DH ✦ Ch 20

✦ Chapter 20 ✦

Ga-young couldn’t quite read between the lines.

Surely he doesn’t mean he’s sending Se-jeong away? No, that can’t be it. He must be telling me to leave this house.

Following what seemed like the only reasonable interpretation, Ga-young continued with her apologetic attitude.

“I’ll do as you wish, Executive Director Shin. I’ll pack my things right away.”

“Why would Ms. Yoon Ga-young be leaving this house?”

“…What?”

Startled, Ga-young looked up.

Hyun-jae’s eyes calmly took in her face, bathed in direct sunlight. His gaze rested gently on her, and when he spoke, his tone was as composed as ever.

“Who do you think was the one throwing a goddamn tantrum and acting like a spoiled brat? Shin Se-jeong should be the one leaving.”

For a moment, Ga-young doubted her ears.

Did Shin Hyun-jae just say that?

With that dignified face?

In that calm, refined voice?

Hyun-jae had apparently appointed himself judge of their ridiculous catfight, and his verdict was nothing short of ruthless toward his younger sister.

Still dazed, Ga-young opened her mouth.

“Isn’t Shin Se-jeong your sister?”

“That’s right. And Ms. Yoon Ga-young is my wife.”

His gaze settled on her.

“So whose side do you think I should take?”

It wasn’t a question Ga-young even dared to answer.

Hyun-jae folded his arms and glanced to the side as if speaking to himself.

“Obviously, I should take my wife’s side.”

A perfectly clear conclusion.

If she had been his real wife, she might have welcomed those words with open arms.

But Ga-young didn’t have the nerve to feel triumphant.

“Because of me, you’re being so harsh with your sister…”

“This isn’t because of you. It’s because of Shin Se-jeong. She runs her mouth without thinking and had the nerve to grab the hair of someone older than her.”

So he had heard about the insult too.

The way he spoke made Ga-young feel as though he understood the humiliation she had suffered.

She was grateful for that.

But at the same time, she couldn’t shake the guilt of having caused trouble within the family.

“I’m sorry.”

Hyun-jae looked at her as if her apology made no sense.

“For what?”

“I caused an unnecessary scene. I should have endured it and let it pass quietly…”

“Do that again next time.”

Ga-young’s mouth fell open in surprise.

She had assumed that, as one of the main participants in such an undignified fight, there was no way she could escape a reprimand.

But wasn’t this practically encouragement?

Seeing her dumbfounded expression, Hyun-jae gave a faint, amused laugh.

“If you had just stood there and let yourself be humiliated, I would’ve been even angrier. If anyone looks down on you, insults you, or tries to harm you, don’t worry about how you deal with them. Crush them.”

The man spoke firmly before unfolding his arms and looking at her from the side.

“If you’re my wife, that’s what you should do.”

His voice was unexpectedly gentle, as though he were comforting her for everything she had endured.

“I’ll deal with whatever comes afterward.”

Ga-young didn’t know what to do with herself.

The warmth in his gaze.

The way he told her not to let anyone walk all over her.

And, of course, the words my wife.

Something felt wrong.

It was hard to believe that this perfect man was so completely on her side.

That very day, Se-jeong was kicked out of the Seongbuk-dong estate.

Mrs. Eom practically dragged Ga-young along by the arm so they could watch from the first-floor terrace.

Outside the main house, Se-jeong was surrounded by employees as she got into a car.

Mrs. Eom explained that Hyun-jae had spent some time in Chairman Kwon Seon-jin’s office, after which the chairman had given the employees their orders.

“I heard they’re sending her straight back to Florence. She attends an art school there.”

Before long, the car carrying Se-jeong disappeared through the front gate.

Ga-young turned around and leaned her back against one of the terrace’s arched pillars.

She should have felt relieved, as though a troublesome tooth had finally been pulled.

Instead, something about it sat uneasily with her.

Mrs. Eom, who had secretly seemed rather pleased to see Se-jeong get what was coming to her, looked puzzled.

“Madam, are you feeling unwell?”

“No, it’s not that…”

Ga-young let out a long sigh.

“I just feel like I’ve driven a wedge between the two siblings. If I hadn’t been here, they wouldn’t have had any reason to clash.”

“That’s not—”

Mrs. Eom murmured before tilting her head.

Ga-young stared blankly into the distance, still blaming herself.

A moment later, Mrs. Eom spoke carefully.

“I thought you already knew, but perhaps you don’t.”

“Knew what?”

“Executive Director Shin and Miss Se-jeong have the same mother, but different fathers.”

“…What?”

It was the first she had heard of it.

Seeing her confused expression, Mrs. Eom explained in more detail.

“Executive Director Shin’s mother was married three times. Executive Director Shin was born from her first marriage, while Miss Se-jeong was born from her second.”

“Then… my mother-in-law…”

“When she married for the third time, she cut ties with Chairman Kwon. She married an unknown painter, and he was a foreigner. She moved to the United States with him, and as far as I know, she lives in Los Angeles now.”

So that was why Ga-young had never met her mother-in-law.

It was the first time she had learned the truth.

At last, one of the questions surrounding their contract marriage had been answered.

Having been abandoned by his mother and raised by his maternal grandmother, Hyun-jae probably hadn’t wanted to go so far as to cut ties with Kwon Seon-jin, the woman who had raised him.

Now Ga-young finally understood why he had brought in a fake bride to protect his determination not to enter into the arranged marriage Kwon Seon-jin had been forcing on him.

It also shattered Ga-young’s assumption that Hyun-jae had lived a life of effortless privilege simply because he belonged to a chaebol family.

For the first time, she thought of him as an ordinary person who had experienced hardship and been wounded too.

“Then… were the two of them never close to begin with?”

“It’s not like that. Miss Se-jeong is actually very fond of Executive Director Shin. She’s been an affectionate little sister since she was young. She always bragged about her brother to other people, and whenever she got into trouble, she relied on him. But once she became an adult, Executive Director Shin stopped indulging her.”

“…”

“Once, he saw her mistreating one of the employees and had her locked in her room for an entire day. He even made sure she wasn’t given anything to eat. After that, she completely broke the habit of speaking rudely to the employees.”

“…”

“I think this time was the same. He probably made that decision as her brother because he wanted to set her straight. I don’t think this is something you should blame yourself for, Madam!”

Mrs. Eom’s explanation eased some of the weight on Ga-young’s heart.

The world was still wrapped in the quiet light of dawn.

Stretching as she looked out at the garden, which resembled an old black-and-white photograph, Ga-young fell into thought.

Now that she and Hyun-jae were truly living under the same roof, what exactly was she supposed to do?

Should she help her husband get ready for work?

But how?

Make him breakfast?

That was Mrs. Eom’s job.

Tie his necktie?

She didn’t even know how.

It seemed like doing nothing was probably the right answer.

But then again, considering how much she had been paid, she felt as though she wasn’t doing her part as his bride.

For now, Ga-young decided to make the bed.

Kwon Seon-jin absolutely could not find out that the married couple were sleeping separately on different floors.

The proper routine would be for Ga-young to stay in the second-floor living room and then go downstairs with Hyun-jae to the kitchen when it was time to eat.

She smoothed the bedding until it looked as though no one had slept there and straightened up.

Then she froze.

It wasn’t even six o’clock yet, but Mrs. Eom was already approaching the detached house.

That wasn’t what she had said yesterday.

Ga-young had been told that Mrs. Eom would come around seven to prepare Hyun-jae’s breakfast.

That was why she had gotten up so much earlier than usual.

Ga-young hurried out of her room and rushed up to the second-floor stairs.

She strained her ears toward the first floor.

The sound of the front door opening reached her.

Mrs. Eom’s destination should have been the kitchen.

But instead, her footsteps continued toward a spot directly below Ga-young—right at the foot of the stairs.

Ga-young’s heart dropped.

She rose onto her toes.

There wasn’t even time to think about where to go.

Only one thought moved her.

She had to make them look like a real newlywed couple.

With Mrs. Eom’s footsteps drawing closer, Ga-young slipped into Hyun-jae’s bedroom without hesitation.

She carefully closed the door and leaned against it, pressing a hand to her chest.

For that brief moment, all she felt was relief that she hadn’t been caught.

Then she saw the man sleeping on the bed.

And her breath stopped.

What Hyun-jae had said about not wearing anything to sleep turned out to be true.

His clean skin was somewhere between pale and bronze, and his strong, naked body—built from distinctly masculine lines and curves—was almost completely exposed.

The only things covering him were the faint light of dawn and a thin blanket that reached from his lower abdomen to halfway down his thighs.

She shouldn’t have been looking.

Yet for some reason, she couldn’t tear her eyes away.

It was nothing like the shock of seeing him for the first time a year ago.

Perhaps it was more like the moment one found oneself captivated by a magnificent work of art.

Or perhaps it was simply sexual curiosity, heightened by the sheer visual pleasure of what she was seeing.

Ga-young’s gaze slowly traveled over the lines and planes of his body as though appreciating a sculpture.

For a moment, her eyes lingered on the cone-shaped rise beneath the thin summer blanket.

A beat later, she realized exactly what she was looking at.

Heat rushed straight to her ears.

Then a voice came from outside the door.

“Executive Director Shin, are you still asleep?”

Hyun-jae’s eyelids slowly lifted.

His eyes found Ga-young’s gaze, which had been wandering over his naked body, and they were far too clear for someone who had just woken up.

Even after finding a woman standing in his bedroom without explanation, he didn’t seem flustered in the slightest.

If anything, his eyes seemed to mock the panic written plainly across Ga-young’s face.

“Executive Director Shin?”

Mrs. Eom called again from outside.

Hyun-jae kept his eyes fixed on Ga-young as he answered.

“Yes, Mrs. Eom. Thanks to you, I just woke up.”

“I’m sorry. By any chance, is Madam…?”

“She’s with me.”

Mrs. Eom wasn’t normally this intrusive.

Ga-young had no idea what was going on, but they couldn’t afford to raise suspicion.

So she quickly added her own voice.

“I-I’m awake too.”