Secret Cohabitation Love - Chapter 41
“Clothes, clothes?”
Flustered, Eun Seo just blinked her innocent eyes.
Feeling strangely hot under Tae Ha’s gaze fixed on her shoulder, Eun Seo wrapped her round shoulder with her hand to avoid his stare.
“Why suddenly ask about clothes?”
“Hurry.”
“Can you explain the reason…”
“Please.”
His voice was filled with desperation beyond helplessness, so Eun Seo finally put her hand on her shoulder. Then she slipped her hand inside the round neck of her t-shirt.
His burning gaze followed her hand persistently.
“More.”
As the thin fabric lifted over the back of her hand with difficulty, about a handspan of her rounded shoulder was revealed where the t-shirt had disappeared.
His calm gaze meticulously traced the line of her shoulder.
“More.”
“More?”
Deep wrinkles of stubbornness creased Tae Ha’s furrowed brow. He showed no signs of backing down.
With no other choice, Eun Seo took a short breath and slipped her hand in deeper, pulling the neck of the t-shirt down to her forearm.
“The other side too.”
His voice flew in, leaving no room for negotiation.
“…The right side too?”
Eun Seo’s pupils shook unsteadily at the man’s blatant demand.
She swallowed hard and this time raised her hand to the right side. Her fingers caught inside the neck of the t-shirt just like before.
A white shoulder slowly revealed under the soft lighting.
Her small, delicate shoulder filled Tae Ha’s pupils tightly, desperately.
“The strap too.”
It was a part barely 1 centimeter wide, if that. A place where nothing could be hoped for.
Eun Seo hooked her index finger on the thin strap and barely managed to pull it down. When the strap caught precariously around the middle of her forearm, her severely weakened heart began to beat erratically.
Tae Ha grabbed Eun Seo’s forearm and turned her so that her back was fully visible to him.
The grip on her captured forearm must have been too strong, as her pale back that descended from her delicate neck trembled pitifully.
Like that for a long while.
‘It wasn’t Eun Seo.’
Tae Ha used his dejectedly slowed hand to pull up Eun Seo’s undergarment strap and t-shirt in order.
It was a complex emotion.
It didn’t matter if she wasn’t the owner of the initials. That was fine either way.
But.
The pain that had responded to something about her, the utterly baffling marriage, and above all, the trembling he felt towards Eun Seo – it should have been right for her to be the one.
If the owner in the dream, which blurred the line between reality and fantasy, was truly real, it should have been her.
Everything seemed to point to her. And yet it wasn’t.
So there was no way to explain this complicated feeling.
Tae Ha loosened the knot of the tie choking his neck down to his chest along with a dry breath.
“I’m sorry, you must have been uncomfortable. Rest.”
After running his hand through his hair, Tae Ha left the room following a brief apology.
* * *
The next day, Tae Ha’s car pulled into the parking lot of the GK Group Holdings building. It was a trip he had made alone, without a chauffeur or secretary.
The elevator pushed its heavy body straight up to the top of the building.
Ding. As the elevator stopped, a wide corridor appeared with the door to the chairman’s office visible at the end.
“He is waiting for you.”
The head secretary guided Tae Ha.
As the heavy double doors of the office opened, a dignified interior finished with luxurious materials was revealed. In the office overlooking the Han River in the distance, Chairman Kwon stood by the window with his hands behind his back.
“Father, I’m here.”
When Tae Ha called out, Chairman Kwon finally turned around.
“You’ve come?”
His eyes looking at his son were consistently overflowing with kindness.
“Seeing you abandon your work and come here, it must be an urgent matter.”
“I have something to ask you.”
Chairman Kwon wore a look of surprise that his son’s visit, who had been buried in work, was just for an ‘inquiry’.
“Sit down. Tea…”
“No need. I’ll leave right after my curiosity is satisfied.”
Tae Ha waited for Chairman Kwon to sit at the table before taking a seat on the sofa diagonally across from him.
“Alright, what do you want to ask?”
“What is the tattoo on Yoo Ha Eun’s body?”
Tae Ha got straight to the point without beating around the bush.
“What do you mean?”
Chairman Kwon calmly asked back without revealing any emotion. It was a defensive posture of someone who had lived as a businessman for many years.
“You knew. That the letters engraved on my body are also on Yoo Ha Eun.”
“…”
“You deceived me.”
Chairman Kwon exhaled deeply and lowered his gaze somewhere on the table.
“How did you find out?”
“That’s not important.”
Chairman Kwon was relieved for now. If Tae Ha had heard it from Butler Jang, he wouldn’t have come to ask for the reason.
“You’re curious about the tattoo…”
“Yes.”
“Your mother wanted to match you two.”
Chairman Kwon’s gaze turned towards the distant gray sky. Anguish spread across his face as he recalled a story he had kept buried his entire life.
“There must have been a good reason to engrave the same letters on someone else’s body as on your son. Yoo Ha Eun wasn’t even your child. What secret made you go that far?”
“That really is all. Your mother thought you two made a beautiful pair.”
“Father.”
The lowered voice was cold, as if telling him to cut out the nonsense.
“She seemed to think you two were destined.”
“Why?”
“She said your compatibility was the best.”
“Does that make sense? How many people consider that from childhood? Do you have some debt you can’t speak of to Yoo Ha Eun? Without that, this situation is hard to understand.”
“It’s not like that.”
At the time, Hong Ji Soo had fallen into despair after losing two sons born in consecutive years.
Just then, a chaebol chairman she was acquainted with introduced her to a supposedly amazing shaman who foretold the future of political and business figures, to the grief-stricken woman.
The lineup of people visiting the shaman was incredible.
Whether for elections, business expansions, or setting wedding dates for children, they always sought out that Buddhist nun to the point it was crowded.
Still, Hong Ji Soo believed the doctor who suspected an unknown genetic disease. Then her young nephew died too. The Paris trip she took for a change of scenery.
That’s when she changed.
After returning from the trip, she was obsessed with fortune-telling, and one day she became almost panicked by words she had heard somewhere that Tae Ha would die prematurely before turning 30.
Anxious about possibly losing her remaining son too, she began seeking a solution over several occasions, spending an enormous amount of money.
That’s Ha Eun.
It was an absurd story, but Hong Ji Soo believed in destiny. That fear that her son might die young gradually consumed the once intelligent woman.
The vague fear that her son’s fate might really be so. It was enough for that fear to devour Hong Ji Soo alone.
So Chairman Kwon had hidden it from his son.
Years of half-belief, but the ski accident his son had recently with no previous incidents and the manifestation of unexplained pain lately weighed on his mind. Now even Chairman Kwon, who had worried his son might be influenced by superstition, could feel the fear his wife must have had.
“It was your mother’s dying wish, so I want to keep it. You know I truly loved your mother. Tae Ha. Won’t you accept Ha Eun?”
Tae Ha stood up, pressing his hand on the armrest.
“You’re hiding something from me. Whatever it is, it’s not Yoo Ha Eun.”
On the way home.
As the traffic light changed at the intersection, Tae Ha rested his arm on the window frame. His fingers that had been tapping the car body aimlessly stopped one by one.
The hand that had been on the steering wheel found Attorney Joo’s number on his phone.
When he made the call, it connected after just a few rings.
“Sir, I’m coming to the office now. Do you have time?”
Before he could even hear the ‘yes’ response, Tae Ha changed the direction of his car.
* * *
Swoosh. When he hooked his index finger on the can tab and lifted, the sound of bubbles rising was refreshingly heard.
“Here you go.”
Jung Woo kindly opened the can lid and handed the beer to Eun Seo.
A bench overlooking the Han River.
The place they found was a park where a fresh spring night had settled. Perhaps because it was late, there were more couples than family groups.
On the white plastic on the bench were four beer cans, coffee peanuts, and chocolate milk.
Eun Seo set down the beer can Jung Woo gave her on the bench for a moment and opened the chocolate milk. Then after puffing her cheeks a few times, she put down the empty milk carton.
“Delicious.”
Two cartons of milk disappeared in just a few sips. Jung Woo, who had been watching that sight curiously, asked.
“Does drinking that prevent you from getting drunk?”
“Yes. That’s what they say. There’s a really famous writer, and his wife always drank milk like this before drinking alcohol. They say the two became close after going to the convenience store to buy that on the first day.”
“Then are we becoming close today too?”
“Weren’t we already close?”
Eun Seo smiled brightly.
The words ‘Not like that’ spun uselessly in Jung Woo’s mouth.
Amusingly, even though he had dated women plenty, those words wouldn’t come out easily.
When did it become like this?
Was it because her eyes sparkling every time she sat in front of the piano to listen to his playing were pretty?
Was it because her diligently pressing the keys while sitting next to him, even though she wasn’t good, was endearing?
Or was it because of a sense of competition to beat Tae Ha?
When both beer cans had disappeared, Jung Woo asked playfully with a smile.
“I’m curious about something, can I ask?”
“Of course. You’re my piano teacher after all.”
Eun Seo answered quite cheerfully.
“By any chance, do you like Tae Ha…”
Just then, Eun Seo’s phone that had been placed on the bench vibrated. The moment she checked the caller, Eun Seo hurriedly picked up her phone.
“Just a moment.”
Then she moved a bit away from Jung Woo, looked around, and quietly pressed the call button.
“Hello?”
− Song Eun Seo?
The caller was the lawyer handling her marriage annulment lawsuit.
“Yes, Attorney. It’s me.”
− I’m sorry. For bothering you while you’re resting. I was going to tell you tomorrow, but I thought I should let you know urgently, so I called in a hurry.
“No, it’s really okay. Did something happen?”
Eun Seo wondered if something had occurred, as the lawyer who rarely contacted her was calling at this late hour.
A few days ago, Tae Ha’s behavior had been unsettling.
During the party, he disappeared outside the banquet hall with Ha Eun and didn’t return until the event was over.
That night, he came into the room and abruptly told her to lower her clothes, then disappeared after a brief apology saying he was sorry. And until now, he hadn’t given a proper explanation about that situation.
So for Eun Seo, the current situation was like walking on thin ice.
− I’m not sure if I should call this good news…
She had accidentally found out long ago that the lawsuit representative was Tae Ha’s person. She had overheard her talking on the phone with Tae Ha’s lawyer at the courthouse.
− Kwon Tae Ha’s side has withdrawn the lawsuit.
A brief silence followed.
“What do you mean?”
Eun Seo blinked her eyes while looking at the river where the bridge lights were blurring hazily.
She had clearly told him to leave the lawsuit as it was when he said to stop it. It was for everyone’s sake.
And yet.
− Since their side has withdrawn the lawsuit, they say if you want to proceed with the marriage annulment lawsuit, Song Eun Seo needs to designate Kwon Tae Ha as the defendant. They say if you want to do it properly, you should even proceed with criminal charges.
“Criminal charges?”
− They say that’s the only way to cut ties with Kwon Tae Ha. Do you know what that means?
Her thought process stopped.
− It means Kwon Tae Ha is willing to accept any damage to his reputation as a businessman when this lawsuit becomes public in the future. It’s not just divorce, but fraudulent marriage. It’s messy. That means in the worst case, he’s willing to give up his position as the next CEO of a company worth over tens of trillions.
“…”
− Song Eun Seo. Are you listening?
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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