Ju Ri left the bridal waiting room with those final words. As if on cue, Young Hoon immediately fell to his knees.

Da Eun looked down at Young Hoon with cold eyes. She was too dumbfounded to even feel angry. Instead, she became aware of reality.

It felt ridiculous that she was sitting here, unable to call off the wedding out of love, despite being uneasy about her in-laws who were desperate to devour her.

“Young Hoon, I hear you’ve become a father.”

At her cold tone, Young Hoon clasped his hands together and began to beg profusely.

“Da Eun, it was a mistake, really just once. I even used protection properly! Please, just forgive me this one time, I beg you…”

Just then, the voice of the wedding officiant calling for the groom could be heard. Da Eun stood up from the sofa.

The staff member waiting in front of the automatic door behind the bridal waiting room, which led to the wedding aisle, flinched.

Da Eun threw her bouquet in the trash before opening the door to the ceremony hall. Seeing the hall already full of guests, she let out a bitter sigh.

As the bride took her first steps down the wedding aisle, which she should have walked with an excited heart after the groom’s entrance, the guests watched with surprised eyes.

With each step, she became more certain. Perhaps she had been looking for an excuse. An excuse to break off this marriage.

The beautifully dressed bride held a microphone in her hand instead of a bouquet.

Seeing her mother-in-law, who had clung to Da Eun like catching a mouse, saying her son was too precious to marry into a poor family, added to her certainty. Da Eun slowly opened her mouth.

“I have an announcement to make. Due to circumstances on the groom’s side, we are unable to proceed with the wedding. I sincerely apologize to all the guests who have made the effort to come, and please be sure to collect your congratulatory money at the reception desk.”

Jun Won, her college senior and company colleague who was officiating, gaped in shock. Da Eun exhaled her trembling breath. She felt suffocated, as if the guests were mocking her. She wanted to escape this place immediately.

The one who grabbed Da Eun was not the groom, but Jun Won the officiant.

“Song Da Eun, what’s going on?”

“That bastard, he has a child.”

Da Eun pointed at Young Hoon, who had followed her and was now standing there anxiously.

“That son of a…”

Jun Won threw a punch at Young Hoon’s face in place of Da Eun.

Young Hoon’s mother Hyang Mi screamed and pushed Jun Won away. Hyang Mi then grabbed Da Eun, who seemed an easy target.

“What kind of humiliation is this? Da Eun, if you leave like this, it’s over between our families forever!”

Over Hyang Mi’s well-groomed hair, memories of her misdeeds surfaced one by one.

“What family? The family that holds five ancestral rites a year? The great family that makes their unmarried daughter-in-law-to-be prepare a hundred heads of kimchi during kimchi season?”

As Hyang Mi tried to slap her cheek, Da Eun dodged with a swift movement, causing Hyang Mi to lose her balance and fall.

The Song Da Eun who used to tremble and be cautious at the slightest sign of discomfort was no more.

Now that they were becoming less than strangers, what reason was there to be considerate?

“Song Da Eun, do you have to go this far? Will you only be satisfied after humiliating me?”

Ah, so I haven’t humiliated him yet.

“Congratulations on becoming a father. You should marry the child’s mother.”

Da Eun spoke clearly into the microphone and then handed it over to her now ex-boyfriend, who could have become her husband.

There was not a hint of hesitation in her steps as she clicked her heels, leaving the wedding aisle.

Watching Da Eun boldly exiting the chaotic wedding hall from his seat in the center, the man burst into laughter. He was almost grateful to her for providing a spectacle beyond his imagination.

“As expected, you’re entertaining, Song Da Eun.”

The man’s name was Cha Yu Kwon, the superior of Da Eun, the bride-to-be who had just ruined her own wedding.

“I’m getting married.”

It had been a day when he came to work in a good mood after a long, restful sleep. If only Da Eun hadn’t handed him the wedding invitation, it could have been quite a pleasant day.

“You don’t have to attend. I’ll also decline any congratulatory money.”

Da Eun said this and then bowed her head slightly. With her neat attire and even neater posture.

Her face was clean, as if he was merely a superior she served and she was just a secretary, nothing more, nothing less.

That day, everything about Da Eun just seemed vexing to Yu Kwon.

Her face, more pure than usual, her cheeks tinged with a peach color, her moist lips that he wanted to taste.

“You’re getting married? You?”

Bride: Song Da Eun.

Yu Kwon couldn’t take his eyes off the invitation for a long time. Go Young Hoon, pictured next to her in the invitation, was an employee in the sales department. When he looked into what kind of man he was, it was quite a sight.

So, contrary to Da Eun’s wishes, Yu Kwon attended the wedding with light steps.

Because Da Eun wouldn’t be able to marry that trash of a man because of him. He didn’t expect to lose the chance to have her pass through his hands like this, but he was rather amused.

“Aren’t you leaving?”

Jung Woo, Yu Kwon’s chauffeur who had accompanied him in place of his secretary Da Eun, asked.

“Let’s eat before we go.”

“… Here?”

Jung Woo, who had been quietly observing Yu Kwon, raised his hand to call a staff member. The staff member, who had been flustered due to more than half of the guests leaving, approached with a composed expression.

Jung Woo asked for food from the staff member and then turned to Yu Kwon.

“What should we do about the congratulatory money?”

“Give it to them.”

“All of it?”

“All of it.”

The food that should have been served in courses during the ceremony was all laid out at once. Yu Kwon started eating with leisurely movements.

Jung Woo looked at Yu Kwon with a puzzled expression. As far as Jung Woo knew, he never enjoyed meals. Yet here he was, continuing to eat as if it was delicious. With a very pleased look on his face.

Da Eun slowly opened her eyes as she woke up. She had been bedridden for days.

She desperately hoped that the tragedy that had befallen her was all a dream. That everything was just a nightmare.

She desperately wished, but the cruel reality was no different from yesterday, and the pain became clearer rather than fading as time passed.

There was no satisfying ending like in dramas or movies. After shouting and returning home, Da Eun eventually fainted.

Due to an unprecedented high fever, she was carried to the emergency room by Da Hyun in the middle of the night.

Eating had been her only solace, always making sure to eat no matter what happened, but this time, for the first time, she didn’t eat and only cried.

As she stared at the ceiling expressionlessly, she suddenly heard her mother Geum Suk talking on the phone with a relative.

Geum Suk, explaining why the wedding had been called off, beat her chest in distress. Da Eun closed the slightly open door and sank to the floor.

I did nothing wrong, those two are the bad ones, she repeated to herself over and over, but nothing changed. Only her miserable feelings intensified.

It felt as if the whole world was pointing fingers at her.

All Da Eun could do was scream and cry in anger.

The collapse of a wedding prepared for half a year truly happened in an instant.

Even though it had already happened, and even thinking it was fortunate to have found out before the wedding, she couldn’t help feeling enraged.

Why did it have to be Ju Ri, of all women? And why did Ju Ri have to choose Young Hoon, of all men? Why did it have to be me? Why did this happen to me? What did I do wrong?

Unlike the uninteresting and shy Da Eun, Ju Ri was lively and witty. So she often joined Young Hoon and Da Eun’s dates, easing the awkward atmosphere.

Ju Ri always threatened Young Hoon, saying she wouldn’t let him off if he made her friend cry.

That same Ju Ri said she was pregnant with Young Hoon’s child. She even said she had seduced her ex-boyfriends. Come to think of it, when she was dating her ex-boyfriends, the three of them often hung out together. It must have been a similar tactic.

A sneer escaped through Da Eun’s parched lips.

She called the wedding guests and transferred the congratulatory money that hadn’t been collected back to their accounts. Feeling like she would go crazy if she didn’t do something, she decided to erase all traces of the past and sort things out.

A week quickly passed like that.

In that short time, she repeatedly collapsed and stood up countless times, growing weary.

Feeling more depressed from being cooped up at home, she returned all her remaining vacation days that she had taken for the honeymoon.

If she went to work tomorrow, she would have to handle schedules without a moment’s rest, thanks to her workaholic boss.

Da Eun’s boss, Director Cha Yu Kwon, wasn’t pleased even with her taking a honeymoon vacation. He had even criticized her, asking if she really had to get married.

Should I have pretended to be crazy and listened to my boss? Da Eun immediately shook her head.

She had already wasted more than a week.

She needed to keep her regrets short and live in reality.

“Da Eun, did you quit your job?”

Her mother Geum Suk, who had been lying down the whole time, poked her head through Da Eun’s slightly open door and asked.

Da Eun frowned at the nonsensical question. She needed to work at the company even more desperately now.

“What are you talking about? I’m going to work tomorrow.”

“Well… The last thing you submitted during all that chaos, I thought it might be your severance pay because 100 million won came in under Myung Il’s name. There’s no problem because of this incident, right?”

Da Eun, who had been sitting on the bed, sprang up like a spring. Myung Il was the name of Da Eun’s workplace.

“What? 100 million? Why are you only telling me this now?”

“You really didn’t quit?”

Worry was evident on Geum Suk’s face. If Da Eun quit her job, it would cause problems for their livelihood.

“I told you I didn’t.”

Da Hyun, who had received the congratulatory money, pointed to the bundle of cash in a paper envelope.

“There’s 500,000 won in that envelope, and there are twenty of them, sis.”

“Who gave it? Did you see their face?”

“That, a man with round glasses who looked cute.”

It must have been Kim Jung Woo, who was not only Cha Yu Kwon’s driver but also his right-hand man. Even though she had said she wouldn’t accept congratulatory money. To think he would deliver it like this.

As Da Eun tried to take the paper envelope, Da Hyun quickly hid it behind his back.