“There is something suspicious going on between the two of them.”

“What makes you think so?”

“Our Woohyun...he’s been acting differently around her recently. Whenever they are in the same room together, I always catch him stealing glances at that girl. Don’t you think we should do something?”

“I think you’re reading too much into things. What do you plan on doing anyway? Make Chorong leaves? She’s a nice girl, leave her alone. And even if it’s true that Woohyun has some kind of feelings for her, I don’t see any wrong in it.”

“Nothing wrong? You must be out of your mind. Have you forgotten about our reputation? Our status differences? She’s just a maid.”

“Chorong-ah, can I say something?”

The young housemaid looked up from the table she was wiping and gave Mrs Kim a tired smile.

“Sure. What is it ahjumma?”

The elder woman stood closer to her and leaned down to whisper something.

“Is there anything going on between you and the young master?”

Chorong, who was taken aback by Mrs Kim’s sudden question, straightened up abruptly and almost knocking over the latter unintentionally.

“Ahjumma...” she let out a small gasp. “What are you talking about? Me and Woohyun? That’s impossible.”

“You called him Woohyun...” Mrs Kim stated as she inhaled sharply and narrowed her eyes disapprovingly at the bewildered girl.

“Oh no no,” Chorong eyes widened in surprised when she realised what she had done and waved her hands in denial. “It’s not what you think it is.”

“Well...I don’t know what’s exactly going on between the two of you. But you better be careful Chorong...if Madam and Sir both finds out about this...”

“No!” Chorong yelped out. “I promise you...there’s nothing going on between the two of us ahjumma.”

Mrs Kim nodded her head thoughtfully.

“Perhaps, you’re the only one who thinks that way?”

Woohyun paced back and forth across the rooftop restlessly. He glanced down at his wrist watch for the tenth time that evening.

Where was she? She said that she would meet him here at 6.30pm sharp.

But it was already ten minutes past 6 and she was nowhere to be seen.

Just then, he heard footsteps hurrying from behind him. Woohyun whirled around expectantly and he couldn’t stop the smile from appearing on his face when he saw her flushed face emerging from the stairwell.

“There you are,” he pretended to frown in annoyance. “What were you thinking keeping me waiting for you?

“I’m sorry Woohyun-ssi. I had a little trouble getting out of the house just now.” Chorong’s head hung down low as she tried to explain herself. “Madam was asking me a lot of questions.”

He felt his heart skipped a beat. Why was his mother suddenly interrogating Chorong in that manner?

“So what did you tell her?”

“I said that I had some errands to run. But Woohyun-ssi...is this really necessary? What is that you wanted to tell me that was so important?”

“Well, of course it is. Come here, I have something to show you.”

He waited for her as she took tentative steps closer to him. Woohyun rolled his eyes in disbelief. Why was she behaving like he was some kind of erted guy?

“Come here,” he said again as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer. He could feel her trying to yank away from his grip but Woohyun managed to hold on tightly to her hand. “Look at the view. Beautiful isn’t it?”

Chorong finally gave up trying to release herself and looked up reluctantly at the direction he was pointing at. And it made her gasp in awe.

“Wow. I’ve never witnessed any sunset in my whole life before,” she murmured impressively as she took a step forward. Woohyun let go of her willingly and just smiled to himself as he watched her. She looked just like a kid being given a candy, with her eyes twinkling in excitement.

“It’s so beautiful. How did you find out about this place?”

Woohyun shoved both of his hands into his front pocket and sauntered over towards where she was standing.

“Amazing isn’t it? I always come here whenever I’m feeling down and upset. Or just simply when I want to be left alone.”

Chorong turned her head to face him and gave him a puzzled look.

“So...why did you bring me here then? If this is your secret place or something.”

“Because I want it to be our secret place from now on.”

She could’ve sworn she had heard him wrongly. Because there was no way he had just...

“I’ve given this a lot of thought Chorong. And I realised that I can’t keep this to myself any longer. I can’t deny my feelings anymore.”

Woohyun turned to face her now and pulled out both of his hands from his pocket. His right hand reached over for hers before giving it a gentle squeeze.

Chorong, on the other hand, was too stunned to even do anything to stop him.

“I’ve tried...tried so bad to ignore these growing feelings for you but I can’t. I’ve fallen for you...and I’ve fallen hard.”

“Y-young master,” she started to stutter as she pulled her hand away from his grasp slowly. “Please don’t do this. It’s wrong. Don’t you know that?”

Woohyun’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Wrong? Last time I checked, it isn’t a sin to fall in love Chorong. What are you talking about?”

Chorong shook her head sadly at him.

“We can’t be together. We’re too far apart. There are so many differences...”

“Stop,” he cut her off before she could finish her sentence. “I don’t want to hear about those nonsensical stuff coming from you. Do I look like I care about all those things? About statuses and everything else?”

“You may not. But your family do...” she replied softly. “Young master, please. I don’t want to lose my job.”

In his anger, Woohyun hadn’t seemed to realise Chorong had started to call him young master once again. He shook his head in disbelief at the things that he was hearing. This was absurd.

“They’re not the ones in this Chorong. This is about us. And I know for the fact that you actually like me too.”

She was about to open to deny his last statement but decided against it. They were both adults. Surely they could talk about their feelings openly. And he was right. She has started to care about him. Really care.

“That isn’t important here. Just know that we can’t have any kind of romantic relationship. I hope you understand my situation young master.”

And with that, she turned around and started to walk away. But she was only about a few steps away when she felt two arms slipping around her waist and hugging onto her tightly.

“Hajima. Don’t go,” he whispered into her ear.