“……”
“So—would workers’ compensation be covered too? Say during the marriage, I hurt myself while doing housework. Would I be responsible for the medical bills, or would Baek Yihyeok cover them?”
At the word “cover,” Baek Yihyeok’s eyes creased ever so slightly, but he didn’t pick at the wording. If anything, for the first time, the corner of his mouth curved up in a faint smirk.
“Employment marriage. I like that.”
Baek Yihyeok gave a casual wave of his hand to the side. The muscular bodyguard standing behind him reached into his jacket, produced a fresh cigarette and a lighter, lit it, and carefully slid it between Baek Yihyeok’s index and middle fingers.
I almost let out a laugh of disbelief.
I’d been thinking it since earlier, but who gets waited on hand and foot like that. He’s just an executive director, and yet he walks around with an entourage like some mob boss. Anyone watching would think he wasn’t the executive director of a conglomerate but the pampered son of a chaebol family……
Right as that thought crossed my mind, I realized something and my mouth fell open. But Baek Yihyeok was faster than me in voicing what I’d just begun to suspect.
“Check the contract again. Third or fourth page.”
The arrogant attitude—nodding his chin toward the papers without even deigning to point properly—wasn’t exactly endearing, but in the presence of the almighty god of money, I could let it go. Well, money was part of it, but honestly, Baek Yihyeok’s face had more to do with it.
Even if his way of speaking grated on me, one look at that absurdly handsome face made the attitude seem somehow befitting—like the haughty expression on a perfectly sculpted statue of David. The particular lazy arrogance that clung to his sharp, wolf-like eyes gave off an air that was both enigmatic and magnetic, and the strong lines of his features were so three-dimensional they would have been distinct even in pitch darkness.
And the body. His height looked to be at least 190 centimeters, and his shoulders, broad as the Pacific, looked solid enough that if I leaned against them I could sleep for a week without so much as a dream.
In a word, Baek Yihyeok was exactly my type.
Being that handsome, the attitude…… right. It’s forgivable.
As long as I had eyes in my head, completely ignoring his face was never going to be easy. That would probably hold true going forward too.
“For the duration of the marriage, I’ll be covering everything—medical bills, whatever else. Down to what you wear and what you eat. All of it.”
Baek Yihyeok drew deeply on his cigarette and exhaled. He tilted his head slightly.
“Isn’t that obvious? Hard to tell if you’re stupid or just naive.”
I’ve been told I seem naive before, but never that I am naive. Still, at least it pulled me out of my reverie.
Just as Baek Yihyeok said, looking at the third page of the contract, from the lower section onward through the next page, every expense he would cover throughout the marriage was laid out in a clean, organized list.
I went through the contract page by page, asking about the things I was curious about as I went. Honestly, up to that point, every condition had been nothing short of favorable for me.
There was even an extremely enticing clause toward the very end of the contract—an additional payout if the marriage concluded successfully.
[Article 11 (Success Conditions and Payment)
- The “success condition” referred to in this contract means the event in which Party A is designated as the next successor to management by resolution of the Board of Directors and is appointed as Vice Chairman, or is appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the company.
- Should the success condition set forth in Paragraph 1 be fulfilled, Party A shall pay Party B a success bonus of ten billion won (10,000,000,000 KRW).
- The aforementioned amount shall be paid into the account designated by Party B within 90 days of the date on which the success condition is fulfilled.]
Ten billion won. My heart was hammering.
A reason not to do it? There was none, absolutely none. If anything, I should be the one clutching Baek Yihyeok’s trouser leg and begging him to let me sign.
On top of being an omega, I’d been having a hard time finding work because of a medical opinion letter saying my pheromones were unstable—so this offer was, for me, a once-in-a-lifetime golden opportunity that would never come again.
I took a quiet breath and glanced over at the secretary.
“By the way, is Baek Yihyeok by any chance the…… of BN Group?”
“The Executive Director is the second son of the Chairman.”
Of course. No wonder he made executive director at such a young age.
Only then did it make sense why Baek Yihyeok absolutely needed to marry a Superior Omega. I nodded and flipped to the next page of the contract. This was the last one.
If he’s the Chairman’s second son, he’s either a second or third generation chaebol heir, and inheritance issues would be the biggest reason. Predictable.
Based on Baek Yihyeok, who at first glance looked conservative, my guess was that his family itself preferred Superior Alphas and Superior Omegas—the most dominant genetics. So he’s spending all this money to do a performative marriage with me in order to satisfy some succession condition.
Then Baek Yihyeok must be a Superior Alpha.
I turned my eyes down to the final page of the contract as the thought crossed my mind.
“Oh.”
A sound escaped me before I knew it. The hand gripping the contract tightened, crinkling the paper.
[In the event that the marriage between Party A and Party B is dissolved due to a breach of contract by Party B, Party B shall return twice the total amount paid by Party A.]
A penalty clause. Below it, the mandatory compliance clauses were listed one after another.
[Violations of this article shall be considered a serious breach of contract, and Party A reserves the right to immediately terminate the contract.
- Party B shall not commit adultery under any circumstances. Should Party A become aware of Party B’s adultery, Party A shall have the right to immediately terminate the contract.
- Party B shall immediately report to Party A upon forming any connection with a person affiliated with BN Group.
- Party B shall not lie to Party A.
- Party B is prohibited from going out without Party A’s permission.
- Party B shall under no circumstances make physical contact with Party A without Party A’s permission.
- Party B shall not make unnecessary attempts to learn about Party A.
- Party B shall not develop feelings for Party A.
- Should Party A wish to end the marriage, Party B shall immediately consent.
- Should a third party become aware of this contract due to Party B, Party A may immediately terminate the contract.
※The mandatory compliance clauses may be added to or modified at any time according to Party A’s needs.]
……This is just a one-sided contract.
The penalty clause for when the marriage ran into problems because of me wasn’t great, but above all else, the “mandatory compliance clauses” were a completely tilted playing field.
I hadn’t been planning to cheat to begin with, so clause 1 was fine, but clauses 3 through 6 were just outright controlling, weren’t they. And what was clause 7 even about. Did he think I was definitely going to fall for him, or what?
I stared at the contract until my eyes nearly fell out of my head, then looked up. Baek Yihyeok had the cigarette between his lips and was wearing a bored expression. One eyebrow peeked out from behind the neatly swept-back hair on his forehead and gave a slight lift as if to ask, is there a problem? I quietly dropped my gaze again.
……Right. He’s honestly, genuinely good-looking.
I flipped past the final page and there was nothing more. This really was the end of the contract Baek Yihyeok had prepared.
I opened my mouth, deliberated, then set the contract down on the sofa table with a firm thwack.
“Just because I’ve read the contract doesn’t mean I have to sign it unconditionally, does it?”
No matter how much I was Party B here, I could at least try to negotiate. I floated the idea with that thought in mind, and the atmosphere turned rather strange.
Baek Yihyeok said nothing and made no expression in response to my words, but the large bodyguard who had been standing quietly behind him glanced at me. Those forearms three times the thickness of mine, that massive frame—they imprinted themselves on my brain all over again.
One hit from that guy and I’d die on the spot.
……Okay.
I replaced what I’d been about to say—that this was a one-sided contract—with something a bit more measured.
“There are far too few clauses to protect me. And there are a lot of vague clauses too. This leaves a lot to be worried about.”
“Sounds like you’re thinking about cheating.”
“That’s not it.”
“Then what are you worried about? I’m giving you a lot of money, buying your parents a house, taking care of everything you wear and eat for the duration of the marriage. On top of that I’m giving you 500 million a year. What more could you want?”
Baek Yihyeok genuinely looked like he had no idea what I could possibly be dissatisfied about. That unapologetic air of self-importance looked so natural on him that I, the one pointing out the problem, ended up feeling like an impossibly unreasonable customer instead.
Even so, I couldn’t just accept a one-sided contract as it was.
“There’s a limit to how far this should go, honestly. Fine, the other clauses, okay. But clause 4 right here—no going out without permission? So I can’t even go see my parents?”
“Read the conditions carefully. It says you can go out if I permit it, doesn’t it?”
“No, so every time I need to go somewhere I have to get your permission individually?”
“Is that so hard?”
“By any reasonable standard, do you think that’s……”
“I can give you an incentive.”
“An incen……”
I let the stiffness drain from the head I’d been holding up rigidly and unclenched my fist. Baek Yihyeok spoke in a tone that said this was all very tedious.
“Comply with all of it without complaint and I’ll give you one percent of your annual salary every month.”
“That sounds wonderful.”
I put on the most agreeable smile in the world.
An incentive of five million won every single month. Well then, of course I’ll comply. The urge to stamp my seal on the marriage registration form as fast as possible welled up inside me.
But before that.
“If Baek Yihyeok gets confirmed as successor before the three-year contract period is up, the contract ends that much earlier too, right?”
That was the important part. If at all possible, I wanted to pay off the debt quickly and put an end to this strange employment marriage.
“It would.”
The brief answer put my mind slightly at ease. Alright, that part was settled.
Next, I pointed to the mandatory compliance clauses. They’d been nagging at me since I first saw them.
“But this part is a little strange. I can’t touch Yihyeok, and I can’t develop feelings either. Shouldn’t the same clauses apply to Yihyeok’s side as well?”
“What are you talking about?”
But Baek Yihyeok made a face like he’d just heard the most bizarre thing he’d ever encountered in his life.
“You honestly think I’d waste my time doing something like that with an omega like you?”
“Pardon?”
“I hate wasting time more than anything.”
“……”
What, did I ask something strange? He was only five years older than me and yet he was more uptight than my own father—the look of sheer exasperation that came over my face was entirely involuntary.
“You just need to hold up your end. I would never in a million years act like you omegas do.”
He seemed completely convinced that I was the only one who’d cause problems. My pride stung, but I repeated ten billion won to myself and kept my mouth shut. I couldn’t risk letting slip something like a curse word.
Right, three years…… just hold out for exactly three years.
Between the signing bonus, the annual 500 million won, and the incentive, I’d accumulate the money quickly enough, and if the marriage concluded successfully, I’d receive an additional ten billion on top of that.
“If you have anything else to say, talk to Secretary Choi from here. Are you going to stamp it or not, just do it quickly.”
I shifted my gaze to the secretary, and he gave a small nod.
I deliberated again and again, but there really was no better opportunity than this for me. Before long, I pressed my thumb into the ink pad the secretary had set out and stamped my fingerprint onto the contract.
“When do we register the marriage?”
For now, grovel flat on the ground and work like Baek Yihyeok’s dog. Then get divorced immediately.
I asked as calmly as I could manage, but the impatience in my heart wasn’t easy to conceal. Baek Yihyeok looked at me, chewed lazily on the end of his cigarette, and dropped the words out.
“First, we move in together.”
