Contract Marriage with a Male Friend - Chapter 43

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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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#43

After returning from the gathering.
Wedding preparations proceeded at lightning speed.
All Su-i had to do was check off items she liked from catalogs sent by the wedding task force, or occasionally greet people approaching when she and Beom-jin dined out.
“Everyone was so shocked to hear that Beom-jin was getting married. But seeing Su-i now, I understand why you’re in such a hurry. She’s truly beautiful—”
“Nice meeting you too. Take care.”
The man’s embarrassed expression lasted only a moment.
He flinched at the flash in Beom-jin’s eyes, then hastily spun around and vanished.
…….
Su-i, watching his retreating figure, gave a light shrug.
‘Same pattern as always.’
Making introductions with people who recognized Beom-jin turned out to be easier than checking boxes on catalogs.
They always watched Beom-jin’s expression carefully before hurrying away, just like that man.
“Honey.”
She’d grown accustomed to that particular way of being addressed.
Whether it was good or bad, she couldn’t say.
“What?”
“Did you like that guy?”
“Where’d that come from?”
Beom-jin narrowed his eyes at her.
“You couldn’t take your eyes off him after he left.”
“I don’t even remember his face. Were we together for even a minute?”
“Then why aren’t you looking at me?”
Beom-jin took her hand from the table and stroked the back of it slowly with his thumb, speaking with a subtle whine in his voice.
“Look only at me. I’m jealous.”
“……I wasn’t looking at him. I was thinking about something.”
“What were you thinking about? Me?”
Seriously.
As Su-i gave him a deliberately unimpressed look, Beom-jin closed his eyes and smiled.
“My wife’s so cute.”
Su-i’s cheeks flushed at the word “wife,” but only for a moment.
Then she looked at him with concern.
“But……shouldn’t we introduce me to your family soon?”
“We’re not ready in our hearts yet.”
He had a point, but…
The mere thought of meeting Beom-jin’s family made her tense, her entire body going rigid.
Though she’d tried not to show it.
She couldn’t escape the notice of someone as acutely sensitive to her affairs as Beom-jin was.

“When your heart feels ready, we’ll do it then.”
“But still……”
“I’m marrying you, not my family.”
“That’s true, but……”
“We’ll see them eventually anyway.”

Whenever she hesitated at his final word, Beom-jin would deftly redirect her attention elsewhere.

“This won’t do, Su-i. Even with me here, your mind’s always somewhere else.”
“It’s not somewhere else—ungh……!”
“Take your time. What matters now is our time together.”

And so they’d inevitably end up heading toward the bedroom.
At this rate, they’d be meeting his family for the first time at the wedding venue itself.
Even for a Contractual Marriage, surely that wasn’t right.
‘Thinking about after the contract ends still frightens me.’
But she wanted to do her best, at least for the duration of their agreement.
“I think it might be okay to introduce myself now.”
“Don’t push yourself.”
Su-i shook her head.
“I want to push myself. So you don’t get criticized for it.”
…….
“What if they think poorly of you for bringing someone who wouldn’t even greet them?”
Beom-jin hesitated at her words, drew a deep breath, and scrubbed his face with both hands.
“Why are you like this?”
“Because my wife is so beautiful.”
“Oh, come on!”
“Take responsibility, Su-i.”
Let’s go home quickly.
At the warmth flickering in his eyes as he pressed kiss after kiss to the back of her hand, Su-i’s face flushed deeply red as well.
So the day passed, as it always did.
With her heart settled, Su-i drifted into vague thought.
Would days like this continue on?
Taxing as it sometimes was, could she keep spending such engaging days—
She even found herself thinking, occasionally, whether this was what happiness felt like.
But there was one thing she’d forgotten.
That the world is never as simple as it seems.

***

“You want to have a First Meeting with Family?”
Chairman Dok-go Hyung-jun set down the newspaper he’d been holding with a sharp slap.
“Yes.”
At the composed—no, bold—glint in his grandson’s eyes, Dok-go Hyung-jun exhaled in exasperation.
There was probably only one person in this world brazen enough to meet his gaze so unflinchingly.
At the same time, he couldn’t help but feel satisfied.
Running a corporation required audacity.
‘He’s got twice—no, five times—the nerve of ordinary men. He’ll do well enough.’
And yet…
His regret about Beom-jin’s marriage was unavoidable.
There were no shortage of prominent families eager to marry their daughters off to him.
But what could he do?
He couldn’t break that stubborn will of iron.
Dok-go Hyung-jun knew better than anyone that if he opposed this marriage, Beom-jin would sever ties with the family entirely.
And if that iron-willed boy simply left for parts unknown where no one could reach him, it would be a catastrophic loss—for the family and for the company alike.
“Be kind to Su-i.”
“You do nothing but mischief, and you want me to speak sweetly?”
“Then we’ll skip the meeting.”
“What, what did you say?”
Beom-jin gave a light shrug.
“If you plan to sit Su-i down and pressure her with interrogation, I’ll simply skip it. I won’t watch that.”
“You insolent boy, that’s not what I—”
“This marriage is something I barely convinced Su-i into doing. So treat her well. Unless you’d like rumors spreading that the Gangho Group’s eldest heir has… issues.”
Dok-go Hyung-jun let out a groan and struck his own chest hard.
“Now the boy’s blackmailing his grandfather.”
“It’s a request, not blackmail.”
Beom-jin, who had been sitting in perfect composure, suddenly bowed his head.
Dok-go Hyung-jun’s eyes widened as if they might pop from his skull.
“What? Why are you doing something you’ve never done in your life?”
This grandson had never bowed to anyone.
“Su-i is someone who has been deeply hurt by family. So please welcome her warmly, as family should. She is truly a kind and lovely person.”
At the earnest demeanor of his grandson—stripped of his usual arrogance—Dok-go Hyung-jun exhaled with something like a groan and pressed a hand to his forehead.
He’d known the boy was smitten with that girl, but this far exceeded his expectations.
At the depth of Beom-jin’s affection—dangerously deep—Dok-go Hyung-jun released something like a stricken sigh.
“I warned you never to show your neck. Yet you’ve not only put a collar on yourself, but placed its leash in that girl’s hands.”
“I’m forcing myself to keep holding it. In case she lets go and runs away.”
“Do you have no pride? Born as the eldest of Dok-go Hyung-jun himself—and lacking in nothing: not looks, not background, not a single thing. Why do you stumble about like this?”
Beom-jin spoke as though it were obvious.
“Because it’s fate.”
……
“And it’s love.”
…….
In a moment of silence, Beom-jin’s eyes grew distant and deep.
“When you had nothing, the moment you saw the land where this company now stands, you decided with certainty to build Gangho here, did you not?”
…….
“Despite everyone’s objections, with nothing but the conviction that ‘this will succeed,’ you pushed forward and built the Gangho Group as it stands today.”
“……Yes, I did.”
“Su-i is that for me.”
I knew from the moment I saw her.
That she was the only warmth and light that could fill the hollow void that had long eaten away at my chest.
“My life means nothing without Su-i. The only place I belong is at her side.”
Still, a trace of displeasure lingered in his grandfather’s eyes.
Beom-jin smiled coldly and spoke.
“The more you mistreat Su-i, the further the company’s stock price will fall.”

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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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