TTD Chapter 5

“Come to think of it, this is our first time spending Christmas together, isn’t it?”

Hyunsu’s eyes gleamed with excitement as he smoothly escorted her.

Dressed in a semi-formal suit under his coat, he carried himself like an athlete preparing for an important match. Now that she was really looking at him, he felt strangely unfamiliar.

Heeju watched him—tall enough to stand a full handspan above her, even in her seven-centimeter heels.

Coming from a long line of musicians, he was a childhood friend introduced to her by her grandmother.

Quiet by nature, he used to blush a deep red whenever he tried to speak to her.

They had been the same height for years—since their first meeting, through middle school—and she had assumed he would always stay about the same.

His soft facial features and gentle expression still gave him a boyish look, but his outstretched hand was thick and sturdy, unmistakably masculine.

“I cut it thick enough so it’s satisfying. You like feeling full when you eat, right? It’s tender, so it should be fine.”

“Thanks.”

She watched as he swapped their plates, having sliced her steak to match her preference.

Silently, she chewed the meat and swallowed, her gaze meeting his in brief, fleeting moments.

Something about his eyes felt subtly different.

Had Hyunsu always looked like this?

Tonight, she found herself re-examining him over and over.

So this is how it is—this is how he acts in a relationship.

This is what it’s like, dating someone.

They finished dinner early.

With her curfew pressing in, everything had to be completed within the time limit.

After an elegant meal in a prime location, they went for a drive.

They admired the scenery, exchanged conversation, and then, before it got too late, headed to the hotel they had reserved in advance.

In the car, Heeju idly watched the pedestrians passing by.

It was a Christmas without snow.

Last Christmas, she had been in Berlin.

After the Christmas concert, she had exchanged brief pleasantries with the orchestra members before heading home alone, spending the night quietly.

She had to make sure her grandparents knew she was back before midnight.

It wasn’t just their supervision—this routine was carved into her bones, a lifelong compulsion.

She was to be virtuous.

Day or night, personal or professional, there were no exceptions.

It was the consequence of an early education drilled into her by her grandparents, who wished for her to become a respectable woman.

But repressed things always find a way to burst free.

And opposites, in the end, always meet.

That was why she was here now—so impulsive, so reckless.

 

***

 

By the time the lingering steam had completely dissipated, she was still standing blankly in front of the full-length mirror. Finally, she slipped on a robe and stepped out of the bathroom.

Her eyes met Hyunsu’s. He sat stiffly on the edge of the bed, his posture awkwardly straightened. As she approached with a soft smile, he relaxed slightly.

There had been a brief moment of absurdity—a cork popping out too forcefully—but overall, things had been proceeding rather smoothly.

“The view, haha… the view is really nice. Yeah, it’s great.”

“Mm. It’s romantic.”

They exchanged a few superficial remarks like this.

After what felt like a silent battle of wills, where they had nearly finished a bottle of wine, they naturally gravitated toward the bed.

“Heeju….”

Hyunsu’s face, bathed in warm light, slowly leaned in.

Any moment now, his lips would touch hers.

Now that she was lying down, he would probably start touching her somewhere.

A hesitant hand groped at her arm, timidly exploring.

Then, as his fingers slipped inside her robe, brushing the curve of her waist near her ribs, his touch grew noticeably—almost unnaturally—shaky.

By the time her robe had slipped just enough to barely cover her upper body, Hyunsu was already completely undressed.

“H-Heeju, ugh—!”

It had been pure curiosity.

“I-I got too nervous….”

Having never seen a naked man before, the sight of it standing rigidly upright was so strange and unfamiliar that she instinctively grabbed it—just as one might seize a snake’s head.

A startled groan escaped him.

At the same moment, a cloudy liquid spurted out with force, splattering onto her arm with an odd smell.

Hyunsu, flustered, scrambled to grab some tissues.

Meanwhile, she simply stared at the traces of what had happened, lost in thought.

His member, having released once, showed no sign of rising again.

Embarrassed by his premature reaction and paralyzed by lingering nerves, Hyunsu couldn’t seem to recover his usual performance.

Or at least, that was how he explained it.

“…Next time.”

“Huh?”

“When the new year comes. Let’s do it again then.”

As she adjusted her robe, Heeju spoke.

Once she turned twenty-six—just a few days from now—they would properly go through with it.

But in truth, the moment she had seen his erection, she had felt an overwhelming urge to escape.

At the root of it all was fear.

Because it was her first time.

Because, for now, she wasn’t ready.

Still, having seen it once, the second time should be easier.

She had no intention of backing down.

“I’ll head out first.”

“Should I drive you—”

“No, stay and rest a little longer. It’s fine.”

It felt like a waste to use a premium-priced room, inflated due to the Christmas season, in such a fleeting manner. They had only occupied it for a little over an hour. She wished that at least one of them had indulged in the luxury a bit more.

Stepping out of the bathroom, she stopped Hyunsu from following her and left the room alone.

The farther she walked from the suite, the heavier the emptiness inside her became. She tried to distract herself by scanning the festively decorated hotel hallway, designed to fit the Christmas theme, as she waited for the elevator.

Staring at her own reflection in the elevator’s golden steel doors, Heeju suddenly found herself touching her lips. She recalled the sensation of Hyunsu’s lips against hers. The foreign feeling hadn’t left a dazzling, unforgettable impression. It had merely been the soft press of lips against lips, a few awkward entanglements, a bit of sucking—that was all.

Still, it had been her first kiss.

Would her first time be just like this too?

Maybe the world had simply mastered the art of glorifying the mundane.

She stepped into the elevator absentmindedly, lost in thought—then abruptly froze.

Someone was inside.

“…….”

The first thing to acknowledge her presence was the slight tilt of his head.

Ryu Iseok.

Her eyes wavered in shock.

Why was he here?

This wasn’t even his hotel.

Before she could fully process the situation, she noticed the elevator doors about to close and quickly stepped inside. Her movements suddenly became rigid.

“Which floor?”

“F-First floor.”

He pressed the button for the first floor.

Lowering her gaze as if guilty of something, she felt the silence pressing down on her. She was the first to break it.

“Why are you here?”

Iseok, who had been idly watching the floor numbers change, turned his gaze to her and replied slowly.

“Market research, I suppose.”

Market research?

She assumed he was here to personally assess the services of this newly opened hotel as a competitor.

“And you, Yeon Heeju?”

Her fingers, clutching her purse, twitched slightly.

“I… I was just here for the buffet.”

“The buffet.”

He gestured downward with a lazy flick of his fingers.

“Isn’t that on the second floor?”

His eyes now carried an unspoken question—then why were you getting on from seven floors above?

“I, uh… had dinner, then stopped by a friend’s room.”

“Ah. A friend.”

Ding.

“They were drunk.”

The lie slipped out before she even realized it.

Right at that moment, the elevator arrived at the first floor.

As if waiting for an escape, she quickly dipped her head in a polite nod and stepped out.

“The food was terrible.”

Just as she was exiting, his voice drifted lazily from behind.

Turning slightly, she saw him standing there with his hands behind his back, speaking at a relaxed pace.

“Especially the sashimi—absolutely the worst. I don’t know where they source it from.”

His chin tilted at an easy, self-assured angle.

“Landscaping, lighting, the view—nothing about this place is better than my hotel.”

As she stared at the sharp shadows cast along the bridge of his nose, his gaze met hers.

Right?

That’s what his eyes seemed to ask.

She held her breath.

“How dull.”

The steel doors began to close.

Just before they shut completely, his lips curled into a faint smirk.

Only after the elevator had fully descended to the basement did Heeju exhale, as if emerging from underwater.

Her palms were damp with sweat, clenched unknowingly the whole time.

His smirk lingered in her mind, unsettling like an afterimage burned into her vision.

Like a child caught playing with fire, her body refused to relax.

 

***

 

“Heeju, I made a reservation at that place we talked about.”

Hyunsu reread the message he had exchanged with Heeju earlier and scratched his head roughly.

“Ugh, idiot!”

There was no bigger fool than him.

How could he have messed up like that?

It wasn’t even his first time, yet he had acted as if it was.

He couldn’t shake the image of Heeju’s pale, frozen face from his mind. It resurfaced every chance it got, filling him with unbearable frustration.

Hyunsu glanced down at himself with steely determination.

Tonight, no matter what—he would reclaim his manly pride.

Upon arriving at the hotel, Hyunsu picked up the key from the front desk and stepped into the elevator.

Just as the doors were about to close, a hand suddenly slid in, preventing them from shutting.

Three men in black suits stepped inside, filling the small space. Hyunsu instinctively shifted to the corner, making room for them.

He walked down the long corridor and stopped in front of the room at the far end. As he lifted the key card toward the sensor—

The card, loosely held in his hand, was suddenly gone.

His eyes went wide in shock as a stranger’s face came into view.

No, not a stranger.

The three men who now surrounded him were the same ones from the elevator.

“W-What do you think you’re doing?”

“Jung Hyunsu.”

“Huh?”

“You can’t go any further.”

The well-dressed man in front of him placed a firm hand against the door, blocking it as if it were a restricted area.

His stance was rigid, authoritative—undeniably threatening.

“What the hell is this? No, wait—how do you even know my name?”

“Please leave.”

“Who the hell are you—?”

“Apologies in advance.”

“Mmph—!”

A powerful hand clamped over his mouth.

Hyunsu’s eyes bulged in panic as he thrashed, clawing at the hand silencing him, his legs kicking wildly.