“Ah…….”
I sucked in a sharp breath and stepped back, my foot catching on a shopping bag with an irritating rustle. Baek Yihyeok kept his gaze fixed solely on me.
“You broke two conditions on the very first day.”
“Th-that, Baek Yihyeok——”
“You traded those for the hundred million?”
Baek Yihyeok glanced briefly at the shopping bags on the floor. His voice and expression were exactly the same as yesterday, giving me no way of knowing whether he was angry or not.
But one thing was clear — this situation was a crisis for me.
“Get yourself a decent pair of sunglasses too.”
“Ugh.”
Baek Yihyeok lightly tapped the sunglasses I was wearing with his finger. I flinched and pulled my head back, and just as I thought he was looking at me sideways, he held out his hand.
“Give them.”
I had a lot I wanted to say, but for now I obediently handed over the sunglasses as Baek Yihyeok told me to. Then I began to carefully explain, watching his expression.
“Um…… Baek Yihyeok. I’m sorry for going out and coming back on my own. But it really wasn’t something I did because I wanted to.”
Snap.
“If you check the CCTV you’ll understand——”
……Snap?
At the sound of something breaking, I shifted my gaze slightly downward from Baek Yihyeok, and there in his hand were the sunglasses, snapped in two. For a moment I doubted my own eyes.
“D-did you just break those?”
“So?”
Baek Yihyeok was completely unfazed, but I was not.
A whopping…… a whopping six zeros on the price tag!
But there wasn’t much I could say.
“Those were incredibly…… expensive…….”
“Expensive.”
Even my silent scream was cut short by Baek Yihyeok’s continued words.
“So what changes?”
The sunglasses, snapped in two as easily as a thin wooden chopstick, tumbled pitifully to the floor.
“Does my contract suddenly become void or something?”
“That’s not what I meant…… I’m sorry. I just thought it was such a waste——”
“I think my time wasted because of you is a bigger loss.”
Baek Yihyeok swept back a few strands of hair that had fallen over his forehead.
“Wasting time is the one thing I hate most.”
“……Did you come home early because of me? Then how long have you been——”
The piercing stare fixed on me made me just shut my mouth. I felt wronged, but the only words circling the back of my throat were please, just don’t cancel the contract.
Just then, Baek Yihyeok suddenly snatched my phone.
“Ah!”
I reached out to grab it back, but too late — he had already raised his arm high, and my hand barely grazed his elbow. Baek Yihyeok scrolled through my phone at his leisure, as if I weren’t even worth being bothered by.
“I thought it would last at least a year, and yet here I am ending the contract overnight.”
End the contract? Who said you could decide that? My heart plummeted.
“W-wait, please listen to me for a moment! Baek Irang came by suddenly, and I was trying to contact Baek Yihyeok, but she took my phone so I couldn’t——!”
“Oh, really?”
Baek Yihyeok let out a hollow laugh. For a moment I thought I’d said something wrong, but he wasn’t looking at me.
“I told you to only save my number. You broke that too?”
“What? That can’t be——”
There was absolutely not a single new number I had saved.
And yet, on the phone screen thrust in front of me, there was a name and number I had no memory of saving, sitting there plain as day.
[Irang♥ 010-xxxx-xxxx]
This time my heart nearly dropped out of my chest for real.
“……I-I didn’t do that. Really. I really did not save that.”
Genuinely horrified by the situation, I denied it desperately and protested with everything I had.
“After the aunt left, Baek Irang came! She mistook me for a housekeeper and suddenly dragged me to the department store, I had no choice! You said you hadn’t told your other siblings about me yet — no disclosure! I was trying to stick to that, and so——!”
The thought that I could even be suspected of having an affair made my heart pound wildly, going haywire. On top of that, Baek Irang was a married woman.
“Anyway, I was in an awkward position too! Even if I wanted to contact Baek Yihyeok, Baek Irang had my phone so I couldn’t!”
Baek Yihyeok rolled only his eyes to look down at me. His cold gaze felt like it was physically stabbing me. He turned his gaze back to the phone.
I had no idea what he was thinking, and I was on edge worrying he might actually void a contract where the ink hadn’t even dried yet. When Baek Yihyeok showed no reaction even after hearing me out, I grew increasingly anxious and bit the inside of my lip.
Is the contract really going to end like this? No — Baek Irang said she’d take full responsibility, so what exactly does she think she’s taking responsibility for?
But if marrying a Superior Omega is the goal, he probably wouldn’t just void the contract recklessly in such an ambiguous situation. Superior Omegas are extremely rare, after all.
The contract absolutely cannot end like this. We haven’t even registered the marriage yet, so how could he……ah.
Suddenly, a clause from the contract flashed through my mind. Perhaps the clause that forms the very foundation of this entire contract.
I clenched my fist, then released it.
“But the mandatory performance clause…… that’s only valid while the marital relationship is being maintained, isn’t it?”
The hand fiddling with the phone went still. A cold night breeze swept past my cheek.
“So — Baek Yihyeok and I haven’t even registered our marriage yet, which means in a way, I haven’t actually violated those conditions yet, has it?”
“…….”
“Also, there was nothing in the contract that said I couldn’t save other people’s numbers.”
Suddenly, Baek Yihyeok scoffed.
“A contract marriage, they called it, and you really stick to it like a knife?”
He leaned forward slightly to meet my eyes. A clear sneer hung at the edge of his beautifully curved lips.
“So what you’re saying is — the contract is still valid going forward, and you’ll only do as I say if I specify it in writing?”
“……I’ll be more careful from now on. And honestly, things like not saving numbers — the demands you’re making of me are unreasonable.”
“Unreasonable to you, maybe. To me, they’re perfectly natural.”
Baek Yihyeok’s expression was that of someone who couldn’t believe he had to spell this out. He took a step closer. His large shadow fell over me from head to toe, blocking the light from the entryway.
“Breaking the contract before the ink has even dried is a problem.”
Baek Yihyeok whispered in a low, warning tone.
“So be careful. If you act out of line again, you’ll be the one in trouble.”
My body stiffened on its own at the chillingly cold voice. An unfamiliar, oppressive weight squeezed at my chest. I swallowed hard. It felt like a crushing, rough pressure was bearing down on my body — enough to make me want to drop to my knees right then and there.
But as I listened to his words, honestly, I felt wronged. What had just happened with Baek Irang was something I’d had absolutely no say in. I’d even gone out of my way to hide my identity from Baek Irang, thinking of Baek Yihyeok.
Feeling wronged, I impulsively let the words slip out.
“Still, the fact that you need me doesn’t change.”
It really was an impulsive thing to say.
“There aren’t many Superior Omegas in this country. I’m one of them, and honestly, I do have the right to negotiate the terms of the contract too——ugh.”
But I couldn’t finish the sentence. All of a sudden I sensed a rush of musk, and in an instant my throat was constricting. I couldn’t breathe. Reflexively I grabbed at my throat and coughed violently.
By the time I felt my breath cutting off rapidly, I was already flat on the floor, struggling to draw air in. It felt as though I was breathing through the tiniest pinhole. Impossible as it seemed, the scent felt like it was literally choking me.
“Huh…….”
A sourceless terror tore through my chest, rampaging wildly. A pounding pulse rang in my ears and cold sweat ran down my back. The harder I tried to breathe, the dizzier I became.
“Cough…… cough!”
No matter how much I coughed, I couldn’t get air through. And the scent surrounding me only grew stronger — the more I inhaled it, the more heat rose through my body. It was a strange feeling.
“Still don’t understand?”
A low voice grazed my ear. I tried to look at Baek Yihyeok, but I couldn’t lift my head at all. Since I couldn’t breathe, only a suffering sound escaped between my lips.
And then — my scalp pulled taut as my chin was forcibly wrenched back. My eyes met his, his hand fisted in my hair.
“Omegas don’t have a choice. Whether they’re Superior or Recessive.”
Crouching down on one knee before me, his dark eyes gleamed with a strange light.
“You just do as I say. No back talk.”
“Ugh…….”
I couldn’t move a single finger. Humiliatingly, a terror that one wrong blink could get my throat torn out flooded in, utterly unstoppable.
Why is he suddenly like this. Was it the coffee I had earlier?
My heart pounded furiously. When I closed my eyes and opened them again, the musk scent had spread even thicker in every direction like a spreading flame, and I felt a sudden spike of fear at the icy gaze looking down at me. My instincts were warning me that he was dangerous.
Only then did I understand what that look in Baek Yihyeok’s eyes meant. It was never anger or irritation to begin with.
“Just shut up and do as you’re told, and I’ll put the money you want so badly right in your mouth. Isn’t that more than enough reason to obediently follow my lead?”
It was nothing more or less than the expression of someone calculating how to train a disobedient puppy.
My fists clenched on their own. I tasted something metallic in my mouth. I must have broken the skin on my bottom lip from biting it. My neck, wrenched stiffly backward, ached.
“Think of it simply. Just think of it as selling your body for three years.”
“…….”
“What could possibly be easier than that for an Omega.”
