Contract Marriage with a Male Friend - Chapter 44

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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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#44

A few days later.
The two of them headed toward the Sky River Hotel.
“Am I really okay? Should I have worn something else? I made flashcard questions beforehand, but I forgot everything.”
“You’re fine. What you’re wearing is beautiful. And you don’t need any flashcards.”
Beom-jin pulled the nervous An Su-i into his arms and pressed a kiss to the crown of her head.
“Just relax. If anything, Grandfather should be grateful to you.”
Beom-jin gently brushed away the tears forming at the corners of An Su-i’s eyes as she gazed up at him with doubt.
“For putting a leash on a mad dog that could spin off in any direction.”
“A mad dog……”
“That’s right. A bastard who flips out whenever he sees An Su-i.”
“Even your language……”
But Beom-jin’s teasing had eased her nerves a little.
“Be confident. Grandfather failed to tame me, but you succeeded. You’re the only person who ever tamed me, An Su-i.”
Beom-jin wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and murmured low and suggestive.
“Will you keep taming me tonight, too?”
“Honestly!”
When An Su-i narrowed her eyes primly, Beom-jin closed his eyes and laughed.
The elevator doors slid open.
Today’s Formal Family Meeting was to take place at a Korean restaurant inside the hotel—Dok-go Hyeong-jun’s regular haunt.
Not long after they arrived at the private room in the innermost corner, Dok-go Hyeong-jun and Beom-jin’s mother, Jin Sook-young, appeared.
The moment the door opened, An Su-i sprang to her feet like a coil released.
“Welcome.”
“Oh, hello! It’s my first time meeting you. I’m An Su-i.”
At the sound of An Su-i’s loud, resonant voice, Dok-go Hyeong-jun, who had been stepping inside, paused and lifted his eyebrows once.
“……Your voice carries well.”
“Oh, n-no, I apologize if I startled you.”
“From this moment on, don’t apologize so easily. The Kangho Group family does not bend easily to others.”
“Oh, I’m s-sorry……”
Gulp. An Su-i quickly covered her mouth with both hands.
At this, Dok-go Hyeong-jun let out a faint sigh.
‘I’d heard Beom-jin tamed her, and I wondered what sort of spirited girl she was. But this—there’s no difference from a fawn.’
A pretty face and a slender frame.
That was all there was to see.
When their eyes met, he watched her delicate shoulders tremble and the intertwined hands quiver softly, and he could not fathom what would possess Beom-jin to turn his head so completely that he fled the house.
“So, you’re getting married.”
Once Dok-go Hyeong-jun and Jin Sook-young were seated, Beom-jin pulled out An Su-i’s chair for her.
An Su-i accepted the courtesy with natural ease.
As if she’d done it countless times before.
‘The man who showed no interest in anyone else.’
Beom-jin never took his eyes off An Su-i.
By the angle of his arm, it was clear he was holding the girl’s hand under the table.
And that sickening smile on his face.
“Hm……”
At Beom-jin’s tender gaze—that gentle smile of reassurance directed at An Su-i—Dok-go Hyeong-jun and Jin Sook-young’s mouths fell open.
‘Life really is something you have to live to understand.’
Since returning home after becoming entangled in a shameful incident abroad, Beom-jin had never opened his heart to anyone—not to his family, not to a soul.
During that time, he was like a machine incapable of feeling anything.
Of course, it was not beyond understanding.
Even Dok-go Hyeong-jun himself thought it excessive, but he had placed constant surveillance on his grandson.
If Beom-jin entered the shower, the door was forced open after ten minutes. His bedroom was searched at least three times a week—beneath the bed, deep in the closet. He was allowed to eat and drink only what was approved.
Once a week, the family physician was brought in, and they forcibly collected hair and urine samples for drug screening tests.
But it could not be helped.
Without such measures, there was the constant fear that Beom-jin would again slip down the wrong path.

“I’ve never trafficked drugs.”
“……Don’t bring disgrace on the group’s honor and the family’s reputation any further. Don’t you understand that everything built up until now could crumble in an instant because of you?”
“Why don’t you believe me? Of all people, you should trust me. Mother, Grandfather.”

But the foolish child of that time had refused to admit his wrongdoing, and denied it to the very end.
Despite overwhelming evidence.
Closed-circuit camera footage of him secretly meeting gang members in an alley in the Harlem District, exchanging drugs. Unexplained large sums of money deposited into a dummy account under Beom-jin’s name. And above all—
Direct threatening messages from the gang.
The rival gang contacted Dok-go Hyeong-jun with the message: ‘Your grandson skimmed drugs from our territory. Hand over the money, or we’ll blow this open to the press.’
The effort it took to bury that threat.
But Dok-go Hyeong-jun never told his grandson about the evidence or the cleanup operation.
At that level of stubbornness, any evidence produced would only be denied.
Besides, the fewer people who know a secret, the better it is kept.
Ideally, even the person involved should not know.
The fewer holes through which it could leak, the safer the succession arrangement remained.
Fortunately, all traces of connection between the gang and Beom-jin were thoroughly buried, but the distance between the family and Beom-jin became irretrievable.
What would have become of Beom-jin if he had not met An Su-i that day, slipping away from his bodyguards and escaping the house?
‘From then on, life began to return to his eyes. He even spoke first about wanting to do something.’
Before that, he wouldn’t make eye contact with me or anyone else, let alone hold a conversation.

“I’ll stay out of trouble and keep quiet. Rather than monitoring each other and burning out running away, wouldn’t it be better to at least graduate from a normal school?”

From Dok-go Hyeong-jun’s perspective, An Su-i could be called his benefactor.
But human hearts are fickle—what they feel going into the restroom is different from what they feel coming out.
Now that relations with Beom-jin had been mended and he was delivering remarkable results at the company.
Dok-go Hyeong-jun found himself wishing Beom-jin had married into a better family.
If Beom-jin had married a woman from a more prestigious household, his son and second grandson—both far less capable of leading the company—might not harbor foolish ambitions.
His daughter-in-law Jin Sook-young was satisfied merely that Beom-jin had resolved to marry, expressing no dissatisfaction with An Su-i whatsoever.
“I-I, though it’s humble, prepared a small gift.”
When dessert was about to be served after the main course.
An Su-i hesitated before extending a neatly wrapped small box.
“What’s this?”
“I, I made it myself. It’s Medicinal Tea. I heard that both of you have weak lungs, so I gathered the finest platycodon and ginger, dried them, and roasted them to make it.”
At this, Dok-go Hyeong-jun’s eyes narrowed.
“Everything regarding our family’s health is classified information. You understand that, don’t you?”
“Grandfather.”
Beom-jin regarded Dok-go Hyeong-jun with darkened eyes.
“I don’t think that’s the important part right now.”
“……Well, drink it well.”
“Oh, yes. Th-thank you for accepting it.”
“Thank you very much. Your thoughtfulness runs quite deep.”
At Jin Sook-young’s words, An Su-i blushed and laughed with delight.
But Beom-jin’s brow furrowed with displeasure.
It was because of Grandfather, Dok-go Hyeong-jun.
Shouldn’t he have said thank you?
After all the effort An Su-i put into that gift.
But before coming here, An Su-i had made him promise urgently.
‘Don’t take my side and clash with Grandfather,’ she’d said.
He drew a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the anger rising in his chest.
He couldn’t let An Su-i be alarmed; he would handle it later, away from her sight.
“So, you’re a funeral director.”
“Y-yes.”
“You don’t intend to continue after marriage, I presume.”
“I haven’t made concrete plans yet……”
“Then help with my work instead.”

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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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