Reason for Marriage - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Husband’s wife

Will you take it? Are you not going to?

The eyes of the woman who persistently offered her cigarette shook uncontrollably and the room had a unique smell.

In an instant, Sang-yeon realized that he no longer wanted to be a member of this promiscuous party.

Leaving the suspicious cigarette behind, Sang-yeon managed to get out of the hotel room while he still had his reason. There was no way he did not know that his fate had changed like a storm in return for escaping this dirty, secret alliance.

Just then, Sang-yeon’s cell phone rang. The unsaved cell phone number appeared and disappeared soon after.

The owner of the number, who had already left more than 20 missed calls, was none other than Minju.

There was no way to know how a person was doing after twenty unanswered calls. Because, of course, they did not answer.

Now that Minju thought about it, Sang-yeon and her did not have the period of love that every couple experienced at first. As soon as she saw him, she fell in love and when she came to her senses, she was already lying in a double bed.

There was absolutely no time for understanding and reconciliation, which made people embrace each other again after fighting and seeing them at their lowest, because they could not turn their back on each other.

So Minju did not know if she had to wait helplessly when she could not reach him, or that she needed to tell him that she was waiting for him right now, that she was worried, or that she was very angry.

Sang-yeon still had not texted when the lamb steak, which was nicely served on a large table, was completely cooled down.

Candles prepared for a romantic dinner that had consumed themselves could not burn anymore and went out.

Minju started eating cold food without heating it up. She grabbed the ribs with her hands and drank wine like water.

The clock was heading toward midnight and when the second bottle of wine was half empty, she heard the front door open.

Not knowing how she would express her sulky feelings, Minju laid face down on the table and closed her eyes.

Sang-yeon quietly entered the kitchen and found Minju lying down like this.

Sang-yeon’s eyes shook nervously when he saw Minju lying still on her stomach without moving.

He looked at the leftover food on the plate and the wine bottles. The bowl was broken, but fortunately there was no blood on the knife and fork.

Finally, after tasting it with his hand to see if it contained any drug, Sang-yeon put his right cheek over Minju’s back very slowly and carefully.

Was it because she was drunk? Minju’s heartbeat was much bigger and faster than usual.

The loud pounding ran through Sang-yeon’s ears and shook every corner of his body, eventually reaching his heart.

At that moment, like a lie, their hearts began to beat in unison.

Sang-yeon murmured something completely incomprehensible to her with a sigh of relief.

“Thank you for not dying…”

The man who she had hated to death just before was adorable.

Minju wanted to open her eyes and look at him right away. She wanted to ask him why he left her alone all day, and tell him that she was going crazy because she missed him.

But she felt him silently and waited for him to lead her first this time.

Sang-yeon, who read her affectionate heart like a ghost, hugged Minju lightly. The slender body of Minju settled on Sang-yeon’s wide and solid chest.

Minju instinctively wrapped her arms around Sang-yeon’s neck and regretted it less than 0.1 seconds later.

“My princess, you were still not sleeping. I’m so sorry to have kept you waiting.”

“Tsk… Are you really sorry about it?”

Sang-yeon nodded his head.

“Then play the piano.”

Drunk and in a daze, Minju whispered in a charming tone.

“Only one song for me… Just one song, please?”

Sang-yeon thought about it for a while, but soon turned his back on the piano and headed to the second floor.

“I don’t perform with only one audience. And even more so if the audience is drunk.”

“Haa, why is that? Is it because it’s too expensive? Please play the piano, okay? Piano… Piano!”

Minju rolled her feet like a child who wanted compensation for waiting.

At the moment, Sang-yeon’s arm, which was holding Minju, stretched out of the stair railing on the second floor.

“Stay still. It’ll be dangerous otherwise.”

It was a clear warning: I’m gonna let you go if you keep doing this!

Minju felt very accurately that his arms holding her were slowly losing their strength. It was not just a joke.

Minju was completely terrified that she could fall! She stopped immediately.

Sang-yeon headed to the dressing room, and put the well-behaved child on the bed.

He hung his coat in the closet, took out his cell phone, watch, and wallet, and put them neatly on top of the chest of drawers in the middle, then took off the rest of his clothes and went into the bathroom.

When the bathroom door closed and the sound of water from the shower began to be heard, Minju got up from the bed.

Minju succeeded in entering the dressing room quickly and quietly after removing her heels, touched Sang-yeon’s cell phone.

A four-digit password was required to unlock it.

Instead of trying a complicated combinaison, she typed the number zero four times in a row just in case. The lock was released more easily than expected.

Minju glanced at the bathroom where Sang-yeon was washing and started searching for ‘Seo Hye-ryeong’ in the contact information.

Hye-ryeong, Hye-ryeong Seo, SHR… She looked everywhere, but there was no registered number under that name.

Yes, it must have been a mis-delivered mail. Maybe the person who lived here before did not change their address.

Although she was relieved that she could not find the name ‘Seo Hye-ryeong’ on Sang-yeon’s cell phone, Minju was still not happy, wondering if she had missed something.

Just then, a call came from a person who had been saved as ‘President Seo’ with a loud ringtone.

She was so surprised, and the sound of water in the bathroom stopped. There was no time. It was clear that Sang-yeon heard his cell phone ringing.

Minju hid herself behind a coat hanging in the dressing room. Soon after, Sang-yeon walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist and picked up his phone.

“Hello?… We’ll talk about this later. Now? All right, I got it. I’ll be expecting you in 10 minutes.”

Who was it? Who would meet Sang-yeon at this hour?

Minju wanted to ask immediately, but she could not.

If she did, he would have asked ‘Why are you hiding behind this coat? What are you doing there?’ and she would not have been able to answer ‘I was actually looking through you phone.’

Fortunately, Sang-yeon went back to the bathroom after finishing the phone call.

Minju returned to bed in the meantime, lay down with a blanket covering her, with her ears still pricked up.

After a while, Sang-yeon dressed up and came out of the dressing room to Minju’s side. Sang-yeon stared at her for a while.

Minju pretended to snore to escape the suspicious look that she could feel even with her eyes closed.

Only then did Sang-yeon quietly leave the bedroom, thinking that Minju really fell asleep.

But… she heard a locking sound.

Minju’s eyes, which were tightly closed, opened up suddenly.

After checking that Sang-yeon’s footsteps were getting farther, Minju jumped out of bed and turned the handle of the door.

It was as expected. The door of the bedroom locked from the outside would not open. Minju was trapped in the room.

She tried to shake the handle with all her might, but the door did not budge, so she called Sang-yeon’s name, but the sound did not come out.

Why did she not know? That this room was perfectly soundproofed.

Minju understood it like she was paralyzed by sleep paralysis.

Thinking that she was trapped, she madly wanted to escape. Minju turned to the window looking for a way out of the room.

At the same moment, she saw a woman walking into the garden.

Straightened waist, neat clothes, and even arrogant steps. Although she was in the dark, she was sexy enough to catch the eyes of Minju, another woman.

Was she Seo Hye-ryeong?

Even if she was not her, she was casually visiting Sang-yeon’s house at this hour!

Minju was in a hurry because there was no way to suppress her raging jealousy and curiosity. As she looked around outside the window, she saw a railing on the rooftop terrace.

Standing by the window on the second floor, she reached out to the railing. She managed to hold onto it at a close distance, but she got dizzy looking at the height that was much higher than expected.

The sharp wind froze Minju’s hands and feet every time she took a precarious step, leaning on the railing.

As her cold feet stepped onto a thin L-shaped pipe, the pipe shook violently.

Oops! She wanted to go back, but it was too late. The pipe could not withstand Minju’s weight and bent weakly, and Minju’s body lightly fell down as if she were blown away by the wind.

At that moment, Minju’s outstretched hand miraculously grabbed the pipe.

Thanks to this, she avoided falling, but she was left hanging from the broken pipe.

President Seo came into the house. She glanced at the kitchen, which remained the same, and moved to the room at the end of the hallway on the first floor.

After a while, Sang-yeon came down and opened the door to the room, and the two entered together.

The room at the end of the hallway on the first floor was nothing special. It just looked like an ordinary study with a large desk and a bookshelf.

Sang-yeon naturally closed the curtains when he saw Minju’s dress fluttering outside the window. Fortunately, Minju’s existence was not detected by Seo, who had her back to the window.

“Why did you leave? Are you really out of your mind?”

Seo criticized Sang-yeon like she was ready to hit him.

“You think I’m crazy.”

“Yes, it’s the worst thing you’ve ever done.”

“When they get the opportunity, the 10,000-won tickets for regular performances, which they have maintained even at the expense of the deficit, as well as free performances, will disappear.”

“Isn’t that obvious? A company is a group that has to make a profit.”

“I don’t want classical music to be the exclusive property of the rotten upper classes.”

“Are you writing your biography? You are where you are today thanks to those upper classes. Didn’t you want to break the leash tied to the president? Then you should think about standing up on your own. You have to build up your strength. Why can’t you get in the pit? Why? You don’t think about me? You don’t care about me, do you? How did we get here?!”

Sang-yeon hugged President Seo, who was running wild with excitement. It was a physical attack.

All right, let’s stop… She was sure Sang-yeon understood it well.

Seo stopped gasping and hugged Sang-yeon for a while.

“By the way, you still haven’t heard from him?”

“…”

“It’s not the first time, don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fine.”

“Yes, I think so, too.”

“Should I just sleep here tonight?”

“Seo Ji-hee-ssi, please show proper dignity…”

“I was just kidding. I’m leaving.”

Seo pretended to be cool, passing the truth for a joke.

Sang-yeon opened the curtain and looked out the window. Minju was not there.

Instead, the very clear footprints left in the snowy garden told how long Minju had stood there and overheard their stories, and how sad she was.