Contract Marriage with a Male Friend - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#1

Until ten minutes ago, they were friends.
Dok Go Beom Jin had the build of a door frame, excelled at any sport, and commanded attention with his devastating looks wherever he went—yet in her presence, there was something helplessly awkward about him.
He couldn’t even tie his necktie properly.
Whenever they met at an agreed spot, he became the target of every street evangelist, nodding solemnly at their pitch.
He spilled water from a paper cup every single time he tried to pour.
He was a picky eater who rarely touched food unless she’d prepared it herself, and he never drank coffee or tea except when she was with him.
There were moments when he’d regard her with a piercing gaze, but they never lasted.
Soon enough, his eyes would soften, and he’d smile at her with a guileless innocence.
And An Soo Yi had spent over a decade tending to this Dok Go Beom Jin from her side.
There had never been any ambiguous current between them.
Or perhaps there had been, and she simply never acknowledged it.
But Soo Yi had chosen to look away.
She couldn’t bear the thought of losing him.
But now…….
“Dok Go Beom Jin, wait……!”
The moment her lips parted, his sealed against hers.
Between their lips, hot breath mingled and drifted through the space between them.
Soo Yi let out a soft gasp, her pale, slender fingers gripping the collar of his shirt with surprising force.
His strong neck flexed noticeably with the motion.
In his eyes—eyes that so rarely betrayed emotion—a wild heat blazed to life like an open flame.
“…….”
Just as Soo Yi caught her breath,
Beom Jin hoisted her up effortlessly and strode toward the bed.
The moment her back met the soft sheets, she grabbed urgently at his shoulders.
“Hey, Dok Go Beom Jin! Are you even listening to me?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re not listening at all. Look at your eyes.”
“Yeah.”
No matter what she said now, his answer would be the same.
Despite his appearance, Dok Go Beom Jin was hopeless with alcohol.
A little booze and he’d soon be resting his head on her shoulder, all resistance gone.
And he never remembered anything afterward.
So he wouldn’t remember this either.
Of course, Soo Yi’s tolerance wasn’t strong either.
Still, it was better than his.
At least she’d remember.
Soo Yi stared into the dark eyes gazing down at her.
Just tonight.
Just this once—surely she could cross the line, couldn’t she?
‘If it’s something I’ll have to do eventually anyway…….’
Maybe it was better to spend the night with him.
Handsome.
Silent.
Most importantly, he’d never see her as a woman.
‘I’ve spent so long staring at this face that other men don’t even register, and it’s partly his fault I’ve never had a real relationship.’
Her drunken vision blurred briefly.
‘And I’m barely holding it together as it is.’
Having rationalized it away, Soo Yi wrapped her arms around his neck.
“This is your fault too.”
“My fault?”
“Your face.”
Her full lips parted shyly.
“……You’re too handsome.”
For a moment, his pupils dilated.
Soo Yi burst out laughing at his reaction.
“So Dok Go Beom Jin can be surprised? Oh, I remember now—you had this exact look when I said something before.”
But what was it I said?
Blinking her wide eyes, she let the thought go and grinned.
“Because of you, every other man looks like a squid.”
“……Really?”
“Yeah, you idiot. If you looked like that, why not be short? If you’re tall, why not have narrow shoulders? If you’re tall with broad shoulders, why not have short legs?”
Wasn’t this what the guys used to complain about when they saw you? It’s ridiculous.
Speaking rapidly, her eyes grew wide.
“What is it, Beom Jin? Why do you look like that?”
Beom Jin said something, but his voice was too low to hear.
“Huh? What did you say?”
Soo Yi tightened her grip on his neck and pulled him closer.
“Say it again.”
Each time she spoke, their lips brushed gently.
“You’re so beautiful it drives me crazy.”
Watching her eyes widen even further, Beom Jin smiled softly before pressing his lips against hers again.
As his large hand traced along her slender frame, it soon found her narrow waist and began to caress it.
“Mm…….”
Is that sound really coming from my lips?
Each time Beom Jin’s hands gripped her pale skin firmly then stroked it gently, her body trembled.
Click. Clack.
As he unfastened the buttons of her blouse, Beom Jin held her gaze.
“This is your only chance.”
“What chance?”
All the buttons came undone. Through the parted fabric, the generous curves of her body were revealed, and his eyes darkened considerably.
“To honor the line you drew.”
Lace. How cute.
When his long, thick fingers brushed against her undergarment, Soo Yi gasped and shrank her shoulders.
“If you don’t want this, push me away.”
Smack.
He lowered his head and placed a light kiss on her lips.
“What will you do?”
Leaving the choice to her, Beom Jin smiled faintly.
As if he already knew the answer.
“Take me.”
“……What?”
“Me.”
He took her hand and wrapped it around his jaw, then pressed kiss after kiss into her palm.
“You said you liked how handsome I am.”
“I-I didn’t say I liked it!”
“Then let’s say you’re about to.”
His hot lips traced up the inside of her wrist, moving higher with deliberate slowness.
As he did, he wrapped her slender legs around his waist.
At the feel of his taut, muscular body pressing against hers, Soo Yi drew in a sharp breath.
A dense, overwhelming sensation bloomed from deep within her, beginning to drown her completely.
She’d never been in such a compromising position before.
And least of all with Dok Go Beom Jin—someone she’d always thought of as a friend for life.
“An Soo Yi.”
It was strange.
It was her name, the same name she’d always heard, yet now it sounded so intimate, so laden with desire.
“Time’s passing.”
At his words, Soo Yi bit her lower lip.
Right, if she was going to do this anyway…….
To hell with it.
Closing her eyes tightly, she pulled him toward her.
She felt their lips curve into a smile where they met.
But only for a moment.
Beom Jin began to devour her with an intensity like that of a starving man.
His lips traced down the long, graceful line of her neck and across her delicate collarbones, leaving his mark behind.
Watching the red marks of his passion with satisfaction, he quickly began to shed the unnecessary layers of clothing.
And even as he did, his lips never left her skin.
When his lips finally descended further still,
“Beom Jin, stop—wait……!”
Unlike his usual self, which obeyed her commands unconditionally, Beom Jin refused her pleas this time.
Although Soo Yi covered her mouth with her hand, she couldn’t stifle the moans that escaped with every movement of his lips.
“Haah…….”
Raising himself up, Beom Jin looked down at her flushed face, breathing heavily, and slowly licked his wet lips with his tongue.
Then, in one swift motion, he loosened his necktie and stripped off his shirt, before reaching behind her back.
Pop.
The clasp came undone.
“I’ll take responsibility. For making every other man look like a squid to you.”
Her undergarments fell one by one onto the pile of discarded clothes.
Each time his thick, muscular arms moved—nothing but solid muscle—a hot, wet sensation pierced through her as if splitting her in two.
“Stop now…….”
“Liar. You’re enjoying this.”
The moment his lips curved into a smile, her body trembled delicately.
Gazing at that rapturous sight, Beom Jin tore open the condom with his teeth.
“From now on, don’t look at anyone else. Only me.”
He kissed her as he pressed his weight into her.
Soo Yi wrapped her arms around his large frame and thought to herself:
This man was definitely not the Dok Go Beom Jin she knew.
The clumsy, awkward Beom Jin she’d known couldn’t possibly be the same person as this man—the one skillfully seducing her, delivering waves of intense pleasure and scarlet passion.
“Ah……!”
As waves of sensation crashed over her, Soo Yi clung to Beom Jin as if he were a lifeline.
“Don’t let me go. Not like this.”
Beom Jin’s smile seemed like that of a seductive demon.
“Never. Not ever.”
It was the moment the line between friends shattered.

***

Fifteen hours and thirty minutes before crossing the line called friendship while intoxicated—that morning at seven thirty.
Stepping out of the old Gray Building, Soo Yi headed home.
‘The sun’s been rising earlier lately.’
Just before leaving work yesterday, an inquiry had come in about funeral arrangements for a deceased who had suddenly died of myocardial infarction.
It was a case assigned to the team leader, but when his wife—who’d been feeling unwell for a few days—suddenly rushed to the emergency room, Soo Yi had to take it on instead.
Fortunately, the team leader had already completed all the complicated procedures, and all that remained was to move the body from the mortuary directly to the crematorium and cremate it.
Soo Yi was a funeral director belonging to the Unclaimed Deceased Special Team at Seon Ham Sangjo, and she also worked as a florist handling memorial flower arrangement planning.
She’d chosen this profession because of her father, who had left home when she was young and disappeared without a trace.
Doing this work, she’d thought—maybe someday she’d come across information about him.
“Phew, I’m exhausted.”
Her shoulders were stiff too.
Having recently taken on the additional duty of designing new memorial flower arrangement frames, her body felt incredibly heavy.
After getting off the bus, Soo Yi began walking briskly toward her home, a five-minute distance from the stop.
Just then, in the distance, she spotted a man whose head stood noticeably taller than those around him, standing still while listening intently to a woman in front of him.
At that familiar sight, Soo Yi let out a faint sigh.
“Sigh. Caught again, aren’t you, Dok Go Beom Jin.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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