Is this guy completely out of his mind?
“What did you just——”
But the moment I opened my mouth, a thick musk scent crashed over my body. At the same time, saliva pooled in my mouth and my body twitched before I could stop it. A chilling shudder started at the back of my neck and rippled all the way down. And then — I wanted to cling to Baek Yihyeok right in front of me. As if it hadn’t just been moments ago that I’d thought he was out of his mind.
The feeling was something I’d never experienced in my life, and it left me utterly flustered. Baek Yihyeok curved the corner of his mouth upward with a bored expression.
“See? Told you it was easy.”
I bit my lower lip and glared at him. I wasn’t sure exactly what was happening, but it seemed like Baek Yihyeok’s doing.
I tensed the muscles in my trembling thighs and held my breath. No matter how much money he was offering, did I really have to be humiliated to this extent? Now and always — just how long did I have to keep demeaning myself? A surge of frustrated rage welled up from deep in my chest.
“So don’t presume to try and negotiate with me——”
A hazy white fog crept through my mind and Baek Yihyeok’s words grew more and more distant.
Something was wrong with my body. No — was something wrong with my head?
Every single sense sharpened to a razor’s edge, to the point where even the act of exhaling with a gasp was enough to stimulate me further.
On instinct, I grabbed the arm that was holding my hair. Through my blurring vision I could see Baek Yihyeok frowning and saying something, but I couldn’t quite hear that either.
My body was burning too hot. So, trying to cool the heat down, I shook my head and parted my lips slightly — and in that instant, my body was hauled straight upward.
Dazed, I was pulled to my feet and blinked several times to bring things into focus. What I saw was Baek Yihyeok, gripping my arm with his jaw clenched tight.
“Haa…….”
My head was still spinning, so I let out a long breath — and Baek Yihyeok’s mouth pressed into a flat, hard line.
What had he said? I stared at his lips, and then I caught them move slightly, and a rough voice spilled out through his teeth.
“Get inside. Now.”
The atmosphere was distinctly different from just moments before. Even those short words weren’t enough to bring me to my senses, so Baek Yihyeok flung the front door open and dragged me inside roughly.
“Ow…… that hurts!”
The wrist he was gripping felt like it was about to snap. But he didn’t look back at me even once, striding up to the second floor with his long legs. His pace had absolutely no consideration for me, and I had to scramble breathlessly after him, almost as if I were being dragged.
Where he dragged me was my bedroom. He wrenched the door open and shoved me inside like he was throwing something away.
“Don’t leak your pheromones in front of me.”
Bang!
And the door slammed shut.
Left utterly alone in an instant, I stumbled and caught the wall. I had no idea what had just happened. My head was spinning, my breath was short, and my lower stomach was burning hot.
“Damn it…….”
My wrist was throbbing, so I pushed up my sleeve — and found it bruised a deep, ugly blue. For someone who acted more high and mighty than anyone else, he was absurdly rough with his strength.
“Absolute lunatic.”
I rubbed my wrist and stared at the closed door, then went and sat on the edge of the bed. Maybe because the scent that had enveloped my body was gone — the heat that had risen in me was gradually settling down. I kept sneaking glances at the door and quietly slid my hand downward. The lingering effect still hadn’t fully faded.
“God…… why is this happening all of a sudden.”
Embarrassingly, I was half-hard.
Was I discovering some unique kink of mine now, of all times? Like being turned on by someone treating me forcefully?
“…….”
Honestly, I couldn’t deny it. Looking back on my past, I did have something of that inclination. But back then, I’d only ever gotten worked up after building up a melancholic mood with a lover…… There’d been not even a speck of that kind of atmosphere just now.
You’d have to be out of your mind to get aroused in a situation like this. Even by my own assessment, I looked like a pervert right now. After being spoken to that insultingly, here I was, happily touching myself down there……
The moment that thought hit me, I flinched and pulled my hand away from my groin, shaking my head to try and shake off the arousal.
‘Don’t leak your pheromones in front of me.’
I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. When had I ever leaked something like that?
Pheromones, as far as I knew, were the unique body scent that came from Alphas and Omegas. Was he just referring to body odor in a roundabout way?
“I don’t smell like anything.”
I lifted my arm and sniffed — but all I got was the soft scent of perfume. The clothes Baek Irang had bought and put me in.
“Making such a fuss over nothing.”
I muttered the words aloud on purpose. What had just happened with Baek Yihyeok was confusing and rattling, and I felt like if I didn’t do something — anything — my pounding heart wouldn’t calm down.
He really does whatever he wants and calls it a day. And why did he suddenly drag me to my room? The shrinking feeling lasted only a moment — the more I thought about the frankly humiliating situation just now, the more absurd and infuriating it became. Being broke is a crime, I guess.
I fumed to myself, then shot up from the bed. My plan was to go get my phone back from Baek Yihyeok and have a proper conversation about what had just happened. Aside from my feelings about it, I was also worried about whether the contract was still going to continue.
“Ugh, seriously.”
But the heat still hadn’t completely left my body. So I grabbed my waistband to compose myself for a moment and brought my hand down there — when.
Click.
“…….”
“……Oh.”
My eyes met Baek Yihyeok’s in midair. Baek Yihyeok, who had just opened the door and walked in, seemed to scan the room for a moment, and then his gaze stopped on my waistband.
Damn it, of all times.
“It’s not what it looks like!”
I yanked my hand away from my pants and yelped. Heat rushed to my face.
“My pants were wrinkled so I was just straightening them out!”
“Who said anything?”
……This shameless bastard.
I shot him a glare, but a phone suddenly came flying at me and cut the silent protest short. I caught it in a fluster, and found myself looking at a white smartphone I’d never seen before.
“What’s this?”
“A phone.”
Like I couldn’t tell that myself.
“It’s yours.”
He actually added a brief explanation for once. Though of course that explanation only multiplied my questions.
“Mine is black.”
“Someone went and carelessly leaked their number everywhere, so I had it changed — just take what you’re given.”
“……I only gave my number to one person.”
“Right, the one person you absolutely shouldn’t have given it to.”
What on earth is the dynamic between these siblings. I made a sullen face at Baek Yihyeok’s words, but then thinking of his sister, who had been just as headstrong as him, I could see his reaction being somewhat understandable. Though — didn’t this man know you could just change your number without changing the whole phone?
I had more than one or two questions, but I didn’t ask any more and turned the phone on. A lock screen came up asking for a password.
“The password is my birthday.”
Baek Yihyeok said, having drawn close before I’d even noticed. A hollow laugh escaped me before I could stop it.
“And when is that?”
Did he think the whole world had his birthday memorized? I asked with undisguised irritation, and Baek Yihyeok immediately took the phone back. This time, I didn’t flail my arm around ungracefully trying to grab it back.
But it turned out Baek Yihyeok wasn’t trying to unlock it for me — he didn’t even look at the phone and tossed it lightly onto the bed.
“You’re right that the contract only takes effect once the marriage registration is processed, so I’ll let this one go.”
The topic shifted naturally. He held up the paper he’d been holding.
“But from here on out, there’s no mercy. Every clause in the contract you signed will take effect starting tomorrow.”
“What do you mean?”
Instead of answering, Baek Yihyeok reached for my wrist. No — he moved to grab it, then hesitated and stopped, and instead gripped my shoulder and steered me over to the desk.
“Sign.”
Baek Yihyeok set a single sheet of paper down on the desk.
It was a marriage registration form.
“……Right now?”
I looked at Baek Yihyeok as if to ask whether he was serious, and he furrowed his brow and gestured toward the marriage registration form with a perfunctory jerk of his chin.
“I said sign it.”
“No, this…… we’re doing it now? I thought we’d do it later.”
“We were going to stamp it eventually anyway, so there’s no issue doing it early.”
Baek Yihyeok set a pen on top of the form and crossed his arms. The coercive atmosphere left me picking up the pen in a daze, but something about it didn’t sit right.
The sudden rush felt more than a little suspicious, to be honest. I also suddenly thought of his sister, Baek Irang, and her husband. If I married Baek Yihyeok, there was no way I could avoid getting entangled with them too.
I still didn’t know the exact reason why Baek Yihyeok needed to marry me — a Superior Omega — or what things would actually be like if we became a real married couple. I’d only been guessing.
Now that I was actually about to sign, more practical worries came flooding in. Meeting a lot of people once I marry into a chaebol family — could I pull it off without the contract being exposed? Would his family try to make my life difficult for not being up to their level? My face would end up in the media — would that be okay?……
Still, sign here and it’s a billion won.
I looked over the marriage registration form — filled in completely everywhere except for where my own signature was needed — and couldn’t bring myself to sign, so I slid my gaze sideways. Baek Yihyeok was watching me with his eyes open sharp as blades, like a hawk.
“……I’m going to, I will. I just want to ask something first.”
“Now what.”
“After the marriage registration — can Yihyeok ‘unilaterally’ renew the contract? Including the mandatory performance clause. Because if so, you could change things however you like, and that worries me a little……”
“Blah blah blah……”
Baek Yihyeok smiled with distaste. Then he reached for the marriage registration form as if he were about to take it away right then and there.
“If you’re going to keep running your mouth, forget it. There are other Superior Omegas out there besides you, and finding them is no trouble at all.”
“No! No, wait!”
My billion won!
I cried out and grabbed the marriage registration form with both hands.
“What. You want to do it?”
The hands clutching the form were trembling. Just sign here and it’s a billion won……
Everything Baek Yihyeok had said just moments ago was unpleasant and offensive — but the money attached to his offer, in the middle of my bleak, messy reality, was unbearably sweet.
Images flashed rapidly through my mind — my parents being kicked by loan sharks, huddled under a patchwork quilt of colorful rags sewn together from many layers, coughing with dry little coughs from the poor air quality.
The deliberation didn’t last long.
“I’ll do it! I’m doing it!”
I signed perhaps a little too hastily, and the moment I did, Baek Yihyeok snatched the form away almost before I’d finished.
“Good. That’s that, then.”
I told myself it was just my imagination that he seemed just as much in a rush as I was. The unease quietly blooming somewhere inside me — I forced myself to ignore it. Steeling myself to just endure it for exactly three years.
Yeah. Surely a major corporation wouldn’t pull a scam.
