Chapter 18
I wonder how beautiful her eyes are.
Yugam wanted to see them.
Should I wake her?
He wanted to remember her.
He tried to carve her face into his memory like a photograph.
But he already knew the powerful medication he was taking would probably blur it.
The next day, after spending hours staring at and tracing his sleeping wife's face...
She disappeared.
Because of his medication and its side effects, furious anger consumed Yugam when he realized she was gone.
I should've taken a picture while she slept.
After Jaekyung left, Yugam repeatedly blamed himself.
He couldn't remember his wife clearly.
He couldn't even find her.
The memories refused to stop.
“Haa...”
Yugam finally exhaled.
He stared down at the neatly made bed.
Except for the fact that the lights were on, this hotel room felt strangely similar to the one from back then.
Yugam left his room and walked toward the room Jaekyung was using.
His eyes unintentionally moved toward the closed bathroom door.
Click.
The door opened.
Jaekyung stepped out wearing a bathrobe with a white towel wrapped around her head.
She flinched when she saw Yugam.
“Wh-What is it?”
Trying to hide the tremble in her voice, Jaekyung cleared her throat.
The towel slipped off.
Drops of water rolled from her loose hair.
“Why are you... over here?”
She looked at him.
“Do you need something?”
Late at night, the light between them felt strangely unfamiliar.
Yugam remembered all the nights they had held each other deeply.
His fist tightened.
If Jaekyung realized how badly he wanted to touch her, she would probably run away immediately.
Yugam forced himself to look elsewhere.
“Should your boss have to wait for you?”
Jaekyung stiffened.
“...I'm sorry.”
“Hurry up and get ready.”
His voice turned cold again.
“Even if I can't remember tomorrow's schedule, my secretary should have it prepared and be waiting.”
Jaekyung's chest tightened.
Something about his tone felt familiar.
“Even if I don't remember you... wait for me.”
She murmured,
“...You said something like that back then too.”
Yugam stopped walking toward the living room.
“What?”
Jaekyung quickly shook her head.
“Nothing. I'll hurry.”
Emotions she shouldn't be curious about floated through the room.
Jaekyung shut the bedroom door.
She quickly removed the bathrobe, opened her suitcase, and pulled on the first T-shirt she found.
The married life she had erased...
No.
The countless nights she had spent with Yugam began waking inside her memory one after another.
Her heart pounded so violently that she needed to calm it down quickly.
Five years ago.
KE Group executive Jin Heeyeon came to Jaekyung's home in a poor hillside neighborhood.
“Miss Seo Jaei. I'm Jin Heeyeon, chairman of the Uitae Foundation.”
The Uitae Foundation logo was stamped on the business card she held.
The elegant Director Jin looked like some noble benefactor who had appeared to rescue Jaekyung from the pit she had fallen into.
KE Group Founder Chairman Do Uitae Unconscious.
After Chairman Do collapsed, his daughter-in-law, Director Jin, became the practical head of the KE Group.
Jaekyung, who had graduated from the international high school under the KE Group's foundation, had overheard teachers discussing it.
Director Jin stood at the old front door and frowned while examining the shabby one-room house.
She was graceful and strikingly beautiful.
Yet her beautiful face twisted slightly.
Then she said,
“Marry my son.”
She placed a document in front of Jaekyung.
“The contract lasts one year.”
Then she added,
“There is one condition.”
Director Jin's gaze hardened.
“You may not see my son's face, and conversation is forbidden.”
Marriage to Chairman Do Uitae's mysterious grandson.
If this was a dream, Jaekyung should have bought a lottery ticket.
Something like this couldn't possibly happen in her ordinary life.
“Why... me?”
This wasn't simply a rich family.
It was a chaebol family.
Jaekyung had always heard that marriages in families like this weren't arranged with just anyone.
If not for the scholarship given to socially disadvantaged students, she wouldn't even have gotten close to the Uitae Foundation.
She couldn't understand why Director Jin had sought her out.
“Monk Godeok chose you.”
Director Jin's voice softened slightly.
“My son is ill.”
Monk Godeok?
Before Jaekyung's hospitalized mother fell into a coma, she had once mentioned owing Monk Godeok a debt.
After receiving a shamanic calling and having nowhere to go, Jaekyung's mother had been allowed to stay at his temple.
Director Jin continued.
“When Chairman Do collapsed, Monk Godeok saved him several times.”
She said the marriage was for her son, who suffered from a mysterious cold illness.
Director Jin pushed the documents closer.
“Miss Jaei, your mother is unconscious, isn't she?”
Her voice was impatient.
“We don't have time. Sign here.”
Jaekyung's father immediately intervened.
“Jaei. Just one year!”
He pleaded.
“Let's endure it for one year.”
He had raised Jaekyung alone for more than ten years after her mother left when Jaekyung was seven, saying she had received a shamanic calling.
But this was still too much.
“Dad, are you serious?”
Jaekyung stared at him.
