Chapter 1
Bzzzz—
The vibration of a mobile phone shattered the silence of a bedroom sealed behind two layers of blackout curtains.
The glow from the screen spilled across the face of the man lying face-down on the bed.
Fuck.
He had assumed that if he ignored it, the call would eventually stop on its own.
Apparently, the rude bastard calling at the crack of dawn had no intention of giving up.
The muscles in his back flexed irritably.
Still burying his face in the pillow, he stretched out an arm and fumbled across the bedside table.
“What?”
His voice was thick with sleep and edged with menace.
Receiving no response from the other end, he was about to hang up.
Then—
“…It’s me. Han Joo-ah.”
Han Joo-ah.
The man’s eyelids slowly lifted as he rolled her name over his tongue.
She was one of the very few people whose name and face he actually remembered.
She was also one of the reasons he’d been forced to cut short his overseas schedule and rush back to Korea last night.
Well…
That was mostly because the old man insisted on making a fuss over family events.
Either way, it didn’t change the fact that she’d helped throw his plans into chaos.
There was no reason for him to be polite.
“So?”
“I’m outside your house, Ryu Tae-ha. Open the door.”
To be honest, whether it was Han Joo-ah or anyone else, he had every intention of ignoring an unwelcome visitor who disturbed his sleep.
“It’ll only take a minute.”
But something in her voice made his dull eyes sharpen with interest.
How should he put it?
She sounded… desperate.
And for some reason, his instincts told him that desperation was about to make things entertaining.
As he sat up, the perfectly sculpted muscles beneath his bare skin came into view.
He took a few steps towards the bedroom door before suddenly stopping.
“At least I should show some manners.”
She was supposed to become his sister-in-law soon, after all.
Standing before the tightly shut front door, Joo-ah’s heart pounded anxiously.
Will he open it?
She had made it this far, but Ryu Tae-ha wasn’t someone who could be persuaded easily.
Even Chairman Ryu—the grandfather who ruled over Taesong Group—couldn’t control him.
If anything, being turned away at the door would be the expected outcome.
Should I call again?
No… maybe I shouldn’t annoy him any further. Perhaps I should wait a little longer.
A carefree drifter, if one were being kind.
A complete menace, if one were being honest.
With someone as unpredictable as Ryu Tae-ha, his mood mattered more than anything else.
And considering she’d woken him before sunrise…
He was probably in a terrible mood.
Still, she had no choice.
She couldn’t afford to delay any longer.
Just as she let out a deep sigh while staring at her disconnected phone—
Click.
The fortress-like front door swung open.
There he stood.
His hair was still tousled from sleep.
His lazy gaze looked down at her.
The robe hanging carelessly over his trousers exposed the firm muscles beneath.
Looking like a predator disturbed in the middle of a peaceful slumber, Tae-ha radiated an even more dangerous aura than usual.
Tilting his head, he spoke in a low, mocking voice.
“Security around here must be excellent.”
The sarcasm was obvious.
How exactly did an outsider make it all the way up here?
Maybe it was because it had been so long.
The overwhelming pressure that seemed to crush everyone around him simply by existing felt unfamiliar now.
Whether Tae-ha remembered it or not, there had once been a time when they were close.
Back when they were children.
Back when Ryu Tae-ha had been shorter than she was.
Now she had to tilt her head just to meet his eyes.
Time really had passed.
“Were we always this familiar… Sister-in-law?”
It wasn’t just his height that had changed over the years.
So had their relationship.
From childhood friends…
To people destined to become family.
Though that relationship was about to change once again.
“I’m coming in.”
Resolving herself, Joo-ah brushed past him without waiting for permission.
She heard his incredulous chuckle behind her, but ignored it and walked straight to the living room before taking a seat at the table.
This was her only option.
The strongest card she had left to play.
Whether Ryu Tae-ha would agree to become that card…
She couldn’t be certain.
Stretching out his long legs and casually resting them on the table, Tae-ha unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and drank straight from it.
The icy water slid down his throat.
Has it really been twenty years?
His gaze drifted towards Han Joo-ah sitting across from him.
She’d studied ballet…
Or was it dance?
He couldn’t quite remember.
But whoever spent years training in something like that naturally carried themselves with impeccable posture.
Oddly enough, despite barging into someone else’s home before dawn, she still looked impossibly elegant.
Judging by the situation, she’d obviously come to beg him for something urgent.
Yet from her dignified expression and flawless posture…
She looked more like the owner of the house than the trespasser.
That’s so like Han Joo-ah.
As the thought crossed his mind, their eyes met.
She simply stared at him in silence.
Tae-ha held out the bottle.
“Want some?”
“No.”
He set the bottle down on the table with a sharp thunk.
That was enough wasting time.
“If you’re going to force your way into someone’s house, the least you can do is explain why.”
The lips she’d kept tightly sealed finally parted.
“I came to ask you for a favour.”
“So it seems.”
He said it casually, but he genuinely couldn’t understand.
Han Joo-ah wasn’t someone who ever needed to ask favours of anyone.
She was a woman who already possessed more than enough.
There was no need for her to lower her head to anybody.
The heiress of Sejin Trading.
The fiancée of Ryu Jin-ha, heir to Taesong Group.
Among women her age in high society, she’d easily rank within the top five in terms of wealth and status.
And yet…
Here she was, showing up before sunrise to ask him for help.
How could that not be interesting?
“It’s because of the wedding…”
The words escaped her lips…
Only to trail off.
“Han Joo-ah.”
A crease formed between his brows.
His patience had run out.
“If you’ve got something to say, then say it properly. Otherwise, get out.”
If she didn’t speak now, he’d throw her out without another word.
Whatever patience he’d had after being dragged from a deep sleep had already reached its limit.
“Ryu Jin-ha cheated on me.”
His brows furrowed again.
So?
In their world, where strategic marriages were the norm…
Wasn’t that practically commonplace?
Just as that thought crossed his mind, she continued.
“With Han Da-yeon.”
The Han Da-yeon he knew…
Was Han Joo-ah’s stepsister.
The daughter her stepmother had brought into the family when Joo-ah’s father remarried.
Her fiancé…
Sleeping with her stepsister.
Well.
That wasn’t exactly common.
Or perhaps it happened more often than people realised.
Either way…
“So?”
What exactly do you want me to do about it?
“…”
Watching her hesitate, he felt he could already guess.
She hadn’t suddenly shown up after twenty years just to ask him to teach Ryu Jin-ha a lesson.
Chairman Ryu wasn’t easy to deal with.
She was trying to reach him through Tae-ha instead.
“I need your help.”
Exactly what he’d expected.
“I can’t be bothered dealing with the old man. Handle it yourself.”
Leaning back against the sofa, Tae-ha dismissed her with a lazy wave of his hand.
This had nothing to do with him.
And he had no desire to make it his problem.
Why the hell would I?
Though…
Watching the old man explode might actually be entertaining.
He briefly weighed amusement against inconvenience.
In the end…
Inconvenience won.
“No.”
Looking at Tae-ha, who had already closed his eyes as though shutting her out completely, Joo-ah spoke quietly.
“I want to marry you.”
His closed eyes snapped open.
Cold, piercing eyes settled on her.
Even after saying something so outrageous…
Han Joo-ah remained perfectly composed.
“…Ha.”
His laugh settled over the living room like ice.
“So let me get this straight.”
“Your stepsister slept with Ryu Jin-ha…”
“So now you’re going to marry me instead?”
What the fuck…?
“Listen, Sister-in-law.”
The look in his eyes had gone beyond contempt.
It bordered on disgust.
“I may be a reckless bastard, but I don’t sleep with my brother’s woman.”
“I’m not your sister-in-law yet.”
“I was only Ryu Jin-ha’s fiancée.”
“Oh, right.”
“The woman who used to be Ryu Jin-ha’s fiancée.”
The more he thought about it, the more absurd it became.
A disbelieving laugh escaped him again.
“Do I seriously look that easy to you?”
“You think you can walk in here and ask me for something like this?”
Looking exhausted, Tae-ha tilted his neck from side to side before muttering darkly,
“Whatever mess you’ve all created…”
“Go tear each other apart if you want.”
He had absolutely no intention of stepping into that filthy tangle of relationships and getting covered in the mud himself.
“Two percent of the shares.”
Just as he was about to stand, signalling the conversation was over…
His eyes turned back to her.
Joo-ah didn’t miss that fleeting moment.
