Quietly holding and comforting Yuri, Jeho finally opened his mouth.

“How could you just run out of the wedding hall like that?”

Though it was clearly a reproach, for some reason it sounded as soothing as a lullaby. When she gave no response, Jeho lowered his head to meet her eyes.

“Chae Yuri.”

“I’m not going back to the wedding hall.”

“Why? Afraid the groom might have shown up?”

As Yuri’s face turned white as a sheet, Jeho gave a bitter smile and tightened his arms around her.

“Don’t worry. Even if that bastard came, I won’t let you go now.”

Thank goodness. He didn’t come.

For a moment, she felt dizzy. If Minwoo had come, and she had to go back to the wedding hall… Just thinking about it was horrifying. Because of Minwoo’s excessive displays of affection, her anxiety had only grown as the wedding date approached.

“Let’s get out of here first.”

As Yuri continued to tremble, Jeho led her to the car parked at the side of the road. Yuri was too exhausted to even ask where they were going. She closed her eyes and leaned her face against the seat back.

Only when she heard the car stop and the engine turn off did she open her eyes. Jeho had brought her to the client’s house where he was staying.

Though it had only been a few weeks since she’d last been here, the atmosphere felt strangely unfamiliar. Her curiosity was satisfied when they entered the living room. Some unfinished construction work had been perfectly completed. As if reading her mind, Jeho said,

“I finished all the construction work in the meantime.”

“I guess the client will be moving in here soon.”

At that question, Jeho simply raised the corners of his mouth slightly, without giving a clear answer. Instead, he sat Yuri on the sofa and knelt down on one knee in front of her.

“Before that…”

He lifted the skirt of her wedding dress and pushed his head inside. Startled, Yuri bent down and grabbed his shoulders.

“Eek! What are you doing?”

Jeho looked at Yuri, whose face had turned red with embarrassment, with a puzzled expression.

“Earlier, I’m sure I said I’d take off your wedding garter for you?”

At those words, Yuri gaped in disbelief.

“What does that have to do with what you’re doing now?”

“Don’t you know how to take off a wedding garter? You do it with your mouth.”

Jeho wasn’t making it up. It was true that the groom would go under the bride’s skirt and remove the wedding garter with his mouth. It was a very common sight at weddings in Western countries like America or Europe. But this was clearly South Korea.

“Forget it.”

Yuri pushed Jeho away and quickly removed the wedding garter with both hands.

Jeho frowned in disappointment but withdrew obediently. It was enough that life had returned to Yuri’s face, which had been lifeless until now.

“So what happened with the wedding?”

Yuri asked as she adjusted her skirt. Perhaps due to Jeho’s mischievous prank causing her to suddenly become excited, her heart rate increased and her half-dazed mind returned to normal. Her first concern was the mood of the guests.

“The groom didn’t show up, and the bride ran out angrily in her wedding dress. What do you think happened?”

“What excuse did they give the guests?”

With a smirk, Jeho crossed his arms and lifted Yuri from the sofa.

“The KG Group PR team came up with a perfect story. They said ‘A problem arose at the construction site in the Philippines, so Manager Kwon, who is in charge, had to fly to the site immediately despite the wedding.'”

“Is that true?”

“It’s true that he went to the Philippines. The rest isn’t certain yet.”

Jeho gently embraced Yuri and turned her body towards the mirrored living room wall.

“You looked so pale earlier I thought you might collapse, but now some color has returned to your face.”

He stroked Yuri’s cheek with the back of his hand as their eyes met in the mirror.

“So is the wedding postponed?”

Instead of answering, Jeho stared intently at Yuri. It was a persistent gaze, as if he was asking something.

After a moment of silence, he slowly opened his mouth.

“That’s up to you. Either set a new wedding date, or cancel it altogether.”

Yuri bit her lower lip, unable to make a quick decision. They had only put out the immediate fire; nothing had really changed. As she hesitated to answer, Jeho lowered his head and brought his lips to her ear. He spoke in a whisper, but with a firm voice.

“Listen carefully. If you don’t want it, I can find a way to cancel it. I can make the wedding fall through without any harm coming to you.”

How could he cancel the wedding without causing her harm? Though she didn’t distrust him, she couldn’t make a decision so easily. Jeho asked once more.

“Alright. Then let me ask this. Minwoo would become your husband. That means he could legally touch your body. Would you be okay with that?”

“No.”

Yuri shook her head reflexively. Even just the kiss on her cheek had made her feel like throwing up.

“Right, you’ve thought it through well.”

Jeho smiled gently and lightly kissed Yuri’s cheek.

“From now on, just trust me.”

Yuri nodded and looked at herself in the mirror. Though her complexion had improved from earlier, her eyes still looked empty, as if her soul had left her body. It felt like she could only be completely free once she took off the wedding dress that felt as heavy as iron chains.

She reached behind her back to remove the dress. But it was impossible on her own. Delicate pearl buttons covered the zipper, and earlier it had taken two wedding assistants sweating profusely to fasten them. Struggling with the buttons, Yuri had no choice but to ask for help.

“Can you help me?”

“If you wish.”

Jeho leisurely began to undo the densely packed buttons one by one. But soon his patience seemed to wear thin, and his tone became rough.

“I can’t just rip it off like last time, right?”

“No, you can’t.”

Finally, after undoing the last button and lowering the zipper, a corset with countless hooks appeared. Jeho let out a laugh of disbelief.

“Is this really clothing? Not some torture device?”

Only after undoing all the many hooks did the corset fall away, leaving just the slip. Embarrassed, Yuri discreetly covered herself with her arms. She had been so focused on undressing that she hadn’t thought this far ahead. Come to think of it, she didn’t have any clothes to change into.

Unlike her, Jeho seemed unconcerned as he wrapped his arm around Yuri’s waist and led her to the powder room.

“The dress is off. Now let’s do something about your hair.”

“No, I should get dressed first…”

But Jeho ignored Yuri’s words and began removing the small pearl decorations stuck in her hair. After the decorations, he removed over a hundred hairpins, causing the perfect bridal hairstyle to cascade down her shoulders.

The slip that faintly revealed her skin, combined with her hair falling in disarray, created a somewhat dreamlike yet sexy atmosphere. If it looked like this to her own eyes, how must it look to his? The thought made her body stiffen unconsciously.

“It’s all over now. Relax.”

As Jeho gently massaged around her neck and shoulders as if giving her a massage, her stiff body became even more rigid. The reason for her tension was Jeho himself.

“This won’t do. Let’s have you take a warm shower first.”

Those words were so welcome that tears almost came to her eyes.

“Yes, I think I should.”

Yuri ran to the bathroom as if escaping. Hoping he hadn’t noticed her face turning red all the way to her neck.

When she finished showering, a large men’s shirt was prepared for her. Like last time, it was a huge shirt that came down to her knees like a dress. Fortunately, it wasn’t a light color, so there was no worry about her skin showing through.

With a knock, the bedroom door opened and Jeho said to Yuri,

“Come out and eat something.”

The moment she heard those words, her stomach growled. In fact, she had barely eaten dinner yesterday, and today she had to get up at dawn and rush around to various places. There was no time to eat properly, and she had no appetite, so she had only drunk yogurt here and there.

Seeing the clam chowder in front of her, she suddenly felt hungry. Just as she was about to take a spoonful, Jeho came over and took the spoon from her hand.

“Give it here, I’ll feed you.”

“No, I can eat…”

Before Yuri could finish speaking, Jeho grasped her chin with one hand and pressed the spoon to her lips.

“I’m repaying a debt, so don’t feel burdened.”

A debt?

“Don’t you remember when you put side dishes on my spoon when my shoulder was injured and I couldn’t use chopsticks properly?”

Jeho tapped her lips with the spoon as if urging her to open her mouth. Yuri reluctantly parted her lips slightly, and the warm soup entered. It had a soft and rich flavor.

“If you don’t like this method, there’s another way.”

Jeho muttered lowly as he brought the spoon to his own mouth. Realizing what he meant, Yuri quickly opened her mouth wide.

“Ah.”

“That’s right, good girl. Ah.”

As Yuri obediently ate, he picked up a square cracker that was placed beside them. Crunch, as she bit into it, a savory and salty taste filled her mouth. Seeing Yuri’s eyes curve into crescents as if it was delicious, his eyes also curved.

“After I went to America, I went straight into the college dorm. Back then, I studied like crazy.”

Though it wasn’t anything special, he felt the urge to share past memories with her. Jeho continued speaking as he picked up another cracker.

“It was hard enough to get good grades just studying, but I also had to adjust to life in America. When I was busy studying and had no time, I would heat up canned soup and eat it with crackers. When I didn’t even have time to eat crackers separately…”

Jeho broke the cracker into small pieces and sprinkled them over the thick soup. Then he scooped up the soup and crackers together with the spoon and brought it to Yuri’s mouth.

“I ate them together like this.”

Yuri silently ate what he offered. Thinking that the crispy and soft textures went quite well together as she swallowed, he asked a question.

“It’s already been 10 years. How was it for you? Over the past 10 years.”

Yuri’s eyes wavered for a moment. She almost blurted out the truth. That whenever things were hard, she would think of him and cry. But she couldn’t reveal such facts. Yuri averted her gaze and murmured a response.

“Nothing special happened. I went to school, graduated, got a job.”

Nothing special happened?

Jeho recalled what Hyunkyung had told him.

―Jeho, it started not long after you went to America. I don’t know why. From then on, Yuri tried to leave home, and every time she was caught and beaten.

He didn’t expect her to tell him things she hadn’t even told Hyunkyung. Still, it hurt that she wasn’t opening up to him. At the same time, he felt sorry for how hard it must have been for her to endure alone.

Jeho silently scooped up more soup with the spoon.

“Here, have another bite.”

Yuri prettily ate the soup he fed her, like a baby being fed. Not realizing how stimulating that sight was, she chewed softly. Then she licked the white, sticky soup left on her lips with her tongue, and chewed again.

Yuri had been testing his patience since earlier. As she tried to lick the soup on her lips again with her tongue, Jeho quickly wiped it with his thumb and put it in his own mouth. Not satisfied with just that, he cleaned the remaining soup on her lips with his own lips.

As his lips pulled away, Yuri burst out laughing.

“What is it?”

“Why? You told me to try. I’m openly seducing you right now.”

“…Oh.”

Seeing Yuri’s face flush as if flustered, the last of his patience disappeared. This was all because of the clam chowder.

The white clam chowder left on her red lips was too stimulating, the sticky feeling clinging to her lips was too blatant, and Jeho simply couldn’t hold back anymore.

Jeho lifted Yuri up and sat her on his thighs. Yuri’s arms naturally wrapped around Jeho’s neck.

Without anyone initiating, their lips met.

Holding Yuri, Jeho stood up and strode into the bedroom.