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Chapter 09
“Ah…”
As Eunjae staggered slightly, Hajoon reached out and caught her arm.
It was only her arm that he had grabbed, but his cool, refreshing scent suddenly felt much stronger, making her heart feel as if it would burst.
She gently placed her hand over his arm and lightly held on.
After all, they had already kissed. Surely this much was okay.
“Th-thank you.”
Hajoon quietly looked down at Eunjae’s slender arm.
Attending a formal meeting between the two families, or even stopping by the hospital for the father of the woman who would become his wife—none of that had anything to do with the work or projects he should currently be focusing on.
Yet when he saw Lee Eunjae return with smeared makeup, swollen eyes, and obvious signs of crying, something stirred within him.
It was painfully obvious that this young woman had decided to marry for the sake of her terminally ill father.
Perhaps, in a moment of sympathy, he had willingly gone through all the extra trouble.
Even after Eunjae let go of his arm, Hajoon felt a strange lingering sensation and let out a quiet breath.
*
“Goodness… what is that?”
After the family meeting ended and everyone had gone their separate ways, only Hamin and Migyeong returned home.
As their car entered the driveway, they spotted a woman slumped by the entrance to the garage.
In this wealthy neighborhood, seeing someone sitting so inelegantly was unusual. Migyeong frowned. It was the first time she had seen a woman sprawled around drunk like that.
At her reaction, Hamin looked up from her phone.
The moment she saw the woman, she gasped.
“Oh my gosh! Choi Sinhye!”
It was none other than her friend Sinhye, who had recently returned from studying abroad.
Hamin immediately opened the car door and ran over.
“Choi Sinhye?”
Migyeong knew the name too.
She had never liked the girl, whose life seemed to revolve around drinking and partying.
But there was an even bigger reason.
Despite coming from an unimpressive family background and lacking proper manners, she had openly liked Hajoon.
Because of that, she was always bothering either Migyeong or Hamin.
“Hamin!! Is Hajoon oppa really getting married?”
“Keep your voice down. Mom’s still in the car.”
Ignoring Hamin’s warning, Sinhye staggered to her feet and approached the car.
A daughter who spent her life playing around without working was already disappointing enough, but a drunken girl causing a scene in front of someone else’s house was even worse.
“Madam! No, Auntie! No, Mother!”
“Oh my, my…”
Sinhye pounded on the window while drunkenly rambling.
Her eyeliner had completely smeared across her eyelids, making her look like a panda.
Migyeong only pretended to be kind to Eunjae because her husband and son favored her. But right now, there was no one around to impress.
“Why not me? I really, truly like Hajoon oppa!”
Migyeong shouted at the girl, who was talking nonsense.
“Hamin, get rid of her.”
“Our company is going public soon. Couldn’t you just wait until then? Please?”
Sinhye was the daughter of a small-to-medium-sized business owner.
Her family had plenty of cash assets, but at the end of the day, they were still just a mid-sized company. It was nothing compared to the wealth that Taeon’s youngest daughter would bring.
Wanting to end the situation quickly, Migyeong rolled down the window and pushed Sinhye away from the car.
With a thud, Sinhye fell to the ground and burst into tears.
“Mom! Even so, you can’t push a drunk person like that.”
“Hamin. I told you to be more careful about the friends you keep. You’ll be getting married soon yourself. How can I not worry when you associate with people like this?”
After scolding Hamin, Migyeong turned her attention back to Sinhye.
“You already know Hajoon is getting married, so there’s nothing more to say. You should find someone else suitable.”
Migyeong rolled the window back up and told the driver to head inside.
As the car drove away, Sinhye’s desperate voice echoed behind them.
“You said you’d think about it after I came back from studying abroad! About being Hajoon oppa’s match…!”
Hamin sat beside the crying girl and shook her head.
“Sinhye, get a grip. You knew it too. My mom was just making excuses to reject you the whole time.”
“Hamin, Hajoon oppa isn’t marrying her because he likes her, right? Right? It’s an arranged marriage, isn’t it?”
“Even so, he’s the one who agreed to it.”
“…That makes no sense.”
If Hajoon had ever shown interest in women before, she might have understood.
But he never had.
The fact that he had agreed to this marriage was a huge shock.
“What kind of woman is she? I heard she’s the daughter of Taeon Hotel.”
“Well, for one thing, she’s really young. Much younger than us.”
“…If my family became richer, would your mother change her mind? I really want Hajoon oppa. Hamin, help me.”
“What power do I have?”
“That’s why I came back to Korea early.”
“Please. You only came back because that foreign model kept pressuring you to get married and you ran away.”
“Hey! Quiet! Someone might hear.”
Sinhye covered Hamin’s mouth and looked around nervously.
“Anyway, it’ll be hard to persuade my mom. The CEO of Taeon Hotel is terminally ill, and she’s already thinking about the inheritance his daughter will receive after he dies.”
“Taeon… I wish it would just go bankrupt.”
A stream of curses directed at Eunjae poured from Sinhye’s mouth.
Meanwhile, Hamin simply giggled beside her, finding the whole situation amusing.
*
Since Hajoon was always busy with work, the wedding preparations were left to Eunjae and Migyeong.
Originally, a secretary from Taeon had been assigned to handle everything.
However, Migyeong acted hurt and insisted on preparing for the wedding together with Eunjae.
For Eunjae, the chance to plan a wedding alongside a caring future mother-in-law was something that made her genuinely happy.
Whenever Migyeong called, she came running immediately.
Because her own mother had passed away early, she had never experienced things like shopping together or chatting casually as mother and daughter.
To her, it felt wonderful.
“My dear, which one do you like?”
The two women were looking at a luxury bed in Korea’s only high-end furniture gallery, a bed supposedly supplied to the Swedish royal family.
“I’m fine with anything.”
“What do you mean, anything? The bed is the most important thing. You can’t be so careless about it.”
Clicking her tongue, Migyeong pressed down firmly on the mattress as if testing its stability.
“A good bed helps a couple sleep well together, don’t you think?”
The moment Eunjae understood what she meant, her face turned bright red.
She had never expected such a direct comment from her future mother-in-law.
And ever since kissing Hajoon, she had been unable to stop thinking about it.
Her heart raced every time the memory surfaced.
Now that they were looking at beds, she felt even more flustered.
“Does your Seoul Taeon Hotel use beds from this store?”
Migyeong suddenly asked.
Eunjae hesitated.
Since she had spent most of her life in Germany, she wasn’t particularly familiar with the hotel’s current operations.
As her answer did not come immediately, Migyeong’s brow began to furrow.
Fortunately, the store manager answered first.
“Taeon Seoul does not currently use our products.”
“What? It’s a hotel, and they’re cutting costs on beds? I heard business hasn’t been good lately. I guess it’s true.”
Sounding puzzled, Migyeong lightly stroked the mattress.
Eunjae stood beside her looking slightly discouraged.
“My son is going to sleep on this bed. At the very least, the newlywed home should have something of this quality.”
Without hesitation, Migyeong ordered the bed for the newlywed house.
Her sharp reaction had made Eunjae nervous, but afterward Migyeong genuinely spent the day taking her around furniture stores and luxury boutiques as though they were mother and daughter out shopping together.
“I’ve always just used whatever my personal shopper picked out. It’s so nice to actually go shopping like this.”
“Whenever you want to shop in the future, just call me. I’ll drop everything and come running.”
“Good. We’ll go together and help you develop a better eye for these things.”
