Contract Marriage with a Male Friend - Chapter 21

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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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#21

Sui could only move her lips, unable to form a single word.
Marriage?
Why had the conversation suddenly jumped to that?
“…….”
Beom-jin’s eyes narrowed as he watched Sui gazing up at him in a daze.
Her lips, slightly parted and ruddy.
The luscious tongue nestled within them.
His own reflection mirrored in those large eyes pleased him greatly—yet simultaneously unsettled him.
An acute displeasure twisted through him.
The thought that other men might look upon her like this, harbor the same thoughts he did, filled him with something foul and sickening.
Something filthy, damp, and adhesive.
For instance—
that pallid creature who’d blocked her path as if to shield her.

“Who was he?”

The moment Ki Ju-won crossed his mind, Beom-jin’s composure twisted.
The hunger in that man’s gaze—that indecent hunger as he looked at Sui as though she were his—echoed too perfectly in Beom-jin’s own chest.
He wanted to smear his scent across every inch of her: the eyes that had held that filthy creature’s image, the nose that had drawn in his fragrance, the lips that had exchanged words with him.
Just as he had done that night, beneath the pale crescent moon.
Beom-jin lowered his head and pressed his lips to the back of her hand.
The warmth and softness of his touch snapped Sui back to awareness, her face flushing crimson.
“What—what are you doing?”
“You looked like your mind was elsewhere.”
“You could just say that in words…….”
He was unmistakably the Beom-jin she knew, yet his actions were entirely different.
Moreover—
her mind had not been wandering.
Even with him before her, she’d been thinking of him.
More precisely, of his proposal.
Or was it not a proposal?
“Mar—”
Unable to bring herself to say the word marriage, Sui cleared her throat with a soft sound and tried again.
“……What does ‘one year’ mean exactly?”
His displeasure at the mention of another man’s existence faded swiftly.
Beom-jin barely suppressed the smile threatening to break across his face.
There she was—Sui, utterly endearing.
He’d expect her to slap him, turn her back on him, yet instead she gazed at him with worried concern, inquiring after his troubles.
How could she be so innocent?
He couldn’t fathom how she’d survive in this harsh world alone.
That’s why I have to stay by her side.
His lips still buried against her hand, Beom-jin raised only his eyes.
“Help me.”
“Help you…… me?”
At her counter-question, Beom-jin’s expression darkened in an instant, all warmth draining from his eyes.
She was saying it plainly.
How could she possibly help the First Chairman of the Kangho Group and his family?
She was drawing a line: you and I now belong to different worlds.
It had all happened in mere minutes.
Between two people who’d been closest in the world, an enormous wall had risen, obscuring each other’s forms.
“Yes. You, Sui.”
But Beom-jin had no intention of leaving that wall standing.
He would shatter it utterly and seize her, pull her into his arms no matter what.
He slowly raised his head, meeting her eyes.
“Only you can help me, Sui.”
Before the frightened rabbit could bolt, the beast donned the fleece of a lamb.
“We’re best friends, after all.”
Playing innocent, playing pitiable, playing forlorn.
He dangled the most tempting bait.
“We’ve always been there for each other no matter what the world throws at us.”
The beast perceived it.
The tiny heart of the frightened rabbit, poised always for flight, was beginning to waver.
Seizing the moment, the great tiger approached the rabbit with careful steps and rubbed its head against hers.
A docile lamb that had been broken in, fetching its own leash and placing it eagerly in her hands.
“If you refuse, I’ll be unhappy for the rest of my life.”
Yet it was Sui who found herself shackled instead.
“I might not be able to bear the life my family chooses for me and run away.”
“…….”
Sui pressed her lips inward.
It was a sign she was conflicted.
But her certainty still seemed insufficient to reach a decision.
Then I’ll have to pull her forward.
Draw her hard into my arms, bury her face against my chest, and ensure her eyes never turn elsewhere again.
“You know this already.”
“……Know what?”
“That once we’ve mingled our tongues and bodies, we can’t just pretend nothing happened.”
Sui’s eyes went wide, trembling slightly.
“H-how can you say something like that…….”
“For us to go back to being friends as if nothing occurred, you’d need to talk about such things without hesitation.”
His large hand traced up her wrist, past her slender forearm, climbing slowly toward her shoulder.
Like a serpent coiling around a tree, ascending to swallow the forbidden fruit in a single gulp.
“That night, when you dug your nails into my shoulder and trembled. I’m talking about that night.”
“D-Beom-jin!”
“Asking me to go deeper. Would you say such things so casually to a friend?”
Shock left Sui frozen, her mouth hanging open.
His large hand, which had been kneading her soft shoulders, moved upward to wrap around her pale, slender neck, and his thick thumb slipped past her parted lips.
“……!”
“Can you really forget everything we did, rolling around all night long?”
Sui grasped his wrist with both hands, trying to pull the finger from her mouth.
“You can’t.”
“Mm……”
“You’re remembering it right now, aren’t you?”
You remember every single detail.
At his low whisper, Sui’s heart hammered so violently she feared it would burst from her chest.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
She worried it might tear through her skin and leap out.
Yet she couldn’t pull away from Beom-jin either.
He withdrew the finger glistening with her saliva and brought it to his own lips.
“Beom-jin! Are you insane? What did you just put in your mouth……!”
“What’s the matter? It’s just a finger.”
Beom-jin sucked his thumb as if it were smeared with sweet cream.
“Do you know how much we tangled our tongues that night?”
A demon. Pure demon.
No—a nine-tailed fox.
A beast wearing nine tails had surely taken human form.
Every word that poured from his lips was something to make her question her own ears—this man who’d been so innocently simple before.
“How could we forget all that and go back? I can’t. And neither can you, Sui.”
The man who carried himself as though he understood her better than she understood herself was undoubtedly Beom-jin—
yet why did he feel so utterly unfamiliar?
“…….”
Watching Sui, her face flushed red, still lost in her thoughts, Beom-jin arched an eyebrow.
If he left the choice to her, this foolish Sui would never be able to decide.
Time would simply drift on like this.
So Beom-jin made a calculated retreat.
“One year. Just one year as husband and wife.”
“……One year?”
There—Sui was beginning to respond at last.
“After one year, we can go back to being friends, right?”
Back to being friends.
Realizing Sui was wavering, Beom-jin felt a sharp pain in his chest.
But only briefly.
His eyes grew dark with resolve.
One year.
Within that time, he would make absolutely certain that Sui’s heart turned entirely toward him.
She would come back to him relentlessly.
He would engrave it bone-deep into her: that no other man could ever be her husband but him.
“After that, we’ll be together forever.”
Forever, together.
At those words, Sui’s body, completely ensnared, plummeted downward.
Yet it did not hurt.
Beom-jin, solid and vast, cradled her gently as she fell.
“Really…… just one year?”
“Yes. Just one year. But during that time, we truly have to look like a real married couple.”
“Look like a real married couple?”
“If anyone finds out we have a Contract Relationship, I’ll sink into an even deeper hell than I’m in now.”
He took her hand and placed it against his cheek, then tilted his head slightly to press a soft kiss to her palm.
“Save me, Sui.”
“Huh…….”
“Only you can save me.”
When Sui’s shoulders flinched and her body trembled, Beom-jin brushed a brief kiss across her lips.
“B-Beom-jin!”
“We need to practice starting now.”
Beom-jin’s expression was serious.
As if everything before had merely been play.
“The Main House people aren’t naive enough to fall for a clumsy act. And they’re not the type to stay quiet once they’ve figured out they’ve been deceived.”
“Then w-what about after we break up?”
“Don’t worry.”
Such a thing would never come to pass.
But Beom-jin kept his true thoughts carefully hidden, tilting his head slightly.
“I can protect you no matter what.”
“You’re the fool—I’m not talking about me. I’m talking about you. You have to stay there afterwards. I can just leave and that’s that, but you……”
Even the thought of separation—of Sui leaving him—made his eyes burn, though it was only a temporary arrangement.
“So you have to do well.”
Beom-jin gently brushed her hair behind her ear as he whispered.
“Act like you can’t live without me. I’ll do the same.”
He leaned down, his upper body bending forward.

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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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