Chapter : 15
“Juhye.”
Juyeong’s eyes widened in surprise.
Unlike her usual composed self, even her voice trembled thinly.
“What did you just… say?”
“Unni.”
“Separating—what do you mean by that? Don’t tell me you’re saying you’re getting a divorce?”
She had expected it, but Juyeong’s reaction was bad, just as she thought it would be.
Feeling guilty for no reason, Juhye lowered her head deeply.
Only after seeing her intimidated younger cousin did Juyeong hurriedly soften her tone.
“No, I was just startled. I’m not trying to interrogate you.”
“I’m sorry for bringing it up so suddenly, unni. I’ve wanted to say it for a while, but I just couldn’t find the courage… so I’m saying it now.”
“What’s the reason?”
Faced with the inevitable question, Juhye pressed her lips together.
She’d known that if she sought Juyeong’s advice, this question would come up, but when the moment actually arrived, her chest felt tight.
“I’m asking why you want a divorce.”
“……”
“There has to be a reason. You married Daehyun because you loved him—only for that reason. You said he was the kind of man you fell for so deeply that you didn’t even want to think about conditions or circumstances.”
Juyeong carefully recalled what Juhye had told her long ago.
At the wedding, Juhye’s face had been full of nothing but anticipation and happiness.
She had looked absolutely certain that her married life would be filled only with a rosy future.
“There’s no special reason. It’s just…”
As expected, she couldn’t say the real reason.
She knew Juyeong wouldn’t be able to restrain herself and would rush off to grab Daehyun by the hair if she did.
“I think… I don’t love him anymore.”
That she no longer loved him.
There was no reason more blunt or bare than that.
“Love doesn’t put food on the table anyway, so what does it matter?”
Juyeong pressed a hand to her forehead, looking utterly baffled.
Her face clearly showed how flustered she was by the unexpected news.
As Juhye quietly studied Juyeong’s expression, her lips parted.
“Unni… why did you get divorced?”
“What? Me?”
Juyeong rubbed her head roughly, looking as if she’d been hit out of nowhere.
Memories she didn’t want to recall flashed through her mind—
Back when she’d been subtly pressured and scrutinized by her in-laws because she couldn’t have a child.
“Well… I separated because I didn’t love him.”
“That’s the same as me.”
“No, no! It’s not the same.”
Juyeong shook her head firmly.
Her expression said, What’s gotten into her all of a sudden?
She fell into thought for a moment, then raised a question.
“Don’t tell me Daehyun said something to you too, about pregnancy?”
“It’s not like that. Daehyun didn’t desperately want a child or anything…”
“Then what’s the problem? There has to be a reason you stopped loving him.”
They were back to the beginning again.
At Juyeong’s persistent questioning, Juhye’s gaze wavered.
Being stuck answering questions she couldn’t respond to felt like sitting on a bed of nails.
“I actually thought something was strange even before. When you said you fought on your anniversary—so unlike you…”
“That’s right. I told you about that… I did.”
“So you’ve been thinking about it since then?”
At Juyeong’s careful choice of words, Juhye nodded.
The water had already been spilled, and it wasn’t something she could brush off as a joke anymore.
Since she was already asking for advice, she wanted to be even more shameless.
“So… could you maybe introduce me to a lawyer?”
Juyeong immediately frowned.
“A lawyer?”
“The one who helped you when you got divorced. You said they played a big role in making it all end cleanly.”
With Jinju Construction’s influence now stronger than ever, even who she hired as a lawyer mattered.
Judging by Daehyun’s current attitude, it was obvious he wouldn’t cooperate with a divorce.
He knew plenty of lawyers and prosecutors through work, so if things went wrong, she might even fail to get divorced.
“You’re already looking for a lawyer? Shouldn’t the two of you talk things out first?”
“We’ve talked enough. And if I wait to look later, it might be too late. It’s better to be prepared, right?”
“Well… fine. I’ll just give you the business card.”
With a sigh in her voice, Juyeong took her wallet out of her bag.
Her hands busily searched through it before pulling out a small, worn piece of paper.
The business card, creased and wrinkled, had the law firm and lawyer’s name printed side by side.
“I kept it just in case, but I never imagined the day would come when I’d give this to you.”
“Thank you, unni.”
“Contact him later with details. If you really can’t stand it… just getting a consultation is fine. That’s what I did back then too.”
If only she could avoid her husband’s eyes, Juhye wanted to run off and get a consultation immediately.
Trying not to show her racing heart, she accepted the card carefully.
The gold-lettered name Attorney Choi Tae-uk gleamed faintly.
“Anyway, without clear grounds for divorce, a mutual divorce will be difficult. And if you go with a lawsuit, it’ll get very messy, so I don’t recommend it.”
Juhye felt the same way—she wanted to avoid a divorce lawsuit at all costs.
She didn’t want to divorce in a way that would damage Daehyun’s reputation.
If she could tie up the end of this marriage as cleanly and beautifully as possible, she was willing to do anything.
“Until you’re absolutely sure, keep it a secret from everyone around you. And until then, I recommend gathering evidence that could justify a mutual divorce.”
After giving her fairly concrete advice about what to do next, Juyeong suddenly looked as if something had occurred to her and added a question.
“Who in the family knows about this right now?”
“Just you and my husband.”
“I guess that’s a relief… So you kept it from your brothers too, right?”
The faces of Jin Suha and Jin Sugyeong appeared in her mind one after the other.
They were famous for being overly protective of their younger sister.
If they found out about this, there was no doubt Daehyun would face some kind of retaliation.
“I couldn’t tell them. If my brothers knew, it wouldn’t just end with shock. I was also worried my father might hear about it and collapse for no reason…”
Juhye nodded bleakly, unaware of how worried Juyeong was.
At the same time, Juyeong let out a dry laugh and shook her head.
“Who? The chairman?”
If the two divorced, wouldn’t Chairman Jin Suchul be the happiest of all?
She had no doubt that Suha and Sugyeong’s reactions would closely resemble their father’s.
“When you said you wanted a divorce, what did your husband say?”
“He asked if we should take our own cooling-off period. If we apply for divorce, we’d have that time anyway, so he suggested we try it in advance…”
As Juhye explained calmly, Juyeong fell into deep thought.
Then that means Daehyun doesn’t want a divorce.
Why, then, had Juhye—who had loved Daehyun so much—decided on divorce?
There had to be a problem she didn’t know about, and there had to be a reason Juhye was hiding it.
With concern in her eyes, Juyeong stared at her cousin’s innocent face.
When their eyes met, Juhye gave a small smile as if to say not to worry.
“I want to finish the ceremony safely, at least. I won’t cause any special problems before then. I’ll think things over again while consulting with the lawyer.”
She had no idea that her fragile smile, as if she might disappear at any moment, only made others worry more.
After Juyeong left, Juhye immediately sent a text to the lawyer on the business card.
She asked whether it would be all right to visit on a desired date for a consultation regarding divorce.
She wanted to wait calmly for a reply, but the moment she sent the message, she heard the beeping sound of the front door lock opening.
“…!”
She hurriedly deleted the text from her phone and stood up from the sofa.
Walking toward the sound, she saw Daehyun, just home from work.
Wearing a dress shirt, he stood there holding his jacket in his right hand and a bag in his left.
“What’s that?”
The question slipped out before even a greeting.
It was understandable—Daehyun never brought anything home when he returned.
The only exception had been last year on Juhye’s birthday, when he’d brought a bouquet, which he said was a gift passed on from a client.
“Dinner.”
It was already late, well past dinnertime.
Juhye raised her voice, looking confused.
“What? You haven’t eaten yet?”
“I have.”
The conversation didn’t quite connect. Daehyun sometimes avoided the most important answers like this.
Juhye tilted her head, staring at his unreadable expression.
“Then why—”
“Juyeong contacted me earlier.”
At his sudden words, her heart dropped heavily.
