Chapter 1
Tie me tonight Chapter 1
“Then... please tie me up for just one night.”
Hamin stared at Seong-Hyeon quietly. The tension between them made the air in the room tight. Seong-Hyeon’s body, which Hamin had felt earlier, was firmer than he had expected.
Hamin’s eyes were filled with his solid body and neat face. Hamin tried to push away her desire for his body temperature. For now, tying her up was the priority.
“Tonight, only.”
Hamin clearly heard Seong-Hyeon swallowing his saliva. The words ‘only tonight’ stimulated a strange impulse.
“If not tonight, we won’t have this chance again.”
Hamin whispered quietly while holding the string. The string that had been tied and untied once was a bit loose, but the rough texture was vivid. He could feel the heat gradually rising from the deep part of his body that had touched him earlier.
“Give me your hand.”
Hamin reached out his hand with the string to him. His gaze, which had never been warm, now emitted an unbearable heat.
Seong-Hyeon firmly held Hamin’s wrists with one hand. With one hand, he held Hamin’s hand and part of her wrist, and with the other hand, he tied the string around her wrist.
Although the feeling of being tied up was familiar, a shiver ran down Hamin’s back at his touch. No, it would be more accurate to say that a strange tingling sensation ran up her spine.
“Ah....”
“Ah, did it hurt? I’m sorry.”
“No. It didn’t hurt.”
When Hamin made a small sound, Seong-Hyeon was startled and held his hand.
To see this man in such a state of panic. Was the man in front of him, whom he had hated so much until now, really him? Seong-Hyeon was at a loss for what to do.
“Since it’s the first time I’m tying you up... I’ll be careful.”
“It’s okay. Take your time.”
Seong-Hyeon’s pale hand slowly, but firmly, began to tie the end of the string. Hamin quietly swallowed his breath as he looked at his hands with trimmed nails and visible blood vessels.
Seong-Hyeon was trembling as he tied Hamin’s wrist, as if he was afraid that his hands would break her hands because they were too small. Whenever his hand brushed against Hamin’s wrist, the skin in that area burned hotly.
Hamin lightly touched Seong-Hyeon’s face. His well-shaped eyebrows and deep pupils were focused on tying the rope. Although his ears turned red, he didn’t stop his hand.
The thought crossed Hamin’s mind that he had asked to be tied up for no reason. However, as Seong-Hyeon’s delicate touch became longer, those thoughts melted away. Hamin’s wrists were tied so tightly that she couldn’t untie them by himself.
“It’s done.”
Hamin looked up at Seong-Hyeon. There was something flickering in his eyes.
The two gazes that had always stared at each other with hatred were now entangled in the air with a completely different temperature than before. Hamin felt Seong-Hyeon’s thick chest rise and fall with each breath.
Hamin closed her eyes tightly in Seong-Hyeon’s gaze. With his eyes closed, she felt like she could smell his scent more strongly.
The comfortable and fresh scent of the winter forest. When the impulse to be embraced in his arms and breathe in that scent dominated his mind, a low voice was heard.
“Um, I’m really sorry... Can I kiss you?”
Lavender Company, a domestic cosmetics company.
On the 6th floor of the company, two core business teams are located. The Material Acquirement Dept, decorated in various lavender colors, and the Planning & Development Dept, neatly organized in a light gray color.
Since Dan Hamin, the team leader of the Material Dept, arrived at work, the team members were all keeping an eye on her. Today, Dan Hamin was completely low-pressure.
Hae-Seo could clearly see Dan Hamin’s abundant curly hair sticking out from behind the partition. Hae-Seo glanced up and looked towards the Planning Dept beyond the Material Dept.
From Hae-Seo’s seat, he could see the Planning Dept through the glass window. Beyond people’s black heads... one person stood out. Team leader Cha Seong-Hyeon.
Unlike the team leader on this side, his neatly combed black hair was upright. The atmosphere on that side didn’t seem good either.
It was not a good team. Due to Seong-Hyeon’s strict and delicate personality, team members had to check and submit reports multiple times. If there was even one typo, they would send it back even if the content of the proposal was good. Although Hae-Seo couldn’t see his face from here, it was obvious that his clean face would maintain its expressionless look as always.
Hae-Seo thought that the busy and energetic Material Dept was better than the Planning Dept where a cold wind blew. But on days like today when Dan Hamin was low-pressure, he wanted to immediately withdraw that thought.
“That connected bastard....”
Hae-Seo heard a small muttering from Dan Hamin in the front row. It was a voice so small that no one else could hear it, but Hae-Seo was sure.
‘It seems like it’s going to be a close call today. Again.’
Behind Dan Hamin, Hae-Seo caught a glimpse of her round head. She was playing Minesweeper.
Dan Hamin was famous in the company for being a workaholic, but on days when she felt really bad, she played Minesweeper.
When Dan Hamin pressed the last square with a thud, the mines hidden inside exploded in red and the yellow smiley face turned into a grimacing face.
“Team leader Dan.”
“Hae-Seo placed an iced Americano with lots of syrup on Dan Hamin’s desk. Dan Hamin raised her head and looked at Hae-Seo.”
Her usually clear and soft-looking skin looked rough, and there were dark circles under her long eyelashes. Her plump lips were also chewed up, showing how much she had been biting them.
“Thank you....”
“It was almost a crawling voice.”
But Hae-Seo knew. That she was on the verge of exploding. Judging from her cursing at team leader Cha Seong-Hyeon earlier, it was clear that she would aggressively respond during today’s meeting and a fight was inevitable.
“Please don’t fight today.”
Dan Hamin responded angrily to Hae-Seo’s words.
“The other side should behave normally for me to behave normally.”
“Let’s at least have the meeting comfortably.”
“Is it polite to hesitate about saying what needs to be said?”
“Don’t pick a fight with them for no reason.”
Dan Hamin didn’t respond to Hae-Seo’s calm tone.
Hae-Seo, who had been friends with Dan Hamin since she joined the company, knew well about her chronic fatigue and fiery personality. She also knew how fiercely she fought with team leader Cha Seong-Hyeon from the Planning Dept.
“Is Ho-Cheol okay?”
Dan Hamin changed the subject to ask about Ho-Cheol’s well-being.
Ho-Cheol, who was in charge of field work in the Material Dept, took sick leave a few days ago due to a minor contact accident. The accident wasn’t serious, but he had accidentally hit his arm on the handle and needed a detailed inspection.
“I heard he hurt his arm. He’ll be back to work next week.”
“It’s unfortunate, but lucky at the same time. I was so surprised when I first heard the news....”
“Until Ho-Cheol comes back, we’ll have to handle field work ourselves.”
“That’s right.... We shouldn’t push ourselves too hard for now.”
Hamin nodded in agreement. His head was pounding.
There were still mountains of work to be done. The sample deadline that was supposed to be sent from the factory to the sales department was getting delayed, and he had to read through all the documents summarizing the results of two months spent only at the snail farm.
Hamin drank the Americano that Hae-Seo handed him. It was sweet, bitter, and refreshing, and it made him feel a little less tired.
“Anyway, you know we have a meeting with the planning team later, right?”
“….”
“Please try to control your temper during today’s meeting.”
Before Hae-Seo could respond, Hamin sat back down and started working. Hamin felt unjust.
It seemed like she couldn’t sleep deeply last night either because she didn’t hear her alarm again. Even though she set more than ten alarms, there was nothing he could do about it.
There were so many things to take care of when getting up in the morning that Hamin always ran out of time. If she had to be at work by 9 o’clock, she would always tag in at 8:59 or 9:01, just barely making it.
Hamin’s office was on the 6th floor. If it was late in the morning, it was difficult to go up the stairs, so he always hurriedly took the elevator.
Today, too, Hamin rushed desperately to catch the open elevator after tagging in at the entrance.
“Hold on!”
There was a tall man standing beyond the elevator doors. It was Cha Seong-Hyeon.
When they first met, Hamin thought that face suited his taste quite well.
He had calm eyes. He had fair skin for a man, but he didn’t give off a pale or weak impression. On the contrary, his good complexion stood out.
His thick eyebrows were neat. His straight nose without any curves gave off a cool impression. His lips were always neatly closed.
People who first met him said that his indifferent expression was sexy, but Hamin always wanted to see that expression completely crumble.
Considering his strict personality and what he had been through, Hamin simply disliked him. However, sometimes she found herself staring blankly at his face. That fact made Hamin even more annoyed.
When Hamin tried to hold onto the elevator, she clearly saw Seong-Hyeon’s hand moving towards the ‘close’ button. And he shook his head slightly as if looking down at Hamin, who was much shorter than him.
Tsk.
Even though there was no way she could hear it, Hamin felt like she could hear Seong-Hyeon making a small clicking sound with his tongue. She ran as fast as she could, but the elevator doors closed just before he reached them.
As the elevator doors closed, Hamin met Seong-Hyeon’s gaze. He was just looking at Hamin with an expressionless face.
“Wow, what a bastard...!”
Hamin kept an eye on the gap in the closing elevator doors.
When the empty elevator came down again, it was already past 9 o’clock. The faint scent of Seong-Hyeon still lingered in the elevator.
That scent again. The scent of the winter forest. The scent of trees covered in snow. The scent that held a strange warmth inside.
It was so good that I wanted to bury my face and drink it in. It didn’t smell like perfume, but strangely, Seong-Hyeon’s scent felt so good that it annoyed me.
In the end, as she tagged herself as late for work and went to her seat, Hamin glared at Cha Seong-Hyeon’s head. Today, Team Leader Cha was perfect as always.
Even though we briefly crossed paths earlier, his neatly combed hair gave off a more ascetic impression. Even though it was a plain black-gray suit, it made me feel envious.
He had a light blue shirt buttoned up all the way, and on top of that, he had a neatly tied dark gray tie.
There didn’t seem to be a speck of dust on his body. The shoulders that faintly showed through beyond his jacket looked broad and firm.
His skin was slightly fair, and when he seemed a little nervous, the faint blue veins on his forehead where he brushed his hair back looked charming. His eyebrows were cool, but his pupils were soft.
Hamin glanced at him. But soon she realized that her gaze was lingering on his face and tightly closed her eyes. Hamin shook her head as if she had a headache.
