few more to be signed tomorrow.  Then it’s all done.”

Miss Choi smiled at her.  “I’m glad.”  She felt an immense sense of relief.  “I don’t know how you managed it, but I’m glad you did.”

She sat down and stared at the opposite wall.  She squinted, then she shifted in her seat and turned around to look at the wall behind her.

“Harmony, did you paint this room?”

“What?  Oh, yes.  New paint.  I’m surprised you just noticed.”

“When did you paint it?”

“Oh, about a week ago.”

“Did you paint it by yourself?  How did you reach the ceiling?”

“Oh, my new friend helped me, darling.  He’s really the sweetest of boys.”

She eyeballed her grandma suspiciously.  “I think I really must meet this boy, Harmony.  Did you find a high school student on winter break?”

“Something like that, dear,” her grandma responded noncommittally.

But really, Miss Choi had little time to consider all the happy changes her grandmother was effecting.  She herself was swamped with work.  And she spent all of her free time lavishing her love on her precious daughter.   

If Miss Choi sometimes indulged in fantasies in which Naru committed to live on the straight and narrow path and became a devoted husband to her and a doting appa to Ajin, she could be forgiven for her momentary lapse in judgment.  Being a single mother was a difficult path to walk.  Sometimes a girl just needed to dream of a better life.  Even if there was really no hope of ever attaining one.

—

In the middle of that second week in February, she came home early from work on Thursday afternoon.  She hadn’t been feeling well.  Jumi had agreed to watch her class for the last two hours of the day.  So Miss Choi had taken a bus as far as she could and walked the remainder of the way home.  Lugging her massive book bag along with her.

Still, she arrived two hours earlier than usual.  And she upset a happy balance that had occurred in her absence.  She breezed through the doorway to discover her daughter on Naru’s shoulders.  The little girl was wielding a paintbrush and pushing it up the wall above the doorway to the kitchen.  Miss Choi stopped on the threshold of the house and simply stared at them.

“Naru, here’s some tea for you, you darling man.”

Her grandmother could be seen on the other side of that kitchen doorway.  Then, suddenly, she glanced up and froze as her eyes connected with those of her granddaughter.   Naru saw that expression and spun around.  Ajin’s hand was still gripping the wet paintbrush.  A drop of sunny yellow paint suddenly fell to plant itself among his midnight locks.  His eyes locked with hers.  And a tremor passed over his face.

“Miss Choi,” he breathed.

She’d felt sick all afternoon.  Just weak.  Like she needed to sleep.  But now, she felt an odd sort of despair crushing her lungs.  As she stared at the cozy picture the three of them made, her heart suddenly broke.  This scene was exactly what she’d been dreaming for weeks.

She directed her ire first at her grandmother.  Who should have known better.

“This is the ‘sweetest of boys’ who’s been helping you for weeks?”

Her grandma nodded.  “He is the sweetest of boys, darling.”

Miss Choi growled.  Now her eyes swung towards Naru.  “Kindly put my daughter down, please.  And join me outside.”  Her eyes were flat as they stared him down.  He much preferred them leaping with flames.

She marched out onto the front porch and then down into the yard.  She strode quite a distance from the house.  She didn’t want her daughter to overhear their conversation.  She felt like her heart had just splintered.  She had entered her house to find one of her dreams come to life.

That gorgeous man had been treating her daughter like she was his own flesh and blood.  He’d treasured her and carried her on his own shoulders.  They were working on a family project together.  And her grandma had made them all tea and cookies.  

The problem was that it was but an illusion.  He was after her, but he had determined that she would not be had, so he’d gone after her daughter.  And her grandmother.  He was using them to get to her.  It hurt so badly.  For it made her intensely vulnerable to him.  She would do anything – anything! – to protect those two precious people.  She would sacrifice herself to save her baby from pain.  

As he strode towards her, she spun around to face him.

“Can’t you take ‘no’ for an answer?  How could you?!  How could you come into my home—?”

“Miss Choi—”

“And snuggle up to my baby?  And charm my grandmother?”

“Miss Choi—”

She turned away from him.

He heaved a deep sigh.  He was getting majorly frustrated.

––

“Can I – please – just know your name?”

Shocked, she stilled.

That’s what he’d come for?  Her name?

“You didn’t ask my grandmother?” she retorted sarcastically.  “I mean, you’ve now become her new best friend!”

“No.  I didn’t ask her.  In fact, I specifically asked her not to tell me.  I want to know only when you’re ready to tell me.”

She spun around to face him again.  “You act like we’re friends!  But we are not!  The lowest thing you did was to befriend my daughter!  She is an innocent.  A sweet, loving, innocent, little baby doll,” she sobbed.  “If you break her heart, I’ll…” 

Tears were streaming down her face now.  Which disconcerted him greatly.  He was attempting to wipe the stain of those tears from her life.

“She’s already had one man disparage her.  She doesn’t need to suffer such awful treatment from another man ever again.  I will not allow her to suffer a second loss.”  

She was sobbing now.  Because he had made her dream again.  Against her will, he was making inroads into her heart, and she was terrified that it was all happening again.  That she’d be swamped by passion for him, and then he’d leave her.  But worse, he’d leave Ajin.

“Please,” she begged him.  “Stop.  What do you want?”  

She knew of only one thing that would cool his ardor for her.  The only thing that would stop the pursuer from pursuing.  To give him what he wanted.  The main objective he was seeking.  To let him catch her.

She paused before saying the words she dreaded.  “If I sleep with you, will you go away?  Will you leave my daughter alone?”  

She was weeping so hard that snot was running down her face.  She was shaking too.  She couldn’t seem to still it.  No matter how she tried to calm herself.  She continued speaking in a shrill tone.

“Is that what you want?  I will not allow you to destroy my little girl!  You might take me to hell with you, but you can’t have her!”

For a moment, Naru backed up.  And tripped over a hole in the ground.  He ended up sitting on his bottom staring up at her.  He was absolutely horrified at her distress.

Is this what he had done to countless girls?  Ripped their hearts out?  

At least, he hadn’t fathered any children.  None he knew of, anyway.  But this whole situation gave him pause.  Did he perchance have a child he knew nothing of?  Such a thought gripped him with an odd pain.  Especially now that he’d fallen in love with Ajin.  He gazed up at Miss Choi.

“I love her,” he admitted quietly.  “I don’t want to hurt her.  I would never want to hurt her.  She’s a darling, little girl.  I’ve come to love her as much as I love Jungju.”  He choked off a sob suddenly.

She stood staring down at him.  His words were engulfing her like a mighty flood sent to steal away all her resistance.  But…

…these silver-tongued devils could never be trusted.

“Name the time and place.  I’ll be there.”  She could feel herself growing numb.  It was the only way she would survive the sacrifice she was about to make. 

His head came up.  “What?”

Resigned to the inevitable, she sighed and wiped her nose across her shirt sleeve.  “I’ll sleep with you.  Just tell me where to be.”

His heart contracted with a pang that engulfed his whole body.  Then that reckless organ began to gallop wildly as a plan formed in his mind.  He became heady with the excitement of it.

“Tomorrow night.  I’ll pick you up at seven.”

“Swear to me that you’ll leave her alone after this.”

It broke his heart, but he nodded his head.

—

She was so nervous all day that she could barely run her classroom.  It was Friday, at least.  But not even the coming weekend could steel her nerves.  She was about to do something awful.  Something she knew in her bones was wrong.  

She was going to give herself – her body anyway – to a man who had no love for her.  Who had made her no promises.  Spoken no vows.  Given her no rings.  Taken no responsibility.  That was, after all, what men did.  They had their fun and expected the girl to deal with any consequences.  She’d dealt with them, all right.  And been the only one to reap the harvest of joy he’d planted within her belly.  Now another playboy had come along and sought to exploit that joy.

If she got pregnant this time, there would be no recourse.  But she’d counted days.  She shouldn’t be ovulating.  She’d make him be responsible tonight, at least.  She’d already bought a pack of condoms.  She’d had no use for birth control, so she wasn’t taking any.  And it took weeks to be effective.  So he’d have to agree to the little protection in the box in her purse.

By the time school got out, her heart was galloping in her chest.  And her stomach was doing repeated somersaults.  

“Jumi, can you watch the class for a moment?  Make sure the kids leave with the right people?  I have to go to the bathroom.”

Not waiting for an answer, she’d run to the restroom and found a toilet just in time to puke into it.

It forcibly reminded her of her pregnancy with her precious Ajin.  She closed her eyes.  What was she contemplating?  Was she insane?  To let another man so use her?

But this man was diabolical, far deadlier than Beopdung had ever been.  For Naru knew how to use her love for her own child against her.  He had backed her into a corner.  She couldn’t control her blind grandmother.  She couldn’t protect Ajin when she was at work all day.  He would continue to wreak havoc in her household while she earned her daily bread.  Unless she did something to stop him.

She knelt over that toilet as she sobbed.  Would she be condemned to hell for the sin she was contemplating engaging in tonight?  

But God understood sacrifice, didn’t He?  Surely, He would forgive a mother for sacrificing all for her own daughter?

The problem was…she was terribly afraid that once she and Naru began – once his fingers touched her and his mouth made love to hers – it wouldn’t really be all that much of a sacrifice.  She was so afraid she was going to enjoy it.  And want more of him.  But she knew where that led.

—

He looked for her when he picked up Jungju from school, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“Jumi.  Where is Miss Choi?”

“She’s in the bathroom.”

He frowned.  “Is she all right?”

Jumi shook her head.  Then she stepped closer to him and whispered, “She’s been acting strangely all day.  She kept forgetting what she was saying in the middle of a sentence.  She’s looked like she was about to toss her cookies all day long too.  I think something is eating away at her, but she won’t tell me what it is.  No matter how I press her.”

He simply stared at her.  Then he collected Jungju and headed out the door.

—

He arrived punctually.  Seven sharp.  She answered the door.  Wearing something that made him swallow.  Hard.  He was shocked she’d had such a dress hidden away in her closet.  Maybe from her misspent youth? 

But she disabused him of that notion in the next instant.  She didn’t smile at him; instead, she stepped onto the porch and closed the door.

I thought I should dress the part,” she spoke crisply.  “When we’re done, you can keep this dress as a memento.  I don’t want a single thing in my house to remind me of tonight.  I don’t ever want to see this dress again.  I bought it today.  I figured you’d like it.”

He’d be lying if he said he didn’t.  He couldn’t keep his eyes off of her.  He kept his tongue in his mouth, though.

She glanced at him.  He wasn’t saying anything.

“I’m going to insist on one thing,” she faced him.

“What?”  He stopped to stare into her beautiful eyes.

“That you wear a condom.  I will not create another baby with a selfish man.”

Her words stung him.  But he realized they weren’t undeserved.  He had mistreated so many women.

“Agreed,” he murmured.

Then he turned back towards his car.  He moved to open her door for her.

“Don’t,” she whispered.

Startled, he stilled his movements and glanced up at her.

“Please don’t do anything I could interpret as kind tonight.  I want no good memories of this evening.”

He just stared at her, then he nearly ripped her car door off its hinges as he completely ignored her request.

She sighed and climbed in.  So he could gently close that door in her face.  They sat in silence as he drove.  He glanced over at her.  Truthfully, he was going to have to give her his suit jacket.  She couldn’t enter the place they were going looking like that.  Everyone would think she was a stripper.

He shook his head.  He couldn’t believe she’d bought that dress.  He might just have to keep it at the back of his closet.  To remind him…of so many things.

He drove for a few minutes before pulling into a parking space in front of a department store.  

“Come here,” he spoke roughly.  

“What?” she asked, startled.

He didn’t want to do it in his car, surely?

“I want to kiss your neck,” he murmured.

She just stared at him.

“You told me I could have you.  Are you changing your mind?”

She shook her head.  “What do you want me to do?”

“Just lean over towards me.”

How could his eyes be so beautiful?  

She stifled a sob.  This was the beginning of the end.

She leaned towards him and closed her eyes.  He bent his head as his arms wrapped around her neck and his fingers slid below the neckline of her dress to caress her back briefly.  He pressed a gentle kiss against the crook of her neck.

He pulled away from her and murmured, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Then he was gone.  She saw him enter the department store a couple of moments later.

And she sat frowning in his car.  Confused.  He was shopping at a time like this?

A few minutes later, he emerged with a bag.  Which he stowed in his trunk.  Then he climbed back into his car and off they went again.  A few more minutes, and they entered the neighborhood Jungju lived in.  After a few turns, they stopped at a beautiful house.  

No, it wasn’t a house.  It was a mansion.  Even more impressive than Namjoon and Eunji’s.  She swallowed.  She’d lost her virginity in such a place.  This seemed a fitting setting for such a tryst as she would engage in tonight.

She swallowed as she tried to move the sudden lump in her throat.  She was choking on her own regret.  So many regrets.  She began to sob.  But she stifled it.  She had to do this.  To protect Ajin.

Naru jumped out of his car and opened her door for her.  She ignored him.  Nothing he was doing tonight was kind.  She would not interpret it as such.  

She watched as he headed for his trunk and pulled out the bag.  Then he led her into the house.  Which appeared to be empty.  

She followed him up a grand staircase and into a beautiful bedroom.  He set the bag on the bed.  “I want you to wear this.  I’ll be back in a few moments.”

She stared at that bag as though it would consign her to hell.  

Lingerie.  

He had bought her lingerie.  

Really?  This ridiculous dress wasn’t enough?  

He wanted something that left absolutely nothing to his imagination?

She crossed the bed and picked up the bag.  Like she was about to get a venereal disease just from touching it.  Who knew?  Maybe she would.

She opened it but closed her eyes.  Steeling herself for what was to come.  Could she really do this?

But then she saw the happy face of a laughing, little girl in her mind’s eye. And she knew she could.  She knew she could do anything for that precious soul.  She was buying her daughter’s freedom tonight.  She was protecting her innocence.  No price was too high to accomplish that.

Not even this.

She opened her eyes.  But she met what she saw with confusion.  She reached into the bag and pulled out a beautiful dress.  It wasn’t revealing.  It was, in fact, quite modest.  She furrowed her brow, and up popped two fine lines between her eyebrows.   She stared, uncomprehending, at that dress.

What was going on?  

Naru wanted her to wear this to bed with him?

How odd.  

She shrugged and slipped out of her skimpy dress to replace it with the gorgeous dress he had just bought her.  Under any other circumstance, she would have been in love with this dress.    It was a deep burgundy and hugged her waist sweetly before falling into gentle folds three-quarters of the way down her thigh.  It didn’t touch her knee, but it still left a lot to a man’s imagination.  The underdress was sleeveless, but a beautiful burgundy gauze had been used to give the dress long, bell sleeves.  Excitedly, she put it on and turned to stare at her reflection in the wall-length mirror behind her.  She looked…absolutely stunning.  In fact, she was pretty sure she’d never looked this beautiful.  She began to sob.

He’d made her look beautiful so he could ravish her.

A moment later, a knock sounded on the door.

“Miss?  Are you dressed?” came an unfamiliar voice.

“Yes,” she responded, but she was, once again, confused.

The door opened, and a woman dressed as a maid smiled at her.  “Ooh!  Don’t you look lovely, miss!  You’re so lucky to be going out with Master Naru.”

Miss Choi stared at the girl.  “You are mistaken.”

A dark eyebrow quirked.  “Am I?  I wouldn’t know.  Please follow me.”

Completely at a loss now, she followed the servant out the door, down the stairs, and then out another door, all the way to a sleek limousine.  A chauffeur waited to open the door for her.  He bowed with a flourish as he did so.

She looked at them both.  “Where is Naru?”

“He simply asked that you get into the car, miss.”

So she did so.  What was Naru up to now?  

She’d been standing in his bedroom.  Two feet from his bed.  With him.  As she stood wearing that dress that left nothing much to the imagination.  She’d made sure her grandma and daughter were staying put in the kitchen before she’d changed into it.  She had a pair of shorts and a T-shirt in her purse for later.  She wasn’t setting foot in her house ever again in that dress.  She had, in fact, left it lying on Naru’s bed.  Perhaps he’d ask her to don it again later tonight.  Just so he could take it off of her himself.

But she’d been standing alone with him.  Enclosed in his bedroom.  As her assets had stared him in the eyeball.  Most of them anyway.  And he hadn’t grabbed her.  He’d simply turned and walked away.  Left her alone to change into…

…a modest dress.  

That fit like a glove.

How had he known her size?  Of course, he’d bedded many women.  He must have grown accustomed to judging their size, right?  She frowned.  She couldn’t exactly picture him stopping what he was doing long enough to check the tag on their clothing.

Suddenly, she remembered his fingers caressing her back, just below her neckline.  Like someone checking a size tag would do.  Then he’d brushed that innocent kiss against the side of her neck before disappearing into the store to buy her this beautiful dress.  She smoothed it across her lap as she settled herself in the back seat of the limo.

“Miss?  There’s a bottle of champagne there for you to enjoy.  And a glass.”  

The gentleman closed her door.  Leaving her blissfully alone.  To get drunk.  Apparently.

Was he trying to alleviate her pain?  Hoping she’d lose herself in alcohol’s embrace and be more accommodating tonight?

She considered it.  She was very thirsty.  But she had been too nervous to eat for the past twenty-four hours.  She hadn’t had even one bite of food since before he’d visited her yesterday.  If she drank that champagne now, she’d be drunk after just one glass.

But, suddenly, she realized that she wanted to be.  She didn’t want to have any memory of tonight.  She wanted to obliterate it from her soul before it ever happened.  So that it wouldn’t return to haunt her in years to come.  Like so many memories had.

She grabbed the bottle and opened it before tipping it upside down.  She hungrily guzzled that sparkling drink.  As tears poured down her skin.  And her heart broke.  

If only Naru had been different. She began to sob.  If only she could have met a man who would truly love her and her daughter.  But that was a pipe dream.  Men like that didn’t exist.  Not in her world.  Not in his either.

Born to privilege, Naru saw the whole world as his servants.  Each woman was just a plaything if he desired her.  A maid, if he did not.

She continued to drink the champagne.  She wasn’t sipping it.  She was swallowing it like a sailor.  She licked up every last drop.  Then she set the bottle down.  And leaned her head back as she wept her heart out in the backseat of a lonely limousine.  Taking her to a rendezvous that she wished she could back out of.

Finally, the car stopped.  She found a convenient box of Kleenex and wiped her cheeks before blowing her nose.  

The car door opened, and the chauffeur greeted her.  

“Miss.  Please follow me.”

She stepped out of the fancy black car.  He closed the door.  Then he turned to lead her…

…inside a restaurant?  

She glanced up.  

Fusion Five.

What?

She was meeting him for dinner?

He could have been enjoying her charms right now, but instead he was taking her to dinner?

The chauffeur spoke to a waiter momentarily.  Then Miss Choi was following him to a back table.  Lit with candlelight.  And adorned with a small bouquet of white roses in its center.  Naru was seated, clearly waiting for her.  He stood up quickly and crossed to pull out her chair for her.  He smiled sweetly at her.

But she had learned long ago never to trust such kindness.  

She sat down.  He scooted her chair forward.  Just the perfect amount.  

The waiter handed her a menu and spoke in French.  She replied in like, and Naru’s eyebrows smacked his bangs as he listened to her order her whole meal in French.  She was the first girl he hadn’t had to order for.  He stared in wonder at her.

She really was his perfect match.  He’d known it for weeks now.  The question was: how could he convince her to take a chance on a man like him?  He didn’t deserve her faith.  And she had a tiny child to protect.

He ordered his dinner, and the waiter disappeared.  

“Naru, what’s going on?  Why did we leave your house?”

“I have you for the whole night, right?  That’s our agreement?” his eyes studied her intensely.

She stared at him.  “Wh-what?  I said I’d sleep with you.  I didn’t say…”

Her voice was so loud.  He frowned and glanced around.  He sincerely hoped no one had heard what she’d just said.  He felt embarrassed for her.

“…I’d spend the whole night with you.”

“But that’s my requirement,” he murmured.

Her eyes widened.  “But my Harmony…Ajin…”

He smiled at her as his eyes slid over her form.  “Do you like the dress?  As soon as I saw it, I knew it was yours.”

She glanced down at it.  Bleary-eyed.  “It’s breathtaking,” she murmured.  

She was feeling so strange.  She closed her eyes.  Maybe he’d drugged that champagne.  All the better.

Naru stared at her in consternation.  What was wrong with her?

“Miss Choi – ugh!  This is ridiculous!  Would you please just tell me your name?”

“Shhhh,” she put her finger to her lips and smiled at him in a silly manner.  “No first names.  One-night stands don’t require them.”

She was speaking even more loudly now.  He furrowed his brow.  If she kept this up, they were going to be asked to leave.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked suddenly.

He had planned a lovely evening for them.  But she was ruining it.

“I’m drunk,” she replied, sloshed.

“What?”

She hiccupped suddenly.  “You left me a whole bottle of champagne in your limo.  That was a most thoughtful touch, I must admit.  You knew I wanted no memories of tonight, so you provided me with the cure.  Thank you, kind sir.”

“What?  No, I —”

“What you didn’t know is that I’ve been so nervous – out of my mind, really – about tonight that I haven’t eaten since we had our little talk yesterday.  So I’m going to be good and bombed pretty soon.”

He stared at her in horror.  And realized his error.  His heart sank.

“Miss Choi —”

Suddenly, she finished tipping forward, and her head hit her plate.  But she didn’t seem to notice.  She had passed out.

Naru was terrified.  He had seen a few girls passed out drunk before.  But not after a half hour of drinking.  He stood up and threw his napkin down on the table.  Tonight was going so badly.  He crossed to her and picked her up.  Their waiter returned then.

“I’m sorry.  Cancel our dinner.  My friend is very sick.  I’m taking her to the clinic.”  Then he rushed out the door.  He stopped at the limo.  

“Eun!  How much of that bottle did she drink?”

“The whole thing, sir.”

“The whole thing?” he asked, horrified.

He glanced up.  There was a hospital across the street.  He plunged into traffic and crossed the street to stride into the emergency room.

“Please.  My friend hasn’t eaten for over a day.  She just drank a whole bottle of champagne.  She passed out.  I think she needs her stomach pumped.”

By some miracle, she was seen quickly.  The doctor decided against pumping her stomach, but he said she could stay in the hospital bed until five hours had passed.  Then he encouraged Naru to take her home and keep an eye on her until she had fully recovered.  He said she was in danger of aspirating her vomit.

Naru was horrified.  He had done this to her.  Not on purpose.  But she would never have been in this situation if he hadn’t brought her out tonight.  Or given her the bottle of champagne.  He’d known she was nervous.  He’d just meant to give her a little drink to help her relax.  But that little drink had turned into a whole bottle.  With disastrous results.

He sat next to her hospital bed and chastised himself repeatedly that night.  A couple of tears even escaped his notice to slide down his cheeks as he stared in consternation at her still form.  The capable Miss Choi seemed anything but capable in this moment.  She seemed downright vulnerable.  Fragile even.  There was no way he would fall asleep.  Not if she was in danger of dying.  He couldn’t rob darling Ajin of her most precious eomma.  He knew how much the little girl adored her mother.  She spoke of her incessantly.  When her time in the emergency room was over, he would take her back to his own bedroom and watch over her like a hawk.

—

She awoke in his bed.  With no memory of last night.  Just as she had wished.  But she also awoke to a splitting headache.  She cracked open her eye and let a tiny amount of light in and wanted to scream because of the pressure that sun had released inside her head.  

Naru breathed a sigh of relief.  “Miss Choi, are you awake?”

She groaned.  “Unfortunately.  What did you…do to me…last night?”  

Her voice was booming.  It was so loud!  It was ricocheting off the walls of her mind causing an intense agony to pierce her head repeatedly.

“I was the stupid man who left you a full bottle of champagne.  I’m so sorry.”

“So our…bargain is…finished.  I hope you…enjoyed yourself…because I have…absolutely…no memory of…last night.  None whatsoever.  Except…for drinking…that bottle…of champagne.”  

“That’s because you passed out.”

Great.  

Who knew how he’d used her body?  She shuddered.  At least, she had no memory of any of it.

“I hope…you enjoyed…”

“Oh, I did.  I thoroughly enjoyed taking you to the emergency room and sitting up all night with you to make sure you didn’t inhale your own vomit and die on my watch.”

What was he saying?  Nothing made sense.  She grabbed her head and whimpered.  Why had she done this to herself?  She and alcohol had never been friends.  She knew better.

“Wait.”

She paused as her loud word reverberated throughout her head.  “The emergency room?  All night?” she whispered.  “Are you saying we didn’t…?”

His soft voice whispered over her ear.  “We most certainly did not.”

“No,” she moaned.  She began to sob.  Which was going to make the headache worse.  “No.  I can’t go through another day like yesterday.”

She reached down and began to pull her dress up.  When it was up around her waist, Naru realized what she was doing.

“What are you doing?” he gasped as he reached down to pull her skirt back down over her legs.

“Please.  Take me now.  Get it over with.”

He felt like he was going to throw up. 

“Miss Choi,” he was so frustrated that he still didn’t know her name.  “I am not calling you that anymore,” he ground out.  “I’m going to call you what I want since you won’t tell me your name.”  

He took a deep breath.  “Love, I never intended to take you to my bed.  That was your idea.  I just wanted to take you on a date.  A beautiful, expensive date.  That’s why I bought you a modest dress, and sent you in a limo, and got us a table at Fusion Five.  I wanted to give you a night you would always remember.”  His voice was so sad.  “A good night to remember.  A romantic night.”

Suddenly, a sob tore loose of his mouth.  “Instead, I nearly killed you.  And you don’t remember anything.  I’m so sorry.”

He pulled her close and buried his head in the crook of her neck.  He wept against her skin, his tears slipping down her shoulder.

As he’d spoken, she’d suddenly remembered the table at Fusion Five.  

“It had candlelight and a bouquet of white roses.  And I ordered in French,” she whispered slowly.

He stilled.  “Yes.  That’s right.”

Through the splitting headache, she worked to concentrate.  

“Please call my Harmony.  Tell her that I got food poisoning at dinner last night and passed the night in the hospital.  Tell her I feel just awful, and I don’t want Ajin to see me this way.  That I’m going to recuperate at your house.  And that I’ll try to be home tomorrow morning.  God, I hope I’m recovered by then.  I have to work on Monday.”  She winced at the pain in her head.

He found her purse and her phone.  And the box of condoms.  Just seeing them made him sick to his stomach.  He handed her the phone.  She unlocked it, and he called her grandma.  

“She’s fine, Harmony.  Don’t you worry.  I’ll take good care of her.  I’ll bring her home as soon as she feels well enough to see Ajin.”  He paused.  “Give her my love, would you?”

The tender tone of his voice rolled over Miss Choi in waves.  

“Give whom your love?” she whispered after he completed the call.

“Ajin.”  

She heard a smile in his voice as he said her little girl’s name.  No.  It was more than a smile.  It was a caress.  Her heart flipped over.  He sounded like he loved her daughter.

He crawled back into bed with her and pulled her into his arms.

“I am so sorry, love.  I didn’t mean to hurt you.  That’s the last thing I wanted to do.  You’ve been so hurt already.  You and Ajin both.  I was just trying to convince you that I could be worthy of you.  That I could change.  That I love you both and could take care of you.  But I guess you proved me wrong.”  He was weeping silently into her hair.  “I nearly killed you last night.  With a bottle of champagne.  I nearly deprived Ajin of her precious eomma.”

She frowned as she tried to piece together the events of last evening.

“You made me take off that skimpy dress I was wearing for you.  Didn’t you want to rip it off me?  I thought you would.”

“Stop.”

“But instead, you bought me the most beautiful dress I’ve ever owned.  And you took me to that five-star restaurant.  You put roses – white roses – on the table.  And candles.  There was soft music playing.  Then…I don’t remember.”

She sounded disappointed.  

“Then I convinced you that I love you. And your daughter.  I love Ajin.  I want her to be mine too.  I want you to be mine.  I do want you in my bed.  But not just for one night.  I want you in my bed for all the nights.  Forever.  I want to forsake all those other girls.  And take only you.”  

He’d been bored for months.  Years, really.  But then he had met the challenging Miss Choi, and intrigue had cheered his jaded soul.  However, later that evening, much to his delight, he’d discovered there was more to her than a hostility that he suspected might be hiding a passionate nature he wished to uncover.  Her soft voice had reached out to him in the semidarkness of his nephew’s bedroom as she’d comforted a little boy who was missing his eomma.  Her compassion had disturbed something deep and untouched in Naru’s own heart.  She’d made an inroad into his soul that night.

However, that had been only the beginning.  He had fallen in love with the picture Ajin and her great-grandmother had conjured over the past few weeks as they both spoke so lovingly of this woman in his arms.  He’d already been strongly attracted to her.  And she’d touched something deep inside of him that night in Jungju’s darkened bedroom when he’d kissed her too.  But whatever had been lacking in his regard that first evening of their acquaintance had been more than amply supplied by the unveiling of her character revealed through Harmony and Ajin.

He was whispering the words over her.  And she was bawling.  He was preying on all her deepest desires right now.  She felt so awful that she had no resistance to offer in the fight against such an onslaught.

“I’m dreaming all of this, aren’t I?  I’m going to awake in the morning.  Alone in my own bed.  As always.  With only your warm words to keep me company.  I’ll be all alone again.”

She felt so weak.  Thoroughly exhausted.  She closed her eyes and surrendered her soul to sleep again.