CH 9

After all the funerals were over, Jihan silently opened the driver’s seat of his car. He was heading towards Hyun-ik’s car, which was parked not far from his.

“Get in.”

Jihan’s low voice stopped me in my tracks. He held onto the car door and pointed to the empty pa*senger seat with his chin.

“I’ll go alone.”

“Get in, just listen. I have something to tell you.”

He gave a faint smile to the worried-looking man and got into the driver’s seat, staring straight ahead even after I sat in the pa*senger seat.

“Are you going to your honeymoon home?”

“No. I’m going to my hometown in Seongbuk-dong.”

“Why your hometown?” Jihan finally turned his head and met my gaze. “Again, it’s because of their damn customs.”

He seemed annoyed by my determined gaze, as if he believed that I was doing this because of our public image. Maybe I should just declare an official divorce from him soon.

His contorted face involuntarily flashed before my eyes. It would be like shooting oneself in the foot with an ax to trust him. But it was worth exercising a little patience to see that comical face of his.

“If it’s inconvenient for you because of me, go to your honeymoon home. I’ll be out anyway.”

“Okay, then.”

I didn’t want to face the traces of my family who were left in my hometown anyway. So I nodded my head in agreement.

Jihan didn’t say a word on the way to the honeymoon home.

After driving for a while, we entered a familiar apartment complex, and Jihan’s car slowly came to a stop. I was about to get out of the car without thanking him, but he turned to me and asked me to talk.

“If it had to be so unstable today, why did you have to do it? Running a business is not that easy.”

“Unstable?”

His face was so stiff that he seemed to be talking about a shareholders’ meeting.

“If you’re not going to run the company yourself, you have to merge with Hojin. You’re going to be a part of Hojin’s family now too.”

It was like listening to a dog barking incessantly. He really put effort into spewing such nonsense.

I looked at him with indifference, feeling that it wasn’t worth answering.

“You can’t handle the elderly shareholders by yourself.”

“I’ll handle it myself.”

“Ha, Yoon Yeojin! These people have been working for decades on this floor. What can you do in front of them, knowing nothing?”

As the conversation went nowhere, Jihan grabbed my shoulder fiercely. I winced in pain, and he let go of me when he noticed.

“Trust me. I will be the man who becomes your husband. No, think of me as your husband.”

What kind of past life did I have to believe you as my husband?

“You’re wise.”

Now he was either trying to persuade me or whispering sweet words while stroking my ego.

“If I do well, it’s good for you too. We’re married.”

“Married…”

“Yes, married. We have to register for marriage right away. It’s uneasy to be alone.”

The source of uneasiness wouldn’t be me, but the vast fortune in my hand and the relationship with Cha Seorin that could be exposed at any time.

I smiled at him, brushing away my hair that fell down.

He had probably already promised the merger through a deal with Vice Chairman Kim Youngmin. With my permission, he could easily swallow up W Group

…Just like the past.

If Jihan said something in the past, I took it at face value. It was the duty I had to keep as Hojin’s insider, and I thought it was a role I had to endure.

As a dignified person, Jihan was already convinced that he had won the game. But now, it was different. I had made up my mind to change, to change the future.

I wouldn’t play around between Seo Jihan and Cha Seorin anymore.

“You’re right. I think Jihan should be at the shareholders’ meeting.”

“You’re smart. Don’t worry,” Jihan finally said what I wanted to hear and hugged me with a smile. His hand, holding the hem of my dress, trembled, but he managed to suppress it. “Don’t think about anything and sleep well. I’ll handle everything complicated.”

My heart was pounding even when I entered the apartment from the car. In the elevator, I recalled his fake smile many times and felt overwhelmed.

As the chilly air settled in the house, everything was brightly illuminated.

The clean house was filled with new furniture, and I shuddered at the sight of it.

The five years I spent here with him had pa*sed like a dream.

“Married?”

I grabbed the wedding photo that was on the living room shelf. I couldn’t bear the anger that was about to burst out, so I leaned against the wall and took a deep breath.

“A married couple?”

With a trembling heart, I raised the frame that I had grabbed. I almost threw it on the ground, but then I found myself holding Jihan’s hand in the photo.

As I looked at him, who was smiling so beautifully, I slowly lowered the frame, feeling a sense of emptiness washing over me.

“Don’t make me laugh.”

I closed my eyes, which were shaking as if in a spasm.

“Seo Jihan, there’s no chance I’ll ever marry you again.”

I opened my eyes.

I grabbed all the frames on the shelf and threw them in the trash bin next to me. Jihan’s face, smiling over the frames piled up in the bin, seemed to overlap.

“Never.”

I twisted my mouth into a bitter smile, imagining his face, which would soon crumble once he found out everything.

That night, I stayed up with eyes wide open and got up from my spot as the morning sun rose. As I looked at the dress room filled with plenty of homewear and simple clothes, it finally hit me that I was back home.

“When did I fill all these clothes?”

I hadn’t even been to our honeymoon home.

Looking at the clothes that were undoubtedly filled by his secretary, I let out a deep sigh. The clothes he had bought for me, hanging in the closet, made me feel like they were made for him. My mouth felt dry.

“I should just get rid of them all.”

In the end, I turned around and headed to the department store.