PROMPT: Her arranged marriage to secure a family merger was intended to last for only a year. When her husband suddenly dies, no one expected Yoon Seri to assume control — least of all Ri Jeong Hyeok, the head of the competitor company, and the true love of her life.
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"Daepyonim, did you hear what I just said?"

Breaking out of the daze he had entered into when he first heard the name he's been trying to forget for the past two years, Ri Jeong Hyeok focuses his gaze on his senior assistant, and goes back to his CEO persona.

"Yes, I did," he says coolly, his hands intertwined and perched on the desk.

The assistant nods, the concerned look on his face now replaced by a neutral expression. "For a while there, you looked as though you didn't know who she was."

Didn't know who she was?

That was just impossible. To put it simply, Yoon Seri was the love of his life.

Growing up in chaebol families, the two of them were destined to be in each other's lives, having been enrolled in the same etiquette classes, the same boarding school, the same business lessons.

This string of fate seemed to have been attached to their navels since birth, continuously bringing them together as they grew up, until, finally, Fate did its work, and the two of them fell in love.

To claim that Ri Jeong Hyeok didn't know who Yoon Seri was would be a gross understatement, a damnable lie, a violation of the natural course of things.

He knew everything about her, from the history of her family, to the genes that make up her entire existence, to the very blood that courses through her veins.

He knew exactly where the bruises on her legs were, the ones she had as a child when she used to ride horses and fell during one lesson, for he was the first one to rush to her side and to tend to her wounds.

He knew her taste buds, and how she absolutely hated eating food that was too salty, too sweet, too anything, so that Jeong Hyeok unwittingly mastered the art of cooking if only to get her to eat more.

He knew how she liked her coffee in the morning, how her hands would always flail about animatedly while she told a story, how she loved walking around the house wearing just his shirt, how the sight and sound of him playing the piano would make her fall asleep in a heartbeat.

He knew how she absolutely hated working for her family, vowing passionately to start her own company as soon as she was able to, and how she liked appearing like a cold boss to all of her employees, but was exactly like a puppy dog whenever she was with him.

He knew what she looked like without her clothes on, all the delicious curves and crevices of her body, the sight of that impish smile on her face reserved only for him, the scent of her sweat intermingling with his as he ground himself inside her like only he could.

He knew how she liked to whisper his name as if in reverence when he kissed the elegant line of her neck, all the way up to her chin until his mouth found its way back to hers, and how she would clutch his head and scream his name as she came undone in his arms.

He knew how she tasted in his tongue, how every patch of her skin was plump and perfect, like a mixture of salted caramel and sweet nectarines.

He knew the sounds she made when their bodies were pressed together on his bed, the moon and the stars the only spectators to the love they would make over and over until the clouds broke apart to welcome the morning sun.

He also knew that she chose to fulfill a family obligation and, in the process, broke his heart.

"It's only for a year," she had pleaded to him that fateful day when their stars started misaligning. "He knows I love you, he knows he can never have me. It's just for the sake of the merger, Jeong Hyeok."

The damned merger would save Seri's family from impending bankruptcy, while letting the other man's company fulfill a business goal.

It seemed simple enough, and the arrangement required nothing more from Seri and her would-be husband than their signatures on a paper, and occasional joint appearances to the public.

But it was a blow to Jeong Hyeok's heart that none of her assurances can keep at bay.

No matter how hard Seri convinced him that she loved him and only him, or that she "won't let any other man touch me or kiss me or have me," or that, "the one year will pass us by like lightning," he still couldn't fathom the idea of her sharing a life with any other man than him.

Besides, though it was only for show, a marriage remained to be a sacred union in his eyes, so he made the difficult but necessary decision to step away from her life.

Her status in society allowed him to stay updated on everything about her, but he exerted extra effort not to dwell on her anymore, for he thought it was only fair for the both of them if he would let go.

Then, all of a sudden, Seri's husband died of a heart attack while they were still married, sending their company into a downfall.

No one, most of all Jeong Hyeok, expected the man's widow to take over.

The news that Seri had decided to take the reins left by her deceased husband came as a surprise to Jeong Hyeok, who kept wondering whatever happened to her dream of putting up her own company.

But, before he could reopen the door full of his memories of her, he remembered himself, and focused on the matter at hand.

It was going to be strictly business between the two of them moving forward, as his assistant now reminds Jeong Hyeok, waiting for the latter to voice out his orders.

"Daepyonim? Should I have her sent up?"

"Yes," is all he can really say as he prepares to meet the love of his life for the first time in two years.

Nothing, however, could fully prepare him for this moment, not even when he had first discovered that his business and hers were now virtually competitors in the market as a result of the merger and a delineation of her company's assets.

He had spent a significant amount of time telling himself that it was okay, that this meeting had to come sooner or later.

Then, before he can process another thought, the door to his office opens, and there she is.

The sight of her knocks the wind out of his lungs.

To this day, Seri remains to be the most beautiful woman he has ever seen.

As he looks at the woman he once loved more than anything in the world, Jeong Hyeok has to take a moment to stop every fibre of his being from walking towards her and taking her into his arms, from kissing her and telling her that everything is going to be okay.

Though their current paths are now designed to be traversed away from each other, it would be a lie to say she no longer affected him.

She's looking at him, too, those almond eyes still shining with so much intelligence and experience, but it was almost as if she wasn't really seeing him.

"Miss Yoon Seri," he greets her curtly as they bow to each other, but Jeong Hyeok feels as though a thousand knives were being thrown at his heart.

"Mr. Ri Jeong Hyeok," she greets back, and he finally hears, once more, the voice that would haunt him even in his dreams, calling out to him, beckoning him to come back to her, to save her, to let her know that he was still hers.

And in that one single second, after he basks in the sound of her voice, and notices the way her hands tremble on her sides, he confirms what his heart has known all this time.

He still loves her.

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Photos from BAU by Bride and You & Vast