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Chapter 2
“I am Han Jooyoung.”
The person in the mirror was no longer Seoyoung, who used to live in the tiny room next to the kitchen. Beyond her long eyelashes, a cold haughtiness flared up, as if severed from the rest of the world.
Yet deep inside her eyes, a small, dark shadow remained hidden. But in that moment, a whisper echoed from somewhere within her heart:
‘It’s only temporary. Just until Unnie wakes up.’
Sitting at the dressing table, Seoyoung slowly squeezed a small drop of foundation onto the back of her hand.
The familiar contours appeared on the face in the mirror. Today, however, it was not her usual intimidated, lethargic face that seemed to have given up on everything.
“Pull the chin back a bit, raise the eyes to make them look soft yet cold, tilt the corners of the lips up just slightly…”
Seoyoung whispered as she adjusted each expression one by one.
She mimicked the countenance her ever-dazzling older sister used to wear so often. That face—proud and elegant in front of people, yet always laced with cynicism and boredom in front of her family.
“If I do this, will I look like her too?”
She slowly spread the lipstick over her lips and neatly brushed up her eyebrows. She put thin pearl earrings on her ears and sprayed the light musk perfume her sister used to wear often. Then she stood before the mirror.
She was Han Seoyoung.
Yet the woman beyond the mirror was Han Jooyoung.
A wish Seoyoung had buried deep inside her heart slipped past her lips.
“What would it have been like if I were really Unnie?”
Seoyoung suddenly murmured to herself. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from her reflection—wearing her sister’s clothes and bearing her sister’s face.
A face both familiar and foreign.
Questions that had lingered in Seoyoung’s heart for a long time began rising to the surface.
When she was young, she hadn’t understood.
Why were she and her sister born on the same day at the same time, yet everything was so different? She couldn’t make sense of it at all.
The same face, the same height. Though the two looked identical and went to the same kindergarten, the teacher only ever smiled at her sister, and when taking photos, her parents always left Seoyoung out.
On the day they went to take a family portrait, Seoyoung wasn’t even allowed to go to the photo studio. Seoyoung was absent from the family photo that was retaken every year and hung in the living room.
“You go into your room and stay there. Don’t come out.”
Every time she heard those words, Seoyoung took a step back. At first, she felt hurt; later, she grew accustomed to it; and eventually, it became second nature.
The feelings of young Seoyoung were never a consideration for her parents. They openly detested the idea of her very existence being revealed to others.
Do young children act as their parents want because they need love to survive?
Seoyoung surrendered her parents’ affection for the sake of survival. As she grew older, she learned to hold her tongue. She became adept at stepping cautiously and suppressing her sound whenever she laughed.
Living like Jooyoung’s shadow was the only way to survive in this house—the child had realized this far too early. And so, Seoyoung had no choice but to shrink back.
Then suddenly, a thought crossed her mind:
‘If I were Unnie, would that place have been mine? Would everyone have remembered my name?’
But such questions had been buried too long, too deep.
The scent of perfume on the back of her hand dried away.
Reflected in the mirror, Seoyoung wore her sister’s clothes and bore her sister’s face, but deep in her eyes laid a question no one knew about.
And today, Seoyoung was going to meet that man.
In front of the private room of a high-end restaurant—their meeting place—Seoyoung took a small deep breath.
Opening the door slowly, the first thing that caught her eye was a man in a gray suit already seated inside. A sharp jawline and distinct facial features. Lit up by the room’s lighting, his face held not a single flaw.
The panoramic view of the Han River outside the window didn’t even register in Seoyoung’s sight. The man’s appearance—dazzlingly handsome enough to pass for a god—threw her into a state of intense nervous tension.
Seoyoung wanted to take a step back. But she couldn’t. He turned his gaze and looked at her. His gaze was neither fierce nor warm. It simply lingered, very slowly and for a long time.
“Welcome.”
“Hello.”
Even as Seoyoung answered, she felt her heart drop heavily.
It was hard to take her eyes off him.
Eyes shining coldly, the bridge of his nose falling sharply like a blade, and an aura that cooled the room’s temperature just by quietly existing. He was captivating even without a smile, and the colder he appeared, the more dazzling he was.
The moment he turned his head, it felt dizzying, like being cut by a blade of a glance.
“I’ve been waiting for you. Ms. Han Jooyoung.”
Seoyoung took her seat. There was no room left to retreat now.
Unless her sister Jooyoung miraculously woke up, it was time for her to become Han Jooyoung.
In the middle of the meal, Dojin spoke up.
“Is that offer still valid?”
His voice was low and clear. He didn’t let go of the knife in his hand.
What was valid?
Unsure of how to respond, Seoyoung cut her steak, following his lead. When the tip of his knife hovered over the plate and paused, he raised his head.
“What you said, Ms. Han Jooyoung.”
Seoyoung’s eyes flickered momentarily. Unbeknownst to anyone, the diary of Jooyoung she had thoroughly read beforehand didn’t mention any proposal she had made to Dojin.
“What do you mean?”
“You said that in exchange for becoming my wife, you would never interfere in my private life. I’m asking if those words are still valid.”
Her breath caught in her throat. She had to pull herself together.
‘Unnie said something like that…?’
She couldn’t let it slip here that she was ‘Han Seoyoung’ instead of ‘Han Jooyoung.’
Unable to meet his gaze directly, Seoyoung picked up her water glass. Her fingertips were damp. There was no disturbance in Dojin’s expression. He merely moved his eyes to read Seoyoung’s reaction.
“As I mentioned last time, I do not want marriage. But I’ve given some thought to what you said, Ms. Han Jooyoung.”
Every single word Dojin uttered contained conditions rather than persuasion. It was the attitude of dealing with a business partner, not a marriage partner.
“For people like us, a relationship void of emotion is actually better. Thinking along those lines, I didn’t think your idea was bad, Ms. Han Jooyoung.”
Seoyoung was rendered temporarily speechless.
Did her sister want a loveless marriage?
Were those words sincere, or were they a strategy?
The words Jooyoung used to say like a habit crossed her mind.
“I am definitely going to marry into Taesan Group.”
To Jooyoung, who was a lawyer on the legal team at Taesan Group, those words were by no means a joke. To Jooyoung, ‘marriage’ was not the completion of love, but the final puzzle piece to complete her status and power.
And at some point, she began adding her ambition to it.
“The child I give birth to must become the successor to Taesan Group. Only then will my life truly be a success.”
She never hesitated to say such snobbish things in front of her younger sister. Because Seoyoung had been forced to live as if she existed and didn’t exist to her family, Jooyoung didn’t have to worry about her words leaking out.
That was it.
Marriage to Baek Dojin wasn’t an option for Jooyoung. It was a necessity.
He was the heir to a chaebol family and a member of a perfect lineage cruising on a smooth road. Entering that position was the culmination of the ambition Jooyoung had built all her life.
“I…”
Seoyoung didn’t know how to answer. The Jooyoung he knew would have probably thrown words at him in a different manner than herself—assertively setting conditions and establishing her own rules.
“What you said back then… I quite liked it.”
He set the knife down slowly and continued.
“The distance you want, the emotion you need. That suited me just right.”
For a moment, Seoyoung felt as though the wine glass on the table was shaking. Her sister had no intention of truly falling in love with Dojin. She simply wanted the title of ‘daughter-in-law of a chaebol family.’
Is that why she drew the line like that?
“I will not interfere in Baek Dojin’s life.”
It meant Jooyoung also saw Dojin merely as a tool to get what she wanted.
The fact that those words sounded comforting to this man made Seoyoung’s heart ache strangely.
“By any chance…”
Dojin opened his mouth.
“Do you want to retract the proposal you made?”
Seoyoung lifted her gaze to look at him. He was asking nonchalantly, but a bizarre, uncomfortable tension resided in his eyes.
Seoyoung put down her fork and knife and stared at Dojin.
“No. It is still valid.”
