Contract Marriage with a Male Friend - Chapter 54

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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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#54

An Soo Yi’s cheeks flushed crimson as she quickly covered his mouth with her hand.
“I told you not to say things like that outside!”
“Then call me either ‘honey’ or ‘darling.'”
…There it was. Dok Go Beom Jin’s specialty.
Embarrassing her until he got the answer he wanted.
“Bed—”
“Darling!”
An Soo Yi hooked her arm through his, pleading as she spoke.
“I want to walk more.”
God, she was adorable.
When Beom Jin covered his mouth with his hand, An Soo Yi pounded his chest with her small fist.
“You were teasing me!”
But no matter how hard she hit, it was like a deer ramming its head against solid stone.
‘Damn. My hand hurts more than his chest.’
An Soo Yi, who had been glaring at him pointedly, suddenly spun around.
Beom Jin stifled his laughter and followed her with long, quick strides.
“Darling, come with me.”
“No. I’m walking alone.”
Her pouting back was so endearing it made him want to bite her.
In the end, Beom Jin chuckled and wrapped his arms around An Soo Yi’s shoulders, pulling her against him.
“You said you were going alone.”
“All right. I’ll wait until we get home.”
“Let go, you said.”
“That puppy over there is so cute.”
“Where?”
Ah. When An Soo Yi bit her lip, Beom Jin’s eyes sparkled with adoration as he repeatedly kissed the top of her head.
She pushed the clingy Beom Jin away, whispering with an embarrassed face.
“D-don’t do this outside, I told you.”
“So what? We’re not the only ones doing this.”
In fact, looking around, all the couples filling the street were completely absorbed in each other, heedless of the gazes around them.
“If you’re shy about it here, you’ll just draw more attention.”
With that, Beom Jin placed a soft kiss on An Soo Yi’s lips.
“If there’s anything you want to do, you can do whatever you like, whenever. You don’t need my permission. You’re allowed to, because you’re special.”
At the sight of Beom Jin conveying with his whole body that she was a special being, An Soo Yi’s heart melted again.
Then something began to fill the melted space.
His gentle affection was steadily filling her innermost being.
“Then… can I ask you about your father?”
Beom Jin’s eyes widened, then he nodded.
At his response, An Soo Yi’s expression grew worried, and Beom Jin smiled.
“I was just surprised—it wasn’t something I expected you to ask.”
“It’s just… I think you must miss him a lot.”
Miss.
Shortly after his father passed away, he had truly wandered for a time.
His father had been loved by everyone.
Even the uncle who had hated his father—Beom Jin could see that beneath that hatred lay jealousy and admiration.

“When our son brings the person he loves to meet me someday, I think your father will cry.”
“That’s a lie. I’ve never seen Father cry.”
“He did. Three times, to be exact. When you were born, when your mother accepted my proposal, and when you were born. Now there will be one more.”

Then his father, thinking it over, raised one more finger.

“No, I should correct that—make it two. When you have a child, I think your father will weep with joy. Uncontrollable joy.”

Defying what one would expect of someone raised in this world, his father had been honest with his emotions, tender in all things.
Such warmth and humanity had resembled his grandmother, who had passed before him, and Beom Jin’s grandfather had greatly cherished this quality in his father.
His father had been like the sun, gently warming every shadow around him.
As a child, Beom Jin had always wanted to become like his father.
But now it feels like a faded scene from a distant past.
After his father passed away so futilely, there was no time to grieve.
His uncle, fangs bared, immediately began his assault on Beom Jin and his mother through every means at his disposal.
Beom Jin could no longer remain a child—he had to learn how to adapt to a ruthless world.
In those hellish days, the only ones he could trust and rely on were his grandfather and his mother.
But when he went abroad and was falsely accused of transporting drugs.
His world closed with a bang.
In that time, his longing for his father and the memory of him slowly faded away.
And the person he met just before his heart completely closed was An Soo Yi.

“She’s cute, right? A puppy I play with here often.”
“…You know who I am and yet you speak to me so carelessly. So fearlessly.”
“This one’s very sensitive—she never goes near bad people. And you waited patiently until she came to you, petting her so carefully, so gently because you were afraid she might get hurt. Not everyone can do that.”

An Soo Yi was the first person who didn’t fear him despite not knowing his background, and who didn’t shower him with excessive kindness either.
She didn’t fawn over him because of his looks, watching his mood carefully, nor did she deliberately act cold toward him.
In her sparkling eyes, her gentle voice, and her bright smile, he could find no hidden motive or calculation whatsoever.
In a cold, desolate, parched world, he had been instantly captivated by the warmth he found in her.
“I remember. Sometimes.”
Sometimes….
At Beom Jin’s answer, An Soo Yi drew in a deep breath.
She had asked the question first, but now that she was hearing his answer, she didn’t know what to say or how to say it.
“It’s because of you.”
“Because of me?”
The white blossoms of the chinaberry trees planted on either side swayed gently in the soft breeze that drifted through.
Standing among them, Beom Jin met her eyes.
“Because you stayed by my side, leaving me no time to feel lonely.”
The laughter of a child could be heard somewhere in the distance.
A red balloon, lost by someone, drifted lazily across the blue sky, and beautiful birds sang as they flew together in pairs.
“You filled the emptiness, An Soo Yi.”
An Soo Yi gazed quietly into his eyes.
A bright light shone from within his dark pupils.
A light most fragrant and tender.
“We will be together from now on.”
As family.
Those words created a deep resonance in An Soo Yi’s heart.
“Let’s come here together again next year. Just the two of us.”
Or three, even.
Beom Jin swallowed those words down.
It wasn’t the right time yet.
But if the chance came, he would never let it slip away.
“Yes, I’d like that.”
At her answer, his eyes curved gently upward.
Like when his father smiled at him.

***

“This is an opportunity, Father.”
At his son’s persuasion, Dok Go Jin Su let out a groan.
“Why else would Grandfather summon only me separately? He’s testing my abilities. And in a way that’s extremely favorable to me.”
“I’m not so sure.”
He knew his father well.
Dok Go Hyung Jun was far from a kind man.
‘He would never send such an obvious signal.’
Yet this was the first time he had called Seung Jin separately and assigned him work.
“I’ll go to America and come back, Father.”
“Then your marriage will be delayed.”
“Once I’m the Successor, the bride’s family’s status will be different.”
Dok Go Seung Jin smiled wickedly.
“Thanks to that idiot Dok Go Beom Jin making a worthless marriage, I’ve bought myself time.”
“But what if Beom Jin’s side ends up with a child? You know how much your grandfather values bloodline.”
“Even so—”
Dok Go Seung Jin shrugged dismissively.
“A child born from such a worthless woman’s body.”
“Hmm, well….”
“Does it matter if one child is born or ten? No matter how many are born, they’re just children brought into the world by a woman with no background—their lives will be nothing but hardship anyway.”

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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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