The Tyrant Husband - Chapter 2.6

Chapter 2.6

Eun-sol stepped forward through the pouring rain. The rain, now heavier, struck her ears, but she didn’t care.

She hailed a taxi and returned to the underground shopping mall at the Express Bus Terminal Station. Her plan was to retrieve the necklace and then head home.

However, she encountered an unexpected obstacle. Finding the jewelry store in the underground mall proved far more difficult than she had anticipated.

What had seemed like an amusing maze earlier now felt like a bewildering labyrinth. Every store looked alike, and every path seemed the same.

To make matters worse, the sudden downpour had driven more people into the underground mall. The crowded surroundings made the paths even more confusing.

As evening approached, some stores began to close.

Eun-sol grew anxious, fearing that the jewelry store might shut its doors before she could retrieve her necklace. While glancing around frantically and running in haste, she slipped on a puddle of water that had collected on the floor and fell.

“Ah!”

Her knee stung. It seemed like she had sustained a fairly large wound. But she didn’t have the luxury to roll up her pants and inspect the injury.

‘I need to get the medal necklace back before the jewelry store closes.’

She hurried on, asking passerby after passerby until she finally located the jewelry store. But to her dismay, the store’s doors were firmly shut.

“Oh…!”

Her legs gave out in despair.

‘What do I do now?’

She could have simply given up on the medal necklace and gone back.

But the thought of confessing that she had not only doubted her perfectly innocent husband but had also sold the necklace in her attempt to hide from him was unbearable.

Moreover, the sum of money she had received for selling the necklace was so substantial that her conscience weighed heavily on her.

‘But if I don’t return by tonight, things will only escalate further.’

As she stood there, torn and unable to decide, someone suddenly grabbed her shoulder.

“Miss?! You’re the one who sold me the necklace earlier, aren’t you?”

The jewelry store owner quickly withdrew his hand from the startled woman’s shoulder.

“You… the jewelry store owner?!”

“Yes, it’s me!”

The jewelry store owner stifled a laugh that was about to escape. It was definitely her—the woman the Sowon Construction CEO had been searching for, even more desperately than the necklace!

They say that when great fortune comes, even pumpkins roll in on their own.

After the call with the Sowon Construction CEO, the jewelry store owner had been about to lock up the shop and go out to search for the woman. Although several hours had passed, there was still a chance she might still be in the shopping mall.

But here she was, returning to the jewelry store on her own.

“Sir! I’m really sorry, but if I return the money I received earlier, can I get the necklace back?”

“The… necklace?”

That was a problem. However, if he managed to keep her here, the reward from Sowon Construction would quadruple.

The store owner’s eyes darted behind his glasses. 

What could I say to keep her from leaving?

“Ah, well… I can return it to you, but you’ll have to wait a bit. I put it in the safe, but the key is with the real owner of the shop. You see, I’m just a proxy manager here. Haha. The actual owner went out and hasn’t returned yet.”

“What?”

Eun-sol found this a bit suspicious.

‘No matter how I look at it, this jewelry store doesn’t seem big enough to need a proxy manager.’

Still, she was grateful that he was willing to return the necklace, so she decided to wait for now.

The jewelry store owner led Eun-sol inside and quickly reached under the counter to send a text message to Jeong-hyeok.

「The woman you’re looking for is here.」(Hehe just imagine the typos if it was in Korean Language)

There were typos in the message, but as long as the meaning got across, that was all that mattered. As soon as he sent the text, the woman approached him.

“Could I borrow your phone for a moment?”

“What?! My phone? That’s a bit difficult…”

“Is it such a hard request? I just need to use it for a moment.”

Eun-sol thought that since she had decided to return home, it would be a good idea to contact Jeong-hyeok beforehand.

Framing this as an impulsive half-day outing rather than running away might help soothe the very angry Kwon Jeong-hyeok.

If she used the jewelry store’s landline, the store’s number would show up, and the fact that she had sold the necklace might also come to light. Her location would be blatantly revealed as well.

However, the jewelry store owner seemed unusually hesitant about this simple request.

“If it’s really that much trouble, I’ll just step out and find a public phone.”

“Step out? Oh, no. Just use it quickly and give it back.”

The jewelry store owner reluctantly handed over his phone.

‘But what was Jeong-hyeok’s phone number again?’

At that moment, Eun-sol couldn’t recall his number precisely. She remembered the last digits were 7777, so she would recognize it if she saw it, but she hadn’t memorized it well enough to dial it on her own.

She thought about calling his office, but it was nighttime, and the staff handling calls would have already left.

As she hesitated, the jewelry store owner’s phone rang first.

“Oh, Sir, you have a call!”

Just as she was about to hand the phone back to its owner, an unfamiliar number appeared in the center of the screen.

Her heart skipped a beat in an unsettling rhythm. The number calling the jewelry store owner was 010-XXXX-7777.

‘7777?’

Moreover, the middle digits also looked familiar. She checked again, and there was no doubt.

‘This is Jeong-hyeok’s phone number!’

A chill ran down her spine like wings spreading along her back.

‘How does Kwon Jeong-hyeok know the jewelry store owner’s number? Does he know I’m here?’

This wasn’t his territory in Seoan County, Chungcheongnam-do. This was definitely Seoul.

She had also left her phone behind, so it couldn’t have been tracked through location services.

‘What on earth is going on?!’

Her breathing grew shallow. Her ability to think felt as if it were being sucked into a drain, leaving her in a daze.

At that moment, the bell attached to the jewelry store door rang as it opened. The sound was eerie, as if even the bell chose its moments to chime ominously.

When she saw the face of the person who entered, her mind went blank as if split apart.

“…Jeong-hyeok?!”

“Yes.”

He replied, his voice as straightforward and clear as always.

His piercing gaze, sharp as if embedded with some unknown mineral, was both dazzling and unyielding, dominating the space within the jewelry store.

Her thoughts froze, as if her mental circuits had shorted out entirely.

“……”

“……”

The only reason she didn’t feel suffocated under his calm, intense stare was thanks to the jewelry store owner.

“Oh, hello, Sir!”

The jewelry store owner, eager to greet Jeong-hyeok, stepped in between them, breaking the tension.

“You’re the CEO of Sowon Construction… right?!”

Clearly flustered by Jeong-hyeok’s dark aura, the jewelry store owner quickly pulled out his business card without hesitation.

“I’m the one you just spoke to on the phone…!”

“I know.”

The jewelry store owner’s greeting was abruptly cut off. It happened even before the business card he was holding politely in his hand could be offered to Jeong-hyeok.

His rudeness, in interrupting someone mid-sentence, came as naturally to him as breathing. So much so that the jewelry store owner didn’t even feel embarrassed.

“Could you step aside? I have something to discuss with my wife.”

His voice, pressed down in a calm tone, was polite, but his cold gaze was nothing short of arrogant.

“Pardon? Well, that’s… um…”

The jewelry store owner hesitated. This space was filled with the expensive gold and jewels he had spent a lifetime collecting.

Without another word, Jeong-hyeok glanced down at his wristwatch. It was a gesture more powerful than any spoken dismissal.

Eun-sol silently wished the jewelry store owner would stand his ground.

But the jewelry store owner moved toward the door, even adding an apologetic remark, 

“I’m terribly sorry for the disturbance.”

The situation had completely flipped, as if the true owner of this space had been reversed.

Left alone to face him, Eun-sol clenched her trembling fingertips into her palms. Her stiffened breath froze inside her lips.

By now, she should have grown used to it, but she never managed to build any resistance to his calm yet fierce gaze.

“I’ll wait outside.”

A voice came from behind him. Only then did Eun-sol realize that Chief Cheon was also present. With Jeong-hyeok’s overwhelming presence, she hadn’t even noticed when he had entered.

Chief Cheon opened the door wide, as if escorting the jewelry store owner out, and the owner awkwardly stepped through the doorway.

It might have been better if it had ended there.

“Chief Cheon, lower the shutter as well.”

“……!”

It wasn’t just Eun-sol who was shocked by Jeong-hyeok’s command. The jewelry store owner also froze in place.

“Lo-lower the shutter too?”

Eun-sol clung to the desperate hope reflected in the jewelry store owner’s widened eyes. Lowering the shutter with customers still inside a jewelry store full of valuables?! She wanted to believe the owner wouldn’t go that far.

But.

Drrrrk—

With a noise like an earthquake, her futile hope was sealed away.

In a space of less than five square meters, the jewelry store instantly became a sealed room. The silence that followed was suffocating.

Eun-sol could only watch the heavy rise and fall of his throat. His unmoving features gave her the illusion that time itself had stopped.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

As if to deny the silence, the clocks for sale on the jewelry store’s walls diligently continued their task.

Like an idol group performing synchronized choreography, the hands moved flawlessly, making the suffocating silence even more unbearable.

She wished he would say something first.

But the only sound joining the ticking of the clock’s second hand was her increasingly labored breathing.

Eun-sol knew all too well.

This was a silence he deliberately created. She understood that if she couldn’t endure it, she would fall into his trap. Yet, she had no strength left to hold on.

Come to think of it, this situation was similar to what happened in front of the convenience store last week.

A secret outing.

A man who appeared like the Grim Reaper.

An itinerary that had been tracked, though she had no idea how.

And herself, standing before this unpredictable man.

I had thought it was a meticulously planned escape…!

Where on earth had I made a mistake? 

Eun-sol bit down firmly on her lips.

“How… how did you get here…?”

It was only after she finished speaking that she realized the line was eerily similar to what she had said that day at the convenience store.

A sense of defeat seeped through the gaps in her clenched teeth.

In any case, the things one could say in such a situation were extremely limited. Even so, the fact that she had repeated such a foolish line after just a few days was frustrating.

“Sol-ah. Your question is wrong from the start.”

He pointed out with a faint, sardonic smile.

“The important thing isn’t ‘how I got here,’ is it?”