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Chapter 23
If he followed his temper, he would have immediately interrogated her about who gave her that phone and smashed it to pieces. He didn’t need to humor Young-wook, who kept insisting on having the wedding first under the guise of “tradition” and “family honor.”
But Jaesuk endured everything, holding it in so he could savor the greatest sense of victory later.
The one thing his eldest brother, Yoonseok, who could have everything, did not possess—Seo Hyeon-jeong. At first, he only wanted her to make his brother jealous. But now… now he truly wanted Hyeon-jeong for himself.
Of course, she wasn’t as important as his own life.
Who could have given her the phone? Since the caregiver lied about it, it clearly wasn’t the family.
Knock, knock.
Just as the image of Taegon flashed through his mind, someone knocked on the window of his car, which was parked in the basement of the Bill Furniture building.
When Jaesuk unlocked the car, Hyeon-jeong’s older sister, Yerim, slipped into the passenger seat.
“What brings you here? Did you come to see me?”
A woman who ran to him in less than a few minutes after one phone call. Yerim smiled brightly at him, her face flushed.
Too easy. Far too easy. A woman who obeyed his every command with just one gesture.
A woman who envied her sister, but would still push her younger sibling into his arms if he asked.
“Come here.”
Click. Jaesuk unbuckled his belt. Yerim’s face flushed as she glanced around nervously. Since it was her company’s parking lot, she looked uneasy.
“What are you waiting for?”
He asked what she was doing still hesitating, instead of pulling off her panties and climbing on right away. As he tore open the buttons of her blouse, exposing her flesh, he grabbed her ruthlessly. Yerim bit her lip, unable to resist.
“…Hnn, not here. People from work… ha… Jaesuk.”
Even while feeling his hands on her, she tried not to lose her reason. Watching her cling to rationality, Jaesuk stopped his rough groping.
“Ha…”
Yerim let out a regretful sigh. He looked at her coldly.
“Boring. Get out.”
“Jaesuk, don’t say that. Let’s go to a nearby hotel…”
“Hotel? Damn it. I’m about to marry your sister. What if someone sees us?”
As expected, Yerim was the one left wanting. Even with her blouse hanging open and her breasts exposed, she clung to his pant leg.
“…Then let’s go somewhere else. Anywhere but here. Please?”
Feigning reluctance, Jaesuk started the car. Yerim clutched at her torn blouse, trying to cover herself.
The two of them went to a nearby motel. Without foreplay, he bent Yerim over the vanity and took her mercilessly.
A body he alone had embraced crumbled easily beneath his thrusts.
“Jaesuk, ngh… slower…”
She begged him to go gently even as her flushed face and swaying hips betrayed her excitement. Jaesuk let out a dry laugh at her foxy act.
He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back, pressing his lips against hers. Even while moaning painfully, Yerim received everything he gave without complaint.
He closed his eyes, wondering how it would have been if this were Hyeon-jeong instead.
“Didn’t you say Hyeon-jeong would be able to walk again soon?”
After their rough entanglement, Yerim was fixing her makeup at the vanity when Jaesuk, puffing on cigarette after cigarette, asked her. Yerim’s hand slipped, dragging the lipstick from her lips to her cheek. Wiping it away quickly, she forced herself to stay composed.
“They said she’ll need rehab. Maybe two or three months.”
“Two or three months…”
“Why do you ask?”
“I think we need to move up the wedding. I’ll have my secretary arrange the venue and the dress fittings. You tell your parents accordingly.”
The only reason the marriage talks with Hyeon-jeong had progressed this far was because Yerim played the perfect middleman. She had long loved Jaesuk from afar and did whatever he asked, even if it meant helping him marry her younger sister.
“…Alright.”
Perhaps he hadn’t paid enough attention to Yerim’s feelings. When he met Taegon—who had rescued Hyeon-jeong from the wrecked car and visited her at the hospital—he had felt uneasy. The fear that the man might steal away the woman he had laid claim to.
Yerim probably lived with that unease every day, because she loved him too much. He felt a fleeting trace of pity for the woman who would do anything to stay by his side.
He kissed her lips lightly, as if bestowing a reward.
Yerim’s expression, which had been gloomy, brightened instantly as though nothing had happened. But his next words turned her face grim again.
“I think Hyeon-jeong’s seeing someone. You should keep an eye on her. If I can’t marry your sister, you’re nothing to me.”
“Thank you so much, Auntie.”
After Jaesuk left the hospital room, Hyeon-jeong let out the breath she had been holding. The caregiver, who seemed just as shaken, collapsed into a chair with a heavy sigh.
“My goodness, my heart… I thought it was going to burst.”
Her face was pale, so different from the cheerful, talkative woman she usually was.
“Are you alright?”
Concerned, Hyeon-jeong held her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. The caregiver laughed heartily.
“I thought my heart was going to shrivel up!”
“How did you even think of doing that?”
“I don’t know. I just felt like you didn’t want him to find out. I worried I might’ve overstepped, but seeing you happy like this—what a relief.”
Her warm hand patting Hyeon-jeong’s own made her chest tighten. When Myeong-hee had taken care of her, wiping her limbs with a wet towel, it had only felt suffocating.
“But Auntie… how do you know that man?”
She had been curious all along but hadn’t had the chance to ask.
“Oh, whenever Madam brought snacks, I’d take a walk around the hospital while you two met. I kept running into him. Even just walking past, he stood out. I thought to myself, ‘Wow, that young man’s handsome. He’d make a fine son-in-law.’ And wouldn’t you know it, he had such a nice personality too. After a few times, he even greeted me and bought me coffee.”
“…”
“And refusing coffee would’ve been rude, right?”
“True.”
Hyeon-jeong couldn’t help laughing at the woman’s cheerful tone.
“Besides, who could say no when someone as good-looking as a movie star offers? I may be over fifty, but I’ve never seen a man that handsome. My heart actually fluttered, like a silly girl.”
“He really is like that…”
A man who was not only handsome but exuded an aura that overwhelmed everyone around him. He seemed cold, yet in conversation, he was witty and courteous.
The way he casually handed her a hot pack, or wrapped her feet in his scarf so her toes wouldn’t get cold—his touch had been warm, making her heart soften.
“One day, while we were drinking coffee, I asked if he had family here, since he seemed to come every day.”
“…”
“All he said was that he had someone to see. So I just thought, oh, okay. But then—turns out that someone was you! Isn’t that amazing?”
The caregiver clapped her hands together and held Hyeon-jeong’s hand tightly, talking excitedly.
“Compared to that rat-faced fiancé of yours, he’s… oh, goodness.”
She suddenly covered her mouth, realizing she had spoken too freely about Jaesuk.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“He does look like a rat.”
Seeing how guilty she looked, Hyeon-jeong replied honestly with a laugh. The caregiver burst into booming laughter.
“But really, you don’t seem to care much about your fiancé. You don’t remember anything at all about him?”
“…No.”
“The coffee young man looked at you yesterday like it was something more. Don’t you remember him either?”
“No.”
“Still, he must have some deep connection with you. Otherwise, why would he keep coming? You know visits are restricted to family only. The fact that he came every day to wait for you—there must be some bond there.”
Her words sent Hyeon-jeong deep into thought.
So much had happened all at once that she hadn’t had time to think properly. She had woken up after the car accident surgery with no memories at all.
Before she could even figure out who she was, what she liked or disliked, they had shoved a fiancé into her life, forcing her to adjust. She hadn’t had the chance to look at herself.
But just a brief meeting with Kang Taegon had made questions about him—and herself—explode inside her.
It was nearly time for Myeong-hee to arrive with snacks again. After that, night would fall, and with it, the time of her promised meeting with Taegon.
As the minutes ticked by, her heart pounded harder and harder.
