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Chapter 21
Seo Tae-ju bit his lip while looking at Ye Jae-gyeong’s trembling eyelashes.
What on earth is this woman.
She was so beautiful that it completely disturbed his judgment.
It made him forget everything—that she was just a “toy” he might get bored of, that she was the only daughter of Hanlim. It made him forget everything, as if he had been swept away by desire alone.
So that in this very moment, they existed only as a man and a woman.
“…Can I?”
She still did not answer.
Seo Tae-ju took that as permission. Without a word, he lowered his head toward the woman who was looking straight at him.
Soft lips met soft lips. A moan escaped Ye Jae-gyeong’s mouth, and his hand slid around her waist, pulling her in.
His lips bit down on hers once, firmly, then held them. Even so, her tightly shut lips did not give way.
With his lips still pressed against hers, Seo Tae-ju spoke in a slightly impatient, low voice.
“…Open them, okay?”
Don’t drive me crazy.
“It’s easy. Like before. Think of my lips as a tasty caramel.”
“What kind of ridiculous—!”
At those words, like a dam bursting, Ye Jae-gyeong’s lips parted. Without missing the moment, his tongue slipped inside quickly.
Soft tongue met soft tongue.
A strong hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her tightly in. Overwhelmed by a pleasure that felt like her brain was melting, a moan spilled from her throat.
Their lips tangled, saliva mixing. Biting, licking, then gently savoring again, rubbing together.
“Hah….”
The moment she briefly opened her mouth to breathe, his tongue slipped in again without hesitation.
This hopeless game of fire.
As the flames grew higher…
The two had already long crossed the dangerous line.
“Damn it.”
After sending Ye Jae-gyeong home, Seo Tae-ju walked alone.
He felt like he wanted to grab his still-racing heart.
…What is he, a teenage boy having his first hand-holding experience with a girl?
Just one kiss, and his heart felt completely knocked out.
Seo Tae-ju unfairly blamed Ye Jae-gyeong for it.
“That girl… is she some kind of enchantress?”
He recalled her soft skin as she awkwardly accepted his lips earlier.
A jolt. Electricity seemed to rise again from his fingertips.
What started as simple curiosity and half-bored amusement…
I guess I’m not being punished for teasing an innocent girl, am I?
He worried aimlessly, clutching his head. This little flame game kept poking at his conscience.
Seo Tae-ju was still misunderstanding Ye Jae-gyeong’s intentions completely.
He got in a car and headed straight to campus. There was a USB he needed to retrieve from a locker in the department office.
Arriving quickly at Lee Chang-sik’s locker, he grabbed the USB and left the building.
Night streets of campus lined with benches.
Suddenly, something Ye Jae-gyeong had once said came to mind.
“There’s nothing in this world that just happens on its own.”
“Everything is built on someone’s invisible effort and labor.”
Those bold words from that princess-like girl had somehow taken root in his mind.
He gave a faint, bitter smile.
Yeah. Maybe all the pointless things I’ve been doing alone aren’t just meaningless bullshit.
Maybe… I want to try living passionately again.
This life, like her.
…A princess on a white horse ends up reforming a wandering prince.
He paused. Seo Tae-ju suddenly noticed something.
A printed face stuck on a trash can.
A typical method of insulting immoral politicians or corporate figures.
“What now…”
Crack. The photo in his hand bent instantly.
…The face on the trash can was Vice Chairman Seo Mun-su.
His father—who he could no longer call his father.
The mood that had felt like it could lift him into the sky moments ago instantly crashed.
Ye Baekhwa Chairman’s mansion.
Ye Jae-gyeong’s heart pounded wildly as she quickly entered the house.
Ah…
Her mind was still hazy.
I actually did it.
Her whole body felt soft and melted.
She briefly blushed, recalling the moment, then quickly shook her head.
It was a relationship that could never become real anyway. Wasting emotions was a luxury.
And yet, the sensation of his lips kept coming back.
“Are you back?”
She froze.
The excitement and racing heartbeat from moments ago stopped instantly, as if the fantasy had ended.
Ye Jae-gyeong slowly turned around.
“You’re only coming in now?”
Chairman Ye Baekhwa came out from the entrance connected to the kitchen, holding a wine glass. Her suspicious gaze scanned her daughter up and down.
“Yes…”
“I checked your tracker earlier. You were standing in front of the house for quite a while.”
“I met Seo Tae-ju. He dropped me off at the gate, and we talked a bit long.”
Goosebumps spread over Ye Jae-gyeong’s arm.
Please, let this pass today.
Fortunately, Ye Baekhwa only muttered in dissatisfaction.
“Well… just be careful not to get too attached.”
“Yes.”
Ye Jae-gyeong quickly tried to head upstairs.
At that moment, Ye Baekhwa’s eyes flashed.
“Wait… don’t tell me you’ve been walking around like that?”
The atmosphere instantly turned cold.
Ye Jae-gyeong froze.
In that moment, Ye Baekhwa rushed over and tore something off her clothes.
A loose thread.
“Are you insane…! Do you even have any sense at all right now?!”
Like a switch flipping.
Her hidden nature—one outsiders would never recognize—was revealed.
She suffered from severe obsessive tendencies.
Especially toward her daughter Ye Jae-gyeong’s appearance, clothing, and weight.
“Ah—Mom, no, Chair—!”
Before she could finish, Ye Baekhwa grabbed her hair.
She began striking her violently.
Crash. The wine glass shattered, glass scattering everywhere.
Her hysteria had begun again.
“Mom! Please calm down—ugh!”
Desperately, Ye Jae-gyeong struggled.
In the struggle, she stepped on a shard of broken glass.
“Ugh!”
But Ye Baekhwa, already consumed by rage, did not stop.
Sometime later.
After everything ended, Ye Jae-gyeong limped upstairs.
At the second floor, she underwent her usual weight and measurements, and later received a message from Manager Jang that there would be no dinner.
“Your weight still isn’t dropping properly. You need to manage yourself better.”
“…Yes.”
“Don’t be too upset with Madam Ye. Everything is for your own good.”
“….”
“Never forget that all your wealth and honor come from Chairman Ye Baekhwa.”
Manager Jang placed something down and left.
A first-aid kit.
Ye Jae-gyeong opened it and began treating her wounds alone.
“…Ah.”
A small groan escaped as she removed the embedded glass. Luckily, it was a small shard, and the bleeding wasn’t severe.
She suddenly let out a small laugh.
She knew. Compared to the worst possibilities, she was living a fortunate life.
But still, she couldn’t help but doubt it.
Was that really true?
She looked at the iron bars covering her window.
I want to escape.
A twisting desire churned violently inside her.
I want to get out of here.
She covered her face with both hands. Her palms quickly became damp.
“I can do this.”
She slapped her own cheeks hard.
Smack!
She pulled something from deep inside her closet.
A board.
As if a curtain had been lifted, her hidden plan was revealed.
It was filled with stock market trends, real estate shifts, and foreign exchange movements.
A list of asset management firms she had been tracking was also carefully written down.
The groundwork for acquiring Hanlim’s shares had already begun.
She had been steadily growing her wealth through stocks since middle school.
Now, those efforts were finally beginning to generate serious returns, exponentially increasing her personal assets.
But that wasn’t all.
She pulled out a file stored with the board.
Dozens of photographs.
All of them were Polaroid pictures of her own body.
Broken ribs, bruises on her abdomen, injuries from fainting due to mild concussions, nosebleeds soaking her shirt when she was hit in the face…
Dates and detailed symptoms were recorded beside each one.
Evidence of long-term, one-sided violence and abuse.
All of it was done by Ye Baekhwa under the name of “love.”
When her anger went beyond control, she did not hesitate to inflict brutal violence on her own daughter.
These were evidence that could expose Ye Baekhwa.
A child who is beaten does not remain a child forever.
She grows.
And when she grows, she breaks the chains that bound her.
Crinkle.
Her hand crumpled the most recent record.
She bit her lip.
But not yet.
It wasn’t time yet.
She had tried to escape before, but she was always caught. Reporting it had also failed.
To Ye Baekhwa, the chairwoman of a powerful corporation, the law meant nothing.
“Ye Jae-gyeong. Do you think there’s anything your mother wouldn’t do for you? Try that again… I’ll make sure you rot in a psychiatric hospital for the rest of your life. Do you really think I can’t do it?”
Ye Baekhwa was Hanlim itself—a concentration of power and wealth.
In public, she was a model chairwoman with perfect social manners. There was currently no way to escape her mother.
To win against her, Ye Jae-gyeong needed an equal or greater force.
Something like Taegwang.
She placed everything back into the hidden safe inside the closet. It was so cleverly concealed that no one would ever suspect it existed.
“Ow.”
As she applied medicine to her foot, she suddenly flinched from a stinging pain. But it wasn’t her foot—it was her lips.
She checked the mirror and froze. There was a small cut on her lip.
Ah…
The kiss with Seo Tae-ju had been more intense than she expected.
The result of that.
Her face flushed red. Thinking about it made her clear judgment blur again.
She shook her head.
Right. Let’s think of Seo Tae-ju as seed money.
Seed money.
The basic capital needed to make money in stocks.
Not wrong.
The foundation for escaping Ye Baekhwa and making her pay.
And the person she chose for that was Seo Tae-ju of Taegwang.
It’s normal to feel attracted to seed money.
It was just a stepping stone for greater profit later.
So it was natural that thinking about that man made her heart race and flutter.
Like a turtle retreating into its shell.
She tried to convince herself of that.
It was definitely not true feelings for him. It couldn’t be. Not ever.
And again today, she deceived herself.
