Chapter 34: Tears on the Quilt

“There shouldn’t be any big problems with the union members’ reaction, right?”

Jihoon asked Gyeonghwan in a rather arrogant manner with one leg crossed over the other.

Lee Gyeonghwan of LK Holdings was the actual owner of Agyeong Construction, a demolition contractor.

He managed the construction sites awarded to Gayun Corporation, handling the dirty work in place of Jihoon.

Things like silencing union opposition, tearing down buildings the moment permission was granted, or secretly siphoning off materials to reap exorbitant profits.

Squeezing subcontractors and their sub-tier workers was Gyeonghwan’s true area of expertise.

“As for the union members, there’s no particular problem.”

Gyeonghwan replied casually, sipping his whiskey as if it were business as usual.

‘That can’t be true.’

Jihoon swallowed the thought inwardly and tilted his head slightly.

‘Still, it’s convenient because he doesn’t whine with useless chatter.’

Gyeonghwan never whined.

Even if he occasionally demanded more under-the-table money, he never laid out tedious complaints about hardships or shifted resulting problems onto Jihoon.

“I’ll trust your word.”

‘Handle it well on your own this time too.’

Jihoon raised his whiskey glass in the air as if making a toast.

“However, regarding the matter you ordered.”

After taking a sip of whiskey, Gyeonghwan leaned forward and spoke.

Jihoon’s gaze, which had been resting lazily on his whiskey glass, shifted toward Gyeonghwan.

“Go on.”

“It seems Kang Dohyung’s words weren’t entirely false.”

Gyeonghwan tilted his head as if he still couldn’t completely believe it.

“They say rumors circulated previously as well that Yoon Leehyun and Jin Seohee never filed a marriage registration.”

“Yes, there were such rumors.”

At the time, Jihoon hadn’t cared much about the situation.

He had believed that as long as he possessed Jin Seohee, whether they had registered their marriage or not didn’t matter.

“Aside from the rumors that spread shortly after their wedding, word leaked again around their fifth anniversary.”

‘The fifth anniversary.’

Jihoon tapped the armrest of his chair, tap, tap.

‘I really shouldn’t have let her go back then,’ Jihoon muttered coldly to himself.

“Still, to believe it completely, Kang Dohyung’s mental state is…”

It wasn’t in very good shape.

Gyeonghwan shook his head, treating Dohyung like an immature madman.

Whenever he thought of Dohyung fearlessly asking him to arrange a connection in Taiwan, a hollow laugh escaped him.

‘Insolent bastard.’

Gyeonghwan swallowed harsh curses behind his teeth.

“So, what about verifying the facts?”

‘It was just a matter of pulling a single document, so why was that so difficult?’

Jihoon tilted his head at an angle.

“As you know, it’s a bit complicated.”

“Since viewing by siblings was prohibited after 2016, only direct lineal blood relatives can look it up, but the relationship between Yoon Leehyun and Director Song is ambiguous.”

“The relationship between Mother and Yoon Leehyun is ambiguous?”

“If you need it, our boys are skilled at forging documents in many ways, so how about we forge a marriage registration instead?”

Legal matters were complicated, but illegal acts were easy.

Jihoon took Gyeonghwan’s suggestion seriously, though an ordinary person would have found it absurd.

“If we’re doing something like that, let’s do the opposite.”

Jihoon spoke slowly, taking a sip of whiskey.

“Yoon Leehyun and Jin Seohee.”

“Spread documents proving that the two of them are complete strangers.”

“Starting from the stock market.”

Since it was the floor where rumors traveled fastest, it wouldn’t take long to spread into political and business circles.

Jihoon planned to shake the relationship between the two by any means necessary and claim Seohee for himself.

***

Even though he hadn’t returned home very late, Seohee was already soundly asleep when Leehyun entered the house.

The anger that had flared up at the news that she had stubbornly refused Professor Park’s visit vanished the moment he saw her pale, sleeping face.

After washing up and changing into comfortable homewear in the dressing room, Leehyun sat at the edge of the bed.

“Mmm…”

Tossing and turning, Seohee slowly lifted her eyelids.

As Leehyun remained still, meeting her eyes, she mumbled in a voice half-drunken with sleep.

“Leehyun…”

“Sleep more.”

Finding it deeply painful to watch her buried limply under the quilt, he was about to look away when Seohee caught his wrist.

“When did you get home?”

Seohee’s voice grew clearer.

As she pushed herself up, Leehyun let out a quiet sigh and supported her naturally.

“Just now.”

“Did you eat dinner?”

Leehyun glanced at the clock in silence.

“I told you to eat your meals.”

Seohee spoke as if nagging him.

Judging by Leehyun’s behavior, he had clearly skipped dinner.

“When you can’t even eat.”

Leehyun replied indifferently, as if starving for a few meals wouldn’t kill him, causing Seohee to furrow her brows.

“I’ll prepare something for you right now.”

As she moved her legs to step out of bed, Leehyun quickly held her back.

“In that physical state of yours, what do you think you’re doing?”

A sheet of paper would be heavier than this.

Leehyun’s eyes hardened as he watched Seohee stagger at the slightest touch.

“I heard you told Professor Park not to come.”

Seohee swallowed in silence.

Her brown eyes, which had been looking at Leehyun, dropped to the quilt.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine.”

“Do you have any idea what you look like right now?”

Suppressing the boiling emotions inside, Leehyun spoke in a deeply lowered voice.

Seohee closed and opened her eyes tightly while maintaining eye contact with Leehyun.

Skipping a few meals was nothing, but the emotions digging through her intermittently were far too overwhelming.

Whenever that unnamable sensation, which could not simply be defined by the word anxiety, settled deep in her chest and reared its head, she felt as though she would truly lose her mind.

“The morning sickness is fine.”

“It’s bearable.”

Seohee bit her lip and forced down the surge of emotion rising within her.

It was true.

She meant it.

When the morning sickness struck severely, it was beyond agonizing, but once that moment passed, it became forgettable again.

Even if the nausea was so exhausting it drained all her energy, she felt as though she grew numb to it after throwing up.

Seohee opened her eyes and faced Leehyun.

‘What truly terrifies me right now is…’

It was the unfathomable past and the terror of not knowing what kind of trouble she might have been entangled in.

The feeling of walking endlessly through a pitch-black tunnel with no exit in sight was slowly eating away at her.

Whenever the dizzying sensation rushed in, as though standing on a cliff above an ocean of unfathomable depth, she just wanted to shut her eyes tight.

In those moments, she couldn’t even stomach the strawberries that usually went down so easily.

“Jin Seohee.”

Unable to shed his old habit, Leehyun called her by her full name with her surname attached and grabbed both her shoulders with his vein-lined arms.

“Look at me.”

Not stopping there, he ordered her to look at him.

In that instant, the thoughts Seohee had been suppressing burst forth.

“I want to go to the art gallery.”

“…What?”

As if he had heard something inconceivable, Leehyun asked back a beat late.

“I’m saying I want to go to work at the art gallery.”

“No.”

He was resolute, as if there was nothing more to hear.

Looking at Seohee’s reddened eye rims, Leehyun released her shoulders and forcefully turned his body away.

“Without even asking me why?”

To reject her so blindly.

Seohee bit her trembling lips hard.

Her heated eyes turned hazy.

“The art gallery is absolutely—”

“Leehyun.”

His pitch-black eyes, settling in calm stillness, were as cold as a winter wind.

Seohee flinched and bit her lip.

Under the strange, heavy pressure, she could not bring herself to continue speaking.

Her throat froze solid.

“No.”

Leehyun stood up in a single motion.

“…”

“Forget dinner.”

“Rest.”

In the end, Leehyun turned his back on her and walked out of the room.

Ah.

A short sigh escaped Seohee’s lips.

A sudden sense of loss, as if she had lost him, washed over her.

The clicking sound of the door closing echoed loudly, as if broadcast through a speaker.

Fixing her gaze on the door where Leehyun had vanished, Seohee clenched the edge of the quilt tightly.

A single tear that had lingered in her brown eyes fell, spreading onto the fabric.

She knew.

She knew it could look like foolish obstinacy.

It was a request she had contemplated countless times, worrying that it might put too much strain on the baby.

Though in the end, she had blurted it out on impulse.

Yet, seeing Leehyun react with such absolute firmness, a surge of competitive defiance ignited within her.

Seohee pushed herself up from the bed with unsteady steps.

***

Entering the annex, Leehyun leaned the back of his head against the study chair and closed his eyes.

‘The art gallery, of all things.’

It was completely out of the question.

He already deeply regretted having let her go to the art gallery to assist Song Yoosun in the past; how could he possibly allow Seohee to go back to work there when her body was on the verge of collapsing?

Leehyun had been forced to turn his back on Seohee just to hold onto his reason, which kept threatening to fray.

Haa.

A heavy sigh settled over the study floor.

‘She wouldn’t be crying, would she?’

Lately, Seohee’s emotional shifts had been so extreme they were impossible to predict.

Recalling belatedly how harshly he had reacted to Seohee, Leehyun sprang to his feet.

Just as he was about to step outside, the door opened and Seohee appeared.

“Have some food.”

“What?”

Wondering if he had misheard, Leehyun quickly examined Seohee’s expression.

Seeing her reddened eyes and the red tip of her nose made his fingertips tingle with an ache.

‘I ended up making her cry.’

The fact that he, of all people, had brought Seohee to tears made Leehyun clench his fists tightly.

As he caught his breath and raised his hand to stroke Seohee’s face, she turned away coldly.

Leehyun’s gaze lingered on Seohee’s retreating back.

‘Was this how he had looked when he turned away after refusing her unconditionally?’

Haa.

A short, dry breath escaped him.

“Seohee.”

Leehyun quickly followed behind her.

His steps were hurried, fearing he might lose her forever at this rate.

“It was difficult to open the refrigerator, so I only prepared something simple.”

As if the mere thought made her nauseous, Seohee furrowed her brow.

Leehyun’s brow wrinkled in tandem.

“I clearly told you that you didn’t need to make dinner.”

When she couldn’t even stand the smell properly.

Seeing Seohee’s actions in caring for him made Leehyun’s stomach tighten and his chest burn.

‘I told her to worry about herself, yet here she is, worrying only about me again.’

He forced down the resentful words that threatened to burst out.

These were actions Seohee had always performed for him before losing her memory, but things he had overlooked back then were no longer the same.

From beginning to end, every single thing weighed on his mind and etched itself into his heart.

“You force me to eat even against my will, so why don’t you take care of your own meals, Leehyun?”

“Skipping a few meals won’t do anything to me.”

Leehyun had never been the type to eat meals regularly in the first place.

If he had to choose among appetite, sexual desire, and sleep, the desire to spend time with Seohee was the strongest, yet even that hadn’t existed before he met her.

Life had never been generous enough for him to discuss quality of living, and Leehyun had always been chased by time to prove his worth.

“Right.”

“Skipping a few meals won’t kill a person.”

‘You said it well.’

Seohee placed her hands on her waist and looked directly at Leehyun.

“You and I are different.”

“…Even if I can’t eat, the baby—”

“The baby?”

Leehyun arched an eyebrow at an angle.

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