CHAPTER 04………………………………..
“Right. You may go now.”
Chairman Cha, having heard everything he wanted, gave his permission without hesitation.
Seunghoon looked like he still had more questions, but the moment Chairman Cha granted permission, Hyukjin stood up first.
After Hyukjin left the study, the two remaining men exchanged a hollow laugh.
“Do you think he really met a woman he likes?”
“Well, who knows. I guess we’ll find out when we meet her.”
He didn’t say what kind of appointment it was, but judging from Hyukjin’s expression—one completely unlike his usual self—both men thought he might be on his way to meet the woman he had chosen as his bride.
“At any rate, we’ll finally get to meet our daughter-in-law.”
“Indeed. I’m looking forward to it myself.”
The suspicion on Seunghoon’s face vanished, replaced with a wide grin.
“Whew… Why am I so nervous?”
Standing in front of a suite at a competing hotel, Seoyoung took a deep breath.
She hadn’t been this shaken even when giving her first presentation at the Carlos Hotel.
Knock knock. After knocking twice, she waited for the door to open.
The few seconds before the door opened felt more like several minutes—until it finally opened without a sound.
Hyukjin stood there, hair damp from a recent shower, wearing nothing but a bathrobe.
“Come in.”
His half-bare appearance made it painfully clear why she was here, and Seoyoung grew even more tense.
It’s fine. This is business. Just business.
She secretly swallowed her dry saliva and forced her pounding heart to settle.
Hyukjin looked her up and down with a faint grin, but Seoyoung smiled back as if nothing was wrong.
A hotel was basically her backyard.
If she ignored the fact that this one belonged to a competitor, nothing about it was unfamiliar. That thought eased her tension a little.
This marriage is just an extension of business anyway.
She brushed past him as he held the door and stepped inside.
He had recently shown interest in hotel and resort ventures, and from the looks of it, he might even be staying here long-term.
“Wine? Or whiskey?”
Passing her and heading toward the minibar, Hyukjin glanced at it as she slowly made her way to the sofa.
Her nerves were already stretched thin enough that she doubted she could do anything sober.
She would’ve preferred the strongest liquor she could get… but showing weakness in front of him was unacceptable.
Even if she needed him enough to suggest marriage, their companies were still competitors.
This was nothing more than a temporary alliance.
“We’re getting married, after all. Shouldn’t we share at least one celebratory drink?”
Hyukjin watched her with an amused, almost arrogant expression.
She pretended to be calm, but he had known she was nervous the moment she walked in.
Feigning ignorance, he walked to the minibar and jerked his chin toward the sofa.
“I left the contract on the table. Go ahead and read it.”
Seoyoung turned her gaze toward the table, sat down, and pulled a document out of the envelope.
While she stared at the contents—which didn’t take long to read—Hyukjin poured two glasses of whiskey and brought them over.
She looked up from the document.
“Is this really all the clauses?”
Unexpectedly, the contract contained only one clause.
Is it really okay for it to be this simple?
Seoyoung studied it again, tilting her head.
It was a remarkably simple contract—so simple she wondered if it hid a trap.
She’d never signed a marriage contract before, but she assumed a chaebol would include all kinds of restrictions because of their sensitivity to money.
Yet the contract she held was too simple.
Other than the clause she proposed earlier—divorce after two years—there was not even a standard mention of alimony.
She had come prepared to agree to anything: marital expectations, separation terms… whatever.
He should know better than anyone that a contract needed to be thorough and explicit.
Maybe there’s no need for extra details if the goal is already divorce?
Taking a sip of whiskey, Hyukjin shrugged at her doubtful expression.
“Do we need more? The marriage will proceed like any normal one. The only difference is the duration.”
“Well, yes, but…”
“Our marriage may only last two years and be contractual, but we still have to do everything other married couples do. And since neither of us wants a child we’ll just divorce anyway, there’s no reason to clutter the contract with unnecessary clauses.”
At the words like other married couples, Seoyoung remembered what he’d said that morning about “sexual compatibility.”
When she first proposed a contract marriage, she envisioned a façade—something like a showroom marriage. But just recalling those three words made her heart slam against her ribs and her body freeze.
She glanced at Hyukjin as he drank his whiskey.
The line of his throat moving as he swallowed, the glimpse of a muscular chest beneath the loose robe, the thick thighs she noticed when her gaze drifted lower… everything about him reminded her why she was here.
She bit her lip—until his voice cut in.
“Finished staring?”
His amused tone snapped her head up.
He looked at her with eyes curved in amusement, clearly enjoying the situation.
Embarrassed, she released her lip and forced a smile.
How pathetic of her—acting like a broken machine just because of one comment about sleeping together.
Trying to focus, she brought up the suggestion she had prepared earlier, using the most businesslike tone she could muster.
“If I… allow it—meaning even after marriage, if you want to see other women—I’m saying we wouldn’t need to test compatibility.”
Hyukjin’s eyebrow shot up sharply.
“Are you trying to make me a man who cheats?”
“No, that’s not what I meant—”
“Or are you trying to create grounds for divorce in advance? Worried I might not let you go?”
The unexpected accusation made Seoyoung’s eyes widen.
Only now did she realize how her words could be interpreted.
A man who talked about sexual compatibility would be a man with a strong appetite and a liking for women, she assumed.
She thought he’d welcome permission to see others if he wanted. She never imagined this reaction.
Arranged marriages were common among chaebols. She thought her suggestion was reasonable: a contractual relationship, living like roommates, then parting cleanly.
This is going to be harder than I thought.
She frowned slightly—and then a question surfaced.
He had plenty of women interested in him, yet if he insisted on staying single, didn’t that mean he wanted to stay free?
There were no rumors of promiscuity in the background checks, but who knew how many women he had been with privately?
She realized she had taken things too lightly, but she still couldn’t shake her doubts.
Maybe she had been too blunt?
Right… Someone like the heir to the Hanho Group would be watched constantly. A scandal could affect stock prices. I was being naïve.
She had forgotten how effortlessly chaebols buried scandals and wiped news articles before anything blew up.
Still… for a contract marriage, her suggestion didn’t seem unreasonable. But judging from how seriously he reacted, this marriage wouldn’t unfold anything like she imagined.
A warning bell rang in her head.
If this keeps up, this marriage will look nothing like what I had in mind.
From what she knew, chaebol men rarely insisted on staying single.
Many entered arranged marriages for mutual benefit and then secretly fooled around.
That aligned perfectly with her own plan, since she had no intention of living like a real married couple.
Feeling slightly annoyed, she shot Hyukjin a discreet side-glance.
