ASPM 05

Chapter 05

Yeo Jaekyung’s eyes wavered mercilessly.

“Use me and throw me away…?”

Her expression looked as if she wanted to ask: What do you mean, someone like you could be used and discarded? Why are you suddenly acting like this?

Seo Taejoo stared down at her intensely.

“Seo Taejoo.”

Soon, Yeo Jaekyung answered with a resolute expression.

“Stop being unreasonable. Our divorce will proceed as planned.”

“……”

“……”

“You slept with your head on my arm just a few days ago.”

Seo Taejoo’s voice suddenly dropped lower.

Leaning closer toward her, he murmured softly:

“And right before that… do you remember crying beneath me, saying, ‘Taejoo… Seo Taejoo…’?”

“Th-that was…!”

At the blunt question, Yeo Jaekyung’s ears instantly flushed red.

Seo Taejoo quietly watched his wife’s face.

Below her sharply defined nose, her neat lips trembled faintly.

His memory replayed the scene from only days earlier—

Her long straight hair spread over the white sheets like a fan.

The traces he had left decorating her pale, canvas-like skin, as though red flower petals had been scattered across it.

And now… divorce?

He genuinely couldn’t understand Yeo Jaekyung.

“What on earth is wrong with you? Huh?”

Her cheeks reddened for a moment.

“That time… I was only briefly tempted.”

“Tempted?”

“It won’t happen again. I promise.”

“Ha… Yeo Jaekyung.”

Yeo Jaekyung glared stubbornly at the dumbfounded Seo Taejoo.

Her eyes looked ready to waver, but she forced strength into them.

A long time has passed, but all the preparations necessary to achieve my life’s purpose are complete.

Once, I thought you were only someone passing through my life. I mistakenly believed I could take only the sweetness and throw you away.

But now… my feelings for you have become too sincere.

I’m sorry, Seo Taejoo.

She swore silently.

No matter what I do against my mother and family from now on, I’ll make sure you aren’t harmed.

So don’t forgive me.

With a determined expression, Yeo Jaekyung drove the final nail in.

“I’ve booked a consultation with a divorce lawyer. My secretary, Geum Nana, will send you the schedule.”

Five years ago, there had been only one reason Seo Taejoo and her strategic marriage could happen:

The prestige brought by Hanlim and Chairwoman Yeo Baekhwa’s name.

At present, Taekwang Group was preparing for a shareholders’ meeting.

At that gathering, Yeo Jaekyung intended to completely destroy the image of Hanlim’s Yeo Baekhwa.

A revenge she had prepared for her entire life.

No matter how the consequences returned, it was obvious Taekwang and Seo Taejoo would suffer damage too.

…She absolutely had to sever her connection with Seo Taejoo before then.

Because getting caught in the bombshell she was about to detonate—

One victim, herself, was enough.

“Yeo Jaekyung…!”

Just as Seo Taejoo tried to grab her while she turned away—

“So this is where you were.”

Someone interrupted between them.

Yeo Jaekyung’s expression darkened instantly.

Seo Taejoo’s face hardened too.

It was Yeo Baekhwa.

As if time had passed only around everyone else, her face remained unchanged like preserved wax.

Chairwoman Yeo Baekhwa, still carrying the same charisma, linked arms with Yeo Jaekyung.

“I’ve been looking for you.”

She smiled warmly at her daughter.

Yeo Jaekyung’s expression froze immediately.

“Oh? Son-in-law Seo was here too?”

“Ah… yes, Mother-in-law.”

When she noticed Seo Taejoo, a hint of displeasure crossed Yeo Baekhwa’s face.

“It feels like I haven’t seen you in a while?”

“It’s been some time since I greeted you.”

Yeo Baekhwa frowned.

“You used to bring Jaekyung over for dinner often. Lately, you’re hard to see. I’m disappointed. Come have dinner with Jaekyung this weekend.”

“Ah… dinner.”

Seo Taejoo subtly furrowed his brows.

Back in the early days of marriage, he often took his wife to visit her family.

He believed it was the greatest courtesy he could show a newlywed bride.

But every time they visited, Yeo Jaekyung inevitably ended up sick at night, clutching the toilet from indigestion.

After that, Seo Taejoo avoided those visits.

“Jaekyung’s steel division has been extremely busy lately. If you’re lonely, I can visit alone this weekend.”

Seo Taejoo laughed lightly, trying to smooth over the situation.

“No need. I wasn’t inviting you to dinner.”

Yeo Baekhwa answered stiffly and tugged Yeo Jaekyung’s arm.

“Come, Jaekyung. There’s someone I’d like to introduce you to.”

“Ah… yes.”

Yeo Jaekyung glanced briefly at her husband before following her mother.

Seo Taejoo watched the backs of the mother and daughter as they walked away, eyes filled with meaning.

“Ah! Executive Director Seo! Here you are!”

Someone called him then.

It was Lee Changsik—Seo Taejoo’s longtime friend, chief secretary, and co-director of The Home.

Dragging Seo Taejoo toward a secluded area, Lee whispered:

“Hey! Why’re you standing around alone? Half the people here are looking for you!”

When others weren’t around, he spoke casually.

Currently, Seo Taejoo simultaneously served as an executive at Taekwang Electronics and the person in charge of The Home.

The Home was a platform company he operated in secret.

A personal business he led while also serving as an executive in his family’s corporation.

That was why the past five years had been so overwhelmingly busy.

Suddenly, regret flooded him.

…If I’d given up The Home, would I have been able to pay closer attention to my wife?

He muttered absentmindedly.

“…I’m thinking of stepping down as CEO of The Home.”

“What kind of insane nonsense is that?!”

Lee Changsik’s jaw practically dropped.

“Do you realize The Home is about to go public?! We have eight hundred employees! More than seventy subsidiaries!”

From three people to eight hundred—

Everything achieved in only five years.

He had run nonstop as though possessed.

Yet at this moment, none of it seemed to matter.

“What’s the point of any of it…”

“Hey! Seo Taejoo! Pull yourself together!”

“…Jaekyung is pregnant.”

Lee Changsik dropped his phone.

“…And she wants a divorce.”

His jaw dropped even farther.

“What did I do wrong, Lee Changsik?”

“H-huh?”

Seo Taejoo muttered blankly, unfocused.

“While Jaekyung was studying abroad for her master’s degree after marriage, I was building my career at Taekwang’s New York branch and running The Home at the same time. I lived like someone who needed ten bodies.”

“R-right. I know.”

Lee patted his back.

“That’s why you said after The Home goes public, you’d finally reveal it—that you’re the CEO.”

The reformation of a former troublemaker.

He wanted the whole world to know.

So he could stand proudly beside Yeo Jaekyung—

Become a reliable shelter for her.

…But.

“Jaekyung and I have lived together properly in Korea for less than a year.”

He raked a hand through his hair.

“She said since it was a strategic marriage, we should pretend publicly not to get along. I agreed. She said not to interfere in each other’s work. I agreed.”

And then suddenly—

A divorce struck like lightning.

“What exactly did I do wrong? Huh? Lee Changsik?”

Lee looked suspicious.

“…And in the middle of all that, you still managed to make a baby?”

“…That’s—!”

Seo Taejoo’s ears instantly turned red.

Clearing his throat, arms crossed, he protested quickly:

“Did we do something wrong? Two healthy adults, married, having a child—isn’t that something the nation should encourage?”

“Yeah. Patriot. Truly a patriot.”

After thinking for a moment, Lee asked:

“Were there any signs? It’s not like Jaekyung suddenly brought up divorce overnight.”

Signs?

Seo Taejoo frowned.

He recalled the strange interaction between Yeo Jaekyung and her mother earlier.

Chairwoman Yeo Baekhwa.

When his mother-in-law linked arms with his wife, he had sensed it.

…Yeo Jaekyung became extremely tense in that instant.

“…I have suspicions, but no proof.”

Remembering that strange feeling, Seo Taejoo muttered in frustration.

His wife was fiercely prideful.

Until she chose to tell him herself, he couldn’t recklessly interfere.

Haah…

A sigh escaped.

What are you thinking, Yeo Jaekyung?

He rubbed his face.

Divorce?

It felt like his world was flipping upside down.

As if struck by lightning out of nowhere.

…Five years.

Long and short at the same time.

Throughout those years of pretending to be merely a strategic married couple—

Seo Taejoo’s feelings for her only grew.

Like weeds that flourished into an entire field despite never being watered.

It wasn’t only because her occasional pained expressions troubled him.

It was also the tiny bits of sincerity she unconsciously showed him.

Those brief moments—rare but real—when she relied on him.

They gave him hope.

Made him expect something.

Maybe this woman… might actually care for me too.

And now she says she’s leaving me…?

No matter the circumstances—

They were married.

Yeo Jaekyung was his wife.

And he was her husband.

…Absolutely not.

He couldn’t let things end like this.

Because—

All the divorce rumors published every quarter…

All the criticism about their supposedly cold married life…

He could dismiss all of it as lies.

Even if everyone says ours was strategic… when it comes to you, I…

Grinding his teeth, Seo Taejoo thought of his wife—

The woman who still made his heart race whenever he remembered her.

Words he had never managed to say circled inside him.

Seo Taejoo loved Yeo Jaekyung.

And hopefully—

Yeo Jaekyung loved Seo Taejoo too.

From the very beginning.

Without changing even once.

Sincerely.