The body leaned forward and the small hand, drawn into the large hand unexpectedly, was pulled up by the strong grip without a chance to escape.

Most of Eun Seo’s soles lifted off the ground, naturally going on tiptoe.

The palm was directed towards his face. To be precise, somewhere in those pitch-black, deep eyes.

That somewhere with quite a hot body temperature.

Though his gaze held no emotion, and his breathing was perfectly even without a hint of agitation, it was overwhelming.

“This is injured too. You didn’t treat it?”

It was a wound on the palm. One that wouldn’t normally be noticeable.

“…I applied medicine. That was enough.”

“You don’t seem to listen well. Or perhaps you don’t take care of yourself.”

As the frozen gaze at the end of widened pupils slowly retreated, Tae Ha let go of her hand. The body that had barely been supported on tiptoe swayed.

“Excuse me.”

After apologizing, Tae Ha handed over the tray and turned his back without lingering.

“Mr. Kwon Tae Ha!”

This time, Eun Seo called out to him.

At Eun Seo’s call hitting his back, he turned around as he was about to step out with his hand on the doorknob.

“What is it?”

“I’ve been thinking. I want to rectify this situation.”

“How?”

Eun Seo gripped the tray tightly until her hands turned white and said,

“I want to file for marriage annulment.”

The answer didn’t come quickly.

It should have been a response like ‘good’ or ‘of course’, or even ‘Shouldn’t I have been the one to say “marriage annulment” first?’, popping out as if it had been waiting.

Instead, he just stared blankly at Eun Seo while leisurely stroking his chin with his finger.

“Why?”

Because it wasn’t the reaction she expected, Eun Seo was flustered and nervous.

“Because I’m not a con artist. Of course, I know this marriage isn’t right. But that doesn’t mean you’re a con artist, Mr. Kwon Tae Ha.”

“Is that because you knew who I was?”

“…”

“Isn’t it too embarrassing? Your words about not knowing just from appearances were quite impressive.”

A voice as cold and stiff as steel. But at the voice that seemed like it could flare up and burn everything around at any moment, Eun Seo once again gathered all her breaths and took a long inhale.

“I know how to recognize my place.”

“Let’s hear it then. That recognition of your place.”

“Honestly, I can’t be certain, but I think my grandmother is involved in this.”

Instead of answering, Tae Ha put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the doorframe.

“I’m sorry for only saying this now. But at first, I couldn’t trust you. I only thought you were a con artist.”

“Why did you think that?”

“My grandmother had dementia.”

Tae Ha wasn’t surprised, as he had already heard about this from Woo Young.

“But you said I was already married. At first, of course, I didn’t believe it, and later…”

“…”

“I was sure my grandmother had been deceived. Because there’s no way she could have done something this huge on her own. So I thought the person who deceived her was probably my supposed husband. That’s why I suspected you, Mr. Kwon Tae Ha.”

“…”

“At first, I wondered if it might be organ trafficking? Could it be that you’d marry me, take my organs, and then kill me?”

Organ trafficking? Tae Ha unconsciously let out a small laugh.

“If not that, could it be human trafficking?”

Human trafficking… Ha.

“What if it’s for surrogacy?”

My, your imagination really took flight.

Increasingly outrageous words poured out like lava, leaving trails of fire wherever they passed. It was very unpleasant.

In just two days, he felt like he’d become an organ trafficker, human trafficker, and even a scoundrel.

“Enough.”

Tae Ha ran his fingers through his hair with a face that seemed to have run out of patience. But Eun Seo, whether she knew it or not, kept spilling everything out.

“Grandmother is my only blood relative in the world. So even if something happened to me, there’s no one who would wonder about me or look for me. That’s why I suspected the purpose of the marriage might be something like that. Because the only thing I have is a healthy body.”

“Why are you telling me all this? What if I really did take your organs?”

“You’re GK. Whether it’s a liver, kidney, or eyeball, if you needed it, the hospital would have taken care of it, and you have too much to risk selling people for money. If you wanted to, you could marry anyone, so you wouldn’t need a surrogate either. My genes aren’t particularly excellent either.”

“I can’t listen to any more of this.”

“That’s my recognition of my place. Because even misunderstanding can be a crime in this world. I won’t misunderstand anymore that you did something with the marriage registration, Mr. Kwon Tae Ha. But just as it’s not you, it’s not me either. I really didn’t do anything like that.”

“Now that you’ve recognized your place, shall we assess the situation?”

Already prepared, Eun Seo, feeling like she knew what Tae Ha was about to say, closed her eyes tightly and continued speaking.

“I’ve thought about that too. Tomorrow morning, I’ll immediately look into filing for marriage annulment, and go to the police station.”

“The tea is getting cold.”

In a quiet voice, Tae Ha tapped the side of the tray with his finger. A crack formed on the calm surface of the teacup, causing gentle ripples.

“If you don’t want me to bring a new one, drink it quickly.”

Tae Ha closed the door with an unreadable expression. Eun Seo could only stare blankly at the coldly shut door. She couldn’t gauge the man’s intentions.

It was too much consideration for someone trying to keep a con artist from running away.

Eun Seo carefully examined the trace of his scent left on the tray. It was strange, but it seemed like he was telling her to just drink the tea and not think about anything else.

* * *

“You may enter.”

Housekeeper Jang, who had been waiting outside the room, glanced inside and informed the employee. Occasionally, when the father and son had important conversations during meals, it was part of her job to signal when food could be brought in and out.

Jang Hyun Jung had caught the eye of Hong Ji Soo, the third child of Dong Ui Construction, long ago with her innate sense and loyalty. When Ji Soo became the mistress of GK, Hyun Jung naturally followed her into GK.

And even after Ji Soo’s death, Kwon Gi Hoon did not send Hyun Jung away.

Kwon Gi Hoon, who had loved his wife dearly, trusted Hyun Jung, who had faithfully followed his wife’s instructions, and kept her by his side until now.

However, a more important reason was that she was the person who kept and followed his wife’s last wishes.

“Today’s coffee will have a bit of acidity. I brewed the one you like.”

“Thank you.”

Inside the bright room filled with sunlight and gentle piano melodies, father and son were having a meal at a large rectangular dining table.

Tae Ha’s house and Chairman Kwon’s house were not too far apart. So for convenience, the employees called Tae Ha’s house the East Residence and Chairman Kwon’s house the West Residence.

When Tae Ha became independent, Chairman Kwon had set several conditions, but the strongest condition was about meals.

Tae Ha liked his father, but sometimes he was overly attentive, so he accepted the condition of having breakfast with his father three times a week and sometimes even dinner in exchange for independence.

And the first thing he did after becoming independent was to completely make the employees of the East Residence his own people and keep them quiet.

As Tae Ha picked up the sky-blue coffee cup, Chairman Kwon, who had been watching disapprovingly, put down his chopsticks.

“I told you to stop drinking coffee early in the morning, you really don’t listen.”

“Aren’t you going to eat more?”

“You should listen well so I can eat well. How can a father enjoy his food when his only son drinks that caffeine-filled thing first thing in the morning?”

“I’m listening well enough, Father.”

“Tsk tsk, if you can’t even speak properly. …I heard everything.”

“Heard what?”

“Again, pretending not to know.”

“I really don’t know.”

Tae Ha put down his cup and casually stroked the back of his neck.

Several things came to mind, but not knowing which news his father had heard, Tae Ha chose to listen rather than answer hastily.

It wasn’t that his father had people monitor him, but because he had so many acquaintances, news about him often reached his father’s ears.

Also, since Chairman Kwon was in a position to know anything about him if he wanted to, Tae Ha learned to appropriately block information channels by using people.

However, it wasn’t possible to silence everyone, and sometimes there were rumors that Tae Ha deliberately leaked.

“I heard from Dr. Woo.”

“Ah.”

Not Dr. Baek, but Dr. Woo.

Dr. Baek was Tae Ha’s person, and Dr. Woo was the Chairman’s person.

Fortunately, it wasn’t about the marriage to Song Eun Seo, nor about turning Solnae Village upside down, nor about bringing Song Eun Seo into the house.

Of the four, it was the least serious – the emergency room visit.

“If you heard, you should know. They said there’s nothing particularly wrong. Probably due to stress, that’s what I heard.”

“I told you to reduce your workload.”

“Expanding the e-commerce market wasn’t something that could be reduced.”

Tae Ha didn’t start working at GK, but had already achieved remarkable results starting an online shopping mall during his college days.

Observing this process, GK Shopping recruited Tae Ha through a merger, and Tae Ha immediately became the CEO of GK Shopping, with no one opposing.

Not only that, but he was also selected as a Next Generation Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos this year.

So the term ‘parachute appointment’ didn’t suit Tae Ha.

[In the department store sector, it’s hard to catch up with Sehan’s luxury image that the public holds. It will only lead to more bleeding in competition. Give up on the department store idea. Instead, I’ll grow the e-commerce market. I’ll raise our market share to third place within two years.]

And Tae Ha delivered even better results than promised. Taking what needed to be taken, boldly discarding what needed to be discarded.

That’s why Chairman Kwon unconditionally trusted Tae Ha’s words when it came to business, and when the e-commerce sector was somewhat on track, he appointed Tae Ha as the CEO of the hotel.

“Still, enjoy your vacation enough. Don’t come to the company and collapse again. Just rest from today, I’m telling you.”

Tae Ha nodded readily, knowing his father’s sincerity. His father was a man who had lost two children born before Tae Ha and his wife in succession, and lived only looking at Tae Ha.

“The meal was very delicious today.”

The meal ended with words of thanks to those who prepared it.

Until Tae Ha left the mansion, Chairman Kwon watched his son’s back with concern, then dismissed everyone around him. Then he gestured to Housekeeper Jang, who was standing stiffly by the door.

Housekeeper Jang, in a black skirt and neat white blouse with tidy up-do hair, quickly moved to his side.

“You called for me?”

“Ha Eun is in America, right?”

“Yes. She’s immersed in her painting work.”

“Hmm. Is she painting well?”

“It’s the best talent among Ha Eun’s talents.”

“I see.”

Chairman Kwon closed his eyes tightly, taking a deep breath. Deep wrinkles formed next to his graying beard.

“We need to call her back. Tell her to come back now.”

“Right away, sir?”

“Yes.”

“May I ask the reason, if I may? Is it because of that…”

“Since when did you start probing into my intentions so thoroughly?”

Though the tone was low, it wasn’t anger.

It was the reaction that came out when he hadn’t completely sorted out his thoughts. Knowing this, Housekeeper Jang didn’t back down.

“She’s my daughter, Chairman. If you say she’s an adopted daughter, or that the years we’ve lived apart are longer, I have nothing to say, but as a guardian, I think I should know this much. As you know, all this time Ha Eun has been trying to become a suitable spouse for the young master, even if just a little…”

“Quiet. I told you not to utter those words carelessly.”

“I’m sorry.”

Housekeeper Jang immediately put both hands to her sides and bowed her head.

“I’m thinking now. I’m also contemplating what to do.”

Believing that the long-awaited good news was about to be heard, Housekeeper Jang’s red lips twitched briefly.

“Ha Eun still doesn’t know that Tae Ha is her fiancé, right?”

“No. As you told me to keep it a secret, I didn’t tell her who her sponsor is, or who her fiancé is.”

“You must know that Tae Ha collapsed too. It’s more concerning that he collapsed when there’s nothing particularly wrong. And he just got injured at the ski resort recently. When has he ever been like this?”

Chairman Kwon got up from his chair and approached the window. His clasped hands behind his back intertwined nervously.

“That child is almost thirty now. I don’t necessarily believe my wife’s words, but somehow I feel like I should listen to her last wish. Because it was her final request.”

Chairman Kwon sighed deeply, recalling his dead wife’s words from 23 years ago.

[You must marry Tae Ha and Ha Eun. That’s the only way our Tae Ha will survive. Please, don’t just say no.]

“I think it’s time to let both Tae Ha and Ha Eun know about each other’s existence.”