To My Brother’s Friend - Chapter 10

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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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Chapter 10
Blink. Blink.
No matter how many times I closed and opened my eyes, Kwon Yeol’s gaze remained unwavering, never faltering or retreating.
He simply held me captive within his eyes, waiting for my answer.
‘…Am I dreaming?’
No, that couldn’t be.
I immediately rejected the notion. Because I knew my place all too well.
I had never dared to even dream of marrying Kwon Yeol.
I had never even imagined it.
It was something that could never happen, something that should never happen.
“I must be exhausted.”
In the end, it was I who looked away first.
“I’m probably just tired and hearing things—”
“You’re not hearing things.”
Kwon Yeol cupped my cheek in his palm, his thumb beginning to stroke my full lower lip with deliberate pressure.
“I asked you to marry me.”
“….”
“On the condition that we divorce in one year.”
My mind spun in chaotic circles.
I couldn’t comprehend marriage, one year, and divorce all at once.
So that meant—
Kwon Yeol had proposed and announced a divorce simultaneously, right now?
This wasn’t a dream… it was reality?
Barely managing to process his words, I parted my lips that refused to cooperate.
“Why… are you making such a proposal?”
“I don’t want my life mortgaged to anyone anymore.”
Kwon Yeol answered immediately.
As though he had been contemplating this for a long time.
“That requires strength, and strength requires time to cultivate.”
“Strength…?”
“The deadline for the project I’m currently pursuing. Once I succeed, my position will become so unshakeable that no one could ever topple it, regardless of marriage.”
He spoke with an indifferent expression.
“I have no desire to waste time dealing with women my family keeps pushing at me.”
Blind dates, meaningless preliminary skirmishes, prenuptial agreements, wedding ceremonies, and all the tedious obligations that would follow.
“And… you feel the same way, don’t you?”
Kwon Yeol’s eyes darkened as he observed my flinch.
He gently swept back the chestnut-brown hair that had fallen across his forehead, then began winding my long strands around his fingers as he spoke.
“We know each other well, and we both understand that after spending the night together, we can’t go back to how things were.”
I swallowed hard.
Unlike me, frozen stiff with tension, Kwon Yeol’s eyes as he toyed with my hair were serene, almost languid with indifference.
As though this were merely an insignificant event in his life.
“Just as I promised eight years ago, I intend to become your family. The meaning has changed, but.”
At the word “family,” I felt my body tense involuntarily.
“In a year, you’ll own considerable wealth. Enough that the Beom Ho Group won’t consume your life anymore.”
Then you could have a real family.
Not someone like me, wearing the mask of family while exploiting you.
“….”
Suddenly, Kwon Yeol’s brow furrowed.
The image of another man standing beside Hee-jo flashed through his mind, and an inexplicable discomfort twisted through his chest.
Yes, I’ve cherished this girl in my own way.
Even more so than my own Two Younger Brothers.
So it was natural to feel this way.
Yet stronger than the discomfort came a wave of guilt.
It was likely Kwon Yeol’s Mother who had pressured Hee-jo into that blind date.
He knew this.
While she pitied Hee-jo, she also feared her.
“Kwon Yeol. You’re of marriageable age now—shouldn’t you find a good match and build a home?”
“I have no such intentions. I lack the time.”
“…Is it because of Hee-jo?”
“I don’t understand why Hee-jo’s name suddenly came up.”
“Both you and Hee-jo avoid the subject of marriage whenever it arises. Perhaps… is there something your mother should know? Hmm? Kwon Yeol, you can let go of your guilt over your friend now—”
“I’ll take my leave. I’d prefer we didn’t waste time on such matters again.”
Since his mother found it difficult to confront her eldest son directly, she had undoubtedly clung to the more manageable Yoon Hee-jo and spoken needlessly.
Kwon Yeol’s Mother was always like that. She lacked the courage to face conflict head-on or the patience to endure uncomfortable situations. So she always seized the easier target and wore them down.
That cowardly weakness sometimes grated more than outright malice.
If he showed anger, she would shed tears and hide behind his father, draining her opponent’s resolve until she got what she wanted.
An emotional response was merely a waste of time. It was far more efficient to extract himself from the situation.
If it were only my problem, that would be one thing.
“I appreciate your concern. But I want to maintain a good relationship with Madam. I’m grateful for her affection… and I sometimes wonder if this is what it would be like to have a mother. So please, don’t assign someone to protect me under that guise, or scrutinize my every schedule. Just… watch over me. That’s what I wish for.”
After Hee-jae’s death, this was the first time Hee-jo had earnestly revealed a wish to me, and I couldn’t turn away from it.
Yet while I loosened my grip in the name of respecting her, I let her waste time with that fool.
Had I known sooner, I wouldn’t have granted it, no matter how much Yoon Hee-jo desired it.
But spilled water cannot be gathered again.
Now, the only path was to care for Hee-jo in my own way.
I wanted to fulfill her wish to obtain the trophy of a tycoon in life, while simultaneously bestowing a vast fortune upon her.
If I became the husband she would divorce, I could transfer the wealth under the legitimate pretext of alimony, and she would have no choice but to accept it.
She would never accept anything from her “brother’s friend.”
That way, I could liberate her completely from the shadow of myself and the Beom Ho Group.
The world seemed to think Hee-jo clung to the Beom Ho Group, but it was the opposite.
It was I who had repeatedly pulled her back, forcing her to sit beside me, when she wished to live by her own strength.
…I’m afraid this child will end up like Hee-jae too.
“It seems like a reasonable proposal for both of us.”
At the word “reasonable,” Hee-jo laughed bitterly.
It was so typical of Kwon Yeol.
He was attaching the bland label of “reasonable” to the escape route he’d created so I wouldn’t be hurt, deliberately easing away the guilt I would feel.
At the same time, this was an opportunity he’d been waiting for.
As my brother’s friend and my protector, he could safely extract me from the massive shadow of Beom Ho Group.
Hee-jo felt as though her heart was crumbling beneath her feet.
All too naturally, that night with him had been love for me and a mistake for him.
Yet Kwon Yeol was trying to use even that painful mistake for my sake.
He was willingly giving up the chance to meet a woman from a better family and climb higher and faster, sacrificing an entire year of his life solely to free me.
I felt tears threatening to spill at such relentless sense of responsibility.
Just like Hee-jae, who only ever sacrificed for me.
To keep a promise with a dead friend, to pity a woman he didn’t love and waste his life for her—that kindness was too pitiful for me to bear.
But…just once. Only this one time.
‘I want to live as I choose.’
I wanted to be happy, as my dead brother had wished.
Of course, I knew well enough.
‘Happiness’ wouldn’t mean I’d be happy the entire time I was beside Kwon Yeol.
In fact, there would be far more moments to the contrary.
From within, his family would claw at me; from without, the world he inhabited would scratch and tear and mutilate me.
And yet—
“Is one year enough?”
Knowing it was a poisoned chalice, Hee-jo resolved to accept it.
This would be the only happiness I could choose for myself in my own life.
“Yes. I’ll have it specified in the contract as well.”
A contract…
Hee-jo steadied her wavering heart.
She’d heard that in his world, even love marriages came with contracts.
All the more so for a marriage designed for divorce from the start—it would be drawn up with meticulous care.
“Then may I state my conditions as well?”
“Go ahead.”
Hee-jo took a breath and spoke while meeting his gaze.
“After we break up, let’s never see each other again.”
Hee-jo thought to herself how fortunate it was that she’d said it without stammering, all in one go.
Otherwise, he might have seen through my heart.
But it was strange.
Unlike me, who had handled it with composure, why did Kwon Yeol’s pupils waver?
“…What do you mean?”
At Kwon Yeol’s question, Hee-jo opened her mouth again.
“Literally.”
It was a condition that had occurred to me the moment I decided to accept his proposal.
“Once we divorce, we’ll be strangers to each other. For life.”
I couldn’t bear the thought of another woman by his side, nor could I endure the pain of witnessing it myself.
If I maintained this ambiguous distance, news of him would inevitably reach my ears.
So, once the divorce was finalized, I wanted to distance myself completely from Kwon Yeol.
I would keep him only as a memory.
Not as my brother’s friend, but only as my husband—that way.
“This is a good proposal for both my brother and me, isn’t it?”
Watching Hee-jo ask for his opinion with a faint smile, Kwon Yeol swallowed hard.
Deep within his chest, something scorching threatened to burst forth, while the blood coursing through his veins turned ice-cold.
“Kwon Yeol?”
Catching sight of his reflection in her wide, round eyes, Kwon Yeol hesitated before slowly withdrawing his hand.
“…Yes.”
The soft sensation of her hair slipping through his fingers vanished entirely.
“Let’s do it that way.”
At his answer, Hee-jo nodded immediately, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Watching her, I couldn’t understand why my thoughts faltered, why my heart skipped a beat.
It felt like something I shouldn’t come to know.
“Then we’re in the same boat now.”
A pale, slender hand extended toward me.
“Let’s do well together.”
He said nothing, simply gazing at Hee-jo’s hand.
In that moment.
“Oh, wait—?”
“I need to answer differently now. We’re married, after all.”
Kwon Yeol moved over her in an instant, pressing his lips against hers.
As if erasing the image of himself from just moments before.
It was the moment the contract truly began.

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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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