To My Brother’s Friend - Chapter 52

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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 52
“Vice Director, we have the Board of Directors luncheon planning report in ten minutes.”
“Vice Director, I’ve uploaded the approval documents regarding the Beomho Art Museum special exhibition. Can you review them now?”
“Vice Director, the External Cooperation Team meeting at three o’clock begins in five minutes. We need to leave.”
Hee-jo drew short, rapid breaths as the relentless schedule continued without pause.
Since my inauguration, each day had unfolded like a precision machine—not a single moment of deviation, every gear meshing perfectly with the next.
Morning board meetings and lunches with external partners, occasional social gatherings when Madam Jin Seo-ryeong summoned me to accompany her.
After digesting all these commitments and returning, mountains of approval documents and departmental weekly reports awaited me.
Recently, site surveys for exhibitions related to a newly assigned project had been added to the schedule.
Yet instead of requesting rest, I burrowed deeper into my work with relentless determination.
Whenever a gap appeared, Chairman Beom’s voice echoed in my ears like tinnitus.
“Your brother in heaven would be proud too. My younger sister has grown into a remarkable adult who knows nothing of such vulgar acts as using a child as leverage to ensnare someone.”
“I hear Kwon Yeol’s reputation is quite excellent in how you maintain a harmonious household with stability. That’s largely your doing. Until the day you part, continue just as you are so the next person can inherit this well.”
My hand, which had been moving busily across the documents, suddenly stilled.
‘My chest feels unsettled again today.’
I set down my fountain pen and rose from my seat, moving toward the window.
As I opened the door, fresh outside air rushed in.
Drawing a deep breath, I cast my gaze downward, where meticulously maintained flowers rippled like waves across the walking path.
It was a space Kwon Yeol had created by purchasing nearby land specifically for me.
Every time I saw that path, vain hope bloomed like poison at the edge of joy.
The foolish expectation that his feelings toward me might be more than mere responsibility.
It was an undeniable fact that the way he looked at me recently had become distinctly different from before.
His tenderness and warmth seemed to exceed what could be explained as simply honoring my wish to live as a real family while we’re together.
Kwon Yeol’s gaze and touch were excessively gentle and warm.
‘What if my brother felt the same way I do?’
If this deep, burning affection flowed within him as well.
Then, what should I do?
‘Could I live apart from him?’
At the end of my distant gaze, Kwon Yeol’s face crystallized.
Merely thinking of him made my chest tighten with heat.
Kwon Yeol might have feelings for me.
Once I became conscious of that possibility, bold thoughts flooded in.
‘Is that why he contacts me so frequently?’
Even in moments no one else witnessed, Kwon Yeol asked about my wellbeing and daily life again and again.
Offering trivial reasons—that he was simply curious what I was doing, what I was eating, what I was thinking.
Then my gaze naturally drifted to my own wrist.
A bracelet studded with delicate pink diamonds sparkled brilliantly in the afternoon sunlight.
It was a gift he had given me unexpectedly not long ago.
“I bought it because it resembles you.”
“It seems far too expensive….”
“Then think of it as handcuffs rather than a bracelet. It takes something like this to keep Hee-jo in check.”
His voice carried a playful lilt, yet the warmth beneath it burned far too intensely.
The Kwon Yeol that Hee-jo knew was not a man who dispensed unnecessary kindness with such calculated precision.
Could even his acting be flawless, given that there was nothing he couldn’t do?
But—
The nagging “what if” kept surfacing, and each time it did, Chairman Beom’s chilling words pressed against my throat.
Because of this, my mind churned ceaselessly throughout the day.
To escape that turmoil, even briefly, I threw myself into work at the Company, and after returning home, I clung to Kwon Yeol just to survive each passing day.
“Sigh….”
It was the moment I exhaled without thinking, my mind tangled in confusion.
A rhythmic knock shattered the silence.
“Yes, come in.”
“Vice Director, the Chairman requests that you join him for lunch.”
Nearly two months had passed since that private meeting in the Jeoksan-won Study.
It seemed the time had come to tighten the noose once more.
Ignoring the suffocating tightness in my chest, I nodded and made my way down to the Underground Parking Lot, boarding the waiting car.
We arrived at a quiet Hanok Restaurant that Chairman Beom frequented.
Following the attendant down the corridor, the private room at the end stood empty.
As the heavy sliding door closed and I stood alone, composing myself quietly while waiting for Chairman Beom, that was when—
“The results from this project have been rather underwhelming.”
“We’re in the restructuring phase for equity reorganization to elevate the Holding Company status. Once the Smart City groundbreaking begins, the numbers will naturally follow.”
My eyes widened.
Beyond the thin wall, the voices unmistakably belonged to Chairman Beom and Kwon Yeol.
“I made it abundantly clear that there should be no delays or hesitation, not even once. This is absolutely unacceptable.”
“The results simply haven’t surfaced yet, but the plan is proceeding as scheduled.”
Kwon Yeol’s response, cool and measured, carried no wavering.
“I beg to differ.”
With Chairman Beom’s next words, the air grew even more taut.
“Divorce immediately and remarry the daughter of Representative Kim from Soyoung Mulsan.”
I held my breath, my hand clutching at my chest.
“That arrangement seems acceptable to you, then?”
“That won’t happen.”
“Jung-yeon seems quite fond of you. She doesn’t mind your divorce history or your lackluster performance. She says she can fill in all the gaps herself.”
“Soyoung Mulsan is not a particularly attractive option.”
“Then I’ll explore other prospects.”
“…I haven’t yet completed the first year.”
At those words, I bit down on my lower lip.
Kwon Yeol never outright denied Chairman Beom’s demand for remarriage.
He merely sought a reprieve, as if to say the time wasn’t right since the promised deadline still remained.
“Mark my words. You know as well as I do that she will never belong in this world—she’ll forever drift as an outsider.”
A stranger.
I swallowed a bitter laugh that threatened to escape.
Yes, there was no word that could describe my situation more precisely than that.
No matter how much I mimicked family at his side, I could never become a true member of this impenetrable fortress.
“If you truly care for that child, you must know when to let go. That is the path to protecting both yourself and her.”
Unlike when he addressed me, Beom Hun-young’s voice carried genuine concern and warmth as he counseled his eldest grandson.
Had Kwon Yeol felt it too?
“I understand.”
Thud.
With his answer, my world finally crumbled.
Soon after, the sliding door to the adjacent room opened, and I heard the sound of meticulously arranged dishes being set upon the table.
The clinking of tableware and the staff member’s soft voice introducing the dishes felt surreally distant.
I couldn’t remember how I’d escaped that room.
My footsteps echoing through the corridor didn’t feel like my own.
With each step, a dizzying vertigo washed over me as if my brain were being shaken loose.
I couldn’t bring myself to look back.
I only knew I had to escape this suffocating space.
As I stepped outside the restaurant, the thick, humid heat of early summer crashed into my lungs.
Yet my body trembled uncontrollably, as if cast into the depths of winter.
A chill spreading from my fingertips raced through my heart, freezing my entire body solid.
“I understand.”
That indifferent, decisive answer shattered my chest completely.
The tender gaze he’d turned toward me, his delicate touch, the warm whispers that soothed me each night, the beautiful gifts—
Were all of these merely acts of charity bestowed upon a stranger forever unable to take root in this world?
“Ugh…”
I stopped on the street and pressed my hands firmly against my solar plexus.
My insides twisted violently.
Something hot surged up my throat, and the world before my eyes rippled and blurred as if submerged underwater.
My face drained of color, and cold sweat beaded rapidly across my forehead.
Through my wavering vision, I caught sight of a pharmacy sign and managed to drag myself toward it.
“Could you give me something for indigestion? I think I’ve got an upset stomach.”
I hadn’t eaten anything, yet my stomach felt impossibly heavy and congested.
The pharmacist examined my complexion with a worried expression and asked, “Your color looks quite poor. Are there any other symptoms besides indigestion? You seem to have a slight fever.”
“Just… some nausea, and I keep getting chills as if I have the flu. I’ve been overworking lately.”
I answered with difficulty, gripping the counter. Rather than immediately retrieving medicine, the pharmacist studied me intently with a thoughtful gaze.
“When was your last menstrual cycle?”
“Why would you…”
“Based on your symptoms alone, this looks less like simple gastritis and more like morning sickness accompanied by body aches. Is there any possibility you might be pregnant?”
“Based on the symptoms alone, it seems more like morning sickness accompanied by body aches rather than simple gastritis. Is there any possibility you might be pregnant?”

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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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