Chapter 3

After feeding Sugar a few scraps of bread, he’d spent several minutes sucking on her loosened, sugar-soft lips, and before he knew it, so much time had passed that he hadn’t managed to do a thing properly.

For a moment, Cha-hyun had an overwhelming urge to turn the car around and go back—to love the dejected Sugar waiting for him with every inch of his body.

Violently.

He wanted to do it that badly.

Just as he was indulging the thought, his phone began to vibrate.

He hoped it was Sugar.

It was Chairman Kang.

“Hm.”

Cha-hyun let the phone ring for a while before answering, a smile different from the one he’d worn earlier spreading across his face.

“I’m already driving responsibly. Want me to push it a little harder? It might be fun to dust off that racing license I’ll probably never get to use again.”

“Don’t get smart with me. I heard you left first thing this morning. Where the hell did you go?”

“Even if you tell Secretary Yoon to keep his mouth shut, his lips are lighter than a mayfly’s wings. Maybe I should cut out the body first.”

“……”

Cha-hyun chuckled at Chairman Kang’s stunned silence, thoroughly enjoying it.

“Where else would I go? I went to melt some Sugar.”

“At your age, your brothers had already gone on blind dates and gotten engaged that very year. If she still won’t give in, stop there. You said you’d put her in a wedding dress and bring her home. Do you have any idea how many years we’ve been waiting?”

“……Why did you call?”

His mood plummeted instantly.

Whenever this happened, an urge to destroy everything—to hell with Yoosung, to hell with everything—boiled up inside him.

There was no helping it.

Those old instincts were part of his nature, and every now and then they came surging back like flashes of lightning.

“I heard there’s a drinking gathering tonight at the LH Convention Center to celebrate the appointment of a new Taejin Electronics executive. Go there. Don’t just show your face and leave—make sure they remember your name. Don’t slip out halfway. Stay until the very end.”

“I understand why you’re ordering me directly instead of sending Secretary Yoon since I never listen to him, but I already have plans.”

“Cancel them.”

She’ll cry.

Even now, Sugar was probably pretending to be hurt, turning her back on him while fidgeting restlessly despite herself.

She’d look pretty.

The thought of teasing her stirred up a wicked little itch in him.

“Fine. I will. But…”

He stopped at the front gate of the company, acknowledging the security guard who bowed after recognizing him.

He checked the time on the dashboard.

It was a little past nine.

As though they had been waiting specifically for his arrival, Secretary Yoon and several others came hurrying toward him in a group.

Cha-hyun pretended to switch off the engine, then suddenly whipped the steering wheel around.

With a deafening roar, the car shot forward as though he had floored the accelerator.

The group recoiled in panic, nearly falling on their backsides.

Cha-hyun let out a long, bored sigh and sank deeply into his seat.

“This is the only time. The last time I’ll put work before Seol-young.”

The call screen disappeared, replaced by a picture of Seol-young fast asleep, clutching her own hair tightly.

She looked peaceful, soft little breaths seeming to drift through the phone.

Contrary to the turmoil boiling inside him, Cha-hyun stared at her expressionlessly.

He really couldn’t put it off any longer.

Not because of anything else.

Because of himself.

He had proposed to her out of habit for seven years, ever since graduation.

The fact that he’d become accustomed to rejection was almost laughable, but he couldn’t bring himself to pressure Sugar.

Yoo Seol-young held the knife.

Even if she drove a blade straight through his heart, he’d throw away his pride and cling to her ankles.

He had experience with this already.

Seol-young was gentle and soft by nature, but when she dug her heels in about something, she wouldn’t yield even with a knife at her throat.

And he’d already managed to shake her this much.

Now, when the subject of marriage came up, he could sometimes catch the faintest hint that she was actually considering it.

So he intended to press on that vulnerable side of hers—the part of her that agonized more over turning him away than over urging him to come closer.

He could endure things as long as he continued that way.

But whenever someone else provoked him like this, his nerves were shredded all over again.

At times like this, rather than trying to calm himself down, it was far more efficient to torment someone else—or watch Sugar throw one of her little fits.

Unfortunately, the latter wasn’t an option right now…

Cha-hyun opened the car door and stepped out.

Secretary Yoon was still standing there, gasp, gasp, rubbing his startled chest.

Cha-hyun’s eyes gleamed sharply.

He strode forward with easy confidence and flashed a broad smile that showed his teeth.

“Hi!”

You’ve got sins to answer for, too. You’re dying by my hand today.

“Oh? Long time no see!”

The moment she opened the door and walked in, the man making cocktails greeted her warmly.

Seol-young dipped her head politely and approached the bar before taking a seat.

Somber jazz drifted from the speakers.

The melody carried the same dark, heavy weight as the storm clouds outside, like rain about to fall, dampening her ears with its melancholy.

It was still early in the evening, so the place was quiet.

As Seol-young looked around, the man set down the cocktail he’d been preparing in front of her.

It was a martini with a fresh, brilliant hue.

“You came alone?”

“No. Joo-young is coming.”

“Hm. Are you two really just friends? Kim Joo-young isn’t exactly the kind of guy who makes time this early.”

“I had to practically beg him to come. Even getting this much time out of him was a struggle.”

“Haha. That guy is such a pain with how hard he makes himself to get. From now on, just come hang out here by yourself and see me!”

“I told you not to hit on Yoo Seol-young when I’m not around.”

At the scolding voice, Seol-young turned her head.

Joo-young sat down beside her, shaking the rainwater from his jacket.

He smelled faintly of rain and looked annoyed.

“Where did this rain even come from?” he grumbled.

Apparently, it had started drizzling outside.

The man behind the bar was called away by another customer and stepped away for a moment.

Joo-young took a sip from Seol-young’s martini without even asking, then finally spoke.

“So. Why’d you call me?”

“I’m getting married.”

The martini hadn’t even made it properly down his throat before he choked, coughing violently and bending forward.

Seol-young patted him on the back.

Without even managing to clear his throat, Joo-young hurriedly asked,

“To whom? Me?”

“What kind of ridiculous thing is that to say?”

“Then you marrying Kang Cha-hyun is supposed to make sense?”

“……”

Once he had finally calmed down, he frowned and pressed the back of his hand to Seol-young’s forehead.

Seol-young snapped irritably,

“What are you doing?”

“You don’t have a fever… So what the hell did that bastard do to brainwash you this time?”

“I’m perfectly fine, and I’m not saying this on impulse. I’m seriously thinking about it, so you need to listen seriously, too.”

Only then did Joo-young’s expression change.

Joo-young was Seol-young’s only close male friend.

He had always been there whenever she needed someone to lean on. Though he liked to act prickly, he could never truly be cold-hearted, and they had known each other for a very long time.

He was also the person who had watched Seol-young get gradually swallowed up by Cha-hyun from closer than anyone else—and hated every second of it.

When he first learned that she had accepted Cha-hyun’s feelings, he had been so desperate for her to get away from Kang Cha-hyun that he stopped answering her calls for a while.

His hostility only began to fade two years ago, when Seol-young and Cha-hyun officially began dating.

Back then, Joo-young had often spotted the two of them together at the library and looked at them with the same disgust one might reserve for a pair of cockroaches.

But little by little, he began to see Cha-hyun from a different perspective.

Recently, he had reluctantly begun to acknowledge, in the smallest way, that Cha-hyun really had changed.

Even so, he always added a warning—as if to tell Seol-young to prepare herself for the day they eventually broke up.

Joo-young knew that Cha-hyun proposed to Seol-young year after year.

But this was the first time Seol-young had actually considered accepting.

Joo-young looked as though he’d almost blurted something out before stopping himself and clamping his mouth shut.

He must have been more shocked than he’d let on.

Sensing the unusual atmosphere, the bartender quietly brought over some food and drinks without being asked.

There was a plate of lightly fried chicken and tropical fruit, along with rum and vodka.

Joo-young didn’t move an inch.

Seol-young gave the bartender a grateful look instead.

He pursed his lips and walked away.

“Wouldn’t it be pretty unfair if you were only getting married because you were exhausted from all his proposals and finally decided to let him have you?”

After thinking it over, Joo-young concluded that Seol-young was simply worn down from years of relentless proposals.

Seol-young shook her head.

“It’s not like that. I want to marry Cha-hyun, too.”

“Marriage…”

He sighed.

“Yeah. Sure. Marriage is great. But what about you? What are you even doing right now? You’re supposed to go back to graduate school first. Wasn’t your dream to work freely as a translator while traveling around the world? Where exactly does becoming someone’s wife fit into that plan?”

“……”

“And your mother? You don’t even see your mother these days, do you?”

“……”

“And you’re going to put all of that aside and sit down as the youngest daughter-in-law of the Yoosung family?”

He looked straight into the deepest, most painful parts of her without mercy.

“Do you really love Kang Cha-hyun that much?”

Joo-young knew exactly how to dig into Seol-young’s heart until it hurt.

When she lowered her head and fell silent, he placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Yoo Seol-young. Think carefully. I admit that bastard has changed a lot. I’ll even admit that he loves you more than anyone else in this world.”

His expression was more serious than usual.

“But marriage? No.”