MHLM 01

Chapter 1

The day of the wedding.

Kang Tae-heon stood side by side with the bride in front of his grandfather’s hospital room.

Because his grandfather was in critical condition, they had decided to hold a simple wedding ceremony in the hospital room.

Tae-heon glanced at his bride, Ji Min-chae, who was eight years younger than him.

Wearing a neat white dress with her eyes lowered, she looked like a freshly bloomed lily.

It felt strange seeing that exact same face as Ji So-yul, her identical twin, but she wasn’t So-yul.

“Our So-yul should marry a really good man someday. I won’t give her to anyone unless he’s a man who cherishes her like his own life.”

So-yul had been born as a twin, but she was adopted alone as a baby and grew up as the younger sister of Tae-heon’s friend, Young-ho.

Then, when So-yul was twelve, Young-ho and his adoptive parents all died in an accident.

Just when she was about to be sent to an orphanage with no family to turn to, her biological parents appeared with her twin sister, Min-chae, and took So-yul back.

That was how So-yul went from being ‘Seo So-yul’ to ‘Ji So-yul.’

While he was alive, Young-ho had always wished for So-yul’s happiness.

Tae-heon couldn’t give So-yul that happiness.

His top priority had always been his work. There was something he absolutely wanted to accomplish.

And he had no energy to spare for a woman. He had already decided that this marriage would be a loveless relationship.

So it’s a good thing.

It really was a relief that the bride standing beside him wasn’t So-yul.

With his grandfather’s condition so critical that every moment mattered, if his blind-date partner had been So-yul, this marriage would have been impossible.

As Tae-heon waited for the greetings between Chairman Kang and both families to finish inside the hospital room—

“Hoo… huffffff… Hoo… huffffff…”

He heard the quiet sound of someone taking deep breaths beside him.

Was she nervous?

Well, it made sense. A twenty-two-year-old girl, practically a child, had suddenly found herself getting married.

With a little sympathy, Tae-heon glanced at the bride.

At that moment—

Tae-heon’s brow furrowed.

That…

The bride was taking deep breaths while counting the beats with her hand.

Using her thumb, she touched the index, middle, ring, and little fingers of the same hand in sequence as she inhaled for four beats. Then she counted seven beats with her thumb while holding her breath, followed by another eight beats as she slowly exhaled.

There was nothing unusual about taking deep breaths.

The problem was the hand gesture.

Back when they were students, whenever Young-ho became nervous over things like performance evaluations, he would calm himself by taking deep breaths while counting the beats exactly like that.

No way…

The breathing was supposed to help calm her nerves.

Ironically, Tae-heon’s own breathing became slightly faster.

Confused, he forced himself to remain calm. Then he turned toward the bride.

“Ah…”

The bride looked at Tae-heon with her eyes wide open, as if asking what was wrong.

“…I thought it would be better to take one last look before we went in.”

Using a plausible excuse, Tae-heon looked over her appearance and pretended to notice something near her neck.

“There’s a loose thread at the back of your neck. Please turn around for a moment.”

“Ah! Yes…”

The bride obediently turned her back to him.

Tae-heon swallowed without realizing it.

As he brushed her long hair to one side, his hand somehow felt heavy, as though it didn’t belong to him.

After hesitating for a moment, he finally looked slightly below the neckline of her dress.

This is…

Tae-heon’s eyes shook violently.

Five moles arranged in the shape of a W.

They were the same moles he had once seen through the gap in So-yul’s T-shirt when she had been playing with dirt in the yard as an elementary school student.

He had thought they looked like the constellation Cassiopeia.

That was why he remembered them so clearly.

Did identical twins even have the exact same moles?

Even if that could happen, could the arrangement of several moles really be identical too?

No matter how alike twins were, that couldn’t be possible.

Then this girl really is…

His vision went white.

It felt as if someone had struck the back of his head with a blunt weapon.

The one person he could never marry.

The younger sister his dead friend had cherished so dearly…

That very person was standing beside him as his bride.

“Is… is that enough?”

At the bride’s question, Tae-heon quickly pulled himself back from his dazed state.

“…Yes.”

Tae-heon straightened her dress and hair before turning away again.

Why? Why is this happening?

The woman who was supposed to become his wife was clearly named Ji Min-chae.

So why was the person actually standing beside him not Ji Min-chae, but So-yul?

Something has gone terribly wrong.

He had to stop this wedding immediately.

The bride had been switched. It made no sense.

Tae-heon was about to speak to the secretary waiting outside the hospital room and receiving updates about what was happening inside.

Then he saw his grandfather lying there with a ventilator through the glass window in the hospital-room door.

Damn.

Tae-heon squeezed his eyes shut.

His temples throbbed as if something sharp were stabbing into them.

What if he stopped the wedding and his grandfather died right then?

Given how critical Yong-tae’s condition was, he couldn’t rule out that possibility.

“Please go inside.”

While Tae-heon stood there unable to decide what to do, the secretary spoke.

Tae-heon remained still, his hands clenched into fists.

The secretary gave him a puzzled look when he didn’t move.

If they delayed any longer, the family members inside the room would start wondering the same thing.

Tae-heon had no choice but to make a quick decision.

For now, I have no choice but to go through with the wedding.

Afterward, if his grandfather died, he could make the marriage void on the grounds that the other side had deceived him.

And if his grandfather didn’t die?

Then he could make them bring Ji Min-chae, wherever she was, back to her rightful place.

It seemed they had intended to marry off Ji Min-chae as planned, but something had happened, and they had temporarily put So-yul in her place.

Tae-heon organized his thoughts.

Even after reaching such a clear conclusion, his face remained stiff.

“……”

Tae-heon held out his hand to So-yul, the bride’s stand-in.

So-yul hesitated for a moment before carefully taking his hand.

He could feel the warmth of the hand belonging to his dead friend’s younger sister, the girl his friend had wanted so desperately to see happy.

That warmth seemed to pierce his chest even more sharply.

She’s only standing in as a substitute.

Tae-heon repeated the words to himself.

His real bride was someone else, and So-yul was not the true party to this marriage.

So this was only for this moment.

There was absolutely no chance that So-yul would ever become his real bride.

Holding the hand of his dead friend’s younger sister, Tae-heon stepped into the hospital room with her.

Two days earlier.

So-yul entered the hotel lounge.

She was there for a blind date.

Not as herself, but as her twin sister, Ji Min-chae.

Min-chae, who was practically an alcoholic, had been drinking even the day before the blind date.

She suffered from a hangover until that morning.

Then, while staggering down the stairs at home, she took a spectacular fall and was rushed to the hospital.

With bruises on her face and her arm in a cast, Min-chae wanted to postpone the blind date.

But—

“They say his time and energy are as precious as his life, so his schedule is already packed! Do you think someone like that will look favorably on a person who tries to postpone a promise on the very day? No, we’d be lucky if he even agrees to reschedule! He might just call the whole thing off!”

“Damn, why is the man so picky…?”

“Normally, he’s someone you wouldn’t even dare dream of! He’s the man who will inherit DH Group! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that came because of your fortune. What are you going to do about it?”

“…Then send Ji So-yul in my place. Just let Ji So-yul pretend to be me! We look exactly alike, so one day should be fine!”

That was how it had come to this.

“I have an appointment with Representative Kang Tae-heon.”

“I’ll show you to your table.”

As So-yul followed the hotel lounge employee, she swallowed nervously.

I’m going to tell him I’m Ji So-yul, not Ji Min-chae, and ask him to marry me.

Her heart pounded, and her body trembled.

She was about to take something that belonged to someone else.

It was the first time in her life she had ever done something so wrong.

Still… this is the only revenge I can take right now. So I have to stay calm.

The blind date between Kang Tae-heon, the heir to one of Korea’s largest conglomerates, DH, and the representative of DH Electronics, and Min-chae had happened purely by chance.

One of So-yul’s parents’ longtime customers at their high-end Korean beef restaurant was a man who was said to have close connections with influential people from all walks of life.

Not long ago, after hearing that So-yul’s parents had a daughter who had turned twenty-two that year, he asked for her exact birth date and time.

When they gave it to him, he was surprised and then arranged this blind date.

The family was thrilled by this lottery-like stroke of luck, thinking they had received an incredible opportunity.

But So-yul intended to steal Min-chae’s marriage opportunity as revenge against her family.

How empty and furious would they feel when that happened?

The thought frightened her, but she was also excited.

So-yul soon reached the table by the window.

“Have a pleasant time.”

At the employee’s greeting, the man who had been looking out the window turned his head toward So-yul.

Ah…

So-yul suddenly forgot how to breathe.

Kang Tae-heon.

It really was him.

Now thirty years old, he had become an even more mature and breathtakingly handsome man than when she had last seen him three years ago.

Once again, she thought he was a perfect man.

So perfect that he made her, a woman with nothing to her name, feel even more insignificant.

Was it really possible for her to ask a man like this to marry her?

No, no. They said it was because of my sister’s fortune. Then there’s no reason I can’t do it either. We’re twins, so our fortunes are the same.

More importantly, if it was Kang Tae-heon, he would grant her request.

Tae-heon had been a high-school friend of Young-ho, So-yul’s deceased older brother.

The family had sent her here as Min-chae’s stand-in without knowing this.

They would definitely regret it once they found out.

“You…”

Tae-heon’s straight brow furrowed.

His expression looked so serious that So-yul unconsciously took a step back.

But it lasted only a moment.

He quickly composed himself and stood up.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Ji Min-chae. I’m Kang Tae-heon.”

“Ah, h-hello…”

“I apologize for that just now. You look like someone I know, so I thought there had been some sort of mistake.”

Someone he knew.

He was clearly referring to her.

So-yul sat down across from Tae-heon for the time being.

I’m the very person your brother knows.

She was about to reveal her identity with a trembling heart when—

“Actually, I…”

“I know you’re twins. I think your sister is someone I know. I almost left because I thought you were that person.”

So-yul’s heart sank.

…He almost left because he thought I was her?

“I could never marry the person I know.”