DWWWB Prologue

The doorbell of the newly built hotel was encased in black steel. I didn’t even have to press it. I only had to put my finger on it, and it would ring inside the room. A yellow light the size of a fingernail would blink, asking the guest in the room if they were ready to meet the visitor outside.

All I had to do was put my finger on it. It wasn’t that hard. All I had to do was to give instructions in regards to tomorrow’s filming to the man resting inside the room and leave… That was the hard part.

I turned my head and looked across the empty hallway. If it was daytime, I’d be able to see a refreshing view of the East Sea through the window at the end. But since night had fallen, all I could see was the dark glass windows and the reflections of the dotted hallway lights.

The carpet of the long hallway was rippling with hues of gray and black. As I absentmindedly gazed at the pattern of the carpet, I caught sight of a pair of sneakers. The canvas sneakers that came up to my ankles were from a brand that I enjoyed wearing since high school.

If they wore out, I’d buy another pair. If they wore out again, I’d buy another pair again.

Seeing as how I was still attracted to a man whom I used to date, my tastes seemed to be summed up with the second verse of the national anthem.

As the pine tree atop Namsan Peak stands firm, as if wrapped in armor¹…

As I hesitated to press the doorbell, the cell phone in my hand vibrated, urging me to hurry. My whole body trembled.

“Yes, this is Oh Milhee.”

— Yeah, did you finish your meeting?

Finish? It hasn’t even begun.

“No, not yet.”

— Are you still… in Athlete Gong Mujin’s room?

Han Jihoo-sunabae’s husky, smoker’s voice grew sharp.

“I’m in front of his room, to be exact.”

I lowered my voice because the call might be heard inside the room.

— You’re not inside Gong Mujin’s room? Are you waiting for something?

His tone sounded displeased.

“No, it’s not that.”

— Then hurry up and tell him about tomorrow. Tell him, ‘Even if you’re dying tomorrow, we have to start preparing for filming at 4 AM.’ You need to tell him quickly so that you can go to sleep. It’s already past 11 PM. I saw that you sent the content upload request email at 2 AM yesterday. Aren’t you tired?

I closed her eyes. A sigh that I’d been holding back seeped out through my teeth. I never backed down when it came to work. Whenever there was something I had to fight for, it lit a fire in my eyes.

But now, I kept feeling an urge to crawl away somewhere. I couldn’t knock on the door when the man inside was by himself, no matter what.

“That’s the thing. Sunbae, can you do this in my place…”

“In place of Oh Milhee-ssi?”

A voice that caused my heart to grow ticklish pierced into my ear. The fresh scent of green tangerines blew against my face. My gaze, which had been looking down at the sneakers that seemed to act as proof of my unwavering taste of over ten years, quickly turned upward. His taste in cologne had also not changed.

“In place of Oh Milhee-ssi…”

A smile flickered on his sleek face. His eyes were bloodshot from fatigue, and his long, dark eyelashes cast a mysterious shadow as he slowly blinked. A sigh flowed from his red, dry lips as a weary question flowed out.

“What’s this about Oh Milhee-ssi’s sunbae?”

Drops of water fell from the man’s hair as it brushed against his forehead. He continued to press for an answer, his damp body covered by a pure white bathrobe.

What the hell, Oh Milhee? Why did you stop talking?

I quietly glanced at my phone. Sunbae was still talking from the other end of the call.

“I’ll call you back later.”

With my cell phone clenched in my hand, I looked up at the man who was loosely covered by a bathrobe. The window inside the suite was open, and the cool April breeze slowly blew out into the hallway. The wind carried the scent of green tangerines coming from his body.

“I had something I needed to tell you about tomorrow’s shoot.”

“Come in.”

The man tilted his head and gestured to the room with his chin. There was a dimple on his left cheek. It was so pretty that I had poked it once. Suddenly the memory of burying my lips against that dimple with insane joy came to mind, and it pierced my heart.

“I’ll just tell you from here.”

His gaze seemed to have read my thoughts, and my body trembled.

“I said come in. Are you telling me to stand here like this? If someone takes a picture of us like this…”

He slightly opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue to briefly lick the side of his lips.

“…are you going to take responsibility?”

The air seemed to be sucked out in an instant. The long hallway felt like a vacuum, and I found it hard to breathe. My heart began to ache due to all the remnants of memories that were still difficult to identify.

Was it a sense of yearning for my first love? Or was I still foolishly in love? Or was it the faint sense of shame caused by the indifference of a man who I hadn’t seen in years. Or maybe it was because I wanted to protect my petty pride.

I was so nervous, but why was Gong Mujin so unperturbed?

‘There will definitely be times when… I do something to hurt you. Is your confession still valid?’

The moment I helplessly looked back on the past, my heart sank. He warned me that he could hurt me, and I told him I didn’t care. My first love, which started with a foolish confession, may have had its end foretold from the very beginning.

However, this kind of reunion was not foretold. There have been many times I’ve been caught off guard when I saw him in the media once he’d become a world-famous figure, but it felt different to be seeing him living and breathing right in front of my eyes.

“I don’t think there’s anyone here who would be taking pictures.”

I looked around the hallway and sighed. There weren’t any reporters with cameras, no paparazzi, not even a single fly in sight.

“But isn’t Oh Milhee-ssi’s cell phone camera pointed this way?”

I helplessly lifted my drooping head. When our eyes met, the man smiled once again, revealing his dimple. His gaze was directed at the cell phone I was holding like a lifeline.

His eyes lingered on my chest for a long time. I didn’t even realize I was clutching my phone and anxiously pressing it against my left breast. His eyes weren’t filled with lust, but the back of my neck still grew hot.

I quickly dropped my hand, and his gaze returned to my face. D*mn it. I could feel the feverish heat move from the back of my neck to my cheeks.

“I-If I wanted to secretly take pictures of Athlete Gong Mujin…”

The moment I stuttered, a frown formed on my brow. He raised his eyebrow, his eyes filled with curiosity.

“Wouldn’t it be more comfortable for me to commit the crime inside the suite than out here? In a hallway where people could be coming and going at any moment… It would be easier for me to secretly take a picture of you inside the suite since I’d only have to fool your eyes, Athlete Gong Mujin.”

The man narrowed his eyes and looked down at me as if he were trying to read my mind.

“So you’re saying you’re going to talk about work out here? I didn’t see Producer Oh Milhee like that, but it seems that you have a terrible work ethic.”

I clenched my teeth so hard that my jaw ached. I couldn’t tolerate anyone, not even my first love, going after my career.

“That’s insulting.”

“What, are you offended by my assessment of your work ethic? I’m also offended. Don’t you think it looks ridiculous, standing out here, when you came here to tell me about tomorrow’s shoot?”

It was an unnecessary war of attrition, a pointless argument. I knew this better than anyone. The broadcast production was a race against time. Wasting time was a producer’s greatest enemy.

But, at this moment, when I needed to think clearly, the past intervened. Emotions tend to get entangled with past memories. It gets even more complicated when it’s a romantic relationship.

Gong Mujin. Does this man even know how much resentment I have in my heart because of my first love?

My first love, Gong Mujin, made all the men in the world look basic. That’s why, if anything, I haven’t had a proper relationship with anyone since I broke up with him.

Of course, the same thing applies to sex. I’m not a sexually open person, but I’m not repressed either. I don’t like one-night stands or sexual relationships that exclude romantic feelings. That means I haven’t had sex in the past five years.

Think of your favorite food in the world. Imagine enjoying it for two years and then it suddenly disappears from the world. And then you are left eating only plain rice for five years.

How much would you want to eat that favorite dish again?

I’m definitely not saying I want to knock my ex-boyfriend down right this instant. It’s just that my outstanding ex-boyfriend set my standards so high that I became a person who doesn’t know how to compromise when it comes to choosing a partner. Because of this, I starved for five years.

So would you feel resentful or not?

Once the bitter past comes back into play, a fight is inevitable.

“Come inside. It’s better than standing out here.”

He held the doorknob and stepped aside. The front of his bathrobe, which had already been slightly open, slid across his upper body as he straightened up. I closed my eyes to stop myself from staring into the gaping bathrobe before opening them.

A low laugh suddenly pierced my eardrums.

“Why are you so surprised? You’re acting like someone who’s entering a hotel suite for the first time.”

A memory flashed inside my mind like a ray of light sparkling inside the darkness.

‘It’s my first time coming to a hotel like this!’

The person who showed me around a luxury hotel in downtown Seoul. The man who made me pant as my chest was crushed against the glass of the window as we looked down at the night view. The man who stuck to me and wouldn’t let me sleep until it was breakfast time. It was all Gong Mujin. The only man in my life who I saw as a man.

“Why aren’t you coming in? I can’t tell what you’re thinking.”

Does this guy have amnesia?

Or am I dead and now in hell?

Why else did my ex-boyfriend appear before me without any clothes on as if to test me?