Contract Marriage with a Male Friend - Chapter 62

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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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#62

Beom Jin released his arms from around her and met her gaze directly.
He fixed his eyes on Soo Yi’s hazel irises as he spoke.
“Tell me again, Soo Yi.”
She swallowed hard.
Part of her wanted to look away—but she couldn’t.
The warmth of his hand against her skin felt almost burning.
As though her heart might turn to ash.
“What if I told you I didn’t believe what you said back then?”
“Back then.”
“When you were studying abroad.”
Beom Jin’s eyes narrowed slightly.
It was an unexpected question, but he remained unperturbed.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It… doesn’t matter?”
“Because the fact remains that you were by my side.”
“Even if I didn’t believe a word you said, deep down?”
Beom Jin studied Soo Yi’s reaction carefully.
The slight lift of her eyebrows.
The faint tremor in her long lashes.
Even the minute tension gathering around her lips.
Right now, Soo Yi was deeply anxious.
‘Why?’
What could have made her bring up something from his study-abroad days that he’d never even considered?
‘I’ve heard Grandfather and Mother’s relationship wasn’t bad.’
Could they have influenced her somehow?
But Beom Jin quickly dismissed that possibility. Soo Yi wasn’t the type to be swayed by idle gossip. If she were, she would have kept her distance from him long ago.
Beom Jin mentally ran through Soo Yi’s recent schedule, movements, work matters, meeting venues, business contacts—and then spoke.
“I still don’t mind.”
“You… don’t mind?”
“As long as you’re by my side.”
Silence fell between them.
Soo Yi found herself at a loss for words.
His blind faith in her tightened something in her chest.
She trusted him too—more than anyone else in the world.
Only him.
Until Bong Sung Tae had spoken.
‘Did you know? Or didn’t you?’
Why did you move to our neighborhood, of all places? Next door to me?
She’d wondered about it for so long.
Why you chose me, specifically.
Was it out of pity? Or because I was an orphan with no one to cause trouble if you played with me?
If you selected me as a foil for a “commoner experience,” was it because of my father?
‘To cover up the Chairman’s dirty manipulations?’
Perhaps there was some entanglement between my father’s company and yours.
Perhaps the Chairman’s blood heir—you—needed to keep watch over his young daughter.
But…
The pieces didn’t fit together. Soo Yi knew that much too.
First, the timing was wrong.
Her father’s company had collapsed long before you moved in next door. It was much later than that.
It made no sense for you to cover for something years after the fact, much less assign that task to the Chairman’s direct heir while he was still a minor.
It was far too inefficient to waste the eldest grandson’s time in such a plain neighborhood with such a plain girl, just to keep tabs on one powerless young woman.
More than that…
The way he looked at her in every moment—tenderly—it couldn’t have been false.
She of all people knew it wasn’t the kind of warmth you could fake through acting or obligation.
“You don’t want to talk about it now. What happened.”
At his gentle voice, Soo Yi pressed her lips together.
It felt as though tears might spill out on their own.
Noticing her distress, Beom Jin pulled her into an embrace and patted her back soothingly.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been away on business so much lately that I haven’t even listened to what my beautiful Soo Yi needed to say.”

“My mistake, that’s on me. From today on, I won’t dare look you in the eye—I’ll go around hanging my head in front of my wife instead. For one week, I’ll be your husband’s replacement pet. That’s my punishment.”
At his words, she let out a soft laugh despite herself.
His eyes crinkled warmly in response.
“Something upset you?”
“…No.”
“Right, not even a full day’s passed yet, and admitting it wouldn’t be very stubborn of you.”
When Soo Yi laughed again, Beom Jin pressed soft kisses to her forehead, the corners of her eyes, both her cheeks.
“Hee, stop—that tickles.”
“I really should cut back on work. I don’t even know when something’s bothering my wife. A husband like me deserves a good scolding. Wouldn’t you say?”
…He was remarkably good at coaxing her, wasn’t he.
“How did you even manage to act like that before?”
“Act?”
“Pretending you couldn’t tie a necktie. Pretending you couldn’t pour water into a paper cup. Acting like you could only eat my cooking, and always falling for that whole ‘Do you know the Way?’ thing every single time.”
Despite the gravity of the moment, the corners of Beom Jin’s mouth tilted upward without his meaning to.
The fact that she remembered every little thing he’d done—it filled his chest with a warmth that seemed to glow.
How could I ever let you go?
You couldn’t possibly have doubted me.
Unlike the rest of his family, Beom Jin believed with absolute certainty that Soo Yi would never betray him.
Not the slightest doubt.
It couldn’t be otherwise.
This girl had always shown him her true heart through her actions.
‘Then I’ll find out who’s unsettled you. Whoever it is.’
Knowing that what his wife needed now wasn’t interrogation but reassurance, Beom Jin pulled her close against his chest.
“Should we take the day off work? Let me cheer up my wife.”
“Pfft, what are you saying? I’m going to work.”
“Then I’ll have to be Secretary-General Soo Yi’s assistant today.”
Beom Jin’s lips brushed her earlobe as he whispered.
“Can we kiss in an empty conference room?”
“Ah, seriously… that tickles, hee.”
“And then hiding behind a pillar, slowly unzipping your skirt?”
“You’re like a perverted old man, Dok Go Beom Jin.”
“Since I’m already the perverted sort, should I go all the way?”
As his hand began to drift upward, Soo Yi let out a startled gasp and swatted it away with a sharp slap.
“You’re insane, seriously!”
“But you feel better now, don’t you, sweetheart?”
At those tender words, Soo Yi caught her lower lip between her teeth.
Dok Go Beom Jin always knew exactly what she needed and how to comfort her.
This moment was no exception.
Instead of asking where she’d heard whatever it was, he simply held her and soothed her troubled heart.
Even though it must have hurt him too.
‘I hope my father has nothing to do with Kangho Group.’
So that I can stay by your side.
Ah.
In that moment, Soo Yi understood something.
The truth about her own heart that she’d denied and kept denying.
I’ve loved you for such a long time—this boy who became my husband—
“If there’s anything I can do for you, tell me. Whenever your heart is at ease.”
Soo Yi gazed at him quietly, then reached up and drew his neck into an embrace.
And at once, his gentle warmth enfolded her entirely.
As naturally as breathing.
Soo Yi closed her eyes.
Wishing this moment would never end.

***

“Is that really true?”
The secretary nodded with absolute certainty.
“I saw him myself. It was definitely Dok Go Beom Jin, Managing Director of Kangho Group.”
That height, that face, those shoulders, those proportions—there was no way she could have been mistaken.
But the problem was where she’d seen him.
“Why on earth would Beom Jin even go out to that backwater place? There’s no reason for it.”
Kim Se Na’s secretary, who had gone down to Grandmother’s House for the weekend, had witnessed it.
The man with the most overwhelmingly striking appearance she’d encountered in all her time, still the one her boss was hung up on, and now a married man—Dok Go Beom Jin.
And that married man was…
“He was meeting with a woman.”

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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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