TMPW Ch 4 part 2

“Father-in-law sent me an anniversary gift.”

JoonHun was surprised that his voice sounded so calm. For the first time in his life, he was enraged to the core, but his voice carried the same tone it always did.

“What gift?”

His wife slightly narrowed her eyes. He knew. He knew that his wife hated her own father. Even though she never said it, whenever she stood in front of his father-in-law, her body slightly stiffened and froze up. Additionally, she never looked directly at her father.

“He gave me the news that the 500 billion was approved by the EUIB (European Union Investment Bank).”

His wife froze. JoonHun didn’t take his eyes off her. His wife’s eyes were filled with confusion and doubt. Even though he couldn’t see it from here, JoonHun knew his wife would be clenching her hands together on top of her lap in order to calm down.

The news of the failure of the Dubai project started spreading 3 days ago. How were they able to gain the approval of the EUIB?

“…I’m glad.”

There was nothing else she could say.

“But I wonder how you were able to gain the approval.”

“It’s because I offered R&K a deal.”

“You offered a deal? What was it?”

As HyunJin’s heir, he had about 2 trillion won in assets.

“Half of my shares of the HyunJin company.”

What? Half? Then 1 trillion? 1 trillion!

Yuan’s lips opened in shock. It was similar to the expression his father had when he told him the same thing in his office yesterday morning.

His father’s reaction was a sight to see. He looked at JoonHun as if he’d gone crazy. He wasn’t wrong. No one would have used half of his assets as a collateral in a business deal. However, the one and only Seo JoonHun said he’d do it.

He calmly persuaded his father. The failure of the Dubai project resulted in more than financial loss and a break in ties with R&K. HyunJin’s pride had been trampled on in front of the world.

He had planned and designed the Dubai project. He couldn’t afford for this project to be squashed away like this. He was going to catch the culprit who stole the 500 billion no matter what. He would get that money back. He was confident of this. He would bet everything he had.

With the 1 trillion as collateral, the EUIB had no reason to deny the 500 billion, just half of what JoonHun had offered.

With HyunJin managing this with so much on the line, R&K could no longer be suspicious of them. The conflict had been resolved quickly, and ‘The Tropical’ would be restarted soon.

This would be a chance for JoonHun to show his leadership skills. Half of his assets would be worth this opportunity.

However, it didn’t justify why he took such drastic actions.

JoonHun stiffly sat as he looked at his wife. Min Yuan was defensively scowling back at him. What would everyone say if he told them this was all a strategy to avoid losing her?

What was he doing right now? He constantly asked himself this question for the past 3 days, and he still wasn’t able to find an answer.

Even after putting half of his assets on the line, he didn’t feel like it was wasted. Even when he found out that Min Yuan had been hiding something, he wasn’t as angry as he expected to be. Truthfully, he didn’t care about something like money. His assets had been given to him since his birth, so he didn’t feel like he had real ownership over it.

If it was money, he could always earn more. He had overcome far more difficult problems than this one before. To him, a crisis was always an opportunity.

However, Yuan having another man was different.

JoonHun chuckled. Another man. If she only knew the transformation that took place his heart the moment he heard that, she wouldn’t be so carefree with her words. It was something cruel and scary. A hot and intense anger.

“Are you crazy?”

Instantly, Yuan’s voice returned him to his senses.

Across the splendid dinner table, his wife looked at him with a dumbfounded expression.

“You put 1 trillion on the line in order to receive 500 billion? Don’t you know how much damage it will do to you if the project fails?”

“Why do you think the project will fail?”

JoonHun asked as he chuckled.

“Do you think I’ll fail?”

Yuan kept her mouth tightly shut and didn’t say a word.

“Or… Do you want me to fail?”

Her face paled again.

“…Of course not.”

“Tell me, Yuan.”

JoonHun picked up a small, ceramic liquor bottle and poured himself a glass as he spoke.

“Did you give Lee TaeKyung HyunJin’s inside information?”

Yuan stopped breathing when she heard the question.

“What did you say?”

“As you know, HyunJin puts all of their business data in a separate server. You know where this server is kept.”

Yuan didn’t reply.

“Finding out about your indiscretions at a time like this is also very strange.”

“Are you crazy?”

Her heart shrank as she barely managed to speak naturally.

“Why would I do that? How could I have pulled off such a huge feat?”

Moving a business’s funds around was frustrating work. Due to the time difference, they had to use a Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS).

It was also important to find out what bank would transfer the money during what time. This time, the time stamp of when the two businesses had transferred their funds had been leaked, allowing for someone to cleverly hack into the system.

“Aren’t you giving me too much credit?”

“There are traces of someone tampering with the security system. It seems that starting 2 years ago, someone has skillfully operated the surveillance system. What a coincidence that today happens to be our 2-year anniversary.”

A chill swept through the room.

“So are you saying that I came into this house, successfully hacked into your security system and tampered with the surveillance cameras? How… incredible.”

“Right. If that’s what really happened, it is incredible. Even though it was tampered with, the system didn’t catch it… It’s incredible that someone was able to obtain secret information from both HyunJin and R&K. Just by the facts alone, don’t you think the culprit has connections with both households?”

“JoonHun-ssi, R&K is my family’s business.”

“It’s just that you seem to really want this divorce.”

Yuan didn’t say anything. Suddenly, she began to chuckle.

“Even if I wanted a divorce, I wouldn’t go this far to get one. No, I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

Was that true? But why did he continue to find her so suspicious?

“Tell me.”

JoonHun grabbed the liquor cup, its contents sloshing dangerously, and threw it back into his mouth in one shot.

“Even though you and Lee TaeKyung were so close, in the 2 years we’ve been married, you two have never openly contacted each other. So why are you contacting each other so secretly like this?”

Yuan’s pale face was looking back at him. To be honest, she was very shocked. She never thought JoonHun would dig into their relationship so quickly and so accurately. It was almost as if he always had his suspicions, and in order to confirm his suspicions, he had purposely caused his plans to become twisted in order to lay down a trap.

Don’t waver.

Yuan grabbed her liquor cup and thought to herself.

Yuan and TaeKyung would both die if she wavered now.

“Must I tell you word for word?”

“Yes, I need to hear it word for word in order to understand.”

Damn it. Yuan raised her liquor cup and threw it back in one shot. Whether it was the strength found in alcohol or the power in her lies, she needed more of it now.

“He’s the man I love. Lee TaeKyung.”

A cold smile spread across her lips.

“I left the man I loved to marry another man. How could I just contact him so casually? I only contacted him because there was a chance I’d be getting a divorce. My phone could have been bugged, so of course I used a different phone. Stealing money in order to obtain a divorce… I’d never be able to do something so bold. I’m sorry, but you’ve made a wrong guess, JoonHun-ssi.”

JoonHun’s face became frigid. However, Yuan didn’t stop. She couldn’t stop.

“Love?”

He asked as if he’d never heard that word before.

“Yes.”

“You love Lee TaeKyung?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Yuan’s hand holding the liquor cup began to tremble. She quickly placed it back down and clasped her hands together. She made a bold statement, thinking that it would let her off safely for today. Seo JoonHun would never expect something like love from her anyways. She almost laughed at the thought.

“Now you tell me something, JoonHun-ssi. You’re not living with me because you like me, isn’t that right? If it wasn’t for this old-fashioned contract marriage, wouldn’t you have wanted to live with the woman you wanted?”

“The woman I wanted?”

This was turning out to be a fun conversation. The woman he wanted? Who was she talking about? If he tried to recall a woman he wanted, it was…

The woman in front of him. The woman that was already his woman. No one but Min Yuan came to mind.

Suddenly, the liquor cup that he was raising to his mouth stopped in the air.

What?

What did he think just now?

What did he… Just now…

“I’m talking about Secretary Yoon, Seo JoonHun-ssi.”

The harsh voice pierced through his shock.

“What?”

“Secretary Yoon. Your lover, Yoon HeeSoo.”

What did she say?

It was now Seo JoonHun’s turn to stare in confusion at Yuan.

Yoon HeeSoo? What kind of joke was this? HeeSoo and JoonHun were friends. Just friends. A friend he didn’t even view as a woman. No matter how beautiful her figure was… He didn’t want to be crude, but she wasn’t the type of person that made his cock stand up in attention.

“Where made you get the idea that Secretary Yoon is my lover?”

At JoonHun’s confused words, Yuan’s face reddened. JoonHun was even more dumbfounded.

What kind of person does she think I am?

It was true that their marriage was arranged. However, he wasn’t the type of man to fool around with a woman that wasn’t his wife. He did lust for Min Yuan, but more than that, he had enough work to drive him crazy. He didn’t have time to keep a mistress, satisfy his desires with her, and take care of her. He’s never seen a man make that kind of decision and live his life properly.

He was so shocked that he couldn’t even think of words to say. His mouth twisted. He was annoyed with all this nonsense. He already had a headache about the whole Dubai fiasco, but all this love nonsense was almost laughable.

“What proof do you have to make this claim?”

Yuan couldn’t speak anymore.

“Aren’t you saying this because you have something to back it up?”

If she told him that she saw Yoon HeeSoo leave his bedroom that night, she would be admitting to tampering with the surveillance system. Yuan grit her teeth.

“It’s just a feeling.”

“What? A feeling?”

How ridiculous.

However, there was another problem. While Yuan was chattering away about this, JoonHun was becoming more dangerous.

Ahh, does she know?

He wanted to smash that cocky expression. He wanted to push away every ridiculous dish and place his wife on top of the table. He wanted to tear off her clothes. Under this bright lighting, he wanted to completely ram into her and have his way with her for a long time.

He wanted to bring out her sex and dominate her. He wanted hammer into her and endlessly fuck her.

JoonHun’s lips stiffened.

A man’s appetite was savage and boundless. Even if he was wearing a modern suit, sitting at this splendidly set table in a Japanese restaurant, elaborately using his chopsticks, and smiling his cynical smile, he was still a ferocious beast on the inside.

He couldn’t let go of the woman that whet his appetite. He wanted her even if it meant that he had to fight for it…

How had he stooped to this level?

Like all the other foolish men, he put his own life in danger for a woman. He couldn’t believe it, but JoonHun recognized that he was becoming that kind of man. His mask as a refined, modern man was hiding his irrational and barbaric nature underneath.

He began to become more irritated. He was beginning to become that kind of man. A man who forgot about his goals for a woman. A useless man who became swept away with his emotions. Had he truly become a man who cried out because of love or jealousy?

No. There was no way. He had only rushed over to the department store because he was suspicious of Yuan’s involvement in the Dubai scandal. It wasn’t because of another man. It was because he was suspicious about her connection to the actual culprit that shook the foundations of his company.

He was only angry that he found out about Yuan and Lee TaeKyung’s secret communication.

It was because of the 500 billion won. How could he be jealous?

“Am I wrong?”

Yuan tilted her head as if she was provoking him. It was perfect for their 2-year anniversary.

This time, JoonHun raised the liquor bottle and poured some liquor into his cup. After toasting to a wife who loved another man and a husband who kept a lover on the side, he threw back the shot. He placed the cup back onto the table.

“You’re right, Min Yuan.”

The liquor on his lips was fragrant and deadly.

“What?”

Yuan raised her eyebrow.

“We each have private lives that the other can’t be concerned with.”

They had to stop it here.

That winter, after he saw his wife’s expression at the gala party, he received Lee TaeKyung’s file the next morning. It all started then.

He tasted it for the first time in his life.

As if he was at the bottom of an iceberg, and it had been suddenly shattered open.

That disgusting feeling in his heart whenever she rejected his advances.

This barbaric emotion he felt when Min Yuan told him that she loved Lee TaeKyung.

This woman was dangerous. She was standing behind a dangerous line. It was out of his control. JoonHun didn’t want to approach this boundary, and it instinctively made him tense up.

“Whether you’re meeting Lee TaeKyung or whether Yoon HeeSoo is my lover, it doesn’t matter.”

Even if there were a countless number of lovers between them, the nature of this marriage wouldn’t change.

It was made for the sake of the profits that would be gained from the Dubai project. It was a commemorative product of this contract, nothing more, nothing less.

However, love was definitely not allowed.

He didn’t ever want to become a man like that.

He didn’t want to become a foolish person like his mother. His mother had fallen in love with his father, breaking the ultimate rule of the upper class even though she knew how much she’d be humiliated and neglected. Therefore, JoonHun didn’t want to give himself to anyone else in the name of love.

So what did it matter if Min Yuan met with Lee TaeKyung or if he was having a fling with Yoon HeeSoo?

“Alright, I understand now. Then have a good time meeting with Lee TaeKyung, Min Yuan. Don’t contact him in the bathroom like that. It doesn’t suit you. If we ever get bored with our partners, why don’t we try going for a threesome? Maybe we can even try swapping partners. I’ll arrange it if you ever feel up to it.”

Yuan glared at him, unable to breathe properly. However, JoonHun didn’t stop there. After perfectly hiding his rage and anger, JoonHun raised his cup and spoke coldly.

“However, there will be no divorce. It won’t be proper for our private lives to interfere with business. I will succeed with the Dubai project, and we will continue to live as man and wife for as long as necessary.”

A chill swept through his wife’s brown eyes. How beautiful.

“Happy two-year anniversary.”

JoonHun threw back the strong liquor and laughed bitterly.