On the last day of their short honeymoon, Yu Ra prepared gifts for her team members.

She bought local souvenirs along with essence that Manager Jung likes to use, perfume that Sung Hoon favors, lipstick that Eun Young liked, and even the limited edition tumbler that Ji Hye wanted.

Yu Ra told Lee Hyun, who insisted on coming along, to pick gifts for the secretaries too, but he dismissed her suggestion saying he didn’t know what they needed and would just give them a special bonus later.

Yu Ra thought gifts had a special meaning. Even small, trivial things from a superior made one feel cared for, increasing respect and loyalty.

While bonuses and praise naturally evoke such feelings, she believed there was no better strategy than getting the same effect with small gifts.

So Yu Ra always remembered to bring gifts for her team members even on short business trips. She maintained absolute support by constantly expressing her affection for them.

After returning from the honeymoon, visiting the parents on both sides and having meals together like catching up on homework continued. Just one day had passed since visiting two very uncomfortable places.

Before the travel fatigue had fully lifted, Yu Ra headed to the office with gifts. Though her official return date was tomorrow, the desire to catch up on pending work was stronger.

“Everyone, you’ve worked hard?”

“Team leader! Isn’t today still your vacation?”

“I came early because I missed you. These are thank you gifts.”

Yu Ra smiled brightly at her surprised team members. It was a secret that she couldn’t sit still not working, and was escaping from the clingy Baek Lee Hyun.

“You didn’t have to bring these. Thank you.”

“It’s nothing. Just my feelings.”

After confirming her team members’ satisfied expressions, Eun Young approached Yu Ra with a worried face.

“Was the honeymoon hard?”

“Pardon?”

“Your face looks half-dead.”

As if avoiding Eun Young scrutinizing her complexion, Yu Ra rubbed her cheek with the back of her hand.

“Really? I guess we did too much sightseeing. Ha. Ha.”

She let out an awkward laugh and hurriedly hid in her office.

This morning, Baek Lee Hyun had said the same thing. She had scolded him that it was because he drove her hard without letting her sleep on their honeymoon.

Bothered by his words, she had applied makeup more carefully, but it seems she couldn’t escape Eun Young’s sharp eyes.

As she took out a small hand mirror to check her face again, there was a knock. She quickly sat down and turned on her laptop as Manager Jung entered with a bright expression.

“Team leader, A&J Management contacted us saying they’d like to meet.”

“Is that so?”

A smile spread across Yu Ra’s face too. Though she had heard from Song Min Woo that there would surely be a positive answer, she couldn’t be certain.

If this proposal was rejected, they would have to search for another artist, and it wasn’t easy to find one as skilled as violinist Yoon Ga Eun, so she was even more concerned.

“Yes, they asked to contact them as soon as you return from vacation. Here.”

“Thank you.”

As Yu Ra checked the memo from Manager Jung and picked up the phone, her cell phone in her bag rang.

She remembered Lee Hyun asking her to call when she arrived at the company. Like Yu Ra coming to work early, Lee Hyun had also sent a text saying he was going to the office after receiving an urgent call.

Thinking it odd to call just for coming to work, Yu Ra’s face hardened as she took out her phone.

Contrary to expectations, the caller was her father, Jin Kang Su. Letting out an unconscious deep sigh, she answered the phone.

“Yes.”

−Where are you?

Abruptly asking for her location, Yu Ra also checked Kang Su’s business in a stiff, dry voice as if addressing a superior rather than her father.

“What’s the matter?”

−Come to the company.

“The company?”

−Yes.

Yu Ra felt irritated by Kang Su’s commanding tone, not even making an appointment. She thought she would be free from her father after marriage, but that was just her own delusion. Kang Su still saw Yu Ra as someone he could control at will.

She felt sick thinking he wanted to use her for some more gain. He should know when to be satisfied with how much he already had, but Kang Su always seemed to feel thirsty. It was sad that he couldn’t realize how futile his greed was even at his age.

“I’m busy for a while so I can’t.”

−When your father says come, you should come. What could you be so busy with?

Yu Ra felt stifled and her head throbbed just from the phone call. She felt increasingly suffocated by whatever great power he thought he had.

“I’ll go home in the evening. I have to work. I’m hanging up.”

Finally making an appointment due to her father’s nagging, Yu Ra ended the call and leaned her head back in her chair, taking a long breath.

What was age, what was marriage. To the point where the past 5 years of no contact felt like a dream, this year Kang Su hadn’t left Yu Ra alone for a moment.

During the time with no contact, he hadn’t even asked how she’d been, just pressured her to marry as he wished.

It was a home she’d fled unable to stand it anymore, but Kang Su acted proud as if he’d granted her some favor. She belatedly lamented whether she should have cut ties completely by any means necessary back then.

She thought she’d fought against the insufferable authoritarianism and greed, but it felt like she’d just run away rather than fought. If not even marriage, she felt at a loss for how to claim her rights.

It was bitter that even marriage, which she’d chosen as a last resort, couldn’t become grounds to stand up to her father.

She’d chosen it herself not wanting to be sold off by Kang Su’s hands, but thinking this would bring liberation was a complete delusion. The more she thought about what method to employ, the more it felt like being sucked into a deep abyss tied to a rock.

“Quit your job.”

“Excuse me?”

Yu Ra made a dumbfounded expression at the words thrown out without any explanation as the whole family sat together.

Yu Ra shot Kang Su a sharp look, wanting to hear the reason why she should suddenly quit the job she was doing well at.

Yoo Geon gently took her hand as if worried about Yu Ra.

“Father, Yu Ra will have a hard time accepting if you say it so abruptly.”

“If you’re married now, you should keep house and have children. How long are you going to keep running around outside?”

Yu Ra felt like she could only live if she really cut ties with this damn family.

Yu Ra inwardly vowed once again to reclaim the domestic No. 1 position. Because that would become the stepping stone to go abroad and leave this wretched Korea.

It seemed the ill-fated relationship with her father wouldn’t end unless she left like that. That stubborn authoritarianism of her father who refused to even try to understand, let alone be persuaded, would never disappear.

Yu Ra just packed away her emotions left only with anger and drew a cold line.

“Whether I quit my job or have children is between my husband and me. It’s not for you to interfere, Father.”

“You’re already over 30. You should have a child and give your in-laws a grandchild before it’s too late. That’s the duty of a married woman.”

“That’s exactly it. That’s something for the in-laws to say, not you, Father.”

Kang Su and Yu Ra argued without giving an inch. Kang Su’s face flushed red and blue with rising anger.

“Y-you. How dare you talk back… Tsk tsk.”

“Please stop meddling in my affairs. Don’t you know the saying about a married daughter being like a stranger?”

Just as Kang Su was about to explode, trembling with clenched fists, the housekeeper’s announcement “The son-in-law is here” turned all eyes to the entrance.

Yu Ra’s face hardened at the sight of Lee Hyun appearing without any notice.

Though the families were somewhat acquainted and Lee Hyun, a longtime friend of Yoo Geon, knew Kang Su’s temperament very well, it was a different matter for the discrimination she received to be exposed before his eyes.

It felt like the wall she had built up firmly was crumbling helplessly. The mask she had worn like armor turned to dust and scattered. She felt so ashamed she could die, and a huge crack formed in her once unwavering pride. Yu Ra couldn’t bring herself to meet Lee Hyun’s eyes.

“I’m late.”

“Ah, you’re here.”

“Come in.”

Yu Ra felt sick at Kang Su and her mother Young Eun’s unsurprised reaction to Lee Hyun’s appearance. Surely Kang Su must have called Lee Hyun. He intended to say these ridiculous things to him too.

“Hello, how have you been?”

As Yoo Geon gave up his seat to Lee Hyun who had greeted politely, Kang Su spoke as if he had been waiting.

“Try to persuade Yu Ra.”

Yu Ra squeezed her eyes shut in despair as her prediction came true.

“What do you mean?”

“If she’s married, she should support her husband and have children, not keep running around outside.”

Unable to hold back any longer, Yu Ra stood up abruptly before Lee Hyun could say anything, as if to preempt him.

“Don’t push this onto my husband. This is my issue. And don’t call busy people for things like this.”

“Sit down! How dare you when an elder is speaking.”

Kang Su finally lost his temper and shouted. As Yu Ra was about to ignore him and turn away, Lee Hyun gently grasped her hand.

Yu Ra looked down at Lee Hyun with trembling eyes at the warmth transmitted.

Lee Hyun shook his head at Yu Ra with the same gentle smile as always. Then he lightly squeezed her hand and pulled Yu Ra to sit down.

“My parents have also agreed to Yu Ra’s career.”

“Hmph.”

Kang Su, who had been so insistent on her quitting, closed his mouth at Lee Hyun’s words.

That in itself upset Yu Ra again. It galled her that he ignored his daughter’s words like a dog barking, but listened readily to Lee Hyun, the heir to CH Group.

“Please don’t worry too much about children either. I’m also busy now, so we’re thinking of waiting a bit before having them.”

“Yu Ra’s not getting any younger. It’s not good to keep putting it off. She should have them before she gets older.”

Young Eun’s words, as if looking out for Yu Ra, didn’t sit well with her either.

“I understand your concern. Yu Ra is also taking care of her health, so please don’t worry too much.”

“Still…”

“My parents have also left Yu Ra’s job and child issues entirely up to me. I’d like you both to trust me and wait as well.”

Lee Hyun’s words perfectly blocking the parents’ requests were neither rude nor overly polite, but very plain and courteous.

The parents also nodded in assent without adding anything further to Lee Hyun’s words. Watching this quietly, Yu Ra felt herself shrinking even more at the realization that this was the power this man possessed.

It was power and ability possible because he was a man, and a key figure in CH. And the aura that made up Baek Lee Hyun as a man supported it.

Yu Ra bit her lip in frustration, feeling a strange jealousy and inferiority complex towards Lee Hyun.