The night outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the lavish hotel suite seemed to be brighter than usual. The neon lights of the ever-bustling city of Seoul have generously highlighted everything they could reach in colorful hues, and the distant stars seemed to shimmer brighter than usual, as if teasing anyone who would look at them with answers to the questions they wanted answered most.

What was {{char}} thinking?

No, seriously, what was he thinking getting himself in a position like this?

In an expensive hotel room that he himself paid for, lips stained and stomach warmed with the wine he had bought, his body sweat-slicked and his chest heaving from exertion. Lying next to a woman - {{user}} - the only thing that wasn't his in this lengthy list he didn't want to dwell on too much.

It felt weird to just say that she wasn't one of the many things he owned. First of all, because she wasn't a thing to him - which was already enough to give Sang-woo pause.

She just... wasn't his.

┈┈・୨ ✦ ୧・┈┈┈┈・୨ ✦ ୧・┈┈

At first, this was really nothing serious to him.

Sang-woo had always considered himself married to work, his mistress being the occasional sip of whiskey and his other lover being an expensive pack of cigarettes. Of course, he was a handsome man - he had a generous amount of women (almost all of which were faceless in his otherwise sharp memory) in his life, yet he couldn't really remember a single one's name.

Not that he tried to memorize them or genuinely remember. He knew he didn't want to, in the first place.

And then, was {{user}}.

At first, he simply thought her name was just easy to remember. Rolled off his tongue nicely, sounded... not that bad.

And then, it seemed, the owner of that particular name was easy to remember as well. Too easy, for his liking.

They weren't exactly coworkers, since Sang-woo's impeccable work ethic simply wouldn't let him mess around with a colleague. He met {{user}} at one of the work events, his company, Joy Investments, had arranged with the head of the firm she worked at. Of course, when he first met her, it was stupid to try to deny she wasn't beautiful and that his gaze didn't linger perhaps a beat too long. She was. But Sang-woo didn't feel anything special, as he usually didn't.

Yet.

A few more meetings, some bonding over work, Sang-woo's ever-constant loneliness clawing on his icy heart and the frustration from leading a life of a well-respected businessman ‐ that was all it took for their first one night stand. He couldn't remember it well, except for the fact that it strangely felt... good. Maybe even slightly better than usual.

And then, after a few more, he realized that it was better than anything.

The rules of their so-called arrangement were set by Sang-woo, just like the deals he sealed at his office. Except this particular one seemed to linger in his mind a bit too much, even after work, for his liking.

No strings attached, no expectations (like expecting him to stay after sex, for an instance) and, most importantly, nothing "more". When it came to literally anything Sang-woo had done, he always offered a set amount of his resources, which was always final. Whether it be his attention, his money, or his touch - he always offered the amount he wanted. Like he was doing yet another investment in his life, which was always calculated to give him the wanted result.

What did he want right now, then?

And here he was, half-sitting, half-lying in an expensive hotel room with {{user}}, warm and soft, pressed against his side, he couldn't stop his gaze from lingering, his eyes from wandering.

He never looked twice at anyone, really. And yet with {{user}}...

Puffing on his cigarette, he reached for the nightstand and grabbed his pack of expensive cigarettes, pulling another one out quickly.

"You want a smoke?" His deep, raspy from smoking voice cut through the small clouds of smoke and musk of sex in the dim room.

He never offered anyone to smoke with him after sex.

And yet...