To My Brother’s Friend - Chapter 42

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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 42
Running away…
Kwon Yeol held Hee-jo close as she gazed up at him with an expression of utter bewilderment.
“O-oppa.”
“I expected as much. How you’d be treated in my absence, how you’d endure it.”
He tightened his grip around her shoulders, drawing her even closer against him.
Ever since the greenhouse burned.
Kwon Yeol’s Mother’s intensity had noticeably diminished.
Yet Kwon Yeol knew this was far from her complete surrender.
Had he intervened further, her suppressed hysteria would have breached its threshold and exploded, with Hee-jo bearing the full brunt of the fallout.
Fortunately, she had not overstepped since then, so instead of premature interference, Kwon Yeol chose to observe and wait.
But then…
Witnessing this with his own eyes, the heat roiling within him surged all the way to the crown of his head.
Yet the Yoon Hee-jo standing beside him remained unmoved.
As though such words couldn’t even wound her.
As though she were far too accustomed to it.
That very composure tore through Kwon Yeol’s composure.
Kwon Yeol rested his chin atop Hee-jo’s head and spoke in a low murmur.
“I really should go see Han Teacher. To be scolded.”
“Why would you be scolded, oppa?”
“For bringing such a beautiful Yoon Hee-jo here only to have her treated like this.”
Hee-jo’s cheeks flushed crimson in an instant.
It seemed Kim Jung-yeon’s attitude had been quite the shock to Kwon Yeol.
Then again, a man born and raised as the heir apparent to Beom Ho Group would have never witnessed such treatment in his entire life.
That much was true, but…
“Such a beautiful Yoon Hee-jo”…
I knew full well he was merely echoing Han Teacher’s habitual phrase of “my beautiful student,” yet my heart raced wildly of its own accord.
“…You should be praised, not scolded. Thanks to you, oppa, I didn’t carry a single bag today.”
For the first time in my life, my hands and shoulders felt light.
Always, I had felt as though I were gripping something heavy in both hands, enduring it.
When Kwon Yeol took the shopping bags from my hands today, it wasn’t just my palms that became empty.
It felt as though he had taken away even the formless weight that had pressed down on me my entire life.
The resolute voice introducing me as his wife before others without hesitation.
The meticulous touch that never once averted his gaze, constantly reading my mood and attending to my needs.
Even the rare smile that bloomed across his serious face as he personally selected things befitting me.
All his fragments gathered together, filling the emptiness that had always dwelt within Hee-jo.
He was filling even the space where that which had crushed me once stood.
Was that the reason?
Today, even Kim Jung-yeon’s rudeness and my mother-in-law’s subtle mockery did not hurt as they always had.
The familiar wounds I had always endured found no crevice through which to seep.
Kwon Yeol had already filled my entire world completely.
“I wasn’t bothered at all. Because my brother was there beside me.”
“….”
“And… since we promised to be honest, I’ll tell you.”
Hee-jo buried her face against his chest and murmured softly.
“I love everything you picked out for me today. They’re beautiful, truly.”
At Hee-jo’s bashful confession, delivered from within his embrace, Kwon Yeol pulled her even deeper into his arms.
Watching her cling to him without a shred of wariness, trusting him completely, the possessiveness he’d been suppressing surged through him with scorching intensity from the tips of his toes.
Despite his promise to act like a true husband, the patience he’d maintained—restraining himself to play the role of a considerate older brother—crumbled repeatedly under the weight of his desire.
The deeper his thirst for Hee-jo grew, the faster his walls of restraint crumbled beyond his control.
The dull friction of shopping bags colliding shattered the silence between them.
“Let’s visit my teacher soon to pay our respects.”
Kwon Yeol’s low, measured voice tickled the shell of Hee-jo’s ear. But his next words were far more insistent and heated.
“But right now, there’s something more urgent.”
* * *
The entrance door slammed shut violently.
Shopping bags scattered carelessly across the floor.
Kwon Yeol lifted Hee-jo effortlessly and kissed her without warning.
“Mmph…!”
Hee-jo’s eyes widened at the sudden surge of scorching warmth pressing into her.
Kwon Yeol’s arm muscles tensed as he bore her full weight, holding her firmly against him.
“Hah….”
A low, breathless sound seared the nape of her neck with heat.
There was no time to make it to the bedroom.
Hee-jo was lowered onto the sofa.
Pinned beneath Kwon Yeol’s massive frame, Hee-jo felt a suffocating pressure.
Overwhelmed by the sight of his broad, solid shoulders filling her vision and the rippling muscles beneath his shirt, her body seemed impossibly delicate and fragile in contrast.
“Mmm….”
His lips traced down her collarbone, burrowing into the deep hollow between them.
The speed at which he drew in her skin was far more urgent and relentless than usual.
When his large hand pushed beneath her skirt, Hee-jo’s body trembled finely.
“Brother….”
Thud. Thud.
Her hastily discarded underwear fell limply to the living room floor.
Kwon Yeol lifted his head, looking down at Hee-jo.
The usual coldness was nowhere to be found in his darkened eyes.
Instead, a raw, burning passion dripped from them, ready to ignite at any moment.
Only an unfiltered hunger to completely consume the woman before him dominated his gaze.
“From now on, keep wearing them. The things I bought for you.”
“Brother, ah….”
“Tomorrow, a necklace. The day after, a scarf.”
He had never been stingy about bringing her beautiful things before.
But where once it had been kindness toward a cherished younger sister, now it was something entirely different.
The process of adorning her body, piece by piece, with things he had personally selected filled him with a peculiar satisfaction.
As though marking her as wholly his own—a brand of possession.
Kwon Yeol’s large hand gripped her slender waist firmly, drawing her close against him.
As their bodies pressed together, his fingers slipped beneath the fabric, tracing graceful curves with rough, ascending strokes.
The blatant touch stimulating her sensitive flesh left Hee-jo dizzy, breathless.
“You’ll look beautiful like this, Hee-jo.”
Their lips met.
As their breaths mingled wetly, he pressed forward with urgency.
Their breathing grew ragged and tangled together.
* * *
“Beom Executive Director brought Yoon Vice President again today, it seems. At lunch, he had special boxed meals delivered from the Hotel for Yoon Vice President and her secretarial staff.”
Chairman Beom, who had been gazing out at Seoul’s sprawling skyline through the large window, narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Yes, the bond between those two runs deeper than I anticipated.”
And why wouldn’t it?
That cold, indifferent man had rejected every prestigious match offered and personally chosen to place this woman at his side.
Yet Chairman Beom had underestimated the depth of emotion Kwon Yeol harbored.
He had anticipated guilt and debt toward his deceased friend, and perhaps a desire to preserve her dignity for propriety’s sake.
But those tender eyes and gentle smiles—he had not foreseen those.
Chairman Beom clicked his tongue and spoke softly.
“It was fine when he clawed his way up like a beast, tearing through anything blocking his path. I never imagined he’d be tamed by someone.”
The eldest grandson, born and raised as heir, was squandering everything he had built upon his natural advantages—all to protect one unremarkable girl. This fact gnawed at the seasoned predator’s sensibilities.
Kwon Yeol should have been a honed blade.
A masterwork of steel, cutting down obstacles before the Group’s future and elevating the family to greater heights.
Yet the eldest grandson wielded that formidable, sharp edge to protect a single delicate flower with shallow roots.
“So the design proposals from Kim Ui-hyun, the representative of Sayoung Construction, were all rejected, and the equity structure was restructured to push him into a corner?”
Kim Ui-hyun, the representative of Sayoung Construction, was Jung-yeon’s father.
“And his daughter, who appeared at the meeting, left in tears, I hear.”
“Yes, recently at the department store, while Madam and Yoon Vice President were shopping together, there was an unfortunate incident with Jung-yeon where voices were raised. Beom Executive Director appears to have kept that incident in mind.”
Chairman Beom fell silent for a moment, then exhaled a long sigh.
‘He has no intention of remarrying.’
The reason Kwon Yeol was making such a spectacle of caring for his wife was obvious.
He was demonstrating to this old man that he possessed both the determination and ability to ensure this project’s success and bind that girl to his side forever.
But even if Kwon Yeol succeeded in the project, the two would have no choice but to part.
They had made such a promise.
“Do your best while you’re here. Then, for the rest of your life, you’ll be free to live as you wish.”
Hee-jo, silent for a long moment with complicated eyes, finally opened her mouth.
“…Yes, I will do as you say.”
I had quite liked that look in his eyes—the one that showed he knew his place well.
After the divorce, I’d even felt inclined to find him a good match, someone worthy of his station.
‘That resolve should still hold true now.’
But Beom Hun-young did not trust people.
Especially those whose circumstances had risen sharply and whose environments had transformed beyond recognition—their hearts shifted faster than the flip of a palm.
“I’ll need to have a private word with her on the day of the inauguration.”

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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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