YHTI 03

Chapter: 03

“Yoonseul.”

At the same time as that chilling voice she never wanted to hear again pierced her ears, Woo Taekyung appeared before her.

The sight of him mercilessly slapping her across the face was nowhere to be found. Instead, he was kneeling on one knee with a gentle, warm smile.

When Yoonseul lowered her gaze, she saw a sparkling diamond ring in his hand.

“Marry me.”

They say that after you die, the scenes of your life flash before your eyes.

Of all things, why was she seeing a memory so filthy that she wanted to carve it out with a knife?

“Yoonseul?”

Perhaps flustered by her lack of response, Taekyung nervously moved his eyes around, conscious of his surroundings.

‘What is this? This never happened…’

Just as she was puzzled by the scene that differed from her memories, the sweet scent of chocolate cake suddenly wafted into her nose.

The smell was so vivid that it stimulated her salivary glands.

Yoonseul quietly looked down at her trembling hand.

She opened her fist, then clenched it tightly again.

The realization that her palm hurt where her nails were digging into it made her heart pound wildly.

She could clearly feel hot blood flowing through her body.

Thirty-three years old.

She had definitely died miserably in front of Min Junghee.

Yet when she opened her eyes, she was twenty-three.

She had returned ten years into the past, to the moment when Taekyung was proposing to her.

At the same time as she realized that her mind was unbelievably clear, unlike the foggy state it had always been in from the effects of medication, moist tears gathered in the corners of Yoonseul’s eyes.

Misinterpreting those tears however he pleased, Taekyung spoke in a relaxed voice.

“Ah… What is this? Is our Seul crying because she’s so touched?”

What an absurd misunderstanding.

Yoonseul composed her boiling emotions and wiped the corners of her eyes.

“Oh, Seul. What am I going to do with you when you’re this sensitive?”

Taekyung straightened his bent knee and stood up.

When he reached a hand toward her cheek, Yoonseul was startled and slapped his hand away.

“Seul? Why are you acting like this? Are you just too surprised?”

Seeing his fake face filled with concern suddenly made nausea surge through her.

Yoonseul abruptly stood up and rushed to the restroom.

“Ugh.”

She kept gagging.

“Seul, are you okay?”

At the sound of Taekyung’s voice as he followed her into the restroom, Yoonseul furrowed her brow irritably.

“This is the women’s restroom. Get out.”

When she heard the door close, Yoonseul took a deep breath and felt relieved.

She went to the sink and washed her hands while lost in thought.

She wanted to slap that disgusting face right now and tell him they were breaking up.

But she wouldn’t.

Just as they had thoroughly deceived her, she would deceive them just as thoroughly while staying by their side.

The people who became my family for money and killed me.

‘This time, I will never become your family. I won’t let a single penny flow into your hands. I’ll make you betray each other and tear each other apart until you want to kill one another.’

Instead of innocence, a cruel and venomous determination filled Yoonseul’s eyes in the mirror.

After calming her breathing, she returned to the table.

Taekyung looked at her with concern.

“Seul, are you okay?”

“I didn’t sleep well last night, so I guess my stomach wasn’t feeling good. I’m sorry. You must have been really surprised.”

“No, don’t worry about me.”

Taekyung gently brushed her hair aside and whispered in a tender voice.

Every place his fingertips touched felt disgusting, as though insects were crawling over her skin, but Yoonseul pulled up the corners of her lips and smiled.

There was no reason she couldn’t perform the same play they had performed.

Until the day she brought them to ruin, she would smile so brightly that her face ached.

“You’ll accept the ring, right?”

Taekyung scratched his head shyly.

The expression that had once looked so innocent now seemed utterly repulsive to her.

Without answering, Yoonseul stared at the diamond ring in his hand.

“Of course…”

She deliberately trailed off.

She could see anticipation spreading across Taekyung’s face.

“I’ll put it on you.”

Just as he mistook her answer for acceptance and tried to slide the ring onto her left ring finger, Yoonseul deliberately curled her finger and clenched her hand into a fist.

The bright smile on Taekyung’s face turned dark in real time.

Yoonseul drooped her eyes as though she were terribly sorry and spoke in a small voice.

“Of course I want to accept it. But I’m worried about Mom.”

“Ah…”

Taekyung froze like ice with his hand still extended in the air.

Then he quietly acknowledged her words and immediately began trying to persuade her.

“I think your mother would welcome it with open arms. She wants our Seul to be happy more than anyone.”

Yoonseul barely suppressed the urge to spit in Taekyung’s face as he spouted such nonsense.

“You know how much Mom raised me with love even though I’m not her biological daughter. I want to stay by her side and be a good daughter a little longer.”

For a brief moment, Taekyung’s face stiffened slightly.

But that was all.

Until he got her signature on the marriage registration, he would willingly make himself completely subordinate to her.

“Okay. Our Yoonseul really is thoughtful. But please think about me, too. I want to become family with you as soon as possible. I’m thirty this year, too… Sorry. It’s because I’m older.”

In the past, Taekyung had also apologized this way while subtly pressuring Yoonseul by bringing up their seven-year age difference.

It had worked back then.

But not anymore.

Now she knew that what he needed was not a family, but a marriage registration that would allow him to take her inheritance.

“I really like you, Taekyung… but I guess I still like being by Mom’s side more.”

“Ah… I see. I guess I’ll have to try harder if I want to take our Seul away.”

Yes. I’ll see just how hard you try.

Run around like a dog and try your best to please me.

Of course, even that won’t make you my husband.

‘There is no chance I will ever become family with you again, Woo Taekyung.’

Yoonseul looked at him with gentle eyes, hiding her icy expression.

“Still, thank you, Taekyung. For preparing a proposal like this.”

“Why are you thanking me? I could do something like this dozens of times.”

“Shall we go now?”

Not wanting to spend another moment with him, Yoonseul was the first to gather her things and stand up.

She refused his offer to drive her home and immediately called a taxi.

The design of the cell phone, with its small screen and physical home button, reminded her once again that she was ten years in the past.

“You must have worked hard preparing the proposal, so go home and get some rest. You have work tomorrow, too.”

“Our Seul is so considerate. Then contact me when you get home.”

“I will.”

After the taxi started moving, Yoonseul watched through the rearview mirror as Taekyung hurriedly called someone.

Min Sara.

Maybe Min Junghee.

Yoonseul was very curious about what expressions the two of them would be making after hearing that his proposal had failed.

Before opening the front door, Yoonseul closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

When she thought of the demons waiting inside, fear and revulsion enveloped her entire body.

She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them and pulled down the door handle.

“I’m home.”

“Our daughter, you’re back?”

As soon as she entered, Junghee warmly approached her as she always did.

Junghee gently took hold of her wrist and led her toward the sofa.

For a moment, the sensation of having her wrists restrained countless times in the hospital flashed through Yoonseul’s mind, making her breath catch.

She was so frightened that her fingertips trembled, but Yoonseul endured it without pulling her hand away from Junghee’s.

“Did you have a nice date?”

At Junghee’s casual question, Yoonseul nodded with an expression full of excitement.

In the past, Yoonseul had told Junghee every little detail about her daily life, from beginning to end.

She had liked the attention Junghee gave her as she listened carefully to everything she said.

Using all the information she had gathered that way, Junghee had been able to keep a close eye on Yoonseul’s every move.

“We had a great time.”

“Did you go somewhere nice?”

“We went to a restaurant on the Han River. It was a place that had been remodeled from a ship…”

How wonderful the atmosphere had been.

How delicious the food was.

Yoonseul deliberately filled the conversation with nothing but meaningless details.

She did not utter a single word about the proposal, which was what Junghee was most curious about.

She had probably already heard the news from Taekyung, so she must have been extremely curious about what Yoonseul was thinking.

But until Yoonseul brought it up first, Junghee could never bring up the proposal herself.

‘Mom, you must be terribly frustrated, right? But you’ll continue to be frustrated from now on, too.’

Because I’ll never give you the bait you want again.

After spending a long time making meaningless conversation, Yoonseul went upstairs to her room on the second floor and lay down on the bed without even turning on the light.

She had prepared herself thoroughly, but when she actually came face-to-face with the person who had killed her, her fingertips trembled, her heart pounded as though it would burst, and her stomach churned with nausea.

Smiling at someone she wanted to strangle immediately was an exhausting task.

“This time, it’s your turn to suffer.”

She would make them pay dearly, one by one.

After strengthening her resolve once again, Yoonseul abruptly got up, turned on the light, and sat down at her desk.

There was something she had to do before anything else.

“Min Sara, this time, you’re going to pay dearly for stealing someone else’s writing.”