ASM 3

Chapter 3

Stolen Marriage

On the quiet streets of early dawn, where the pale blue morning light was deepening, Hae-won barely managed to hail an empty taxi.

‘I think I made a mistake.’

The passing scenery outside the window flitted by meaningless, not catching her eye in the slightest.

Though she had fled without a second thought, shaking off the lingering afterimage of Seo Jeong-hoo was next to impossible.

She had committed a massive error.

She had barely managed to salvage the dress by using safety pins to keep it discreet, but there was nothing she could do about her underwear, which had been torn so badly it was completely stripped of its function.

To roam the streets without even wearing underwear—it was utterly absurd. Never once in her life had she expected a situation like this to happen.

Extremely self-conscious, she intentionally pressed her legs tight together, which only made the throbbing ache grow even deeper.

And as vivid memories of Seo Jeong-hoo from last night rushed back, Hae-won’s face flushed bright red.

It felt as though a sleek, solitary jaguar had claimed her as his territory.

Her reason had been paralyzed. It was the first time that Hae-won—who was always so accustomed to self-control—had acted like a beast, relying purely on instinct and desire.

He had relentlessly come at her. Even in the moments she drifted off and woke up again, his heat-laden breath seeped onto her skin.

How dizzying it was, what kind of pleasure his core brought as it pushed all the way inside, and even the breathless moans escaping her own lips—it felt as though she wouldn’t be able to easily forget a single thing from that night.

‘That man is crazy.’

Hae-won shook her head side to side.

Originally, becoming a one-night stand for Seo Jeong-hoo should have been enough. Her intention had merely been to use a night with him as leverage to get under Chae-ryeong’s skin and exact her revenge.

She wanted Chae-ryeong to experience the exact same pain she had gone through, just as her sister had done to her.

However, experiencing Seo Jeong-hoo in person was subtly different from her vague expectations.

She had long known he was a formidable man, but his overwhelming presence on the bed—unapologetically wearing his raw desire on his sleeve—was larger than the ocean.

Just thinking about how many condoms he had burned through last night, and his core that rarely lost its steam, made her lower back tingle with a chill.

“Phew…”

Hae-won unclasped her tightly clenched palm and looked down at the cufflink.

JH.S—she had impulsively brought away the button engraved with his initials, feeling as if it were a lingering trace of Seo Jeong-hoo remaining with her.

She had cowardly fled without a plan due to a hunch that something was twisted and wrong, yet she still couldn’t reach a clear judgment.

‘Should I just bury it…’

Rather, that might be the right thing to do. If she dragged Seo Jeong-hoo into her life, it felt like things would spin entirely out of control.

“Miss, we’ve arrived.”

“Thank you.”

Stepping out of the taxi and looking up at the familiar outer wall, she temporarily put her deep dilemma on hold.

Her entire body was marked by his traces, and due to the severe muscle soreness, all she wanted for now was to wash up. Sleeping without a single thought seemed like it would clear her head a little.

Deciding whether to bury or blow open this night—a night that felt like a massive disaster—would come after that.

Hae-won let out a faint sigh and carefully stepped inside the house.

“…!”

In that exact moment, a sharp pain flared up along with a sudden flash of light before her eyes.

Her slender body tottered and crumpled to the floor. Holding her stinging, burning cheek, she raised her head to see Chae-ryeong and her mother, Jin-sook.

“Where on earth do you think you’re staying out all night?! What’s with that vulgar outfit? Have you lost your mind? Are you crazy?”

“Mom, hit her more so she comes to her senses. If she walks around outside looking like that, what will people think of our family?”

If it meant tormenting her, these two were people who would swallow lye without hesitation.

The fact that Jin-sook and Chae-ryeong, who loved sleeping in so much, had gotten up early in the morning just to wait for her was absurd in itself.

Getting slapped wasn’t a one- or two-day occurrence, but looking at the malicious smiles on the mother and daughter’s faces made her feel exceptionally sick and tired of it.

How could she ever sever this cruel, cursed tie?

Having taken a solid slap across the face, she tasted the metallic tang of blood in her mouth. Her mind felt like it was chilling down to a frost.

With a completely composure-restored face, Hae-won spat out the blood-laced saliva pooling in her mouth.

Drops of deep red blood fell onto the dark wooden floor with soft thuds. For some reason, it felt strangely surreal.

“Has this girl really gone mad?! Where do you think you’re spitting in front of me?”

“How could I not go mad? When I saw my sister rolling around stark naked with my fiancé on the bed of a newlywed home where even I haven’t laid down yet.”

A voice, icy as frost yet completely calm, flowed out.

If a person remained in their right mind in a situation like this, they would be the strange one.

No matter how much she had been stripped of everything by Chae-ryeong and lived in submission and resignation from a certain point onward…

Touching the man who was supposed to marry her sister was a different story entirely.

That was undeniably crossing the line.

“Where do you get off talking back so fiercely?!”

It was just as Jin-sook said. She had definitely gone mad. Because this was the first time she had ever talked back like this after staying quiet and breathlessly subdued despite losing everything.

It felt as though a thread that had been pulled taut to its limit had finally snapped.

“Were you really that wronged? Is losing something to me a matter of a day or two? Everything of yours is mine. Of course, my stuff becoming yours is a whole different story. Something that will never happen anyway.”

“Sounds to me like you’re saying you did it on purpose?”

“You only realized that now? I was just testing if he was decent material. Turns out he was pathetic. Playing around with his future sister-in-law, and his bed skills too.”

Chae-ryeong’s large eyes folded into crescent moons.

Far from repenting her wrongs, her face was shamelessly brazen.

She was like a glamorous, highly addictive poppy flower. Always exuding a dangerous and dizzying aura, Chae-ryeong was relentless when it came to seducing men.

Even if that man belonged to her sister, it was no exception. In fact, she had a temperament that would more than enjoy such immoral thrill.

“I did it because I was worried you’d get carried away. Just so you know, even if you marry and leave this house, your place here won’t change a bit.”

“So to the very end, you think you did nothing wrong?”

“Is it my fault that I’m pretty? He was the one who jumped at me to sleep together first. He was practically burning up, you know? Seriously, why do you let your man wander around outside? What’s with that outdated premarital chastity nonsense between a couple about to get married?”

Far from admitting her fault, Chae-ryeong shamelessly blamed her, her lips curving long into a smirk.

She was clearly enjoying her torment. In the first place, to Chae-ryeong, who had harbored an unrequited love for Seo Jeong-hoo for a long time, Hae-won’s fiancé wouldn’t have even caught her eye.

“So I was giving you a heads-up. As a sister’s duty.”

“…Don’t tell me, you showed me on purpose?”

“As expected, Yoon Hae-won really lacks quick wits. Is it because you take after your mother? How many times I’ve slept with that guy…”

Hae-won didn’t want to hear the rest of Chae-ryeong’s words. Without hesitation, she stepped forward and slapped her sister’s cheek, just as Jin-sook had done to her earlier.

It was more than enough to drive Hae-won—who had lived as if she were a non-entity in this house—completely over the edge.

On top of that, bringing up her mother?

She couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Why, you little bitch! Where do you think you’re raising your hand?!”

Jin-sook lunged like a madwoman and grabbed Hae-won by the hair. A violent surge of pain flared up as if her scalp were being ripped out.

Without backing down, Hae-won reached out and grabbed a fistful of Chae-ryeong’s hair. At that moment, a sharp scream burst from her sister’s mouth.

“Agh! Mom! Do something about this bitch! She’s completely lost her mind! Agh! It hurts!”

“Let go of this! Let go right now!”

It was an utterly hideous physical brawl.

Jin-sook let go of Hae-won’s hair and barely managed to pull the two tightly entangled sisters apart.

In Hae-won’s hand as she breathed heavily was a clump of ripped-out hair. Her reddened eyes glaring at Chae-ryeong welled up with moisture.

“Why are you being so wicked? Your sister was just trying to check the guy’s character for you, and things got tangled up…”

“Is your arm bending inward because she’s your daughter? Or is it because you’re the type who feels no guilt about ruining someone else’s family?”

Looking at Hae-won, who had suddenly transformed, Jin-sook’s eyes flared with rage.

Since there was nothing wrong with what she said, Jin-sook seemed to temporarily swallow her anger.

Before her stepmother could vent any further violence, Hae-won opened her mouth.

“I know you did this because you wanted to wreck my marriage. I’ll do as you wish, Sister.”

“Are you really going to break it off? Isn’t that an overly generous match for you? He’s the son of a hospital board director!”

Coming from the person who had just ruined her marriage, those were hardly the words she wanted to hear.

Breathing shallowly, Hae-won stared at Chae-ryeong with a sunken, cold gaze.

Her resolve to call off the marriage remained unchanged. Moreover, since she had seduced Seo Jeong-hoo and actually spent the night with him to pay Chae-ryeong back in kind, there was even less of a way to turn back.

“I’m never doing it.”

“Well, even for you, picking up and eating something I threw away after taking a bite would be a bit much.”

The explicit sarcasm settled her heart even further.

Hae-won tightly gripped the tiny piece of metal inside her pocket. The feeling of the cufflink biting numbingly into her palm was sharp, but she didn’t care.

She intended to carefully measure the optimal timing—again and again—to determine when and how to blow this open to deal the maximum blow to Chae-ryeong.

She didn’t want to say “I slept with Seo Jeong-hoo, too” out of impulse like this.

Her mind was boiling at a scorching temperature, but she barely managed to bottle it in tightly.

“I’m curious. If Sister were in my shoes… whether you’d pick up and eat what I threw away after taking a bite, or spit it out.”

“What? What is that supposed to mean?”

“Seo Jeong-hoo—that man is back in Korea. Even a mouse, when backed into a corner over and over, will eventually bite the cat. Just thought I’d let you know, since you seem unaware.”

For now, this was enough. Merely mentioning this much would leave her so furious she wouldn’t know what to do with herself.

Hae-won trailed off her words with a subtle smile. Then, roughly gathering her messy hair, she walked up the stairs to the second floor.

“Hey! How dare someone like you even utter Oppa Jeong-hoo’s name?!”

“What on earth are you all doing?!”

Feeling a bad premonition behind her back, Chae-ryeong yelled out. Right after, her father’s furious roar, having woken up, resounded through the house.

Hae-won, however, did not look back.

Gush, gush.

Hae-won filled the bathtub with hot water.

Over her bright white naked body reflected in the mirror, red petals bloomed irregularly. They were distinct marks—like a stamp—proving that Seo Jeong-hoo had stayed with her.

Her legs losing strength, she sat on the edge of the tub and looked down at the cufflink.

When Chae-ryeong dreamed of a rosy future with that man, at the precise moment she would inevitably fall into the deepest mud, Hae-won would return the favor in kind.

That I slept with your man, too.