Please Divorce Me

Chapter 5

Jinwook’s faint smile had vanished, replaced with a definite frown, and the gentleness in his eyes had gone frosty. Eunchae felt as though the temperature of the room had dropped by several degrees. She tried to swallow some of her nervousness.

Oh no. Perhaps I should’ve waited for him to drink a little more.

Jinwook put his wine glass down.

“You seem to have forgotten something.” His cold eyes moved toward her. “I didn’t want to marry anyone. That is precisely why I married you. And yet here you are, saying such things to me.”

His tone and eyes were so vicious that she couldn’t say anything more.

Jinwook stood up and looked down at his partially full glass and the food that he hadn’t even touched.

“Thanks for the wine,” he said, his frigid eyes moving toward her again. “If you want to bring up the topic of divorce again, get that billion ready instead of food and wine.”

***

Jinwook’s bathroom was located across from the bedroom. After his shower, he put on a navy robe that came down to his knees. His muscular chest peeked through the lapels when he moved. His hair, which had been neatly slicked back, now fell and covered his thick eyebrows.

He wiped his hair and stared at his reflection in the mirror. There were deep wrinkles between his eyebrows, and his plump lips were drooping at the ends. It wasn’t hard to tell that he was unhappy.

He was suddenly reminded of what Eunchae had said to him.“Why don’t you consider finding yourself a good woman?” The words made him angrier the more he thought about them.

“Are you kidding me?” he huffed.

He should have caught onto what she was doing from the moment she started acting strangely. To think that all of her smiling actions had been calculated! It made him even more upset.

Jinwook walked out of the bathroom and glanced at the clock. It was already close to eleven. Apparently, he had been in the shower longer than he’d realized, what with all the thoughts cluttering his mind.

He headed to the bedroom, feeling tired. He opened the door and glanced toward Eunchae, who was still sitting at the table—slumped over it, in fact. He approached her and found the wine bottle empty beside her head.

Did she drink all of that while I was in the shower?

There wasn’t a single drop of wine left. He alternated glances between the bottle and her, then laughed. “I had no idea my wife was such a drinker.”

He gently shook her shoulder. “Joo Eunchae? Don’t sleep on the table. Sleep in your—”

“Who are you?” came her deep, sleepy voice.

Jinwook moved his hand off her shoulder. She slowly sat up, fixing her gaze on his face. Her cheeks were a ruddy pink, and her eyes were bloodshot. She was obviously drunk.

“Who are you to stop me?” she asked.

“What?”

“The old woman gave me a second chance. She pitied me. So who are you to get in my way?” Her voice sounded deeply indignant.

Jinwook’s gaze wavered.

Eunchae shot to her feet and moved so close that her face was nearly touching his chest. The sweet smell of wine filled the air.

“You can find a replacement for me any time you please. All I am asking is that we divorce a little earlier than we agreed upon. I’m not asking you for a single won, so why won’t you divorce me?!” she demanded, her face still bright red.

Jinwook just stared.

“Divorce me.” She pushed her face in closer. “Divorce me, damn it!” she shouted, her voice echoing through the bedroom.

It was not at all something she would’ve done under normal circumstances.

Rapid breaths escaped her red lips, and their intense gaze intertwined. The drink had allowed her to shed her fear, and she seemed intent on getting what she wanted.

After a moment of quiet staring, Jinwook quietly said, “Joo Eunchae.”

She looked right at his face. She had always avoided making eye contact, but that day, she encountered his powerful gaze head-on.

“Do you want a divorce that badly?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Even if it means giving up on the money?”

She nodded again.

“If you give me back that hundred million, you won‘t have any money, or even a place to stay. Do you have anywhere to go after you leave me?” he continued.

“No,” she replied.

“You can’t divorce me without even a home to stay in.”

“Sleeping on the street would be preferable to this,” she mumbled.

That shook him a bit. “Was being married to me that... awful?” he asked quietly. “Or do you hate me so much that you don’t want to spend another day with me?”

Eunchae shook her head. “You are hardly a pleasant person, but I don’t hate you.”

She was being so frank that Jinwook found himself incapable of anger or amusement.

She looked up at him with desperate eyes. “As I told you before, there is a lot that I want to do. You travel overseas every other week, it seems, but the only time I have was during a school trip. I want to throw coins into Trevi Fountain like Audrey Hepburn and see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre,”

She slowly detailed more of her desires. “I want to host a little concert in my name and see my friends often. I want to meet them, talk late into the night, and get so drunk I pass out.”

Her dark brown eyes seemed to deepen. “Someone with a bright future like you wouldn’t understand. I don’t have time or a future. I need to become as happy as I can within the time granted to me.”

The frankness in her eyes gave him pause. He wasn’t entirely sure he understood what she was saying, but he could sense that she was more serious and desperate than she had ever been. Bitterness spread to his eyes.

She wants to leave so badly... I suppose I won’t be able to make her stay.

He was about to speak when she added one more thing.

“And above all... I want to love somebody, really love somebody. The other things I could do without getting a divorce, but not that,” she said in an even more earnest tone. “What man would want to truly start a relationship with a married woman?”

Jinwook’s eyes narrowed, but she failed to notice.

“So please, just divorce me already, hmm?”

Jinwook turned away from her.

As he walked away, she cried, “Wait, we aren’t done!”

“I’m going to bed,” he insisted.

“Wait. What about the divorce? You’re going to divorce me, right?” she asked, trailing after him.

Jinwook stood beside the bed. He spun around and muttered, “I have not changed my mind, nor will I ever. There is no divorce until you are ready to meet the terms of the contract.”

Eunchae’s face twisted into a frown. She was unable to hide her disappointment.

Jinwook picked up the blanket and sat down on the edge of the bed. “I’m not going to put up with your drunken rambling any longer. Enough is enou—”

He found himself suddenly pushed back onto the bed. Eunchae had shoved his chest, climbed on top of him, and was looking down at him. She supported herself by placing her hands on either side of his face.

Jinwook found himself trapped between her slim arms. He gave her a confused look. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Divorce me,” she insisted.

“Get off me.”

“Divorce me!”

The power of alcohol, he thought. Eunchae was begging him like a little girl whining for a toy. While he found her behavior shocking, he also found it rather cute.

He couldn’t forget, however, that they were currently on the bed, that she was right on top of him, and that she wasn’t the only one who’d been drinking. The situation was more touch-and-go than it had ever been.

“Why don’t you get off me first? Then we can talk,” he said, willing himself to calm down.

“Divorce me,” she repeated.

“Eunchae.”

“Divorce me, or...”

She bit her lip. “Or I’ll... I’ll kiss you!” she said, glaring down at him threateningly.

Her dark brown eyes were clearer than ever, and the hair hanging down from her head tickled his cheek. He wasn’t sure if the subtle shampoo scent was coming from him or from her.

He looked into her angry eyes and thought, Does she really think that’s a threat?

In a way, it was. He had been very patient so far, but who knew? Perhaps it would all fall apart.

Eunchae, completely unaware, kept her face pushed close to his.

He didn’t try to avoid her gaze. “Do as you please,” he said.

Eunchae seemed slightly taken aback to see him so calm.

Jinwook reached out a hand, moving it slowly toward her face. “But here’s what you have to know.”

His large hand tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She felt a charge as his fingers grazed her sensitive lobe. He lowered his hand smoothly, cupping her cheek.

His eyes were suddenly so intense, they seemed to bore right into her face. She felt her cheeks grow hot.

“If you kiss me...” he murmured, making her heart pound. “It won’t just end with a kiss.”