Chapter 1

　　Part 1

　　"Try not to be seen by the young master. Place it down as quietly as possible and come right out."

　　The kitchen buzzed with chaos. With so many people bustling between the main house and the staff quarters, a simple exchange of words could quickly crescendo into a clamor.

　　However, over the past two weeks, the mood had shifted noticeably. It had been this way ever since the master of the long-vacant annex had returned.

　　A subtle tension, an inexplicable and precarious air, now clung to the estate.

　　Yiseo nodded silently, accepting the tray Matron Seosan held out to her.

　　"He asked not to let anyone near the annex… I have no idea whose orders we’re supposed to follow," Chef Kim grumbled, clicking his tongue as he wiped the countertop again and again with a dry cloth.

　　"It’s always the same. When elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers. Why did that trouble have to fall onto you of all people, Yiseo?", he continued.

　　"It’s just a simple errand," Yiseo replied, offering a placid smile as she tightened her grip and lifted the heavy tray.

　　It had been an hour ago that the mistress of the estate, Jua Shin, had abruptly called her over. Yiseo had been in the small garden behind the main house, picking cucumbers for the cold soybean noodle soup the staff planned to have for lunch.

　　"Could you come here for a moment?"

　　At the sudden summons, she had turned to find Jua beckoning with an elegant flourish. How long she had been standing there, Yiseo couldn’t guess. As she drew near, Jua offered a smile as flawless and artificial as a painting and studied Yiseo’s face with unnerving intensity.

　　An agonizingly long silence stretched between them before Jua finally spoke.

　　"I have a favor to ask of you…"

　　Yiseo glanced down at the impeccably arranged sandwich on the tray. Thinly sliced cucumber and a thick layer of cream cheese. Her mission, assigned by the mistress of the estate, was twofold: deliver the sandwich to the annex and relay the message that its master was to join the family for dinner in the main house that evening.

　　It was a simple errand, one that shouldn’t have been difficult, yet an involuntary quiver ran through her fingertips. No one on the estate was oblivious to the fact that the relationship between Jua and the master of the annex was far from amicable.

　　"Why are you trying to scare the poor girl?" Matron Seosan, the motherly anchor who took care of the mansion’s needs, chided, giving Chef Kim’s shoulder a shove to silence his pointless chatter.

　　She then glanced toward the annex. "Yiseo, don’t you worry too much. The young master is probably fast asleep by now. He didn’t get in until dawn today, either. At this hour, the annex is like the dead of night."

　　Just as Matron Seosan said, the master of the annex had spent the last two weeks living with his days and nights completely reversed, as if perpetually battling jet lag.

　　When the sun went down, he would leave in a car with a roaring exhaust, only to return around sunrise the next day. Other times, he would throw raucous parties that raged all night long.

　　Yiseo’s room was closer to the annex than the main staff building, and on those nights, the thumping bass would bleed over the annex wall and seep into her room. The intense sound waves made the windows seem to vibrate, making sleep on party nights nearly impossible.

　　"I’ll be back soon," Yiseo announced.

　　"All right. We’ll have the noodle soup ready for you, so hurry back."

　　Carrying the tray, Yiseo slipped out through the side door. The main entrance of the staff quarters faced the garden for quick access to the main house, but the side door was closer to the annex. Beyond the door and behind the kitchen lay a modest vegetable patch.

　　She followed the path alongside it, and upon rounding the glass greenhouse, a small pond came into view. She’d heard that all sorts of flowers once bloomed along it, but the garden’s design had been completely transformed after the new mistress arrived.

　　Yiseo hugged the tray closer to her chest and lifted her head. The heady perfume of crimson roses, climbing in a wild profusion along the wall, drifted on the breeze and tickled her nose. The sky was a brilliant, cloudless blue, and the searing noon sun beat down upon her.

　　In stark contrast to the peaceful, relaxing scenery, a nervous tension had left her lips feeling dry and parched.

　　Praying that the master of the annex was deep in slumber, as Matron Seosan had suggested, Yiseo hurried onward with quick, short steps. Having lived on this estate since she was too young to remember, she could trace the path to the annex with her eyes closed.

　　A faint shadow danced across her cheek. The wall cordoning off the annex was just as formidable as the one encircling the entire estate, towering well over a person’s height. At the end of the long wall, an arched gate appeared.

　　She paused before it, carefully tucking the tray under one arm while she tapped the code into the keypad on the door lock. In the past, there had been no lock; one could come and go freely. It had been installed during the massive renovation of the annex’s interior, just before its master returned.

　　Not long after, the order had come down: access to the annex was forbidden.

　　"Unless specifically told otherwise, no one is to go near the annex. It’s the young master’s order. Cleaning is to be done only when he calls for it, and he says he doesn’t require meals."

　　The staff whispered amongst themselves that the young master in the annex must have a peculiar temperament.

　　She entered the eight-digit passcode Matron Seosan had given her, and the lock disengaged with a cheerful chime. Yiseo swallowed dryly. Judging by the way the entire household tiptoed around him as if on eggshells, it was obvious this man’s temper was nothing to be trifled with.

　　Shifting the tray back to both hands, she let out a short sigh. Still, what choice do I have? I just have to do as I’m told.

　　Her fingers tightened on the tray as she pushed the gate open with her shoulder.

　　"Excuse me."

　　Though she had entered with a surge of resolve, her voice emerged as a timid whisper, barely audible. The gate slammed shut behind her, the lock clicking into place with a definitive thud. Yiseo flinched, her shoulders tensing reflexively, but her apprehension was immediately eclipsed by the sight that unfolded before her.

　　She had been to the annex a few times as a child, trailing after the adults, but the space was now utterly transformed. She had heard about the renovations and assumed they had simply changed some furniture, but the very structure was unrecognizable. Where a solid wall once stood, floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors had been installed, now thrown wide open.

　　From her vantage point, she had a clear view of the living room, where it was difficult to spot a single item that wasn’t brand new.

　　The pool directly in front of her was filled to the brim. She had only ever seen it empty, having been told it was too troublesome to maintain, and she stared at the gently lapping surface as if it were a foreign object. The dazzling midday sun broke into a thousand glints of white light on the shimmering surface.

　　A lone figure sliced through the glistening water, his form distorted by the golden light. For a moment, the very air seemed to still, thick and heavy. The only sound was the rhythmic splash and churn of the water.

　　While Yiseo stood frozen, utterly mesmerized, the figure crossed the long pool in the blink of an eye and surged up from the depths. With a movement as fluid as flight, he exited the pool, his wet feet landing silently on the stone tiles. A transparent stream of water traced a path down his well-defined calf.

　　The droplet trickled down, and her gaze unconsciously moved upward, retracing its trail. Smooth skin like a finely crafted sculpture, past the thick, powerful muscles of his thighs that rippled like a racehorse’s, and all the way up to his high, firm buttocks.

　　The man, his back to her, was utterly, appallingly naked.

　　Yiseo gasped, a sharp, strangled sound. Only then did the reality of what she was staring at crash down on her. Her fingers clenched on the tray she held.

　　Did the sound reach him?

　　Suddenly, the man whipped his head around. His eyes, glinting with a sharp awareness, latched onto her, their gaze as piercing as a hawk’s. It was a look both languid but searing.

　　The moment she met those sensual, intense eyes, a chill shot down her spine, and she froze solid. Her mind went completely blank, as if her breath had been knocked out of her lungs.

　　The master of the annex, Taegyeom Kwon.

　　This was the second time Yiseo had laid eyes on him. For her, at least. There was no reason the young master, so newly returned, would remember one of his countless employees.

　　On the day he had come back to Korea after nearly twenty years in America, all the staff had lined up to welcome his return. Yiseo, who held no official title and was essentially a freeloader helping with odd jobs, had stood awkwardly at the very end of the line.

　　The man had emerged from the car with a listless, bored expression, his face etched with the faint fatigue of a long flight. He had cast an indifferent gaze over the employees lined up so ridiculously before him, then turned away as if he had already lost interest. The memory of his indolent back as he walked toward the annex had just surfaced in her mind when a low voice shot like an arrow and embedded itself in her ear.

　　"What are you doing here?"

　　Snapping back to reality, Yiseo’s eyes flew wide. The ice-cold voice rooted her feet to the spot. But what truly unnerved her was something else entirely.

　　The noon sun poured directly onto his broad shoulders, where the lingering moisture glistened. A wide chest tapered to a slim waist. Abs so defined, they resembled a suit of armor.

　　The harmony of sharp, masculine lines and sensuous curves was utterly captivating. Before she could stop it, her gaze drifted instinctively lower.

　　And her jaw dropped.

　　…Oh my god.