Contract Marriage with a Male Friend - Chapter 4

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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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#4

Sui woke from a brief nap and made a meal of banana and banana milk.
She nagged Dok Go Beom-jin about eating properly, yet when she was alone, she often rushed through meals without a thought.
If Dok Go Beom-jin found out, he’d fix her with that characteristic look of disapproval.
‘It’s actually kind of cute when he does that, big lug that he is.’
Sui stifled a laugh to herself, then hurried through her morning routine and headed to the office.

“Strange people have been gathering at night and threatening passersby—don’t take this route under any circumstances.”

Heeding the quiet man’s rare but earnest warning, she took a longer detour from her usual morning path to the bus stop instead.
When the bus arrived, Sui climbed aboard and spotted an empty window seat, which she claimed at once.
‘Lucky day.’
As she gazed at the slow drift of the city through the window, Beom-jin surfaced in her thoughts again.
‘Is he learning to say no these days? His overtime seems to have decreased lately.’
Beom-jin often stayed late to handle tasks that weren’t even his responsibility.

“The team lead asked me to double-check some figures.”
“I caught a bug in the system. Apparently no one else could do it.”
“Someone spilled tomato juice all over the floor and just left it, so I stayed late cleaning it up.”

Perhaps this was how a parent felt, leaving a child at a riverside.
Each time Beom-jin delivered such excuses with a perfectly innocent face, her frustration threatened to burst through.
For all his size—tall as a doorframe—the man could be remarkably dense.
‘Would it have been better if we worked at the same company?’
Then at least she could help him. And commuting would be easier too.
She had more than enough qualifications to apply to Kangho Group.
But Sui had chosen a different path: searching for her father.
What surprised her was that Beom-jin, who usually clung to her side, had actually respected her decision and actively supported it.
‘Maybe I should just bring the work home like Dok Go Beom-jin says? If I leave late, he’d stay late to match my schedule. Is he going hungry and just holding it in? Should I send him a message…’
But then Sui shook her head firmly.
“What am I doing?”
Dok Go Beom-jin wasn’t even her son.
At moments like these, confusion seized her.
Was it really him depending on her, or had it somehow become the reverse—her depending on him?
Was it really him who hated being apart, or was she the one who couldn’t bear it?
……
Sui closed her eyes tight, then opened them.
Lately, she found herself thinking of Beom-jin with increasing frequency.
‘…We’re just friends.’
There was no reason to go beyond that.
Absolutely not.

***

“Oh, you’re here?”
“Yes, Team Lead. How is your wife feeling?”
“She’s better now. Turned out to be acute indigestion. She tried calling 119, but ended up calling me instead because she was panicked.”
Sui masked her envy with a smile.
How fortunate to have family who would drop everything and rush to your side in an emergency.
There had been a time when she too had such people.
Her mother and father—who had been friends since middle school, then lovers, then husband and wife, then parents to her—had eventually torn each other to shreds and parted ways.
Until her twelfth year, those years had been remarkably happy.
Her handsome businessman father and her beautiful, gentle mother had treasured her as the one precious jewel in all the world.
Then came her middle school entrance, and around the time her father’s business began to falter.
Shadows crept into a home once filled with light.
At first, her parents had watched their words around the young girl, but as time passed, they jabbed at each other with sharp tongues regardless of whether she was present or not.
Yet they never knew.
Those razor-edged words were cutting deep wounds into Sui as well.

“I should never have chosen you—we should have stayed friends!”
“What gives you the right to say that? You were at least tolerable as a friend, but as a wife you’re a zero—a complete zero! There’s nothing you do right!”
“Why did I have to meet that bastard and ruin my entire life?”
“What? A bastard? Are you done talking?”

Her mother and father had been close friends, she had always said.
So close they could read each other’s thoughts from a glance alone, they had smiled and told her, voices full of joy.
But knowing someone that well meant also knowing precisely how to wound them.
Their voices grew louder. Expensive dishes and furniture began to shatter and break.
Eventually, her father stopped coming home, and her mother turned to alcohol.
By the time Sui entered her first year of middle school, her father had moved out entirely, and her mother had become an alcoholic.

“Things were better when we were friends. I thought we’d be together forever…… But if you truly love someone, it should never come to pass. You must remain friends. That way you can protect each other.”

Leaving her mother to mutter such things while downing glass after glass, Sui showered and retreated to her room.
She needed to study for the upcoming Mid-term Exam.

“You have to go to that good private school in the neighboring district. If you go to an ordinary public school and meet an ordinary boy, you’ll end up living like me. Study hard—you can’t fail even one test.”

Her mother’s wish was for her to attend an excellent school in the neighboring district.
Sui studied hard to fulfill that wish.
Maybe then her mother would come to her senses and pay attention to her again.
Then, realizing she hadn’t washed her uniform, she stepped out of the room—and discovered something.
Her mother collapsed beneath the dining table.
Scattered around her were pills, apparently sleeping medication.
She called for an ambulance immediately, but her mother never woke again.
“……which is why the district office contacted us. Are you listening?”
Sui suddenly snapped back to awareness, her eyes refocusing.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Her mind had drifted away of its own accord again.
“You look rather pale now that I think about it. You’ve been busy lately, and I hurried you with that task yesterday—it’s been draining, hasn’t it?”
“No, it’s nothing. Just the weather makes me feel a bit sluggish.”
“Spring will be spring.”
Spring, indeed.
Though the season had surely turned to spring, Sui’s world remained cold and desolate.
If not for Beom-jin standing like a great sheltering tree, she might have frozen long ago.
“Have you ever thought about going on a blind date?”
“A blind date?”
“Yes. Remember the funeral service we held in Yongin last week? The building owner who handled that funeral hall seemed quite taken with you. Do you remember? Young, very handsome fellow.”
Sui remembered him well.
The man who knew O Team Lead said he managed buildings inherited from his parents.

“I’ve heard much about you. You’re not only capable but beautiful as well.”
“Ah…… Thank you.”
“If you ever face difficulties, please tell me anytime.

The man had met her eyes and squeezed her hand with unmistakable intention.

“I really would like to help someone as capable as you.”

He had gazed at her with such intensity that it made her slightly uncomfortable.
“He asked me hesitantly—said he wanted to see you again. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard him speak so personally.”
“Ah……”
“Why not meet him once? His qualities are more than respectable, and for someone with his means, he’s remarkably humble and kind. He has a gentle temperament.”
O Team Lead spoke as if he expected her to refuse again.
“People in jobs like ours need a comfortable place to lean on. Just when you think you’ve gotten used to it, there comes a moment when everything crumbles.”
She already had someone like that, didn’t she?
Sui thought of Beom-jin.
She wasn’t sure if she could lean on him, but his presence made her mind grow still.
When she gazed into those indifferent, drowsy eyes, even the most serious troubles seemed insignificant.
When that large hand gently stroked her head, the weight pressing down on her heart somehow lifted away.
Just as if she were bathed in warm sunlight.
But……
“All right. I’ll do it.”
O Team Lead’s eyes widened in shock.
“Really? Then I’ll contact Gi Representative? You won’t change your mind later?”
Watching O Team Lead’s delighted expression, Sui felt a flicker of regret, but she steeled herself.
Being with Beom-jin felt like basking in sunlight.
Yet she could not dwell there forever.
The age when marriage would be expected was already drawing near.
It was time to begin practicing, little by little.
How to step away from his side.
“Yes, please do. I’ll go on the blind date.”

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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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