When Gyeong-eun had eaten about half her rice, Seong-ho rose from his seat.

"Seong-ho, why are you getting up?"

Since Seong-ho always sat across from her until she finished eating, Gyeong-eun asked why he was rising, a note of disappointment in her voice.

Seong-ho looked at her, smiled softly, and told her why.

"To finish the meal—a cup of coffee. What do you say?"

"Coffee?"

Gyeong-eun asked in a voice that hadn't expected it at all, and Seong-ho said to her with a smiling face,

"Stay and keep eating. I'll make you a nice cold americano."

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it. When I serve, I do it properly—today you just receive, Gyeong-eun."

"All right. Then next time it's my turn."

"I'll look forward to it."

Saying he'd look forward to being served himself, Seong-ho headed for the kitchen. He brewed the coffee and came back to where Gyeong-eun was with a chilled americano.

While Seong-ho made the coffee, Gyeong-eun had finished eating; she took the cup he handed her, drank, and patted her stomach.

"Seong-ho, a cold coffee to finish a meal is so nice. My mouth even feels refreshed."

Drinking the cold coffee once more with a pleased expression, Gyeong-eun asked in an admiring voice,

"I had no idea you brewed coffee this well. You're no less than a barista."

Seong-ho smiled quietly at her praise and asked,

"Gyeong-eun. What if you had a cold americano like this after lunch too—how would that be?"

"That would be lovely."

Gyeong-eun answered the instant he asked, as if it needed no second thought. She lifted her cup and said,

"After lunch, the after-meal drowsiness is bound to come. But drinking a cold coffee like this refreshes you, and it seems it would even raise your afternoon work capacity."

"And in the morning?"

"Mornings would be good too."

Gyeong-eun set down the cup she'd raised and said,

"When you've only just woken and you're still half in a daze, a coffee would clear your head."

Finishing, she looked at Seong-ho curiously.

"But why do you ask something like this all of a…