Chapter 03
Do-gun took out a handkerchief and wiped the tea that had gotten on his chin.
Seo-yeon’s gaze followed the curve of the teacup. Looking at the tea pooled on the saucer, she felt as if it reflected her own situation.
It had not even been able to remain inside the cup, nor had it warmed its owner’s mouth with its pleasant fragrance. It was merely tea that had spilled out, its purpose finished, and had gone cold. Now, having lost its owner, she had become someone whose name was written in a will.
Suddenly, she became curious about the Chairman’s intentions when he had written the will.
“What will you do all by yourself after I’m gone?”
Had he made this decision because he was worried about her being left alone?
“Do-gun may speak crookedly, but he’s a good-hearted boy.”
As expected, Cha Do-gun’s behavior was crooked. He looked like a thirty-five-year-old middle school student who had carefully preserved all his adolescent rebelliousness.
But—
Before he passed away, the Chairman had left her with these words.
“My dear, always make the decision that will make you happy.”
So from now on, she only had to make decisions that would make her happy.
That was the Chairman’s wish.
Do-gun placed the handkerchief on the table and pulled the will toward him, pressing it down with his index finger.
“What was that question supposed to mean? Are you saying you’re going to marry me?”
Unlike Do-gun, who was clenching his jaw and barely holding back his temper, Seo-yeon’s attitude did not waver even a little.
“Please write and submit a proposal explaining what kind of husband you will be.”
Cha Do-gun’s mouth fell open.
Perhaps this was the first time in his thirty-five years of life that he had experienced such a shocking situation. He only opened and closed his mouth like a handsome goldfish.
He hurriedly rubbed his dry face with his hands.
“Hey.”
Seo-yeon stood up with a calm expression.
“I’ll be going.”
Do-gun’s eyes, still unable to recover from the shock, followed her as she stood.
His chest was heaving, making him look as if he was about to lose his reason from excitement.
“You’re leaving?”
“I’ll tell you my opinion after I read Mr. Cha Do-gun’s proposal for a husband.”
Screech.
Despite all the refined manners of a chaebol that had become second nature to him, the sound of Do-gun’s chair was loud and rough. In truth, he looked half out of his mind.
“Lee Seo-yeon, what are you trying to do right now? If you’re thinking of using this marriage to make a fortune—”
“Mr. Cha Do-gun.”
She began in a rather firm tone.
“When did I say I wanted to marry you?”
“…What?”
“The bride’s name written in the will is Lee Seo-yeon. That’s my name. Then shouldn’t you be the one trying to make a good impression on me?”
“You.”
His brows stiffened as he held that word on the tip of his tongue.
If the CEO of a successful investment company in America had a personality like that, he surely would not have allowed his employees to give him any answer other than ‘YES.’
But I am not his employee.
“If you want to marry me, think carefully about what kind of husband you are going to be.”
After making her position clear, Seo-yeon put the black quilted bag the Chairman had bought her for her birthday over her shoulder.
The golden chain made a soft jingling sound as it settled on her shoulder.
“Then.”
When Cha Do-gun came around the table and grabbed Seo-yeon’s arm, her body was turned around.
He was immediately met with a clear look that seemed to say, How dare someone like you speak and act this way toward me?
“I don’t know what kind of scheme you and that old man cooked up to make this happen.”
Cha Do-gun completely lost his temper. As a result, words filled with pure stubbornness burst out of him without any preparation.
“You! You’re going to marry me.”
In truth, he had absolutely no intention of marrying this woman. Marrying a woman he had never even seen before in his life!
But now his pride had been hurt.
What was this attitude, like an empress weighing the value of a marriage dowry?
And from a mere secretary?
Tap.
She removed his hand from her arm as if brushing away something filthy.
“Keep that in mind when you write the proposal.”
“This woman, seriously! What proposal?!”
Seo-yeon took one step back.
“I hate men who speak informally to me when we have just met and aren’t close. And I absolutely hate it when someone touches my body without permission.”
“……!”
“So don’t speak informally to me from now on.”
With a flawless movement, she turned around. Do-gun could not move, frozen like ice, until he heard the suite door close.
“Ah, ah, aah! Aaaagh!”
A howl, even louder than the one he had let out when Attorney Park first told him about the will, exploded along with a string of curses.
An hour later, Attorney Park, with hollow eyes, was called in.
He looked so haggard that anyone might have suspected that Attorney Park himself had just held a funeral.
Instead of asking if he had arrived, the irritated Do-gun tapped the table with his finger. The moment Attorney Park sat down, the words came out like machine-gun fire.
“That woman written in my grandfather’s will. Lee Seo-yeon.”
“Ms. Lee Seo-yeon?”
“What was her relationship with my grandfather?”
The answer came without the slightest hesitation.
“He treated her like a daughter.”
“Ah, daughter? My grandfather’s daughter was Cha Min-ah! Our mother was his only daughter. So why did he treat some woman like that as his daughter?”
Do-gun fanned himself with his hand.
“What if, when he wrote the will, Lee Seo-yeon grabbed my grandfather’s hand while he was mentally confused and forced him to write it—”
But that speculation was immediately cut off by Attorney Park’s answer.
“Ms. Lee Seo-yeon was not there at the time. The Chairman was with me, and even one police officer and one district office official, neither of whom had anything to do with the company, were present as witnesses.”
Do-gun’s back sank against the sofa. He looked as if he had completely lost the will to fight.
“If I…”
To think that such a day had come in Cha Do-gun’s life.
What he hated most was the hypothetical.
Because when a hypothetical situation was crushed in proportion to the size of his hope, the fragments tore his heart apart.
But Do-gun used the hypothetical perfectly as he noisily tapped the table.
“Attorney Park. From now on, I’m going to see just how capable you are. Tell me every possible way I can inherit the property without marrying Lee Seo-yeon.”
When Attorney Park pursed his lips to answer, Do-gun stopped him with his hand.
“Think about it.”
“The answer is already decided.”
“I just said you were capable. I even praised you for being extremely capable, Attorney Park.”
“I’m sorry. You have to marry Ms. Lee Seo-yeon.”
His head throbbed as if a giant swirly lollipop were spinning around right before his eyes.
Seo-yeon’s clear voice appeared before Do-gun as he leaned the back of his neck against the sofa.
“The house is old, but I have one, and the car is small, but I have one too. So don’t show off your money in front of me.”
Was this what they called cutting something off at the source?
The only thing I have is money, and she tells me not to show it off. If that woman’s mouth had been just a little more vulgar, she might have used the word “flaunting money like an idiot.”
Suddenly, he remembered the sharp look in her eyes.
Those eyes, ah—
In a single word, her eyes alone were worth a hundred men. He had no choice but to admit his complete defeat.
Seo-yeon spent an hour and a half at a bookstore buying books. After parking at the public parking lot near her home, she headed down the street.
The familiar scenery she had known all her life passed by her.
Yeonhwa-dong alley.
After her stepmother Jin-hee borrowed money from loan sharks, her father’s house was taken over by them.
Seo-yeon had been paying off the debt while surviving on only four hours of broken sleep a day. She had cursed the miserable life that only seemed to become more tangled.
One day, when she was twenty years old and completely worn out, Chairman Cha came to see her. The first thing he did was pay off all the private loans attached to the house.
“My dear, from now on, this house is yours.”
Seo-yeon turned the Yeonhwa-dong house into a share house. Chairman Cha readily agreed, saying it was better than her living alone.
There were five rooms in the house in total. Seo-yeon lived on the second floor, while the tenants used the first floor.
Currently, a university student named Hae-sik and an office worker named Oh Sang-hyeok lived in the share house.
After opening the red iron gate and entering, Seo-yeon ran into Hae-sik, who was on his way to work part-time at a sports academy for college entrance exam preparation.
“Are you going to work?”
“Yeah. It’s busy because it’s entrance exam season.”
“Let’s go out together. I forgot that there’s something I need to buy at the supermarket.”
Seo-yeon changed into her usual loose sweatshirt and pants before coming back out.
“Is this the place?”
Identical-looking houses were lined up on both sides of the road, their gates all looking the same.
Not being familiar with Korean alleyways, Do-gun narrowed his eyes and checked each address attached to the walls.
Attorney Park had given him quite a lot of information.
Lee Seo-yeon likes grapes.
Lee Seo-yeon keeps her distance from men.
Lee Seo-yeon does not smile often.
Lee Seo-yeon is frugal.
Based on the lawyer’s high-quality information, she had told him not to flaunt his money, so he was visiting her house with exactly two bunches of grapes as a polite gift instead of arriving empty-handed.
She treated me that way because she doesn’t have much experience with men. A woman who doesn’t smile much? That’s unusual. She was just naturally sullen, but I misunderstood her for no reason.
With his genius mind, the conclusion he had reached was to propose a two-year contract marriage.
I can do this, Cha Do-gun. I’ll make a woman who knows nothing about men fall helplessly for you!
Just then, the clear laughter of a woman came from somewhere ahead.
Her voice was so beautiful that Do-gun instinctively turned his head toward it.
The moment he saw what was happening, he was so shocked that the bag of grapes hanging from his fingers dropped to the ground.
Lee Seo-yeon was walking with a man.
They were wearing matching couple T-shirts and matching couple pants. Even the three-striped slippers they were wearing were identical.
That woman had a man?!
