‘Why is he acting like this all of a sudden?’

Yul-hye stopped in the middle of her meal, her mind wandering. She held her spoon in her hand and her thoughts became a jumbled mess.

Why the hell is he doing this out of the blue?

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t figure out why the Governor was behaving like this.

Suddenly he was asking for her father’s name, then pressing her about unfamiliar names, demanding to know if one of them was her father. Out of nowhere he was making a fuss, insisting that she was his.

What had got into him?

‘Is he insane?’

The most plausible explanation was insanity. Perhaps the Governor suffered from bouts of madness that caused him to act so erratically at times.

‘No, if he wanted to take something, he could just take it – what’s the point of making it his? And saying he’d throw it away once he had it? How could anyone come up with such a crazy idea?’

Yul-hye put another spoonful of food into her mouth. She chewed but couldn’t taste anything. This wasn’t the time to enjoy flavours.

‘What am I going to do now…?’

She felt completely lost. But one thing was certain: her connection with Do-yoon was over. There was no going back.

‘Running away is impossible.’

Having tried to escape once, Yul-hye now understood. Escape from the Governor’s grip was impossible. Unless the Governor died or decided to release her first, there was no way out.

‘But that probably wouldn’t take long…’

She didn’t think the Governor would hold her for long. Men like him tended to lose interest quickly.

If he had mistaken her for another woman, his interest might fade even faster.

If he had mistaken her for Kang Mu-yeol’s daughter, then helping him find her might be the key to her freedom.

But where could she even begin to find that woman?

‘For now, the engagement is broken, and since a divorced woman can’t remarry under national law, what can he do to me? I’ll just let him do what he wants for now.’

There was no other choice. If he told her to eat, she would eat. If he told her to spread her legs, she would. For now, she had no choice but to stay at the Governor’s side.

Still, it wasn’t completely unbearable.

‘He’s got a bad temper, sure, but he’s not the demon the rumours made him out to be… and he’s better than Jung Do-yoon… ….’

Yeah. No matter how domineering and volatile the Governor was, he was still better than Jung Do-yoon.

Jung Do-yoon was the worst kind of man, and after dealing with him, the Governor seemed like a slightly better human being in comparison – a strange and absurd realisation.

‘Eventually, he’ll throw me away.’

Right now, the fragile thread of hope Yul-hye clung to was that the Governor would eventually lose interest and discard her.

She didn’t believe for a moment that he really wanted her. That was impossible. Why would a man like him want someone like her? She wasn’t naive enough to think otherwise. His obsession was born out of frustration at her refusal to submit, not because he had fallen in love with her.

The moment she surrendered and gave him her heart, he would throw her away. He was the kind of man who would turn cold and leave her without a second thought, as if none of it had ever mattered.

‘Should I pretend to give him my heart instead? Maybe he’ll dump me even faster.’

Why hadn’t she thought of that before?

Yul-hye put the spoon down and clenched her fists. She had been so focused on the idea of escaping that this approach had never occurred to her.

If what the Governor wanted was her true surrender, then all she had to do was make it look that way. If she acted as if she had fallen in love with him, as if she were clinging to him, it might have the opposite effect – kill his interest completely and cause him to discard her even more quickly.

‘Good. Let’s do that.’

Yes, enduring wasn’t the only option. She could act wisely. She had enough patience for that. She also had enough skill to pretend to like something she despised.

Having put up with Jung Do-yoon for ten years, she had gained more than enough experience and composure to pull this off. She was confident that she could fool the governor perfectly.

***

‘A tiger….’

As Yul-hye looked around the Governor’s residence, her gaze landed on a tiger pelt hanging on the wall.

‘It’s enormous….’

The residence was filled with such tiger skins. Even under the bed were tiger skins, and wherever she went they were a common sight.

“They were all hunted by the governor himself.”

Said a man called Woo-gong, who had followed her like a shadow.

Yul-hye nodded silently, though she couldn’t understand why this man was following her so closely.

Did the governor order him to do so?

“You have been given an incredible opportunity.”

“Me? What opportunity?”

“The opportunity to become the Governor’s bride.”

“I don’t want that.”

She was tired of being someone’s bride.

No matter how it turned out, men treated her as nothing more than their property. The faces might change, but the lack of respect remained the same.

Yesterday, Ah-shin had asked her endlessly what she wanted. In truth, there was only one thing Yul-hye wanted.

The same thing Jung Dae-in had given his wife before he died.

Respect.

Jung Dae-in had always respected his wife, listened to her opinions and valued her perspective. He treated everyone that way, and it was one of the reasons why Yul-hye had respected him so much.

It seemed simple, but it wasn’t. Respecting someone meant seeing them as an equal, approaching them with an attitude that avoided coercion, even in small matters.

Expecting that from the Governor was like expecting a miracle.

“I am good at waiting. If I wait long enough, this will end eventually. Until then, I’ll just enjoy the wealth and luxury.”

“But you see, the Governor is also very good at waiting. I wonder who will survive.”

“I will, I’m better at waiting.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because I’m more desperate. Desperation always makes people better at things.”

“In situations like this, it’s usually the third party who sees things more clearly, and from my perspective, the Governor is…”

“But why are you following me?”

Yul-hye interrupted with a sharp look.

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Well, it’s not that…”

“I feel like I’m being watched, so I’d appreciate it if you stopped following me. Don’t worry, I have no intention of running. Running is pointless, and I’m not stupid. So stop worrying about me and go do your job.”

Yul-hye threw a quick remark at Woo-gong before turning on her heel.

“Kyah!”

The next moment, her face slammed into something solid. Stunned, she looked up and saw that it was Ah-shin’s chest.

“I’m going out. Will you come with me?”

Ah-shin asked.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m asking if you’ll come outside with me.”

“And if I say no, do I actually have the right to refuse?”

“Of course you do.”

This was unexpected. He was giving her a choice?