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The incident began on a Friday evening.
It had been a week since Ha-young and her fiancé had been in a cold war over wedding preparations.
Eventually, Ha-young, the first to wave the white flag, went to her fiancé Choi Jae-hyung’s house as soon as she got off work. In the early days of their relationship, Choi Jae-hyung had acted as if he would give his life for Ha-young, but somewhere along the line, her feelings had grown much larger.
As Ha-young’s heart, which had been a beat behind, found its rhythm, the scales of love inexplicably tipped in her favor. She didn’t know if her feelings were growing or his were shrinking, but unfortunately, the logic of power applied to love.
Humbled and determined to cook something delicious to soothe Choi Jae-hyung’s feelings, she stopped by the supermarket and bought bags full of vegetables and meat before heading to his house. It was at that moment, as she entered his home...
“Heueut, haa, aahng!”
But what was that sound?
Ha-young quietly placed the bags she was holding on the floor at the strange moans coming from inside the room.
Was he watching porn alone?
Witnessing her fiancé masturbating alone in his room while watching a video would have been shocking enough, but what happened thirty seconds later was beyond anything Ha-young could have handled.
“Haah, Jae-hyung oppa, harder, heup!”
The moment she opened the door, the blood in her whole body ran cold. While Ha-young stood rooted to the spot, the horrific scene was vividly etched into her mind.
“Choi Jae-hyung, you?”
“Ugh! Who is it?”
A woman screamed, throwing a pillow to cover her naked body with the blanket. With a sweaty, dirty face, Jae-hyung put on a bathrobe and reassured the woman.
“It’s okay, Hyo-eun-ah.”
“Huh…!”
Even if he ran over and knelt down to beg for forgiveness, it wouldn’t be enough.
Her fiancé was too busy comforting the woman he had been intimate with, not Ha-young.
Unable to bear staying any longer in the room, thick with the humid smell of men and women’s sweat, she turned around, clutching her cold heart. The words that came from Choi Jae-hyung’s mouth, who belatedly chased after her, were outrageous.
“Ha-young-ah, let’s break up.”
I wouldn’t have accepted him even if he begged on his knees, but to be dumped first? I was so resentful I couldn’t even speak.
“Let’s just pretend our wedding never happened.”
Ha-young stared at him blankly for a long time, unable to grasp the reality of what she had just heard.
He should have been making excuses, saying he was shaken up or temporarily out of his mind, but Choi Jae-hyung’s next words were quite shocking.
“I thought there was something wrong with me all this time, but it wasn’t.”
Ha-young licked her dry lips. Shame, displeasure, sadness, and anger washed over her simultaneously at Choi Jae-hyung’s one sentence.
“So. You’re saying there’s something wrong with me?”
“Yeah.”
Even then, the words that flowed from Ha-young’s mouth were even more卑屈. Knowing that any answer from Choi Jae-hyung would make her miserable, she pressed him with her shattered heart.
“I don’t really feel like doing it with you…”
If he doesn’t really feel like doing it with me...
“But you do feel like doing it with other women?”
Choi Jae-hyung neither affirmed nor denied. He replaced his answer with a question that stabbed Ha-young’s heart.
“Do you know what they call a woman like you?”
“What do they call me?”
“A block of wood.”
So, all of this was Ha-young’s fault.
Ha-young also admits that it wasn’t a love like destiny.
Throughout her university years, Ha-young hadn’t particularly felt any attraction to Choi Jae-hyung, who had been chasing after her. Seeing Choi Jae-hyung stubbornly confess his feelings for the seventh time, even shedding tears without ever showing any pride despite being rejected six times, Ha-young thought he was a very consistent person.
Even after graduating from university, Choi Jae-hyung’s unwavering demeanor gradually opened her heart, and they naturally started dating as they began their careers.
She liked Choi Jae-hyung’s cautiousness, never even trying to touch her despite his passionate one-sided love. How much did he cherish her that he would tremble even holding her hand? She liked his awkwardness.
However, on the day they were supposed to have their first time, his lower body didn’t react. They were both embarrassed seeing his limp cock, but Ha-young was the one who comforted him. Choi Jae-hyung’s words, saying it was because he liked her too much, was too nervous, and it was his first time, were both cute and pitiful.
He was a harmless man, hard to find in this day and age. There were no sparks flying, but she thought that such a pure man wouldn’t be a bad choice for a husband. Above all, she was certain that she would never find another man like Choi Jae-hyung, who had liked her consistently for five years.
He was a man who would tremble and stutter even just making eye contact with her. Of course, she thought it was natural for him to be nervous before their first sex.
The comfort she offered Choi Jae-hyung, that things would gradually get better, had already become comfort for herself, but having already accepted his proposal, she didn’t consider breaking off the engagement. She couldn’t bring herself to admit her immature choice of first love, swayed by circumstances.
But all of this was Ha-young’s fault. Choi Jae-hyung’s audacity, as if it were justifiable to cheat on a woman as stiff as wood, made her terribly sad.
“I didn’t know either, but when a woman is proactive, it gets me going too.”
Right, Ha-young also had no experience with men.
When innocent men and women meet and try to have their first time, it wasn’t possible for Ha-young to proactively push forward if Choi Jae-hyung was holding back. She didn’t know how to be proactive because she lacked experience.
But to cheat on her right before their wedding?
They had already had their formal meeting between families. They had even paid the down payment for their new apartment, and were now starting to send out invitations to their friends and acquaintances.
With the belatedly fitting puzzle pieces, Ha-young’s heart plummeted.
Rumble, crash.
Lightning flashed in the sky, and a desolate rain began to pour outside.
Ha-young’s hands trembled violently at the shocking breakup announcement. With the sound of the world collapsing, Ha-young also crumbled.
Ha-young had even been robbed of the chance to preemptively strike Choi Jae-hyung with a breakup notice.
Her heart pounded, and her vision spun. She felt suffocated, unable to breathe. Her jaw trembled against her coldly frozen heart.
“We can’t live without sex as a married couple.”
“Is that something you should be saying in front of this woman?”
“I was going to talk about it anyway. I feel so intimidated in front of you. It’s suffocating just breathing.”
Ha-young, who was supposed to become a June bride, sank down on the spot at the thunderous news.
The man who used to say he was happy just sharing the same air in the same space now felt suffocated by her very existence.
Choi Jae-hyung, you cowardly bastard.
A woman’s intuition is never wrong. Lately, her boyfriend’s behavior had been suspicious, but she had deliberately ignored the doubts rising from within.
The man who had avoided even holding hands with Ha-young, claiming severe stress since their failed first sex attempt, was rolling around in bed like a dog with another woman.
Only after seeing such a disgraceful sight did the thought ‘what was coming has come’ occur to her. Ha-young, her heart stabbed into pieces, could only stare at the tragically seeping fresh blood.
“How could you do this with another woman when we’ve even set the wedding date?”
Barely able to stand, Ha-young glared at Choi Jae-hyung as if she could kill him.
“You never know what might happen until you actually walk into the wedding hall.”
How could each word flowing from his lips be so painful?
Deep down, I knew that getting married without even having proper sex was a wrong choice, but I had turned a blind eye to reason, focusing on the significance of our ‘first time’. I had even mentally justified it, thinking that since neither of us had done it before, how could we expect to be good at it right away, and that it was special in this day and age for a couple to be each other’s first.
But I never imagined that Choi Jae-hyung would use Ha-young as an excuse to do something else behind her back. That timid guy who used to tremble in front of Ha-young was acting like a skilled male in front of another woman.
Just until recently, he had said he liked Ha-young so much that he would tremble just looking at her face, but now he said he felt suffocated with nervousness around her.
Choi Jae-hyung, protecting the woman he had just been in bed with from Ha-young, seemed like a completely different person from the man she knew.
“So, is that your excuse? You were bored with me, so you went to another woman…”
“I was curious. If it wouldn’t work with other women either. But it did. So it’s not my problem…”
If it didn’t work with other women either… In a moment of desperation, he was going to pretend to be innocent and live with me?
Slap.
Ha-young slapped Choi Jae-hyung’s cheek without even realizing it. After hitting his left cheek, a wave of irritation washed over her, and as she went to strike his right cheek, he obediently closed his eyes.
“Yeah, hit me. I deserve it.”
Watching Choi Jae-hyung willingly offer his right cheek after saying he deserved it made her stomach churn.
No matter how much she hit him, it wouldn’t make his wrongdoings equal.
She felt ridiculously annoyed at her own sincerity in stopping by the supermarket after work to buy groceries with both hands full, just to cook for such a jerk. He was just as passive in bed in the first place. And then what? He said there was something wrong with her?
“Isn’t she the new employee who joined recently?”
There was a time when Ha-young felt slightly displeased when Jae-hyung posted a picture on social media where he was very close to a newly hired employee who was dressed particularly seductively. The woman’s attitude, which seemed to actively show interest in Jae-hyung, was conveyed even through the picture, making Ha-young inwardly uncomfortable.
But she vividly remembered that day when she had to swallow her words, unable to show any possessiveness because they had just had a big fight over wedding preparations.
“Did you investigate me?”
Choi Jae-hyung, his eyes wide open, raised his voice as if interrogating Ha-young this time.
“Investigate? Choi Jae-hyung. Is that the best you can come up with?”
Choi Jae-hyung, who had proposed to Ha-young but only told her the door lock password much later, had brought a new employee who had recently joined his company to his house. It was unbelievable. Ha-young had only started going in and out of his house a few weeks ago.
Ha-young left his house as if fleeing and got into a taxi. The rain poured down as if the sky had burst, hitting the car window fiercely.
Lately, she had sensed him growing distant. They had been fighting more often while preparing for the wedding, but she had just thought it was a ritual that engaged couples had to go through. She had dismissed it as nothing, recalling stories of ‘pre-wedding love quarrels’ she had seen in the media.
He had suggested treating Ha-young’s colleagues to a meal while handing out wedding invitations, but had been postponing the date indefinitely. Now, it felt like all the loose ends were being tied up.
Tears streamed down Ha-young’s face. Her betrayal was even greater because she had believed Choi Jae-hyung to be innocent.
“You bastard…”
With this, Ha-young’s late first love, which had begun with a passionate man’s courtship, ended miserably.
The man she thought was the most innocent in the world was actually a dog who shamelessly played around with his lower body behind her back.
She had gradually opened her heart to Choi Jae-hyung’s long-standing pure love and had rushed into marriage after about half a year of dating.
She didn’t want to be the tragic heroine, but rain poured outside the car window, and tears flowed endlessly from Ha-young’s eyes.
“I won’t let this go…”
She remembered the photo of Ha-young alone in her wedding dress that had lonely adorned her social media profile, even though she clearly had a fiancé. Ruminating on the photo she had posted to show off the dress, not even realizing how pathetic it looked, felt like her skin was being cut with a knife. She recalled his slick words about needing to separate public and private life, which was why he hadn’t uploaded any wedding photos on social media until the end.
Glancing at Ha-young in the rearview mirror as she sobbed alone and gritted her teeth, the taxi driver coughed repeatedly as if he had choked on something.
Ha-young was not a woman generous enough to wish happiness upon those two.
How should she deal with these people?
It felt like she wouldn’t be able to recover from the betrayal no matter what she did.
Ha-young suddenly called her mother’s son, a former national youth judo athlete turned physical education teacher, in other words, her ‘older brother’ who was quite strong.
Her seven-year-older sibling. She usually never sought out her ‘oppa’, but at times like this, she desperately needed him.
Recalling how Choi Jae-hyung still trembled in front of Ha-young’s brother even with their wedding approaching, she realized that only her older brother, Song Doo-young, could give her revenge a satisfying conclusion.
-What is it?
At the sound of Song Doo-young’s voice coming through the phone, she suddenly felt a lump in her throat.
“Oppa, heuu, that bastard Choi Jae-hyung, heuu, he cheated on me…”
As soon as she heard her mother’s son’s voice, the sorrow she had been barely holding back exploded. Ha-young began to sob like a child in the back seat of the taxi.
Even at times like this, she wished her older brother would bravely rush over and grab her fiancé by the collar and shake him, but after calming down and thinking about it, she knew that settling things with fists was not the way to go in the modern 21st century.
Even by the time Ha-young returned home, showered, changed into her pajamas, and drank some beer, she hadn’t received a call back from her brother.
She couldn’t blame Song Doo-young, who had sent their parents on a trip to Jeju Island for their mother’s sixtieth birthday, skipping the party. If they found out about their daughter’s broken engagement while on their trip, their long-awaited act of filial piety would be ruined.
“Figures.”
Ha-young gulped down the beer on her empty stomach. Tears streamed from her swollen eyes no matter how many times she wiped them.
“He’s always nagging at home like an old man, but he’s never there when I actually need him.”
Even while clutching her aching heart, she couldn’t just indulge in her painful emotions.
Marriage was reality. And a broken engagement was an even more terrible reality than marriage.
How should she resolve the issue of the apartment title they had signed the contract for, and what was the cancellation process for the hotel wedding hall? Her father had already handed out invitations to his colleagues. If her university friends found out about her broken engagement, it would become a topic of gossip for a long time.
She remembered the faces of some of her colleagues who would secretly rejoice knowing that Choi Jae-hyung’s notoriously devoted one-sided love had met a flamboyant end with an affair.
She could also vividly imagine her colleagues at work, who would find any excuse to gossip behind people’s backs like hyenas, whispering about her after her disastrous broken engagement right before the wedding.
She had faced a miserable broken engagement right at the doorstep of her wedding. Ha-young still couldn’t believe it was real and repeatedly drank beer with her trembling hands.
So, you finally did this.
She had rejected Choi Jae-hyung’s confessions six times while in university, but seeing him persistently pursue her, she had believed it was sincere love.
It wasn’t a thrilling, passionate love, but she had thought of him as a stable man to be a husband.
It was even more shocking that Choi Jae-hyung, who had acted like a gentleman in front of Ha-young, had played around messily with another woman behind her back. Wasn’t he the guy who had acted like he wasn’t even interested in sex with Ha-young?
And yet he talked about her being a ‘block of wood’. What was even more terrible was that Choi Jae-hyung’s words kept ringing in her ears.
The face of the guy who comforted that woman first even after getting caught cheating was vivid in her mind. That bastard who had trembled and cried while confessing his love to Ha-young…
Ha-young wiped away the falling tears with her hand. She couldn’t tell if she was sad about the breakup or miserable about her own situation.
All the elders in her family had told Ha-young not to rush into marriage at a young age, but back then, she had been so blinded by something that she had even gone on a hunger strike to push for the wedding.
The most miserable thing, beyond all the betrayal, was that she was completely clueless about how to fix this marriage right now. There were mountains of problems to solve, leaving no room to wallow in sadness.
She had finally pushed for the wedding, ignoring her family elders who had told her she was too young to marry, but she had ended up proving herself foolish.
“I want to die…”
As she finished another can of beer and tugged at her hair, the doorbell rang loudly.
“What is it? Did oppa come? He wouldn’t have come with Mom and Dad, would he?”
Even though she thought it was impossible for her brother in Jeju Island to fly over, Song Doo-young was the only person she could think of who would come to her house at this hour.
She tried hard to calm her throbbing heart, but she felt like she would burst into tears again as soon as she saw her brother’s face.
“But there’s no need to bring Mom and Dad…”
Ha-young muttered to herself, put the beer can down on the table, and headed for the front door.
As she got drunk, her anger subsided somewhat, but she still wished her mother’s son would rush over and beat her fiancé to a pulp, even now. Of course, it was a ridiculous fantasy, but she felt like her stomach would be relieved if she saw Choi Jae-hyung’s face bloodied and miserable from her judo expert brother’s one throw.
However, the moment Ha-young scratched her pajamas and opened the front door, her face stiffened.
Standing at the door was not her brother. It was her brother’s friend, Kwon Ji-sung.
“Ji-sung oppa?”
In the deep night past midnight, Ji-sung stood leaning against the front door with a shadowed face.
Her heart dropped with a thud at the unexpected appearance of Kwon Ji-sung.
Having always seen Ji-sung in comfortable casual clothes, seeing him now in a perfectly tailored suit made her neck feel strangely hot. It was like the awkward air she had felt in elementary school when Kwon Ji-sung suddenly appeared with her older brother, both wearing high school uniforms.
Over 190cm tall, Ji-sung effortlessly pulled off even casual wear like a model, but suits especially suited him.
His unusually long arms and legs, as tall as his height, perfectly completed the suit’s fit.
And that wasn’t all. Unlike her older brother Song Doo-young, who, like a teacher, tried to instruct people all day long and never stopped talking, Ji-sung was a man of few words, but his gaze held all the languages of the world.
From his breathtakingly high nose bridge, as if sculpted by a god, to his perfectly angled, chiseled jawline. Kwon Ji-sung, whom it was tiring to even call handsome, was somehow staring at Ha-young with his handsome face carelessly distorted.
Wasn’t he in the violent crimes division? Like a prosecutor dealing with organized crime, he exuded an overwhelming aura that could subdue people with just a look. Ha-young almost cried out for her brother at Ji-sung’s persistent gaze, which made her feel like she had to confess even to crimes she hadn’t committed, but then she awkwardly moved her lips instead.
Ah, damn it. I’m not even wearing a bra.
Ha-young instinctively hunched her shoulders back. Feeling embarrassed in her shabby microfiber pajamas covered in lint, she stood like a statue while Ji-sung took off his shoes as if it were his own house and walked past Ha-young into the living room.
“Doo-young oppa isn’t home.”
Ha-young followed behind Ji-sung’s wide strides like a puppy and spoke to him. But ignoring Ha-young’s words, Ji-sung finally stopped at the table in front of the sofa and looked down at the scattered beer cans with a displeased expression.
At his gaze, which interrogated her like a criminal, Ha-young mumbled an unasked answer to herself.
“It’s Mom’s sixtieth birthday, so he went to Jeju Island with our parents.”
“I know. Song Doo-young contacted me, and I came.”
“Oppa sent you?”
“Yeah.”
Seriously, that mother’s boy can’t do anything right.
Sending his friend to his sister’s house after she faced the miserable end of a broken engagement? That makes no sense.
I’m already upset enough. No matter how long we’ve known each other since we were kids, my heart always tensed up in front of that prickly prosecutor who deals with gangsters.
“He said he couldn’t bring himself to tell our parents until the trip is over.”
Ha-young wiped her horribly swollen eyes with the back of her hand and picked up the beer cans scattered in the living room. Ji-sung didn’t say anything, but she acted nonchalantly as if she was about to get scolded.
Ji-sung’s neat suit, contrasting with Ha-young’s pink microfiber pajamas as she drank, somehow made her feel self-conscious.
“But why did you come?”
“Because of you.”
“Because of me?”
“I heard what happened. Tell me what happened.”
That punk Song Doo-young. What’s so 자랑 about his younger sister getting her engagement broken? Why would he embarrass her by sending his friend?
How could she tell her older brother’s friend that she witnessed her fiancé in bed with another woman? But Kwon Ji-sung, who interrogated criminals every day, seemed to know everything without her saying a word.
Looking at Kwon Ji-sung’s gaze as he leaned against the doorframe in front of Ha-young, she immediately wanted to fly to Jeju Island and smack her clueless older brother’s head hard. Of course, Ha-young couldn’t say a word in front of the massive Song Doo-young.
“It’s nothing. Why would I tell oppa something that’s not good news?”
“What’s there not to tell? He said you called him crying.”
Well, I called Song Doo-young in a fit of anger because I thought it would feel good if that hulking guy grabbed Choi Jae-hyung by the collar and shook him…
Anyway, that blabbermouth Song Doo-young.
Did he already spread it all over the neighborhood that his twenty-five-year-old sister called her older brother crying like a child and tattled on him?
But she couldn’t bring herself to say such a thing in front of her brother’s friend. That’s just how it is, she’s not an elementary school student. Ha-young was a whole twenty-five years old, not someone who would run to tattle and ask her brother to scold her cheating boyfriend.
If only that ‘older brother’s friend’ wasn’t here, she would have clung to Song Doo-young and made all sorts of disgraceful scenes, but considering his social status, she had to restrain her ugly behavior in front of others.
Even without this, she had been scolded by her family for rushing into marriage at a young age, so the miserable outcome of a broken engagement was terrible. She had wanted to live better than others, to show them.
“It’s okay. I’ll take care of it, so oppa, you can go.”
As Ha-young tried to see Ji-sung off at the door, he grabbed her wrist and stubbornly made her sit down in front of the sofa. Captured by the warm grip on her wrist, Ha-young obediently sat down on the floor.
She felt strangely nervous as Ji-sung’s hand brushed against her back as he let go. Ji-sung’s mood seemed unusually low today.
“I rushed over right after working late.”
“What does it have to do with oppa?”
“He’s Song Doo-young’s younger sister, why wouldn’t it?”
“I don’t know. What am I going to tell oppa? I have nothing to say.”
“Are you just going to cry and drink alone miserably?”
Ji-sung loosened his tie with a somewhat subdued look and sat down right next to her.
“Don’t act like you’re interrogating me.”
“Does it look like I’m interrogating you? Shall I try interrogating you?”
At Ji-sung’s cold reply, Ha-young swallowed hard. While glaring at Ji-sung, she unknowingly began to confess everything.
“It’s not that I’m sad, I’m just really angry.”
It would be a lie to say she wasn’t sad, but her anger was greater than her sadness.
It was Choi Jae-hyung, who had opened her heart by crying and begging that he would rather die without her, even after she repeatedly confessed that she didn’t like him.
She was still stunned by the fact that the guy who had been so happy as if he had gained the whole world when Ha-young accepted his feelings had so easily two-timed her. Ha-young had also come to love Choi Jae-hyung because of his unwavering devotion.
Even after going through that, she still loved Choi Jae-hyung. Just because she was betrayed didn’t mean that the feeling of love would disappear overnight. But it was also true that she had become disappointed in him as she prepared for the wedding and learned about Choi Jae-hyung’s calculating and petty true nature. Now, ‘love-hate’ would be the accurate emotion.
And it was a secret she couldn’t tell anyone, but the fact that Choi Jae-hyung, who couldn’t even get an erection in front of Ha-young, had been rolling around in bed with a newly hired employee who had just joined the company, was so disgustingly humiliating that it made her blood run cold.
Even though she knew that saying it was her fault was an illogical excuse, it was a woman’s heart that crumbled under the gaslighting of the person she loved.
To make matters worse, as she drank, she reached the absurd self-reproach that maybe the broken engagement was her fault, just as Choi Jae-hyung had said. What was wrong with her as a woman that the man who had clung to her saying he would rather die without Ha-young had cheated on her overnight? She was digging herself into a hole. Even though she knew it wasn’t true in her head, a woman who had been dumped had her heart filled with the worst thoughts.
She had been excited by the thrill of her first love and had temporarily lost her sense of reality. When she came to her senses, they were already dating, and they had quickly started looking at wedding halls.
There were several reasons why Ha-young had opened her heart to Choi Jae-hyung. His five years of unwavering love felt trustworthy. He was dependable and sincere. He didn’t lie and was diligent. Since they were university classmates, they had a lot of common ground in their conversations.
The failed attempt at intimacy was unexpected, but with so many good qualities, she couldn’t possibly break off the engagement just because his libido wasn’t cooperating. It wasn’t something she could readily explain to people, and Ha-young believed things would gradually improve. Only now had the rose-tinted glasses she’d been wearing completely shattered.
Anyway, it was embarrassing to cry and whine about being dumped by a guy in front of her older brother’s friend. She wanted to keep her shameful past a secret. The whole situation was disgustingly pathetic.
Since when did he care about my business?
Even though he was her older brother’s friend whom she had known since childhood, this was the first time they were alone together at home, making her feel uncomfortable.
“It’s a relief you’re not sad then.”
But Ji-sung chuckled as if he liked that. She disliked how someone who usually didn’t laugh was smiling so readily at someone else’s broken engagement.
“I don’t know what Song Doo-young is good for, keeping that big frame of his. I thought he would have rushed over to grab Choi Jae-hyung by the collar, so why did he send you?”
“Do you want me to go and grab him by the collar?”
Ji-sung raised one eyebrow as if to say he would rush over right now if she asked him to. If it was Ji-sung, who used to do judo with Doo-young, he could probably take down Choi Jae-hyung with his eyes closed...
“I was just saying, don’t take it so seriously.”
“And you. What is Song Doo-young to your oppa?”
“Are you going to treat me like a kid too, oppa? I’m already sick and tired of my family treating me like a child because of the marriage issue. In the end, it turned out this way, so I ended up proving my family right.”
“But you are a kid.”
Ha-young pouted at Ji-sung’s words.
Seriously. Why does he keep poking at someone who’s already upset?
“This is really annoying…”
As Ha-young mumbled to herself, just loud enough for him to hear, Ji-sung chuckled again.
Why is he laughing so much today, it’s irritating.
He opened a beer can and asked in a low voice, his playfulness gone, “What do you want?”
As if his throat was dry, Ji-sung gulped down the beer in one go. Ha-young unknowingly swallowed hard at the deep movement of his Adam’s apple.
“Huh?”
Ji-sung wiped the beer foam from his lips with the back of his hand. Tilting his head, he leaned closer. Ha-young leaned back, her eyes wide at their suddenly close proximity.
“That bastard was a public official, right?”
“Yeah… He works at the tax office. Grade 7.”
“Should I make a big fuss so he can never set foot in public service again, or should I hire someone to castrate him?”
“Huh?”
“I’m talking about your fiancé. How should I mess him up?”
Ha-young couldn’t process Ji-sung’s following words.
It was reassuring. So, her prosecutor oppa’s friend came to take care of her cheating fiancé? That was truly reassuring…
Looking at Kwon Ji-sung’s half-crazed eyes, she felt like he would really do something big if left alone.
Ha-young herself didn’t want to let her fiancé go unpunished, but in front of Kwon Ji-sung’s ominous expression, she instinctively held back.
“Ji-sung oppa.”
“Tell me.”
“Can a prosecutor in South Korea… really do that?”
Ji-sung chuckled, looking at Ha-young’s questioning expression.
“Do you think I can?”
So, he meant he would commit a crime?
Revenge was important, but she couldn’t just watch a prosecutor, who was supposed to uphold justice in South Korea, cause trouble himself.
“If you can’t, then what are you going to do?”
“People can’t always live by the law.”
“But prosecutors should uphold the law…”
“The people who know the law best are also the ones who know how to cleverly break it.”
Watching Ji-sung give a nonchalant, sinister smile, her heart pounded as if it had broken. The devil’s hand tempted Ha-young to ruin her fiancé, but she couldn’t throw a decent member of society into the abyss of evil.
“No. Don’t do that. You worked so hard to become a prosecutor. Why are you being so scary…”
“There’s not much I can do legally anyway. Even if I’m a prosecutor, it’s not like that bastard committed a crime, so we’d have to go through civil court.”
“I know. Cheating isn’t a crime…”
“I’ll introduce you to a lawyer. But would getting just a million won be any consolation?”
“A million won?”
“In South Korea, a wife who’s been beaten by her husband for 20 years barely gets ten million won in alimony. It’s absurd, but that’s the precedent in our country. Even if you sue for alimony, there’s not much money you’ll be able to get.”
“That’s ridiculous…”
“No matter how good the outcome is in civil court, it won’t satisfy you.”
It was nice of the prosecutor, who knew the law well, to say he would take care of that guy while avoiding the legal loopholes, but after hearing Ji-sung’s blunt facts, she felt even more miserable.
Of course, she didn’t want to be comforted with money.
However, it was infuriating that there wasn’t much she could do legally to her boyfriend who had been caught having sex with another woman and then cowardly blamed Ha-young for their breakup.
At most, about a million won? She would rather beat him up thoroughly and pay a million won in fines.
Ha-young took a swig of beer, feeling heavy-hearted. She repeatedly rubbed her dry face with her hands and sighed deeply.
“I know, right? Song Doo-young didn’t like that bastard from the beginning.”
Men know men best, or so he said. She had dismissed her older brother’s old-fashioned words as nonsense.
From the moment Ha-young started dating Choi Jae-hyung, her older brother had nagged her, saying he didn’t like the look in his eyes, as if he had some ulterior motive. Doo-young’s words, that when a man clings on abnormally, it’s not true love but lust, suddenly came back to her. Since that lust was frustrated in bed, cheating was probably the next logical step.
Men always backed down when they met Song Doo-young, who had been a national judo athlete in high school.
Even with her fiancé looking scared and pale in front of her brother, who was pressuring him, asking if he truly loved Ha-young, Ha-young had forcefully pushed for the marriage in the end.
What was it about first love?
The universe had given her signals several times that it wasn’t right, but the problem lay in her judgment for ignoring them and pushing ahead with the marriage.
It seemed that, just as the adults had said, Ha-young was still too young to get married.
“I just… want to resolve the apartment contract issue properly. I wanted to sign it under joint ownership, but since he works at the tax office, I thought he would be good at managing money. He said it was better to have it under one person’s name because of tax issues, so we signed it under his name. I even gave him the money in cash. Even if we say the house contract is null, we already paid the down payment, so the penalty is too high, and my dad paid for the wedding hall costs…”
As Ha-young spoke with a bitter heart, Ji-sung’s eyes shone darkly.
Looking at Ji-sung’s deranged gaze, a corner of her heart grew cold, as if he was about to do something big.
“A guy with no house proposed to you first?”
“How many people these days buy a house and then get married?”
“Even after what happened, you’re defending that bastard?”
“It’s not that I’m defending him…”
“That crazy bastard. He should be grateful you were going to marry him. Your father even paid for the wedding hall costs?”
“It just ended up being half and half…”
“In this day and age, you didn’t do bank transfers?”
“It just happened that way.”
Ji-sung sighed deeply, bombarding her with questions as if he was frustrated.
“Okay. Let’s assume that can be taken care of with a request for financial transaction information. What about the contract?”
“Huh?”
“You didn’t write anything like a prenuptial agreement?”
A prenuptial agreement?
Wasn’t writing a contract before marriage something only Hollywood stars did?
There was no way that young adults who hadn’t accumulated much wealth would write something like that before getting married.
“I should have known this would happen…”
“Even if you were going to get married, half of your money went into it. And you’re saying he signed the apartment contract under his sole name?”
“He said he would take care of managing the money…”
“What a complete jerk.”
Tsk. He acted like he would give her his liver and gall bladder, but he was the one who took all the practical benefits behind her back.
Watching Ha-young cover her face with her hands as if crying at Ji-sung’s pointed words, he nodded.
“Okay. My colleague is the best in this field. To put it simply, he’s a nasty lawyer.”
The word ‘nasty’ about the lawyer he was going to introduce piqued her interest.
“There’s not much we can do legally, but within the bounds of what’s possible, I’ll make that bastard’s life as tiring as possible.”
Kwon Ji-sung’s heavy scent brushed against her nose. He was going to make Choi Jae-hyung’s life tiring within the legal limits. It was a truly sweet promise.
“But, oppa. How much did you hear?”
As Ha-young asked cautiously, Ji-sung narrowed his eyes and coldly recited, “He was rolling around naked in bed with a new employee from his company. That son of a bitch.”
“……!”
Had Kwon Ji-sung’s language always been this rough?
A chill ran down her spine at the unexpectedly harsh language coming from his elegant lips. A prosecutor who dealt with heinous organized criminals every day couldn’t possibly have gentle language, but it was her first time hearing such brutal profanity in private, and even fear crept in.
At the same time, she felt a sense of relief thanks to Ji-sung, who was on her side and just as riled up.
Her older brother’s friend, who had appeared before Ha-young who had no one by her side, felt like a reliable ally.
Anyway, it seemed he had heard everything from Doo-young. Earlier, she had been so upset and wronged that she had unknowingly poured out everything to Doo-young without any editing.
Who knew it would reach Kwon Ji-sung’s ears? Her cheeks flushed, and one drink led to another.
Conscious of their excessively close proximity, Ha-young moved to the side, creating some distance between them. Ji-sung kept his gaze fixed on her as he drank his beer.
Ji-sung’s deeply moving Adam’s apple stood out. He seemed to be drunk. She felt strange looking at her brother’s friend with an awkward gaze.
“So. What are you going to do?”
“About what?”
“The wedding.”
Her stomach churned with the alcohol. She didn’t want to call her parents, who had finally gone on an overseas trip, and ruin their mood.
She had intended to discuss things with her older brother, but Doo-young wasn’t even properly answering her calls, worried that their parents would notice something and their trip would be ruined.
She also didn’t feel like complaining to her friends who knew all about her relationship, as it still didn’t feel real.
“I don’t know. I wonder when I’ll be able to get through to Doo-young oppa?”
As Ha-young fiddled with her phone aimlessly, Ji-sung grabbed her hand. Surprised by his touch, she widened her eyes, and Ji-sung frowned as he spoke.
“What are you going to do by contacting Song Doo-young in Jeju Island? He’s probably upset too. And Doo-young is a school teacher. If a former national youth judo athlete turned teacher punches a civilian, it’ll be front-page news.”
Well, that was true. Even though they bickered like typical siblings, she couldn’t turn Song Doo-young into a criminal just because she had lost her mind over her fiancé’s two-timing.
She also couldn’t just grab her brother’s friend and complain.
“You don’t want to go through with that wedding, do you?”
She was hesitant to pour out her heart to her older brother’s friend, whom she had known since childhood, but it was also difficult to make a decision alone with her mind blank. Ha-young sighed deeply and barely managed to open her mouth.
“No. What’s there to think about? He said he wanted to break up. He wouldn’t forgive me even if I begged, so it’s over. You know what’s even funnier? After all that, I’m the one who got dumped.”
A faint smile spread across Ji-sung’s lips, as if he was deep in thought.
Why does he keep smiling in front of someone who’s suffering? Since when did he care about other people’s business?
Anyway, he’s really annoying, just like Song Doo-young’s friend would be. And it’s even more annoying that the only person beside me is the annoying Kwon Ji-sung…
“Did you leave any evidence?”
Ji-sung asked, meeting her eyes. Strangely, the air felt hot under his persistent gaze.
“What evidence?”
She hadn’t even thought of that because of the shocking events. Ji-sung chuckled softly, watching Ha-young bite her lip. Just as she was about to say something about why he kept laughing at someone on the verge of a broken engagement, his next words made her shut her mouth.
“Did you take any pictures of the scene? If you get sued, he might later team up with that woman and deny everything, saying it never happened. You need evidence that he broke his trust right before the wedding.”
“Huh? I don’t have anything like that…”
Was it because he was a prosecutor?
Watching Ji-sung, like a legal professional, spout legal logic in the face of a broken engagement, Ha-young had already come to completely rely on him.
Looking back, Ji-sung had always been reliable. She was truly fortunate to have Ji-sung, who was much more dependable than her brother, who didn’t live up to his size.
But she was so shocked that the thought of taking pictures hadn’t even crossed her mind.
Why do these things only come to mind much later?
“Give me your phone.”
“My phone?”
“Yeah.”
As if possessed, Ha-young handed her phone to Ji-sung. Snatching the phone, Ji-sung found Choi Jae-hyung’s contact information without her permission. Then, before Ha-young could stop him, he sent a message to her fiancé.
“What did you send?”
Ha-young belatedly came to her senses and, startled, quickly checked her phone.
[You just wavered for a moment, right? It’s not serious with that woman, is it?]
Ji-sung tried to sound out Choi Jae-hyung as if Ha-young had sent the message. Choi Jae-hyung, who immediately checked the message, fell for Ji-sung’s bait.
[Jae-hyung: It’s serious. I have nothing to say since it’s all my fault, but don’t be pathetic now.]
[So you admit it’s your fault?]
[Jae-hyung: Yeah. I love Hyo-eun. Don’t make things difficult.]
Watching Choi Jae-hyung’s message admitting his fault, Ji-sung scoffed as if it was too easy.
Even though Choi Jae-hyung had fallen into Ji-sung’s trap, Ha-young sighed deeply at the rather bitter reply.
Ji-sung, meeting Ha-young’s eyes, tilted his head and stared intently at her. With this, the broken engagement was clear.
Ji-sung handed Ha-young a business card.
“He’s a partner at Jiphung Law Firm, a classmate from my training institute. He owes me a lot, so you don’t have to worry about the retainer fee. I’ll tell him in the morning. He’ll call you right away. I’ll tell him to dig up every possible legal issue. To drag the lawsuit out for at least five years, making that bastard go back and forth to court and tire him out. If that guy has to hire a lawyer to go against Jiphung Law Firm every time, he’ll go bankrupt, and if you want, I can even make sure he can’t work as a public official anymore.”
She almost ended up suffering alone until her parents returned from their trip, unable to sort things out and just wasting time.
But with Ji-sung’s decisive confirmation, the broken engagement was finalized without any room for hesitation.
Ji-sung took Ha-young’s phone again and turned it off completely.
“Why did you turn off my phone?”
“In case you get drunk and make a mistake with that guy.”
“I won’t make a mistake…”
“Meeting that guy was a mistake in the first place.”
“I know.”
“Good to hear you know.”
She had intended to discuss it with her only brother, but suddenly her brother’s friend had put an end to her engagement.
This was the right thing to do. But there was still no way to soothe her aching heart.
“Thank you. Honestly, after something like that happened, I felt like I’d get sick with frustration because I thought there was nothing I could do on my own, but since oppa is going to legally torment Choi Jae-hyung to the end, I feel so relieved.”
The only revenge Ha-young could think of was the ridiculous fantasy of Doo-young appearing like a knight in shining armor and grabbing Choi Jae-hyung by the collar and shaking him, but Kwon Ji-sung was different as expected.
It was reassuring that he would cleanly resolve the legal issues entangled with ‘Jiphung Law Firm,’ where ordinary people couldn’t even dream of hiring a lawyer. A partner lawyer at ‘Jiphung Law Firm’ was a heavyweight lawyer hired by prominent politicians and business tycoons. She wanted to drag the lawsuit out for ten or a hundred years and torment the fiancé who had betrayed Ha-young to the very end. Since she didn’t have to worry about the retainer fee thanks to Ji-sung’s connections, she wanted to accept his favor this time, even if it felt awkward.
Just imagining Choi Jae-hyung’s face when he received the complaint and clutched the back of his neck made her feel like the indigestion she had was going down. The thought of Choi Jae-hyung turning pale from the string of lawsuits from a large law firm made her chest swell with satisfaction.
“It might not make everything disappear, but I hope it’s some comfort to you.”
“It’s more than just comfort. Thank you so much, oppa.”
“…….”
“…….”
After getting to the main point, a silence fell between them. Even though they saw each other often, they had never really had a conversation alone.
Alcohol was the perfect remedy for the awkward silence.
“Do you want a drink too, oppa?”
“It’s late. You should stop drinking and go to sleep too.”
“What does it matter? Tomorrow’s Saturday. You won’t have to go to work on the weekend, will you? Just sleep over in Song Doo-young’s room.”
It wasn’t like him sleeping over at their house was a rare occurrence.
She felt sorry for just sending Ji-sung away after finishing their business, and she was also worried that she might get drunk alone on Friday night, lose her mind, and end up crying and clinging to Choi Jae-hyung.
Since things had turned out this way, she wanted to find comfort for her aching heart by having Ji-sung, who knew the whole story, as a drinking buddy.
Watching Ji-sung crush the empty beer can without a word, Ha-young opened another can and handed it to him.
Ji-sung’s eyes, holding the beer can, flickered deeply.
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