“Jin Seo Hyeon, did you put someone to follow me?”

“I couldn’t bring myself to enter Bando Hotel, which boldly displays your wife’s name, so you carefully chose the hotel next door? Did you know who owns that hotel when you went in? I’m Jin Han’s daughter. Are you going to say you didn’t know Ausso Hotel is part of our Jin Han group?”

“Damn it! Half the hotels in Seoul are tied to Jin Han or Bando, what am I supposed to do? Check hotel ownership and shareholdings before going in?”

It was an ironic accusation.

“All the popular ones at Eden Entertainment are just Seo Ki Hyeok’s sidekicks. I don’t care about any of that. I don’t care what you do when you go out. But you shouldn’t have let me receive a call saying my son-in-law visited your hotel with a young woman!”

“To hell with that son-in-law! I have to be considerate of your family when I don’t even get anything for being a son-in-law!”

Crash!

The crystal vase Seo Hyeon threw shattered, leaving a scratch on Ki Hyeok’s face.

With the hotel right before his eyes about to fly away, he thought what did a marriage to a woman he didn’t even like matter.

It was a final choice of not wanting to give Ji Wan any part of Bando that would be in his hands.

He felt belated regret that even for a forced marriage, he should have chosen a woman who would bend to his will.

“It’s a summons to Anseo-dong, tomorrow. Chairman Jang, don’t blame my father for the reason you’re so furious.”

The fact that this had reached Anseo-dong meant that Seo Hyeon’s father, the chairman of Jin Han E&C, had gone to Chairman Jang to tattle.

Ki Hyeok’s eyebrows twisted mercilessly.

Crimson blood welled up over the scratch on one cheek.

“Tomorrow is my ovulation day the hospital told me about. Don’t be late coming home.”

The woman’s ambition to have Bando seemed to have extended to a determination to see her first grandchild from her own womb.

She had received an auspicious day to have a son from a famous shaman’s house, and a day to succeed in pregnancy in one try from a capable doctor, so the act of embracing a woman he didn’t even like was an ordeal.

It was the same for Seo Hyeon, so it was perhaps natural that no child was conceived despite nearly a year of effort in an act performed out of a sense of duty.

“Let’s stop that too.”

Wiping the crimson blood from his wound, Ki Hyeok irritably loosened and retied his tie.

“What if Seo Ji Wan, whom you’re so desperate to catch, unexpectedly gets pregnant?”

With arms folded, Seo Hyeon’s coolly spat out voice was calm.

“For someone who married a woman from who knows where just on Chairman Jang’s word, what’s the big deal about having a child from that womb.”

Exuding a deep rose scent, Seo Hyeon turned away.

“Remember. The first grandchild of Bando will definitely be born from me.”

She was a woman who knew well which parts would provoke the man who complacently acted as if Bando was already his.

Ki Hyeok’s mind became complicated, having to make such calculations with his twisted state of mind.

*****

Do Eum chattered on without pause.

From the wildflower buds blooming in the flower bed, to the story of the stray cat found in the backyard not long ago.

Then when the next course of food was served, she would praise the taste of the previous dish while also showering questions about the dish that had just arrived.

“There was a devout Buddhist aunt at the church restaurant where I worked. One day, she confessed with a serious face.”

Do Eum chewed on a small piece of steak she had put in her mouth.

“When I asked what it was about, she said, ‘Every mealtime, I only pretended to make the sign of the cross, but gave thanks to Buddha.'”

Covering her small mouth, the woman laughed brightly.

“Then the church aunt who was listening said, ‘If you prayed to God too, now you should go pray to Buddha too. I’m sorry for going to church to cook meals instead of staying at the temple.'”

Watching the small mouth chewing and the small eyes curving slightly was more meaningful to Ji Wan than just filling his hunger.

It was his first time having such a lively meal.

Moreover, someone who talked so much during a meal alone with him.

Yet it was strange that it wasn’t unpleasant or uncomfortable at all.

“The temple aunt said, ‘Hey, I already asked Him to pass that on to God during confession earlier.'”

Ji Wan’s gaze lingered long on the awkwardly imitated dialect and the expression that subtly raised and lowered the corners of her eyes.

Not to mention the corners of her mouth that lifted slightly every time she laughed, he felt full without eating much.

While the woman was in the bathroom.

The server who brought out the dessert wistfully scanned Do Eum’s empty seat. As if secretly waiting for this, since she had shown enthusiastic reactions to every dish.

“Your wife is so adorable.”

The freshly served coffee smelled good.

“…Is that so.”

“Yes, how can she smile so childlike. You can tell she’s received lots of love. As a woman myself, how could anyone not love someone like her?”

A vanilla ice cream topped with fresh strawberries was placed in front of the woman’s empty seat.

“This is compliments of our chef. He asked me to pass on his thanks for the pleasant compliment. Well then, enjoy your time.”

Whether at hotels or restaurants, everything provided to “Bando Construction’s Seo Ji Wan” included and exceeded the special services offered to ordinary people.

The man, who had been nonchalantly receiving the best service, including making things not on the menu, chuckled at the newly offered word “service”.

‘They say she looks like she’s received lots of love.’

The conscience of a man who had never given even a little, let alone “lots” of love, stirred restlessly.

“Wow! How did you know I like vanilla ice cream?”

The woman, returning from the bathroom, seemed to have misunderstood that Ji Wan had ordered the ice cream.

“It wasn’t me.”

“Pardon?”

In the direction of Ji Wan’s casually pointing chin, a large man wearing a white chef’s hat stretched his neck to look, then nodded shyly when he met Do Eum’s gaze.

Only then realizing it was the chef’s service, Do Eum smiled brightly.

“They say you’re lovable.”

For words being relayed on behalf of someone else, lest she misunderstand they were his own, it sounded quite solemn.

Regardless, Do Eum held out a small spoon full of ice cream in front of Ji Wan.

“Say ah.”

With the server’s sparkling eyes watching from afar, saying she looked like she’d received lots of love, and the chef’s gaze curious to see what reaction his dessert would get, there was no way to avoid it.

Refusing seemed like rejecting the nice compliment of being a woman who received lots of love, so Ji Wan willingly ate the ice cream.

Sweet.

So sweet it stings.

When the man, who didn’t like sweets to begin with, furrowed his brows, Do Eum smiled.

When the woman smiled, the server standing across smiled, and the big chef followed suit.

It was a decent night.

No,

It was more than decent, it was a willing night.

*****

On the way back after finishing the meal.

Do Eum, with her nose almost touching the car window, looked at everything in sight with wonder like a country girl who had just come up to the city.

“Is there anywhere you want to go?”

It was a show of goodwill, since they were already out and in a rather good mood.

Unlike before when the polite speech was full of a coercive atmosphere, the tone had become noticeably shorter but the mood much softer.

“Anywhere is fine?”

The woman’s eyes sparkled as if she was about to request something grand.

Nod.

At Ji Wan’s slight nod, Do Eum pointed without hesitation.

“Then, there!”

It was a large discount mart with a bright yellow square sign and clear black font.

“There, right?”

“Yes, hurry.”

Even as he was parking, Do Eum was tapping her feet.

Every time those small feet pattered on the ground, Ji Wan’s heart fluttered along.

While wondering how excited she must be to act like that, just like in the garden where she had waited for him, he couldn’t understand why she wanted to go to a place that was everywhere and could be visited anytime on their date, so he handed her a cart and busily followed the woman who disappeared with quick steps.

The first thing Do Eum shyly brought back after disappearing and reappearing was feminine hygiene products.

Although the blind man’s wife goes shopping once a week and says she’ll buy anything needed if just asked, it seems it was too much to ask a complete stranger to buy sanitary pads.

He tried to look away and act uninterested, but it would be a lie to say he wasn’t curious about the things the woman was bringing back like a squirrel gathering acorns, darting around nimbly.

After putting in a set of cotton pajamas with characters printed on them and a small stand lamp, she disappeared and reappeared several times.

“How about this?”

The cups with male and female characters drawn on them were for couples, forming a heart above the characters’ heads when put together.

“Childish.”

As if she had expected Ji Wan’s reaction, Do Eum nonchalantly put the two cups in the cart.

“They say romance is supposed to be childish. This will be my wedding gift. Since I received one too.”

When Do Eum spread out her small hand, not even half the size of his, a silver ring on her ring finger sparkled.

The woman probably didn’t know that the cubic zirconia, barely the size of a fingernail, was actually a 5-carat diamond worth the price of a small jeonse apartment in Seoul.

Otherwise, she couldn’t possibly dig in the garden soil, plant flowers, do dishes, and even wash pitch-black sneakers with hands worth hundreds of millions.

When Woo Seok first saw Do Eum digging soil with her bare hands and ran over in surprise, he had stopped him, saying it was better than not wearing it at all because it was precious.

He thought it was much better than previous women who had no tact but an uncanny ability to recognize expensive jewels, and since it was a marriage for show, it was right to display what could be shown.

Entering the food section alongside the woman who had put the cups in the cart, Do Eum stopped at every tasting booth as if it were a rite of passage.

Unlike someone who had just eaten a course meal, the woman pushed various foods like cookies, dumplings, and kiwi stuck on disposable forks into Ji Wan’s mouth one by one.

“Enough.”

Ji Wan shook his head in front of the fifth fork.

“My, the bride is so busy feeding her husband.”

“Seeing something delicious and feeding her husband first, they must be newlyweds?”

“Hohoho, take it while she’s offering. Later she won’t give it even if you beg. Hohoho.”

As closing time approached,

With few customers left, Do Eum’s affectionate action of filling the man’s mouth rather than her own seemed to look pretty in the eyes of the tasting booth aunties.

“What a perfect match, how can a couple look so alike? They must live so well together.”

At the words added here and there, Do Eum’s face turned red.

“There’s nothing better than this cheese for a cozy drink between husband and wife.”

At those words,

“Please give me that cheese.”

The woman seemed even happy as she put the unplanned cheese in the cart.

By this point, it was fair to say she had become entertained by the act of playing a good-looking newlywed couple, rather than coming to the mart to buy something.