“What are you doing right now?”

Those steel-gray eyes—sometimes they didn’t even seem human. Even as Seoryeong carefully examined his face, relieved that he was awake, her hands never stopped moving.

She tied the wire around one of his wrists, then fastened the other end to her own. Lee Wooshin simply stared at her, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“It may look ridiculous, but I caught you, Instructor.”

“......!”

“I’m the one who caught you.”

Pain flared through her muscles like fire, but her head was bursting with victory like fireworks. Her eyes crinkled deep, and her lips curved up proudly. The corners of her cheeks rose so high it pulled at her face.

“No taking it back later, okay?”

A row of white teeth peeked out, and playful wrinkles bunched at the bridge of her nose.

It wasn’t the forced or imitated smile she’d worn so many times—it was the first genuine, electrified emotion she’d expressed since her husband disappeared.

The smile she once reserved only for Kim Hyeon. The warm, unguarded smile she’d shared only with him. Now she smiled like that again, looking down at the man who still hadn’t risen.

Lee Wooshin, his face contorted from the fall, couldn’t take his eyes off her. His throat bobbed slowly, like he was swallowing something bitter.

“Unbelievable... Waking up to this shit.”

“Does your wrist hurt? Did I tie it too tight?”

“It’s not that it hurts or that it’s tight. I’m just wondering who the hell smiles like that in front of their instructor.”

“...Huh?”

“If you’re going to smile, know when and where. Why show a face like that outside the bedroom?”

“I didn’t—!”

“When you’re on duty, the default is a blank face. Always.”

His gaze moved slowly, coldly—scanning her from head to toe, pausing at her eyes, her lips, and then deeper. The way he looked at her mouth, her tongue, her teeth—it felt predatory, like he was lining up a shot.

That intense stare dried her throat instantly. She became hyper-aware of things she’d never even thought about—like the way her tongue moved in her mouth, where it sat. It all felt unnatural under that scrutiny.

Even her jaw, still parted from the smile, suddenly felt stiff and awkward. His gaze always did that—tightened muscles, pinned down nerves.

Maybe it was because she’d never shared this kind of raw eye contact with anyone before. Her mind reflexively turned to Kim Hyeon, to the gentleness he once gave her. She clung to that memory without knowing why.

“So... what now?” she asked quietly.

At that, Lee Wooshin groaned and slowly sat up, resting his head against the frozen cliff wall. He furrowed his brow here and there, but his voice remained level.

“There are two options. Climb up, or go down.”

“......!”

He wants us to move? She had assumed they’d just wait for rescue. Seoryeong couldn’t even open her mouth to respond.

Noticing her silence, Wooshin leaned his head back further and scoffed.

“Ah—of course. Recruit Han Seoryeong always preferred being on top.”

“What...!”

“But realistically, neither option works. We can’t climb ice barehanded. No gear.”

“.......”

“So we wait.”

Abruptly, he tore off the pompom from his coat’s hood and smashed it against the ground.

“There’s a locator inside.”

From the dented, cracked fabric, a faint red light blinked. He then crushed the entire device against the stone floor.

“This’ll make them realize something’s gone wrong. The last signal came from here, so they’ll figure it out. Until then, our job is not to freeze to death.”

The problem was—they had no gear, no bags, no nothing. And Seoryeong had even thrown away her coat.

As reality sank in, the adrenaline that had carried her this far ebbed away. Her jaw chattered. Her fingertips throbbed.

Then, Lee Wooshin took off his balaclava and pulled it snugly over her head.

“Mmfh...!”

She struggled to pull it up past her forehead. Her face was red and raw from the cloth scraping over it. He reached out without comment and tugged the knit material over her nose.

“Head warmth is the most important. You lose about forty percent of your body heat through your head. Especially the brain—it can’t tolerate cold. So just wear it. Quietly.”

“What about you, Instructor...”

“I’m wearing polypropylene base layers and everything’s Gore-Tex.”

He tugged his padded hood up loosely.

It was her first time in a true survival situation, but seeing him so calm gave her a strange sense of peace. Maybe it was irrational, but she felt—somehow—they wouldn’t die here.

They sat side by side, backs against the cliff wall, battered by the storm.

“I’m going into the Special Security Team.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“What?”

“You’re still talking about that?”

“What else matters right now? I fell off a cliff trying to catch you.”

“.......”

“I won.”

She jiggled the wrist still bound to his. Wooshin turned away with a deep scowl, like he didn’t even want to speak to her anymore.

By then, the cold sweat from the earlier chase had dried, and the chill began to creep in. Her hands and feet were already numb. Her stomach felt like it had been hollowed out.

She hadn’t eaten anything solid in days—just water—and now even that wasn’t an option. She curled her knees up and let her body sag slightly when—

Ziiiip— A zipper slid down, and her hair was gently tugged.

“Get in here. First, we survive.”

Wooshin had unzipped his parka and jerked his chin at her.

Seoryeong froze. She just stared at him.

“You’re letting all the heat out.”

“You could just give me your jacket...”

“I hate the cold.”

She hesitated. It felt wrong to press her body against his. But maybe he was right—survival came first. She gave him a sheepish nod, like she was sliding over a movie theater seat.

She crept into the coat. A hard thigh met her rear.

She stiffened, sat upright like a statue. He chuckled softly.

“Recruit Han Seoryeong is oddly polite about the weirdest things.”

Suddenly, her butt was «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» yanked forward. She found herself face-to-face with him, straddling his lap. He spread her calves wide and pulled her waist flush to his.

Chest to chest, abdomen to abdomen. Too close to be called “close.” His breath brushed against her lips—hot, ticklish.

But Wooshin didn’t care if she was embarrassed or not. He crushed her trembling body in his arms, smothering the cold with suffocating strength. It was a bone-deep bear hug that made her ribs ache.

She’d been forcibly exposed before—but this, this sensation of someone’s warmth plugging every draft in her body, she’d never imagined it.

When she tried to wriggle her hips away, he sensed it instantly and slapped her ass through the coat.

“Ah...!”

She was too stunned to speak. It was already freezing—should she be thankful for the added heat?

She just blew out clouds of breath with wide, stunned eyes.

“There’s a cliff right below. Where do you think you’re escaping to this time?”

He frowned, staring at the back of her neck.

“You’re fine with other guys’ dicks, but survival contact makes you uncomfortable?”

The same sense of danger she’d felt in the woods crept back now.

When she instinctively twitched again, his eyes sharpened into a cruel smile.

“How the hell am I supposed to take someone like you into the field as a rookie?”

He gnawed absently at the skin on his lips and glared down at her neck.

“You’re about to enter the Special Security Team—our top recruit—and you come in with bite marks on your skin. You didn’t stab him properly, didn’t smash his face. You just let yourself get put on display. So why the hell do you keep squirming like you’ve earned something?”

“......!”

Top recruit... entering the Special Security Team...?

Her face lit up for a moment.

For the first time, the instructor who always pushed her away, berated her, humiliated her—had left a door open.

Not just that—he’d said something shockingly validating, as if he would actually accept her onto his team.

Even though she was freezing, even though the world spun around her, a flicker of warmth began to bloom in her chest.

“Just know this. If I don’t like how something’s done, I’ll beat my own team down too.”

“You mean like my ass earlier?”

“.......”

“So have you ever hit Instructor Jin Hoje’s ass too?”

She asked it brightly. He scrunched his brow like he couldn’t believe what he’d heard, then turned away with a pained expression.

Lee Wooshin stared at the wire still binding his wrist and looked like he was seriously debating whether to just snap it in half.