Discovering Passion-adapted by Messenger

On Monday morning, at the corporate offices of Hankook Media, Sun Mi was transformed into a competent businesswoman. Her hair was arranged in a sleek chignon and she was clothed in a three-piece gray suit.

Woo Jin was engrossed in camera equipment, lighting and angles when Sun Mi entered Hyun Chul's office. She surveyed the room and forced to admit that it was perfect for today's shooting.

"The genius at work," a voice whispered close to her ear, and Sun Mi whirled, finding herself staring into the eyes that had begun to haunt her.

"That's precisely what he is," she retorted, furious with the way her heart began to drum at his nearness.

"Testy this morning, aren't we?" Hyun Chul observed with a lifted brow. "Still hung over from the weekend?"

"Certainly not." Dignity wrapped her like a cloak. "I never drink enough to have a hangover."

"Oh, yes, I forgot, the Mr. Hyde syndrome."

"Sun Mi, there you are." Woo Jin interrupted Sun Mi's search for a suitable retort. "What took you so long?"

"Sorry, Woo Jin, the hairdresser took quite some time."

"Well, that hairstyle certainly makes you look competent." Woo Jin studied Sun Mi critically.

"Yes," Hyun Chul agreed, keeping his features serious. "The woman executive, very competent, very smart,"

"Assertive, aggressive, and ruthless," Sun Mi interrupted, casting him a freezing look. "I shall emulate you, Mr. Yun."

His brows rose fractionally. "That should be fascinating. I'll leave you then to get on with your work, while I get on with mine."

For the next hour, Woo Jin moved around the room, clicking his camera, adjusting the lighting, and calling out directions as Sun Mi assumed the poses of a busy woman executive.

"That's a wrap in here." Woo Jin signaled for her to relax.

They then proceeded to the conference room for more shoots of a chairperson holding a board meeting. The remainder of the day's shooting was long and tedious. When the day's work was finally over, Sun Mi found herself searching for Hyun Chul's lean form as she made her way out of the building.

She tried to convince herself that it was only a physical attraction and it would pass like a twenty-four-hour virus. In addition, he wasn't interested in her romantically as he seemed to prefer the well-proportioned Sun Hee.


Shooting begun the next morning, once again at Hankook Media's corporate offices. Today, dressed in a peach-colored slim knit sweater and black form-fitting pencil skirt, Sun Mi was to take on the role of the working girl. The session was to take place in Hyun Chul's secretary's office, much to that woman's delight.

"I'm Yong Mi. This is all routine to you, I suppose. But it seems very glamorous and exciting to me." Her eyes drifted to where Woo Jin was setting up the shooting. "Mr. Kim's a real expert, isn't he? He's very attractive. Is he married?"

Sun Mi laughed, glancing carelessly at Woo Jin, "Only to his Nikon."

"Oh." Young Mi smiled, then frowned. "Are you two, ah......., I mean, are you involved?"

"Just master and slave," Sun Mi answered, seeing Woo Jin as an attractive, eligible man for the first time. Looking back at Young Mi's appealing face, she smiled. "You know the old adage, 'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.' Take my advice. The way to that man's heart is through his lenses. Ask him about cameras."

Hyun Chul emerged from his office. He broke into a slow, lazy smile when he saw Sun Mi. "Ah, man's best friend, the efficient secretary."

Ignoring the pounding of her heart, Sun Mi forced her voice into a light tone. "No corporate decisions today. I've been demoted."

"That's the way of the business world." He nodded understandingly. "Executive dining room one day, typing pool the next. It's a jungle out there."

"All set," Woo Jin announced from across the room.

"Your wish is my command, O master of the thirty-five millimeter," Sun Mi said, moving to join him.

"Can you type, Sun Mi?" Hyun Chul inquired cheerily. "I'll give you some letters, and we can kill two birds with one stone."

"Sorry, Mr. Yun," she replied, allowing herself to enjoy his smile. "Typewriters and I have a longstanding agreement. I don't pound on them, and they don't pound on me."

The session went quickly with Woo Jin and Sun Mi progressing with professional ease. An hour later, Woo Jin came up with a fresh idea. He wanted Sun Mi to change the toner of the fax machine located just behind Young Mi's desk.

"How do you open this machine?" she muttered, pushing buttons at random. "Oh...." she grinned with delight when she located the lid.

"Keep going, Sun Mi," Woo Jin commanded, "Just pretend you know what you're doing."

She found herself falling into the spirit of things and after a few attempts, managed to pull out the toner cartridge. She gave the cartridge a quick shake and some black toner spilled over. When Woo Jin asked her to replace the cartridge, she couldn't figure out the proper position. She finally gave up and left the fax machine opened and the toner hanging out. Absently, she brushed a hand across her cheek, smearing it with black toner.

"I'll leave it to you to explain to Young Mi how this catastrophe came about. I'm finished"

"Absolutely," Hyun Chul's voice came from behind and Sun Mi whirled in the chair to see both him and Young Mi staring at the chaos on the desk. "If you ever give up modeling, steer clear of office work. You're a disaster."

"Well, Woo Jin, get us out of this one. We've been caught red-handed at the scene of the crime."

Hyun Chul closed the distance between them with lithe grace and gingerly lifted one of Sun Mi's hands. "Black-handed, I'd say." Putting his other hand under her chin, he smiled in the lazy way that caused Sun Mi's reluctant heart to perform a series of somersaults. "There's quite a bit of evidence on that remarkable face as well."

She shook off the sweet weakness invading her and peered down at her hands. "Good Lord, how did I manage that? Well, I'm going to wash away the evidence, and I'm leaving you" - she nodded to Woo Jin - "to make amends for the damage."

She smiled to Young Mi and then turned to whisper to Woo Jin. "Better do some fast talking, old man."

Reaching the door before her, Hyun Chul opened it and took a few steps down the long hall beside her. "Setting up a romance for my secretary, Sun Mi?"

"Could be," she returned enigmatically. "Woo Jin could do with more than cameras and darkrooms in his life."

"And what could you use in yours, Sun Mi?" His question was soft, putting a hand on her arm and turning her to face him.

"I've....I've got everything I need," she stammered, feeling like a pinned butterfly under his direct glaze.

"Everything?" he repeated, keeping her eyes locked on his. "Pity I've an appointment, or we could go into this in more detail." Pulling her close, his lips brushed her, then formed a crooked smile that was devastatingly appealing. "Go wash your face - you're a fine mess." Turning, he strode down the hall, leaving Sun Mi to deal with a mixture of frustration and unaccustomed longing.

When Hyun Chul returned to his office, he couldn't concentrate on his work. It was as though he'd been bewitched by Sun Mi. She exuded a mystique and arrogance that he found intriguing. No woman has touched his heart before, and she mesmerized him since their fist encounter at Woo Jin's studio. Just as he got up from his chair, he realized he stepped onto something on the floor. He looked down and found a silver pen and picked it up. It was engraved with JSM and he immediately broke into a wide smile.


Sun Mi spent her free afternoon shopping, a diversionary tactic she used for soothing jangled nerves. It was after five when Sun Mi entered her apartment and dumped her purchases on a chair in the bedroom. She had to hurry in order to make her dinner date with her neighbor, Ju Hee. She released the latch on the front door for Ju Hee's benefit and made her way to the bath, filling the tub with hot, fragrant water. She soaked for twenty minutes and just as she stepped from the tub and grabbed a towel, the bell sounded at the front door.

"Come on in, Ju Hee. Either you're early, or I'm late." Draping the towel saronglike around her slim body, she walked from the room, the scent of strawberries clinging to her shining skin. "I'll be ready in a minute. I got carried away in the tub. My feet were...." She stopped dead in her tracks, because instead of the petite Ju Hee, she was confronted by the tall, lean figure of Yun Hyun Chul.

"Where did you come from?" Sun Mi demanded when she located her voice.

"Originally or just now?" he countered, smiling at her confusion.

"I thought you were Ju Hee."

"I got the impression."

"What are you doing here?"

"Returning this." He held up a slim silver pen. "I assumed it was yours. The initials JSM are engraved on it."

"Yes, it's mine," she concurred, frowning at it. "I must have dropped it from my bag. You needn't have bothered. I could have gotten it tomorrow."

"I thought you might have been looking for it." His eyes roamed over the figure scantily clad in the bath towel and lingered on her smooth legs, then rested a moment on the swell of her breast. "Besides, it was well worth the trip."

Sun Mi's eyes dropped down to regard her state of disarray and widened in shock. "I'll be back in a minute."

Hastily, she pulled on a pair of blue jeans and a beige sweater, brushed her hair quickly and applied a touch of makeup. She returned to the living room to find Hyun Chul seated comfortably on the sofa.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," she said politely. It was kind of you to take the trouble to return the pen to me."

"Can I get you a drink? Or maybe you're in a hurry......"

"I'm in no hurry," he answered, ignoring her frown. "Scotch, neat, if you have it."

Her frown deepened. "I may have. I'll have to check." She retreated to the kitchen to search through cupboards for her supply of rarely used liquor. He followed her and then leaned against the refrigerator, hands in pockets. She felt an intimacy that was both exciting and disturbing at his presence.

"A very nice place, Sun Mi," he commented as she handed him the drink and they seated themselves on the sofa. "Open, friendly, colorful. Do the living quarters reflect the tenant?"

"So they say."

"Friendliness is an admirable trait, but you should know better than to leave your door unlatched."

"I was expecting someone."

"But you got someone unexpected." He looked into her eyes, then causally swept the length of her. "What do you think would have happened if someone else had come across that beautiful body of yours draped in a very insufficient towel?" The blush was immediate and she dropped her eyes. "You should keep your door locked, Sun Mi. Not every man would let you escape as I did."

"Yes, O mighty emperor," Sun Mi retorted before she could bite her tongue, and his eyes narrowed dangerously. He captured her with a swift movement, but whatever punishment he had in mind was postponed by the ringing of the phone. Jumping up in relief, Sun Mi hurried to answer.

It was Ju Hee who called to advise Sun Mi that she couldn't keep the date with her as she had to handle an emergency at work. Hyun Chul overhead the conversation. "Now you're stood up. A pizza, was it?"

"My secret's out," she said, "I am a pizza junkie, picked up the addiction when my dad was posted to the office of the Korean Consulate General in Chicago. If I don't have one at well-ordered intervals, I go into a frenzy."

"Well, we can't have you foaming at the mouth, can we?" He sat down his empty glass and stood with a fluid motion. "Fetch a coat, I'll indulge you."

"Oh, really, there's no need," she began with quick panic.

"For heaven's sake, let's not go through this again. Get a coat and come on," he commanded pulling her from her chair. "I could do with some food myself."

Sun Mi reluctantly allowed Hyun Chul to drag her out of the apartment. Soon they were seated in a small Italian restaurant that Sun Mi indicated. Their pizza arrived, and throughout the meal their conversation was more companionable and relaxed than Sun Mi would have believed possible. When the last piece was consumed, Hyun Chul leaned back and regarded her seriously.

"I'd never believed you could eat like that."

She grinned, relaxed by the combination of wine, good food, and easy company. "I don't often, but when I do, I'm exceptional."

"You're a constant amazement. I never know what to expect. A study of contradictions."

"Isn't that why you hired me, Hyun Chul?" She used his name for the first time voluntarily without conscious thought. "For my versatility?"

He smiled, lifted his glass to his lips, and left her question unanswered.

Sun Mi felt her earlier nervousness return as they walked toward her apartment. Determined to remain calm, she bent her head to fish out the keys, using the time to assume a calm veneer.

"Would you like to come in for coffee?"

He took the keys from her hand, unlocked the door, and gave her a slow smile. "I thought you don't drink coffee."

"I don't, but everyone else in the world does, so I keep some instant."

"With the Scotch, no doubt," he said leading her into the apartment.

After removing her coat, Sun Mi went to the kitchen to prepare coffee for Hyun Chul and tea for herself. When she entered the living room with a tray on her hands, she found Hyun Chul leafing casually through her CD collections.

"Quite an assortment." He addressed her from where he stood. "Classical when you're romantic, soft ballad when you're homesick, blues when you're down, pop rock when you're up."

"You sound like you know me very well." She felt a strange mixture of amusement and resentment that he had pinpointed her mood music with such uncanny accuracy.

"Not yet," he corrected, putting down a CD and coming over to join her. "But I'm working on it."

Suddenly, he was very close, and there was an urgent need in Sun Mi to be on a more causal footing. "Your coffee's getting cold." She spoke quickly and dropped a spoon in her agitation while removing the clutter from the tray. They bent to retrieve it simultaneously, his strong, lean fingers closing over her fine-boned hand. At the contact a current of electricity shot down her arm and spread through her body, and her eyes darkened. She raised her face to his.

There were no words as their eyes met, and she knew they had been drifting steadily toward this since the first day in Woo Jin's studio. There was a basic attraction between them, an indefinable need she did not pause to question as he lifted her to her feet, and she stepped into his arms.

His lips were warm and gentle on hers as he kissed her slowly, then with increasing pressure, his tongue parted her lips, and his arms tightened around her, crushing her breasts against the hardness of his chest. Her arms twined around his neck. She responded as she had never responded to any man before. The thought ran through her clouded brain that no one had ever kissed her like this, no one had ever held her like this. Then all thought was drowned in a tidal wave of passion.

She made no resistance as she felt herself lowered onto the cushions of the couch, her mouth still the captive of his. The weight of his body pushed hers deep into the sofa as his legs slid between hers, making no secret of his desire. His mouth began to roam, exploring the smooth skin of her neck. The fire of a new and ageless need raged through her veins. She felt the thudding of heart - hers or his, she could not tell - as his lips caressed her throat and face before meeting hers with possessing hunger. His hand moved under her sweater to cup the breast that swelled under his touch. She sighed and moved under him.

She was lost in a blaze of longing such as she had never known, responding with a passion she had kept buried until that moment, as his lips and hands moved with expertise over her warm and willing body.

His hands moved to the flatness of her stomach, and when she felt his fingers on the snap of her jeans, she began to struggle against him. Her protests were ignored, his mouth devouring hers, then laying a trail of heat along her throat.

"Hyun Chul, please don't. You have to stop."

He lifted his head from the curve of her neck to look into the deep pools of her eyes, huge now with fear and desire. His own breathing was ragged. She knew a sharp fear that the decision to stop or go on would be taken out of her hands.

"Sun Mi," he murmured, and bent to claim her lips again, but she turned her head and pushed him away.

"No Hyun Chul, no more."

A long breath escaped from his lips as he removed his body from hers, standing before removing a cigarette from the pack he had left on the table. Sun Mi sat up, clutching her hands together in her lap, keeping her head lowered to avoid his eyes.

"I knew you were many things, Sun Mi," he said after expelling a swift and violent stream of smoke. "I never thought you were a tease."

"I'm not!" she protested, her head snapping up at the harshness of his tone. "That's unfair. Just because I stopped, just because I didn't let you........" Her voice broke. She was filled with confusion and embarrassment, and a perverse longing to be held again in his arms.

"You are not a child," he began with an anger that caused her lips to tremble. "What is the usual outcome when two people kiss like that, when a woman allows a man to touch her like that?" His eyes were dark with barely suppressed fury, and she sat mutely, having been unprepared for the degree his temper could reach. "You wanted me as much as I wanted you. Stop playing games. You're a grown woman. Stop behaving like an innocent young girl."

The remark scored, and the telltale flush crept to her cheeks before she could lower her lashes to conceal painful discomfort. Hyun Chul gaped at her, anger struggling with stunned disbelief. "Good heavens, you've never been with a man before, have you?"

Sun Mi shut her eyes in humiliation, and she remained stubbornly silent.

"How's that possible?" he asked in a voice tingled with reluctant amusement. "How does a woman reach the ripe old age of twenty-four with looks like yours and remain as pure as the driven snow?"

"It hasn't been all that difficult," she muttered, and looked anywhere in the room but at him, "I avoid intimate encounter.........." She made a small, helpless shrug.

"You could have told me about your innocence before things get out of hand," he advised caustically, crushing his cigarette with undue force.

"Maybe I should pain a red V for virgin on my forehead - then there'd be no confusion." Sun Mi flared, lifting her chin in bold defiance.

"You know, you're gorgeous when you're angry." He spoke coolly, but the steel vibrated in his tone, causal elegance wrapped around a volatile force. "Watch yourself, or I'll have another go at changing your status."

"I don't think you would ever stoop to forcing a woman," she retorted as he moved to pick up his jacket.

"Don't count on it." His voice was deadly soft as he gave her a firm nudge back on the couch. "I make a point of getting what I want." His eyes moved lazily over her slim body, pausing on the lips still soft from his. "Make no mistake," he went on as she began to tremble under his prolonged gaze. "I could have you here and now without forcing but" - he moved to the door - "I can afford to wait."



Note from Messenger:

As requested, here is another long chapter for your enjoyment. Hopefully you guys didn't get all worked up and then.................frustrated like Hyun Chul. I'm afraid this is as "hot" as it gets. Have a good week ahead and thanks once again for your support.

Happy Reading!