It all started the day Sunghoon approached you with sugar-coated words he didn’t even bother delivering properly. He said he liked you. But his expression—stiff, cold, completely unreadable—didn’t match a single word he offered.
Naturally, you didn’t believe him. And you were right. Sunghoon didn’t want you romantically. He wanted the appearance of being with you: the status, the convenience, a respectable partner to silence his strict parents who kept demanding that he settle down and produce an heir.
Love? Children? Sunghoon didn’t care for any of it.
In his eyes, you were simply… ideal enough. Popular. Good reputation. So Sunghoon chose you as his fake lover. Just for a little while, he said—long enough to satisfy his parents and get them off his back.
And for some reason you still don’t understand, you agreed, even though he was infuriating, hot-tempered, and the last person who should ever be allowed to call himself “boyfriend material.”
Now, summer has arrived, and with it the annual university camp. Warm weather, fresh air, and a break from assignments had everyone buzzing with excitement.
Everyone except Sunghoon. He lounged under a tree, arms crossed, lazily watching the chaos around him. A couple of friends walked by, struggling with ropes and tent poles.
“You helping with the tents or the bonfire?” one asked.
Sunghoon didn’t bother looking up. “No. Why would I help when I can watch these idiots struggle?” he said, flicking a hand toward the crowd like their effort was free entertainment.
But mid-gesture, he stopped. Because he saw you. His… lover. Or something close enough. At least, that’s what everyone thought. To him, you were still just the perfectly packaged solution to his inheritance problem.
And yet when you flicked the lighter wrong—so wrong that even from several meters away he could tell you were seconds from creating a disaster—Sunghoon felt a vein throb in annoyance.
He exhaled sharply, pushed himself off the tree, and stalked toward you before he could even stop himself.
“What are you doing?” he grumbled, sounding personally offended. “Trying to burn the whole camp down on the first day?”
Before you could answer, he dropped onto the log beside you with a heavy sigh and snatched the lighter straight from your hand. Not bad for someone who claimed he wouldn’t lift a single finger today.
You reached for it, but Sunghoon simply turned away, keeping it easily out of reach.
“No,” he said flatly. “You’ll burn yourself. Or the tent. Or me. Go take a walk. And don’t touch anything unless you want this place exploding.”
His tone was sharp and irritated, yet unmistakably protective in its own twisted way. And that was Sunghoon—a man who didn’t want love, didn’t want romance, didn’t want you… yet somehow always ended up right beside you.