Madam Jung had persistently contacted her since two days ago. If she rejected the calls, she would call from a different number with even more persistence.
“I don’t want to meet or talk to you.”
She pressed the end call button and cut off the call.
Although the image of Madam Jung screaming echoed in her mind, she no longer felt fear from that sight.
After putting the phone back in her bag, she headed to the bus stop alone.
“Come to think of it, oppa said he would assign a secretary for me.”
Arin recalled Jaehyuk’s words. He said it was for her sake, but she couldn’t think of it entirely positively. Having a secretary would only constrain her actions.
Even though it was not for surveillance purposes, she couldn’t help but be mindful of his eyes, whether it was voluntary or involuntary.
“I don’t want interference in a contractual relationship, be it his intention or others’.”
It wasn’t that she wanted to meet a man other than Jaehyuk; she simply disliked someone intruding into her private life.
A message arrived from Madam Jung.
Mrs. Choi is coming today or tomorrow. She’s the daughter I raised. Don’t you want to see her?
It was a trap.
If she went, she surely couldn’t avoid meeting Madam Jung.
‘She’s really dangerous…’
Arin’s heart trembled. At the thought of it being the last meeting, at the resolution never to see her again, a small crack appeared.
‘Will I regret not giving a final farewell?’
Arin questioned herself. In a short time, a decision was made.
‘Even if it invites criticism, I want to prioritize my feelings now. Besides, if Madam suggests it, it somehow feels like a lie.’
There was no trust in Madam Jung’s words, and at that time, even though she would be tormented for a lifetime by the guilt of not protecting Mr. Choi’s life, it was a relationship she no longer wanted to be entangled with.
She thought it was an evil fate that had to be sorted out and severed.
The next day.
She left home to go to the bookstore.
“Choi Arin, let’s talk.”
A woman who had been waiting for her outside the gate of a luxury apartment called out to her in a blunt tone.
“…What is it here?”
It was Madam Jung.
Arin lost words at the fact that Madam Jung had come this far.
“Even though your father is critically ill, you don’t even think about visiting. I raised you, but it seems useless. Hey, if you have a conscience, shouldn’t you go?”
Madam Jung looked at Arin and clicked her tongue forcefully.
‘Did she wait for me to say those words?’
It was absurd. Madam Jung’s appearance and her presumptuous words were all inexplicable.
“What is happening here?”
In response to Arin’s words, Madam Jung retorted sharply.
“Am I not allowed to come here?”
Madam Jung was adorned in luxury from head to toe.
However, strangely, Arin had never felt any elegance from her even once.
It wasn’t simply because of the feelings of dislike. The reason she found her awkward was precisely because of this aspect.
Arin was horrified by the idea that Madam Jung had been waiting for her until she came out.
“This isn’t a place where Madam can come.”
“What?”
In response to Arin’s retort, Madam Jung furrowed her brow.
“Where can’t I come in my son’s living place!”
Madam Jung shouted loudly.
Jaehyuk had completely severed ties with Madam Jung. She was the one who unilaterally contacted him, and he, unable to resist fate, had to accept it.
Arin hadn’t heard anything from Jaehyuk. However, it wasn’t difficult to guess that their relationship with his mother was not as it used to be.
The mother-son relationship had completely changed.
And she had a hand in that change.
There wasn’t a need to speculate.
Arin looked at Madam Jung with a chilly gaze and spoke.
“Do you know that Jaehyuk knows you’re here, Madam?”
“Do I have to report my every move?”
“You didn’t say anything.”
Why was I afraid of such a sloppy person all this time?
Now I understand. There is no logic in Madam Jung’s words.
She just whines about everything and is someone who never hesitates to overpower others with force.
‘Maybe that’s why it was scarier. She hated me blindly, and that made her even more terrifying.’
Past Arin had nothing. That’s why she considered Madam Jung, who hated her without reason, as an object of terror.
“Answering back arrogantly!”
Madam Jung’s words were amusing. Arin inadvertently chuckled. Madam Jung’s eyes narrowed in anger at her reaction.
“See, see? You act like this, and Jaehyuk believes in you?”
Madam Jung stepped aside and gestured with her eyes towards Cheon, the tall manager, behind Arin. The large-built Cheon approached Arin with a threatening demeanor.
Feeling a chill over her entire body from the imposing attitude of the man thirty centimeters taller than her, fear rushed in. Trying not to show her surprise, Arin clenched her fists and stared straight at the man.
Thinking that she loses if she avoids the intimidating Cheon, Arin did not divert her gaze from the man, despite his rugged appearance with scars on his face.
Madam Jung grabbed Arin’s forearm and turned her body towards herself.
“Let go.”
“Go quietly.”
Madam Jung tightened her grip on Arin’s hand, bit her lip, and warned her, showing her determination. Arin also had no intention of yielding.
“I told you back then, but I have nothing more to say to you, Madam.”
“Choi Arin, this is audacious. I’m not asking you. I’m ordering you.”
“Then, I have nothing more to hear…”
Unable to control her emotions, Madam Jung threw Arin’s phone, which she held, onto the ground. The phone screen shattered as it hit the asphalt.
The Male lead Always Seduces Her with His Beauty (Matriarchy)
Xin Jiao Zhou is the leader of the world’s premier sect. She has just experienced betrayal from all sides, was poisoned in an assassination attempt, and faced death squad attacks while the poison was taking effect. After finally clearing out the scum from her sect, she was drugged again while trying to detoxify.
After waking up from a night of unconsciousness, she gained a “beautiful and kind-hearted” husband.
Xin Jiao Zhou: “???”
He fell ill.
She came to see him, bringing breakfast.
As she put down the breakfast and was about to leave, his hand slipped while holding the spoon. “Clank!”
She turned around upon hearing the noise.
He looked up at her, his eyebrows drooping: “My hand… has no strength.”
“Shall I… feed you?” she asked tentatively.
He opened his mouth cheerfully: “Ah—”
Thinking she was drowning, he jumped in without hesitation to save her, but nearly drowned himself. In the end, it was she who swam over to rescue him, giving him air underwater.
After emerging from the water, his ear tips turned red. He lightly brushed his cheek, tucking his sideburns behind his ear, revealing delicate, pink-tinged ear tips. He lowered his gaze, too embarrassed to look at her.
Xin Jiao Zhou: He’s truly beautiful, kind-hearted, and adorable.
A certain someone when disciplining subordinates behind the scenes: “If they don’t obey, just kill them.”
What’s that? She might already have someone she cares about in her heart? A certain someone: Find out who it is, kill them, and then there won’t be anyone.
What? She met a man by the riverside? What? That man even hurt her? A certain someone: Whichever hand hurt her, chop off his entire arm.
Love at first sight without realizing it, gradually falling in love, slowly getting closer…
Family and national grudges, schemes and desires, good and evil, crime and punishment, she and he face the future together, seeking justice with passion!
A naturally dark female lead who could accidentally destroy the world but is actually an honest person VS a weak, pitiful, and helpless but skilled fighter, beautiful white-cut black male lead
My heart is not of stone, how steadfast is your love? — Tao Yuanming “Imitating the Ancients (No. 3)”
— Reading Guide —
Cold female lead & dramatic black lotus with hidden yandere traits male lead
