Chapter : 07
He thought there was nothing he could do if he was treated cheaply. Yet when Jo Taeseo told her to spread her legs, she shrank back. It was an instinctive self-defense.
“Why, are you scared now that you actually have to do it?”
It was a mocking tone. Jo Taeseo deliberately chose words that would sting.
She should have known her own situation before confronting him. Just thinking that one time of sex could cause pregnancy already showed she knew nothing about men, let alone sex.
Pregnancy doesn’t happen just because someone wants it. Even with deep trust, such a miracle doesn’t easily occur.
Despite knowing so little, Eunu had boldly followed him into the hotel room and exposed everything about herself. Jo Taeseo felt like he was going crazy.
Until now, everything in Jo Taeseo’s life had gone according to plan. That was normal for him, and he lived trying to make it so. He planned for everything, from big events to small variables.
“Huh!”
There was no plan for someone like Jeong Eunu in his life. The wrist he held in his hand was so fragile it seemed it could break, and the soft skin revealed through her torn underwear drew his gaze unexpectedly.
When he bit her pale neck, the pulse in her body throbbed against him like a living flame.
Would she cry, shedding red blood, if he bit her sharply?
“Ha… ugh.”
His own rising desire poured over her responsive small body. Her skin, sweet as if dipped in honey, left red marks as he kissed and pressed it.
Her already swollen lower body wanted him to slide between her legs immediately.
Yet seeing Eunu trembling beneath him, he hesitated to go further.
He had thought that a little scare would make her back away—but that was his mistake. Her stubbornly closed lips turned pale, yet she did not push him away.
If she knew that her reaction only fueled his desire, she might have chosen another approach. She was a woman who could easily have done so.
As she said, a man could hold a woman he didn’t want, but Jo Taeseo was not a man crazed enough to force himself on a woman who didn’t fully desire him.
In the end, he withdrew from Eunu trapped beneath him.
A wave of emptiness and unpleasant emotions surged. He wanted to curse himself for acting out of character. His half-erect lower body only added to his frustration.
The desire to hold a woman who did not want him, just to use her for marriage, left him groaning. His mind and body were both out of control.
He grabbed a glass of whiskey from the shelf and drank, trying to relieve the frustration.
“What on earth is the reason for all this?”
Eunu’s attitude of undervaluing herself irritated him. The quiet, obedient doll-like woman he had known now struggled so fiercely with her own body—he could not understand it.
“Did you learn vulgarity from Chairman Jeong, who isn’t even related to you?”
That harsh remark escaped. He was angry at her carelessly giving herself up. He felt displeased when she implied she would just find another man if he refused.
She seemed like a madwoman who could not destroy herself. He could not understand why she looked at him with empty eyes, filled with hopelessness and nothing left.
“Does that even matter?”
Eunu sat up calmly and continued speaking, as if she didn’t know the weight of his question.
“The Chairman wants you. He’ll do anything to marry you, even if it means holding you back.”
Yet she herself did not desire Jo Taeseo but wanted to bear his child to force the marriage.
“I asked if you learned vulgarity. You can’t define me with that.”
Jo Taeseo could not understand a word Eunu was saying. Her empty eyes only made his thoughts more confused.
“If we marry, what will be good for you?”
It was clear she did not truly want to marry him. She was just going along with the Chairman’s plans. He wondered why she casually mentioned pregnancy in front of others. What did she gain by following the Chairman’s wishes?
“Do you want the title of my wife? Or is it just to escape Chairman Jeong?”
If her goal was eternal freedom, he thought it was a mistake. Jo Taeseo had no intention of marrying her, and even if he did, he planned to leave the country on that same day.
If left alone, she would once again be trapped by the Chairman.
Jo Taeseo did not think Eunu was foolish enough to fail to see this. Even if she had lived like a doll for the Chairman, she would not recklessly ruin her own life.
“I don’t ask for much. Just marriage. One year after, I’ll let you go freely.”
She spoke calmly, yet her eyes trembled slightly. Her dry fingers gripped her torn underwear tightly, and Jo Taeseo’s gaze followed the movement.
“First treated me like a stallion in front of others, now saying we only keep it for a year. How am I supposed to think about this?”
He guessed she had no affection for the marriage. She had to follow her adoptive father’s wishes, so he let it slide. But Jo Taeseo sensed there was a deeper reason beyond the Chairman’s orders.
“I mean it. After one year, I’ll definitely divorce you.”
Why was she so desperate for marriage, yet casually spoke of divorce? Promising freedom after a year felt strange. There was no gain for him in this marriage.
“Why should I?”
Jo Taeseo’s position was firm. Following her into a hotel room only to hear of a divorce a year later—what man would accept that?
“Why are you so desperate for this marriage? Did Chairman Jeong say he’ll let you go if you marry? Don’t you know him? Even if you marry, he won’t release someone useful to him.”
Eunu knew he understood the Chairman well. She sensed he wouldn’t let her go easily, even if she married.
“Or do you plan to secretly escape overseas without the Chairman knowing?”
Jo Taeseo thought that method might work. But Eunu could not be satisfied with just that.
“You may not know how much I understand the Chairman, but you do know he won’t give up easily.”
“So what do you want to achieve with this marriage?”
“Does it matter to you?”
“Of course it does—it affects my life’s record.”
Only then did Eunu consider his position. While she forced the marriage to take down Hyeonjin Construction, for Jo Taeseo, marriage and divorce were nothing but loss.
He could have chosen a better family, a better spouse. Knowing the outcome, he would never make this choice lightly.
Yet here he was, continuing an unwanted relationship, possibly forced to marry her.
That meant Jo Taeseo was under family pressure and could not freely express his opinion.
“If you truly hated this marriage, you wouldn’t have continued seeing me. But you did, because you couldn’t stop.”
Eunu was no fool. She had reasons she didn’t tell him, and despite knowing it was inefficient, she continued meeting him.
“Or are you being threatened by someone?”
She spoke as if she knew the secret he could tell no one—a hidden sorrow that could ignite disaster if discovered.
To be continued ▶
