CHAPTER 1
Myeongheon Group
Those three words represented the heart and pinnacle of South Korea’s economy, symbolizing overwhelming capital and absolute power.
At the center of it all stood Kang Ijun, armed with a cold mind and flawless rationality.
To Myeongheon Group, marriage was strictly a business transaction and a process of selecting and evaluating a future business partner.
Finding a marriage partner for Kang Ijun, the head of the group, was no different.
The “Myeongheon Group Wife Candidate Evaluation” held at Myeongheon Hotel was a decades-old tradition.
It was less a simple gathering to choose one man’s wife and more a ceremony to select the “partner” who would shoulder the fate of the group alongside its future owner.
Daughters of prominent business families and prestigious households applied for the position of Kang Ijun’s wife, but only twelve were granted the right to participate in the final evaluation.
The application fee alone was a staggering 100 million won, which was nothing more than a simple “admission ticket” with no guarantees whatsoever, yet more than several hundred applicants flocked to participate.
The allure of Myeongheon Group’s name was powerful.
Just stepping across the threshold of that throne even once could completely change one’s social status.
All of the participation fees were donated through the Myeongheon Cultural Foundation.
Despite people sneering and asking whether money was really that important to them, the women being evaluated held their heads high.
“The position of lady of the number one group in the business world is something anyone would want, isn’t it?”
“Exactly, and if you’re going to live surrounded by that much money, of course it is.”
The hotel lobby, flooded with golden lights, was a gigantic stage in itself.
Crowds holding champagne glasses laughed and chatted beside the fountain.
The women, each dressed in expensive gowns, discreetly—or sometimes blatantly—looked one another over as they continued their conversations.
Everyone except Yoo Seola.
Seola was already tired of the suffocating competition coexisting with all that splendor.
She wanted to escape this place she had been pushed and practically driven into as quickly as possible.
“Aren’t people human beings, not commodities, yet they’re choosing a wife like this?”
As Seola muttered to herself, the voice of her adoptive mother, Eunae, which had been seared into her ears several days ago, vividly tore into her heart like a blade.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so you have to catch Kang Ijun’s eye no matter what.”
“I don’t like a place that treats people like products that can simply be chosen.”
“How dare you say you don’t like it?”
“We raised a girl who doesn’t even share our blood all the way to this point, so you should listen to me.”
Eunae’s voice had turned harsh and sharp.
“We’ve fed you and clothed you all these years, so you should know how to repay that kindness.”
“I will repay you, but not like this.”
At Seola’s feeble response, Eunae’s face twisted viciously.
“If we hadn’t taken you in, who knows where you would be right now?”
“What’s so difficult about standing in a banquet hall dressed nicely, yet you’re being so stubborn?”
Jinseong, her adoptive father, who had been watching them, snapped his newspaper shut.
The warning contained in his low voice struck her like a wedge.
“I’m not asking you.”
“If you’re not going to leave this house, then go right now.”
“Go and catch Kang Ijun’s attention.”
Seola could not bring herself to reject her adoptive parents until the very end.
A nightmare during a family outing when she was five years old had left her in this situation.
A cargo truck driver who had been driving while drowsy crashed into the car carrying Seola’s family to an amusement park.
Her mother, who had wrapped her entire body around Seola, took the full impact and died.
Her father also failed to survive after losing too much blood from the shattered windshield.
It was Jinseong, a friend who had been in business with her father, who took her in as his daughter.
“Do you know how we raised you?”
Those words were like a shackle.
Whenever her adoptive parents said those words, Seola could not rebel, just as she could not rebel against being forced to come here now.
“Buy something flashy and wear it.”
“You absolutely have to stand out.”
“If possible, choose something that emphasizes your chest, especially, because a man’s eyes always go to a woman’s chest.”
Eunae handed her a card and gave her what was essentially an order disguised as advice.
But Seola ultimately refused to follow her adoptive mother’s words.
Instead of choosing a dress decorated with handcrafted lace, satin, and jeweled flowers, she chose a neat, simple beige one-piece dress.
It’s a world that has nothing to do with me anyway.
She lowered her head.
The other women here had come after putting their own lives and families on the line.
Every one of them had a will of her own.
But the only reason Seola had come here was to “repay a debt,” and that made her feel miserable.
I just have to spend a reasonable amount of time here and then go home.
The main character of the banquet had yet to appear.
She wanted to catch her breath for a moment before the “wife candidate evaluation” officially began.
Trying not to even make a sound, Seola quietly slipped out of the banquet hall.
She ordered a cup of coffee at the café in the lobby and sat down at a small table in the corner.
When she casually turned her head, she saw the tray in the hands of an elderly gentleman walking toward her wobble violently.
“No!”
Seola’s body reacted instinctively.
She firmly grabbed the elderly man’s arm to keep him from falling while simultaneously stretching out her foot and barely kicking away the hot cup.
Coffee splashed onto the back of her hand and stung, but she paid no attention to it.
“Are you all right?”
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
Seola carefully supported his shoulder and asked him with genuine concern.
The elderly man stared at her in surprise at the sincerity in her voice.
He soon took a thin breath and raised the corners of his lips slightly.
“It’s nothing.”
“I was just dizzy for a moment.”
“Thank you, young lady.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
“You should check whether you’ve been burned anywhere.”
The elderly man slowly nodded and gazed intently at her.
“Thanks to you, I avoided a serious accident.”
“Young people are rarely this composed.”
“Does your hand sting?”
“I’m fine.”
“I’m just glad you weren’t hurt, Grandfather.”
She answered with a gentle smile.
The elderly man smiled and sat down.
Only then did Seola notice what he was wearing.
His sophisticated gray suit and elegant gold-rimmed glasses made a striking impression.
“I heard there’s an important event being held at this hotel today.”
“The event where they’re choosing the woman who will become the wife of the head of Myeongheon Group.”
“Are you also interested in becoming a chaebol’s wife?”
“No, I don’t want a marriage like that.”
Seola’s voice was firm.
“A marriage bound together by conditions without love or feelings.”
“Marriage is supposed to be about caring for and loving one another.”
The elderly man stared at her for a long while as though he had lost his words.
Then he slowly smiled and rose from his seat.
“Thank you for today, young lady.”
—
The entrance to the banquet hall on the top floor of the hotel.
The moment the doors opened, the lights burst on.
Camera flashes exploded like fireworks in an instant, and countless gazes turned toward one place.
Kang Ijun entered.
The deep navy suit beneath his black tie, flawless down to the smallest detail, made him stand out.
With every step he took, it seemed as though all the surrounding noise gradually faded away.
“Director, this way, please.”
Seokhun carefully guided him inside.
He nodded and walked toward the long table in the center of the banquet hall.
Dozens of women were already seated there in hopes of being chosen by him, and every one of them watched him while holding their breath.
All their painstaking preparations and elaborate appearances seemed meaningless as some desperately forced smiles while others struggled to hide their nervousness.
But Ijun showed no expression.
His gaze never wavered even once.
To him, this elaborate event for “selecting a marriage partner” was nothing more than a routine business procedure.
Just before the doors closed completely, a shadow in the lobby caught Ijun’s eye.
It was the woman who had been sitting in the corner of the lobby earlier.
Seola, who had been about to leave, took a few steps before stopping and looking back.
Her gaze met Ijun’s, and she silently turned around and left the lobby.
Seola had been about to go home.
After finishing her conversation with the elderly gentleman, she had firmly convinced herself that a marriage like this was completely absurd.
But when she heard that Kang Ijun, the man responsible for this entire farce, was about to appear, her curiosity was piqued.
She was about to turn away when she stopped and looked toward the entrance of the banquet hall.
At that moment, Ijun and Seola’s eyes met.
Ijun’s footsteps stopped for a moment.
A strange gaze filled with interest brushed across her face before descending to the name tag pinned near her chest.
Yoo Seola.
Unlike the other women dressed in extravagant outfits, she wore a simple, plain dress.
And just like her attire, there was no pretense, affectation, or desire in her gaze.
Ijun’s cold eyes seemed to brush against that clarity.
“The reporters are watching.”
“You need to take your seat.”
At Seokhun’s urgent whisper, he withdrew his gaze from Seola.
“Continue.”
The doors closed, completely separating the lobby from the banquet hall.
Yet the clear, upright eyes of the woman he had just seen remained vividly etched in his mind.
Throughout the banquet, Ijun engraved the name of a woman who was not even present at the event into his mind.
She was on the event list, yet.
She was the only woman who had not even stepped foot inside the banquet hall.
The owner of that empty seat, Yoo Seola.
