He didn’t have enough time to watch the full play, but he could at least be there for the opening. In truth, the play itself wasn’t what mattered to Kangwook. He had come because he wanted to be there for Yunjoo’s stage, and so he felt no particular disappointment about missing the rest of it.
Kangwook stepped out of his car and walked toward the theater company, and that was when he spotted Yunjoo moving quickly in some direction. He naturally fell into step behind her. He knew Yunjoo well enough to know she wouldn’t leave the theater company right before a show started unless something significant had come up, and that made him curious about where she was headed.
Yunjoo walked with urgency, not once looking back, and the place she stepped into was a cafe a short distance from the theater company. He stopped outside for a moment and thought, and in that time, Yunjoo took a seat. Her two older brothers were waiting inside the cafe.
“What’s going on?”
“You, quit right now and stay home! And why do you keep going around with some actor nobody!”
“Oppa!”
The fact that they knew about her outings with Sihyeong meant someone had been following her.
“Father said so too. Said it’s a relief you at least haven’t fallen out of favor with your own husband.”
“That’s none of my brothers’ business.”
“You! Stop embarrassing the family and give all this up. Stay quiet and focus on supporting President Choi properly.”
“Oppa, I handle my own affairs.”
“Father says to have a child soon.”
“Now he’s managing that too? You two are past the age for running errands like this. What are you getting out of it that you’d go this far?”
“Don’t get smart with us! What does a woman need with the theater world? Go home quietly and have a child first!”
“You two worry about your own lives. I’ll take care of mine.”
Not a single thing they said was worth responding to. More than irritation, a sense of wretchedness pressed up inside her and she couldn’t hold it down.
“You think President Choi is going to keep indulging you and letting you do whatever you want forever? If he goes and has a child with someone else on the outside, you’ll be the one getting divorced. Get your head straight and focus on the home.”
“Is divorce something to be afraid of?”
“What! What are you saying?”
“I’m not afraid of divorce. So you two go on and do whatever Father tells you.”
“Hey! You think you can just say whatever you want!”
“Is this really the life you want, Oppa? No, when were you ever really my brothers? You’re scared of what you’ll lose if I get divorced, and yet you stand there pretending to be brothers who care about me. It’s disgusting. Tell Father too. I’ll do as I please.”
“Hey! Cha Yunjoo!”
“What! Enough. Is this how you treat unnie too? Is that why she’s wasting away like that? You know how cruel that is! Am I only worth something to you as a sister because of Choi Kangwook?”
“Stop running your mouth. We’ll take that as understood and be on our way.”
“I’m getting a divorce. I already told him.”
“What! You’ve lost your mind.”
“……”
Soocheol and Yeoncheol, who had been about to stand up, went wide-eyed. The word divorce was one that could never be spoken. And hearing that it had come from Yunjoo’s own mouth made their eyes go sharp in an instant.
“Who do you think you are, looking at us like that? Beg. Get down on your knees in front of President Choi and smooth this over.”
“Beg for what? Do you even know what I’ve done wrong?”
“Does that matter? Just crawl on the floor and beg. If you get divorced, you’re finished that very day. Understand!”
“Ha… No! I’m done. I’m going to get out from under your grip, and Father’s grip, and live as myself.”
“Are you actually seeing someone?”
“Affairs have always been your specialty, Oppa. What, did you think I didn’t know? Father and you two are filthy. You make me sick.”
Yeoncheol, the younger of the two brothers, raised his hand, and Yunjoo squeezed her eyes shut. It always came to this, and a conversation that only ended this way was nothing out of the ordinary. So when she wanted it to stop, she pushed back harder and said things she shouldn’t have. Yunjoo wanted to break free from this suffocating fence and breathe.
‘Wait, why isn’t anything happening?’
She opened her eyes slowly, and there was that man, gripping her brother’s wrist and staring him down with murder in his eyes. Caught again. He was a man who had an uncanny way of seeing exactly the parts of her she never wanted him to see. She wanted to run. All she felt was shame, smallness, and a wish to disappear.
“President… Choi.”
Being hit would have been better than standing here like this in front of Kangwook. A moment of pain, and then she could have worked through it alone afterward. But the fact that Kangwook had seen this sent her self-worth plummeting. She didn’t understand why this man, who had never hovered around her before, had lately been appearing everywhere and witnessing every single thing she didn’t want him to see. Yunjoo bowed her head and bit down on her lip hard enough to draw blood.
Do whatever you want. Oppa, Kangwook, all of you, do whatever you want. Yunjoo gave up on the situation entirely. She couldn’t leave, so she stood there, but the words coming at her stopped reaching her ears.
“I made it very clear to your father that Yunjoo was not to be touched.”
“The girl has no manners at all, so we apologize to you, President Choi.”
“You’re both lawyers, so you know what this means. I’ll be filing for a restraining order.”
“No, we were just worried about her…”
The brothers, thrown off by Kangwook’s manner, wore expressions that showed they genuinely didn’t understand what they had done wrong to make him angry. In their minds, they were the ones who deserved gratitude, yet Kangwook was directing cold fury at them.
“President Choi, we’re on your side here. So why are you…”
A look of contempt passed through Kangwook’s eyes. They wore the faces of people who felt wronged, unable to understand why he was treating them this way when treating Yunjoo however they pleased had been a perfectly reasonable thing to do for his benefit. He had no desire to explain himself to people like this. There was no point in talking to them.
“This will be the last time you see Yunjoo. Yunjoo is mine. If you touch her, I’ll take it as a strike against me. I trust you understand what I’m saying.”
“It seems like it would be better for her to have a child than to keep going to that theater company. Nothing good comes from a woman running around outside. Look at this. Before she was married, could she have acted like this? This is all because President Choi has been too indulgent, and now her arrogance is through the roof…”
“Yunjoo and I will handle things ourselves. My patience ends here. From now on, if you want to see Yunjoo, go through a lawyer.”
“President Choi…”
The longer they talked, the shorter and more coldly decisive Kangwook’s words became. Family or not, they couldn’t help feeling intimidated by him. They saw him once or twice a year at most, and because of that, even though they were older, he never felt like someone beneath them.
Having said everything he had to say to Soocheol and Yeoncheol and apparently having no further interest in them, Kangwook turned toward Yunjoo. His expression was still set, but his tone had shifted. The voice was still clipped and firm, but the cold edge was gone. It was completely different from how he had spoken to the two brothers. The two of them still stood behind him, dazed, watching the pair.
They had come today out of consideration for their father’s feelings. They called it concern for Yunjoo, but it was really about clearing away their father’s worries, not Yunjoo’s. They hadn’t expected Kangwook to show up. They had thought a little coaxing and intimidation would be enough to make her fall in line, but Yunjoo had pushed back so fiercely that one of them had ended up raising a hand. They couldn’t understand the way Kangwook treated Yunjoo.
“Cha Yunjoo, answer me.”
“Yes.”
He told her to answer, so she would. There was nothing left to show, and if there was something she could do to get out of this situation faster, she would do it. She had already hit the bottom of what could be seen of her humiliation.
“Hold your head up wherever you go! You’ve done nothing wrong! Standing at my side, you can hold your head high on my standing alone. That privilege still belongs only to Cha Yunjoo. So don’t shrink, and don’t let this hurt you.”
‘D*mn it, don’t do this. Criticize me instead. Tell me I’ve been living like a fool, tell me how could I have lived in a household like this. Then at least I’d be miserable, but I could hold my head up in front of you out of sheer stubbornness.’
That was what Yunjoo wanted to say. Criticism was better than pity. With criticism, she could lift her chin and argue back and tell him to stay out of her life. But with this, she couldn’t do anything at all.
“Do you know what you’re saying right now, Kangwook?”
She raised her head and looked at him. She felt like she wouldn’t even be able to hold onto her stubbornness if she kept her head down. She looked at him with eyes she had worked hard to make calm.
‘D*mn, I shouldn’t have looked.’
His gaze hit her square in the chest. The man was giving her everything he had. This was not what she wanted. The eyes she had worked so hard to steady shook wide open.
“I know.”
Kangwook’s low voice rattled through her.
“But I…”
She had been the one to ask for the divorce. The moment she asked, she had given up her rights as Kangwook’s wife. She had wanted to do everything on her own strength. That was only right.
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Tillda
Why do they always wait to be hit? Avoid or hit them back. You’re in public place ffs. And of course the red flag talk from ‘husband’ makes her fall for him 🤮