Contract Marriage with a Male Friend - Chapter 8

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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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#8

Her chest tightened, the air squeezing inward.
Sui could only stare at Beom-jin in stunned silence, words abandoning her entirely.
But the boy seemed oblivious to the bomb he’d just detonated, his expression perfectly serene.
“Are you drunk?”
“Do I look it?”
“You wouldn’t say things like this if you weren’t.”
At her words, Beom-jin let out a soft laugh.
“You don’t know anything about me, Sui.”
“That’s funny. There’s no one who knows you better than I do.”
“No.”
Beom-jin cut her off flatly.
“You don’t. You have no idea what I’ve imagined since the moment I met you.”
A raw crimson heat kindled in his dark eyes.
“What I’m thinking right now.”
Headlights swept across them as a car passed, illuminating their figures for a brief moment.
Neither of them moved.
They simply held each other’s gaze with stubborn insistence.
An unfamiliar tension crawled along Sui’s spine.
She felt Beom-jin’s arms and body stiffen around her, drawing her closer with deliberate pressure.
“…Let me down. I want to go home.”
In the end, it was Sui who looked away first.
If she kept meeting his eyes like this, she’d burn from the inside out.
“All right.”
Yet Beom-jin kept her cradled against him as he continued walking.
“I said let me down.”
“There it is.”
She turned her head and spotted a taxi approaching them down the street.
“Get down and answer me.”
“Answer what?”
“Whether you’ll kiss me or not.”
“Seriously……”
“No. Let me rephrase.”
Beom-jin, who’d been watching the taxi slow to a halt at the curb, finally spoke, his words measured and deliberate.
“Whether kissing me felt good or not.”
Before Sui could answer, Beom-jin strode toward the taxi and carefully placed her in the back seat.
Then he climbed in beside her.
“Dong-an District, right? We’re heading out now.”
The Taxi Driver spoke in a cheerful voice, turning the wheel.
As the car merged into traffic and began to accelerate.
“…!”
Sui’s eyes flew open wide.
She turned to look at Beom-jin, and he met her gaze with perfect calm.
“What?”
“You… aren’t you going to let go?”
Glancing nervously at the Taxi Driver, Sui whispered urgently, but Beom-jin only gripped her hand tighter.
Not content with that, he spread his fingers and wove them deeper through hers, interlacing them completely.
“Beom-jin!”
“If you speak that loudly, he’ll hear.”
Beom-jin’s lips curved into a soft smile as he leaned close to her ear.
“Is that what you actually want—to be caught?”
“You really…!”
Sui gasped aloud before she could help herself, then quickly pressed her free hand over her mouth and darted an anxious look at the Taxi Driver.
The driver seemed absorbed entirely in the road ahead, but she could feel his full attention turned toward them.
Embarrassment flooded her cheeks, staining them a deeper crimson.
‘What is wrong with him today? Is he that drunk?’
She tried repeatedly to pull her hand free, but failed spectacularly.
Why had she even mentioned how hard things were?
Today, Beom-jin’s “comfort” felt unusually deep and sincere.
‘I don’t even know anymore.’
Sui leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes.
The car swayed in a steady rhythm.
Outside the closed windows, the distant honk of horns and drift of music created a soothing white noise.
The drunkenness and drowsiness that Beom-jin had momentarily pushed away came creeping back in soft waves.
She shouldn’t fall asleep.
But the tide of exhaustion was too strong to resist.
In the end, Sui drifted off, her fingers still interlaced with Beom-jin’s.
“We’ve arrived—yes, sir! Thank you—I’m sorry—.”
How much time had passed?
At the sound of the faint voice, Sui slowly lifted her eyelids.
“You awake?”
She stirred at the voice from above her, and found Beom-jin looking down at her.
Oh no—she’d fallen asleep with her head resting on his shoulder.
“We’re here, miss.”
The Taxi Driver’s voice had taken on a more subdued tone compared to when they’d first gotten in. Sui nodded softly in acknowledgment.
“Thank you.”
She bowed her head in gratitude, and the driver immediately bowed back, hurrying out to open the door on Beom-jin’s side.
My, wasn’t his service remarkably attentive?
Though hadn’t he just called him “sir” a moment ago? Maybe she’d misheard…
Sui was mulling this over, blinking slowly.
Beom-jin had already stepped out and approached her, opening her door and offering his hand.
“Come on.”
Sui hesitated, staring at the large hand extended toward her, before finally taking it.
His thick, long fingers completely enfolded her smaller hand and gave a gentle tug.
“Well then, I’ll be on my way. Please go in safely!”
The Taxi Driver bowed almost ninety degrees, quickly climbed back into his vehicle, and stepped on the accelerator.
Sui watched the taxi disappear down the street as if fleeing, then felt something warm drape across her shoulders and turned her head.
“Let’s go inside.”
About fifteen minutes by car from City Center, tucked into the innermost corner of a residential neighborhood, stood two detached houses side by side—the homes of both Sui and Beom-jin.
Sui’s was a modest, whitewashed house, while to its left sat Beom-jin’s residence: sleek, a deep gray tone, the largest and most refined on the block.
Beom-jin guided her, his arm still around her shoulders, toward his house.
“Come to my place.”
Sui occasionally stayed in Beom-jin’s Guest Room.
For some reason, water and electricity seemed to fail at her own house with unfortunate frequency.
After her mother passed away, she’d taken to eating dinner at Beom-jin’s more often, and on evenings when rain fell heavily, his father wouldn’t hear of letting her stay alone—he’d insist she sleep over.

“The Guest Room is on the second floor. I won’t climb even one step without your permission, so rest assured. If you’re still worried, I can give you this Baseball Bat and Rope……”
“No, no! I trust you, sir. Thank you for being so thoughtful.”
“Think nothing of it. Neighbors are still family. We’re as good as blood relatives—if something troubles you, or even if nothing does, you can always rely on us.”

Dok-go Jin-seok, Beom-jin’s father, resembled his son in his gruff manner, but his heart was genuinely warm, and he looked after Sui like a daughter.
Even after he transferred to an overseas branch when they turned twenty, he’d checked in on her several times a year.
As though she truly were family.
Sui was deeply grateful. She didn’t want to destroy this bond.
If she could have her way, she’d like to stay connected like this forever.
After Dok-go Jin-seok moved overseas, Sui continued to visit Beom-jin’s house as before—eating together, watching films, playing games.
Once she became a working adult, visits mostly coincided with her needing rest and recovery.
Without fail, when she woke up after a night of drinking, she’d find herself in Beom-jin’s Guest Room, and he would spend the entire day looking after her.
But now……
Words like “kiss” and “sex”—words she’d never imagined would ever cross between them—had been spoken aloud. There was no way she could act as though nothing had changed.
No matter that Beom-jin always forgot everything the next morning……
‘I remember. I’m the one who remembers.’
Sui desperately tried to escape the strange tension that had settled between them.
“I’m going home.”
“You’ve been drinking.”
“I want to rest at my own house tonight.”
Sui staggered, turning toward her own house, but the strong arm encircling her slender shoulders refused to release her.
“This way.”
“Beom-jin.”
“It’ll be ‘our’ place soon enough anyway.”
At those unexpected words, Sui froze, and Beom-jin cupped her cheek, lowering his head.
Touch.
Their foreheads met.
“You remember what I said earlier.”
“……”
“Whether kissing me felt good or not.”
When he shifted slightly, their noses brushed.
“Sui.”
“……We can’t. We’re family.”
“We’re not blood relatives.”
“We might as well be.”
“But we’re really not.”
Ah—Sui’s pupils wavered.
A hairline fracture seemed to open across her heart.
Even so… how could he say such a thing?
And from Beom-jin, of all people?
Her large eyes began to glisten with tears.
“You’re cruel.”
You know perfectly well how I feel about you and your father.
You know more than anyone how desperately I’ve wanted to have a family, and yet you’d say something like this?
“No matter how drunk you are, I won’t forgive this. So much as call me tomorrow—just you try.”
At last, transparent tears spilled down her reddened cheeks.
A tear that had gathered at her chin dropped with a soft sound to the ground.
“Then we become real family.”

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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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