“Ha……”

As the sound of running water from the bathroom stopped, A Rin clutched her chest and let out a shallow sigh.

A Rin bit her lower lip hard.

Her heart raced as she thought about what she would say to Jae Hyuk. A Rin felt dazed but steeled herself, thinking she could do it well.

Her small voice that came out like a sigh was damp. The small fist on her knee trembled.

“I can talk to him well…. Let’s stop this now.”

Her throat constricted.

Just imagining the breakup made her feel like she would burst into tears.

“Jae Hyuk elder brother.”

It was a name that made her heart surge just by putting it in her mouth.

A modern-day Cinderella?

The love of the century?

They were labels that had followed her from before the marriage until now.

The marriage of Ban Jae Hyuk, the heir to VAN Group, the number one conglomerate in Korea, and Choi A Rin, the daughter of Chairman Ban’s chauffeur, was envied by people as the love of the century that transcended class differences.

But none of those things applied to her.

A contract couple.

A show window couple.

No, they were neither a contract couple nor a show window couple. The relationship between Ban Jae Hyuk and Choi A Rin was merely that of master and servant.

Was it foolish of her to want to stay by his side even if she was pointed at as having a ‘bought marriage’ because she loved him so much?

All that remained after three years of a hellish marriage were scars.

From the moment they were born, Ban Jae Hyuk, the only heir of Ban Ho Jun, the chairman of VAN Group, Korea’s top conglomerate, and Choi A Rin, the daughter of Chairman Ban’s chauffeur, Mr. Choi, had their lives determined.

[A Rin, let’s play together.] [This is a gift, I thought it would suit you well, A Rin.]

Young A Rin, who was only an elementary school student, was unaware of the class difference between her and Jae Hyuk, who always reached out to her first.

At some point, she began to look forward to the times she met Jae Hyuk. That feeling was……

[I like you elder brother.]

It was the beginning of her first love. The feeling of love deepened day by day. Then one day, unable to suppress her overwhelming feelings of liking him, she confessed to him.

[I like you too, A Rin. I like you a lot.]

He felt the same way as her. Young A Rin believed that the feelings of that moment would last forever.

The gap began to widen when Jae Hyuk entered a prestigious middle school and A Rin entered an ordinary public middle school. As time passed, that gap gradually created a distance she could not reach him.

It was a love that could not be, but she could not stop.

Because to Choi A Rin, Ban Jae Hyuk was her one and only love in life.

Recalling the memories of those days that only she cherished now, A Rin thought of Jae Hyuk’s changed gaze.

In her memories, he was always smiling. But now, he was cold as if he had forgotten all those memories, and his eyes held contempt for her.

As her eyes became hot, tears welled up in the corners of A Rin’s eyes.

The reason Jae Hyuk’s mother, Lady Jung, had accepted her, the daughter of those she had treated like servants, as her precious son’s daughter-in-law was purely because of her fortune.

Lady Jung was a devotee of superstition. She said she had three brushes with death when she was young. The reason she was able to survive on the brink of death was thanks to the help of local shamans. Perhaps that was why Lady Jung began to blindly believe in shamanism, leading to the present.

Currently, the ‘Priest Chun’ she followed was a famous man who required a one-year waiting list just to make an appointment. Lady Jung consulted with Priest Chun on every move.

[Priest Chun said that Jae Hyuk can only have an heir if he marries you.]

Even as Lady Jung said it was because only A Rin’s fortune could bring a grandchild, she did not hide her disdainful gaze.

That gaze seemed to remind her that accepting her was not as a ‘daughter-in-law’.

[I’ll give you what you want. Ah, I heard Mr. Choi has cancer now, the medical expenses must be high. We’ll cover the hospital bills.]

Although official classes have disappeared in society, class still clearly existed in modern times. It was determined by money and family background.

Jae Hyuk was a man at the pinnacle of the pyramid who had money, fame, and power, while A Rin existed at the very bottom of the pyramid, possessing nothing.

No matter how much she loved Jae Hyuk, she did not want to accept such a marriage.

[I will decline.]

It was partly because she loved Jae Hyuk, but she could not sell her life for money. At least until then.

[Then do you have any brilliant solution? Are you going to leave Mr. Choi like that?]

A few days later, as her mother’s back pain and Mr. Choi’s health rapidly deteriorated, she accepted the marriage to Jae Hyuk.

Lady Jung told A Rin.

[You just need to play the role of a formal wife. I’m telling you this in case you get the wrong idea,]

She thought she could get along well, until she heard those words.

[Jae Hyuk has had a girl he’s liked since he was young. She’s studying abroad now, but she might come back soon.]

Lady Jung’s voice whispering in her ear was more ruthless than ever.

‘Elder brother has someone he loves….’

It wasn’t that she dreamed of a future with Jae Hyuk. The class difference was something she could not overcome with her own strength.

But even so, she could not help but be saddened that Jae Hyuk had another woman in his heart.

A sense of despair swept over her as if the world had collapsed.

Do I have to marry elder brother knowing he loves another woman?

There’s nothing else but marrying elder brother…. Is there any other way?

When she decided to marry despite knowing everything, she felt miserable and wretched about her situation.

Exactly one year after her father was falsely accused and kicked out of the Ban family, A Rin reunited with Jae Hyuk after Lady Jung’s visit.

When she saw Jae Hyuk’s cold expression, her heart, which she thought could not crumble any further, collapsed.

Her heart, trampled and crushed, was bruised.

[Did you need money that badly? Did you need money so badly that you’d trade your life as collateral? Ha. I must have misjudged you greatly. I didn’t know you’d sell your life for a few pennies.]

With a deeply furrowed face, Jae Hyuk spoke in a cold and detached voice.

[Fine. If what you want is my child, I’ll do as you wish. No. What you wanted was money, not a child. Do as you please. But don’t expect to be treated as my wife. Forget the Ban Jae Hyuk you remember. I’ll forget the old you too.]

With a hurt face, he sent her a contemptuous gaze as he said his final words.

Tied down by the shackles of marriage, Jae Hyuk was so cold. A Rin, who had no one on her side in this house, could only silently take his harsh words.

Seeing Jae Hyuk spitting out sharply edged words, it was difficult, but on the other hand, she had a futile hope as they lived together.

The expectation that even though he had a woman he liked, the fact that he married her meant his heart wasn’t completely closed off.

The expectation that maybe she and he could also live ordinarily like others, even though their beginning was different.

It was an unwanted marriage, but how many people in their one life would want to be unhappy.

She thought it was the same for him.

Just leave, why stay by his side like a fool, but she couldn’t give up.

‘I’m elder brother’s wife now. Maybe one day, the smile and kind voice elder brother used to show me will be directed at me again. I just need to try harder.’

She did her best for their married life. She believed that if she tried, Jae Hyuk would change too. As time passed, it seemed like he was slowly opening up his heart little by little.

As she had hoped, during the three years, he occasionally worried about her and sometimes spoke to her kindly like before.

But it didn’t take long for that futile hope to shatter.

[Do you think you and I can get along normally? Do you think we’re a real couple?]

A Rin fell into despair at Jae Hyuk’s words one day.

That they could never go back to how they were before.

Choi A Rin never had a chance to win Ban Jae Hyuk’s heart in the first place.

Jae Hyuk’s change was due to his meager sympathy and capricious whims.

She realized too late that the reason he always went out using work as an excuse, set up a sleeping space in his study, and didn’t enter her room except on designated days was all because he disliked Choi A Rin.

A Rin looked into her heart. It was densely pierced with long thorns. The wounds she received from him had no room to form.

The price of not tending to her wounds while being confined at home under Lady Jung’s surveillance and having restrictions on everything in a place where no one took her side was cruel.

“Why did elder brother hate me so much?”

Until her father was accused of being a thief and her entire family was kicked out of this house, Jae Hyuk was not sharp with her. Rather, he comforted her saying it was okay and promised to protect her.

However, Jae Hyuk changed. His sudden change became a large, indelible scar.

[A Rin, let’s hold hands and look at pretty flowers together even when we grow up. Okay?]

Yet the reason she couldn’t give up on him was because of Jae Hyuk’s warm smile and kind voice that were still vivid even after ten years had passed.

But she couldn’t endure it any longer.

A Rin thought of her family who had constantly tormented her during the three years of marriage.

[Just send me 5 million won.] [Mother…. I gave you money. A week ago.] [Do you know how much goes into hospital bills? Then do you want your father to die? On top of being falsely accused and kicked out, he’s suffering so much with cancer, and you can’t give a measly 5 million because it’s too precious to you as his daughter? Who do you think you have to thank for becoming the lady of VAN Group.]

At first it was a few million won, now it was tens of millions of won……

The family that demanded money from her countless times, as if she wasn’t enough, at some point began to demand from Jae Hyuk as well.

Eventually, that sparked anger, and a few times it even made it to internet news. And in the end, it reached the ears of Lady Jung.

Until mother-in-law Lady Jung, whom she never once called ‘Mother’, shook her……

[What are you doing? Your family, far from helping, is busy hindering our Jae Hyuk.

I’m so ashamed I can’t face others. Who do you think you are to give such humiliation to my son and me.

Others have in-laws as blessings and their businesses go well…

Haa. It’s the biggest mistake of my life. I never imagined that even a capable Priest Chun would be useless against such rotten seeds.

It’s fine, the child isn’t coming anyway, if you have a conscience, stop hindering Jae Hyuk and get divorced immediately.]

The barbed words of mother-in-law Lady Jung that followed pierced her heart.

[I plan to have Jae Hyuk meet a woman from an incomparably better family than you again. Tsk, even if Priest Chun said so, I shouldn’t have accepted you.]

It was as mother-in-law said.

A Rin decided to put an end to the absurd marriage that had lasted three years.

‘Even if I say let’s break up, elder brother won’t care at all. But don’t be sad. You know that.’

A Rin thought Lady Jung must have threatened Jae Hyuk as she had threatened her. Otherwise, there was no way he would choose her when he had a woman he loved.

Staying next to a man who didn’t love her was excruciatingly painful, and it was a life so miserable that dying would be better.

Now she was too tired of not being loved, and she hated that her family was making it hard for him, so she was going to leave like they said.

‘Today, you have to say it.’

Recalling the memories until now, A Rin’s eyes became damp.

“Pretending it’s nothing, pretending it’s okay. Choi A Rin, you practiced……”

The sound of running water from the bathroom had stopped. That meant he would soon open that door and come in after finishing his shower.

She had to practice the words she had practiced until he came and be able to say it like it was nothing.

From her small lips where a drop of blood had formed, a cracked voice leaked out.

“Let’s divorce. Us……”

A large teardrop burst from her eyes.

That’s when it happened.

“What are you doing.”

Along with the click of the bedroom door opening, his voice was heard.