By Zephyria 
With that brief remark, he uncrossed his legs and hastily stood up. When Winston turned to look, Yeon-woo, Keith’s partner, was standing there holding the door open. Shifting his gaze from Yeon-woo, who was looking at them, or more precisely, at Keith, with a startled expression, Winston looked across the table to see Keith, his face similarly shocked, or more accurately, pale with near-horror.
“Since when… since when have you been there… no, before that.”
Surprisingly, he even stammered. With Winston watching with interest between them, Yeon-woo opened his mouth.
“I just stopped by while passing… If you’re busy, it’s fine. Excuse me.”
“Yeon-woo, wait. It’s a misunderstanding.”
After giving a brief nod to Winston, Yeon-woo immediately turned his back and walked out of the office. Seeing this, Keith, his face pale, urgently shouted.
“You’re misunderstanding right now. Wait a minute. Wait, I said! Listen to me, Yeon-woo. Yeon-woo…!”
As Keith called his name repeatedly and tried to chase after him, Winston calmly admonished him from behind.
“So, you should have just agreed to my request, shouldn’t you?”
At the sight of Winston shaking his head and sighing as if in pity, Keith let out a short, exasperated breath.
“……Haa.”
He wanted to strangle Winston right then and there, but explaining things to Yeon-woo came first. In the end, he turned and hurriedly ran across the hallway.
“Yeon-woo, stop there! Yeon-woo!”
This is bad. He must have misunderstood for sure. Is he crying? Or is he angry? Whichever it is, I need to explain. Yeon-woo has to believe me. Damn it, why did I do something so unnecessary…!
After just a few steps, Keith caught up with Yeon-woo. At Keith’s repeated, rough shouts, Yeon-woo reluctantly stopped and turned around. Keith unconsciously bit his lower lip. Is he cryi…
“Keith?”
Yeon-woo tilted his head upon seeing the man who had chased after him. He wasn’t crying. He wasn’t angry or upset either. Seeing Yeon-woo staring back at him with a completely normal expression, rather looking surprised as if asking what was wrong, Keith was momentarily flustered. Seeing Keith like that, Yeon-woo frowned even more, puzzled.
“What’s wrong? What happened? Did something go wrong?”
“No…”
Unable to readily answer the rapid-fire questions, Keith trailed off, then let out a short sigh, Haa, and swept a hand over his face.
“I thought you had misunderstood… So I was trying to say that’s not it.”
At that, Yeon-woo blinked, then smiled wryly and asked again.
“Misunderstood? What? What did you think I thought that made you run after me looking so pale?”
With a pitying look, he raised a hand and cupped Keith’s cheek. There was no trace of suspicion or unease on his face. Only then did Keith feel relieved. He covered Yeon-woo’s hand on his cheek with his own and kissed his palm.
“That guy’s partner published a book, and I agreed to make it into a movie.”
“I see. The ‘Children of November’ you talked about before?”
“Yeah.”
It was Yeon-woo who had suggested it. Although the novel had come up in several meetings, Yeon-woo and Spencer’s influence was significant in getting it seriously moving forward.
“It’s a good work, glad it worked out. But why? Did your friend have some request? Because of the movie adaptation?”
“Something like that.”
Keith briefly explained the reason for Winston’s visit and then added.
“Of course, I’m fully respecting the original author. But he came all the way here and was being a nuisance, so I was just planning to humor him a bit…”
Keith closed and opened his eyes once, then added with a grimace.
“But of all times, you had to come in, and the timing was bad.”
“I didn’t misunderstand. I just thought there must be some circumstances.”
Yeon-woo burst out laughing and continued.
“The atmosphere seemed like some low-quality jokes were being exchanged, so I was just stepping away. I didn’t think my partner would do something so shameless.”
As Yeon-woo gave him a mischievous sidelong glance, Keith laughed and said.
“What should we do? Are you going to punish me?”
Yeon-woo’s hand was still held by Keith. Keith slyly stuck out his tongue, licked his palm, and looked down at him. Feeling a pleasant shiver run down his spine, Yeon-woo opened his mouth.
“Well… would that help fix a bad habit?”
This time, Keith slowly licked the grooves between Yeon-woo’s fingers and whispered.
“If you don’t know, why not test it out?”
With those words, Keith used his other hand to grab Yeon-woo’s waist and pull him close. He could feel Yeon-woo’s body pressed against his lower half, fully aroused. Startled, Yeon-woo unconsciously looked down, then looked back up at Keith.
“It certainly seems like your habit needs fixing.”
At that, Keith laughed silently, then tilted his head. Just as their lips were about to meet.
“Ah, right.”
As if something suddenly occurred to him, Yeon-woo’s eyes widened and he pulled his head back. Keith, having missed the kissing timing, looked down at him, bewildered. As if to say, what are you doing? But Yeon-woo paid no heed and blurted out.
“How about throwing a party?”
“A party? For what?”
At the sudden suggestion, Keith frowned deeply and asked back. He was trying to hold back from dragging Yeon-woo to the office right then and there and messing him up thoroughly, settling for just a kiss, and now Yeon-woo, oblivious to his goodwill and even avoiding that, seemed utterly vexing. But ignoring Keith, whose mind was a mess due to his heated lower half, Yeon-woo continued.
“That, the author of ‘Children of November.’ For the movie adaptation commemoration or a production party… we can make any excuse, right? How about doing something like that?”
“Are you serious?”
Keith asked, frowning. He had to maintain his rationality somehow. Focus on Yeon-woo’s words, not his lips. Damn it, focus on the words, not his neck, you crazy bastard.
“There have been many movies adapted from novels before, and there will be more. If we only do that for this novel’s author, it would be discriminatory.”
It was true. Keith wanted to applaud himself for making a rational judgment and speaking as usual. At Keith’s words, Yeon-woo went, Hmm, and sank into thought for a moment, then furrowed his brows and asked.
“Then we can do it from now on, right? Prepare gifts for the original authors of movies we’ve previously produced as a token of gratitude.”
As if he’d come up with a great idea, Yeon-woo’s eyes sparkled, and he immediately added.
“It’ll become news, so it’ll naturally be publicity. It’ll generate buzz too. Yeah, let’s make it a charity party. A charity party with the original author to commemorate the movie adaptation of ‘Children of November.’ How about it? And we can invite kids that fit the characters’ concepts, enjoy the party together, and give them gifts.”