Contract Marriage with a Male Friend - Chapter 25

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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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#25

Something was off.
Beom-jin had just said something that should never come from his lips—something far more shocking than a simple greeting.
……Marriage?
Did he really just say marriage?
“Forgive me, but…… did someone suggest this?”
While Ma Do-hwan stood stunned, Beom-jin answered with a face that was not merely indifferent but almost serene.
“Director Ma, who is your supervisor?”
“That would be Executive Director Beom-jin, sir.”
“Then who else would it be?”
Ma Do-hwan’s words caught in his throat.
So not only had they reconciled their relationship—
but they were getting married?
‘What on earth happened over the weekend?’
There had been no word that the man beside Soo-i had been “dealt with.”
If something like that had occurred, he would certainly have been notified.
“So, in other words…… the person getting married is…… you, sir?”
The shock of such an announcement made Ma Do-hwan’s mouth fall open involuntarily, but he caught himself and froze.
Beom-jin despised repeating himself.
And yet—
“Yes. You’ve probably already seen the bride. Last Friday, at the Hotel.”
It was real.
His supervisor truly intended to marry.
Despite forcing the same words out of him twice, Beom-jin showed not a trace of displeasure—instead, he answered calmly.
There was even a subtle undercurrent of satisfaction and anticipation in his voice.
He so rarely revealed his emotions.
Lately, not only Ma Do-hwan, his right hand, but everyone around him could read his mood perfectly.
There was only one reason.
A woman with an inexplicable name: Soo-i.
She was beautiful, certainly, but there were plenty of more striking women to be found.
She didn’t come from a family important enough to aid his succession.
She was devoted to her work as a funeral director, but it didn’t seem to benefit Beom-jin in any tangible way—
‘Could it be?’
Had she helped with his “problem cases” all this time?
Without anyone knowing?
But Ma Do-hwan pushed the thought aside immediately.
With her so firmly by his side, Beom-jin would never ask such a thing of his woman.
Besides, when Beom-jin first fell for Soo-i, she was still a student.
So it was possible for even a machine-like, emotionless man to fall in love at first sight.
“Understood, sir. I’ll inform the Public Relations Department. When were you thinking of holding the ceremony?”
“We’ll be married within three months.”
Ma Do-hwan had barely regained his composure when—
he found himself asking again, his face blank with shock.
“I’m sorry, did you just say three months?”
“There’s a reason your salary is higher than everyone else’s, Director Ma. I hope you’ll prove it this time.”
Beom-jin’s mood remained untroubled, but it was clear he had no intention of entertaining further questions.
Ma Do-hwan lowered his head hurriedly.
“Understood, sir. Then I’ll inform the Chairman’s office—”
“No need. I’ll handle that myself.”
Ma Do-hwan swept his eyes across the low table.
“Should I clear these things away?”
“That would be best. Can’t walk into a wedding venue looking bruised.”
With quick, efficient movements, he cleared anything that could be used as a weapon from the office, then quietly slipped out.
Click—
The moment the door closed, Beom-jin picked up the interphone.
“This is Beom-jin. I have something to report to the Chairman.”

***

“Beom-jin, you bastard—!”
The moment Dok-go Hyung-jun burst into the executive office after storming out of the elevator and heading straight for it, he roared.
“Three months? Three mo-onths? Are you out of your mind!”
“Sit down first, sir. Director Ma, the tea can wait. If you bring it now, you’ll catch fire from the heat in here.”
“……Yes, sir.”
Ma Do-hwan quietly closed the door with care.
“My God, I’m speechless.”
The Chairman had barely settled into his seat before—
he erupted in fury.
“What do you take this family for? Do you think the Kangho Group is so easy to push around?”
“That’s quite a leap, sir.”
“First you go mad over a girl and abandon this house, then you even replace your own father with another man—I could stomach that much, I told myself.”
The Chairman himself had to admit that his surveillance of Beom-jin during that time had been rigorous.

“If you won’t permit it, you can erase my name from the family tree.”
“Beom-jin!”
“If I stay here another day, I’ll wither away. By tomorrow, you’ll see it happen.”

From childhood, Beom-jin was the type whose nature could only be satisfied by achieving whatever he set his mind to.
Dok-go Hyung-jun, who knew his grandson as well as he knew himself, understood that if he tried to keep the boy here by force, disaster would follow.
So he had given his permission.
But even so, how could he allow something as monumental as a Major Life Event to be rushed through like popcorn in a flash of fire?
“You knew, didn’t you? That you’d marry Soo-i.”
“……Well, yes—after that whole scene you made, staying glued to her side ever since, anyone would think the same.”
“Then why are you so angry about it?”
“Why do you think?”
Dok-go Hyung-jun struck his own chest with his fist as he spoke, his tone heavy with exasperation.
“We’ve been keeping your existence hidden, and now that you’ve stepped into the spotlight since joining the company, there’s already talk. If we rush your wedding like this, what will people say about our group?”
Beom-jin was about to protest—
“And if they look down on you that way, they’ll look down on your wife too.”
His dark eyes darkened further in an instant.
“Once the impression sets in that she’s some woman married off carelessly, without proper ceremony—she’ll never be welcomed anywhere.”
Her background was already unremarkable, or perhaps even below that—
and her profession as a funeral director only complicated matters.
Of course, the profession itself was not the problem.
But for a chaebol family to accept her as a daughter-in-law was extraordinarily, intensely, profoundly unfamiliar ground.
“Three months is too fast.”
“Then we make the wedding grand enough.”
Dok-go Hyung-jun and Beom-jin spoke in unison.
“……What?”
“The Kangho Group can make a wedding prepared in three months look as if it took three years.”
“That fox of a…!”
The Chairman’s eyes darted around quickly, looking for something he could throw at his grandson, who stood before him with that infuriatingly composed expression.
But there was nothing within reach.
“That cunning bastard……!”
“Perhaps you could break that habit, sir. Every time you do, it’s the poor floor and the staff who suffer.”
Beom-jin met his grandfather’s gaze directly.
“Without Soo-i, I would have died long ago.”
……
“So I trust you’ll treat her well. Once we marry, her dignity becomes the dignity of the Kangho Group.”
Dok-go Hyung-jun clenched his jaw.
He was the head of the Kangho Group, a man who feared nothing in this world.
Yet in this moment, he had no words at all.
For his grandson’s steady, penetrating gaze was so like the second son he had lost.
That was why he was so weak to this willful youngest grandson.
He couldn’t bear to lose him too.
“If you won’t give your permission, then I’ll leave this time for good.”
“……That’s not a decision one can make so easily.”
Beom-jin’s lips curved upward slightly.
His grandfather was the type to cut decisively—either yes or no, no discussion.
But to speak like this meant he was willing to negotiate, and in any negotiation, his grandfather held the strongest hand.
“Please treat Soo-i well.”
“You certainly have ambitious dreams.”
“If anyone should mistreat Soo-i, even if they shared my blood, I wouldn’t let it pass.”
“Good, good. Are you threatening your own grandfather now?”
“You wouldn’t do such a thing, sir.”
Say what you will.
Even as Dok-go Hyung-jun clicked his tongue in disapproval, he inwardly praised his grandson—one who showed no deference even before him, who risked everything to seize what he wanted.
The boy had chosen well, that much was certain.
“When are you planning to hold the First Meeting Between Families?”
“We’ll visit the Main House next week to pay our respects.”
Hmm. Dok-go Hyung-jun’s mood became unsettled once more.
Soo-i had no family. So there was no need for a separate First Meeting Between Families—she only needed to come to the Main House and introduce herself.
“Are you truly certain you won’t regret this?”
At his grandfather’s words, Beom-jin let out a soft laugh.
“There’s no chance of that. Unless I somehow lost Soo-i.”

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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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