Chapter 221 - Bound by the Clauses

2 YEARS LATER

"Today is a big day for Ye Rim, please at least be kind to her," Mr. Go asked, with a tired sigh, on the phone.

Jun Hyeon already imagined that he would get into problems when he answered his grandfather's call while driving, and poked his cheek with his tongue, taking a deep breath.

"I know, I know. The contract with which she blackmails me is almost due..."

"Ah, you stupid kiddo…! What else can you want in a woman that Ye Rim doesn't have?"

"Common sense, for starters?" he replied without thinking, and regretted it because he knew that his grandfather was not going to forgive him for having retorted. It was a rhetorical question. And Mr. Go was the most vindictive person he knew.

The phone was disconnected, and Jun Hyeon knew he was in trouble.

Ye Rim had charmed everyone around him. First his grandfather, then his noona, and even his partners. She was devilishly charming and talented, but she had a terrible personality.

And he knew the truth about her.

Unfortunately, the whole world seemed to see them as destined for each other. And because of a stupid contract that Jun Hyeon didn't even remember how he signed, he had to pretend to the world that he believed it too.

But it wasn't long before he got rid of Ye Rim for good.

He couldn't deny that she was part of his life, for good, too.

After all, it was only after the fateful meeting with this woman that everything culminated for his noona to come back home.

Two years ago, in the tragic Pearl Club fire, caused by the man who kept his sister kidnapped for years, Jun Hyeon suffered an accident that caused mysterious neurological damage. After spending a few days in a coma, the doctor had woken up with vague memories of the previous months. 

Kim Jun Hyeon was diagnosed with Severe Post Traumatic Disorder, and Systematized Dissociative Amnesia. 

In particular, he forgot one person: Miss Nam Ye Rim.

The woman who introduced herself to him as his girlfriend _ fiancée, actually.

It wasn't as if Dr. Kim could ignore a person just because he didn't remember her. And of course, while seeking treatment for his condition, a question had to be answered - why did Jun Hyeon forget the facts about Ye Rim?

Naturally, his illness was hidden from everyone outside his inner circle. His noona Ji Hyeon needed all the support, love and protection, and was the main focus of the family's attention. They tried to get away from the press after the tragedy, and had support from friends for that.

It was difficult to put together the puzzles of the months leading up to the fire, and people were kind to tell what they knew.

Jun Hyeon recreated the first encounter with Miss Nam in his mind, from the information he gathered, with his grandfather and his friends.

A desperate and bankrupt singer accepting the most ridiculous and shameful type of work, bordering on immoral, who took advantage of the encounter with him to try her swan song! 

It was clear from hearing the reports who the real Ye Rim was.

He hardly believed that, somehow, perhaps encouraged by his grandfather's favorable opinion of her, he started dating Ye Rim.

Dr. Kim had no way of remembering his own intentions, but it was clear to see that beautiful woman and how his body reacted whenever he was close to her, that he just couldn't help it.

But Miss Ye Rim, being the ambitious woman she was, could not have simply been satisfied with Dr. Kim. 

Upon meeting Lee Dae Won, an influential musician, she thought about how to seduce him too and finally be able to leverage her career.

'Ye Rim may have been a victim of Dae Won in the end, who just used her. But it was she who wanted to use him from the beginning. Like she did to me! ' That had been the conclusion when evaluating everything he managed to discover about the bizarre triangle that formed between them. 'Behind my back she was with him too! That alone explains why he did so many things for her… I should have been too intoxicated with a passion for this self-interested minx to not have seen that she fed this situation for her own benefit… '

In Dr. Kim's mind, everything was clear as water, and even the dissociation he was experiencing was caused by the shock of discovering this. Even more added to the torturing pain of realizing that he had been so negligent about his noona... 

His psychiatrist told him he would have a long way to go to deal with reality as it really was. Without any anxious fantasies or any kind of denial. They were defense mechanisms aimed at survival. Despite discomfort, she said that Jun Hyeon could overcome them with calm and persistence.

It would be easier if, when he found out the truth, he didn't feel like a complete idiot. Ye Rim only made sense when he coldly analyzed everything she had achieved in the months she was involved with him and Dae Won simultaneously.

A fantastic contract, a role as a protagonist in a drama that catapulted her dying career to success. A critically and publicly acclaimed debut album and an important role in an internationally awarded film. 

And of course, a rental boyfriend. Kim Jun Hyeon.

Jun Hyeon shook his head, crushed one flower in the bouquet he brought to her, inside the elevator.

He looked at himself in the mirror, seeing his well-dressed figure and reproaching himself. 'What a sucker you were to get involved with this woman…'

An assistant opened the door to the singer's apartment, and Jun Hyeon thanked God that she was surrounded by people almost all the time, now.

He was taken to the room where Ye Rim was being prepared for the peak event of her career. She had been nominated in one of the most important music awards in the country in four different categories: Album of the Year, Best Female Singer, Best Song, and Best New Artist. She was a favorite in at least two categories, and Jun Hyeon had to admit that she probably deserved it.

Ye Rim looked over her shoulder when the door opened, and faced him. Jun Hyeon was mesmerized to see that beautiful woman in a stunning white dress, with bare back, her coppery hair cascading sinuously and her beautiful face looking expectantly at him.

Ye Rim looked like a goddess and it was impossible to see anyone else near her. Everything was overshadowed when she was in the room.

He cleared his throat, and armed himself with a sardonic smile so as not to be fooled again by her sparkling eyes like two diamonds.

Someone grunted beside him,

"I'm glad you brought her flowers. If you make her cry or get upset tonight, this time I swear I will crush you, Dr. Kim."

Dr Kim didn't even look. He knew he was the agency director for Ye Rim, the man responsible for the contract that kept him tied to her. He shrugged, and went over to the singer.

"Stunning as always, Ye Rim!" he handed her the bouquet. The stylist's assistant finished the adjustment and walked away while Ye Rim smelled the flowers. The crushed flower did not escape her, and she looked at him questioningly.

Jun Hyeon felt bad and wondered if she thought this was some kind of threat a psychopath would do. It hadn't been intentional. 

'Damn…'

"Am I weird?" she asked. It was impossible for her not to know she was stunning, so the doctor just thought she was trying to win praise.

But he had certain contractual obligations ...

"I'm going to have to make sure that only I put my hand on your back tonight..." he sneered, praising her backhandedly to everyone to hear.

She chuckled, but dropped her eyes. She didn't seem as excited or willing to argue, as she had at other times.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes. Eun Ha had to go and feed little Hanul, but she will be there." She talked about the baby her unnie had with her husband, and one of Jun Hyeon's best friends, Shin.

In the elevator, towards the parking lot, he broke down looking at the image of the two, side by side. What was the missing element in this equation?

Why did he feel this immense pain in his chest, this feeling of suffocation, when he was alone with her?