Chapter – 37
“Maybe we ran into each other before. Maybe I just don’t remember.”
He wanted to bet on that possibility.
But—
“…Yeah. I love you. I’ll hang up now.”
There had been someone else—the man she confessed her love to over the phone.
So it definitely wasn’t him.
Whether his deduction was right or wrong, the rejected man stubbornly denied it.
“No! Women like that who do art with pretty faces are all the same! They’re just trying to land a rich guy! She only said that to keep guys around her away! But with that chaebol bastard she probably tried her hardest to score points! Maybe she even threw herself at him and begged!”
Ha. Fuck. I can’t listen to this anymore.
“I was the one who begged first.”
Yugeon revealed himself.
The men jolted in shock at the sudden unfamiliar voice, like they had seen a ghost.
They had wondered who the hell dared to interrupt—and it was that chaebol bastard Jian had brought with her.
Seeing the men’s stunned expressions, Yugeon let out a dry laugh.
‘They look like something half-baked.’
If he were a potter, and pottery like that came out of the kiln, he would smash it immediately.
They looked that incomplete.
Just imagining those kinds of men hanging around a fairy-like woman such as Jian made him feel unpleasant.
“I was the one who begged Eun Jian first. Begged her to marry me.”
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a lie.
Their first meeting had been a disaster.
But afterward, he had been the one who went to find Jian again and asked her to marry him.
She perfectly matched a taste he didn’t even realize he had.
And yet it wasn’t even truly his “type.”
There might have been more convenient partners—someone from a company of similar scale, someone easier from a business standpoint.
But he never even bothered to look.
Somehow… it just felt like she would do.
He liked her.
“Eun Jian has eyes. And as an artist, she has an even keener aesthetic sense.”
Yugeon stepped toward the men.
“So wouldn’t she obviously prefer something beautiful over things that were shaped carelessly?”
He stopped in front of them with a sharp step.
The men had to crane their necks so far up to look at him that their heads nearly snapped back.
Even though there were two of them standing there, they were so small and scrawny that they almost disappeared behind Yugeon’s broad back.
Intimidated by his presence, they shrank their already narrow shoulders even further.
“The bastard who cried after getting rejected by my wife—raise your hand.”
“……”
“Your hand!”
Startled by Yugeon’s shout, the culprit quickly raised his hand.
So it was you. The uglier one.
Fuck, this pisses me off even more.
Yugeon lowered his face toward him.
“Listen carefully. I was the one who begged Eun Jian to marry me first.”
“……”
“So a nobody like you, just because you confessed to her, has absolutely no right to judge the choice she made.”
“……”
“And spreading your mouth because of rejection and inferiority just makes you look pathetic. Got it?”
Yugeon’s eyes were murderous.
If he said he didn’t understand, it felt like Yugeon might tear him apart.
His physical presence backed up the fear as well. His suit stretched tightly enough that you could tell the muscular body hidden underneath.
In the end, the man nodded fearfully.
“And repeat after me.”
R-repeat…? What?
“Eun Jian—”
“……”
“Tsk. Repeat.”
Yugeon glared threateningly.
“Again. Eun Jian—”
“E-Eun Jian…”
“Has perfectly normal eyes.”
“…has perfectly normal eyes…”
“She is a respectable artist who doesn’t keep ugly things beside her.”
“…a respectable artist who doesn’t keep ugly things beside her…”
“The one at fault is the ugly bastard who dared to covet the seat beside a beauty.”
“…the ugly… bastard… who dared… to covet the seat beside a beauty…”
Ugh. This is humiliating!
Fuck it, should I just punch him and pay compensation?
The ugly man clenched his fists and raised his head.
But once again he was crushed by Yugeon’s fierce gaze and imposing physique.
“…the ugly… bastard… who coveted the seat beside a beauty… is really, really… the one at fault…”
He finished the sentence obediently in a much more submissive posture.
Yugeon crooked his lips into a smirk.
“If you ever spread insulting rumors about my wife again, remember that next time you won’t be dealing with me—but with the CH Group’s legal team.”
Leaving that final warning, he turned around.
As he rounded the corner of the building, he felt relieved.
But part of what those guys said earlier clung unpleasantly to the back of his mind.
Jian had once spoken with firm conviction about someone—
Someone she believed was a good person even if he had never experienced love.
Someone she said she would wait for ten years… twenty years… even if she ended up living alone forever.
Who was that person? What kind of person was he…?
Whoever it was, the one standing beside Eun Jian now—
Her husband—
was him.
A love that could only be confessed secretly over the phone.
Surely that kind of love couldn’t beat him, the one standing next to her now.
Yet…
Was Jian’s heart deeper than he had imagined?
“So how amazing is that guy, anyway?”
He didn’t even know the man’s face, yet he felt like he had lost to him several times already.
A shadow fell across Yugeon’s face.
The satisfaction from punishing that ugly bastard earlier had vanished.
All that remained was a frustrating heaviness filling his chest.
Later
Just like that ugly man who had been rejected by Jian earlier, people whose feelings were turned down often carried deep resentment.
In that sense, Yugeon was also someone who had made quite a few enemies.
“Ha! I almost threw a ceramic pot at Cha Yugeon’s head earlier. Ugh, why is he even here?”
Just as Jian was about to leave the bathroom stall, she froze at the words she heard outside.
Did she just hear Cha Yugeon?
Wait, why would someone throw pottery at my Yugeon’s head? Who is that?
Jian’s normally gentle deer-like eyes sharpened slightly in surprise.
“Hey, hey, calm down. Why would you crack someone’s skull at someone else’s exhibition?”
“That’s how annoying he still is whenever I think about that blind date!”
Jian, who had been timing when to step out and say something, froze again at the word blind date.
Her senior had good relationships with people and was an up-and-coming ceramic artist, so many acquaintances had come to celebrate the exhibition.
Among them were figures from politics and business.
Some had collaborated with her company, while others had commissioned pieces for their personal interior designs.
And among them was a woman who had gone on a blind date with Yugeon.
There must have been many women who went on blind dates with him…
Jian herself had gone on a blind date with him after hearing that not a single woman among those countless candidates had satisfied Yugeon’s shocking tastes.
But now that she was unexpectedly in the same space as one of those women, her feelings were strange.
A little… unpleasant.
Meanwhile, the women continued talking.
“Some woman suddenly showed up and started talking about my bra cup size…! Ha! Even now my blood pressure rises when I think about it!”
“But he had a woman he was crazy about like that, right? And yet he ended up marrying someone else. That’s what’s really ridiculous.”
Jian’s eyes shook violently.
She too had heard rumors about the woman Yugeon used to meet.
The woman would suddenly appear during his blind dates, causing scenes—criticizing the blind-date candidates while claiming to know Yugeon’s tastes, crying and making a fuss.
Instead of getting angry about the ruined dates, Yugeon would calmly comfort her and leave together with her.
Whether they were still dating or whether it was just the woman clinging to him after they had broken up—
Jian had hoped it was the latter.
Since she fulfilled all of Yugeon’s preferences, she had decided she would confidently deal with that woman if she appeared.
But strangely enough, during Jian’s blind date, she had never encountered anyone other than Yugeon.
Later, he contacted her again—and eventually they married.
So she had assumed that woman was just a rumor.
But now—
To hear that she was a real person.
