“What did you just say — the wedding is when?”
“Yihyeok, did Seongha not know?”
But with the Madam asking in puzzlement, I had no room to press further. Baek Yihyeok also tightened his grip on my hand — a clear signal to keep quiet.
“Of course he knew. It’s just so close that it probably doesn’t feel real yet.”
“I——”
“It’s okay. Just stay by my side.”
Huh? A breathless laugh almost escaped me at a tone of voice I’d never once heard from him. Of course, he immediately squeezed my hand hard enough to make me pull myself together, but I was so flustered that I kept biting the inside of my lip and the corners of my eyes kept stinging.
No wonder it doesn’t feel real. Because I literally just heard about my own wedding with no time to even process it!
My wretched heart wasn’t even pounding anymore. It might have actually been better for my sanity if it just stopped altogether. I seriously needed to find out exactly what Baek Yihyeok had been keeping from me, and how much.
“Dad! How could you do this to me? What kind of gathering is this, leaving me completely out of it!”
But first, getting through this moment was the priority.
Baek Irang swept her gaze around the room and pointed a finger straight at me.
“And you — you weren’t the housekeeper, you were my brother’s fiancé?”
Her nails, already changed to a different color, caught the light and glittered. Her expression was that of someone who felt personally betrayed, and it made my skin crawl. I scrambled to explain myself.
“I’m sorry. I meant to tell you, but it seemed like Yihyeok hadn’t said anything about me yet, so——!”
“I should’ve figured it out the moment you kept bringing up Yihyeok!”
And with that, one thing became clear. This headstrong pair of siblings had absolutely no idea how to listen to anyone else.
“You must be exhausted with everything tomorrow — head home early and get some rest.”
“Then we’ll take our leave first.”
Whether this tendency was inherited from their father or not, the Chairman and Baek Yihyeok exchanged words with perfect composure even through all the commotion. Baek Yihyeok’s mother, too, showed nothing but a composed smile without the faintest trace of flustered surprise.
Baek Yihyeok rose and took me with him, and I had no choice but to get up awkwardly along with him.
“What? A wedding out of nowhere? So that means he’s a Superior Omega?”
“Irang, lower your voice.”
“I’m against this marriage! How is any of this acceptable!”
“Irang.”
Both the Madam and then the Chairman gently admonished Baek Irang, but she refused to back down, whatever it was that had her so aggrieved. Before long, she reached out and grabbed my wrist as I was walking past after Baek Yihyeok.
“You’re really a Superior Omega? When we went shopping, nobody treated you strangely at all!”
Cold sweat broke out all over me. Her grip was crushing, as if she’d snap my wrist if I didn’t hand her the answer she wanted on the spot. Having each of my wrists claimed by a sibling — I felt like a rabbit that had wandered into a tiger’s den and gotten itself caught.
Couldn’t he at least have warned me that his siblings would openly hate our marriage! I hung my head, unable to even meet her eyes, feeling like a convicted criminal.
“I’m truly sorry for deceiving——”
“Let go.”
“——you…… ugh.”
Baek Yihyeok’s voice cut through suddenly, and I was pulled sharply forward and collided right into him. My face, smashed against his firm arm, went numb. Rubbing my aching face, I turned to look — Baek Irang was standing there with a frown, her hand raised slightly.
Baek Yihyeok pulled me even closer against him.
“You still haven’t kicked that habit of yours, I see. Know when to stop.”
“Oh, so that’s how you want to play it?”
“Don’t touch what’s mine, and there’s no problem.”
With that, Baek Yihyeok dragged me out of there, and we swept past the manager who was flitting back and forth, unsure whether to see us off, and descended to the first floor in one go.
Until we got into the car that was waiting for us, I was half out of my mind. What had just happened, and what lay ahead for me — the thoughts came crashing in all at once and I couldn’t think straight.
I can get pregnant? So if I have sex with Baek Yihyeok and give birth to a Superior Alpha, they’ll give me a hundred billion? I actually have to give birth to a child? …… And the wedding is tomorrow? Not someone else’s wedding — mine? And after the wedding, I have to have a child?
Wedding tomorrow, pregnancy, Superior Alpha, a hundred billion……
The words spun around my head like a vortex, and I didn’t even realize I was sitting there slack-jawed like an idiot.
“I’m not sure exactly what has you so dazed, but there’s nothing for you to worry about.”
At those words, a flash of heat shot straight to the top of my head.
“You don’t know what has me so dazed? Are you serious? You’re not actually saying you don’t know, right?”
“What I mean is, there are plenty of reasons to be.”
“……At least that makes sense.”
I pressed a hand to my throbbing forehead and let out a long sigh. I couldn’t even begin to figure out where to start unpacking this utterly bleak situation. But of everything that had exploded like a bomb back in that hotel room, the most shocking thing was still——
“You don’t need to worry about the child. If that had been the plan from the start, it would’ve been written into the contract.”
Baek Yihyeok spoke as if he’d read my mind.
“Really? It’s not something like — you have to produce a Superior Alpha to inherit the company?”
“If that were the case, my father would certainly have grounds to pass the company to me. But I have no intention of having a child.”
“……What. So a child isn’t actually the inheritance condition?”
The firm words brought quiet relief, even as something uneasy lingered.
“Then what is the other inheritance condition?”
“That’s none of your concern.”
The cold answer fell instantly. It felt as though he were deliberately drawing a sharp, clear line between himself and me.
“What do you mean——”
“The party of the second part doesn’t need to know unnecessary things about the party of the first part. Already forgot that?”
“I also have a right to know things relevant to the contract.”
“This seems more related to me personally than to the contract.”
Baek Yihyeok looked at me sideways.
“Getting a billion went to your head and now the penalty clause seems like nothing? Or did you develop some genuine personal interest in me? Either way, both are contract violations.”
“…….”
“Your job is to uphold this contract quietly, without letting anyone find out. Is that really so difficult?”
There was plenty I wanted to say, but nothing more I could actually say. I shut my mouth as Baek Yihyeok wanted and rummaged in my pocket.
Baek Yihyeok had said I wouldn’t have to have a child — but there was no telling how his parents might push things. Out of conscience, it seemed better to at least remember the auspicious date they’d given me.
The fact that I was physically capable of carrying a child was a shock — but the only thing I could do was adapt to that fact quickly, and the one silver lining was that I didn’t have to try for a child right away.
Come on, there’s no way things would actually come to me having a child, right?
I swallowed against my increasingly parched throat. Then I unfolded the small slip of paper the Madam had given me.
「January 6th, 01:30」
Today was January 3rd.
The wedding passed in a blur. That may only have been how it felt to me — but either way, that wedding, which everyone except me had apparently known about, was over in the blink of an eye.
One blink, and I was wearing a deep beige wedding suit. Another blink, and I was sitting in a waiting room in that same suit. Another blink, and I was standing beside Baek Yihyeok in front of the officiant, listening to the vows. Another blink, and a famous singer was belting out a song. And when I closed my eyes and opened them one more time, Baek Yihyeok’s face was right in front of my nose——
Wait. What?
By the time I came to my senses, Baek Yihyeok’s sculpted face had drawn right up close. Close enough that his breath reached me.
Wh— wait……?
And before I could even register the shock, our lips met. A large hand gently cradled the back of my neck, and somewhere — click — a camera flash went off.
Time, which had been racing so chaotically all this while, moved strangely slowly in that single moment. As if the tape that had been winding too fast had finally overloaded.
Baek Yihyeok’s lips — the same lips that only ever let out awful words — were unexpectedly warm and soft. Through my wide-open eyes, his dense lashes came into view. Those lashes, slightly lowered, trembled briefly, and then along with their warmth, lifted away from me. The hand that had been at my nape moved to my cheek, and his thumb swept across my face with a pretense of tenderness.
“You really are transparent.”
When that quiet murmur reached me, I blinked again.
I was lying in a plush bed, tucked under a duvet. Through the slightly open terrace door, a cool Hawaiian night breeze drifted in.
Before I’d even noticed, Baek Yihyeok and I had come to Hawaii for our honeymoon. I stared blankly up at the ceiling light, then followed the faint sound of water and turned my gaze.
The rush of running water.
In the bathroom connected to the room, Baek Yihyeok was in the middle of showering. I couldn’t see him, but the occasional sound of water falling reached me. I’d assumed that since our relationship was for show, he would book separate rooms — but it seemed he’d decided to share one, perhaps not wanting to give anyone cause for gossip.
I lay on one side of the large bed and steadied my breathing. Without even knowing how the day had passed, the night was growing steadily deeper. Glancing at the clock on the wall, midnight had just barely ticked over.
Now it was January 6th. The auspicious date Baek Yihyeok’s parents had hinted at.
