Chapter 4
Crazy.
Even he had to admit he was seriously messed up if seeing an unconscious woman made his desire surge.
“Seo Jaei, wake up.”
Yugam reached his arm into the bathtub. Her wet body was easy to grasp.
He let out a long breath.
Cursing at the beastly instinct rising within him, Yugam clenched his teeth and lifted Jaekyung from the tub.
His wife, Seo Jaei.
His lovely wife, who was moaning softly in her sleep, was wrapped in the towel lying nearby.
Yugam didn’t want to put Jaekyung down.
He wanted to hold her all night and fall asleep with her in his arms, but he was certain that if she opened her eyes, she would run away.
Carefully, Yugam laid Jaekyung on the bed and dressed her in a bathrobe.
He had spent countless nights with her long ago, but seeing her body beneath the light for the first time, he couldn’t take his eyes off how beautiful she was.
“Mm….”
Her closed eyes opened slightly, and a sharp scream followed.
“W-What are you doing right now?”
Perhaps she hadn’t fully woken up yet. As Jaekyung tried to sit up, her body swayed unsteadily, so Yugam pulled her into his arms and held her upright.
“Were you trying to kill yourself?”
“L-Let me go. What do you mean, kill myself?”
“What were you going to do if you fell unconscious after falling asleep in the bathtub?”
She seemed to have fallen deeply asleep, overcome by her cold, the warm water, and the aroma.
Jaekyung collected herself and spoke firmly in a hoarse voice.
“Please leave.”
“I can’t. Who knows what you’ll do again?”
“I have to get dressed. Are you telling me to stay naked?”
“I’ll come back. Hurry and change.”
As soon as the door closed, Jaekyung quickly took off the bathrobe.
“C-Crazy.”
Seeing her completely naked body made her head throb like it was filled with fire.
Why did I fall asleep in the bathtub?
She wanted nothing more than to collapse into bed and sleep, but she couldn’t stay here.
She hurriedly put on her blouse and pants, then pulled a sweater over them.
After grabbing her bag, Jaekyung took her thick jacket in her hand and cautiously opened the door a crack.
The man wasn’t there yet.
She opened the front door and was just about to dash outside when—
“Seo Jaekyung.”
A low voice calling her name came from the hallway.
Early in the morning, Yugam came out after washing up with a refreshed expression and put on the suit prepared in his dressing room.
As he buttoned his shirt while looking into the full-length mirror, he remembered Jaekyung running away from him the night before.
Finding Jaekyung had been a coincidence that felt almost like fate.
Was this how his mother had felt when she found the toy she had smashed to pieces?
‘Mom lost everything precious to her. You should lose something too. Then maybe you’ll understand how I feel.’
After his father’s funeral, eight-year-old Yugam had watched as the sharp stiletto heels of Director Jin smashed his toys to pieces.
And Seo Jaekyung—the woman Yugam had held in his arms and kissed every night—had been another toy that Director Jin had thrown away.
Even without taking medication, Yugam had finally been able to sleep properly for the first time in five years since Jaekyung left.
Perhaps it was because he had found the wife who had abandoned him when he was hurting, mistaking that feeling for love.
After Chairman Do Uitae collapsed, Director Jin had brought a woman Yugam had never seen before.
It had been a hurried marriage because Yugam couldn’t afford to fall behind his illegitimate half-sibling, Do Yujin, in the inheritance order.
There had been no reason for him to become attached to her so easily.
But perhaps those ten months spent under the same blanket had meant something after all.
His insomnia had become severe from the day after Jaekyung disappeared.
‘Tell me about anything from your past that made you feel particularly anxious.’
‘My runaway wife. ……I slept well when she was around. I wonder why.’
Even with daily treatment and psychological counseling, he didn’t improve.
‘She ran away because she hated you taking medication. She said she couldn’t share a bed with a mentally ill person.’
Director Jin had told him that one of the reasons Seo Jaekyung left was because Yugam took psychiatric medication.
When his doctor recommended medication again, Yugam firmly refused to take the medicine he had barely managed to quit.
Eventually, when the attending physician saw no improvement and realized they were merely wasting time, he introduced Yugam to a renowned psychiatrist in the United States.
It had been an escape abroad for the sake of treatment.
While staying overseas, Yugam didn’t think about Jaekyung.
He had been too furious over the betrayal of the wife who had once curled into his cold embrace.
But when he returned to Korea, thoughts of his runaway wife began circling his mind again, making his insomnia worse.
The memory of Jaekyung’s happy face as she received a marriage proposal from another man made an unpleasant feeling surge inside him.
Yugam frowned as he tied his necktie.
She wanted money from me, so she probably wants money from that man too.
‘I’ll accept on the condition that you treat me only as the chairman. If you approach me as a husband, I can’t work as your secretary.’
Her act of pretending to have forgotten both the marriage and the existence of her husband was adorable, but he had no intention of playing along.
Before he knew it, Yugam’s reflection in the mirror was perfectly dressed in his suit.
Just as he was about to leave the room, his phone rang.
[Director Jin]
Jin Heeyeon, who involved herself in every little matter concerning her son, couldn’t relax even while traveling in Europe.
“Why are you calling so early? It’s nighttime there. Aren’t you asleep?”
—“I went to bed, but I was thinking about my son. Has your insomnia improved? You should take the medicine as the doctor recommends. How can you just stop taking it on your own?”
Regardless of Director Jin’s worries as she lay awake on the opposite side of the world, Yugam’s expression remained unchanged.
He leisurely walked into the living room and took a sip of the warm tea prepared in advance.
“How old is your son that you still worry about whether he takes his medicine? I must have been tired thinking about going to work, because I slept soundly for the first time in a while.”
—“You slept? Without medication? That’s strange.”
“Yes. Without medication. A woongyeon-gaksi helped me.”
—“Did you dream? What are you talking about all of a sudden? Who else would take care of my son if not his mother? I’m only saying this because I’m worried you’ll collapse. How is work? If I weren’t away on business, I’d go there myself and introduce you to the principal and vice principal and tell them to take good care of our chairman.”
Perhaps because he had found the wife who had vanished without a trace, Yugam’s body felt more energetic than ever.
He strode confidently to the entrance and opened the front door wide.
“I can handle it myself. If even you come chasing after me, people will just say the young chairman isn’t capable.”
—“Even so, everyone needs to know who their superior is. Otherwise, they won’t keep their mouths shut.”
“They’ll evaluate me only on my work, so I don’t care if they complain. Don’t worry.”
—“Anyway, I’ll come back as soon as possible, so just do well until then.”
Even though Yugam told her everything was fine, Heeyeon remained impatient.
For Yugam, the fact that Director Jin’s business trip had been extended was fortunate.
He intended to keep her from interfering in the affairs of the Uitae Foundation.
“Yes. I’ll do that. You should give your son a chance to show what he can do.”
—“Oh, right. You remember the daughter of Minister Han I mentioned last time, don’t you? I’ve arranged a dinner. She’s the same age as you, and she’s pretty. She graduated from Uitae Foundation’s affiliated school. Did you ever see her when you were a freshman?”
“I only attended for a month. How would I remember anyone?”
—“You might remember her when you see her face. I’ve been getting marriage proposals from all over. It’s wonderful.”
Director Jin always presented Yugam with meticulously calculated plans for his marriage and life, leaving no room for gaps.
Yugam’s expression turned cold.
When he opened the door and walked down the stairs, the vehicle waiting for Yugam was parked beneath the clear morning sky.
“Looks like the rumors that I was a drug addict have finally died down.”
—“You stopped taking the medicine, didn’t you? And you were taking it because you were sick. Is that something to be ashamed of? I take stomach medicine every day myself.”
“Are psychiatric medication and stomach medicine really the same?”
—“Once I get you married, I’ll have no regrets. This time, she’s genuinely from a good family. If your father-in-law is the Minister of Justice, how reassuring would that be for you?”
Reassuring for me?
It would be reassuring for KE Group and Director Jin.
“What good would come from getting married again? You could just bring that woman back.”
—“Don’t even mention that woman. How long ago was that? Why are you bringing up the girl who ran away? It may have only been a small amount of money, but she took it with her, so she’ll manage on her own.”
Did Heeyeon not know that her son was still legally married?
“She seemed to think that woman was a perfect match for me, too. Wasn’t that what you said?”
—“At the time, everything was rushed because of the chairman’s will, but I’ve learned that you shouldn’t associate with a poor family whose only interest is money. You aren’t secretly looking for that girl, are you?”
If Heeyeon found out that he had already summoned Jaekyung to his office, there was no telling what she would do.
Yugam said nothing about Jaekyung.
“I have no intention of remarrying, so don’t even dream about it.”
—“Son! How long are you going to be like this? You’re hurting your mother.”
“I have to go to work. I’m hanging up.”
Yugam pressed the end-call button and got into the back seat, which Chief Secretary Kwon opened for him.
“Chief Secretary Kwon, did you prepare all the foundation’s administrative documents?”
“Yes. I gathered everything except the materials that had already been destroyed after exceeding their required retention period. There was an enormous amount.”
For nearly five years after Chairman Do Uitae collapsed, corruption within the Uitae Foundation had accumulated piece by piece.
Before Director Jin returned from her business trip, Yugam needed to find out as much as possible about what had happened within the foundation.
Last night, seeing his wife collapsed in the bathtub in such a provocative state had stirred a physical reaction in Yugam.
He wanted to bring her home immediately, even today.
But now, no matter how far she tried to run, she was already in the palm of his hand.
“Check whether Seo Jaekyung has gone to work.”
