CM 6.16
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There was a short break during the wedding photoshoot. After having fruit for lunch, Jae-hee left her seat following the staff's instructions to touch up her makeup. Yoo-jin entered an empty room and called Jae-joon.
"Well, well, who could this be? Isn't this Ha Yoo-jin, the August bride? You must be very busy right now, so what brings you to call me?"
"Don't piss me off, Kim Jae-joon."
Yoo-jin's mood did not seem very good as she snapped at Jae-joon, who burst out laughing. Jae-joon stopped laughing and said in confusion,
"Ha Yoo-jin, of all people, has fallen in love. What a funny thing."
"Love? You think I love her?"
Has she gone crazy? Jae-joon looked at his smartphone screen. Was this really something a bride about to get married would say?
"...Then? I thought there was no way in hell you would ever get married unless it was for that reason. Are you going to spend the rest of your life with Jae-hee without love?"
"Mm, I feel sorry for Jae-hee…but I need her. Even if I don't love her, it's not like I can't live with her.”
"You're crazy. That kind girl..."
"She's a nice girl, but that's all she is, being a life partner is more than enough, and also...to screw Dad over.”
"You're going to mortgage your life just to take revenge on uncle?"
“This is my revenge. For Dad who made my life miserable. Bringing in a son-in-law he will hate. No–a daughter-in-law.”
"...What about uncle's press conference? Won't your whole plan fall apart?"
"I don't care if Dad held that damn press conference. Marrying someone he doesn't want me to marry. Marrying someone I don't love and making his daughter's life miserable, too. That's my revenge."
"Wait, wait... Then let me ask you one thing. Last time, when I went to America to find you. That person who would take such good care of you and make you happy. Wasn't that Jae-hee?"
It was a heavy question.
Her instincts screamed at herself to say that she loved Jae-hee, but her lips moved on their own.
"...Mm, I don't love her. This is a loveless marriage.”
She let out a long sigh. Silence followed, and then she heard Jae-joon's voice saying that they would see each other at the wedding venue.
She looked out the window.
The weather was damn beautiful.
Yoo-jin, who had said things she had never intended to say, felt confused. She hadn't wanted to say those things. Although she was in a situation where she couldn't even control her own feelings, Yoo-jin had no idea of that fact.
She let out another long sigh and turned around to leave. That was when she saw Jae-hee.
Her bride was crying.
Yoo-jin was so startled that she stepped backward and covered her mouth.
"…what do you mean by that?”
"..."
"Please, please…tell me that's not true, say that you're lying.”
"Jae-hee..."
Hearing that, Yoo-jin realized that Jae-hee had heard everything she had just said on the phone.
Jae-hee bit her lip at Yoo-jin's silence. Her legs gave out, and she sank to the floor. Burying her face in her wedding dress, she spoke in a trembling voice that was barely audible.
"Please, tell me that's not true. Yoo-jin, please…"
"Jae-hee, I’m sorry.”
"…Yoo-jin, please…"
"Sorry.”
Yoo-jin uttered those cold words to Jae-hee, who weakly looked up at her.
So the words "I'm sorry" could sound this cold.
Jae-hee kept biting her lips, trying to hold back her tears. She didn't have the courage to look at Yoo-jin, who was declaring that everything they had done together was a lie.
No one could have imagined that the wedding photoshoot would end so cruelly. Not even Yoo-jin, who had been deceiving Jae-hee.
"Then getting married…even the marriage proposal, you...!”
"I mean it when I asked you to get married."
"You, really, you…You're crazy. If you're not crazy, how can you…"
"Jae-hee, I…I really need you.”
To screw your father up? To make your life miserable?
Those damn questions came to Jae-hee's mind, but she didn't say them out loud. Because saying those words would make it seem like she was admitting it. As if marrying her would make Yoo-jin unhappy.
She didn't want to admit that Yoo-jin didn't love her.
Yoo-jin slowly lowered her body to meet Jae-hee's gaze. It must be Jae-hee who wants to cry, but why am I the one so pitifully clinging to her? Yoo-jin looked at Jae-hee, who couldn't cry out loud.
"Why…of all people, was it me?”
Of all the people that would have passed through your life, why me? Yoo-jin, who realized the meaning contained in Jae-hee's question at once, smiled sadly.
"You…Because you love me the most.”
Yoo-jin didn't speak to her after that, but Jae-hee looked at her for a long time with her distorted face as if she knew what she was going to say.
'So, no matter how hard it is, you will never leave my side.'
Yoo-jin reached out her hand to wipe away Jae-hee's tears, but Jae-hee brushed it off and stumbled to her feet. She looked in danger of collapsing again at any moment, but Jae-hee got up on her own. Yoo-jin looked up at her, just like how Jae-hee did earlier. But Jae-hee didn't even glance at Yoo-jin, and coldly turned away.
"…you're a real bitch, you know that?"
"…Mm, I know."
"…fine, do as you please. You've been playing with me all this time, fine…as you please."
"…Jae-hee."
"Let’s get married, let’s do it. Because you said you proposed because you knew I wouldn't leave you anyway."
"Seon Jae-hee."
"..."
Jae-hee was silent as she struggled to say one word after another in a sobbing voice. After a brief moment of silence, Jae-hee uttered the words she didn't want to say, the words she didn't want to admit.
"I will make your life miserable. As you want."
The cold voice was filled with tears. A pure white bride who never turns away. My bride who doesn't show her face. Yoo-jin looked at Jae-hee's back as if she was bewitched, thinking, my bride, who covered her face and only showed her back, is very beautiful.
"You know me better than I do."
'You know me, and you know I'll do anything you want.'
Yoo-jin immediately understood the meaning of Jae-hee's words and looked at her back as she continued to walk away. After seeing her back, Yoo-jin realized, that her own crude love play had come to an end.
When even the sound of footsteps could no longer be heard, Yoo-jin bent forward.
Tears slipped out.
Why did she have to get caught at this very moment?
If she had deceived her for the rest of their lives, she could have avoided pushing Jae-hee into such a whirlpool of misery.
Jae-hee had always cried because Yoo-jin was having a hard time, because Yoo-jin was hurting.
And today, for the first time, she cried because Yoo-jin had hurt her.
The sight of her crying so bitterly was burned into Yoo-jin's mind.
I couldn't control myself when I poured those cruel words onto you. I should have just lied and said they weren't true, even if it was a ridiculous lie. Why did I hurt you so much? I think believing that I didn't love you was just my own arrogant mistake.
The moment I saw your tears, I really wanted to die, and I still do. I just want to explain to you that it isn't true. I want to explain our five years together. I just want to tell you that I liked you, too.
Letting you go would be the happiest thing for you, but even so, I can't let you go. Please forgive this selfish me, Jae-hee. I'm sorry.
***
"...So, after my Mom passed away, my relationship with my Dad hasn't been good."
After talking about the unfamiliar image of her father that she remembered, Yoo-jin kept drinking water, perhaps because she was nervous.
"...So, my Dad never let me enter my Mom's room again."
After finally talking about her mother's death and how she had been driven out of her mother's room, Yoo-jin looked at the clock.
An hour had already passed.
The doctor, who had been listening carefully to Yoo-jin's story and taking notes, nodded and pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses.
"...I understand. Let's stop here for today."
"..."
"I could prescribe medication, but we'll proceed with counseling for the time being. I heard that you're sleeping well even without medication right now. Is that correct?"
"Yes... That's right."
"Your next session will be... at this time next week. Would that be all right?"
"Yes, that's fine."
"...Talking about your own story to another person takes great courage. It's a big step forward. You've opened the door to 'overcoming' things on your own for the first time, so you should be proud of yourself. I hope you'll see today's counseling not as something to regret, but as the beginning of overcoming your past."
"...Yes."
Although the counseling session had ended, she couldn't go home and rest.
Because of her e-commerce brand business, which was about to launch, Yoo-jin had to return straight to the office.
She placed her bag on the desk that Secretary Choi had arranged for her and sat down.
Outside the glass windows, the night view stretched out before her.
Yoo-jin had worked without having the time to enjoy the night view. For the first time since moving into this office, she finally enjoyed a moment of peace and looked at the night view with a relieved heart.
It was her first time.
For the first time, she had told someone else her story.
It wasn't that she hadn't felt afraid, but the mere fact that Jae-hee was by her side had brought her a sense of security.
Thinking of Jae-hee, who liked looking at the stars, Yoo-jin admired the beautiful night view.
"...I miss you."
The memories she had recalled to talk about her past were all darkness.
They were either painful memories she wanted to erase or hateful parts of her past that she didn't want to remember.
But from the moment she met Seon Jae-hee onward, the more she recalled those memories, the more her smile grew.
The more she remembered, the more she wanted to see her.
And there were so many things she wanted to tell her as soon as they met.
First, an apology, and then a promise that she would change from now on.
The things she wanted to tell her floated around in her heart.
The office had bright lights, but she had been so busy with exhausting work that she hadn't even noticed how bright it was.
Behind the office, a beautiful world had been spread out before her.
Only now, as the year was coming to an end, had she discovered the meaning of this world.
And at the end of it stood Jae-hee.
You became the light that would brighten my darkness. You led countless lights to me. Now, I want to love you.
***
Bang! Bang!
Two gunshots rang out inside the hotel. Cheon-woo witnessed the fountain of blood he had thought he would never see again. The person who had thrown herself forward to protect Cheon-woo collapsed into his arms.
Seeing the body lose its strength and fall after the person had placed a hand on his shoulder without even letting out a groan, Cheon-woo remembered her wife, who had once collapsed in his arms.
Leaving the pale-faced Cheon-woo behind, the bodyguards subdued the assailant, and people were evacuated.
Amid the chaos, Cheon-woo held the person in his arms.
He hurriedly pulled a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and pressed it firmly against the bloodied lower back.
"...Yoo...jin."
Even as her breath was about to give out, even in the moment when she was gasping for air, she still tried to say the name of the person she loved.
That face overlapped with the face of the person he had loved.
"Yoo-jin... Don't... contact... Yoo-jin."
Jae-hee convulsed from the burning pain that felt as if it were scorching her body. Then she writhed in extreme agony. She saw the face of her father-in-law, a face identical to that childish, foolish person. His face, looking as if he were about to cry at any moment, was exactly like Yujin's. She had thought the only thing the two of them had in common was their ice-cold composure. Love it or hate it, the two of them were family after all.
It would be better if Yoo-jin didn't know about this. She would worry. Jae-hee pictured her crying face.
The strength was gradually draining from her body. She felt that she must not lose consciousness here, but her eyes were closing. And just like that, she slowly lost consciousness.
****
[Breaking News] Capital City Mayor Ha Cheon-woo Shot During Business Trip to the U.S.
[Breaking News] Mayor Ha Cheon-woo Shot... Changes Among the Leading Candidates for the Next Presidential Election?
[Exclusive] S University Professor Seon Jae-hee Shot... Did She Take the Bullet for Mayor Ha?
Mayor Ha Cheon-woo Shot by Assailant
[Breaking News] Mayor Ha Cheon-woo Shot During Business Trip to the U.S.
[Economy] This Week's Issue! Mayor Ha Cheon-woo and Professor Seon Jae-hee Shot in the Same Incident... What Will Happen to Howon Group's Stock Price?
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Vol. 2 finally over! May take a while to continue to Vol. 3😅