Marriage Situation

Chapter 4

Even up to the moment when Jihoon took her hand, she had never even considered that the word “marriage” might come out of his mouth. Her wrist pulsed in his grip.

Just like her heart.

“Marriage?”

She must have misheard. Why would he ask me to marry him...?

She had thought before the seon today, What kind of man will show up?

A long time ago, it was common for wealthy families to arrange seons with each other to facilitate marriage contracts, but that was hardly the case these days. Nowadays, it was normal for wealthy people to cross paths naturally and start dating, leading to marriage. Only a bookworm like Yooyoung, who was incapable of properly finding a relationship, came to these sorts of upper-class seons.

On top of that, MGH Group was a leading figure, even in the business world. But if he was being dragged out to a seon, she had been sure he had to be unattractive too. A man who had nothing without his family.

She had thought that was perfect for herself. She had thought it was exactly the level at which she belonged.

But the man taking her wrist and talking about marriage was different—the most sophisticated and handsome man of all of the men at the bar yesterday.

That wasn’t all. Judging by the aura radiating from his body, he was someone that was sure to be the center of attention wherever he went.

And a man like that—

“Yes. Let’s get married.”

A corner of his mouth quirked up.

That curve was dizzying.

“Of course... if that’s what you want, Miss Kim.”

It sounded like he respected Yooyoung’s opinion, but there was an undercurrent of confidence that she wouldn’t turn him down.

Yooyoung had also planned to agree to the marriage if her partner approved of her. She knew very well she didn’t have the right to refuse, and she also knew that no matter how many more seons she went to, things would never improve for her.

But for the first time, she thought No to his confidence.

She couldn’t see what his goal was. He was far too different from the marriage partner she had envisioned.

Jihoon’s fingertip skimmed her wrist. Every time it did, her entire body trembled at the touch. The heat swept her away like a wave in a storm.

It was no small feat to find her balance in that storm. She shook like a little boat without an oar.

Whenever he smiled, she recalled their intimate, rough night.

I don’t suit a man like this. He’ll never be able to live with me.

Yooyoung planned to live a boring life. She couldn’t even begin to understand why a man that was as far from boring as possible was saying things like this to her.

“I don’t understand. Why? I... don’t suit you, Mr. Cha.”

It was a clear rejection.

After hearing her answer, the other corner of Jihoon’s lips rose as well.

She thought he would be angry after being rejected, but instead, he was smiling. What could be so enjoyable?

“Why don’t you want to marry me, Miss Kim?”

“We just met for the first time today.”

“Then we can simply meet more.”

“And... you and I are too different.”

“A lot of people find differences attractive.”

“But... I don’t want it.”

She bit her lip.

You’re so much better than me that just looking at you makes my stomach twist.

Would he understand if that was why she was rejecting him? Even she couldn’t accept it, so there was no way she’d be able to convince him.

The lip he’d chewed up last night split again, and the taste of blood filled her mouth. “Why are you trying to marry me, Mr. Cha? It isn’t as though you know anything about me...”

Yooyoung knew very well that what she had just said—to the man who’d asked to marry her after coming out for a seon—was completely ridiculous. But between their coincidental double meeting and his proposal, she couldn’t keep it together.

“I’m a businessman.” He pulled on her wrist. Her body moved a little closer. “To be a successful businessman, I must have the ability to make fast, objective judgments. You said this is your first seon, Miss Kim?”

“Yes...” Yooyoung’s head dropped forward.

“I’ve been to at least fifty of them,” Jihoon continued. “I don’t say that to brag—to be quite honest, not once have I been curious about who I was meeting. I got out of there without even lasting ten minutes. I can’t stand being bored, you see.”

But...

He pulled Yooyoung a little closer. The distance between the two grew extremely close, and her soft chest was crushed against his broad one. His face filled her vision, too close to look away from.

“You’re exciting.” The breath slipping from between those red lips brushed sweetly over Yooyoung’s face. “So exciting I can hardly stand it.”

The mask of the exceedingly polite seon partner Jihoon Cha fell away, allowing the rough man from yesterday to return.

“When you invited me into your room in the elevator yesterday, when I realized you hadn’t left a trace, not even a memo, when I got out of bed... And then, when I saw you sitting at the café without a single clue...”

He spoke without taking his eyes off of her for a single moment.

“I was curious just what kind of person that woman could be. Even though we’d spent the night together, I already wanted to spend a second, a third time together. This woman, who avoided my eyes like she was insecure... just like right now...”

His finger touched beneath Yooyoung’s eye. It stroked the soft skin there.

“...Only to suddenly flash her eyes and firmly state that she doesn’t want something. I don’t have to watch you for a long time to know it: you’re a pearl in the mud, Miss Yooyoung Kim.”

A pearl in the mud...

He mimicked rolling something between his fingers, as though he really had a pearl between them.

“Should I say... I want to pluck the pearl from the mud and see what kind of pearl it is... What it looks like, what its shine is.”

Yooyoung wasn’t able to say a word. The man before her was simply overwhelming her.

He slowly leaned closer, face hovering just above hers. Jihoon waited, so close that their lips could have brushed.

Go ahead and try running. If you don’t want this, pull away.

But the sensation of his heated lips yesterday came to mind abruptly, so Yooyoung wasn’t able to pull away.

“I wanted to find out yesterday the taste of you hidden between these lips.”

His lips parted, gently prying Yooyoung’s open. The tongue delving between them with a slick sound was even faster than yesterday.

“Mmf.” Yooyoung’s tongue darted back in a moment of surprise, but Jihoon gave chase.

He didn’t let the quivering flesh go. He placed his hand on Yooyoung’s slender waist and crushed her against his firm body. Then, he delved even deeper.

His solid form awakened new and unfamiliar sensations in her.

“Hfff, hnnn.”

Yooyoung didn’t know how to breathe during a kiss.

She desperately sucked down air whenever their lips parted. Yesterday, the alcohol had dulled the sensation of their kisses, but today, she was completely sober.

Whenever his bumpy tongue skimmed the membranes inside Yooyoung’s mouth, her mind scattered.

Are all kisses like this?

She’d had her first kiss last night, with him. After that, the more they kissed, the hotter her body became. The tingling sensation flowing between her thighs made her legs threaten to buckle under her.

The lips that had been rejecting marriage until just a moment ago were now under Jihoon’s control and only doing as he wanted, welcoming him half-parted.

It’s electrifying.

They had only kissed, but it felt like she’d been struck by lightning and immobilized.

After persistently prodding at the soft parts of her mouth, he finally let her go after a long while of making a mess out of her.

“I’m being too rough. We’re right in front of your house.”

His voice had laughter mixed in. It was only at these words that Yooyoung abruptly realized she was in front of her house. Someone might have seen them.

“I, I...” Yooyoung’s lips, which had been resolute just a little while ago, now only quivered over and over.

Meanwhile, Jihoon gently released her and took a step back. As he pushed his hair back where the rough kiss had disheveled it, he murmured, “Next time, I’ll come get you, now that I know where your house is. I’m sure you must be tired today, so reconsider things while you rest. See if the answer you gave me is the right one.”

Saying you ‘don’t want’ to marry me was definitely a mistake. That was the intention behind Jihoon’s words.

It was quite the arrogant statement, but Yooyoung could say nothing to the charm of the man who even seemed confident about that arrogance.

“Then, goodbye for today.” Jihoon reached out and rubbed Yooyoung’s smeared lipstick. He swiped over the mix of saliva and makeup, making a mess of her lips before smiling.

Her feet hesitated because of the lingering heat. It was only after rubbing her soft lip a few times that he finally took his hand back and got into his car. “You should go in.”

“Please... go ahead first.”

Even though Jihoon gestured for her to go inside, Yooyoung felt like she would collapse if she moved even the slightest, so she only clutched at her bag and watched him leave.

Jihoon’s low-riding black car raced out of the alley.

A chilly wind followed, sending the scattered gutter leaves spinning into the air.

And among those leaves was a woman. She must have been standing somewhere that wasn’t visible because of his car, because it was only after he left that she was revealed.

Yooyoung belatedly discovered the woman and inhaled sharply.

“M...Mother.”

It wasn’t just Yooyoung that was surprised. Her mother, Lady Chansook Choi, was standing in the alley opposite Yooyoung with a look of shock on her face, eyes wide as she clutched her grocery bags.

Had she seen? Had her mother seen her kissing him?

No, if she was lucky, she may only have seen him leave. Then she could just say he had dropped her off after the seon.

Please. Please don’t let her have seen.

The entire world could find out and it wouldn’t matter. Yooyoung just wanted one person, her mother, to remain ignorant. She just wanted her mother to remain unaware of the tantalizing deviant she’d become last night.

But it seemed the heavens weren’t listening.

“Who was that man?” Lady Choi’s frigid voice struck her like thunder. “Who was it that you were pressing yourself against so vulgarly in front of our house?”

Once again, Yooyoung’s wish failed to come true.

Just like always.