Chapter 1: Prologue / Trophy Husband, Trophy Wife, and What We Call Love

Prologue

The snow falling from that hazy sky had no emotions.

It staggered this way and that, like a drunkard humming to himself.

It was much like a free-spirited blues melody.

“May I humbly ask what I have done wrong? What on earth…?”

And so, I stared endlessly at the snow being cast down from the heavens.

A single snowflake settled on the tip of my freezing nose.

Then, before long, it melted.

“Phew…”

The white breath I exhaled scattered among the falling snowflakes.

Enough self-pity. Let it drift far away, just like that breath dissolving among the snow…

“Phew…”

The white breath I exhaled once more carried the excitement of everything I had yet to fill my life with.

Beautiful lotuses bloom in muddy waters. I should look forward to what lies ahead.

Chapter 1: Trophy Husband, Trophy Wife, and What We Call Love

A steaming pot. And my wife, wearing a pair of thick oven mitts.

She approached me in quick, careful steps, making sure not to spill anything.

She was so adorable that simply watching her made me want to do anything for her.

Absolutely anything. Even if it meant giving up everything I had.

Clack.

It was a morning when I was still only half awake. A pot, still steaming, had been placed on the dining table.

A spicy broth sprinkled with fiery Cheongyang chili peppers, containing chunks of tofu and shredded pollock of just the right size.

When had I grown so accustomed to this kind of happiness?

I couldn’t help feeling that I didn’t deserve it.

“Hm? What did you say?”

“Nothing. Just… I was thinking about how happy I am.”

I scooped up a spoonful of broth and put it in my mouth, savoring its familiar yet deeply satisfying taste.

“How is it? Does it help with your hangover? It’s much better than the one you made yesterday, isn’t it?”

My lovely wife asked, her eyes sparkling.

We had been living together for ten years already, and I had probably heard that sentence from her countless times.

“Well, what is this…? Did Baek Jong-won himself come by? This isn’t just helping with my hangover. It’s incredible!”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. It’s fantastic. How about giving up fitness and trying your hand at becoming a culinary researcher?”

I answered her familiar question with an equally familiar response.

“See? You made the right choice marrying me, didn’t you? There’s no other woman like me, right?”

“Of course. You’re absolutely perfect for me. I love you.”

“I love you too, honey. You’re a ten out of ten. A perfect ten of a man. There’s nobody better for me.”

The men around me often complained that they couldn’t even get a proper breakfast at home and had to satisfy their early-morning hunger with convenience-store triangle kimbap.

I pitied them.

Yes, perhaps this was what a successful life looked like. After reaching the depths of loneliness, I had finally found this kind of happiness.

Heh.

I thought of my senior colleague at work, Choi Moon-young. I couldn’t help giving a small, amused chuckle at the thought of him complaining about never getting breakfast.

That little laugh had escaped me unconsciously. It was a sense of superiority I hadn’t even realized I was feeling.

He strutted around the company with the arrogance of a man who thought the world existed for his sake. But if we were to judge who the winner was at this very moment, it was unquestionably me.

“‘You can’t trust women,’ huh…”

That was Choi Moon-young’s habitual sigh, a phrase he repeated almost every day.

To be honest, I didn’t have particularly good feelings toward him. There might have been a time when I did, but it was so long ago that I could barely remember it.

“Daddy, is something funny?”

My only daughter reacted to the chuckle that had slipped out.

She was my little double, smiling as she revealed her tiny teeth beneath her lower lip.

The sight of her holding chopsticks with her adorable little hands was so precious that no man without a daughter could ever understand it.

She must have grown quite a bit, because she could now pick up black beans from the side dishes by carefully moving her little fingers.

Watching her, I even thought she was better at it than I was.

I felt proud.

“Hm? No, it’s just that Minhee is so cute that Daddy couldn’t help smiling.”

“Pfft… That’s not it, is it? You look like you were thinking about something else while eating.”

Who had she inherited that sharp intuition from? Me, or her mother?

“No, Daddy is always thinking about Minhee. My little princess.”

The child smiled bashfully as she looked at me. Then she put down her chopsticks, picked up the robot toy beside her, and said,

“Daddy is like this robot.”

“Why?”

“Because this robot always protects the princess.”

I was so touched that I briefly put down my spoon and gently stroked my daughter Minhee’s spotless, white cheek.

It was like the first snow.

The child broke into a radiant smile and said, “I love you, Daddy.”

I hoped she would take a long time to grow up. I wanted her to remain small and adorable for as long as possible.

“Oh my, Minhee. Do you like robots that much? More than pretty dolls?”

“Yeah. I like robots. And dinosaurs, too! When I grow up, I want to make a dinosaur robot!”

“Oh, goodness. Where did she get that from? Did she take after you, honey?”

“Must be. They say people with a masculine-oriented brain are good with numbers…”

Once again, I gently stroked my daughter’s cheek.

I lost track of time for quite a while.

This child was my everything.

“Oppa, what am I supposed to do? You’re only looking at Minhee!”

My wife, who had been watching us, made a slightly wounded remark.

I stand corrected.

She and our daughter were my everything.

I loved both of them.

“Of course not. I love you so much, honey.”

Even after giving birth, my wife remained passionate about taking care of herself. No one looking at her would have guessed she was in her late thirties.

Her profession made that unavoidable, too.

“Of course you should love me. And you should love me passionately, at that.”

Satisfied with my answer, my wife got up and headed toward the refrigerator.

Her figure from behind was exactly what any man in the world would want.

A woman who had it all.

My wife.

“Do you think maintaining this figure and this skin is easy?”

My wife, Park Na-young, was the director and owner of a fairly large Pilates academy.

She was a major figure in the fitness industry, with several branches in Seoul and a considerable number of academies across the country.

That was my wife, Park Na-young.

And I responded with a brief expression of admiration and a few words of agreement.

Perhaps my reaction was a little dry.

“Yeah, you look great.”

“Good grief. I practically have to poke you in the side to get a compliment out of you.”

“No, I mean it. Na-young.”

Since she was practically the face of her academies, she had to work even harder to maintain her appearance and receive treatments.

Just looking at today’s breakfast was enough to tell me that. She hadn’t touched anything other than salad and chicken breast.

This pollock soup was exclusively for me and my daughter.

“Don’t you think your response was a little too soulless, my adorable Lee Jin-ho?”

My wife’s sulky expression was just as adorable as our daughter’s.

It might have been a little embarrassing to say it myself, but she was an exceptionally beautiful woman.

Perhaps it was because she took such good care of her skin. Even when she scrunched up her face playfully, there wasn’t a trace of age to be seen.

“No. Even objectively speaking, you’re a celebrity-level beauty. You’re really beautiful.”

On top of that, she was wearing what people called the New Town Mom Look: a fitted cotton dress that clung so closely to her body that it looked as though it might slide right off.

Beneath that thin, pleasant layer of fabric, her voluptuous figure was unmistakable.

Money and time really were wonderful things.

An ordinary office worker wouldn’t have been able to maintain herself like this.

I sprinkled in a little extra seasoning to improve my wife’s mood.

“Hm? What’s this? Why is Na-young’s skin so nice? It looks even better than usual today.”

“Right? You have such a good eye. Actually, I changed beauty salons. I think they use really good ampoules there. It’s an Amofree direct-operated branch, and apparently they use their highest-grade products or something. Anyway, the results are immediate!”

Na-young’s mood brightened again after receiving the compliment, and she began chattering excitedly.

It seemed she was happy to have my attention focused on her again.

“And you know I’m doing all this for your sake, right, honey?”

“For my sake?”

“Yeah. You can’t afford to look inferior to anyone when you go out. You’re going to be successful, after all. So I can’t afford to look inferior, either. Don’t you think I should be glamorous and beautiful wherever I go?”

When I thought about it, she had a point.

And what my wife had said applied to me as well.

A trophy wife. A trophy husband.

We made each other shine.

Like gorgeous roses surrounded by delicate baby’s breath, or a luxurious white shirt adorned with dazzling designer cufflinks at the wrists.

We had met, and we had become trophies for each other.

“That’s right. Someone like you certainly doesn’t fall short.”

I answered carefully, making sure not to spit out the rice in my mouth.

It might have been fine to take a little longer to respond, but after she’d gone to the trouble of praising herself so enthusiastically, a delayed answer would only make her sulk again.

So I hurried to reply.

My wife smiled at the sight and answered,

“You know, honey? That slightly rude but secretly sweet side of yours is really charming. You’re an absolute expert at keeping me on my toes.”

Rude yet sweet.

It sounded contradictory, but somehow it made sense.

In fact, people often told me that I had a cold appearance.

“But that’s a sign of intelligence, too. You always answer me without acting annoyed. Sometimes you respond a little rudely, but I can feel how considerate you are. That’s what makes it so delicious.”

Na-young moved to the seat beside me and kissed my cheek.

Then I noticed our daughter playfully pretending to cover her eyes.

I quietly winked at her.

This family…

In a way, ours was a marriage in which we had each sought out the other’s desirable qualities.

But I was satisfied.

Looking back, our needs had been perfectly aligned.

My wife’s family was what people commonly called nouveau riche.

And I was a ragged, mud-covered nobody who had climbed up from the bottom. Calling me a self-made success would almost have been too generous.

That’s right… A reckless, untamed fool… Haha…

Now that I thought back to my conversations with my father-in-law, there had always been something different about him.

“Son-in-law, money exists to be earned. Leave things like morality for when you’re in hell.”

So, if I were to describe my father-in-law, the simplest way would be this:

A self-made man who had accumulated his wealth by taking care of absolutely anything that could make money.

A nouveau riche man who probably had no chance of ever entering heaven.

“I’ve done every kind of work there is…”

Naturally, that probably didn’t include honest work such as housekeeping, construction labor, or cleaning.

After all, he wouldn’t have been able to accumulate his current level of wealth by earning money honestly through such jobs.

The world had always favored the cunning.

And it favored indulgence, too.

“Curious? But there’s no good in knowing, so don’t go out of your way to find out.”

Perhaps my father-in-law had wanted me to ask him again.

Perhaps, like a child, he wanted to boast about the crooked path he had taken to get where he was.

But I didn’t press him for details.

I decided to respect his words: There’s no good in knowing.

I could only speculate.

“But you know… No matter how desperately I made money, there were some things I just couldn’t get my hands on.”

My father-in-law had wanted what people colloquially called a sajja profession.

In other words, he wanted someone in a prestigious licensed profession.

Among those, the best option was an esteemed gentleman of the law—a prosecutor.

Once you had money, wanting power was the natural next step.

However, the ambiguous scale of their wealth wasn’t enough to win over the proud hearts of prosecutors.

“Pure, unadulterated power… I realized that was something I had to give up… If only I could have gotten my hands on that, I might have grasped even greater glory…”

There was no helping it.

Their only option was to spend money and flatter the people they wanted to impress.

Then came the next-best alternatives.

Among the popular prestigious professions, you could simply buy yourself a lawyer, while the expected earnings and reputation of doctors had also declined compared to the past.

“Nowadays, with independent lawyers and doctors practically overflowing everywhere, it’s true that they don’t offer much of an advantage, wouldn’t you say?”

Their glorious invitations to dine at the same table as the esteemed elite had already been rejected, and the next-best options weren’t satisfying enough.

Then there was another way for people from the underworld to reach the respectable world above.

“That’s right. Our son-in-law is the best possible choice. Absolutely.”

I belonged to one of the Big Four accounting firms in the world.

I had graduated from a prestigious university and was regarded as one of the firm’s top talents, counted among its key personnel.

If my career continued to progress smoothly, I could eventually reach the position of partner, where I would be able to build close relationships with major corporations.

From their perspective, I was undoubtedly the best option.

Objectively speaking, my potential was far greater than theirs.

After all, why bark at the moon when you could have someone like me?

“Please take good care of us, son-in-law. Haha.”

“Not at all. It’s my pleasure.”

Now, if I were to explain things from my own perspective, having been born into a family of utterly insignificant commoners and managed to achieve success, it was equally clear that they were the best cards I could possibly have been dealt.

On top of that, although I hadn’t asked too many questions about her past, her well-maintained figure and captivating face had naturally stirred my heart.

And just like that, we became a family.

“Daddy! What are you thinking about again?”

I must have been lost in thought for quite some time.

Minhee called out to me and stuck out her tongue mischievously.

That reminded me of my own childhood.

Bleh.

It seemed that sticking out one’s tongue was a timeless trend among children of that age.

She had become fascinated with the gesture a few days ago, and whenever she wanted to get my attention, she would do that.

Her little tongue, curled into a round shape, was as cute as a kitten’s.

“MINHEE!! Mommy told you that sticking out your tongue is rude!!”

“It’s not a bleh! All the other kids do it, too…”

My wife scolded our daughter sharply, her voice turning fierce.

The child immediately looked dejected.

Normally, she was gentle and affectionate, but there were times when she would get unusually angry with our daughter.

Especially when Minhee stuck her tongue out at me.

“Honey, she’s just playing around. Kids are allowed to have a little fun. Don’t be so hard on her.”

My wife paid no attention to my words and continued scolding the child.

Children only had so many years when they could play around like this.

Still, I left the matter of raising our daughter entirely to my wife.

“You shouldn’t do that while Daddy is eating. If you do it one more time, Mommy is really going to get angry!!”

“Okay, Mommy. I won’t do it again…”

My wife gently stroked the child’s head and smiled again, as though nothing had happened.