Sighing, Saeroyi looked at Yi Seo.

She was talking on the phone a few steps from him. Things seemed to not be going to her liking. He could hear her frustrated snorts and harsh voice as she fast-talked to whomever was on the other line.

Not two minutes of it and she was tracing back to his side, annoyed expression in place.

"It's gonna take them at least 30 minutes to send a car," she huffed.

Saeroyi simply nodded, not knowing what to say further. He felt guilty for their situation, but expressing it out loud would mean to give life to what made him distracted in the first place. And he didn't want that, not right now.

Yi Seo shrank her hands in an arms crossed position and moved to engage herself in a small promenade of paces. She was cold, and her thin turtleneck just wasn't cutting it.

It wasn't properly winter yet, so the night wasn't freezing-like per say, but it was windy, and she was out of a coat, so he was sure the pleasant temperature for him might not be caressing her so kindly. She wasn't complaining, and Saeroyi knew she wouldn't, because her saying that out loud would mean she blamed him for the circumstances and she would never have him blamed for anything wrong. She thought too much of him to hold him accountable.

Most of the times Saeroyi felt pride in her trust on him, but on days like this he would rather have her pining him down like he deserved.

This wasn't like him. He might come out as aloof for a lot of things, but he always had his mind in the game when it came to his work and duties.

Not today, apparently.

Or this week.

Perhaps these past few months, years, who knows now. He wasn't sure of anything anymore.

When did it start? This, this diversion of reason that kept him at ease and on edge at the same time.

It felt weird that he couldn't say. Even weirder that he didn't want to know as much as he did want to know. Thinking about it induced his mind to pulse with dozens of little instants he hadn't been aware he had paid that much attention when they happened and that now caused him so much… alienation. Like he simply woke up one day and they were there, waiting to be revisited. Reveled upon. And eager to add more to their collection.

Had he not been immersed in one of those, he would have remembered to grab the key Toni advised him rested in his top drawer. It was the most basic thing he should have checked when coming to see the new venue his company purchased. Especially when the whole neighborhood was under renovations and therefore all closed and uninhabited. In other words, impossible to sit at some other place to warm up and wait for the cab they were having so much trouble calling. Because of course, his car had had to go to the mechanics that day and Saeroyi had to give the rest of the night free to the company driver that took them there.

And of course, of course, for a strange amount of events that always seemed to surround them, Yi Seo had coffee spilled on her coat and thought she wouldn't need one for this quick last-task-of-the-day errand, since the weather had been clear and fuggy all day. Well, that changed.

With a deep breath — that he tried too hard not to make it sound like another sigh —, Saeroyi started taking off his own coat.

He had barely managed to open the one button he had locked when Yi Seo caught eye of his intention.

"What are you doing?"

"You are cold." He didn't want to elaborate.

"I don't want you being cold either. Keep it."

She had stopped wandering and Saeroyi could see she was being serious. He could also see her rosy cheeks and the fidget she had going on with her bottom lip between her teeth, probably to keep it from trembling.

Right. Like he was just not going to worry.

That ship had sailed long ago.

"I'm not just gonna watch you freeze." He proceeded to shrug the slightly heavy fabric off his shoulders, not paying her attention.

Maybe he should have.

Not taken his eyes off her, that is.

For he would have seen, rather than first feel, her arms coming for him.

To hug him.

To embrace his waist inside the coat with tight fingers clenching to the back of his shirt.

And her breath. Her warm breath hitting his chest as she pressed her cold face to his collarbone, keeping it hidden there. If to warm faster, or to avoid seeing his reaction, he didn't know.

But he was sure she could sense his response anyway. His strained body. Arms locked in place. His speechlessness.

This never happened before. With anyone. He had hugged her in the past — mindlessly, friendly, impulsively, — and he had hugged other people in life, obviously. But this was the first time Yi Seo hugged him first.Thoroughly so. Despite her constant verbal reminders that she liked him, loved him, she would rarely cross the line physically. Saeroyi supposed he should thank her for it, because every time she did, touch him even in the slightest, he could feel all the progress he made throughout years of dealing directly and constantly with people, especially in his now CEO position, crumble to pieces. He was an awkward socially inept teenager all over again.

And again, for and with this woman.

She was the best at building him up, but since that damn night she confessed, she was proving to be even better at undoing him.

Not in a way that made him hate her, though, like with his enemies. Not even close.

That somehow felt more dangerous.

"What-what are you doing?" he asked when he finally realized it wasn't just going to be a fleeting moment, and that she wasn't just going to back away and apologize.

"We can both be warm like this," Yi Seo answered in the tiniest and most neutral of voices, like it was no big deal, them being this close.

Except it was, wasn't it?

Saeroyi knew better now to realize that it had always been.

He heard her laugh and looked up from his own confused hands in the mirror in front. He knew he was running late because of the stupid tie he couldn't get quite right; he just expected to be the last one in the office to witness his complete failure. But there she was, Jo Yi Seo, staring at him with amused eyes and a corner of her lips curved up.

She had gone home to change, so she was looking freshened up and elegant in her black dress. It had long sleeves and a turtleneck, but it clung to her figure well. The looser skirt that went just beyond the middle of her thighs had been balanced with thick dark tights. In heels, she was hardly shorter than him.

Well behaved and sexy.

A thought that made him divert his gaze from her immediately, for God's sake.

"Why aren't you downstairs?" Saeroyi asked, giving up the hassle with the tie and letting his hands rest still by his sides. "Is everything ok?"

They were looking at each other through the mirror, so he had a clear vision of her starting to walk towards his back in the tiny office bathroom. Too much of a small place for them to be alone together, he realized. He should've closed the door.

"It is. I just came to check on you; can't have a major company dinner without the CEO." She stopped beside him and chuckled. "Why did you decide to wear a tie this year?"

Saeroyi narrowed his eyes a bit, not quite sure what he was thinking either. "Huh. We got bigger. I just thought I should appear more serious." Yi Seo smiled.

"You are serious enough. But come on, let me help you."

"I didn't know you knew how to tie a tie." He turned to her nonetheless and she began with the job, holding both ends of the fabric and twisting it in an orderly manner.

"I didn't. I looked it up for you a while ago in case you ever needed." Saeroyi's strangled sound in response prompted her into rectifying herself, "It's no big deal. You are my boss. I should know how to help with these things."

Except she was misunderstanding, and Saeroyi had to put his own hand on top of hers and pull them down together for clarification — and a whole new level of amusement — to sparkle in her eyes.

"Too tight," he gasped goofily after having already loosened up the tie, and then cleared his throat.

Yi Seo was pursing a smile, but she managed a polite "Sorry", looking every bit on the edge of a very loud laughter.

Saeroyi chuckled at her repressed expression.

"You are not allowed to laugh."

"I would never."

Then, they both burst out laughing. His hand mindlessly and comfortably still touching hers.

He had given up ties that day, but the memory remained vividly with him. I looked it up for you.

For you.

You must have had a hard time all alone.

I will destroy anyone who messes with you.

She had said it all.

She had meant it all.

So he couldn't really deny her this one thing, could he? This one small thing he could do for her right now and that would size up to a sand grain when compared to all the grandiose things she had done for him.

She was right, anyway. This was an effective way to keep both of them warm.

So he let go.

Of his reason. Of his impediments. Of his complete fear of meanings that haunted him ever since her first "I love you".

Just for that moment, just there and then, Saeroyi let go and hugged her back.

He adjusted the long coat to better cover her as much as it could and brought her body more in contact with his. The part of her back that was left uncovered he tried to soothe it with one hand going up and down as the other held both sides of the garment together. He was hugging her back. Simply warming up a friend who needed.

In a way that he wouldn't do for anyone else, though.

Even for Soo Ah. Even when he imagined scenarios with her, which stopped happening sometime along the years, he couldn't actually picture them like this. So… open to each other. Not that he was comfortable. He wasn't. His mind was twisting at a million thoughts per second as he felt Yi Seo's chest breathe in the same rhythm as his. But it was ok, because it was her and he was getting to do something for her for once.

He shouldn't be surprised by his actions around her anymore. She seemed to be the only one who could get any and all kinds of reactions from him, the good and the bad. She would tame and deal with them all as he threw them. He was so real with her, so dependent of her, it scared him. It scared him a lot. Because in the end, when his revenge was over, he had promises to abide to, and those promises weren't to her. His bet for happiness wasn't placed on her, it was placed on someone else.

And yet, right now, with her in his arms, wrapped in the warmth they were creating together, he could feel it all.

Happiness.

Peace.

A strange excitement.

Things he shouldn't feel.

He was a hypocrite, wasn't he? A liar, too.

But maybe, if he lied enough, his heart would start to believe it.