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Chapter One: At Snow Crystal
This had to be a very bad cosmic joke. Or the proverbial good intentions that paved the roads to hell. Hae Soo knew that Woo Hee and Chae Ryung were just trying to cheer her up and it was really a sweet gesture, all things considered. The office where Woo Hee worked part time had had a raffle to win a week-long hotel stay for two in a fancy hotel in Niseko, Japan. When Woo Hee had won, she and Chae Ryung had decided that Soo would be the one to enjoy it. So they had pooled their money and bought her the plane ticket (they couldn’t afford a second one and frankly didn’t want to have to decide who would go with her). “You need this more than either of us!” Woo Hee had said, taking it upon herself to pack Soo’s suitcase. “I’m fine, Woo Hee-yah, and you two have done more than enough for me, letting me crash here and all.” “You did the same for me when I got into that nasty fight with my uncle,” Woo Hee answered. “And God knows how many times you have helped me put Chae Ryung back together after that guy flaunts a new girlfriend in front of her.” “I heard that!” Chae Ryung said coming into the room with an armload of sweaters and coats. “And Won is a perfectly nice person, and a good boss.”“He takes you for granted, overworks you, and is willfully blind to the fact that you have a massive crush on him.” Woo Hee said. Chae Ryung just rolled her eyes, “Let’s not get into this just now, okay? We have to get Soo-yah ready.” And so, Woo Hee and Chae Ryung had single-handedly packed her stuff, drove her to the airport and plopped her on a plane bound for Japan to spend one week at a ski resort. The minor details that she didn’t know how ski and didn’t even have appropriate clothes (and that she would be arriving to Niseko in the middle of a snowstorm that was lovingly being called the Japanese Snowggedon) quickly paled in comparison to the fact that she was stuck in the “Romantic Holiday” package during her stay.She was trying to distract herself from take-off by opening the package Woo Hee had handled her with the various vouchers for free meals, discounts and other activities when she realized that she was going to be staying at a “romantic” chalet stylet boutique hotel. All of the activities were for two, so you and your partner could enjoy leisure time together and keep the flame alive. Couple massages, candlelit dinners, couple’s lift passes.“Fuck my life,” Soo murmured to herself, just before the plane dipped backward as it lifted up.__0__Wang So opened his eyes and took off his headphones when the flight attendant made the announcement that they would be touching down soon. The flight had been a little bumpy but So was used to traveling under any type of condition as part of his job included handling the international partners of his father’s company.He still couldn’t figure out why, out of all his siblings, it had fallen to him to come all this way to freeze in Japan just to try out the services of the resort they were thinking of buying. (Particularly because he was supposed to be overseeing the merger of two manufacturing companies they had recently acquired.)His money was either on Baek Ah or Mu, who were constantly nagging him about how he hadn’t taken any vacation time since his failed engagement two years before. Not that he was going to think about that. Calling that farce off had been one of the best decisions of his life, even if his mother had basically disowned him for it.Having been to the Chitose Int. Airport before, So quickly made his way to where the various busses and shuttles to Niseko departed. There were very few people around: a bored looking clerk, a girl in an oversized coat that didn’t seem to be very warm given how she kept shivering and a couple other men.Soon, the driver called for the passengers who were heading to the Snow Crystal Hotel to board the shuttle. It turned out to be just him and the shivering girl, who kept tripping in front of him until he wordlessly lifted her up and into the bus before wheeling both their suitcases into the cargo space of the bus, earning himself a glare for his troubles.“Aren’t we waiting for anyone else?” So asked in Japanese as the driver secured their cases.“The storm is delaying the flights; many have been cancelled. The road to Snow Crystal might close if we wait more.” The driver explained.So nodded and boarded the bus moving down the rows of seats, settling on a window seat toward the back of the bus and spreading out. He was going to be stuck in this bus for the better part of two hours, at least, so he might as well be comfortable.The bus was just starting to move when his phone rang and he noticed it was his favorite brother calling. —-0—- So far, Japan wasn’t landing very high on Hae Soo’s list of “Enjoyable Places To Be Just About Now.” Chae Ryung and Woo Hee’s couch was still number one, and had been since The Incident - and that was just because of how freaking cold it was. She had borrowed Chae Ryung’s best coat and was currently wearing God knows how many layers, but she was still cold.Then, as she made her way to the shuttle to finally get out of the freezing-cold waiting area, she had kept tripping over Woo Hee’s snow boots, which were still half a size two big even though she was wearing double socks. And before she knew it, some random guy had picked her up like she weighed no more than a kitten and shoved her into the bus. Soo had paused to make sure her suitcase was not left behind, and then huffed down the aisle and huddled into one of the seats, vaguely hearing the guy and the driver talking in Japanese. Just her luck. So far she had made it through with an awkward mix of English and her almost -non - existent - I - used - to - watch - anime - with - my - brother - Japanese, and now she was going to be stuck in a bus with two people she couldn’t really understand.Minutes later, her fellow passenger walked down the aisle between the rows of seats and Soo got her first good look at him and she barely managed to suppress a vexed sigh. Of course, he had to be gorgeous: straight, black hair that tended to flop over his forehead and eyes, a blade of a nose and a sharp jaw. He was on the slender side, but he had lifted her like she weighed nothing, even with the ten extra pounds of clothes she was wearing. Soo was fairly certain he wasn’t scrawny under the expensive-looking jacket he wore. And his voice! Soo heard him when he picked up his phone and it was very nice. He laughed at whatever the person on the other end of the line said and most importantly, he spoke Korean. That made him rise quickly in The Hae Soo Scale of Appreciation..It was her eyes that he first noticed. Truly noticed. Not like how he had registered her clumsy feet and shivering; her eyes were something else. She had big, beautiful brown eyes that were currently peeking at him just above the headrest of a seat two rows ahead of his.“I wasn't eavesdropping.” She said, popping up like one of those jack in a box toys his brother Eun used to like. “I was just glad to find someone who spoke Korean. Are you from Seoul? I’m Hae Soo by the way.”“Eh, Wang So.” He said, looking at her closely to see if his name registered with her. The Wangs were a powerful family in Korea, and even if he wasn’t in the press like his other brothers, his name still came up plenty.His name seemed to mean nothing to her, but the fact that he had given it apparently had been an invitation for her to plop down in the seat next to his before he could even blink. She moved fast for someone who probably only reached up to his chin.“It’s nice to meet you, Wang So-ssi.” Hae Soo said with a big smile, which made her reach whole new levels of cute as her dimples showed.Because ‘cute’ was just the word to describe this girl. Her hair was long and victim of a reddish-dye job that had seen better days, but it framed her face nicely, she had really smooth skin, milky but with a hint of pink, her smile was wide, her lips just a little pouty and, those eyes of hers…
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter Two: Almost Like Being A Couple
So was jolted awake as the shuttle bus slid to a stop in front of a rustic but charming lodge nestled at the bottom of a snowy mountain. On his shoulder, fast asleep and drooling on her hair just a bit, was Hae Soo.
She had fallen asleep about an hour ago, as they winded through a mountain road that made the shuttle sway gently with each curve. He had meant to wake her up but instead he wound up leaning against her and falling asleep as well. Maybe he was more tired than he thought; maybe it was just their warmth pooling together or the fact that this pretty chatterbox had lulled him to sleep with her many stories about her best friends.
“Hey, Hae Soo-ssi.” So said, gently patting her shoulder. “We’re here.”
“It’s Sunday, no school!” Soo mumbled. She burrowed into him, her warm breath tickling against his neck. It made him shiver in a not entirely unpleasant way.
“Sir! You and your girlfriend need to get off now,” the driver said impatiently.
“She’s not my girlfriend.” So called back, annoyed. But at least their voices made her wake up with a start and she nearly whacked him on the side of his head when she sat up.
“Are we here?”
“Yes.” So said impatiently, wrapping her scarf around her and practically jamming her hat on her head. “Come on.”
So jumped off the bus first, and noted that the bellboys had already brought their suitcases inside. He reached back to help Soo off, just to see her trip a bit as she navigated the steps. With a sigh, he made her stop on the last step and lifted her in a fireman’s hold.
“Hey!!! What are you doing?” Soo screamed, though she had to admit that with dangling down his back she had a pretty good view of his pretty good butt.
“Do you want to end up head first in the snow?” He asked, marching toward the entrance and carrying her inside in seconds. “What’s with your boots anyway? You keep tripping.”
Soo waited until he had settled her down. Then she said, “I borrowed them from my friend. They are a little big...I should have asked my cousin for hers, but I forgot.”
So rolled his eyes and pulled her toward the check-in desk, where the clerk asked them for their passports and reservation info. So told Soo what the clerk wanted and she handed it over.
“Oh, I see you have two different reservations?” The girl said with a frown.
“We are not together,” So explained.
“Apologies, sir. It’s just that usually people come in pairs to our hotel. Snow Crystal is the number one honeymoon destination for snow enthusiasts.”
So nodded grimly and looked down at Hae Soo who was just looking between them with a confused expression on her face. She was catching probably every fourth or fifth word they said in Japanese.
“Did you know this is a couple’s hotel?” He asked her, switching back to Korean.
“Yeah. I found out when I was reading the brochure on the plane. I almost made a scene so they would let me out but then I thought getting in a No-Flight list wasn’t the best idea if I ever wanted to leave the country again. So I figured I could just eat double of everything and have double the number of massages or whatever, they have a really good spa and skin care program here, you know?”
“I did know that, actually.” It had been in the brief Baek Ah’s secretary had given him regarding the hotel and its services. What wasn’t in the brief? The fact that this was The Number One Honeymoon Destination for Snow Enthusiasts.
Since a lot of people hadn’t showed up due to the storm, the clerk finished checking them in quickly and had one of the bellboys show them to their rooms. Their rooms turned out to be located in the same corner of the hotel, one across the other.
Once they left the lobby, they did see more people around. All of them paired up and being lovey-dovey.
“Just my luck,” Soo grumbled, and So had to agree wholeheartedly. He hadn’t been in a relationship since the whole fiasco with Yeon Hwa and he remembered Hae Soo saying something about living with her friends in the wake of a bad break up.
So tipped the bellboy for both of them, and they paused in the doorway of their respective rooms wishing each other good night.
“Hae Soo-ssi?” He asked tentatively. “You just broke up with someone, right?” Soo nodded, looking away. “Can I give you some advice?”
“If you’re going to say I’m better off, I know that already.”
So smiled. “I was going to say you should sleep in the middle of the bed, lie down diagonally, whatever. Just take up all the space you can. Say this is all mine and I deserve it.”
Soo blinked. “That helps?”
So shrugged. “Helped me.” He nodded and closed the door. Hae Soo stared after him for a moment before going inside.
—0—
Soo left her suitcase near the doorway and wandered inside the room. It was a strange mix of rustic and modern - lots of stone and wood but also clear glass and sleek appliances. The first thing she did was take off Woo Hee’s boots and run toward the window, where a gorgeous view of the snowy mountain greeted her.
“Daebak!” She said excitedly and whipped out her phone to take a selfie - or five - and send them to Woo Hee and Chae Ryung. Then she ran toward the plushy looking king-sized bed and jumped on it, bouncing a couple of times before sitting down.
The bed was HUGE and after two months of sleeping on a sofa, it felt like heaven. She was considering settling down for a bit when she suddenly remembered she hadn’t seen the bathroom yet!
There was a huge tub - where two people could fit comfortably - and a glassed-in shower. Plus, there was a big window here too, so you could relax watching the mountains and snow. Quickly, Soo undressed, letting her clothes land wherever, and started a hot bath. Maybe this place wouldn’t be so bad after all.
The next morning, So was feeling much better. He had had a good night’s sleep and now was on his way to breakfast, which smelled great. He had paused to knock on Hae Soo’s door on his way, but there had been no answer and he figured she was probably still asleep.
But he had been wrong, instead she found Soo already seated in one of the booths in the restaurant. Her entire table had been filled with all sorts of dishes from the breakfast buffet. So dismissed the waiter that was showing him to an empty table and made his way to Hae Soo’s instead.
“You really do mean to eat double of everything, don’t you?” He said, sitting down.
“It’s delicious,” she said around a mouthful of French toast, which made her cheeks puff out like a chipmunk’s.
“Should be, they recently hired a Michelin Star chef.”
“What’s that?” She asked, this time pausing long enough to swallow before reaching for some bacon.
“Michelin star?”
She nodded.
“It’s kind of an excellency award for restaurants. You can have a one, two or three star rating. Only the best chefs and restaurants get them.”
“More the reason to eat double!”
So actually laughed. “Mind if I join you?”
Soo shrugged. “You already sat down. Try the waffles.”
Afterward, So offered to show her the lifts and where she could sign up for skiing lessons.
“You’ve been here before?” Soo asked.
“A few times. Not to this part of Niseki, but my youngest brother loves extreme sports and they have a half-pipe snowboarding event at the other side of the resort every year and Jung drags us whenever he can.”
“How many brothers do you have?”
“Two full brothers—though I don’t speak to one of them—and three half-brothers and a cousin my father more or less adopted, much to my mother’s annoyance.”
“Wow. At least you get lots of Christmas presents?”
So laughed, and realized this was the third or fourth time he had laughed with her, which was rather odd. “How about you?”
“One younger brother. He’s doing his conscription right now. And my cousin Myung Hee, who is like a sister to me. Same with Chae Ryung and Woo Hee, I don’t think I would have survived the last two months without them.”
It seemed only natural that the two of them ended up spending the whole day together. They were the only two single people in the whole place and all activities were designed for two. So figured they would have been lumped together anyway, so he might as well go with the flow. For her part, Soo was quite happy to attach herself to him as it was much easier to get around with him rather than pointing and miming when she needed something.
They didn’t have much in common, but maybe because of that they never ran out of things to say to each other. They talked about plants, the weather, their siblings and a little of their jobs. She was funny and curious and seemed genuinely interested in everything and everyone.
They even took some perverse enjoyment whenever the lovey-dovey couples had little spats.
“Well, it’s better that she finds out now.” Soo said after they witnessed a proposal
gone
awry when the man called the woman by another name. “Men are such scum sometimes.”
“Women too.” So pointed out.
Soo turned to him in the couch they were sharing in front of the fireplace in the hotel’s lounge. “My ex-boyfriend borrowed money using my house as collateral and then disappeared without paying, leaving me homeless and with piles of his debt.”
“That’s why you should never use your house as collateral.”
“I didn’t let him! He did it behind my back.”
“My fiancée cheated on me for years, which I found out once we got engaged.”
“He was sleeping with my roommate/oldest friend.”
“With my brother!”
“In my house!!”
“He knocked her up!!!”
Soo paused their little back and forth, deflating. “Okay, you win.”
“Huzzah.”
“Come on, I’ll buy you a drink.” She jumped up and reached for his hand to pull him up and towards the bar.
So found it cute how she thought she could move him, which was probably why he gave in. “You know all the drinks are free, right?”
“Even better!”
For someone who only came up to his chin, Hae Soo could drink plenty, So thought with admiration as the drinks just kept coming.
Eventually they both had enough and began to stumble back toward their rooms… and that’s when things got a little bit fuzzy… So remembered taking her keycard to open the door for her, while trying not to be distracted by the way she was draping herself all over him. Next thing he knew, they were making out against the door until they heard people coming and Soo finally pulled him inside, the door closing behind him
and they moved toward the bed.
Soo felt quite giddy even if she wasn’t sure why she was making out with Wang So, and when exactly she had lost her top.
“Are you drunk?” So asked her while she tried to pull his t-shirt up. Soo shook her head, running her nails down his back. “Do you want to…”
“Yes!” She rolled on top of him and reached for his belt.
Okay then.
—0—
The next morning Wang So woke up naked and curled around a smaller, equally naked body. Hae Soo had the softest skin he’d ever touched, and was currently flushed pink as she slept like she didn’t have a care in the world.
So rolled onto his back, his mind filling with images of the previous night. Turning his head to the right, he could see the open box of condoms they had torn into the night before on top of the night table. He even remembered sending a silent thanks to the hotel staff that conveniently put one of those in every room.
He was distracted when Soo stirred long enough to roll into him once more.
“Hae Soo-ssi,” He said, shallowing thickly as he felt her breast pressing to his upper arm. “Soo, wake up.”
“Follow that monkey!” Soo mumbled, without even opening her eyes. Instead, she snuggled in and threw one of her legs over his.
He would have laughed at her refusal to wake up if not for the fact that if she kept it up her effect on certain parts of his anatomy would become rather evident. Part of him couldn’t believe he’d had sex -and spent the night - with a woman he had known for less than 48 hours. It was so out of character for him.
But, as Soo began to stir and placed little kisses on his shoulder, neck and collarbone...and his own hand began moving down to cup her ass and caress her thigh...So couldn’t bring himself to care.
“Do we have any left?” She asked, letting him roll over her.
So reached into the box of condoms and produced another tinfoil square. “It’s a six pack.”
“Oh, goodie.”
——000——
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter Three: Just One Week
It was such a strange time, Hae Soo thought. The days seemed to go so fast but the hours she spent with Wang So were languid and sweet, each moment searing itself into forever. It wasn’t just sex - and how she had missed good sex - but that So made her laugh, said dorky things, put up with her silliness in good humor, got way intense when they stumbled into a topic he liked, and listened patiently whenever she gushed about a topic she liked.And yes, that they had tons of sex. All over the place.But Soo also learned that he was close to his oldest brother and to the second youngest, whom he considered his best friend. That he had some type of important job in a large corporation and traveled abroad extensively - which explained why he spoke Japanese and a few other languages. She also learned that he liked martial arts but lately only practiced to de-stress, usually with his youngest brother.She told him stories about her brother, Hyun Jae, and how he wanted to go to med school after he finished his conscription. She described how she had become friends with Chae Ryung and Woo Hee and how she had been sickly as a child. It was like having the best parts of a relationship condensed into a few days. And maybe it was because Soo knew that she probably wouldn’t see So after this week that it allowed her to drop most of her inhibitions and just go for it.Soo felt no regrets about anything that happened - except maybe saying goodbye. She had kissed So until he let her go and then squirmed out of his bed and back to her room. She still had to pack and needed to be in the first shuttle, which left at 5 a.m.Maybe it was the sleep deprivation, or maybe it was the melancholy feeling that came over her when she wrapped the scarf he had gifted her when they had gone to town two days before. They had been looking to buy souvenirs for their friends. Walking away seemed to be harder than she thought. Soo half wished he had to take the same plane so they would at least get a few hours more together, but she knew that would just make it harder in the end. Still… —00— Wang So woke up to find himself alone for the first time since the first morning he had spent at Snow Crystal. There was still a lingering scent of Hae Soo’s soap - which she made herself with peonies (at first, he had thought it smelled like roses, now he knew the difference) - but the space next to his was cold.He knew her plane left much earlier than his and, looking at his watch on the night stand, he realized it was almost 9 am. Her plane was probably already in the air. And that he was going to be late for his own if he didn’t hurry.So went through the motions of his well-practiced hotel routine. He showered first, dressed and packed everything in the same meticulous order he always used and, as he zipped his suitcase close, he began to slip back into professional Wang So. This week with Soo was growing distant by the second - surprising him by how sad the thought made him.Especially when he found one of her earrings tangled in a hat he had lent her when she lost hers the one time he got her into a pair of skis. He hadn’t even gotten her number. And maybe it was better that way.He almost didn’t see the envelope that had been slid under the door, occupied as he was with checking his emails and messages in his much-neglected phone. But the wheel of his suitcase caught on it and he picked it up.
Dear So-yah.
I know we said goodbye already but I couldn’t leave without telling you how happy I was to spend these days with you. I hope you don’t mind if I consider you my friend from now own - strange how we never agreed to be friends, uh?
Anyway, have a safe trip back. Sleep and eat well, and don’t overwork yourself.
Your friend, Hae Soo.
She had drawn a chibi version of herself, wearing a hanbok for some reason, winking and making a V sign with her hand.So smiled, looking at the drawing. It was so like her. And so much like their relationship. Sweet but without any promises of anything more.And maybe that was what they both had needed. Still, he folded the note and put it in the inside pocket of his coat, already pushing this week to the back of his mind.—-000—- The Hae Soo that arrived at Incheon International Airport was rosy-cheeked and smiling; a big contrast to the pale and mildly depressed Soo that had left eight days before. It was a change Chae Ryung and Woo Hee immediately noticed.“It looks like alpine weather really suits you,” Chae Ryung said, fishing for information as they piled into Woo Hee’s car.“She got laid.” Woo Hee declared matter of factly.“Woo Hee!” Soo yelled from the back seat. “You can’t just go around saying things like that.”“All I hear is you not denying it.” Woo Hee sing-song-edHae Soo remained quiet, and Woo Hee just laughed while Chae Ryung gasped.—In the end, Soo told them very little about Wang So, and she herself barely had time to think of him. On the way home and before she could elaborate on how she had met So, her cousin had called, telling her that her fiancé Wook seemed to have found some irregularities with the way the bank had seized her house, and that she should drop by to discuss it with him.Starting from that point on, Hae Soo had very little free time. Wook had discovered that the bank had taken her house as collateral not only with a document Soo had never signed, and which lacked her stamp; but also without considering that they needed the signature of Soo’s brother to do so, since he owned half of the house. Wook said that meant the bank’s manager (at least) had been in on the fraud; which would mean the bank would want to settle rather than drag this through the courts.Then Soo had finally landed a job as a skin care technician and makeup artist at an upscale day spa in Gangnam called Damiwon, like the former royal bathhouse in the Goryeo period. The proprietress, Oh Soo Yeon, was very strict but also understanding, and protective of the girls that worked for her.And she had taken a liking to Soo. She often let her stay behind after her shift to mess around with skin care formulations and to make soaps. She was even teaching Soo how to make proper tea the old-fashioned way.But when things wound down a bit, Soo found her mind drifting back to the hotel and her week with Wang So. It was usually when she was about to fall asleep when she would think of his smile, or the way his hair fell over his eyes sometimes. Or how bad he sang in the shower...which lead her to think of shower sex with him.The memories made her happy and tingly - and sometimes hot and bothered when she remembered certain details - and she was thankful for that.Hae Soo was not a person to dwell on the things that went bad or disappointed her. This was something she had forgotten for a while thanks to how much those two whom-shall-not-be-named-ever-again had hurt her and deceived her.Wang So reminded her that not all people were like that and it allowed her to move on.The orgasms hadn’t hurt either.Six weeks after her trip, Hae Soo felt like a completely different person. She had even cut her hair and gotten rid of the red-dye since it didn’t go that well with her new job, and everyone commented how she just seemed to be glowing these days._00_“You look like crap.” Wang Baek Ah said as he walked into his office to find his brother So leaning back on his office chair, eyes closed and feet on the desk, beyond caring if his shoes damaged the antique wood.“My jet lag has jet lag,” So said straightening. “I have been in ten different time zones in the last six weeks.”“Wasn’t it lucky that I sent you on vacation before all the craziness started?” Baek Ah said, giving his brother a much-needed cup of coffee.“It’s not vacation if I had to submit an expenses report and a detailed brief on whether or not I thought it was a good idea to buy the hotel.”“Details, details.”“We trade on details, Baek Ah.” So said patiently, trying not to grimace as he drank his coffee. He much preferred tea, or at least a cappuccino. Everyone always assumed he liked black coffee. It was annoying, but at least the black coffee was helping today.“At least you’re back.”“Hopefully for a few weeks.” So agreed.When he had first broken off with Yeon Hwa and had fallen out with his parents, the constant traveling had been a good way to distract himself from it. He had felt productive. But now it was getting old, he had to admit.
---00---
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter Four: Serendipitous Surprises
Soo was having a really good day. The weather was just the perfect blend of cold and clear skies for February and she felt great.
Myung Hee’s fiancé had reached a settlement with the bank and she was no longer liable for her ex’s debts with them. Now Wook was working on getting her at least part of the money they had gotten from her house’s sale, since they had been negligent about the whole thing.
At least with her credit record being cleared and having completed the trial period at Damiwon, she could now start looking for an apartment and get off of Woo Hee and Chae Ryung’s couch.
She had finished earlier with her last appointment before lunch. Miss Oh had let her take that extra time for her break; Soo even decided to treat herself to a hot chocolate and one of those fancy sandwiches from the coffee shop around the corner from the Spa. Maybe even a cupcake too. She had been craving sugar all day.
Hae Soo was happily contemplating if she wanted a cookies-and-cream cupcake or a caramel-pretzel one when someone grabbed her arm and turned her around.
“You bitch!” The young man said. “Do you know how much you screwed me over?”
Hae Soo sighed, wondering how she had ever dated this asshole, and praying he didn’t make a scene so close to her work.
---
Wang So was still in shock following the meeting.
His father was stepping down as president of the company. Their brother Mu was taking over and re-organizing the C-suite.
“Come on, So! This is good news!” Baek Ah said as they made their way to So’s favorite lunch place. “Mu wants you to be CEO!”
“And our parents want Yo to be it. It makes senses since he’s already CFO.”
“Only because you decided that being a traveling gypsy suited you better than marrying Yo’s mistress to cover up for their out-of-wedlock love child.”
“You know, when you put it like that…”
Baek Ah laughed. “But it’s true, you were a shoe-in for the board back then.”
So was prevented from answering when a commotion broke out a few paces in front of them.
“Just let go of me already!” a young woman fairly yelled as a man kept twisting her arm. So was surprised to realize that he knew that woman, but not as much as the man she fought was by the swift kick to the knees that accompanied her scream. The man stumbled and Soo managed to wrench herself free.Soo had turned to leave when the man tried to grab her again, but this time So stepped between them and pushed him back.“Get out of my way!” The young man snarled.“Make me,” So said calmly.By then, they had attracted a crowd of onlookers and the man seemed to realize he wasn’t going to get much support in this crowd. “We’re not done, Hae Soo.” said the young man.
“I’m sure my lawyer will love to hear that!” Hae Soo yelled after him.
“You do seem to have knack for getting into trouble, Soo-yah.”
“Wang So?” She blinked up at him. Her face was a mask of surprise, before it broke into a grin. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“I work nearby, when I am in the country.”
“I work nearby too. Well, I hope I still do, if my boss finds out about this scene I’m not sure…” She looked around, glad to see that people had started to disperse. “Anyway, thanks for the help! I had it in hand, but thanks anyway.”
They were just standing there, smiling at each other when Baek Ah cut in. “Wait, do you know each other?”
“We have met once or twice.” Hae Soo said, a little too nonchalantly. But really, how could she explain their relationship? What do you call it when you spend a week in bed with someone and then part ways never expecting to see each other again?
A fling?
“You look well.” So said. She was glowing actually, and the shorter, darker hair suited her.
“Thanks. You look-“ She never quite finished her sentence as a wave of dizziness came over her, making her reach out to grab him to steady herself. “Sorry. Got a bit of a dizzy spell.”
“Perhaps you should see a doctor.” She was growing paler by the second, the glow fading quickly.
“No, I’m fine.” She answered... right before she fainted into So’s arms.
---
An hour later, Hae Soo was completely mortified. She had never fainted in her life, but the one time it happened it, of course, had to be in front of her… fuck buddy? Friend with benefits? Vacation fling? Just what was Wang So to her now that they were back to their normal lives where they had never expected to see each other?
The guy who took her to the hospital and stayed with her even though he didn’t have to – that’s who.
“You really don’t have to stay, Wang So-ssi. I’m sure you’re busy.” She was even reverting to formal speech.
“I’m already here. Might as well see it through.” Wang So said without looking up from his phone. When she had first come to, she had been disoriented and a little scared in the unfamiliar hospital room, but then she heard his voice as he talked on the phone.
He had been fielding calls the entire time they had been waiting for the doctor. They had already poked her and drawn her blood and now they were just waiting for the doctor to give them the all-clear.
“All right.” A man in a white coat and blue scrubs said as he walked in while reading a chart. “Miss Hae Soo. I have a few questions to ask you.”
“Okay.”
So’s phone rang then and he excused himself to pick up, going outside the room. Soo figured that was out of hearing range in case the doctor had to ask her some embarrassing question.
Then the doctor shocked her by asking her when was the last time she had her period, and when she had last had sex.Soo answered, realizing she wasn’t sure if she had had her period last month. It was supposed to have arrived after she returned from Japan, but it had been such a whirlwind she hadn’t kept track.The last time she had sex was an easier question. She and Wang So had decided to make their last night together memorable and went at it for hours in his room.“Alright,” The doctor said, scribbling some notes on the chart. “That would put the baby at 6 weeks almost exactly.”“What?” Soo asked, but it might have been drowned by the even louder “WHAT!” that Wang So let out upon returning to the room to catch that last bit of information.
“You are pregnant, Miss Hae,” The doctor said, scribbling away in his chart. “I’ll get you a prescription for prenatal vitamins and I would recommend you start making appointments to see the doctor who will attend the pregnancy.”
“I don’t- I can’t be pregnant, we were always careful!”
The doctor shrugged as if to indicate that it wasn’t his problem as he exited the room… leaving her with Wang So.“We were always careful.” She repeated to no one in particular.
So had to agree with her shock. He wasn’t sure how many condoms they had gone through, but they had always,
always
used them. They hardly knew each other so of course they had always used protection. On the other hand, condoms weren’t 100% and a faulty condom was not out of the realm of possibility, statistically speaking. Someone had to be that 2%.
“Maybe it’s a mistake? Do you think it could be a mistake?” Soo turned her round eyes on him and that made him snap out of his inner stroll through What-The-Fuck-Have-I-Done Avenue. “I can’t be pregnant! I was just turning my life back around!”Soo began to babble, half formed thoughts that weren’t going anywhere. She was hyperventilating and her eyes were filling with tears.
“Hae Soo!” He said loudly, grabbing her hands – which here curled into tight fists – and made her look at him. “Soo-yah! Breathe!” Soo stared at him for a second before gulping in a big lungful of air. “Slowly, let it out.” Once her hands relaxed a bit, he started to pat her back, still trying to get her to breathe normally.
“What am I going to do?” She asked in a whisper.“We can start by asking for another test, just to be sure.”Soo sniffled and nodded, “Okay.”---
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter Five: Elephant in the Room
This day had to be the strangest day of his life. Wang So was sure of it. How else could he explain that Hae Soo was now sitting in front of him, nursing her second chocolate milkshake and sniffling every so often.“I’m sorry, but I have to ask...“ Wang So said as delicately as he could. He played with the spoon next to his cup of coffee. “Is it… the baby, I mean…”“I haven’t been with anyone since you and I…” Soo trailed off.Their conversation so far had been full of trail offs and unfinished, disjointed sentences. So figured it was the shock of it all.“Have you thought on what you want to do?” So asked instead.“I think I’m still in denial.” Soo admitted. “And you?”So shrugged. “I’ll do whatever you want to do. I can help you either way.”“You have no preference?”“I’m not sure. I think I do, but I don’t want to pressure you.”“I can’t imagine this isn’t complicating your life on six different levels, at least.”“My life is always complicated, Hae Soo.” He said. “Is this a huge surprise I never saw coming? Yes. Am I in shock? Hell yes. But I have no reason not to believe you if you say the baby is mine, and I’ll help you no matter what you decide.”-.-.- In the end, Wang So had given her his card and put her on a taxi to take her home.“Where have you been?” Woo Hee’s voice demanded as soon as Soo let herself into the house.“Oh, hi.” Soo responded. She went to sit on her couch and slumped down.“Oh, hi? Oh, hi?! Do you know how worried we have been? Chae Ryung saw you being loaded into an ambulance when she was out picking up lunch for her boss! We called your workplace and no one knew anything! We have been calling hospitals all afternoon trying to find you!”“Woo Hee-yah” Chae Ryung cut her. “Soo isn’t even listening to you.”And she wasn’t. Soo was just staring at nothing.“The important thing is that she is fine,” Myung Hee said. They had called her earlier to see if she knew anything. Myung Hee had come to make calls with them, trying to figure out where Soo was.“Unnie?” Soo asked dazedly as Myung Hee sat next to her.“What is it, Soo-yah?” Myung Hee asked, pushing Soo’s hair back and tucking it behind her ears. “What happened?”Soo started to cry again and told them everything: from her stupid ex showing up, running into So and then how he had taken her to the hospital because she had fainted—due to the mild shock of having to argue with her idiot ex—and then the doctor’s revelation..Later that night, Soo laid awake on the couch. She was all talked out and more confused than ever. Being a single mother was still a stigma Soo wasn’t sure she wanted to put up with. Even though her friends and cousin told her they would stand by her no matter what. But on the other hand, there was a baby inside her that needed her now.It wasn’t the baby’s fault that she had gotten her groove back during a holiday with a stranger—a very nice one but a stranger nonetheless. She liked kids and had always wanted to have them but she hadn’t found the right guy (as evidenced by the fact that she was almost twenty six and currently sleeping on her friends’ lumpy couch).Wang So said he would help her no matter what. But would that still hold up if she told him she was keeping the baby? Maybe he was just being polite. Even when So had asked if the baby was his, Soo knew he had to ask given what his ex-girlfriend had done to him. She hadn’t minded it...but maybe So hadn’t really believed her.Who was she kidding? She wasn’t ready for a baby, she didn’t even have her own bed! But whenever she tried to think of other options… giving up the baby, going through the whole process of growing it and giving birth just to hand it off? That would be too painful. And not having it… Hae Soo had always thought she wasn’t opposed to abortion as a concept; not everyone was meant to be a mother. But whenever she tried to picture herself going through with it, her brain recoiled from the thought and her heart started pounding.--00-- In the three days since he had seen Hae Soo, Wang So had been slowly going out of his mind. He said he wouldn’t pressure her and he meant it, but it was driving him crazy that she hadn’t called him.“You know, you could just call her yourself. Or go see her. She literally works six blocks away from here,” Baek Ah said, watching as his older brother checked his phone for the fifth time in the last hour.“We are pretty busy here. No point in going if she hasn’t made up her mind,” So said distractedly, like he hadn’t driven by her work at least three times every day.“So-yah?“ Baek Ah said after a long pause.“Um?”“I’m sorry to ask you this, but are you sure the baby is yours?”So sighed. After he had put Soo in a taxi three days ago, he had driven straight to Baek Ah’s apartment and gotten themselves drunk while he told Baek Ah that Soo was pregnant and that it was his.He hadn’t explained much. If he had, neither of them could remember now but So knew he owed his brother a bit of an explanation. Especially since he was dragging Baek Ah through the landscape of his own private meltdown.“I asked her an she said it was.” God knew they had more than enough sex to make it happen.“And you believe her? I mean, you’d only known her for a week and then you just casually run into each other? Don’t you think it’s fishy?”So tossed Baek Ah’s words in his brain. “If this were a con, it’s a very elaborate, long winded one. And she honestly hasn’t asked me for anything. She kept telling me to leave the hospital. She was shocked when she found out.”“Shock can be faked. People lie.”“If I couldn’t tell when someone was faking shock, surprise, or lying to me I would be crap at my job, Baek Ah,” So said patiently. “I’m good at reading people. I know I am. And before you bring up Yeon Hwa, don’t. Hae Soo is not like her. I might not know much about her, but I know that.”And he did.Hae Soo’s inner life poured out of her like she couldn’t help it. It was in the way she chattered about anything and everything; how her emotions just took over her face sometimes, and the way she laughed with her whole body. Her eyes turned into half-moons as giggles left her mouth, and she always listened to people whenever they talked or how she had waxed poetic about the chocolate soufflé they had for dinner one night.So didn’t’ think for an instant that he knew Soo well, or knew everything there was to know about her. But he knew the type of person she was, and he liked her.“I think you like-like her,” Baek Ah said with a sigh of his own.So laughed for the first time in three days. “Are we in high school?”“We might be if you keep checking your phone every five minutes.”So was about to throw said phone to Beak Ah, but then it rang.-o-o- After three days, Hae Soo was sick of herself. She was off from work and didn’t even have her clients to distract her. She had offered to work an extra shift on her day off, but Miss Oh hadn’t let her. Instead, she had wandered around the house for a while, making lists of pros and cons over keeping the baby or not having the baby. Each time she thought she had reached a conclusion, she would begin to panic.Feeling that she shouldn’t be panicking alone, she called Wang So who agreed to meet her for lunch at a restaurant near his office. She kept flip-flopping her decision all the way there.Wang So was already waiting there when she arrived. Soo took a moment to study him: his hair was messy, like he had run his hands through it a few times, and he seemed tired and a little rumpled though his clothes were impeccable. Suddenly, he looked up and their gazes locked. Wang So smiled at her, and Soo could feel her insides settling down. Maybe she wasn’t in this alone.“Am I late?”“No, I’m early.” He answered, standing to help her with her chair. A waitress came right away to take their order.“Okay, elephant in the room.” Soo said once the waitress walked away.“Have you made up your mind?”“I want to have the baby and keep it,” Soo rushed out, letting out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding.“All right.” So sighed. “I’m glad.”“I know it will be complicated, and I get it if you need time to process it or if you don’t want to get too involved.”“I don’t need time. I said I would help and I will. We are in this together, Soo-yah.”Soo smiled and then gulped. “I understand if you want a paternity test, after what you went through. I won’t get mad if you want to do that, I get it.”“Thanks for that. I’m sure we can ask the doctor once we set an appointment. Now that we know what we’re doing, we can start making plans. Okay?”“Okay.” Soo smiled, feeling hopeful and at ease for the first time in days.As the waitress returned with their food and drinks, they lapsed back to more mundane topics. Soo told him about her new job and how she was looking for an apartment as her case against her ex and former friend wrapped up in her favor. So told her about how he would be staying in Seoul for the time being, due to some shake ups in his company.And all the while he kept putting vegetables and the best meat on her rice.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter Six: Not the Worst Idea Ever
Since Soo didn’t have anyone to ask for recommendations, Wang So offered to make an appointment with his sister-in-law’s doctor and called her with the details.That had been two days ago, and they had actually found themselves texting each other many times a day. It usually started with So asking her how she felt, but since Soo had been feeling perfectly fine so far, they usually just started to text about other things. Sometimes it took him a while, but eventually he would answer.Soo still wasn’t sure what he did for a living, but it sounded hectic so she appreciated his answers. Even if Woo Hee kept telling Soo always had a goofy smile after she got a text from So.In any case, he had been able to secure an appointment with the doctor. Soo managed to shuffle her shift so she could take the afternoon off, and maybe check out some apartments after the appointment..Wang So walked into Damiwon fifteen minutes before the hour he had told Soo he would pick her up. He took a seat in the waiting area, taking a moment to lean back and relax his muscles a little. He was finally getting over his jet-lag but he wasn’t all the way there yet. Then he heard Soo’s voice as she chatted with a young woman she was escorting to the exit.“Just follow the order I wrote down for you, you’ll be fine.” Soo was saying. “If you have any doubts, you can always come back.”“Thank you, Ahgassi.” The young woman – a girl, really, probably still in high school – said with a huge smile and ran out the door.Soo waited until the girl had disappeared from sight before turning around, catching Wang So as he stared at her (which made him blush for some reason he wasn’t ready to examine).Smiling, Soo walked over to him. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I just need to clock out and change and I’ll be right out.”“It’s all right. I arrived early.”He often did that, Soo noticed.With a nod, she dashed to the backroom where she changed quickly into her street clothes consisting of warm tights, a wool skirt and a nice, fluffy sweater. Soo paused for a second, looking at herself in the mirror… she couldn’t imagine how she would look once she started to show.But for now, Wang So awaited.…000…They almost hadn’t made it to the appointment, and not because Soo had taken a lot of time to change or anything. Wang So knew it was entirely his fault. Apparently having her (and the baby) in his car made him drive like an old man. Who knew?But in the end they made it and were given some forms to fill out while they sat in the waiting room. Soo went first, filling out all her medical history before handing the clipboard to him. He took in her information at a glance, noting her blood type and her birthday. How was he having a baby with someone without knowing that?Well, now he knew.Apparently, Soo felt similarly because she kept leaning in to look at what he wrote.“Your handwriting is very neat,” she commented very seriously, which made him laugh. He thought of the hours his father had made him and his brothers practice their calligraphy and hanja characters.But before he could answer, they were called into the doctor’s office.There, Dr. Kim – whom So vaguely remembered from the time his niece and nephew had been born – sat behind her desk reading the forms they had filled and looking at Soo’s blood test and general check-up from a week ago.Then she took Soo’s blood pressure and asked about what symptoms had she been experiencing. Then they did a dating ultrasound, which pinpointed the date of conception to the timeframe they had spent at the resort together.“And this right here...” Dr. Kim pointed to a rapidly blinking spot on the black and white screen. “That’s the baby’s heart.” Hae Soo stared at the screen speechlessly as Wang So reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze and a comforting pat while she tried not to cry. Even he was getting a little misty eyed himself.Doctor Kim, used to this reaction, just handed her a tissue and smiled at the young couple. “It’s too early now, but in the next ultrasound you should be able to hear it.”If after that she found it odd that they asked for a paternity test, Dr. Kim didn’t show. Instead, she talked them through the pros and cons of the procedures available and sent them off to the lab when they settled on the non-invasive procedure that took a little longer to process (and was more expensive) but didn’t involve a needle being stuck into Soo’s stomach to get a sample.“Do you need me to drive you back to work?” So asked as they rode the elevator down to the underground parking after leaving the doctor’s office.“I have the afternoon off, so you can just drop me at the bus stop. I was planning on looking at apartments today, but I think I’ll just go home. I’m a little tired.” “I’ll take you home then.” So said as they stepped off the elevator.“Thanks.” Soo agreed, then added excitedly: “Oh, can we stop for ice cream?”In February.“Sure we can.”---In hindsight, So should have known Mu would find out. He had, after all, asked Uihwa to set up the doctor’s appointment. And as nice as his sister-in-law was, the soul of discretion she was not.By the time he got back to his office after dropping Soo off, Mu was waiting for him.“Is something wrong?” So asked when his older brother pulled him into his office and asked his secretary to hold all his calls. “What’s Baek Ah doing here?”“Never mind Baek Ah.” Mu said impatiently which made So’s eyebrows rise as Mu’s patience with his younger brothers was legendary.“Okay...”“I just talked to Uihwa a little while ago, she asked how your doctor appointment went. What doctor’s appointment, I asked. Imagine my surprise when she told me you were meeting with Dr. Kim. What do you need a OB/GYN for? What’s going on, Wang So?”So sighed, not sure where to start and settled on being blunt. “I-I met someone when I was last in Japan. She’s pregnant.”“She is saying it’s yours?”“Yeah, and it adds up,” So said. “We are doing a paternity test anyway, but I believe her.”“You believe her? YOU BELIEVE HER?! AFTER WHAT HAPPENED WITH YEON HWA YOU BELIEVE IT WHEN A RANDOM WOMAN SAYS YOU GOT HER PREGNANT?!!!”“I do.” So answered, surprised by how easily that affirmation came. That left his oldest brother speechless. “And she’s not some random woman. We are friends.” Of a sort…“I’m not sure ‘friends with benefits’ counts as friends.” Baek Ah piped up, amusing exactly no one.“You knew about this,” Mu declared. Up until So had shown up, Baek Ah had been claiming not to know anything about anything.“Not my story to tell,” Baek Ah shrugged, completely unapologetic.Wang So cut in before Mu got riled up again. “Look, Hae Soo is a good person and we are figuring things out. This is not a Yeon Hwa situation. You don’t have to worry about me.”“That’s good to know, little brother.” Mu said tiredly and just a little sarcastically. “But have you forgotten you are up for the position of CEO? The board is voting in three months and you cannot afford to have a scandal right now.”“Since I’m not married and she’s not engaged to any of my brothers, I think it will be fine.”“You could marry her,” Baek Ah said idly. “The board does prefer old married men, and you can always get a divorce later on – divorce hasn’t hampered any of the executives. Out of wedlock children… well, look at Yo.”Both older men turned to Baek Ah, and So had to admit he was right. If Yo hadn’t screwed around with Yeon Hwa and still had the support of Park Mun Seong’s family, there would be no question of whom would be CEO. So would have never stood a chance.“That’s not an entirely bad idea, Baek Ah. You do have a point,” Mu said pensively. “It might even work if we spin it just right.”“Yah! Why the tone of surprise? I’m the Head of PR! Spinning things in our favor is what I do!”“If I didn’t marry Yeon Hwa two years ago just so I could be on the board, what makes you think I’m going to marry Soo-yah just to be CEO?” So asked.Baek Ah looked at So like he was really quite hopeless. “That you actually like her?”--- In another part of Seoul, Hae Soo sneezed three times in rapid succession.“Someone must be thinking about me.” Soo said, blowing her nose.“Probably your baby daddy,” Woo Hee said, dipping her spoon into the ice cream container Soo had brought home courtesy of Wang So.“Woo Hee!” Soo protested. “Don’t call him that.”“What? I’m becoming a fan. This gourmet ice cream is delicious. Maybe you should marry him! Then we can have gourmet ice cream all the time!”“Woo Hee!” This time it was Chae Ryung admonishing their friend. “Soo-yah is not going to marry a stranger just so you can get pricey ice cream!”Woo Hee rolled her eyes. “What? Soo-yah likes him and from what I have gathered, he’s probably good in bed.”“WOO HEE!!” Soo and Chae Ryung yelled at the same.“I’m just saying!”“There is more to marriage than liking someone and being good in bed together.” Soo said.“Yah... but is there though?”-0-0- It was interesting how an idea could take hold of one’s mind. The first time Baek Ah had uttered the words “you could marry her,” it had seemed too outrageous even to consider. However, the more Wang So thought about it...the more it made a demented kind of sense for reasons far more important than being CEO.That night he had wandered around his house,—which he had purchased when he got engaged to Yeon Hwa… an engagement that was over before the paperwork for the house had come through – wondering how it would be to share it.The moment the realtor had shown him this house, he knew it was the right one: the open space, the garden and everything else ; it was just perfect for him… even if it was a lot of space for just one person. Now, Wang So tried to imagine Hae Soo there too and he was surprised to find that he could do it easily. He could see her in the kitchen—which he never used—or on the couch watching TV… and it didn’t panic him, none of it.From a practical stance, So knew Soo was looking for a new place, and if they lived together it would be easier to share responsibilities. And he would actually get to be part of the experience and see his child once it was born.And seeing her try not to be mopey about how her search was going… well, keeping Baek Ah’s words out of his head was proving to be difficult.“I didn’t want to have to dip into the money I got from the bank… but it looks like I’m going to have to.” She commented a few days later as they drove out to Dr. Kim’s office to pick up the results from the paternity test.“You know, I’ve actually been thinking about it- “So started hesitantly, “...And this is just an idea, okay? Just hear me out.”“Okay.”“I have a big house with lots of space. I thought that perhaps you would want to move in with me. You could have your own room and we could set up the nursery together, and I could help you out more. And you could save that money.”“I’m not going to mooch off of you.”“You can pay your own expenses, but I don’t need you to pay rent and you could save that money.”Soo thought about it. “And it wouldn’t cause problems with your family? You told me before that they’re conservative and complicated.”“That they are,” So agreed. “Actually, my brothers think we should get married.”“What?!” Soo said loudly.“It’s just an idea.” So said offhandedly, but he was gripping the steering wheel a little too tightly. “Though it might have its advantages.”Soo glared at him. “Are you actually thinking of asking me to marry you?”“I thought I just did.”“That’s the worst proposal ever!” Soo said with an incredulous laugh and a bit of a huff. “I don’t think it even counts.”“Look, we could be roommates; it doesn’t have to be more complicated than that and we could get divorced later on once the baby is born and registered. It would be practical.”Soo took a deep breath. It was logical and practical, and with a baby on the way she was in no position to discard either of those things. And they both knew it.Still, that proposal sucked.--0--Wang So’s house was the kind that Hae Soo had only ever seen in dramas and magazines. It was big, a western style but with a more traditional garden—he even had both a pool and a pond!—and when he had said he had lots of space he hadn’t been kidding.It was also easy to see which parts of the house he actually used. The kitchen was updated but it looked unused – by snooping into his cabinets, Soo could tell that he didn’t have many dishes or cookware and his fridge was empty except for a milk carton. The living room, with its massive TV screen looked more lived in, as did his office.Upstairs, only two rooms were furnished: the master suite and a room across the hall from it. “This would be your room or we can move the bed to any other of the bedrooms,” So said. Then he took her to a smaller room at the corner of the house, which received light from two windows. “I thought this could be the baby’s room.”Hae Soo still couldn’t believe she was actually touring his house. So had driven her here after they picked up the results from the doctor – which confirmed what they already knew – saying he just wanted to show her his place.“What do you think?” So asked, taking them back down to the living room.Soo was trying to keep a poker face, but it was hard. Not in a million years could she afford a house like this for her and her baby. Plus, it was a great neighborhood, it was safe, and it was a short commute to work—hell, she could probably get Wang So to drive her every day if she wanted.So could see her wavering and started laying on it thick, telling her that her brother could stay over, of course, when he had leave from military, and that there was a cleaning service and landscaper, so she wouldn’t have to do house chores, and so on.“Come on, Hae Soo, marry me for my house and for our baby.”Soo sighed. She knew that if her baby was registered as legitimate, it would be better for him or her in the long run, and she guessed that being divorced was slightly better than being a single mother.Then it hit her that she was actually considering it.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter Seven: Technically Fake
It had taken Wang So five days and an actual written contract outlining a timeline for divorce, child support and shared custody—which his lawyer called the ‘strangest prenup’ he had ever written up—to convince Hae Soo to marry him. They were registering their marriage on Friday and she was moving in on Saturday. “You do realize that it’s a fake marriage, right?” So complained to Baek Ah as his younger brother dragged him to an upscale jewelry store near the Galleria. “But it needs to look real for the board, and Mu-hyung wants to buy your wedding rings as a gift. “We’re not even having a ceremony, just filing paperwork.”“Hey, I’m just following orders. And wedding rings are in fashion.”“I guess I should buy her an engagement ring too, if that’s the case,” So said mostly to himself. He vaguely remembered some of the details Yeon Hwa used to parrot at him regarding wedding traditions back when they had been together. “Wouldn’t hurt,” Baek Ah agreed, pulling him toward the displays.“Would it be petty of me if I get Soo-yah a better ring than what Mother got for Yeon Hwa?”“Yes. Yes, it would.” Baek Ah said. “You’re right.”“But when have I ever been against petty?” Baek Ah said. Motioning toward the sales assistant and telling her what they were looking for, they waited until she left to gather some options for them. Baek Ah paused before asking, “What story did you two settle on, anyway?”“That we have been dating for a while and had plans to marry but wanted to wait until her brother finished his conscription. But since she’s pregnant, we decided to register our marriage now and have a ceremony later on as we had planned.”Baek Ah nodded, “Good one.”---000---“Unnie! There is no need to go through all this trouble!” Soo said as Myung Hee shoved another dress into her arms.“You are getting married, Soo-yah! Of course, I’m going to make a big deal!” Myung Hee said. Myung Hee had insisted on buying her a new dress and shoes. Since Soo didn’t have a mother, her cousin was taking up that role.“We are not even having a ceremony.”“No reason why you shouldn’t look pretty when filing your paperwork,” Myung Hee said, and pushed Soo into a dressing room.“Besides, in a few months you won’t be able to wear this stuff so enjoy it now!” Woo Hee said from her position in the couch.“Oh! I can’t wait until we start shopping for baby things!!” Myung Hee said, her eyes turning into stars. “We should have a baby shower once you are settled in your new house.”“Maybe closer to the due date?” Soo said, knowing it would be impossible to say no when her cousin got an idea in her head.“We’ll have time to properly plan it then!”Soo stepped out of the dressing room in a white dress that was drowning her in fabric. Seeing Soo like this caused both Myung Hee and Woo Hee to shake their heads. Soo knew this was going to be a very long day. .After leaving Soo and Myung Hee at the store in order to get to work on time, Woo Hee was surprised when her phone rang and the words “Private Number” flashed on the screen. Intrigued by the call, she answered.“Is this Kim Woo Hee?” A voice at the other end asked.“Who is this?”“I’m Wang Baek Ah. Wang So’s brother?”“How did you get my number?”“That doesn’t matter. Look, we both know your friend and my brother are planning on having the saddest wedding ever, right?”“Right.”“I thought that perhaps we could do something for them.”“I’m listening…”--00--Hae Soo was happy to see that she wasn’t the only one putting in a little effort on the day of the wedding. Wang So had shown up wearing a nicer navy suit than usual—and that was saying something as all his clothes were usually very neat and expensive looking—which made her feel better about the dress Myung Hee had forced her to accept.The ride to city hall had been quiet but not awkwardly so. Since they had pre-filled all their forms, all they had to do was hand them in and wait for their marriage certificate to be printed.“Here,” Wang So said as they waited. He handed her a jewelry box, which she opened to find a pair of wedding bands. “My brother gave them to us as gifts.”“That’s nice of him.”“He’s a good man; you’ll like him when you meet him,” So said, taking her hand and placing the ring on her finger, next to the ‘engagement’ ring he had given her two days prior, before she repeated the gesture with him.Then the clerk handled them their marriage certificate and that was it… before they were ambushed by his brothers and her friends outside the city hall..So’s brothers had made reservations at a fancy restaurant to celebrate and had invited Woo Hee, Chae Ryung and Myung Hee too, a gesture that warmed her heart, especially because they seemed to be accepting all of this in good humor.No one was looking askance at her or anything, even though she was pretty sure the oldest brother and the one she had seen before—Baek Ah—knew the actual reasons behind their marriage, like her friends and cousin did.So had introduced her to each of them. His oldest brother, Mu, was serious but had a gentle and benevolent air around him. Baek Ah was the second youngest and closest to So—she remembered him mentioning that.The other two were Jung and Eun, who were more like a comedy act. They were always teasing and annoying each other; she was surprised to find out that Eun was actually older than Baek Ah as he had a childish nature. Both of them were still in university: Jung was just starting while Eun was doing a masters on some type of engineering.The two of them had taken to calling her Noona right away and kept competing for her attention until So shooed them away and tasked Eun’s girlfriend, Soon Deok, to keep an eye on them.“But you are my girlfriend! You should be on my side!” Eun complained but Soon Deok didn’t bat an eyelid.“Don’t pout, it’s not going to work,” Soon Deok said sternly.“What about me? I’m your best friend!” Jung wailed next!“Boyfriend trumps best friend!” Eun replied before Soon Deok could. Then Eun and Jung were arguing again to the amusement of everyone around them.Leaning back in her chair, Soo could feel something akin to peace stealing over her. Sure, this was not the wedding of her dreams, but she and her baby were surrounded by good people who had come together to celebrate her strange marriage even if it had caught them all by surprise. And she trusted Wang So.The rock-solid prenup didn’t hurt either.--“Thanks for doing this,” So said to Baek Ah and Mu as the three of them waited for their cars outside the restaurant, a little far away from their other brothers who were still being watched by Soon Deok.“We couldn’t not celebrate,” Baek Ah said. “You got married and are having a baby! That’s worth celebrating, even if the circumstances were a little strange.”“Hae Soo seems like a nice girl,” Mu said.“Yeah, she is.” So answered, his eyes finding Soo in the midst of her friends. She looked pretty today, but she always looked pretty cute.“You are right, he’s smitten.” Mu whispered to Baek Ah, taking advantage of So’s momentary distraction.“I’ve never seen him like this.” Baak Ah shook his head then added, “It’s very entertaining, isn’t it?”“Yes.”“What’s entertaining?” So asked, snapping himself out of his contemplation of Hae Soo.“Nothing.” Both brothers answered at the same time.--00--It turned out that Baek Ah and Mu hadn’t just arranged for a celebratory meal. They had also enlisted their younger brothers in moving Hae Soo’s things to So’s house.“How did you even get her things?” So had asked.“I called her friend, and she waited for Eun and Jung at home for them to pick up her things.” Baek Ah shrugged before climbing into his car and yelling for Jung to get in if he wanted a ride home..And that’s how Wang So found himself spending the night sitting on the couch watching movies with Hae Soo.Soo had been too wired to sleep and found herself wandering the house after a shower and changing into her pjs. So had been about to go out for a run—even if it was rather cold—when he ran into her and before he knew it they were snuggled under a blanket on the couch, a big bowl of popcorn between them and a horror movie on the screen.It was definitely not what he had expected to be doing in what amounted to his wedding night but when Soo turned to him, with the flickering lights of the screen moving over her hair and face, illuminating her smile, there was no other place he would rather be.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter Eight: Playing House
It surprised Wang So how easy it was to get used to sharing his space with another person. It had been years since he had lived with someone else– he didn’t think the occasional times his brothers had stayed over counted – but he had taken to living with Hae Soo like a duck to water.
That first weekend, So had helped her unpack and settle in her room, then she had insisted they went to buy groceries – because his fridge was a pathetic sight, she said - and he showed her around the neighborhood.
Soon, they took to watching TV together at night. Sometimes it was movies, sometimes the news or variety shows, and Hae Soo had a hidden love for dramas, especially sageuks, which was contagious and Soo would cook dinner every night.
He even started coming home earlier because he knew she didn’t like to eat alone, though she didn’t take offense if he couldn’t make it. She would leave him his dinner on the kitchen counter with a note reminding him to not overwork himself.
It was the kind of care he had never really gotten before as Yeon Hwa wasn’t the homey type. They had never lived together anyway, and his own mother was more than happy to leave her children and stepchildren to the care of maids and nannies.
Wang So felt lucky and happy. He didn’t care what other people thought.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Yo had asked him when they found themselves riding the elevator together as they arrived to work. It had been two weeks after Soo moved in with him.“Excuse me?” So asked distractedly. He was surprised; he and Yo rarely talked, often dealing with each other through their secretaries when they absolutely had to interact.“You are humming. It’s fucking annoying.”
So shrugged. “I’m happy,” He said simply, which earned him a growl from Yo.
Yo had not been happy in a really long time.
“Jung said you got married.” Yo went on.
“I did.” So held up his hand, pointing to his wedding ring, which he had taken to wearing even though he didn’t really have to.
“Mother is in a fury, you know.”
“Mother hasn’t spoken to me in two years. So, why would I care?” So said evenly. So then stepped out of the elevator, cheerfully greeting Baek Ah.
“Cheerful You is weird as fuck.” Baek Ah said as they began to walk together with So’s laugh echoing down the hallway, mocking Wang Yo.
---00---
Marriage, even fake marriage as it was, seemed to agree with Hae Soo; being pregnant too for that matter. So’s house was lovely and the two of them shared space well. Quickly after settling in, they began to develop their own little customs and routines.
They would go out for breakfast on weekends after So returned from his morning run, and then, according to their moods, they would either go to the market, to a movie or to visit their friends (sometimes together and sometimes by themselves) or they just wandered around together.
So tried to get home for dinner most nights since Soo took over the kitchen and cooked for both of them. They often would sit together on the couch afterwards, watching the news or a drama or whatever, and talked about their day.
Soon, she began to miss him whenever he couldn’t make it, but she didn’t take it personally. Soo knew he had plenty of responsibilities in (what turned out to be) his family’s company.
Something she hadn’t even realized until So called her to ask if she could drop by his office before heading home after her shift at Damiwon.
She should have known something was up the moment she approached the reception desk to ask for a visitor’s pass like So had told her to do, giving out his floor and office’s number.
“Who are you here to see exactly?” The receptionist had asked her in a snooty voice that immediately made her uneasy.
“Wang So.” Hae Soo said, using all of her experience dealing with customers not to snap at this guy. “He asked me to come meet him here.”
“I’m sure Director Wang did.” The man said, not even bothering to look up.
“Why don’t you call up to his office?” She suggested. She was not going to make a scene in Wang So’s workplace.
“I don’t th-“
“Mrs. Hae?” A new voice asked.
Soo startled a bit, still not used to being a “Mrs.” “Yes?”
“Mr. Wang sent me to retrieve you. I’m his secretary.” The officious-looking young man said, greeting her with a bow. “Come this way, ma’am.”
Soo nodded and followed him to an elevator she hadn’t noticed and which he had to call using his ID badge. Before she knew it, she was being guided into a big office. So greeted her at the door and dismissed his secretary.
“Just what do you do, exactly?” Soo asked without preamble as he closed the door, eying him suspiciously.
“What do I do?”“Yes, you never told me. The guy at the reception desk wouldn’t even call up to your office, like he didn’t believe me when I said I I knew you. And your secretary kept bowing at me and calling me ma’am when he’s probably older than me. It’s just weird.”“He’s just showing respect because you are my wife. He’s very punctilious about things like that.” So said with a shrug and began to steer her toward his desk. “And to answer your question, I’m the Director of International Operations. I deal with the international trade the company does. Didn’t you read the card I gave you when we met again?”“I wasn’t paying attention to that!” Soo protested. He actually laughed at her before settling a pile of papers in front of her and getting down to business.
.
Still, it hadn’t completely hit home for her until she ran to Chae Ryung on the way out. “I didn’t know you worked here!”
“Only for the past two years.” Chae Ryung laughed at her clueless friend. “What are you doing here? Visiting Director Wang?”
“How did you know what he does when I didn’t?” Soo asked, a little indignant.
“I. Work. Here.” Chae Ryung enunciated carefully. “Wait, you didn’t know what your husband does for a living?”
Soo blushed. “No. Well, I knew he had a good job at a large corporation-“
“Yeah. The
Wang
Group.
Wang
as in
Wang
So?” Chae Ryung pointed to the ten foot tall lettering behind the reception desk clearing spelling ‘WANG GROUP’.
“Oh.” Soo murmured, suddenly noticing all the freaking W’s and G’s scattered all around them. Plus, that explained why the snooty guy from before squeaked and hid behind the reception desk when he caught her looking in his direction.“You do realize you married a chaebol, right?”
-
She hadn’t realized that, but it didn’t matter to her in the grand scheme of things. Not when she was happy living with him and getting more excited by the day about the baby.
Even if the pregnancy hormones were already wreaking havoc on her and her emotions.
--00--
There was a small aspect of living with Hae Soo that So had not considered but was coming back to bite him in the ass. And that was the fact that he was ridiculously attracted to his wife.
At first, it hadn’t been a problem as the newness of the situation kept him from getting too comfortable and wouldn’t let him dwell on it. But the more they settled in, the more he found himself noticing her again: Her peony soap, the way she snuggled on the couch with him, her smile and even her messy bedhead in the mornings… it all served to remind him that they were really bad at keeping their hands off each other.
What he didn’t know, at first, was that Hae Soo was having a similar situation...until she took it upon herself to let him know otherwise.“Wang So?” Hae Soo asked softly as she knocked on the open door of his home office. “Are you busy?”“I can be distracted.“ So said readily.
“Oh, good. I was hoping you could help me with a problem.”
“Of course, what is it?”
“I’m horny.”
“What?”
“Horny.” Soo said with a nod. “And really, you are the only person who can help me with that. I know we are not married-married, but I mean… it’s not like we haven’t– you know – done
It
before. And if you think about it, this really is all your fault.” Soo started to babble and wouldn’t stop until So took her by the shoulders and halted her speech with a quick kiss that caught her by surprise.
“Are you sure?”
Soo nodded. “I’m already pregnant and it’s not like you are going to put another baby inside of me. Plus, there is nothing wrong with it because we ARE married anyway and-”
Soo never got to finish her sentence, as her husband’s kiss clearly indicated he needed no further convincing.
.0.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter Nine: Wandering Thoughts
Hae Soo was happy, warm and having a rather pleasant dream but someone was determined not to let her enjoy it, as they kept pressing soft little kisses all over her face. It was annoying her and thrilling her in equal measures.
There was a quiet chuckle and then So’s amused voice, “‘To the spaceship,’ that’s a new one.” He had paused kissing her nose to laugh at her. He claimed that Soo always mumbled stuff under her breath whenever he tried to wake her up.
Soo was finally forced to open her eyes and managed to both glare and pout at the same time – a talent of hers, Wang So had found out, which amused him every time. But at least she got a proper good morning kiss.
“I’m going out for my run.” So said, nuzzling her cheek.
“What did you wake me up for, then?” Soo said indignant. She was a fan of morning-sex after all. Still, she pulled the blankets closer to herself and re-settled on the pillow, openly staring as So got dressed. She was particularly fond of his arms, and the way the muscles on his back rippled when he pulled his shirt on (or off, both worked).
So finished changing and went back to her to wrap her like a burrito with the blankets, until only the top of her head showed, which he kissed before leaving the room.
Soo snuggled in, hugging his pillow. She got tired easily nowadays, as the pregnancy progressed. She was almost out of her first trimester, and her once flat stomach was beginning to curve slightly. And in the last ultrasound they had been able to hear the baby’s heartbeat and even managed to distinguish an actual shape on the screen.
“I’ll be back in an hour!” So yelled from downstairs, and Soo heard the beeps that indicated he had set the house’s alarm before leaving. He was overprotective that way.
Lately, she had spent more nights in his bed than in her own across the hall. She would go to her room with the best intentions of sleeping there but after a few minutes of tossing and turning, So would call out that he could hear her and to just come over to his room already. Sometimes they made love; other times they just snuggled. Either way, she loved it.
Hae Soo tried not to be clingy but she knew she didn’t always succeed. But So didn’t seem to mind. Last night she had finally skipped the detour into her bedroom altogether and shown up at his door in her PJs. Five minutes later, her PJs were on the floor and she just never made it back to her room.
--00---
Wang So took off at a steady pace in his usual route around the neighborhood, letting his mind wander a bit as he was pretty familiar with his surroundings. Right now it was still pretty cold but once the weather turned, he would try to bring Soo out with him sometimes. He had read that walking was good exercise for Soo and the baby.
He and Soo had quickly amassed quite a collection of baby books in the last few weeks. They often traded them and left little notes at the margin for each other. Thoughts of Soo started to go in a different direction as he approached their house, wondering if he could get her to jump in the shower with him. Sometimes she said yes, even if she had already showered.
It was odd how much he enjoyed these mundane moments with Soo. He even enjoyed the strange pilgrimage of Soo’s things into his bedroom: clothes, shoes, makeup… little things that kept finding their way into his closet, bathroom, dressing table...he found them all oddly comforting.
It was the same with the kitchen. He didn’t know how or when, but Soo kept filling the cupboards with pots and pans and dishes. He had tried to pay her back for them once, but Soo had bit his head off, leading to one of the few arguments they had had so far—which actually lead to make up sex, so he didn’t count it as a bad thing, even if Soo had him wipe the kitchen counter (twice) with disinfectant afterward.
Hae Soo didn’t hold grudges and wasn’t prone to dramatics: if she was angry about something she would tell him right away. They would fix it, and she would go back to her sunny self. She was such a different person from So’s former fiancée.
Just last week he—and half the C-suite—had witnessed a fight between Yo and Yeon Hwa, and So was ever so grateful that he had dodged that bullet. (Although, in truth something had always felt off about their prior relationship with Yeon Hwa.)
Their parents had arranged them to marry when they were still in high school. One day he had come home from judo practice to have his mother yell at him to make himself presentable because they were having guests for dinner. An hour later, So was pulling at the collar of the suit his mother forced him to wear and sitting at the dinner table across Hwang Bo Yeon Hwa and her family.
So knew her a bit. They had been in the same class since elementary school and were friendly with each other, as they both belonged to the ‘popular crowd’ (though So was never sure what he had done to earn his spot; he supposed that when your parents were as rich as his, it was an automatic thing).
Their parents talked and laughed while she sat there next to her twin Wook. She had a pleasant smile on her lips throughout the dinner, even if it didn’t quite reach her eyes. He hadn’t even been sure of what was going on until the next day at school when Yeon Hwa told him that they were boyfriend and girlfriend now, since they were getting married anyway.
Wang So had gone through the motions: they had started to date and somehow, he had found himself one half of the IT couple at school. He bought her gifts on her birthday, Christmas and on white day, and they went out with friends. They would sometimes kiss, and eventually started sleeping together in college. However, it was a sporadic thing he hadn’t really cared much for; he took it when she offered but didn’t pursue it if she didn’t.
It was all very bloodless and civilized, and he had always known he didn’t love her, but they were both aware of their duty toward their families and eventually Wang So began to develop some affection for her. Hwang Bo Yeon Hwa was very pretty, smart and cultured, and had a dry sense of humor whenever she allowed herself to show it, which wasn’t often.
Wang So remembered her once asking him if he didn’t want more than what they had, something beyond what their parents expected of them. When So hadn’t answered right away, Yeon Hwa told him to forget it and stomped off. They didn’t speak for a week.
Later he would find out that it was soon after that moment that she had gotten involved with Yo.
Afterwards, they had done back to the status quo. So worked for his father and Yeon Hwa accompanied him to society functions and so on. Two years after he started working at the Wang Group, his mother told him it was time he married Yeon Hwa and handed him a ring, telling him to give it to her so she could start planning the wedding.
A date had been set, preparations were underway until their father Wang Geon’s 65
th
birthday party when So and Baek Ah had walked in on their older brother and Yeon Hwa having sex in one of the guest bedrooms of their parents’ house.
All hell had broken loose then. Wang So refused to go through with the wedding, Yeon Hwa then turned out to be pregnant, and since they hadn’t had sex in months, she couldn’t pawn off the baby as his. His mother insisted he marry Yeon Hwa and take in the baby as his to save Yo’s marriage, which was already in choppy waters.
When So had refused again, Yeon Hwa had gone straight to Yo’s wife and told her everything. Park Mun Seong was no fool and she had kicked Yo out of their house and refused to give him a divorce. Over her dead body would she let Yo off the hook to marry Yeon Hwa, as Yeon Hwa had clearly wanted.
These days, Wang Yo could rarely see his son and daughter with Mun Seong – the visits were always on his wife’s terms and always brief. For all his faults, Yo had actually loved his children. His one comfort was that he had primary custody of Mun Deok, his daughter with Yeon Hwa, as she had no use for the baby if Yo didn’t marry her. Yeon Hwa was happy to leave their daughter with him so long as he kept paying her various expenses.
Every few months, Yeon Hwa would show up at the office, make a scene and threaten to take Mun Deok away until Yo agreed to give her more money.
Deep down, So kind of felt bad for his older brother, even if Yo didn’t deserve it. Both Baek Ah and Mu told him he was a fool for feeling that way.
Now, he decided to take a second lap around the neighborhood and let his thoughts wander back to more pleasant things like how cute Soo looked in the mornings, even with bed-hair. He wondered if it was too early to start shopping for baby furniture, and if he could get Baek Ah to do a decorative mural for the nursery, even though he claimed not to paint much these days.
With much happier thoughts in mind, Wang So finally made it back home to find that even though Soo had already left the bed, she was still in the shower.
“Were you waiting for me?” He asked her as he got in the shower with her.
“Hardly.” Soo said as she wrapped her arms around his neck and accepted his kiss.
“Are you sure?” So teased, grasping the backs of her thighs to pull her up and made her wrap her legs around his waist.
Hae Soo tried to answer but was distracted by the way he ran his hands down her back as he gently bit her earlobe, so her answer came out as a moan.
So grinned, pulling back a bit so he could kiss Soo again and push her against the wall, taking his time with her as hot water poured over both of them.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter Ten: Nesting
After having told Miss Oh about her pregnancy—and being reassured that she would still have a place at Damiwon after the baby was born—Hae Soo decided it was time to start making arrangements for the baby. But So was already ahead of her in that regard. Part of Soo thought Wang So would hire someone to paint and prepare the baby’s room—that’s what he usually did with household related things—but he surprised her by dragging her to a paint shop after work one day, so they could pick colors for the nursery. He then spent the next three afternoons painting the room himself when he got home from work.She and So spent their weekdays sending each other links back and forth with customer reviews for various baby-stuffs: strollers, cribs, changing tables, and so on. On weekends, So would drag her to every upscale baby-related store within a 20 km radius of their house.After the first weekend, Hae Soo learned it was better to close her eyes and not see the price tags as they usually made her blood pressure go up; but they didn’t seem to faze Wang So at all. So would have bought every single baby-thing the eager sales assistants paraded in front of him if Soo hadn’t been firm with him. (Because there was no way a newborn needed a 50-piece-toy-train set under any circumstances, thank you very much!).And his brothers were not much better.Almost every Saturday afternoon, Eun, Jung and Baek Ah would show up at their house to help So put together the furniture they had started to buy. More often than not they also came bearing gifts; usually toys, so much so that, after much deliberation, the brothers had decided to turn the last spare bedroom upstairs into a playroom, just to house all the things they were getting for the baby (Soo’s favorite so far was a giant stuffed wolf Eun and Jung had gotten...not that she would say so, as it would only encourage them). Baek Ah had even agreed to do a mural for the walls, under the condition that Soo got him a date with Woo Hee. Apparently, he had been trying to ask her out since So and Soo’s wedding, but her friend kept putting him off. Soo had to guilt trip Woo Hee and give her a whole gallon of fancy ice-cream, but she agreed.As far as she knew, things had gone alright if the hug Baek Ah had given her the next time she saw him after the date was any indication. Plus the fact that Woo Hee hadn’t complained any further and had started coming around almost every Saturday as well. ...00…Wang So was nesting. That’s what Soo called it anyway. Once she said she thought it was time to start preparing the baby’s room, So was ready. Plus, he actually enjoyed doing things himself… well, with the help of his younger brothers who seemed to like coming around every Saturday afternoon to help him put together furniture.At least, Eun helped put together the furniture. Jung was there just to carry heavy stuff, empty his fridge and beg Soo for more food. Though over time that developed into something of a family dinner as Jung called it with Soo’s friends and Soon Deok coming over as well.His favorite part was showing Soo their progress once his brothers had left and seeing her face light up as the room came together – he didn’t like that she was quite impressed with Baek Ah’s art work, but let it go since it was his favorite brother – though he wasn’t above torturing his brother a little.“I thought Soo said you weren’t allowed to buy anything else for the nursery until we finish with what you already got.” Wang Baek Ah complained as So dragged him to a baby furniture store during their lunch hour.“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her and if Soo realizes I got more stuff, I’ll tell her it was your idea.”“Don’t. I saw how she scolded Jung last weekend and I don’t want to be on the receiving end of her ire.” So smiled at the memory. Showing up with bruises all over hadn’t been smart on his youngest brother’s part. Soo had immediately demanded an explanation. Even though Jung had almost a foot on Soo, height-wise...by the time Soo was done with him, Jung had been cowering behind Eun and promising he would never ever get into another bar fight in his life. This was a promise all the Wang brothers had tried to extract from Jung at one time or another with zero success.“That was fun.” So said, fondly, moving toward a display of rocking horses. “Hyung?” Baek Ah said tentatively as he followed him.“Yes?”“Are you and Soo getting serious?”“We are married,” So said like Baek Ah was dim.“I know that. But… I read the prenup. You guys already had a timeline for divorce picked out before she even moved in. I know you two got married because of the baby, and I worry things will get messy.”“Soo and I are adults, Baek Ah. We know what we are doing.”“Are you sure?”“What are you getting at?”“I know you guys are still sleeping together,” Baek Ah blurted out. Last weekend he had noticed that the guest bedroom where Soo was supposed to stay was empty, and a peek through his brother’s bedroom revealed her things scattered about in a way that was not casual.“The goings-on of my bedroom are not open to discussion, Baek Ah; not even with you.” So said firmly, leaning down to pick up one of the horses. “What do you think of this one?”“Eun is building one for the baby.” Baek Ah said in a sigh, knowing he was getting nowhere with his brother. Their conversation was already forgotten as they moved towards another display.It wasn’t that he didn’t like Soo. On the contrary, they were becoming friends in their own right and Baek Ah appreciated what a good influence she was on So, who seemed more settled and happier than he had been in ages.But it worried him that they wouldn’t recognize their attachment for what it was. --00-- The first thing to go had been her jeans and pants as her belly went from a gentle curve to a more noticeable bump. By the fifth month even her loosest dresses were beginning to tent and they squished her in the bust area so Hae Soo switched to leggings and loose shirts—often So’s—to cover it up. Miss Oh sat her behind the counter at work whenever she could and made Soo wear a smock over her uniform the rest of the time.But at least Soo had agreed to accompany So on morning walks on weekends once April rolled around.“Is that too tight?” So asked her one morning as she sat on a stool he had put by the door so she could sit while he tied her shoes for her. They were the first running shoes she owned since high school. So had shown up with them a few days before when Soo complained that her feet really ached at the end of the day.“It’s fine.” Soo answered, wiggling her toes on the other foot which was still bare and waited for So to slide on the remaining sock and shoe. “Oh!”“What is it? Is she doing it?” So asked eagerly as Soo reached for his hand and placed it under her shirt. So could feel the small fluttering against his palm, like butterflies. “I love it when she does that.” He said once the baby stopped, giving Soo’s belly a last pat.Ever since the first time they had felt the baby move, it never stopped fascinating him. And he was convinced the baby was a girl, even though Dr. Kim told them it was too early to tell from the last ultrasound.“I think the baby likes your voice; it moves more often when you are around.” Soo said, zipping up the hoodie she was wearing (which she had stolen from his side of the closet). It drowned her, except for the small tent on her stomach. “You know you can wear my clothes all you like, but you need to get some maternity clothes as well.”“Are you saying I look bad?”“I’m saying you’ll be more comfortable,” So said, kissing her forehead. “Ready?”“As I’m ever going to be.” Soo grumbled.“I’ll buy you donuts on the way back.”“With sprinkles?” Soo asked eagerly, her eyes lighting up.“Anything you want.”--00--About a week later, Hae Soo felt really glad she had accepted Myung Hee’s offer to take her shopping when So called her out of the blue on her day off, asking if he had left an envelope with some documents at home.Soo had located them in his office and told him so. Then Wang So had asked her to bring them over.“I’ll take you out for lunch afterward. Anywhere you want. I just need to send those documents out and I’ll be all yours.”“Anywhere I want, uh? All mine?” Soo teased, grateful that she had already showered for the day. “All yours.” So repeated, and she could hear the smile in his voice.After they hung up, Soo quickly changed into one of her new dresses and applied her makeup. She quickly styled a braided headband to keep her hair under control and less than twenty minutes later, she was on her way to So’s office. Hae Soo still felt a little self-conscious every time she walked into the Wang Group’s headquarters. However, she tried not to let it show as she waved the ID badge So had given her after her first visit—she didn’t have to go through the hassle of signing herself in when she visited—to gain entrance.She was particularly grateful that day when she noticed a beautiful, dark haired woman wearing expensive-looking clothes berating the people at the reception desk.“You know fully well who I am!” The woman hissed at that rude man that Soo had to deal with during her first visit.“M-miss Hwang Bo I-I’m j-just following p-protocol.” The man stammered. “Every time I come you do the same thing!” Miss Hwang Bo snapped as she snatched the visitor’s pass the man handed her and nearly bumped into Soo as she waited for the executives’ elevator So’s secretary had shown her before.Soo was surprised when she followed her into the elevator.“You must be a recent hire. I don’t remember you,” Miss Hwang Bo said without preamble. She looked at Soo up and down, taking note of Soo’s clothes and shoes; her eyes lingering on the handbag So had given her for White Day (full of chocolate, mind you); and on her rings.“I don’t work here.” Soo answered, taking a step away and placing So’s envelope in front of her, crossing her arms over it like a shield for her baby.Miss Hwang Bo stretched a perfectly manicured hand and flicked Soo’s ID. “Who do you know in the C-suite, then, Hae Soo.”“I don’t see how that is your business, Miss.” Soo answered.Miss Hwang Bo arched her perfect eyebrows and her mouth twisted with displeasure.Thankfully the elevator stopped then and Soo hurriedly stepped out, just to collide into Baek Ah, who began chatting her up. She soon forgot about that rude woman. --00--“I don’t know why you insist on coming to pick up the check in person,” Wang Yo complained from behind his desk as he pulled out his personal check book from a desk drawer.“Just to watch you sign it.” Yeon Hwa said, her voice smug and unpleasant.The second eldest Wang Brother looked at the woman in front of him with contempt. He would have been happy if he never set eyes on her again; even if once upon a time they had been all over each other, all hot sex and no restraint, engaged in an affair that ultimately hadn’t been worth it.“Who is that woman with So-yah?” Yeon Hwa asked, looking through the glass walls of Yo’s office as Wang So left his office with the woman she had seen in the elevator earlier.Hae Soo looked young and unrefined. Her clothes were of good quality but not designer, unlike her bag which Yeon Hwa’s practiced eye told her was designer and worth at least a couple million won. She was pregnant and when she pushed her hair back, a large diamond flashed from her hand.Yo looked up and in the same direction as Yeon Hwa, watching as his younger brother laughed and wrapped and arm around the young woman’s pregnant belly. He hadn’t missed the longing in Yeon Hwa’s voice as she spoke So’s name. “That’s his wife.” Yo said, enjoying how the color drained from Yeon Hwa’s face. A cruel smile curved his lips. “A nobody if there ever was one. According to Won, she’s an orphan with no connections, and apparently she’s friends with that little assistant of his that’s always panting after him.”“Your parents would never allow that.”“He didn’t ask them for permission. He was so eager to marry her that he just did it.” Yo said, enjoying Yeon Hwa’s discomfort. He went back to signing the check, tearing it carefully; the sound of it was loud in the quiet of his office. “I have to hand it to him. It took him awhile but once he found your replacement, he moved fast.” He paused before holding out the check. “Here you go, dear.”Taking exception to his tone, Yeon Hwa snatched the check from Yo’s fingers and stormed out.Wang Yo leaned back on his chair, a smile still lingering on his lips. --00--Not too far away, but safe in their own bubble, Soo looked up screening times for a movie she had wanted to see, taking advantage of the fact that So had decided to spend the afternoon with her.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter Eleven: Party Time
It was always little things that would remind Hae Soo that she and Wang So came from very different worlds. Most times it was harmless – how he never looked at the price of anything and the way his secretary, well, almost everyone in his office, called her ma’am and treated her with deference when she visited him – sometimes it was a little more insidious, like when her workmates asked if she was sure she wanted to come back to work after her baby was born.
“I mean, a man who can buy you a ring like that probably doesn’t need you to pitch in for the bills, right?” Ji Young had laughed good naturedly.
But it had made Soo feel uncomfortable. Not only did it remind her that her marriage had an expiration date, but also how little she actually contributed to the household. So always said it was okay and not to worry; that money wasn’t an issue for him and she would eventually forget about it… until it happened again.
And now she was about to meet his parents in the middle of a black-tie event – the first since Mu took over as President of the Wang Group. It was a big deal. And the event was in their mansion, no less. Just her luck.
With Woo Hee’s help, she had managed to find a dress with tightly-fitted deep-v bodice that gave way to a forgiving high waist and a skirt that softly draped over her seeming ever-expanding abdomen.
Really, the only thing that kept her self-esteem healthy these days was the fact that Wang So still wanted to have sex with her (all the time, the man was insatiable). Otherwise she would have felt way frumpier and unattractive.
But still, it was hard to keep a brave front when she saw all the women at the party wearing slick cocktail dresses and high heels (Woo Hee had made her get a floor-length-dress so she could wear slippers with no one being the wiser).
“Stop pouting, you look beautiful,” Woo Hee admonished her. For all her protesting that they weren’t serious, she was Baek Ah’s date for the night.
“You look beautiful; I look okay.” Soo grumbled, looking at her friend in her form-fitting silver dress with a high slit. It was times like this that reminded Soo that Woo Hee was a former rich girl and knew how to play the society game better than most.
Woo Hee’s parents had died when she was in middle school, placing her under the care of an Uncle, who had gambled away her inheritance and then tried to marry her off to one of his friends in order to get his hands on the trust fund her parents had set aside for when she got married. Woo Hee had only been nineteen at the time.
Soo still got sad when she remembered those times: how Woo Hee had to sneak in and out of school every day for three months (until she turned twenty and her uncle couldn’t force her to move back with him), shuffling between Soo’s house and Chae Ryung’s—the only two scholarship students in their all-girls high school. The only two students whom her uncle would never suspect of harboring her.
Upon graduation, Woo Hee had left her rich girl life behind forever and moved with Chae Ryung into a student-residence and they had been roommates ever since.
“You look beautiful. You have better skin than half the women here,” Woo Hee said, bringing Soo out of her reverie. “And better makeup.”
“I do glow, that’s true.” Thank you, pregnancy hormones.
“Here you go, beautiful ladies,” Baek Ah said, returning with a glass of champagne for Woo Hee and sparkling water for Soo, which only made her pout again. “Are you sure you don’t want to sit down, Soo-yah?”
“I guess I will. So is taking forever in coming back.”
“He does have to make the rounds with Mu. Such is the fate of the CEO.”
“Wait, what?” Soo had asked. “Was that the promotion he was up for?”
“Yeah, he didn’t tell you?” Baek Ah asked, laughing awkwardly.
“That man never tells me anything,” Soo growled, making her companions laugh. Really, it was like watching a teddy-bear try (and fail) to be menacing. Sometimes it was easy to forget that she had the temper (and lungs) to scream grown men—mostly Jung—into submission.
“Don’t try to know everything about me or I’ll want to run away,” So said into her ear, coming up behind her. He gave her a hug which made her growl again.
Baek Ah and Woo Hee excused themselves to go dance, leaving So and Soo together.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the promotion? What it was and that you got it?”
So blinked. “I’m sorry. It slipped my mind.”
Soo’s glare was fierce. “How convenient.”
Before So could answer, Mu’s wife Uihwa came to tell them that the reporters wanted a picture of the whole family and dragged them to where her husband was standing next to two elegantly dressed couples with Baek Ah, Jung and Eun already making their way toward them.
---000---
From the side, Wang Yo watched his younger brother and his new wife, taking a good look at her the way he hadn’t that time he and Yeon Hwa had seen her from afar. She was cute, but nothing remarkable—certainly not to his taste—but So kept checking on her like she was precious or something. Yo didn’t get it. But to be honest, Yo never understood anything about Wang So.
Losing the position of CEO to So had hurt Yo’s pride; he was not going to lie about that and if it were up to him, he wouldn’t have shown up tonight. But it was hard to avoid the goddamn party when he lived in his parents’ mansion.
After Mun Seong had kicked him out of their home, Yo had found it practical to move in with his parents, especially once he got custody of Mun Deok. Now he was wishing he had gotten his own place, or better yet to be back at his own damn home.
But as the months passed, he became more and more certain that it wouldn’t happen. He was neither married nor divorced but stuck in between.Park Mun Seong wouldn’t broach the topic with him, and he actually only got to see her at events like these, when she showed up to play the part of ‘Wang Yo’s Wife.” Love had never been a part of their marriage, but Yo had liked to think that they were partners: committed to raising the perfect family and taking their places in society.
Yo had been content if a little bored in his marriage. However, it had been a comfortable relationship and once their children were born he counted himself happy most of the time.
At first, his affair with Yeon Hwa had been a diversion from his routine. But fucking Yeon Hwa had ended up fucking up his life.
…
Park Mun Seong hated her mother-in-law. She always had but up until two years ago, she had always been a dutiful daughter-in-law. The one good thing Yo’s cheating had given her was that she no longer had to care about what Yoo Shin Myeong thought of her.
The moment Mun Seong arrived at the party, Yo’s mother had started to criticize her hair, makeup, dress and choice of jewelry. The hateful woman had even tried to make her change into “something more becoming,” which meant boring and conservative.
And then she had started with her usual speech on how It was Mun Seong’s duty to forgive Yo’s cheating, that she had already disgraced both families enough by dragging it out this long and making it the object of gossip amongst their society peers.
When Mrs. Yoo got to the part of “Do you think I enjoyed taking in my husband’s bastards? I did NOT but –“
“But they are not bastards,” Mun Seong interrupted. “Didn’t Mr. Wang leave you to marry their mother? And then divorced her to marry you again because you threatened to sell all your stock in the Wang Group?”
“Don’t speak of what you don’t know!”
“Oh, but I do know. Yo talks when he’s drunk,” Mun Seong said cheerfully. “You might have used your money to buy your husband— twice—but I have better things to do with mine.”
If looks could kill, Mun Seong would have dropped dead on the spot. But then her mother-in-law’s attention was diverted by the arrival of Wang So and his wife. Mun Seong turned to hide her smile but wound up making eye contact with her husband, and her smile died.
Now, if only she could hate Wang Yo as much as she hated his mother. Mun Seong’s life would have been so much easier.
-00-
After the picture, Wang So was pulled away from Hae Soo before they could settle their little tiff, as his father requested to talk to him in private.
Still, So paused to make sure she was settled in the care of Jung, Eun and Park Soon Deok—as Baek Ah and Woo Hee had mysteriously absconded together—who kept plying her with food.
So found his father having a drink in the library, a place his father kept closed off during parties at the mansion.
“I suppose you expect me to congratulate you,” Wang Geon said without preamble when So closed the door behind him.
“You don’t have to. It is no secret you wanted Yo to be CEO.”
“Yo has a certain ruthlessness I appreciate, yes. But Mu trusts you better, so I expect you to behave accordingly.”
“I have never betrayed any of my brothers, Father.” So answered, not without sarcasm.
“True, and yet you still bring shame to the family.”
So rolled his eyes. “Is there something else? I want to return to my wife.”
“Ah, yes. About that…” Wang Geon said, stopping So in his tracks. He did not like his father’s tone. “I have to say that I’m disappointed in your choice. At least Yeon Hwa was of our class and would have been an asset to the family if not for her foolishness. Even that girl Baek Ah brought, she knows our ways even if her family is in disgrace now. But no matter. Once the baby is born you’ll divorce this…
girl
and marry someone more suitable of the CEO of the Wang Group—your mother is already looking into possible matches—and if your new wife doesn’t want the baby, you can always leave it here with us and we’ll treat it no different than Mun Deokie.”
“First off, I’m not divorcing my wife,” Wang So said firmly. At least, he hoped not. He had known for a while that he didn’t want to and was hoping Soo felt the same way; but between getting ready for the baby and his new position at the Wang Group, he hadn’t found the right time to talk to her about it.
“Don’t be ridiculous, of course you are,” Wang Geon scoffed. “You have a responsibility to this family first and foremost, and besides, Mu already told me about the contract you have with her.”
“It’s a prenup—which can be modified—not a contract, and my foremost responsibilities are toward Soo and our child. They are MY family.” So had heard enough, and turned to leave.
“Don’t you dare walk away from me, Wang So!”
“Watch me!” So snapped, slamming the door behind him just as the glass Wang Geon had been holding shattered against it.
--00--
Hae Soo was bored and dearly wanted to go home. Even with the slippers, her feet had begun to ache. Plus, the food wasn’t that good. And she was still annoyed at So for not telling her about his work. How was she supposed to support him if he never told her what was going on?
Again, she remembered that for all the sex they had and all the time they spent together, they weren’t married-married. They still had an expiration date, and just because her feelings had changed it didn’t mean his feelings had.
Sometimes she thought they had. That they were on the same page when he would call her in the middle of the day just to check in, or show up at her job unexpectedly to take her to eat or to drive her home; how he would always reach for her hand when they had an ultrasound, or stayed up talking to her when the baby threw a tantrum and wouldn’t let her sleep.
When he made plans for them like they would still be together in six months or a year or five years.
Then, next thing she knew, she ran into one of these walls with him: always about his work, always about his family. It broke her heart a little each time.
And it was SO infuriating.
Almost as infuriating as the whispered comments she kept hearing all night long:
“I don’t get why he married her”
“Is it true she’s a beautician?”
“He married her because she got pregnant, oldest trick in the book!”
“Those Wang Boys can’t seem to keep it in their pants, can they?”
No matter how much Woo Hee and So’s brothers tried to keep her insulated from those comments, she still heard them. And they still hurt.
“Come on! We are going home,” Wang So said when he finally resurfaced after speaking with his father.
“Okay,” Soo said brightly. She was glad she didn’t have to be at this party any longer.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter Twelve: Once the Party is Over
For the first time since the moment they found out about the baby, Hae Soo felt awkward with Wang So. Not even the first time they had sex had she felt so self-conscious. Whatever his father had told him, it had made him stone-cold angry, and she could feel it coming out of him in waves.Soo had heard about So’s temper from his brothers, but she had never seen it herself, it was a tightly coiled but explosive thing, shimmering just under the surface of his impassive face.“I’m sorry the party was a bust.” So said after a while, flexing his hands and shoulders, trying to relax.“It was okay.” It hadn’t been okay, and they both knew it.“You don’t have to come next time.”“I did my best not to embarrass you.” Soo said, feeling rejected though she knew he hadn’t meant it that way.“You didn’t embarrass me. Don’t say stupid things like that.”“Don’t call me stupid.”“I. DID. NOT!”Soo huffed, knowing he was right but not ready to admit it. “We might not even be married by next time, so it doesn’t matter anyway.”If it weren’t because they were already cruising slowly into their neighborhood, So would have slammed on the breaks, as it was the car just jolted a little before he started the car again.“Right. The divorce.” So said in that cold voice of his.Soo didn’t say anything more and just looked away, feeling both ridiculous and sad that he hadn’t said anything else either. She told herself that this had been their plan all along, though the hateful part of her brain also reminded her that he had been the one to come up with it.Hae Soo didn’t doubt for a second that Wang So loved their baby, but she couldn’t help wondering if she was just a convenient sex partner and means to an end. She knew there was no logic to it.Wang So had been nothing but a decent human to her since the very moment they met, but Soo was already feeling raw thanks to her own insecurities and all the comments she had heard through the night, and his parents’ rudeness, and it was all too much.For the first time since this all started, Hae Soo wondered if she had made a mistake.-000-Wang So tried not to take it personal or look too much into it, he knew Soo was tired and hormonal and that her night had probably sucked just as much as his. But, dammit, he had feelings too and he was stupidly in love with her and didn’t know what to do about it.And his temper wasn’t doing him any favors, as every other word that left their mouths seemed to offend the other. That’s why he sent her up ahead to bed, while he checked the locks on the doors and tried to cool down. He even detoured to his home office, sitting at his desk he pulled out his copy of their pre-nup, dearly wishing he could chuck it in the trash and make it go away. He knew what the stupid paper said, he and Soo were supposed to file for divorce in a little over 6 months.He sighed in the relief when he finally went up to their room and saw that Soo had settled down on their bed – it would have broken his heart if she had gone to her old room, but his Soo wasn’t petty like that, even if she had turned her back to his side of the bed.That didn’t matter to him, just that she had stayed. Remembering that Sleepy-Soo loved his body heat (even if they were getting to Summer now), Wang So quickly stripped, letting his clothes fall wherever, and was rewarded by Soo turning in her sleep and scooting closer the second he slid under the sheets.So let her settle down again before allowing himself to press a kiss to her forehead, feeling how she relaxed against him, smiling when she sighed his name as she snuggled in.He couldn’t lose her, So was certain of that. Wang So hated explaining himself and his feelings - and he never really had to before - but for Soo he would. He would do whatever it took, anything, to keep her in his life.Yes, they would talk in the morning and fix everything. He would make sure of it.--000--Sometimes, Chae Ryung envied her friends. It wasn’t often, and it usually went away pretty quickly, but it happened from time to time. Like this night when they got to go to a fancy dinner party at the Wang Estate and she didn’t. Especially because she had been invited, she had even gotten a new dress and shoes.Her boss, Wang Won, had broken up with his girlfriend a week before and, since he needed a date to the party and no-one else was available, he had asked Chae Ryung to go.Then, yesterday, he had hooked up with a new girl he had met at a bar and had texted Chae Ryung early in the morning to let her know she didn’t have to go after all.Woo Hee had read the text over her shoulder and picked it up the phone to call him and give him a piece of her mind – which involved interesting combinations of some very colorful words – but he hadn’t answered it.But it didn’t matter, she decided not to go to work and keep the dress and let him pick up the bill like he had originally offered. She was going to make damn sure to leave the receipt in middle of his desk the following morning.If only she could stay angry! She really needed to. But ever since she had met Won when he was a guest lecturer covering for one of her professors in one of her coding classes, she had been unable to. Once the class was over, Won had offered her an internship at the Wang Group – where he handled all the cyber security, internal network and IT – and a job when she graduated.It was gestures like that that had gotten her to fall for him. He was really nice to her sometimes and then behaved like a total jerk.Once, when she had still been his intern, he had bought her a top-of-the-line laptop (better than anything she could ever afford on her own), when her old one had crashed (so her school work didn't suffer, he said); then two weeks later he made her stay up half the night running security updates and she had overslept the next morning and nearly failed one of her exams.He made her work overtime on her birthday then treated her to her favorite food the next day, without ever acknowledging that her birthday has passed - she wasn’t even sure if he knew her birthday to be honest.Rinse and Repeat. Like her friends always told her, he took her for granted. It had never really hit home until recently, seeing Soo and Woo Hee’s relationships.Wang Baek Ah had a bit of a reputation at the Wang Group for sleeping around and having many flings, but Chae Ryung had seen him sneak out of Woo Hee’s bedroom, doing the walk of shame, with a lovesick grin on his face like he couldn’t believe how lucky he as.And Hae Soo? Only she would go for a vacation and end up pregnant and married to one of Korea’s most eligible bachelors, who adored her – they adored each other, even if they didn’t want to admit it yet.Still, with nothing to do until Woo Hee came back and told her all about the girl Won had taken to the party, Chae Ryung decided to catch up on her dramas. She was midway through a rather boring episode when her phone beeped, letting her know she had a mail.Sighing, she picked it up, it was probably an automated response from one of the companies she had submitted her resume to earlier – it was part of her process to deal with Won’s thoughtlessness, she always applied to all the jobs she could when he made her angry, though she never got any.Only that this time it was different…-000-The next morning, Soo was a bit surprised to open her eyes to her husband’s collarbone, finding herself snuggled against him, her head tucked under his chin, sharing the same pillow and with one of his arms around her waist, the other under his head. Slowly, she pulled back a little, looking past his chin to his sleeping face.He looked a lot younger when he was asleep, closer to the guy she had met at a snowy resort almost 7 months ago. Because of the way his younger brothers looked up to him, and because he had pretty much taken responsibility for her and their baby from the start, Soo sometimes forgot that he was only a handful of years older than her.Soo just wished Wang So would share more of his life with her, the hard parts, he seemed so determined to keep her in a bubble during her pregnancy that he forgot the one thing they had had from the start, before sex even: open communication. The ability to speak their minds to each other and have their thoughts respected, to talk about the crappy parts of their lives and feel better afterward. Since it was just her and her thoughts, Soo admitted that she wanted their marriage to be real and they had to be willing to share the bad stuff too for that to happen. Part of her hated having to be so vulnerable with someone, she was more a “my feelings, my problem” kind of girl but –With a sigh, and tired of her own thoughts, Soo reached up her hand to caress So’s cheek, watching him smile in his sleep. After a moment, she knew her day couldn’t wait – Miss Oh had texted her last night to ask her to cover a shift, since some pushy client had called and asked for her specifically – even if So’s was getting a late start.Wiggling a bit – which was no easy with her 6-month-pregnant belly – Soo scooted out of bed and went through her morning routine. Showering quickly, dressing and making tea, pouring it in two to-go cups, leaving So’s in the counter with a note telling him where she was.--000--Wang So dragged himself into work at 10 AM – everyone that had been to the party was arriving at 10, plus he was the fucking CEO and he could be late if he wanted to. He must have been more tired than he thought or gotten used to Soo leaving their bed suddenly to run to the bathroom at strange hours of the night, because he had slept through her getting showered and dressed.At first, when he found her gone, So thought that she was mad at him – or madder than he thought originally– but then he found his to-go cup of tea, which she made for him each morning because they were both tea-snobs and hers was the only one he liked, with a little note from her telling him she had to go into work early and not to worry about her.She had even done her usual chibi drawing of herself. So had quite a collection of them now, organized in chronological order and packed in a special box inside his desk.“CEO Wang?” his secretary said a little reluctantly as So walked into his office.“Yes?”“President Wang wants to see you in his office at your earliest convenience.” The tone Eun Han Duk used let So know that Mu expected his earliest convenience to be as soon as he arrived.“Okay.” So nodded, leaving his briefcase but holding to his cup. “Hold all my calls, unless it’s my wife.”“If Mrs. Hae calls I’ll let you know right away, sir.”So smiled briefly, thinking that even his stodgy secretary had been won over by Soo in such a short time, then he went to look for his older brother, suddenly remembering that he was actually quite mad at him.“May I ask why you left the party so early last night?” Mu asked the moment So sat down at one of the empty chairs in front of his brother’s desk, not really bothering to lift his eyes from the documents he was reading, though his tone was a bit frosty and displeased. “We still had to talk to two investors!”“Because father infuriated me, and I didn’t want my wife to be in such a toxic environment?”“If you insist on keep bringing Soo to the company events until the divorce, she needs to toughen up.”“She doesn’t need to stand around while my parents are rude to her. And I don’t need to hear father’s opinion of my marriage.”“He just wants to help you since you are CEO now, you need to marry someone who can help you stay on top. I didn’t think it would be an issue since you already had a contract with Hae Soo.” Mu went on. “But you know it doesn’t matter, once you marry whomever father chooses, you can still-““If you say I can keep Soo on the side, stringing her along like Father did with Eun and Baek Ah’s mother, I will forget that we are brothers and I will quit right this second.” Wang So snapped. “I didn’t ask for this job and I don’t care about it, not in the way Yo does. I’ll walk away if you push me. You know I will.”Mu finally looked at his brother, noticing his tense demeanor. He did know So would quit without a second thought, he had given up a position in the board before with no regrets. So’s lack of greed was the reason why he needed him as CEO, he would do a damn good job but wouldn’t try to overthrow him at the first chance, unlike Yo. And Mu couldn’t afford to lose him.“It’s not that I don’t like Hae Soo-“ Mu started in a conciliatory tone..“Hyung.” So cut him. “Let that be your full sentence.” Mu lifted his hands in a ‘I give up’ gesture. “Fine.”“And Hyung,” So went on, pausing until Mu looked at him before going on. “Next time you want to discuss my marriage with Father? Don’t.”“Fair enough.” Mu said. “Then, I’ll see you at the meeting in an bit. I need to track down Yo before that, so please tell me you are ready, at least.”“Always am.”--00--Usually, Wang Yo was the type of person who woke up all at once, but now he found himself staring up at a familiar ceiling, blinking stupidly at it as if that would make the hazy sleepiness go away, trying to remember the previous night.Mun Seong’s car had had some sort of mechanical problem last night and Yo had offered to take her home while her driver sorted out the car. She had forgotten her purse in his car so he had gone back to drop it off and…The rustling of sheets at the other side of the bed, startled Yo, which gave him an idea of what had happened, and lifting the covers he could see that yes, he was in fact naked.“Umma!” a high-pitched voice called from the other side of the closed door. “Umma! You said you would braid my hair today!”Next to him Mun Seong startled, “Oh, fuck.” She mumbled, grabbing her head. “I’ll be right there, baby.” She called out, slowly turning her head to face him, jumping up from the bed a second later and grabbing all the sheets to cover herself and blushing.“Oh, for fuck’s sake, I’ve seen you naked before. We have been married to 10 years.”“Shut up,” Mun Seong answered, going into the closet and next thing Yo knew he was smacked on the face with a pair of sweatpants and t-shirt he recognized as his. “Get dressed and get out before the children see you.”“Again, we are married? Why would that be a problem?” He said, reaching for his underwear and pulling on the pants.“I don’t want them to get their hopes up.” Mun Seong said, re-emerging from the closet wearing her own set of sweatpants. “Just because I had drunk sex with you doesn’t mean you are welcome here.”Yo rolled his eyes as he pulled the shirt over his head while another scream of “Umma!” reached them, this time the voice belonging to their son, a second later the door knob rattled and started to turn.“Appa!” Both children screamed as they burst into the room, launching themselves at him, nearly knocking him back into the bed.Yo laughed and lifted one of his kids with each arm. “Look what I found here.” He said, distracting them from the messy bed behind him.“Appa, appa!! I can’t find my shoes! The ones you got me last time!” Gyung wailed.“All right, let’s go look for them while your Umma helps Yoonie.”“But I want to be with you too, Appa!” Yoon Seong complained.“Why don’t I drive you both to school? Would that be okay?”“YAY!” both kids screamed and Yo was able to take Gyung out while Mun Seong dealt with Yoon.Tacitly agreeing to a don’t ask, don’t tell approach with the children – as in no one would mention Yo’s sudden appearance at their home and they would cross their fingers that the kids didn’t ask what he was doing there – Yo stayed with them as they got ready for school and then loaded them into the car.After dropping the kids off – which has harder than usual as they kept clinging to him and he had to promise to take them shopping for toys the following weekend – he drove back home, taking the time to ponder how incredibly stupid it had been to sleep with Mun Seong, when still hated his guts. He even thought of the earliest days of their marriage. They had married as soon as she had finished school, moving together into an apartment her parents bought them in Gangnam. They had been so happy to be out from under their parents’ thumbs that they quickly fell into an easy rhythm, they had even agreed to start trying for a baby right away. Mun Seong loved kids.But as that first year had gone by with no success, things started going south for them. The rounds of fertility treatments and In Vitro had been draining for both of them and turned sex into a chore to get over with in order to get what they wanted. After three rounds of IVF, Mun Seong had finally gotten pregnant with their twins.After that, they moved into the big house his parents bought them and they focused on being the perfect society couple with the perfect children, they were the perfect family but sucked as a couple. And now here they were.--ooo--Hae Soo’s morning was progressing as usual, she had arrived to work and changed into her uniform and got the room ready for her first appointment. The little routines of her job – stacking towels, preparing her station, lighting candles – always calmed her down.Reading her assignment, Soo was surprised to find that she was only supposed to do a very basic facial, that anyone could have applied, and wondered whom this client was. Still, she got her things ready and waited.When she heard the door open, Soo plastered a smile on her face, checked the name of the client and turned to greet her. “Mrs. Tae, welcome to Damiwon.”It wasn’t Mrs. Tae, whomever that was. Instead, Soo found herself in a suddenly very small space with her mother in law.“Mrs. Yoo.”Yoo Shin Myeong looked around, the pinched look of distaste growing and taking over her features. She was an elegant, impeccably dressed woman, but right now she looked like she was smelling something foul. “She is going to get wrinkles”, Soo thought, and a small smile crept up to her lips.“I see you are amused by the fact that you are ruining my second son’s life.” Mrs. Yoo snapped.That sobered Soo right up, “I believe that’s for Wang So to decide, whether I’m ruining his life or not.” And Soo really hoped the answer was ‘not’.“Since he got himself trapped by the oldest trick in the book by a… cosmetologist, I’m not sure his judgement can be trusted.”“I didn’t trap him.” Soo answered. “Now, if you aren’t here for treatment, you should leave.”“As if I would get service from this… establishment.”“If that’s the case, again, please leave.”“Not until I have talked some sense into you. I don’t know what he finds so compelling about you exactly, but the idiot boy won’t divorce you, it doesn’t matter to him how much shame he’s bringing to the family with his actions, but then again, it never has. He took the spot that rightfully belonged to his brother – it wasn’t enough for him to ruin Yo’s marriage-““How did he do that exactly?” Soo asked. “He wasn’t the one cheating.”Mrs. Yoo glared, “You wouldn’t understand how it works in a family like ours.”“I understand basic human decency.”“Middle class foolish nonsense.” Mrs. Yoo said dismissively. “Now, you can drop the act for a bit and let’s talk business. I don’t know how much money you think you can get out of my second son, but I can give you more if you quietly disappear from our lives.”“You can’t give me more than Wang So, and I’m not talking about money.” Soo said calmly. “If he wants me to go, he can tell me. Otherwise, I don’t have to listen to you.”Since the woman wouldn’t leave, Soo reached for the door herself and stepped outside, feeling unwell all of the sudden.“I’m not done talking to you, you insolent girl!” Mrs. Yoo growled, following Soo and catching up with her as Soo climbed down a flight of stairs to reach Miss Oh’s office.“I don’t think I need to listen to you anymore.” Soo answered without stopping… until she felt a hand on her shoulder spinning her around and let out a scared shriek as her feet tried to accommodate her sudden change in momentum without much success.Hae Soo felt herself falling backward, slamming her back and hips against the security rail, all air leaving her lungs, making her gasp as the room spun and then went black.
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Chapter Thirteen: Sure of You
Wang So tried not to mope as he got ready for the meeting—it was a very important meeting, the first one since becoming CEO—but he kept checking his phone every five minutes to see if Soo had texted or called. And so far, nothing. He hadn’t gotten to talk to her that morning, but he so wanted to get on the same page with her so that they could make a real go of their marriage.He was fiddling with his phone, trying to figure out how he should ask her out for a romantic dinner (because how silly was it that they hadn’t had an actual proper date in all their time together?) when the phone vibrated. Soo’s smiling face lit up the screen.So took a second to admire the picture—taken the day they registered their marriage—before answering. “Soo-yah!” He said happily but all he heard at the other end was sniffling and what he was pretty sure was Hae Soo crying. “Soo-yah? What’s going on?”There was a shuffle and then a cool, professional voice said “Mr. Wang? This is Oh Soo Yeon, Hae Soo’s boss.”He only half caught what Soo’s boss was saying as all the while he could hear Hae Soo crying in the background. But he caught enough, especially the ‘hospital’ and ‘accident’ part.“I’ll be right there.” He said, dropping everything and not even bothering to let his secretary know that he was leaving.“Hyung! What are you doing?” Baek Ah asked when So collided with him on his way to the elevators. “The meeting starts in five minutes!”“Soo-yah is in the hospital.” So said shortly, pressing the elevator button at least ten times. “She—I.. I need to be there.”Baek Ah nodded. “All right,” He stepped into the elevator with him. “Give me your keys, I’m not letting you drive like this.”---00---Leaving his brother to deal with parking, Wang So ran inside the hospital trying to locate Hae Soo, who had been set up in a private-ish area of the E.R. She was sitting up in a bed and no longer crying, but she hiccupped and sniffled every so often, as an older woman sat next to her and rubbed her back comfortingly.“Soo-yah!” So whispered in relief, just at seeing her.Hae Soo held out her arms and tried hard not to cry again, but she might have sobbed when she felt So’s arms wrapping securely around her, and she burrowed into his chest.“Shh, calm down sweetheart, everything is going to be okay,” he said. “Can you tell me what happened?”“I’ll go make a few calls and give you some privacy,” Miss Oh said, standing up gracefully.“Thank you for coming with me, Miss Oh.” Soo said, still tucked against So.“I needed to make sure you were alright,” her boss said. “I’ll go make those calls and come see you before I leave, okay?”Soo nodded and took a moment to brace herself before pulling away from her husband, not sure how to tell him what had happened. “My first appointment of the day was supposed to be a Mrs. Tae, but the person that arrived… it was your mother.”“Go on,” So already didn’t like where this was going.“She said I’m ruining your life and that I trapped you with the baby. And she offered me money to leave you.” She sniffled. “I told her no and tried to get out of there but something happened when I was going down the stairs to Miss Oh’s office. I only remember I hit my hip against the security rail and when I woke up Miss Oh was holding my hand while the paramedics put me in the ambulance and—and there was a little blood, but they stopped it.”“What did the doctor say?”“Not much, they paged Dr. Kim.”Before So could say more, Dr. Kim arrived with a nurse pushing a portable ultrasound machine. Dr. Kim read Soo’s chart and asked her a bunch of questions.“Spotting is never ideal, but it doesn’t need to be the worst news automatically. There is no real way of knowing if it was related to your fall, but we’ll do an ultrasound to be absolutely sure that everything is as it should, okay?”“Okay,” Soo said, already knowing the drill. She wiggled out of So’s arms and lifted her hospital gown, so the nurse could apply the gel. She felt So tense next to her and saw he was staring at a large bruise on her hip.“I’ll get you something for that when we are done,” Dr. Kim said, noticing the bruise. She took the ultrasound probe and ran it over Soo’s stomach for a few moments.Soo reached for So’s hand and held on tight for the breathless moments before the image on the screen took shape.“There she is!” Dr. Kim said.“Is it a she?” So asked excitedly. They hadn’t been able to tell from the last ultrasound.The doctor nodded. “Say hello to Umma and Appa,” she added, moving the probe a bit. On the screen the baby moved, and Soo felt a small fluttering. “Heartbeat is strong and there are no signs of fetal distress.”“Thank God,” So said, squeezing Soo’s hand.“Things seem to be in order. But we’ll keep you in just to be sure.” Dr. Kim said, pushing a few buttons to freeze the screen on the baby’s profile and sending it to print. “First twenty-four hours in absolute repose, and then you’ll be able to move a little. If there is no more bleeding and all goes well, you’ll be able to go home in a few days.”“Okay.”“Of course, you’ll need a lot of rest and no extraneous activities from here on out; no carrying heavy stuff and no intercourse until further notice.” The doctor admonished, making Soo blush in a way only a woman who’s almost seven months pregnant and still having sex regularly can blush.The doctor gave them a few other directions and asked one of the nurses to arrange to move Soo into a private room.“Your baby girl is fine,” She said finally, handing So the print-out of the ultrasound. “We are just being extra careful, okay?”After that, they were left alone for a moment and Soo felt a little lost for words, not knowing how to pick up their conversation. Instead she said the first thing that came to mind: “I’m sorry about the no sex thing.”“I’ll live,” So let out a startled laugh. “As long as you and the baby are fine. That’s all that matters.” He pulled her back into his arms, kissing the top of her head over and over. “You two are all I care about.”Enjoying his warmth, Soo found herself rising her arms to hug him back, enjoying the way he kept rubbing her back. “You don’t have to say that. I know I’ve made things hard for you.”Holding her a little tighter, So leaned close to her ear. “There is no part of you that I find hard to love. From the moment you jumped from behind your seat and plopped down next to me, until this very second, I have never regretted knowing you.”Soo nodded, “I—I feel the same. Even if I have complicated your life, and made a mess of things, I—I don’t regret meeting you.”Wang So smiled, letting her pull back a bit so he could look into her eyes—the first thing he had noticed about her, right before all of this started. So waited until Hae Soo smiled back before cupping her cheeks and brushing her tears away with his thumbs.“I know we have done everything out of order and that maybe we got married for practical reasons, but I want to stay married for all the right ones. Because I love you and you make me happy; because you are my family.”“I love you too,” Soo said, closing her eyes when So leaned in to kiss her, relief washing over her as the words left her lips. She felt giddy even as their kiss grew hot.“Okay, maybe now I’m sorry about the no-sex-thing.”“Wang So!”Then the orderlies arrived to take Soo to another room, and So was sent off to find Miss Oh and Baek Ah.--00--Miss Oh waited with Wang So outside Soo’s room as the nurses settled her and hooked the fetal monitor and other equipment to her.“I’m very protective of the girls that work for me,” Miss Oh said quietly. “Soo especially, since she reminds me a bit of myself when I was that age.”“I’m sure she would be happy to hear that.”“That’s why I worried when I learned she had married a Chaebol. More so when I realized it was from your family, but you seem to really care for her.”“I do.”“Good,” Miss Oh said, but before she could say more they were interrupted by the sound of quick footsteps coming in their direction.“Umma!” a young woman—So guessed she must be around Jung’s age—said as she ran into them. “Umma! How’s Soo-yah?”Wang So did a double take as he took the girl in. There was something familiar about her that he couldn’t quite place; maybe it was the shape of her eyes?“Mr. Wang, this is my daughter Ha Jin. She usually has better manners.” Miss Oh said in light reproach, which made her daughter roll her eyes. “And Soo-yah is going to be fine. Now, did you bring what I asked for?”“Yes,” Ha Jin fished a flash drive from her pocket. “I copied it and put the original in the safe.”“Great.”A nurse came out then to tell them that they could visit for a moment but after that only immediate family was allowed until visiting hours. Ha Jin asked to go in first, leaving them alone in the hallway again.Miss Oh handed Wang So the flash drive. “It’s the footage from the security camera. It shows Soo’s ‘accident.’ She told you what happened, right?”“She did, but she doesn’t remember everything. Just that my mother was involved.”Miss Oh nodded. “It’s not the first time Yoo Shin Myeong has done something like this, you know?” She added in a sad tone. “I almost lost my Jinnie because of her, too.” So was too stunned to reply, trying to wrap his mind around what Miss Oh was telling him. “In any case, this should help you to keep Hae Soo safe. I’m sure neither of your parents wants this leaked.” “How do you know my parents?”Miss Oh smiled but instead of answering, she just said: “Tell Geon that Oh Soo Yeon sends her regards.”She went into the room to say goodbye to Hae Soo and before So knew it, Miss Oh and her daughter were gone.Wang So knew there was a story there and knew he would have to deal with his parents soon enough—there was no way in hell he was letting this go, not when the two people he loved the most had been threatened—but for now, he pocketed the flash drive and shifted his complete focus to Hae Soo.--00--Hae Soo’s hospital room was bigger than some of the apartments she had looked at before moving in with So. But with So’s brothers, her friends and Myung Hee inside, it was feeling a bit crowded. Not that she wasn’t grateful that they cared; it was just a bit much.Noticing that she was growing tired, So shooed everyone away though they said they were coming back the next day.“I love them, but they are nosy and noisy,” Soo said, settling against her pillows with a smile.“I can tell them not to come if you want,” So said, arranging the blanket over her.“No, it’s okay. They are family.” Soo smiled. “Now, tell me what’s going on with you. You seem pensive.”“Just trying to process some things.” So said, sitting next to her. “I’ll tell you when I figure it out.”“All right,” Soo sighed. So’s phone rang, but he simply turned it off. “It’s your father again, isn’t it?” He had been calling all afternoon.“Yeah. I’ll deal with him later.” So tossed his phone aside. “I’ll handle it, okay? You and our daughter will be safe.”“I know.” Soo smiled at him. “I trust you.”“Let’s not think about it now. You need to rest.”“All I’m going to do is rest from here on out,” She grumbled, making him laugh.“I’ll keep you entertained.”
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Chapter Fourteen: Chain Reaction
Hae Soo had to stay in the hospital for three days as a precaution, but she really wasn’t feeling bad save for a few bruises that had cropped up; the worst were on her hip and knee.Still, So stayed with her the entire time. He worked only when it was absolutely necessary and made his poor secretary go to the hospital to see him every time he had to sign something. The rest of the time, So focused on his Soo.But once they were back home, So knew it was time he finally dealt with his parents. His father kept calling him and had even sicced Mu on him, until So stopped taking Mu’s calls as well. His mother was curiously radio silent. But So knew her...she was plotting something.The first night back, he and Soo had a long discussion about what he should do. Soo didn’t pressure him one way or another: in fact, it was her who told him to be cautious and not make any rash decisions.Angry as she was at his mother, Soo also saw the big picture and knew there would be far-reaching consequences if they didn’t handle things right. Mostly for his younger brothers—especially Jung since he still idolized his mother.Hae Soo also helped him to piece together what he thought had happened between her boss and his father. Miss Oh was very private, but her daughter wasn’t so reserved and had discussed some of Miss Oh’s past with Soo before. As it would happen, the fight came to him. Wang Geon, impatient and annoyed with his third-born son, showed up uninvited to So’s home.Since Soo was resting upstairs, So took his father to his home office to have this out once and for all.Time, distance, and the fact that his little family was safe and sound, sleeping on his bed upstairs, allowed So to keep a clear mind and his fury tightly leashed.Normally, he would have let his father take the seat behind the desk in deference, but he was not in the mood for that and he held all the cards this time. His father would not push him around where Soo was concerned.Wang Geon glared at So’s breach of etiquette but grudgingly sat in one of the guest chairs.“How much longer do you plan on playing nursemaid for your… wife?”“As long as I want to.”“You are the CEO of the Wang Group! You can’t drop everything over a woman and a child that hasn’t even been born yet!”“That is my choice. As you said, I am the CEO; I make the rules for it. As I’m sure Mu already informed you, I have complete autonomy in the regard. Now, if that’s all you needed to say…” So rose to his feet and motioned toward the door, already knowing this was far from over but wanting to annoy his father as much as possible.“Sit down, Wang So! I’m not done!”“Then, by all means, get to the point.” He said in an excessively polite tone sure to grate his father’s nerves.“Your mother told me she met with your wife the day of the accident—that needs to remain confidential.”“The fact that Mother pushed my pregnant wife down a flight of stairs, you mean?”“Don’t be overly dramatic! I heard she’s fine.”“That’s the only reason we are even having this conversation.” So’s voice dropped to a menacing pitch that startled his father. If Soo and their baby had been harmed, So would have burned the world down already… and if his father didn’t know that about his son, then Wang Geon was a fool.“Your mother was only trying to help you! And I want your word that-““Father, neither of you are in any position to make demands,” So said, opening his laptop on the desk and turning it to face his father, then So began playing the security footage of Soo’s ‘accident’ for him.Wang Geon tensed and winced, seeing the images So already knew by heart. For the rest of his life he would wake up in a cold sweat, thinking how easily he could have lost everything thanks to Yoo Shin Myeong.“Your mother…”“Don’t you find it odd that she sent you to deal with this? She usually handles this kind of thing herself, doesn’t she?” So interrupted, mock philosophical.“She knows you won’t reason with her.”“No, that’s not it.” So mocked.“Wang So, speak plainly!”“Just think: why didn’t she deal with Soo’s boss directly? Why didn’t she tell you to deal with her either? Why are you HERE trying to convince ME to bury this? Why not just go over my head and make this evidence disappear before I even got my hands on it?”“Fine, if you are going to be like that, I’ll deal with your wife’s boss. I was just giving you the chance to do right by your family but-““Sure, you do that.” So interrupted again, making Geon’s temper rise another notch. So lounged back in his chair as his father stood to leave; he waited until his father reached the door to continue. “She told me to give you her regards, by the way—Soo’s boss, I mean.”“What?”“Her exact words were: Tell Geon that Oh Soo Yeon sends her regards.” “Soo Yeon-ie.” The old man whispered in a tone Wang So had never ever from his father before. Like the name of a deity, as if that name held the secrets of the universe or something.“Yes, Oh Soo Yeon.” So confirmed, twisting the knife just a little. With Soo’s help and a little digging, he had pieced together a decent idea of whom Miss Oh was to Wang Geon. “Now it all makes sense, doesn’t it?” Why mother didn’t bribe her— she can’t—and why she sent you to talk to me instead.”“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”“Are you sure? Is that a risk you’re willing to take?”“What do you want?”“I want you and Yoo Shin Myeong out of my life. Zero interference from you or her from this point forward. The second either of you even sneezes in my wife or child’s direction, I will make everything public. Not just this,” he pointed to the screen. “I mean everything. The past. I’m sure Miss Oh will help me; she’s very fond of Soo and not so fond of you or your wife.“I’m not foolish enough to think Mother would face any consequences if I pursue it legally, but in the court of public opinion? A rich, powerful woman harming a pregnant girl? Not the first time she does it too! YOU, the man who let it all happen, the man who couldn’t control his wife! Can you imagine the scandal? How the company’s stocks would plummet? The Wang Family in utter disgrace…” He tutted mockingly.Wang Geon froze, contempt making him scowl. “Would you throw your family away over a woman?”“I would throw your company away over my family.” So corrected.“Fine.” Wang Geon said finally, understanding that Wang So was not going to back down, and that he actually had no leverage over his son.“Excellent, I will have my lawyer contact yours.” So said, his tone changing to fake jovial.“You have my word. What do you need a lawyer for?”“The word of people without honor is worthless. Since I don’t trust either of you, I want everything in writing, you understand.”“You are a ruthless bastard, after all.” Geon couldn’t help commenting, almost with pride.“I learned from the best, didn’t I?” he paused and then clarified. “I mean, Mother, of course, not you. You are a solid second.”--00--“You are the CEO of a large corporation, you have to go to work.” Soo laughed, two days later, as So still refused to leave her side.“You and my daughter are more important.”“We are fine! Doctor Kim said we are out of danger.”“She also said no strenuous activities and only to move when necessary.”“I’m hardly moving! I even gave in and stopped working, even though Doctor Kim said I could keep doing it so long as I didn’t overwork myself! All I’m going to do for the next two months is sit around and gestate,” Soo pouted.“More reason for me to stay and keep you company.” “So-yah, you know work will keep piling up for you and then when you do back to work, you’ll have to work even later and won’t be around as much-““I’ll quit!” He said jovially.“You’ll give your brother and poor Secretary Eun heart attacks if you do, you know it!”“Fine! I’ll go tomorrow.” So conceded finally, pouting in a way Soo found so endearing. Next thing she knew, So was laying down with his head next to her stomach, telling their daughter how her mother was kicking him out and sending him off to work instead of letting him stay with them.“If she has a tantrum because of this, there will be no cuddles for you!” Soo said sternly, but she also kept running her fingers through his hair and petting him.“You like it when she moves,” So nuzzled her stomach, feeling the minute movements of the baby (it wasn’t quite a kick, more like the baby rolling over) and settling in for a nap.“I love you both, no matter what you do,” Soo said softly, making him smile in his sleep. Soo leaned back on her many pillows and closed her eyes, joining the collective family nap.--00--The next morning, before he left for the office, Wang So helped Soo to shower and dress comfortably, then carried her downstairs to the couch where he had magazines, snacks, drinks and a blanket all set up for her. Remote control and phone nearby and even a brand-new tablet loaded with games and apps Eun and Chae Ryung thought she would like.So had toyed with the idea of hiring a nurse but Soo had flatly refused. Instead, she let him fuss over her and promised not to move from her comfy nest unless it was one hundred percent necessary and to call him if she needed anything.Wang So was fluffing her pillows one last time when the doorbell rang. “Excellent, just in time.”“Are you expecting someone?” Soo asked, following him with her eyes as he went to the door.“I got you some minions to order about as you please,” So answered while opening the door to reveal Eun and Jung.“Hey!” Eun complained.“Hyung!” Jung seconded, taking a moment to glare at So before turning to Soo on the couch. “But he’s right, Noona! Anything you want, all you have to do is ask us and we’ll get it for you!”“Thank you!” Soo said. She was moved by their kindness and blinked as if not to cry, succeeding only when So went to kiss her goodbye and distracted her. “I’ll see you tonight,” He said to Soo before turning to his brothers. “There is plenty of food in the fridge and I put the takeout menus next to the phone in the kitchen in case she feels like eating something else.”“Don’t worry! We’ll take care of our Noona!” Eun said.“Wait! Before I forget!” Soo said suddenly.“What is it?”“About Chae Ryung…”--000--In her almost three years of working for the Wang Group, Chae Ryung had never been to the C-Suite, let alone the CEO’s office—it was Won who usually handled anything that had to do with the IT of this floor, because of security reasons—but now here she was, standing in front of the new CEO, struck by how different Wang So was when he was around Soo, and when he was at work. There was a warmth only his wife brought out.Now, he looked coolly professional as he sat behind the massive desk.“Soo-yah explained your situation to me,” He said, looking up from the file in his desk. “She said you want to be released from your contract early and a recommendation letter.”“That’s right.”“Can you explain why?”“I don’t think I can continue working with Wang Won-ssi.” Chae Ryung said as carefully as she could. Won was So’s cousin after all, and she was just an employee. “Though I am very grateful for my job, it was never my dream to go into cyber security. Over the years I’ve tried applying to other jobs in companies more devoted toward software development—apps, games, platforms—where I felt I could have more oportunities for growth, but whenever I applied I never heard back.Recently I learned that a few of these companies had gone as far as to contact my immediate boss for a reference and h-he... Won-ssi has told them in no uncertain terms that I wouldn’t be released from my contract under any circumstances and refused to give a reference. At least four companies that I know of have blacklisted me because of it, and because I kept applying.”“I see,” So said calmly. “Anything else?”Chae Ryung thought about it. About all the things she had found out since the night of the party at the Wang Estate. That night a recruiter, finally fed up with her, had emailed to ask her to stop wasting their time applying for jobs when she couldn’t leave the Wang Group. She had actually gathered some courage to call back the recruiter, and the woman had told her what she knew, given her a thread to pull.She had spent that night and the following day—until she had to rush to the hospital to see Soo—on the phone with her former classmates and other industry contacts, corroborating what the recruiter had told her.One of her former classmates had actually told her that his company was very interested in her, but they had never dared to make an offer that might anger the All-Powerful Wang Group. But that if she could get out of her contract and get a reference, they would hire her. His friend’s boss had even emailed her a fairly decent offer.She had tried to pin down Won to discuss this—because some broken part of her was still loyal to him—but since he wouldn’t talk to her and the job offer was time sensitive, she had dared to ask Soo to talk to her husband about her situation.Chae Ryung had hoped he would direct her to HR or something, but instead he had called her to his office.“I understand there is fine for defaulting on the contract and I’ll find a way to cover it, I promise.”“You are correct: there is a hefty fine for defaulting the contract. It was created with the intention of discouraging employees from leaving after we spend time and money training them. It is not meant to be punitive, however.” Wang So said. “And I’ve reviewed your file; you were due for a payment raise eighteen months ago and another six months ago. Your pay and position should have changed as you gained more responsibilities within the company.”Chae Ryung bit her lip. That was another thing Won had kept from her. “I didn’t know.”“I assumed as much,” So said. “Accounting did some calculations, and this is what’s left from the retroactive payment after the fine.” He picked up two documents from the file on his desk—her personnel file she realized—and held them out to her. “And I wrote the recommendation letter myself, like Soo-yah asked.”“I don’t have to pay anything?” Chae Ryung asked in awe.“No. The fact that Won never gave you a raise put a relatively low cap on the fine.” Wang So actually smiled at her. “I’m sorry there wasn’t more money left.”“Thank you,” She said sincerely. Asking Soo for help had been a long shot, but her dear friend had come through for her.“Your contract now expires by the end of this week. Please take that time to train whomever will be taking over your functions.”“I will!”--00--Wang So smiled as the young woman left. Happy he would be able to tell his Soo that he had helped her friend. Before he left for the office that morning, Soo had given him a quick rundown of her friend’s relationship with Won and her current predicament. So had agreed to look into it, just to make her happy.He was settling down to work again, giving a final read-through before he signed some contracts to renew the company’s harbor lease in Busan, when the door of his office slammed open and Yoo Shin Myeong burst in.His usually impeccable Mother looked crazed, and Wang So figured his father had informed her of the deal they had struck. Casually, So pushed a button on his intercom that would summon security to his office, before going back to his contracts, ignoring his mother.Wang So still remembered the last time he had spoken directly to his mother, almost three years ago when he refused to marry Yeon Hwa. His mother had called him a disgrace, her mistake and her flaw and told him he should have never been born if all he was doing was ruining her family.At the time, it had hurt more than he cared to admit even if they never had the best of relationships. Now? He couldn’t give a damn.“I wasn’t aware we had an appointment,” He said calmly.“What the hell do you think you are doing?” His mother shrieked.“Right now, I’m signing contracts. For something else, you’ll have to be more specific.”“You disgrace your brother, impregnate some random woman and take your brother’s job! And then you threaten your father? Putting the family at risk for a nobody!”“She’s my wife, not a nobody. And if you ever speak her name again, you’ll be breaking the agreement Father and I made to keep the fact that you put my pregnant wife at risk from being made public.”“I don’t care! Your father might have given into your ridiculous demands, but I will not!”.“You have no choice. No one to help you. Father has done as much as he’s willing to do for you; he said so himself. Yo has his own problems and not enough power to oppose me. There is even less that Jung could do, and even the Chungju Group is tired of cleaning up after you. Grandfather wasn't too happy to hear you keep harming pregnant women.”“Did you summon us, CEO Wang?” One of the two guards that arrived at his office asked.“I did. Get this woman out of my sight.”The guards looked at each other and shrugged, moving forward to follow their orders. This caused Mrs. Yoo to start screaming like a banshee as she was dragged out.“Secretary Eun!” So called out.“Yes, sir?”“Please inform building security and the reception desk that Mrs. Yoo Shin Myeong is as of today persona non-grata and is not allowed onto the premises unless she is specifically summoned for the shareholders’ meeting.”“Ban Mrs. Yoo, sir?”“Yes. Did I stutter?”“No, sir. I’ll get to it.” The secretary answered, running out of Soo’s office.--00--Park Mun Seong did not like hospitals. She had spent so much time in them when she was trying to get pregnant, and now they gave her hives. Yet, here she was, thanks to Yo—another thing she could hold against him, which she would do, as soon as she heard that he was all right.She had been going through her day as usual, trying NOT to think about that night of drunken sex with Yo (or the fact that she hadn’t really been that drunk) when the call from the hospital had come. As far as she had gathered, Yo had been driving to pick up their kids—since it was the day he had promised to take them shopping—when he was involved in a car crash.Lost in her thoughts, Mun Seong startled when a nurse approached her.“We had her in the pediatric ward since it’s quieter than here,” the nurse carrying a fussy toddler said before handing her the baby. “We checked her out, and she was not harmed during the crash.”“Oh,” Mun Seong said, accepting the warm weight of Yo’s daughter. She must have been in the car with him. “Thank you.”She sat down with the baby in her lap. The little girl kept fussing for a second before she just melted against her and started sucking her thumb. Not in a million years would she had imagined she would find herself cradling this child; her very existence had upended Mun Seong’s life.Mun Seong was still contemplating how she had found herself in this situation when a shadow fell over her. “Give her to me!” Hwang Bo Yeon Hwa snapped, aggressively reaching for the toddler in Mun Seong’s arms. Yeon Hwa’s long nails must have dug into the child’s skin because she immediately started crying.“What do you think you’re doing? Don’t touch her.”“I am her mother!”Right, that was probably why the hospital had called her when they had admitted Mun Deok. “That doesn’t change the fact that Yo has primary custody.”“He’s not around to stop me.”“But I am! And I can have my lawyer here in ten minutes. What about you? Can you even afford a lawyer without mooching off my husband? Do you think your family will come to your aid? Will they be happy to have another scandal on their hands thanks to you? Oh, wait! They don’t care! They cut you off!” Something flashed in Yeon Hwa’s eyes then, something akin to resignation and fear. But then it vanished. “Tell Yo to call me as soon as he wakes up.”
As if.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter FIFTEEN: Fated to Love You
It was a mystery to both Mu and Baek Ah just how Wang So managed to get everything done before 6 PM, at which point he would leave his office and go home to Soo. It didn’t matter that he had organized a rooster of people to keep Soo company while she was at home – Eun and Jung the most frequent ones since they were on break from school -At the end of the day, Wang So was more than happy to go home to Hae Soo. He knew she was fine in the company of his brothers – who sent him updates without Soo knowing, so she wouldn’t call him overprotective – but he was just happier when she was around.Even the confrontation with his mother couldn’t ruin his good mood in knowing that when he got home his favorite person in the world would be there, waiting for him.“You are home!” Hae Soo cried happily, waddling toward him the second he walked in.“You shouldn’t be on your feet.” So said automatically, even as he hugged her close.“I have been laying on the couch all day!” Soo pouted, earning herself a kiss for her troubles, which made her smile.But, before he could kiss her again, someone clearing their throat behind them stopped them.“I think it’s time we went home.” Hae Myung Hee said from her seat at the kitchen table, where she and Soo had been having tea, next to her was the last person So ever expected to see in his home: Hwang Bo Wook.“Do you have to?” Soo asked.“It’s getting late.” Myung Hee answered.“All right.” Soo said, “Thank you for bringing Unnie, Wook-ssi.”“Anytime, kid.” Wook answered, rising to assist Myung Hee with her chair. “You look good, So.”“You two know each other?” Soo asked, tilting her head to the side like a puppy.“We went to the same school.” Wook answered.“Yes. Wook was our class president.” So added.“What a small world.” Myung Hee said with a smile.“Unnie! Before I forget, I got you some of that cream you like last time I went to work. I have it upstairs.” Soo said brightly and out of nowhere, beginning to make her way toward the stairs.“No! Hae Soo, wait! Don’t go up on my account.” Myung Hee called after Soo, already giving chase, and leaving So and Wook alone.“This is awkward.” Wook said, breaking the silence.“If you are here because of some scheme by your sister, so help me god I –““Yeon Hwa doesn’t speak to me anymore. She has been angry at me since I wouldn’t go along with her plans.” Wook interrupted. “After your sister-in-law wouldn’t divorce your brother, Yeon Hwa came up with this crazy plan and wanted me to seduce your sister-in-law so Yo would have grounds for divorce”“That sounds like Yeon Hwa,”“It does, doesn’t it? I had just started dating Myung Hee at the time, but I knew she was the one and I didn’t want to jeopardize our relationship, so I said no.”“She must not have taken that well.”“Right. She threw a tantrum and said I was throwing her away… now she’s doesn’t talk to me, grandfather doesn’t talk to her, and mother keeps trying to bring her back into the fold.”“I see.”“Before you ask, I don’t even know your wife that well. I knew of her because Myung Hee always talks about Hae Soo but I only met her a handful of times, and that only a few months ago when Myung Hee asked me to help Soo with that fiasco with her house, okay?”“I don’t doubt my wife.”“I’m glad to hear. I wouldn’t blame you if you were suspicious because I am involved.”“If it were anyone else but Soo-yah, I would be.” So admitted.“Look. Myung Hee and I just came to drop off our wedding invitation, that’s it. You won’t see me often because I rarely have any contact with your wife. In any case, Soo will be at the wedding, but you don’t have to be, even if I don’t think my sister will be there…”So paused, looking at the man in front of him. Before he broke up with Yeon Hwa, So and Wook had been friends for over a decade due mostly to proximity rather than shared interests, but they HAD been friends.“I’ll be there.” So said finally, as footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs.“I’d like that.” Wook said with a genuine smile.“I convinced Soo-yah to stay upstairs,” Myung Hee said, slightly out of breath.“Thank you, Myung Hee-ssi.” So said. “She does gets restless.”Wang So talked to them for a few more minutes and walked them out, before making his way upstairs to find Soo leaning back on her pillows and snoring softly and he couldn’t help laughing.“I’m not sleeping!” Soo said, sitting up and pushing a bit of hair that had fallen into her mouth.“Of course not.” So agreed, climbing into the bed with her and showering her face with kisses. “I missed you all day.”“You called me 5 times!”“Are you saying you didn’t miss me?”So pouting was so ridiculous that Hae Soo gave in and admitted. “I did miss you. Baby too! The second you walked in, she started kicking.”So kissed her belly, “That’s my girl.”“Speaking of the baby, Myung Hee wants to throw a baby shower and asked if it was okay if we did it here, I said I would ask.”“You don’t have to ask, this your home.” So said.“Then I do want to have it here.” Soo said with a nod.“Then that’s how it will be. Now, what does my queen want for dinner?”---000---For the second time in as many weeks, Wang Yo woke up slowly, feeling groggy and disoriented, this time staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling. He could hear strange beeping near-by and something - a tube - taped to the back of his hand -which felt both cold and stiff, bloated.Turning to the side, in the dim light, Yo was greeted by a sight he had never expected to see in his life: His daughter Mun Deok with a thumb firmly in her mouth, sleeping against Mun Seong’s chest, drooling a bit on his wife’s designer dress while Mun Seong gently rubbed the back of the child’s head.Yo groaned, trying to sit up, discovering that his ribs ached fiercely.“Don’t move,” Mun Seong said softly, settling Mun Deok on the sofa where he now saw their two children also slept.“They shouldn’t be here.” He said.“One of their classmates’ mom dropped them off, and they didn’t want to leave until you woke up, but their nanny is coming to pick them up in a little bit.” Mun Seong said, coming to stand next to the bed. “How are you feeling?”“Like I crashed my car into a lamp post.” He tried to joke, but then his eyes landed on his kids, noticing that Mun Deok had already snuggled into her sister Yoon Seong, and he suddenly remembered, “The baby, don’t let Yeon Hwa take the baby.”“She already tried, but I handled it.” Mun Seong said like it was nothing as she fussed with his pillows and blankets. She let out a small squeak when Yo caught her hand and pressed it to his lips before trapping it under his own hand, holding it against his chest.“Thank you.” He said. Yeon Hwa had been calling him non-stop all day, said she had to discuss something about the future with him, had threatened to take Mun Deok if he didn’t agree to meet with her. Yo had ignored her but didn’t put it above her to try to take the child while he was incapacitated.“The doctor already checked her out, and she’s fine, by the way.”Yo nodded and then added, “Mun Deok likes you, you know? And she’s very particular, she cries every time my mother picks her up.”“I would cry too.” Mun Seong said, trying not to think on how warm her hand was, laying just over his heart.Yo coughed and winced, “Don’t make me laugh.”“T-the doctor said you have a couple of cracked ribs and a mild concussion, but you should be able to come home in a couple of days.”“Concussions suck.” Yo complained. A concussion meant that he wouldn’t be able to read or look at screens for at least two weeks – that’s how it always was with Jung when he got them, anyway. “I already asked Mrs. Jang to bring out one of the cribs from storage and set it up, I thought that since the baby sleeps through the night, she could stay in Yoonie’s room until we figure something out. Yoon Seong seems to think the baby is her doll or something.”That’s when his sluggish brain realized Mun Seong had said “come home” and not “go home”, she meant to take him and his daughter in.“Do you want me to call any of your brothers?”“Maybe tomorrow,” Yo said. “I just need you right now.”…000…Yeon Hwa was desperate.She had tried to talk to Yo but his phone kept sending her to voice mail, and going to the hospital again was out of the question, as Park Mun Seong was there and the bitch had more of a spine than Yeon Hwa had ever expected.She was running out of time.Her grandfather had given her a week to convince Yo to marry her and ‘restore the family’s honor’ or she would have to marry Kwon Sang Ho, a high-ranking diplomat friend of her grandfather’s. Only then would he allow her back into the family and reinstate her on his will.Kwon Sang Ho was older than her by 15 years, bookish and not very attractive, he had no sense of humor, and though he was reasonably wealthy, it didn’t compare to the Wang’s fortune. Worse, he had recently been appointed to some embassy in South America, which meant that if she married him, Yeon Hwa would have to move away to the other side of the world where she knew no one and didn’t even speak the language.It was exactly her worst nightmare.“I know he’s not much to look at,” Her mother had told her, “but he’s respectable, and wants you enough to overlook your past indiscretions.”His only condition was that Yeon Hwa gave up any claim to her out-of-wedlock child and never bring it up again.Not for the first time, Yeon Hwa wondered how her life had ended in this mess. If only she had never cheated on So… if only So had ever looked at her with a fraction the affection he showered on his wife.Yeon Hwa had seen them from afar a few times since that day in Yo’s office, and not by accident. Even all these years later, she couldn’t help longing for what could-have-been if only So had married her like he was supposed to. These days, So dotted on that woman in all the ways Yeon Hwa had only dreamed of but never gotten, not out of Yo and certainly not out of Wang So.…ooo…It had taken Wang Geon over a week to gather enough courage to seek out Oh Soo Yeon. The revelation that his former lover was so close had shaken him. He had never expected to see her again in this lifetime, especially after parting in such bad terms.They had been friends and lovers on and off for years, even as he married other people, Soo Yeon would grow cold for a while but the pull between them was too big and eventually they would pick up where they left off. Until the day she told him she was pregnant.He had been ecstatic. Sure, he already had his many sons, but Soo Yeon’s baby would be different... especial, Geon would love him or her as he loved only Mu, his eldest. Wanting to be part of that baby’s life, he had decided to divorce Shin Myeong once and for all, he was sure Soo Yeon would be a better mother figure for his sons anyway.Wang Geon hadn’t counted on Yoo Shin Myeong turning against Oh Soo Yeon.Last time they had seen each other, when she broke things off, Soo Yeonie had been lying on a hospital bed, looking small and pale; telling him there would be no baby for him to care for and to never contact her again.And for once, he had kept his word. Less than a year later Jung had been born and Wang Geon hadn’t really looked back.“Welcome to Damiwon, do you have an appointment?”Snapping back to reality, Wang Geon asked to meet with Oh Soo Yeon and not five minutes later, he was being shown into a spacious office with minimalistic but feminine décor.Oh Soo Yeon stood in a ray of light, arranging some fresh flowers in a vase.“You look beautiful.” He said before he could think of something else.“Thank you, I guess.” She said dismissively, “You look well too. Now, if we are done with the pleasantries, what do you want?”Well, if that wasn’t the question. “I-I just needed to see you. I have missed you.”“When you got around to thinking about me, you mean? When your wife and your company and your money let you?”“Why can’t you accept that I thought of you? That I care about you.”“You left me in a hospital room without looking back after your wife hit me with her car. You didn’t even apologize, just offered me money and asked me not to say anything.” “I did what I had to do to protect my family.”“You used to say I was your family.” Oh Soo Yeon flatly. “Your son and grandchild? Are they not your family?”“No according to So. His mother and I are to stay away from him, the child and that little protégée of yours from now on.” Geon answered, still annoyed at what he had to agree to in order to keep So quiet.“I’m glad to hear, you son is a smart man. Not that I’m surprised you agreed. You always take the coward’s way out where Yoo Shin Myeong is concerned.”“If you are done insulting me…”“I don’t think I’ll ever be done insulting you. So I think the best course of action for you is to never darken my door again. I have a life and it does not include you, just like your life never truly included me.”Before Wang Geon could answer, there was a short knock on the door and it opened. “Umma! Can I borrow your car? I need to go to the university for study group and I’m running late– Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had company.”“I don’t know why I bother telling people you have better manners than this.” Miss Oh smiled fondly at her daughter in spite of the light reproach.“Umma! You know I’m an angel.” Her daughter laughed.“Take the keys and call me when you get there.”“Thanks, Umma!” The young woman said, taking the keys from a dish on her mother’s desk. “Excuse me.” She bowed to Geon and ran off as quickly as she had arrived.“You have a daughter? Isn’t she the same age as…”“As the baby your wife tried to kill? Yes. The same baby, too.”“You said-““That there was no baby for you to be involved with, and that’s still true. Did you think I was going to let you be near her after what your wife did? After you failed to protect us? Or that I would risk you would take her from me like you did with your third-wife’s children?”“I loved you.”“But you loved being Wang Geon more.” Oh Soo Yeon finally sat behind her desk. “You made your choice in that hospital room, and I made mine; live with it…and stop pretending you’re a victim here.”-Feeling defeated, Wang Geon left Damiwon, resigning himself to the fact that he would never, ever see Oh Soo Yeon again. Part of him had hoped they could take up things again – not only would it make his family safer, having her in his corner; but he hadn’t been lying when he said he missed her. He was growing old and Geon missed the comfort Soo Yeon-ie had always provided.Now, just because he was making peace with letting Soo Yeon go, that didn’t mean he would forget about the daughter she had kept from him. He had only seen her for a moment, but she resembled her mother so much, except for the color of her eyes, which was closer to his own- the same color as his sons’.There was so much he could do for the girl: Trips, money and access to the best of society.He set a private investigator to find out as much as he could about Oh Ha Jin and he was not disappointed. His daughter was well liked and excelled at school. She was pursuing a degree in business from Seoul University and had recently returned from a semester abroad. She worked part time for her mother, but they didn’t seem to be struggling financially.Oh Ha Jin was only a few months older than Jung but she had already exceeded his younger son’s accomplishments. She was exactly what he had hoped to his sons would be, but he had had nothing to do with it and that hurt his pride, and part of him wondered if it was fair to mess up this child’s happy life.--00--Chae Ryung loved the turn her life had taken after leaving the Wang Group. Her new job was demanding and challenging, but she was surrounded by good people and was quickly making new friends.Even the fact that Woo Hee had decided to move in with Wang Baek Ah wasn’t enough to faze her. Thanks to the money she had gotten on her way out from the Wang Group, Chae Ryung could give herself the time to find another roommate if she wanted or move to a smaller apartment she could afford on her own.She didn’t even think about Won these days. Well, at least not much. They had gotten into a very ugly fight on her last day as his assistant, and he had even kissed her, trying to convince her he had feelings for her.Once upon a time, Chae Ryung would have been over the moon to hear those words from him, but now she saw them for the manipulative, toxic drivel that they were. Maybe he did have feelings for her, but she also knew he thought she was too far down in status to ever be serious with her, and she had wasted more than enough time on him.He still called her sometimes but, busy with her new life, she simply ignored him.…000…Wang Jung tried to catch his breath as he collapsed on the mats at the dojang dripping sweat, wondering why he had agreed to meet his brother during So’s lunch hour, again. He should have gone with Eun and Soon Deok to watch over Soo, instead of sparring with his brother.It had been the same every time So asked him to spar with him during the last few weeks. The more Soo’s pregnancy progressed, the more often So called Jung to meet up.“You are old, how can you have so much energy?” Jung panted. In the past, he had always learned a lot when he sparred with So, but now he was just exhausted.“I’m not that old,” So complained, “And it helps me de-stress.” Which was partially true, as he had a stressful job and all, but the other part of it was that he had a lot of pent up energy and was not taking sudden celibacy particularly well.While he had not been a saint during those two years after he broke up with Yeon Hwa and before he met Soo, he had never had a problem going through long periods of time without sex before, but with his little wife wanting to snuggle and make out all the time? Hae Soo was not making it easy on him.Hence the sudden need to take up martial arts again.“Your de-stressing is bruising me like a peach.” Jung complained but got to his feet ready for round two.Next time So called, Jung was definitely saying no.---00--Park Mun Seong couldn’t believe how easy it was to find a place in her heart for little Mun Deok. The toddler would often demand to be held and cling to Mun Seong like a baby koala, unwilling to relinquish her spot, even when her father offered to take her.Soon, she was running through her house with the little girl at her hip like she had always been there. Mun Seong had always wanted to have a big family but after how hard it was to get pregnant with the twins, Mun Seong hadn’t dared to ask Yo to try again as Yoon Seong and Gyung began to grow up.More than his infidelity, Mun Seong had a hard time forgiving the fact that Yo had gotten another woman pregnant by being careless when they two of them had struggled so much for their children. But actually having Mun Deok around? Well, she didn’t have it in her to harden her heart against the little girl.Of course, that didn’t mean she was going to just roll over and let Yo come back to her life. Once he recovered from his accident, Mun Seong laid down the law. If he wanted to try and repair their marriage, he was going to have to work for it, starting with couple’s counseling and actual dates.Wang Yo, wanting to end the strain of their separation, agreed though he had always recoiled at the idea of going to therapy. He missed his orderly life, and his kids, and her. If he was completely honest with himself, assertive Mun Seong turned him on quite a bit -maybe it said something about himself that it really did it for him when she bossed him around in the bedroom.Maybe it was strange that at this point in his life -midway between 30 and 40 - he was actually falling in love for the first time, that he discovered that it didn’t have to be like a lighting strike, like the sexual attraction he had felt for Yeon Hwa, but that it could be a process that centered him and made him happy. Especially once Yeon Hwa was truly out of the picture. A week after Yo had been released from the hospital, a lawyer had shown up at his house with some legal documents from Yeon Hwa in which she gave up her parental rights and gave Yo full custody of their daughter. Apparently, she had married a much older diplomat and followed him out of the country.Yo suspected she had been forced into it by her family, as Yeon Hwa had always dreamed of ruling Seoul’s high society, and marrying a diplomat and moving to a foreign country would hardly help her in that endeavor; but it was one problem less for Yo, so he didn’t duel on it.He focused on his kids and his wife, and his job, and who knew? Maybe one day he would even make peace with So. His younger brother totally owed him for getting him out of marrying Yeon Hwa, really.-00-For the second time in his marriage to Hae Soo, Wang So found himself ditching a meeting and running like hell to the hospital, only that this time it was for the happy news that she had gone into labor.The labor was long and Soo was exhausted by the end, but it was all worth it when she was holding a pudgy, little baby in her arms.“Isn’t she the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?” Soo asked Wang So, who hadn’t left her side through it all.So took in the messy dark hair, the pouty little mouth and tiny fingernails. “She’s beautiful, just like you.”“No one looks beautiful just after giving birth.” She answered, handling the baby to him and trying to smooth down her hair, smiling when So kissed her while cradling their daughter.“You do.” “What are we going to call her?”“Mini-Soo.” Wang So joked, kissing the baby’s chubby cheeks.“I don’t think that’s a legal name.”“Well, we met in the middle of a snowstorm, why don’t we call her Seol?”“Wang Seol, I like it.” Soo agreed, smiling as the baby yawned and coughed, making both her parents smile even wider.So sat down on Soo’s bed and returned the baby to her, smiling at the two of them as Seol started to nurse. They had taken a bit of an unorthodox road to reach this point, but the happy result more than made up for it in his opinion.And the best part of it all was that this was just the beginning of their happy life together.00.00