~Chapter 2~
Prologue
As she walked out of the apartment complex with her laptop sleeve under her arm, Dain’s phone rang.
– Mother-in-law –
The name on the screen made Dain frown.
Since getting married, Dain had been living in the same apartment complex as her mother-in-law.
Every day, her mother-in-law treated Dain’s house like her own and visited without hesitation—probably why this call came.
“Yes, Mother.”
“Are you outside? I came home and you weren’t there. What about Seongmin?”
“Seongmin is working right now, so he’s probably at the café—”
“Did you go to a café other than Seongmin’s?”
The already cold voice sharpened even more.
Dain’s husband, Hwang Seongmin, two years her senior, was the owner of a café.
As a freelance designer, Dain often worked at cafés—but deliberately avoided her husband’s.
Wouldn’t the staff feel uncomfortable with the boss’s wife hanging around?
And honestly, Dain preferred cafés where nobody knew her.
“I didn’t go to another café. I’m on my way there now.”
“You really… sigh.”
The words came out fast like a mutter, but Dain heard everything.
She grew up without parents, so she only thinks about herself—was the clear implication.
Dain quietly bit her lip.
“While you’re sitting comfortably tapping away on your laptop, your husband is slaving away at the café trying to earn a living—and you’re skipping over to other cafés, humming along? Don’t you think being there and helping when it gets busy would be better?”
She disagreed.
Before marriage, and even now as someone’s wife, Dain believed she had the right to choose where she worked.
But three years into marriage, she was exhausted—explanations, arguments, it was all tiresome.
“Yes.”
At least she was lucky.
If she had run into her mother-in-law barging into her home unannounced, she would’ve had to hear the usual nag: why leave the house to work when you can do it at home and save money?
Her mother-in-law begrudged even the coffee Dain bought while working.
“I put some herbal medicine in the fridge.”
“Herbal medicine?”
Dain’s schedule had recently gone haywire, overlapping deadlines forced her to juggle two projects at once.
She had joked about needing two bodies to keep up—but she hadn’t expected herbal medicine for it.
“Mother, thank y—”
“Seongmin’s face has gotten so gaunt lately! That’s what happens when the wife doesn’t take proper care of him. You’re so lucky, Dain. What kind of mother-in-law lives next door and does everything a daughter-in-law should be doing? I mean, really! Are you even listening to me?”
“…Yes, Mother. I’m listening.”
“Ugh, so frustrating. Anyway, it’s in the bottom drawer of the fridge. Don’t forget to give it to Seongmin!”
“Yes.”
“I’m hanging up now.”
Dain stood still, looking down at the ground as kids zipped past her on scooters.
She used to think marriage was a good thing.
That it was about creating new people to love—and that she needed it.
“You idiot, Jung Dain. You’ve still got a long way to go.”
If she could go back in time, she’d smack herself the moment she decided to get married.
“Haa…”
Her sigh lingered in the air long after the kids had passed.
Dain entered the café, greeting brightly.
“Hello.”
“Ma’am, you’re here! Would you like an iced drink?”
It had been three years since she got married, so the café was in its third year too. But she still couldn’t get used to being called “ma’am.”
She laughed awkwardly and replied, “Thanks, Min-young.”
After sipping her latte, she looked around the unusually quiet café.
“It’s quiet today, huh?”
“Ah, yes…”
The always cheerful part-timer Min-young hesitated.
“It’s restock day from headquarters, but something went wrong. So the boss and the manager went out to handle it together.”
“Oh, I see.”
Dain had been referring to the number of customers, but so be it.
They were out for work.
She nodded and opened her laptop, but Min-young continued nervously, as if trying to defend herself.
“As a manager, she should be able to handle things alone in the future—so they said it’d be good for her to go along.”
“Thanks for letting me know, Min-young.”
The former manager had quit, and it had been five months since the new one started.
If they were going to entrust her with the café, she needed to be shown the ropes.
Dain smiled warmly at Min-young, then turned her attention to her laptop.
She had to draw a cover for a romance fantasy novel.
Skimming through the proposal, she opened the attached file—an unreleased copy of the novel from the author.
Title: “No Problem with the Regretful Male Lead”
“Looking forward to it, author.”
Reading at least the beginning helped her capture the character and atmosphere for the cover.
Plus, this was one of her favorite authors. Heart fluttering, she dove into the first line.
“…Oh no.”
She ended up reading the entire first part of the book in one sitting, tears brimming in her eyes.
As the title suggested, it was a story full of misunderstandings and concealed feelings between the heroine and the male lead, ultimately leading to mutual understanding.
There were cathartic moments too, where the heroine boldly stood her ground—it was exhilarating.
“Author, this is amazing. The heroine is so lovable! I’ll draw this really well.”
Unlike Dain’s loveless reality, the novel overflowed with characters and stories she wanted to cheer for.
Having overcome so much, the protagonists deserved to be drawn beautifully.
Dain’s hand glided smoothly over the tablet.
And then—one month passed.
Her husband, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law had gone on a trip together.
Her husband was furious when Dain declined to go.
He accused her of being inconsiderate—his mother would be uncomfortable without another woman, and as her daughter-in-law, Dain should be going.
But with her heavy workload, Dain simply couldn’t.
So the three of them left, and a few hours later, Dain headed to the café to hold down the fort in her husband’s absence.
But—
“Where’s the manager?”
“She… took a week off.”
Her husband’s trip was also a week.
Something felt off.
Dain’s heart dropped as a sense of dread washed over her.
She left the café immediately.
On the run back home, she checked her card’s transaction history.
Her husband had insisted that if she couldn’t join the trip, she should at least pay for it. So she had bought the plane tickets on her card.
When she saw the charges, she thought, “Three tickets sure are expensive,” and hadn’t thought much of it.
Now home, she powered on the computer and clicked the airline’s website from the browser history.
She didn’t know her husband’s login—but luckily, the account was still logged in.
When she pulled up the ticket info, her eyes widened.
Business class – 4 passengers.
The flight hadn’t taken off yet.
She checked the time and immediately called her husband.
She had to know who the fourth person was.
He answered—but the voice on the other end wasn’t her husband.
It was her mother-in-law.
“Of course there are four of us. What, just an old lady and her two sons going on a trip together? That’s strange, right?”
“…Mother?”
“Since you said you were too busy, we brought someone else along. The new café manager—she’s so sweet and capable. Consider it a reward.”
“Mother… What are you saying…?”
She was speechless.
Dain couldn’t even get a word in as her mother-in-law kept talking.
“If a woman doesn’t do her job, of course a man will look elsewhere. That’s just how the world works! Sigh. Let’s talk when we’re back. It’s almost time to board. Hanging up now.”
Click.
The call ended.
“You… you bitch!”
She wanted to scream, “You bastards!”—but her body suddenly swayed.
Her blood pressure had shot up and then crashed.
Dain collapsed onto the sofa like a battery drained dry.
Who knows how much time passed.
Her heart began pounding violently again.
She thought she should drink cold water to pull herself together.
But then—
As she tried to stand, she stepped on the remote and slipped.
Her head slammed into the edge of the table.
A searing pain flared at the back of her head, and her vision blurred.
“…Am I going to die?”
If she died, the cause would be listed as cerebral hemorrhage.
But really?
It should be death from in-law-induced stress.
Blood trickled down, soaking the red carpet into a darker hue.
Dain stared blankly at the scene as she faded.
“…He really betrayed me.”
She had been so blind.
More than the fear of dying, what haunted her was the betrayal of the man she trusted.
Their relationship had grown cold—but she never imagined he’d cheat.
This is unfair.
If she knew she’d die, she should’ve divorced him.
No—never should’ve married him in the first place!
Was building a family worth this?
Was it worth sacrificing herself?
“So… unfair…”
Then, from the TV she’d accidentally turned on while falling, a breaking news report played:
“A passenger plane departing… suffered an accident…”
But Dain didn’t hear anything except a loud ringing in her ears.
And then—she lost consciousness.
