Chapter 26

“Were you upset because they didn’t give you a meal?”

“……”

“They were thinking of you when they did that. You got married so suddenly, and you probably aren’t used to our family yet. They were worried it might only burden you. And they were never people who opened their hearts easily. You can become family slowly.”

If Ijun said so, then that must be how it was.

There was nothing Seoyun could do about it anyway.

After that, Seoyun truly had no occasion to run into Myeonguk or Miho.

She had wondered how such a thing was even possible, but the lives of the two households were kept that thoroughly separate.

There was no reason for Seoyun to cross the garden and go to the main house, and after hearing those words from Miho, even stepping beyond the boundary of the garden made her cautious.

Ijun seemed to stop by the main house now and then, but he never once took Seoyun with him.

So every morning, when she sat on the garden bench and looked at the roof of the main house over there, she felt gloomy.

It was the same with Ijun.

After the marriage, he had never once taken Seoyun out and introduced her as his wife.

Since there had been no one formally introduced to her even at the wedding, Seoyun did not know Ijun’s friends, nor the office where he worked.

The only people connected to her were Chief Hyeon and Assistant Manager Ahn.

If today’s appointment was a gathering with his friends, then it would be the perfect chance to introduce Seoyun for the first time after the marriage.

Even though it was a gathering where partners were invited, Ijun did not seem to have any intention of taking Seoyun with him.

At some point, the tea in the cup she was holding had cooled to lukewarm.

A wife who existed only inside the house.

That was Seoyun’s role.

***

He ended up a little late because he had stayed behind to finish up some work.

The bar sat quietly at the end of an alley that only those who knew of it could find.

It was one of several places his friend Suho owned as a hobby.

From the entrance, the lively atmosphere could already be felt.

Ijun gave a faint snort of laughter and opened the door.

Slightly upbeat music and the bitter scent of alcohol.

Loud laughter burst out, as if everyone was already in high spirits.

Suho, who had spotted Ijun, sprang to his feet and came running over.

“What’s with this welcome.”

“You’re here? Where, where is she?”

But Suho craned his neck past Ijun’s shoulder and peered behind him as though Ijun himself were of no interest at all.

“I came alone.”

“Ah, ahh……”

When Ijun answered plainly, Suho let out a sigh with a look of genuine disappointment.

“Oh, Cha Ijun’s here! Hey, where’s your wife?”

“Everyone here’s been waiting for your wife.”

The friends seated around the makeshift arrangement of several tables pushed together waved their hands and said the exact same thing.

Without changing his expression at all, Ijun walked over and took a seat.

“She didn’t come?”

“Wow, you must’ve hidden her away so carefully that not a single person has seen her face until now.”

“The great Cha Ijun fell in love and got married. How are we supposed not to be curious?”

In the middle of all the complaints pouring at him, Ijun smiled lightly and dropped ice into a glass of whiskey.

“Seriously, why won’t you show her to us? You even had the wedding in secret! What, is she going to wear out if we look?”

As if he were dying of frustration, Suho planted both hands on his waist and shouted at the top of his voice.

Perhaps it was funny to see Sim Suho, who had never once won against Ijun, choosing this moment to raise his voice as if now was his chance, because laughter broke out again.

“She would wear out. I’d rather not show her to you guys. She’s too precious for that.”

“Wow…. Is this really Mr. Cha Ijun? So Ijun can say things like that too.”

“To hear something like that from none other than Cha Ijun. Wait, my stomach’s suddenly churning.”

“D*mn…. Guys, get a hold of yourselves. This isn’t Cha Ijun. Who are you!”

This time, boos poured down on him.

It seemed today’s gathering was really a gathering meant to uncover the identity of Cha Ijun’s wife, who had been shrouded in secrecy.

Ijun sipped his whiskey and let them jeer to their hearts’ content.

He had to let himself take this much, at least, so that they would not begin to harbor other suspicions.

But at the next words that came from Siwon, he could not simply keep smiling.

“But your wife is our junior from high school, right?”

“… Who says so?”

“My wife. That’s right, honey?”

“Ah, yes. Um… Harin told me that. She said she thought your wife might be our junior.”

Come to think of it, Siwon’s wife was also Harin’s high school classmate.

Though it was called a gathering of friends, they all came from fairly similar backgrounds, so among the friends, their wives, and their girlfriends, there were many graduates of Sewon High.

Because of that, the nature of the gathering sometimes shifted until it was practically like a high school alumni meeting.

That was why he had been all the more careful not to say much about Seoyun.

But for even her high school to become known.

That was something he had not expected.

Ijun soon realized that he had been careless.

Seo Harin had been engaged to him for a long time.

When she heard news of his marriage, she must have tried somehow to find out who his wife was.

“Really? She’s a junior from Sewon High? Huh, who could it be?”

“Exactly. Then shouldn’t the rest of us know too?”

“Was it ‘K-Cell’? I heard she’s the daughter of a battery company. And that it was one of Daejeong’s partner companies. Was she from our school?”

The commotion rose once again.

To hide his unease, Ijun smiled leisurely.

“Uh, yes. That’s right. But she’s much younger than us, and it was a small company, so even if you saw her, you probably wouldn’t recognize her. She’s got a very calm and quiet personality. She’s not the same kind of person as you guys.”

“Wow…. This bastard. Is that you bragging about your wife, or dissing the rest of us?”

“Two birds with one stone. What an annoying jerk. Drink this.”

Another round of jeers broke out, and this time bomb shots began going around.

Ijun was perfectly willing to drink a few of those.

But just as he was about to raise the glass to his lips.

“Did you break up with Harin because of your current wife?”

A sharp voice with a very clear intention behind it.

He had probably seen the face before at some point, but he could not remember it.

It must be the partner someone had brought along today.

The people who had been laughing and chatting froze in an instant.

The air turned cold.

Even Ijun’s face, which had been taking everything in stride with easy good humor, went expressionless.

“Hey, what kind of thing is that to say?”

“Yeah. As if that could be true. Hey, Cha Ijun, don’t mind her.”

“She’s just like this because she’s close to Harin. I’m sorry.”

When Suho spoke up and broke the silence, everyone else hurried to chime in as well.

But once the mood had sunk, it did not recover easily.

Ijun twisted one corner of his mouth into a crooked smile.

“No, it’s fine. But who are you, exactly?”

“Ah, you don’t know me? Jinyeong Chemical. You must have seen me a few times, so that’s a little surprising.”

“Jinyeong Chemical…. Well. I don’t remember you at all.”

At Ijun’s reply, the other person bit her lip.

It seemed her pride had been hurt.

“In any case, since you asked, I suppose I should answer. I had known my current wife in the past. We only started seeing each other again after the broken engagement had already been decided, so there’s absolutely nothing about that I feel any need to be uncomfortable about.”

“… I-is that so?”

“It seems you’re curious about the reason for the broken engagement, but that is an entirely private matter, so I won’t be disclosing it. Seo Harin would know more clearly than anyone that there is no reason to look for the cause of that broken engagement in my marriage. And since you say you’re close to Harin, that’s rather strange.”

Everyone kept their mouths shut and only watched one another, reading the room.

They all looked flustered, unsure how to salvage this situation that neither invited laughter nor tears.

“It seems that because I wasn’t able to invite you to the wedding, it’s led to all sorts of speculation, and for that I do feel sorry. As you all know, my wife has circumstances in her family, and she’s uncomfortable with being publicly known to people at large, so it ended up being unavoidable. I’ll arrange a chance later for her and me to greet everyone together.”

“Oh, hey, of course. Of course. We all understand. Still, I really am curious about your wife. Who would’ve guessed our Cha Ijun would turn into this much of a romantic?”

“Hey, you’d better keep that promise. We should at least know what our sister-in-law looks like, shouldn’t we?”

Only then did everyone start chiming in with agreement at Ijun’s calm explanation.

Of course, there were probably still some who remained unconvinced, but they would not have been able to show it openly.

After all, this was none other than the great Cha Ijun behaving like this.

“Anyway, is married life that good? Your face is absolutely glowing.”

Perhaps trying to lighten the mood, Siwon joked around.

Wasn’t Cha Ijun’s face flawless whether then or now.

Even if that was what they were all thinking inwardly, they all started saying that his complexion had brightened, that his expression looked better, and so on.

“Yeah. It is good. If any of you still haven’t, then all of you should get married too.”

Amid jeers and cheers mixed together, one person downed his drink in a single shot, another smacked the back of the person beside him, and yet another flung a napkin at Ijun.

Ijun accepted all the commotion with calm composure.

And then he quietly looked over their faces, people who could not possibly know what was truly in his heart.