Chapter : 8
“Back then… you asked me if I was a woman who could benefit you, didn’t you?”
Daehyun frowned briefly, then his eyes widened as the memory came back to him.
The dazed look on his face, as if he’d been punched, was so unlike him that it was almost funny.
“I think our marriage has benefited you plenty so far. And going forward, there’ll be more than enough benefit, too.”
Resignation lingered in Juhye’s eyes as she muttered in a self-deprecating tone.
As if he were dissatisfied with that, Daehyun’s grip on her arm tightened little by little.
It was a careful yet stubborn grip, like clutching a cracked pearl.
“So that’s why you want to keep the marriage going. I understand that much.”
At the word “benefit,” Daehyun’s gaze cooled.
“But I can’t endure it anymore.”
Juhye murmured as if she didn’t even have the strength to pull her arm from his grasp.
Unaware that her powerless attitude only grated on his nerves even more.
“I… can’t do this anymore.”
“Then why.”
“You understood everything, didn’t you? Let’s stop with the childish arguing.”
A short silence passed.
Instead of letting go of her arm, Daehyun lifted her chin with his fingertips. Staring into her eyes as if examining her, he whispered lowly.
“When we kissed, you didn’t push me away.”
Juhye’s eyes flew open.
Even now, was this man trying to measure the depth of her feelings?
“I could tell when we touched. Your heart was racing.”
“Everyone’s heart races. We’re human.”
“You still have the leisure to joke at a time like this?”
Daehyun let out a short laugh. It didn’t suit the mood at all, and to Juhye it sounded like a sneer. She bristled and raised her voice.
“What leisure do you think I have right now—!”
The words that were about to pour out in anger scattered into the air. Daehyun suddenly closed the distance between them.
The palm that gently wrapped around her side was firm and hot.
“My head feels like it’s about to burst over here.”
His low voice encircled her ear. His warm breath tickled her thin skin.
Juhye urgently pushed at his shoulder, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Daehyun, who stood his ground.
“I said I’d try.”
His palm slipped behind her back in an instant and pulled down the zipper.
At the loud ziiip of the zipper sliding down, Juhye’s face went pale.
She struggled desperately to push him away, but the more she resisted, the tighter his grip around her waist became.
“Ah— stop… let go….”
“Today’s Friday, Juhye.”
At the word Friday, Juhye’s face flushed instantly.
Every Friday was, unspokenly, the day the two of them slept together.
Daehyun often had work-related schedules on weekends, and Juhye couldn’t rest either because of her duties at the botanical garden. So when Friday came, they would unconsciously crave each other.
As if to soothe the loneliness of the weekends, when physical distance was inevitable.
“So this… is your idea of trying?”
Biting down hard on her lower lip, Juhye spat the words out.
She was already backed up against the wall, and if this continued, an unwanted moment would surely come.
“What kind of effort is it to force someone into bed?!”
“Force?”
His approaching lips hovered around her eyes. The moment she reflexively squeezed her eyes shut, a warm touch brushed against her eyelashes.
Despite his rough words and actions, there was a hint of caution in the way Daehyun pressed his lips to the corner of her eye.
Just like he had on the countless Fridays they had shared until now…
“No matter how much time passes, you never get better at lying.”
“Stop….”
“Just one touch, and you’re already making that face.”
What kind of expression was she making that made him so confidently say such things?
Feeling a deep, sinking despair, Juhye’s body trembled.
Even if he didn’t test her, even if she didn’t ask herself, she knew naturally.
Wounding to her pride, pitiful to the extreme… she still loved Daehyun.
The reality that she wanted and craved his warmth struck her painfully hard.
“You’re looking at me with eyes that want me so much it’s hard to believe you’re being forced.”
The hand that had been teasing her waist pulled the zipper all the way down.
“Ah…!”
Startled, Juhye clung tightly to Daehyun’s shoulders.
It was to cover her naked body, now exposed as her dress slid down to her waist.
With her chest barely concealed, her snow-white skin gleamed under the light.
Her smooth shoulders, unmarred by a single scar, were beautiful like an ivory sculpture.
“This dress… it’s one I like.”
The lips buried near her ear whispered softly.
His breath-laced voice made her ears burn.
“A dress where I can see everything you are just by moving my fingers.”
Juhye flinched, trying to hide her flushed face, but the hand lifting her chin crushed that effort mercilessly.
“Mmph, hngh….”
A faint moan was smothered beneath his lips as they closed in.
His hands climbed without hesitation, wrapping around and stroking her smooth shoulders.
Juhye staggered back until her back hit the wall with a thud.
“If you get this sexy just from unzipping it, what am I supposed to do, Juhye?”
His whispered words were so blunt they were embarrassing.
With trembling hands, Juhye shoved at Daehyun’s shoulders wildly.
When she pushed with all her strength, the lips that had been sharing warmth finally parted.
“Ha— stop it…! Stop!”
Only then did Daehyun take a step back, rubbing his lips with the back of his hand.
There was a small cut where Juhye had bitten him.
Daehyun looked unfazed, but seeing the wound, Juhye’s expression darkened instead.
“The fact that today is Friday doesn’t matter to me at all. We… have something far more important to talk about.”
“What could be more important than this?”
Daehyun was sincere, and Juhye could tell.
She straightened her posture while fixing her disheveled clothes, unaware that the hand barely covering her chest only made her look more precarious.
“I couldn’t accept your proposal for divorce, and I asked for a chance to try. I think that’s a reasonable request.”
“I told you I refuse.”
“Then are you planning to tell your collapsed father directly that you want to divorce me?”
His finger reached out, gently stroking her cheek.
When Juhye turned her head away, his touch stubbornly followed.
“That’s….”
“I heard the doctor warned him.”
Annoyingly enough, Daehyun knew very well what Chairman Jin’s condition was like.
For Juhye, who wanted to proceed with the divorce as quickly as possible and settle her feelings, it was an extremely awkward situation.
Staying in the same house as Seo Daehyun, seeing him morning and night, would make it incredibly hard to整理 her emotions.
“Right now… it’s not the situation to tell him. I know that.”
Juhye let out a sigh, trying to organize her chaotic thoughts.
Her rational mind and instinctive heart ran wild in opposite directions.
“But this isn’t right.”
Her instincts, writhing in delight at every one of Daehyun’s touches, felt hateful and humiliating.
The pleasure etched into her body through countless nights together was too vivid to erase.
Daehyun must know that too. That was why he was trying to sway her heart like this.
“You said it yourself, didn’t you? That there’s a cooling-off period even for divorce.”
She felt she needed to show her resolve more strongly.
Swatting away Daehyun’s hand from her cheek, Juhye answered coldly.
“Father will recover in about a month. I plan to tell him then, and my decision won’t change. So….”
“What if you got pregnant before that?”
At Daehyun’s serious response, Juhye’s gaze wavered.
Like a deer struck by a hunter’s bullet, she blinked her wide eyes and staggered slightly.
The word he had never once brought up during their marriage left her stunned.
“…What did you say?”
A child. A child?!
They had never even talked about children.
Juhye alone had vaguely hoped that someday their hearts would align, and that perhaps a child would be born as the fruit of that.
That was why even such a question felt like nothing more than a cruel deception to her.
“If we had a child, do you think your feelings might change?”
Loosening his tie leisurely with his right hand, Daehyun whispered as if he were about to pounce at any moment.
