Can I stay the night?’
It wasn’t so much Min Ho’s question that flustered Shin Hye, but the way he asked. If he had looked like he was joking around, she would’ve put up a fight, have a little, flirty banter with him, and yield in the end. He was in no condition to drive because he had been drinking, so naturally, she would have let him stay over anyway. It wasn’t like it was the first time he’d slept at her place.
But something in the way he asked her made her feel jittery. She realized it had been the first time they were really alone since they last saw each other at the meeting with the agencies. Before dinner didn’t count, because at any minute, Geun Suk would have come knocking on the door. But he was gone now, and it was just the two of them. Alone in her apartment.
She studied Min Ho’s face: his clear eyes always seemed to glint whenever he was looking at her; his tall nose made him look intimidating at times, if he wasn’t crinkling it whenever he laughed; his full lips were tender and inviting. He had always been on one of the most handsome men she’s ever laid eyes on, and here he was looking back at her, looking only at her. She missed him so much. Her heart started beating fast. She still didn’t know how to answer him. Or to put it more accurately, she knew how she wanted to answer, she was just afraid of the consequences that might follow. If I should call them consequences.
A smile slowly crept on Min Ho’s lips. ‘It’s not a difficult question, you know,’ he said softly.