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Though she didn’t distrust Kang-joon, Sehee decided to speak directly to Yeon-sook. She believed Yeon-sook would understand if she was honest, and she didn’t want to hide behind Kang-joon when facing Yeon-sook, who cherished her like a daughter.
Considering Yeon-sook’s fondness for flowers, they decided to meet at a flower cafe. The scent of flowers, which had made her nauseous in early pregnancy, now delicately wrapped around her nose. How long had she sat, peacefully taking in the blossoms?
“Daughter!”
At the familiar voice, Sehee turned around. Yeon-sook stood there, her appearance and smile so graceful it was hard to believe she was sixty.
“Why did you come so early, busy girl?”
“Because Mother always comes early.”
Yeon-sook sat across from her with an exasperated expression at Sehee’s smiling remark.
“Well, I have nothing but time, so that’s why. And I miss my daughter so much.”
Kang-joon was greatly displeased that Yeon-sook now naturally called Sehee her daughter. When Kang-joon openly complained, asking why she called his wife “daughter,” Yeon-sook didn’t back down and retorted sharply. She said she called her that because she was like a daughter to her, and since “daughter-like daughter-in-law” was shortened to “daughter,” it was none of his business.
The matter ended in Kang-joon’s defeat because Sehee laughed, saying she liked being called that by her mother.
But Kang-joon still grumbled even now. Did he really have to compete for Joo Sehee with his son, who would be born in four months, and even with his mother?
Of course, Kang-joon’s feelings of slight were understandable. Between preparing baby items and wedding plans, Sehee was spending more time with Yeon-sook than with Kang-joon.
However, far from disliking that time, Sehee cherished it. It felt like she was learning the warmth of a mother, something she thought she’d never know until she died, through Yeon-sook.
As fragrant tea was placed before them, Yeon-sook spoke first.
“You saw what I sent, right? Which one do you like?”
Finally, it’s here. Sehee wet her mouth with the warm tea and looked at Yeon-sook with calm eyes.
“Mother, I think I need to apologize to you.”
“Oh, my dear! Unless you’re saying you’re breaking off the wedding, you have nothing to apologize to me for!”
Yeon-sook’s bright expression seemed to whisper, don’t hesitate to say anything.
So Sehee decided to frankly reveal her inner thoughts with an easy heart.
She confessed that she had overlooked the scale of the Hanshin family, the chaebol of chaebols, or more precisely, Yeon-sook’s actual, normally modest scale. She admitted she was surprised but her intention to have the wedding as Yeon-sook wished hadn’t changed.
“Thanks to Kang-joon, the witch hunt against me has stopped, and I know there are more people supporting me than cursing me. But I’m still a hot topic, and if we have a public, grand wedding now, I think it will damage the Hanshin family’s image. I also think it might be a bit overwhelming for me.”
Yeon-sook listened quietly, with a serious expression, to Sehee’s difficult words.
Though filled with regret, Sehee added in a trembling voice, that thanks to Kang-joon, she had changed a lot, but the fearful Joo Sehee still remained within her. She was truly sorry for creating this situation because of her past.
It would be easier if she just expressed her disappointment.
This time again, Yeon-sook touched Sehee’s heart.
“My Sehee must have gone through so much alone. Is that why you lost so much weight, upsetting your mother?”
Yeon-sook quietly reached out, wrapped her hands around Sehee’s tightly clasped ones on the table, and patted them.
“The articles had to break a month before the wedding. Right?”
As Yeon-sook looked at her gently, Sehee’s eyes reddened.
How did such a tender-hearted child endure so many years with such bitterness? Yeon-sook found it both amazing and pitiful.
Listening to her, Sehee’s words weren’t wrong.
Even now, the chaebol family’s scandalous love story was a hot topic.
If they held the wedding publicly and grandly in this situation, the public opinion Kang-joon had reversed could flip again. The damage would fall entirely on Sehee.
She had just started to look healthier, but seeing her face pale again, Yeon-sook felt it.
She was a cautious and careful person, so she must have thought and worried so much alone.
Yeon-sook’s heart ached thinking that Sehee was already tired from the pregnancy, and now she was suffering emotionally.
Such a precious daughter-in-law, a precious grandchild she had obtained. And a daughter-in-law who chose only beautiful words, promising to bear more precious grandchildren.
“Then let’s have a private, simple wedding. We’ll cut the guests down to under two hundred.”
It was Sehee who was surprised by Yeon-sook’s unexpectedly cool answer.
“Are you really okay with that?”
“What’s not to be okay with?”
When Sehee asked cautiously, Yeon-sook burst into laughter.
“Thinking about it, boasting about my daughter-like daughter-in-law is best done by arranging a meeting and having her sit right beside me, isn’t it?”
Yeon-sook mumbled and then continued with an excited expression, “The wedding venue will be the Savage Garden at Felice Hotel, famous for small weddings... Ah.”
But Yeon-sook made a realization.
Because the Savage Garden at Felice Hotel was where Sehee had held her wedding under Yoo Taeryeong’s name.
“I’m fine with it, Mother. No, I want to do it there.”
The place where she first saw Seo Kang-joon, the place where things first got entangled with Seo Kang-joon, yet the wedding and the groom were vividly etched in her memory.
Sehee wanted to start anew from that very place.
“Mother will look into it. By the way, have you thought about where you’d like your newlywed home to be?”
“If Mother is okay with it, could you let us use the annex of the main house?”
When Yeon-sook looked at her as if she didn’t understand, Sehee spoke softly.
“I want to continue working after giving birth, and for that, I’ll need Mother’s help. I’d prefer Mother to raise Pré rather than a babysitter.”
Sehee vividly remembered Yeon-sook’s words, spoken casually a few times.
That she was the only one who didn’t know the hardships, pride, and joy of raising a child, thanks to her not-so-baby-like son. So, she wondered if she could raise her grandchildren herself, rather than leaving them to strangers.
“I grew up lonely, so I want to raise Pré in a bustling family. Of course, only if Grandfather and Mother are okay with it.”
“Why wouldn’t we be okay? Of course, you’re welcome! Who would say no when a daughter-in-law wants to bring her grandchild home? Father will probably even shove all those paintings into storage! Wait a minute, this isn’t the time for me to be doing this! I need to look into remodeling companies right away!”
Yeon-sook had grasped that the faster the remodeling was done, the sooner her son and daughter-in-law would move in.
Watching Yeon-sook, who couldn’t contain her excitement at the mere thought, Sehee simply smiled quietly.
________________________________________
The Savage Garden at Felice Hotel.
The bride, sitting demurely in the waiting room, was breathtakingly beautiful.
“My goodness, you’re so beautiful. You can’t even tell you’re pregnant at all.”
The helper had reason to give sincere compliments.
Thanks to the short waistline design, the dazzling details that seemed to radiate light drawing attention to her upper body, and her elegant neckline and slender shoulders.
Sehee, wearing a voluminous and ornate ball gown wedding dress, didn’t look like she was six months pregnant.
It was due to Yeon-sook’s insistence that even if the wedding was simple, the wedding dress should be lavish.
The moment the helper was about to place the veil over her neatly tied-up hair, Sehee finally spoke.
“Please remove the veil.”
“Shall I just put a tiara on you then?”
A dazzling tiara was placed on Sehee’s head as she nodded slightly.
Just then, a hotel staff member entered and said, “Bride, it’s time for your entrance.”
Sehee’s hand, which had gripped the hem of her dress and risen, trembled faintly as she calmly looked at the entrance beyond her long eyelashes.
Four years ago, she was simply afraid and terrified because it was a path that couldn’t be undone or returned from.
But not anymore. She didn’t want to undo it, nor did she want to go back. This was her path, and he would be at the end of it.
The beautiful bride who confidently stepped forward today was Joo Sehee.
________________________________________
The wedding was no different from four years ago.
The lush green mountains and open Han River view, the high and clear autumn sky, perfect ironclad security, a private wedding. Even the guest list, initially 200, had been reduced to 100. And the groom was Seo Kang-joon, the Hanshin heir, so dangerously handsome.
Only the bride had changed.
Now, she didn’t have to hide her face behind a veil, and she could look at her groom with eyes full of love. She could even shed tears and wear a happy smile.
Because it was a wedding held in her own name, not someone else’s, a wedding as a real bride, not a fake one.
“Congratulations on your marriage. And you must be happy, Joo Sehee.”
As promised, Jinwoo held Sehee’s hand and walked her down the aisle to Kang-joon.
Sehee thanked him with her eyes and firmly grasped Kang-joon’s outstretched hand.
His warm hand enveloped her cold fingertips, transferring warmth.
Just like four years ago, Kang-joon slowly lowered his face to Sehee’s.
“Thank you, Joo Sehee.”
His cold gaze was gentle, and his chilling voice was soft.
“For becoming my wife and the mother of my child.”
Kang-joon’s whisper that spread in her ear was so sweet it made her want to cry.
I shouldn’t cry. But against her will, her eyes were moist.
As she bit her lip to hold back tears, Kang-joon whispered lowly, “It’s a day when you can cry, and you’re beautiful even when you cry, so cry.”
Don’t hold anything back in front of me. At Kang-joon’s gently added words, Sehee finally burst into tears.
Thanks to Kyungjin’s witty emceeing, those tears quickly disappeared in a few seconds.
“Oh dear. The groom made the bride cry before the wedding even began. It seems the groom might need a few spanks on the bottom before we start. Mother, Grandfather, is that okay?”
Instead of Yeon-sook and Chairman Seo, Mija actively stepped forward for her beloved granddaughter-in-law.
Just try to hit my granddaughter-in-law.
After a burst of laughter, the real wedding began.
The officiant, a friend of Chairman Seo, gave a simple and brief address, and Kyungjin’s emceeing was so entertaining that laughter continuously erupted.
The bouquet Sehee threw flew high into the clear sky and landed in Jingyeong’s arms.
After the wedding, fragrant flower petals were scattered over the dazzlingly beautiful bride and groom.
A beautiful, happy, and delightful wedding that would remain forever in their memories until they died, thus concluded.
Kang-joon looked at Sehee with soft eyes and extended his hand.
“Shall we walk a bit?”
Taking Kang-joon’s hand, Sehee walked across the rustling lawn.
Before, when they walked on this lawn, they looked in different directions, coldly ignoring each other.
But now, they couldn’t take their eyes off each other.
________________________________________
Upon reaching a spot where even the security guards were out of sight, Kang-joon, as if he had been waiting, pulled Sehee into his arms.
He quietly pressed his forehead against hers, met her eyes, and Kang-joon softly whispered,
“We’ve truly become an indissoluble couple.”
Indeed. Sehee shyly looked up at Kang-joon, answering with a beautiful eye-smile.
It was Sehee’s gaze and smile that made Kang-joon lose his mind.
“This is why I’m going crazy.”
He mumbled that he felt like he was dying from holding back all day.
Kang-joon then poured a deep, intense kiss upon Sehee under the clear blue sky, on the verdant grass.
It had begun as a marriage that was supposed to end after just four years of enduring.
But after coming full circle, it was starting anew after four years.
Anger had turned into love, unhappiness into happiness, and a relationship that was meant to be severed had become an indissoluble bond.
________________________________________
Four months later.
Someone shook Kang-joon’s shoulder, waking him from a deep sleep.
He opened his eyes to see Sehee sitting beside him, upright.
Kang-joon instinctively shot up and asked Sehee,
“Are you uncomfortable anywhere?”
“I don’t know either,” Sehee mumbled incoherently, slowly blinking as she looked down.
He subconsciously followed her gaze and saw the wet sheets.
It couldn’t have been Joo Sehee’s mistake.
Kang-joon, quickly recalling the contents of the parenting books he had thoroughly read, first embraced his startled wife.
He needed to remain calm as Sehee became anxious.
He gently stroked her still slender back, despite her being almost full-term, and calmly said,
“It seems your water broke, so let’s go to the hospital first. Everything will be fine, so don’t worry about anything. You trust me, right?”
Sehee quietly nodded in Kang-joon’s arms.
Only after seeing her relaxed expression did Kang-joon pick up his phone and calmly make calls.
First to the hospital, then to Chairman Seo and Yeon-sook.
The moment they were ready to leave, Chairman Seo and Yeon-sook burst into the house.
“Sehee!”
“My baby!”
Kang-joon and Sehee, experiencing childbirth for the first time, remained calm, but the two experienced individuals were anything but.
They began to fuss wildly, worrying about what would happen to their precious daughter-in-law and precious grandchild.
From the house to their arrival at the hospital, and from the hospital room to the delivery room.
It was a tumultuous start to childbirth.
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