Just A Few Numbers Away

Chapter 114

150 Knots

​The sun had long since dipped below the Seoul skyline, leaving the city in a hum of neon and evening traffic.

But inside their sanctuary at Hannam the Hill, the world was quiet.

These were the "weekday hours"-the precious, exhausted time they shared after Aen clocked out of the Korea Yakult office and Yoongi finished his shift at the Gangnam-gu district office.

​The living room had been transformed.

Usually a space of minimalist calm, it was now a dedicated staging area for the Dap-rye-pum.

​Aen sat cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by rows of elegant boxes.

Her office-honed organizational skills were on full display; every gift was aligned with a logistical precision that would have made her department head weep with pride.

​"You're doing that 'face' again, Jagi," Yoongi murmured.

​Aen didn't look up, her fingers deftly folding a piece of tissue paper.

"What face, Yoongi."

​"Your eyebrows are knitting together, right here," he murmured, reaching down to trace the tension between her brows before offering her a glass of water.

He sank onto the floor behind her, leaning his back against the sofa as he watched her work.

"You look like you're preparing a quarterly report, not a wedding."

​"It has to be perfect, Yoon," Aen said, finally pausing to take a sip of water.

She held up one of the favors-a custom-blended tea set packaged in a white and purple silk pouch.

Beside it sat a small, high-end diffuser.

"These aren't just gifts. They're for the staff, the security, and the circle who kept our secret for all these months. It's the least we can do."

Yoongi took the diffuser, inhaling the scent they'd spent an entire weekend designing: Wild Iris and White Birch.

​It was a fragrance that felt simultaneously ethereal and grounded—the delicate, powdery lilt of the Iris dancing over the sharp, clean structural strength of  Birchwood.

​"It's not too sweet," Yoongi murmured, turning the glass bottle in his light.

"The wood cuts through the floral. It smells... expensive. Like a secret that's finally ready to be told."

​"It's the symbolism, Yoon," Aen said, pausing to watch him.

"The Iris for the grace we've tried to keep during these hidden months, and the White Birch for the new beginning we're stepping into at the Shilla. It's purple and white in a bottle."

​Yoongi brought the bottle back to his nose, a small, genuine smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Min Aen in a bottle. I should have known you'd turn a room fragrance into a poetic statement."

​"I learned from the best," she teased, nodding toward the Genius Lab.

​"Also, the Shilla staff sent over the physical mock-ups for the Dap-rye-pum cards this afternoon at my office," Aen mentioned.

She reached into a sleek, cream-colored folder-the kind the Shilla uses for all their VIP correspondence-and pulled out a thick, textured card.

​She handed it to him, her eyes tracking his reaction.