There was no way she was mistaken.
The warmth overflowing from him—it wasn’t something Baek Eun-seol could possibly misinterpret.
The two engravings that had taken root in her body had ensured that she could never feel warmth again, not even by mistake.
Even when she had been on the verge of diving into molten lava, her body had failed to register any sensation of heat.
Because this wasn’t just cold—it was yin energy.
An energy that couldn’t simply be countered by ordinary warmth.
And that was why Baek Eun-seol craved it.
“Excuse me?”
“Gasp…!!”
Her breath hitched.
With every inhale, her body burned.
Her heart pounded violently, her very being desperately changing in an attempt to seize the warmth overflowing before her.
She couldn’t breathe.
But after seven years—seven years of nothing but unrelenting cold—her rationality was already crumbling.
She had finally found it.
At last, she had discovered the door that could lead her out of this hell.
The emotions she had buried for so long—grief, joy, and something she couldn’t even name—all surged forth at once.
And before anything else—her tears spilled over.
Si-woo didn’t question it.
‘Ah… another one who got rejected after confessing, huh?’
A customer collapsing in the hallway, crying while looking at someone nearby—it was a scene he had seen before.
A textbook case of someone who had gotten attached to a host, confessed, and been turned down.
It wasn’t uncommon.
From people who foolishly believed in a host’s sincerity to those with actual mental illnesses, Si-woo had seen them all.
For hosts, dealing with such people was just part of the job—as long as they had money, that was.
So, naturally, Si-woo assumed this was just another one of those cases.
“Are you okay?”
“…Haa… Haa…”
It was a simple, thoughtless question.
But Baek Eun-seol couldn’t answer.
Her rationality had already been overridden.
Her long-suppressed emotions and her desperate desire had taken its place.
She had just escaped hell.
There was no way she was capable of holding a proper conversation right now.
Grab—!!!
“Urgh! M-Ma’am?!”
“Just let me stay like this for a moment. Just a little while… that’s all I need.”
She embraced the warmth.
Burying her face into Si-woo’s chest, Baek Eun-seol spoke in a voice that was soft, almost pleading.
The body that had been frozen solid for years slowly began to thaw.
And with it.
The exhaustion and limits she had ignored for so long, hidden beneath the overwhelming cold, rushed toward her all at once.
Fatigue she had never even noticed—because it had been overshadowed by the pain of the frost—finally made itself known the moment that frost faded.
“Mmh…”
Her eyelids grew heavy.
It was similar to passing out—yet distinctly different.
She desperately clung to consciousness, fighting against the pull of sleep.
With her sheer willpower, she could have resisted this mere exhaustion.
‘Not yet… I can’t…’
But the security—the sheer comfort—that this warmth provided shattered her defenses like a sandcastle against a wave.
Her consciousness flickered.
The only thing keeping her awake was her fragile, desperate desire to feel the warmth just a little longer.
But the exhaustion came crashing down like a tsunami—far too much for her to resist.
And so—
“…What the hell.”
She fell asleep.
Her face, still buried against Si-woo’s chest, looked incredibly peaceful.
So much so that it was impossible to believe this was the same person who had been sobbing uncontrollably just moments ago.
“Wait… hold on a second!!”
Squeeze—!!
She’s not letting go.
Si-woo had completed the physical transformation that naturally came with the Symbol of Allure, even if he had never been properly trained.
But even with that—he still couldn’t escape Baek Eun-seol’s grip.
She may have been a magic-user, but she was still an S-rank Hunter.
And Si-woo, who had never received proper combat training, stood absolutely no chance against her raw strength.
“Haah… What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
“What are you doing over there?”
A sudden voice rang out, making Si-woo’s face light up in relief.
The person most likely to resolve this situation.
And one of the very few women in this host bar who didn’t view Si-woo with romantic interest.
“Madam.”
“Haah… What is it this time?”
Yoo Seo-ha, the Madam of Fixer, sighed in exasperation as she loosened her tie and approached Si-woo.
“I told you to keep your affectionate displays in check. If a VIP host starts acting like this in the hallway, you’ll ruin the fantasy for the other VIPs.”
“I know that. But this customer won’t let go.”
“What kind of bullshit—Wait. What the hell? Why is she here?”
“You know her, Madam?”
“Rather than an acquaintance… We were classmates.”
“Classmates? In what?”
At the Hunter Academy.
Baek Eun-seol dreamed often.
The damned frost that had invaded her body never allowed her to fall into a deep sleep.
Even if she collapsed into unconsciousness, nightmares always followed.
The dreams varied in content, but the setting was always the same—
A glacial wasteland, where the wind howled violently.
A land so barren, life could not take root.
And there, standing alone in that desolate world.
A single, pure white flower.
Dreams flowed, ever-changing.
The details were always vague, yet that land and that solitary flower had carved themselves into Baek Eun-seol’s memory.
That’s why she thought this dream would be no different.
“It’s warm.”
But she was wrong.
This time.
She stood in a field bathed in sunlight.
A land overflowing with life.
And amidst that vibrant scenery, her gaze landed on a single flower.
A pure white flower, unmistakably the same one that had once bloomed in that frozen wasteland.
But this time.
It did not radiate cold.
She stared blankly at the pure white flower as it melted under the blazing sunlight.
Drop by drop, the petals dissolved away.
“…Ah.”
How much time had passed?
When Baek Eun-seol finally awoke, she found herself staring dazedly at an unfamiliar ceiling.
Slowly, as the remnants of sleep faded, the light of reason returned to her blue eyes.
Memories surged back like flashes of lightning.
Emotions once suppressed by overwhelming joy resurfaced, and with them came a deep, suffocating sense of shame.
‘I… want to die.’
She had sobbed in the arms of a man she had never met before.
Without explaining her circumstances, she had surrendered to desire, indulging in the warmth she had longed for.
Even when her rationality had returned midway, she had been so desperate for warmth that she clung to him even tighter.
And now.
That sensation was still so painfully vivid.
‘It… it was warm.’
“If you’re satisfied, could you maybe… let go now?”
“…Huh?”
Wait.
It felt way too vivid.
Finally, Baek Eun-seol processed the situation she was in.
The soft cushioning against her back confirmed that she was lying on a bed.
The pitch-black sky outside the window told her that it was already late into the night.
And then.
She felt it.
The heat radiating from a firm, muscular build.
The unmistakable sensation of a male body—something she had never felt before.
“I’m starting to have trouble breathing here.”
At this very moment.
She was hugging a man.
“Eh—ah. I, um—!!”
Fully grasping the situation, Baek Eun-seol’s face turned an alarming shade of red.
Overwhelmed by a mix of shame, gratitude, and guilt, Baek Eun-seol hurriedly sat up in bed.
“I-I’m sorry!!”
But she didn’t move far.
And just from that small separation.
The warmth that had completely filled her body moments ago vanished.
Yet.
Snow White’s Flower did not bloom again.
The frost did not reclaim her body.
‘It’s… neutralizing?’
Even with some distance between them, there was no sign of the usual frost creeping back into her veins.
Instinctively, she tried releasing yin energy to counter the overwhelming yang energy that Si-woo emitted.
But instead of icy cold, the energy merely dissipated into the air—creating a mild chill, rather than the suffocating frost she was used to.
She had gotten lucky.
That was the only way to describe it.
Si-woo, the embodiment of yang energy, had no idea how to properly suppress his Symbol of Allure.
And on the other hand, Baek Eun-seol had been holding back her frost for years.
Their abilities had accidentally balanced each other out.
‘If it stays like this…’
She could live normally.
The cold that wrapped around her body now was no worse than a chilly autumn breeze.
With that realization sinking in, Baek Eun-seol finally turned her attention to Si-woo—who was watching her with an exasperated expression.
She let out a small sigh.
“Are you able to have a proper conversation now?”
“Ah… yeah. Sorry about that. I lost control for a moment.”
“Don’t worry. The fact that you managed to regain your senses at all is impressive.”
And she meant it.
Considering the kinds of feral women Si-woo had been dealing with lately, Baek Eun-seol—who was still capable of rational conversation—easily ranked in the top 30% of his customers.
“Alright then, let’s talk.”
“Yeah, that’s right. First, I should explain—”
“Understood. I’ll go first.”
“…Huh?”
Wait.
Why was she the one explaining?
Before Si-woo could even ask, Baek Eun-seol casually picked up a receipt from the table and held it out to him.
“VIP Overnight Stay.”
“Base fee: 5,000,000 won.”
“Including 32 instances of hugging and other physical contact, plus late-night room service—”
“Your total comes to 11,829,900 won.”
“…What?”
“Cards are not accepted. Please choose between cash or bank transfer, dear customer.”