Chapter 2
Eunha knew. From the moment their eyes met, she knew this man remembered her.
Las Vegas, USA.
Yes, that was where Eunha had spent that one night with him.
At the time, she had come to meet Chan-woo, her stepmother’s younger brother, her uncle.
But upon arriving, she found out that Chan-woo, instead of paying his gambling debt, planned to send Eunha into someone’s room for the night. When she refused, she got caught up in a fight at the casino, and it was Dohoon who saved her, which became their connection.
That day, even though her face was swollen from being slapped and her knees were scraped from falling, her heart ached more from the fact that Chan-woo had treated her that way.
In a moment of recklessness, Eunha told Dohoon, who had saved her and taken her back to his hotel, that she wanted to sleep with him.
Having only focused on studying and never having been in a proper relationship, Eunha had no experience with men until then. Yet, men were always desperate to get their hands on her.
She thought that if it hadn’t been for Dohoon, her body would have been reduced to a one-night stand for some old gambler anyway. She’d rather her first experience be with a handsome man like Dohoon.
From the first time she saw him, he seemed to carry an air of nobility. Unlike other men, he didn’t cast a single glance at her exposed body through her torn clothes.
With this man, she felt that giving him her first time wouldn’t be a waste.
So she made a move on him and ended up in his arms.
Even now, thinking back, it was an intensely passionate and overwhelming act. It was clumsy but thrilling, painful yet blissful.
But when she came to her senses the next day, she couldn’t help but feel ashamed.
She had seduced him, and she had squirmed under him all night, driven by instinct…
So she ran away. She thought it was just a one-night stand that would end there.
If she had known she would see him again like this, maybe she wouldn’t have run away like a criminal.
Sigh.
Eunha took a deep breath internally and changed her expression. It was no use regretting it now.
“You have a good memory.”
“I had no choice but to remember. You were the first woman whose moans were so pretty.”
Eunha’s face flushed bright red. She had resolved not to get flustered easily, but it was pathetic how easily she crumbled with every word he said.
As she stood there, unable to speak and biting her lip, Dohoon continued.
“Of course, you were also the first woman to disappear like you were running away the next day.”
“…It was just a one-night stand anyway,” Eunha retorted softly at his accusatory tone.
She felt sorry for disappearing without a word the next day, but for her, it was the best choice.
If she had stayed until he woke up, wouldn’t she have been the one more hurt?
When she later found out from an economics magazine she happened to see that he was the heir to the Jaegil Group, she became even more convinced of that thought.
She had thought he seemed classy from the start, but she never imagined he had such a significant background. It felt like a miracle that she had spent a night with him.
“A one-night stand… I see sex is very easy for you.”
As soon as she heard the word ‘sex,’ Eunha’s face burned hot again. Her heart pounded as if she had been transported back to that time.
“Marriage is easy too.”
“……”
“No wonder you propose marriage to just anyone like this.”
Dohoon was sneering. It grated on her ears.
Was he suggesting he had lingering feelings for her?
But that night was too brief, and too much time had passed since then.
It must have just hurt his pride.
As a precious young master, he probably had never been treated that way by a woman before.
Perhaps he was angry because he felt like Eunha had used and discarded him.
The mockery plastered on his face was enough to confirm her thoughts.
“What are you trying to say?”
“Was I being too indirect? I’m calling you rude.”
“……”
Eunha closed her mouth. She had nothing to say because it was true, she had been rude.
“Who you have sex with and marry is your personal preference, none of my business, but I can’t do that.”
Dohoon’s voice lowered.
“It seems we have nothing more to talk about.”
He didn’t want to be played by her any longer. The fantasy he had harbored about her all this time was already shattered.
An arrogant woman who believed she could manipulate any man to her will, relying solely on her pretty face.
The reality of Eunha before him seemed to be exactly that kind of woman, and that was the type Dohoon disliked the most.
Just as Dohoon was about to rise from his seat.
“I need money.”
Finally, Eunha’s tightly shut lips parted.
“My father is in a coma from a traffic accident.”
It was difficult to start speaking, but once she started, the words flowed naturally.
“The business he was running also went under, and we’re on the verge of being out on the street.”
If her father hadn’t had the accident, Eunha would probably be living well in America by now. Then she wouldn’t be here begging him like this.
Eunha clenched her small fist to steady her sorrowful heart.
“Then you should have asked to borrow money, not for marriage, no?” Dohoon asked with a scoff, as if to say that was a poor excuse.
“It’s not a small amount. I don’t have the ability to repay a loan. I thought that would be even more shameless.”
In the end, Eunha confessed her true feelings as if in despair.
Her original plan wasn’t this. She wanted to make a deal with him. At least, that’s what she thought.
Even to herself, this course of action was no different from her stepmother, Chan-sook, trying to sell her off, but there was no other way.
This body was all she had. She had no choice but to use this body to make a deal.
“You’re still as reckless as ever.”
“……”
“So, you plan to seduce me to save your house?”
“I never had such an arrogant thought. I don’t have the confidence to seduce you either.”
She meant it. She wanted to appeal to him and make a good impression, but she didn’t have the confidence to seduce him. She didn’t know how to seduce anyone, and even if she tried, would he even fall for it?
But Dohoon didn’t believe her.
It only seemed to him that she was testing him, hiding her arrogant true intentions.
She knew all too well that she was attractive.
Even that night five years ago, she seemed fully aware of the men drooling over her.
And now she says she doesn’t have the confidence to seduce him? Had she already forgotten that Dohoon had already fallen for her and slept with her once?
“However, I can meet any conditions you want.”
“Conditions I want?”
“I heard you’re looking for a marriage partner. That you have to get married, but you want a wife who will divorce after a few years…”
Dohoon’s forehead wrinkled in displeasure.
‘Jin Sung-woo, that bastard.’
Since it was through Sung-woo’s arrangement that he met Eunha, he must have been the one who told her this.
Dohoon cursed the absent man internally.
“So, you’re saying you can do that?”
“Yes. I’ll adjust everything to your taste.”
“Anything?”
“Yes. Anything.”
Eunha bit her lip. She seemed quite determined.
Perhaps that was why. A sudden desire to see her fluster emerged.
“Can you get pregnant?”
“…Pregnant?”
“An heir is the best way to solidify my position as the successor.”
It wasn’t a wrong statement. His grandfather, Lee Hak, the chairman of Jaegil Group, currently only wanted him to get married, but it was entirely possible he would change his tune and say they needed to have a child after marriage.
As expected, Eunha looked visibly flustered.
“T-that is…”
“You seem to be misunderstanding something. I can find a woman to marry on the condition of divorcing after a few years anywhere.”
“Ah…”
“There are plenty of women whose wish is to marry me, and they’d get a hefty alimony even after divorce.”
Well, that was true. He was none other than the heir to the Jaegil Group.
On top of that, he had a face and body rivaling an actor’s.
Even for a marriage with an expiration date, there would be many women who would be thrilled to be able to say, even for a little while, ‘I had that man.’
So, she would have to bear a child too.
Eunha, who hadn’t thought that far ahead, couldn’t help but be taken aback. It was even more so because there was no way to retreat.
After her father, Eun-pyo, had the accident and their family fortunes declined, the first thing her stepmother Chan-sook pushed for was looking into a marriage for Eunha.
She insisted that before Eunha got too old to fetch a good price, she needed to be married off while she was still young, even by a year. She argued it was the only way to cover the family’s living expenses and Eun-pyo’s hospital bills.
If her father had been healthy, it would have been difficult for her stepmother to act on this, even with reservations, but now she had the perfect excuse to bring it to the surface.
In their frantic search, a wealthy landowner from the provinces who offered the most money was chosen.
In his mid-forties and divorced once, he was said to have taken a great liking to Eunha just from her photo. He was apparently desperate to meet her immediately.
*’It’s not like a position as a second wife is easy to find either. He’s rich, isn’t he? He’s decent-looking, isn’t he? The money that man is offering to marry you is a whopping 300 million won, 300 million! Where else can you get that much money to get married?’*
Chan-sook used both persuasion and threats. And she seemed immensely proud of herself for finding such a ‘good match.’
‘We need that money to save your father. The company and the house are about to be taken away. How else can we get more money for the hospital bills? If you refuse this marriage, we’ll all end up on the streets and your father will die like this! Understood?’
But Eunha didn’t want her life to be pawned off like that. Yet, she couldn’t ignore her father Eun-pyo’s hospital bills either.
