THICA 00

Prologue

“Long time no see, Unni.”

The voice was familiar. Yet the moment she heard it, goosebumps rose on the back of her neck.

Ye-seo slowly turned her gaze.

Ye-jin.

Her half-sister, whom her father had brought home with her stepmother as soon as her mother passed away.

Ye-jin had always said, “You and your mother took everything we had.”

That was why she tried to take everything that belonged to Ye-seo as if it were her own.

The most painful loss of all was her mother’s pottery studio.

Using her father’s investment and right of priority as excuses, they had taken her mother’s pottery studio away from her.

It was absorbed into SH Group, and not long afterward, it went through the process of closing down.

“Yeah, long time no see.”

Ye-jin tilted her wineglass and smiled meaningfully.

“Your husband still seems busy, Unni. Leaving his wife alone at a party? Or is he simply not interested in you?”

“You seem very interested in my husband.”

Ye-seo was always on edge around her.

“I heard your husband’s company is having a hard time these days. Apparently, he’s so busy running around everywhere trying to secure investments that he can barely catch his breath.”

“I don’t get involved in the company’s affairs.”

She gave a short, curt answer.

She didn’t know much about the company’s financial situation, but she knew this was a time when her husband’s family desperately needed support from her side.

Ye-jin let out a mocking laugh.

“You don’t look very happy. I’m glad.”

…Glad?

Ye-seo repeated her sister’s words in her mind for a moment.

“…Why would that make you glad?”

Ye-jin slowly met her eyes.

“Actually, that marriage was originally meant for me.”

It felt as if she had been plunged underwater, and her breath stopped.

“What?”

“Before it was offered to you, the proposal came to me first.”

Ye-jin’s words brushed past her ears. Ye-seo couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“But Father said he had chosen me.”

“He probably said that because he intended to send you instead.”

Ye-jin took a step closer and met her gaze.

“That was supposed to be my place. My mother worked hard to persuade him.”

Ye-jin curled the corners of her lips upward. She looked like a child tearing the wings off a butterfly.

“My mother strongly opposed it. After all, marrying someone so inadequate wasn’t exactly ideal, was it?”

Her eyes glinted with a malicious light.

“In the end, though, that inadequate man became your husband.”

Ye-jin swirled the glass in her hand as if this were simply Ye-seo’s fate.

“Was it too cruel of them to force something that didn’t suit me onto you, as if they were trying to make a piece fit where it didn’t belong?”

Ye-seo bit down hard on her lip. It was the only way she could endure it.

“It was a position wasted on you, Unni. But even so, shouldn’t you be happy?”

Ye-jin’s tone was light, but her words were sharp.

“…Then you should have kept your mouth shut until the end.”

“Wouldn’t that have been a shame? I wanted to see that look on your face.”

Ye-jin laughed as if Ye-seo were ridiculous.

“You’ve always been like that, Unni. You let your family take everything from you, hiding behind words like ‘family’ and ‘all that,’ yet you keep pretending nothing bothers you.”

“I don’t think that’s something you should say when you’re the one who benefited from it.”

In her family, Ye-seo had always been the one who lost whatever others stood to gain from taking.

“But you know what? Pretending you don’t know isn’t protecting your pride. It’s just pathetic.”

Ye-jin narrowed her eyes and whispered.

“So… admit it now, at least. You were nothing but a tool.”

After whispering those words, Ye-jin stepped back and spoke again.

“Oh, by the way, I think your husband just heard what we were talking about.”

Her husband was approaching them.

His face was flushed with heat. It was hard to tell whether it was from alcohol or anger.

“I heard everything you two were talking about. We’ll discuss the details… when we get home.”

Her husband grabbed Ye-seo’s wrist tightly.

He might have looked gentle on the outside, but his grip made her fingertips go numb.

Just then—

“Does grabbing her that hard mean your hand is going to break?”

“What?!”

Her husband, who had been fuming with anger, flinched.

It was Ryu Do-gyeom of Jeongseong Group.

“I think that’s enough. Let her go.”

Ye-seo had never expected anyone among all these people to come to her aid.

She certainly hadn’t expected Do-gyeom himself to step in.

Why is he helping me?

She had no connection to Do-gyeom whatsoever. Yet under his gaze, her husband visibly shrank back.

“I was just about to let go.”

Her husband, Lee Min, spoke obsequiously and released her wrist.

Then he urged Ye-seo to hurry.

“Let’s go.”

He led her out of the party.

\* \* \*

Inside the car, her husband silently gripped the steering wheel.

Then he let out a low laugh.

“Ha. This is fucking ridiculous.”

He tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

“When did you start flirting with that man?”

“Flirting? I’ve never done anything that should make me feel ashamed in front of you.”

“Then why would he help you? Why would he mock me?”

Her husband seemed furious that his image had been damaged in front of someone who might invest in his company.

“And now I see why your family hasn’t been very generous with their support. So you were thrown away and pushed onto me?”

Ye-seo remained silent for a while before finally managing to speak.

“…I didn’t know either.”

He burst into a scornful laugh.

“You didn’t know? You really didn’t know? Then what are you? Some discarded replacement?”

His words pierced her heart.

Ye-seo slowly drew a breath.

“Please don’t say that.”

“Then what should I call you? Your parents picked up some trash and handed it over to me.”

His husband’s voice cracked.

“Now I understand why your family hasn’t been giving me much support. Your sister rejected you, and your father forcibly dressed you up as a suitable replacement and pushed you onto me.”

He tapped the steering wheel with one hand. It was an irritated gesture.

“Damn it. I wanted a woman who would be an asset to me, but your father just handed me a tool to squeeze money out of him.”

At those words, Ye-seo let out a faint, bitter laugh.

Her husband fell silent.

“Does it matter what I am? I’m nothing more than collateral for you to secure an investment.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it again.

“We were never really husband and wife to begin with.”

Ye-seo spoke quietly.

And she knew that his silence was already an answer.

Ye-seo opened the car door.

“I’m going to get some fresh air.”

Her husband didn’t try to stop her.

She walked through the night streets, trying to empty her mind of all her thoughts.

At that moment, the blinding glare of headlights flooded her vision.

CRASH!

Before she could even register the impact, her body was thrown into the air, and the sky spun upside down.

She didn’t even have time to feel the pain. Only afterward did she become aware of the strange sensation of blood flowing from her body and the sound of bones breaking.

Through her blurred vision, she could make out the figure of someone holding a steering wheel.

Just as she moved her lips, trying to beg an unknown person to save her, everything before her eyes turned white.

Was this the price she had to pay for a family created at her father’s whim?

If she could go back to that time, she didn’t want to let them control her anymore.

She wanted to run her mother’s pottery studio well.

I’m going to die.

Thinking that, she closed her eyes.