Driving home, Kangjoon thought about the message his wife had sent.

[I’m leaving work early today. I’d like to have dinner together at home, how’s your schedule?]

Was this how his wife felt too? When someone suddenly became nice, the feeling of doubt preceded the feeling of happiness. What was she trying to get by making him lower his guard? Arriving at the parking lot, he saw his wife just getting out of her car. She had bags full in both hands, he wondered what she had bought so much of.

“What did you buy so much of?”

It was almost instinct for Kangjoon, who had gotten out of the car, to approach his wife and take the bags from her hands.

“I didn’t know what Kangjoon-ssi would like, so I just bought whatever caught my eye.”

The two of them rode the elevator up together and entered the house. Seeing a pair of shoes placed at the entrance, Taeryeong asked with a troubled expression.

“Kangjoon-ssi, could you come in three minutes later?”

In that short moment, a sliver of suspicion towards his wife pricked Kangjoon’s heart like a canker sore. Was the appearance of a third party truly a coincidence? Did his wife want to avoid this situation? Or did she want to show it to him? When Kangjoon nodded, his wife headed to the kitchen with slightly hurried steps. But the moment he heard the voices of two women talking, Kangjoon slowly moved his feet. As if there was no need to rush, leisurely. As the distance narrowed, the conversation became clearer to Kangjoon’s ears.

“I’ll organize the refrigerator later. But Auntie, didn’t you get a call saying you could leave early today?”

“It’s unbelievable, do you think I don’t want to leave work early? And if you don’t even touch the food like this, what am I supposed to do? What will I report to the Chairman!”

Arriving in the kitchen, Kangjoon saw a middle-aged woman pointing angrily at his wife, who had her head lowered.

“The Chairman specifies the brand for all the food, even the ingredients, because she’s his daughter. And they’re all top-grade. And I cook diligently with those ingredients!”

Kangjoon could now understand. His wife hadn’t wanted to avoid this situation, she had wanted to show it to him.

“But not even touching this precious food is ignoring the Chairman’s sincerity and making me suffer!”

It was clear that his wife wanted to borrow Kangjoon’s hand to get rid of her. The spy her mother had sent to report her every move.

“Let me say one last thing...!”

“Let me say that last thing.”

Even so, Kangjoon didn’t hesitate and stepped into the kitchen, cutting off her words coldly.

“You are fired, starting now.”

Because he had willingly decided to be used in his wife’s plan to use him as a shield.

“CEO, please listen to me. Madam, you see...”

“Can’t you understand? I said that was the last thing.”

For Kangjoon, his wife was a woman for whom the word “last” had no meaning. That’s how she always managed to impress him. The fact that she had orchestrated this meant that his wife accurately understood his personality. At Kangjoon’s firmness, the helper targeted the easily manipulated Taeryeong again.

“If I get fired, Madam will also be in trouble. So please say something to the CEO, okay?”

But Taeryeong, gently taking the helper’s hand, replied with a look of pity.

“Auntie, I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do for you.”

If only you had listened to me, this wouldn’t have happened. After the helper, her shoulders drooping, left the house, Kangjoon asked Taeryeong as if he had been waiting.

“Did I play the shield role well?”

Taeryeong looked at Kangjoon with a composed gaze. The helper Madam Jo had sent always left work early. But if told to leave early, she would stubbornly stay behind and watch Taeryeong. That way, she could thoroughly ignore and torment Taeryeong before proudly reporting to Madam Jo. So Taeryeong had lowered herself. Hoping that the helper would report this to Madam Jo. Someone who couldn’t even raise her voice to Madam Jo’s employee would surely not have any other intentions towards her.

“Why did you do it even though you knew? You could have just ignored her.”

When Taeryeong calmly admitted it, Kangjoon’s face hardened. He had hoped his wife would deny it to the end. Then he would have dismissed her as a shameless and hypocritical woman. But his wife’s easy admission made her seem resigned. It made him wonder how difficult things must have been for her to seek his help. So he became even more concerned.

“Because I just wanted to.”

In the future, when I hurt you, I wanted to feel at least a little less guilty. So Kangjoon would rather his wife use him as much as she wanted.

“So please, use me to your heart’s content.”

Taeryeong was bothered by her husband’s self-deprecating smile. But she deliberately ignored that feeling and changed the subject.

“Will you be out by 8? I’ll make you a nice dinner.”

Her husband raised his eyebrows as if Taeryeong’s words were unexpected. Taeryeong smiled sweetly at Kangjoon and gestured with her eyes towards the bags. She hadn’t just bought a lot of yogurt. *** The food on the table was all things that just needed to be unpacked and cooked. Taeryeong was a good cook, but Madam Jo’s daughter wasn’t.

“I’m sorry I can’t cook you a proper meal.”

At Taeryeong’s apology, Kangjoon looked at her with a strange gaze.

“Now that you’re married to me, don’t do housework. Whether it’s cooking or anything else.”

“......Why?”

“Neither my grandmother nor my mother cooked. Ah, it would be more accurate to say they didn’t do any housework at all.”

Kangjoon continued speaking slowly, picking up his spoon as if it were nothing.

“If you like doing housework, I won’t necessarily stop you.”

Then he began to eat with neat chopsticks. After finishing their meal and cleaning up together, the two met again in the bedroom. It was difficult for Taeryeong to look directly at her half-naked husband, so she lowered her long eyelashes.

“About sleeping together, shouldn’t we consider other options? We could put two beds in the bedroom, or we could sleep together every other day.”

Either option would be better than sleeping in one bed.

“Do you know what the men of the Seo family strictly adhere to as marital etiquette?”

Taeryeong was a little taken aback by her husband’s sudden question. She hadn’t heard anything about that from Yeonsuk.

“Even if the sky falls, husband and wife sleep in the same bed. That’s supposedly the secret to the Seo family men not getting divorced.”

Taeryeong avoided her husband’s piercing gaze. Yeonsuk’s whisper about the Seo men who insisted on sleeping together even after marital fights came to mind.

“I got permission to marry Taeryeong-ssi after making that promise to my grandfather.”

The moment she felt an unknown unease, her husband asked meaningfully.

“Shall I tell you why I’m saying this?”

I don’t want to know. So please, don’t tell me.

“With the easygoing thought that you could just get a divorce if things didn’t work out, Taeryeong-ssi probably decided on marriage easily. But I’m not like that.”

A gaze like a black blade pierced Taeryeong’s mind and left an imprint.

“I’m saying that we will never get divorced.”

You will be my wife until you die. But Taeryeong replied calmly without wavering.

“I’ve never taken this marriage lightly. And I’ve never even thought about divorce.”

After all, I only need to endure for six months.

“But please consider sleeping separately. We need to keep it a secret from the adults...”

He cut her off coldly.

“I am not a piece of trash who makes promises I won’t keep just to get out of a situation.”

And Taeryeong couldn’t say anything. The air around her husband had changed in an instant.

“Sleep well.”

With those last words, her husband turned off the light and lay down on the bed.

*** Three days later.

“So, what your mother-in-law is saying is that she wants us to hire the former helper again.”

Madam Jo looked at her son-in-law, who replied smoothly with an elegant mask on, with a tense gaze.

“If you do that, both Taeryeong and I will be grateful. It’s so hard to find a helper who works as well as she does. She catered to all my picky demands and even took care of Taeryeong like a daughter.”

“She certainly seemed to be a hard worker.”

Only when her son-in-law calmly agreed did Madam Jo finally smile elegantly. Three days ago, the helper had called her crying. She had been fired the very day she first met her son-in-law. For Madam Jo, it was enough to make her jump up and down in frustration. Without the helper, she couldn’t know the situation in that household, especially the relationship between the couple. She felt uneasy just blindly trusting that sly woman. So, Madam Jo had come to the Hanshin Motors headquarters unannounced, partly to gauge her son-in-law’s true feelings. She had worried about being turned away. But her son-in-law had treated her with such respect, even coming out in the middle of a meeting to greet her.

“You wouldn’t know a mother’s heart. She doesn’t even touch the food even though I have it prepared with only the finest ingredients, so how worried do you think I am? The helper also thought of Taeryeong as her own daughter, so her words might have come out a bit rough. Do you think just anyone can nag and interfere?”

“Just like Mother-in-law.”

At her son-in-law’s leisurely reply, Madam Jo’s eyes twitched. It sounded like he was being sarcastic, but his overly polite and courteous manner made it difficult to tell.

“So, can I take that as you agreeing to my request?”

“Of course, I must respect my mother-in-law’s heartfelt maternal love for my wife.”

So are you going to rehire that helper or not! She wanted to shout, but the son-in-law in front of her was the heir to Hanshin.

“Thank you.”

So Madam Jo had no choice but to get up after those words. Her son-in-law, who remained polite until the end, even saw her to the elevator, but even that made her uncomfortable. It was the first time Madam Jo had encountered someone whose true feelings were so impossible to grasp. Nevertheless, a ghostly instinct raised a red flag. She had to quickly get her daughter back in her rightful place. As the elevator carrying Madam Jo descended, Secretary Yoon asked cautiously.

“Shall we tell the newly hired helper not to come in anymore?”

“Tell her to keep coming to work.”

“Yes? But Madam Jo...”

“Secretary Yoon.”

At Kangjoon’s cold voice, Secretary Yoon swallowed hard.

“Just ignore the sound of a dog barking.”

Returning to his office, Kangjoon looked down at the cityscape spread out below the large window, his face full of annoyance. What was she so anxious about that she couldn’t stand not having a spy in her daughter’s house? The relationship between Madam Jo and his wife seemed flawless on the surface, yet there was a flaw. What was it? That something that kept bothering and nagging at him. The more he repeated his thoughts, the more he felt like he was missing something. Slowly, he traced his memories back, scanning over things he had casually brushed past. Then he stopped at a certain memory.

‘Isn’t it a sin to let such looks go to waste? So please, hyung, try dating.’

‘If it’s Alicia, even hyung will fall in love.’

‘I think I heard that Alicia has a female relative around the same age, I should ask her about it.’

What if his current wife wasn’t Madam Jo’s real daughter? A curse word escaped him involuntarily.

“......Crazy.”

No way, that couldn’t be it. But after a long while, Kangjoon called Secretary Yoon.

“Find me a competent private investigator. As quickly as possible.”

There was only one reason. The hope that was slowly spreading in his heart, the hope that his wife wasn’t Alicia Barton. He wanted to definitively cut off this absurd wish. *** At 8 PM, the Social Economy Women’s Leadership Forum ended at the Jenya Hotel Convention Center. Since it was a pro bono appearance, the organizers offered dinner to the participants. They headed to the hotel lounge restaurant. Was it because of the nice view beyond the window, or the lively discussion that continued even during the meal? Taeryeong seemed to have drunk more wine than eaten. The director of the Economic Support Center, the forum organizer, asked worriedly.

“Taeryeong-ssi, your face looks very red, are you alright?”

“I’m a bit weak with wine. I’ll get going first.”

Taeryeong had just realized it herself. She had an unlimited tolerance for hard liquor and soju, but she was weak with wine. Arriving at the entrance, she ran into the trio just entering the restaurant. Taeryeong and Kangjoon were nonchalant, while Kyungjin and Jaewoo were flustered. But the woman Kyungjin was arm in arm with looked familiar. Where had she seen her before? Racking her memory, it was the woman who had been with her husband at the Taesan Home Shopping after-party. But why was she now arm in arm with Kyungjin? A faint curiosity arose, but Taeryeong, as always, casually passed the trio. That was the right thing to do. Taeryeong always sent Secretary Kim and the driver home first if her last schedule ran late. So, as she was wondering in the parking lot whether to call a designated driver, she received a message from her husband.

[Your face was red, did you drink a lot?]

Saying she was okay would have been enough. But was it because she had drunk a lot of wine? Curiosity compelled Taeryeong. Seeing them together twice, and if she was close enough to Kyungjin to be arm in arm, then the woman must have a fairly deep relationship with her husband. Would her husband come to her, his wife, today like he did then, leaving that woman behind? Nothing to lose, might as well try?

[I drank a lot of wine but don’t worry. I’m going to call a designated driver.]

Her fingers stubbornly moved on their own, and she immediately received a reply from her husband. The moment she saw it, Taeryeong burst out laughing.