Contract Marriage with a Male Friend - Chapter 47

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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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#47

For the past week.
The two of them could barely see each other’s faces.
Beom Jin was busy handling tasks under Dok Go’s instructions, while Su I was consumed with attending the new business development team training Dok Go had arranged.
Yet whenever their eyes met, Beom Jin exercised remarkable restraint—quite unlike his usual habit of sweeping her into his arms.
He understood all too well how intoxicating it could be to hold back, only to let everything burst forth at once.
And now, in this moment, Beom Jin was releasing that pent-up desire all at once.
“Ah…!”
Su I’s slender waist and thighs trembled sweetly.
Beom Jin gazed down at her delicate frame, which filled his large palms completely, then slowly drew back.
“Mmm……”
At the exquisite sensation—as if something deep inside were being drawn out—Su I shuddered finely.
Beom Jin turned her toward him and pressed soft kisses across her face.
Then, holding her close, he swiftly rolled them over so that she lay atop him.
“Put me down… you’ll tire yourself out……”
“Are you questioning my stamina right now?”
“Oh, no.”
Her immediate denial drew a low, rumbling laugh from Beom Jin.
Each time he laughed, Su I’s body, draped across his, trembled gently with him.
She loved that low, tender vibration; closing her eyes, she smiled.
“If it hurts, don’t hold back—tell me.”
Large hands moved slowly across her hair, stroking her.
“Your happiness is my happiness.”
At those words, Su I’s eyes flew open as though she’d touched flame.

“Our Su I and your mother’s happiness is my happiness.”

Her father’s voice from memory overlapped with Beom Jin’s words.
“…We really are like a real married couple, aren’t we?”
As she whispered this softly, Beom Jin’s body suddenly tensed.
“Su—”
Just then, Su I rolled away from him and turned to lie on her back.
“You know……”
“Yeah.”
Beom Jin responded at once, drawing her soft body back into his arms from behind.
“I’m listening.”
The firmness of his broad chest against her back and the heat of his skin made Su I bite the tender inside of her lip.
After a deep breath, she slowly opened her mouth.
“Our contract… it ends a year from today, right?”
A silence fell between them.
It was a silence that felt sharp as a needle and heavy as stone—a quiet she couldn’t put into words.
‘This can’t go on.’
Su I gripped the white sheets tightly.
Every time her connection with Beom Jin blurred, every time she felt like a real wife—
the memory of her mother and father, which she’d forgotten for a moment, began to surface ever more vividly.
Their beginning must have been like this too.
From a trusted friend to an exciting lover, from partners who’d promised to spend their lives together to… and then……
‘And then they ended up separating. In the worst possible way.’
Whenever her heart stirred in Beom Jin’s company, whenever a kiss felt like love, the specter of her parents—who had transformed from passionate lovers into bitter enemies before tearing their lives apart—would surface in her mind.
“Su I.”
“……”
“Look at me.”
Beom Jin slowly turned her body toward him.
He cradled her face in his large hands, meeting the anxious brown eyes directly, and held her gaze.
Beom Jin knew what she was thinking.
Of course he did.
His gaze had been fixed on one woman his entire life, and that woman’s whole existence wavered around one single fear.
“I’ll follow whatever you want.”
“…Whatever I want?”
“No matter what you desire, no matter what choice you make. My promise to protect you for the rest of your life—that doesn’t change.”
For the rest of your life.
Those words were both hope and shackles to Su I.
“So promise me just one thing. Don’t lock yourself away. That prison isn’t yours.”
Su I flinched, biting her lip.
Beom Jin seemed to notice.
What she was thinking.
“It’s okay to be afraid. It’s fine to lose your way sometimes, to cry. Just don’t forget that I’m here beside you.”
What could she possibly say?
Her throat was tight; no words would come.
Instead of answering, Su I wrapped her arms around his neck.
He returned her embrace and pressed a kiss to her shoulder.
“And don’t you forget either.”
“…What?”
“That for the next year, we’re living as a real married couple.”
“Oh……”
“Don’t think about anything, don’t predict or calculate. Let’s really live as husband and wife.”
Large hands brushed gently down her tender back.
A gasp escaped Su I’s lips unbidden; as her body trembled, his knee pressed between her thighs.
“Mm……”
“You need to answer me, sweetheart.”
“Yes, I, mm, I will.”
“That’s a promise.”
Su I’s answer was swallowed into his mouth.
Their bodies tangled together once more.
Their wedding night was deepening.

***

Instead of a honeymoon, they took about a week of vacation.
Su I felt the weight of their agreement not being a ‘real marriage’—at least not in the conventional sense.
Moreover, Beom Jin had resolved to take that ‘real honeymoon’ only when she truly accepted him with an open heart.
“Ah……”
But that didn’t mean Beom Jin had abandoned the Sweetness of Newlywed Period entirely.
As if to make up for the week before the wedding when they’d been too busy to see each other, Beom Jin spent the entire vacation sweeping Su I into his arms whenever their eyes met.
While feeding her breakfast, sipping coffee together on the balcony, showering, sitting on the couch watching a film—they made love.
“Mm, Beom Jin, stop… if this keeps going, ah, I feel like I’m really going to tear—”
“You won’t.”
Beom Jin wrapped her pale thighs around his waist and nibbled her earlobe.
“You have no idea how tightly you’re clenching around me right now.”
“Oh, don’t say things like that…!”
“Mm… my whole body feels like it’s melting, Su I.”
Soon the two of them were sighing deeply, breathing heavily.
Beom Jin remained inside her, holding her close and pressing kisses repeatedly across her face.
After their union, Beom Jin always held her like this, soothing her until she calmed.
She loved this time—loved it as much as the act itself.
‘Is this how real married couples live?’
Whenever she looked into Beom Jin’s eyes, which gazed at her as if he couldn’t help his affection, the shadow that had darkened her heart seemed to lift a little more.
For the first time, Su I thought:
Perhaps she could escape the curse-like binding of her mother’s fear.
Did a lifetime together necessarily have to begin as friendship?
Yes… thinking about it, there were plenty of couples who spent their whole lives side by side as husband and wife.
In fact, there were examples nearby—Pyo Yeon Su and O Sang Chul.
‘That’s strange.’
Thoughts that seemed unchanging could change.
Changed by Beom Jin’s tender gaze and warmth.
“What are you thinking about so hard?”
Beom Jin, who had been stroking her hair, opened his eyes slightly.
“I should be in those thoughts.”
“Tee-hee.”
“You’re dodging the question?”
“I’m not.”
“This won’t do.”
Beom Jin moved over her in an instant.
“I’ll make sure you can’t think of anything but me.”
“I was thinking of you! Really… mmph.”
Su I’s mouth was sealed.
Sweet breath rushed in through the space between their lips.
“There’s no rest for you, sweetheart. The vacation’s ending tomorrow.”
Had time really passed this quickly?
All they’d done this whole week was eat and sleep.
‘Was this really okay?’
But the moment she returned to work the next day.
Su I regretted it at once.
‘This past week… it was happiness……’

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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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