Another Life With You

No Longer Alone

The sunlight filtering through the curtains seemed unfamiliar. Maybe it was the angle or the direction it came from... Seo Dan suddenly startled awake, jumping to sit up on the bed. She had been laying on top of the bedcovers and, looking down at herself, was still dressed in last night's outfit. She reached up and combed through her hair, feeling her hair clip still entangled above her ear.

This wasn't her room. She looked around warily. It was made up of dark wood and muted shades of grey – a very masculine sort of room. A suspicion crept up on her. She shut her eyes and combed through her fuzzy memory. She remembered Gu Seung-jun joining her at the bar. She remembered finishing a bottle between the two of them, then arguing with him about ordering more drinks. After that...

"Aish," Seo Dan exhaled, slapping her forehead. Why did she have to drink so much?

She knew why. Jeong-hyeok had told her the location of the Seri's Choice staff party, and Seo Dan had acted on impulse and waited near the restaurant. She had watched him arrive in Yoon Seri's car, saw how he opened the door for the woman and followed her closely in. He would say it was part of his job, but Seo Dan had seen how his body instinctively turned towards Yoon Seri, how he didn't think twice about standing close to her, how his gaze followed her every move like it was drawn by a magnet.

You're thinking too much, you're going to drive yourself crazy, she had thought to herself. That was why she had turned to the nearest bar she could find and went straight for their strongest shots.

She fixed her hair clip and straightened her clothes, standing from the bed and quietly opening the bedroom door. There was a living room and an open kitchen outside, and Gu Seung-jun was laid out on the sofa. Seo Dan spotted her shoes and her handbag by the front door.

She inched across the living room as quietly as she could. What an embarrassing situation to find herself in. Seo Dan made a promise to herself that she wouldn't be drinking for a while.

"No hangover?" she jumped and whirled towards Gu Seung-jun, who had spoken from the sofa with his eyes still shut. He opened them lazily, stretching with a big yawn.

Seo Dan cleared her throat and straightened up, self-consciously smoothing her hair. "I appreciate you taking care of me last night. I'll be heading home now."

Gu Seung-jun sat up on the sofa, hair tousled and eyes heavy with sleep. "Taking care of you... that's a simple way to put it. You weren't in a state to give me your home address. I had to drag you up here from the taxi, you know."

"Drag! I never drink to the point where I have to be dragged," Seo Dan exclaimed. "You must have been drunk yourself."

"Me!" Gu Seung-jun said. "If only! Every time I tried to take a sip you would snatch my drink from under my nose! You become quite impolite when you drink, Seo Dan ssi." A wide, dreamy grin stretched across his face as he turned it up towards her. "But I like it."

Seo Dan huffed, hoping that she wasn't visibly blushing. It wouldn't do for this insufferable man to think that his words had any effect on her. All of a sudden, she remembered why this whole debacle had happened in the first place. Vaguely remembering that she had received a text from Jeong-hyeok, she now rushed to her handbag and dug through it to find her phone.

Have escorted Yoon Seri to a safehouse outside of Seoul. Will give you more updates in person. Stay alert.

Blinking at the terse message, Seo Dan sifted through her still-cloudy thoughts. Safehouse? Had something happened to Yoon Seri last night? Why should Seo Dan be the one who had to stay alert, then?

"What's the matter?" Gu Seung-jun's voice came from over her shoulder, and Seo Dan jumped for the second time that morning.

"Stop sneaking up on me," she said, quickly turning off her phone screen.