One mistake. One surrender. A kiss that changes everything.

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The office had emptied hours ago. The city lights outside smeared across the glass, turning the room into a kaleidoscope of gold and shadow. You and Sunghoon? Stumbling just enough to be dangerous. Laughing a little too loudly. Leaning a little too close. The bottles between you long since abandoned, the alcohol loosening your tongues and your defenses.

You try to laugh it off, voice tight. “I… I just—what if I can’t… give you what you want?”

Sunghoon freezes for a fraction, his hand pausing mid-pour. Then he smiles, slow, low, steady. The kind of smile that can fracture your calm in a heartbeat. “Hey. Look at me,” he says, voice soft but commanding. “I’m not asking for promises. I’m not asking you to decide anything tonight.”

You shake your head, fear rising in a lump in your throat. “I… I don’t want to hurt you.”

He steps closer, the distance between you melting with each unsteady heartbeat. His fingers brush against yours on the counter—not quite holding, just a touch that says everything he’s thinking. “Then we won’t. I’ll never pressure you. Not ever. But… can we make a mistake?”

You blink, caught. “A mistake?”

He shrugs, grin crooked, eyes glinting like mischief wrapped in danger. “Like drunk people do,” he murmurs, leaning in, voice dropping to a whisper that hits your chest before your ears. “Just… let me kiss you. Once. Let me be the mistake you don’t regret.”

Your heart races, and for a second, the walls you built around yourself, the fear, the caution, the guilt, shatter under the warmth of his gaze. He’s close now, close enough that you can feel the heat of his breath, the faint scent of whiskey and cedar and something that’s just him.

“I…” you start, but the words fail.

He closes the gap with a gentle insistence, pressing a single finger under your chin to tilt your face up. “It’s okay,” he whispers. “We’re allowed to be reckless sometimes. With each other.”

And then his lips are on yours, soft and gentle at first, testing the waters, then certain. All the tension, all the fear, all the nights spent pretending everything could stay professional, dissolves in a kiss that’s both a question and an answer.

When he finally pulls back, just slightly, his forehead resting against yours, he doesn’t say anything. He just holds you there, letting the silence speak.