Chapter 18
[All day today, I couldn’t stop thinking about you.]
Did I hear wrong? Sua swallowed dryly at Hyun-oh’s words. But Hyun-oh spoke with a cool face.
“I don’t understand why you suddenly said that, I just found the reason. We’re in a meeting, but all I can think about is you.”
He had been distressed at work because of the divorce.
Today was a day off. If it had been a day he went to work, he would have said it after work.
Yes, you’re right. It wasn’t right to say such a thing to someone going to work. Although I didn’t deliberately time it.
“I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?”
Hyun-oh’s eyes flickered.
“Are you sorry for saying we should get divorced?”
“……”
“Are you saying we won’t get divorced?”
“No. I’m just sorry for bringing it up before going to work.”
As Sua nodded slowly, the man eventually stopped undressing. His hand, which had stopped undressing, clenched into a fist in the air.
“So your feelings haven’t changed yet.”
“Yes.”
At her firm answer, Hyun-oh let out a short sigh. Sua gathered her courage and moved her lips.
“Our marriage has become meaningless now. It’s not even a proper marriage.”
“What’s a proper marriage?”
Suddenly, she remembered what her mother had said before leaving the house.
[Sua, don’t think of yourself as young and newlywed. Hurry up and have a baby.]
[……]
[You can’t be relieved even after marriage. Huh? Sua. You don’t still not think about having a baby, do you?]
She couldn’t tell her desperate mother the truth.
That there would never be a baby between her and Hyun-oh now.
After their honeymoon, instead of spending passionate nights like newlyweds, they hadn’t even had a decent kiss, and whenever she tried to seduce him, he would only push her away.
She couldn’t tell her mother, who pleaded tearfully, about everything, including the fact that he recoiled from even touching her skin when he found out Han Dong Group was going bankrupt.
With no response from Sua lost in thought, Hyun-oh spoke.
“Is it because it’s a strategic marriage that it’s meaningless now that Father is gone?”
“……Maybe that’s part of it.”
Even if you reject me, if there had been a backing like Han Dong Group, I might have carried on our married life with you a bit more stubbornly. If that had been the case, Lady Cha wouldn’t have come to force the divorce.
But now, it was just a meaningless family.
If Sua’s answer didn’t please him, Hyun-oh raised his eyebrows.
“Other strategic marriages are going well. Your father-in-law and mother-in-law also had a strategic marriage and lived well, didn’t they?”
A word popped out of Sua’s mouth in response to his inquiry.
“We’re different.”
“What’s different?”
“You and I don’t even touch.”
“……”
“It’s different from other strategic marriages. We don’t even touch lips or bodies, so there’s no way we can have a baby.”
It’s different from marriages made out of convenience. Even if they don’t love each other, they wouldn’t keep each other so distant.
Just a showroom couple.
At her words, the man approached Sua. As he leaned in, he reached out and lifted Sua’s chin.
“What do you mean?”
“……”
“Are you saying we’re going to break up because we don’t spend nights together?”
“……Not necessarily.”
If that had been the case, the situation would have changed a lot.
Even if her father’s Han Dong Group became meaningless, if he had loved her, he might have struggled a bit more.
No, even if he didn’t love her, if they had touched each other’s skin every night, at least she would have felt her body had value.
But all that remained was his cold indifference.
A worthless marriage. Wouldn’t divorcing soon be a good thing for him?
At Sua’s meaningful answer, the man twisted his lips. After staring at her for a while, he spoke.
“If we spend tonight together……”
His fingers swept from her chin to her earlobe. For the first time, desire filled his usually restrained touch.
“If I hold you right now, will you stop talking about divorce?”
Is that what you want?
Hyun-oh’s fingertip brushed against Sua’s earlobe. Flesh trembled along his touch.
It’s just a simple action.
But with tender flesh pressed down, a dizzying sensation spread throughout her body. Each time his touch grazed her pale skin, it tingled. Her lips tingled to the point where she felt like she wanted to be held in his arms right away.
But the content of his words was chillingly clear.
As if he was offering once to not divorce.
Sua felt suffocated by such words.
She couldn’t understand his inner thoughts.
Now that Sua’s family has fallen, her value to Ji Hyun-oh is nothing. Neither Sua nor Han Dong Group hold any value. Until now, he has rejected her, fearing her and her family’s financial ruin.
If he were to divorce her, wouldn’t he be glad?
Now Hyun-oh is only thirty.
With no child, a capable businessman like him, with his perfect appearance, she didn’t think he wouldn’t meet another woman just because of the divorce label.
She wished he would meet a woman more attractive than a “sister-like” figure like her and marry her.
Grit.
Even though it was a calm imagination, the image was vivid in her mind, making her heart ache unwittingly.
Since her father’s passing, she had been ready to discard the title of “Ji Hyun-oh’s wife.” However, even with determination, it still hurts.
“To hold… me…”
As Sua’s lips trembled, she couldn’t continue.
Hyun-oh’s face creased for the first time. Sharp eyes pierced her. His hand, which had reached down to her shoulder, fell away from her body.
The heat that had been lingering on her skin shattered as he moved away.
“Ah.”
As the distance between them widened, Sua sighed heavily.
Of course.
Could Hyun-oh really hold her? It was his cold hand that pushed her away, even when she openly tried to seduce him.
Even if he did hold her now, it would be too late.
With a sad realization, Sua began to turn away.
But his strong fingers wrapped around her wrist.
“Huh?”
The surprised sound was cut off as her hot lips collided with something. Her blunt and heated tongue recoiled inwardly.
“Muah.”
A kiss. He’s kissing me.
The lips belonged to her husband, Ji Hyun-oh.
His lips, which had never responded to her kisses before, now ravished her eagerly and urgently. One hand slid down from Sua’s wrist to intertwine their fingers, while the other pulled her vulnerable waist tightly against his solid body.
As if he couldn’t bear her taking even one step away.
His tongue, rough and hurried, ravaged Sua’s tender mucous membranes, sucking her in as if parched.
It was so exhilarating that she forgot where she was, what the situation was.
As Sua struggled to catch her breath, feeling breathless and weak at the knees, he finally pulled away from her lips.
But his breath still felt so close.
A long trail of the kiss’s warmth lingered between their lips.
With twisted lips, he whispered hoarsely,
“You don’t know.”
“……”
“How much I’ve desired you, you don’t.”
A low, deep voice. It felt like it could shatter at any moment.
