LSDK 01

Chapter 1

#1.

A gust of wind briefly swept through the area crowded with skyscrapers, and a midsize sedan came to a silent stop in front of the entrance of a five-star luxury hotel.

All the while he walked toward the hotel entrance after getting out of the car, Dong-in wore his usual proud and arrogant expression, making it impossible to tell what was going on inside his mind.

Not long after, in the hotel lobby coffee shop, Dong-in faced his prospective fiancée, a woman with delicate and beautiful features, but somehow an inexplicably cheap-looking impression.

“Im Arang?”

“Yes, please si—”

“……”

The moment his prospective fiancée hurriedly stood up, Dong-in sat down without showing any particular reaction.

“—t down. Oppa.”

His prospective fiancée then sat across from him, desperately trying to swallow her displeasure.

“……”

“How have you been all this time? Oppa?”

“I’m not interested in crossing the line between blood relatives.”

“What?”

She only blinked at Dong-in’s casual remark.

Judging by the fact that she could not even understand such a simple wordplay, it seemed that her understanding of her own native language was even worse than that of Dong-in, who had spent more than a decade traveling around the world.

“I have absolutely no intention of marrying you.”

I absolutely hate stupid women.

Whether his prospective fiancée was genuinely stupid or simply bad at studying, he could not tell for sure yet.

But whether it was being stupid, being bad at studying, or simply having a poor mind, none of those qualities suited Dong-in’s preferences. Needless to say, she was also unqualified to be the mother of his children.

“What?”

She continued to blink her pretty eyes.

“……”

Sigh. Forget it.

“……”

At least his prospective fiancée had large, almond-shaped eyes that were truly beautiful.

Normally, those eyes would have been exactly Dong-in’s ideal type.

But what a pity.

The dark circles beneath his prospective fiancée’s eyes seemed somehow unusual.

Looking at her, it seemed that her private life was quite disorderly.

His prospective fiancée was well-groomed from head to toe, but in Dong-in’s eyes, she somehow reminded him of a withered cabbage.

And she was only twenty-six, an age when she should have been at her freshest.

Anyway, is this marriage really going to be okay?

Especially in Dong-in’s family, marriage was not simply a matter between two individuals.

It could not be decided by love alone, nor was it something he could decide on his own.

Naturally, it was the elders of the family who had arranged this marriage.

Especially the family of his prospective fiancée.

Dong-in had had a destined partner since childhood.

As he grew up, he had heard so many times that he was supposed to marry that person that the words had practically been hammered into his ears.

Anyone would have been brainwashed after hearing that much, but Dong-in had not been brainwashed.

Even if he had not been, he had intended to obey his grandfather’s wishes without resistance.

However, this would be the last act of filial devotion he would offer his grandfather.

The problem was that the partner who had been decided for Dong-in was not Im Arang, who was sitting in front of him now, but Im Sanga.

Even though Dong-in had decided to comply with the elders’ wishes when it came to marriage, he had never expected his fiancée to be replaced.

Should I rebel against it?

No.

Dong-in had decided to accept that quietly as well.

At least, as long as she was a human woman by my standards.

But!

Although his prospective fiancée had been changed from Im Sanga to Im Arang, Im Sanga’s younger sister, and this was technically their first official meeting, that did not mean Im Arang was a stranger to him.

In other words, he absolutely hated a woman whose private life was not in order.

At the same time, he could not make the mistake of becoming trapped by prejudice against his prospective fiancée based on assumptions.

“How much experience have you had with men?”

So Dong-in asked directly.

It was a question with several intentions behind it.

As expected, the question seemed to have offended her quite a lot.

“Why are you asking that?”

The prospective fiancée’s tone was sharp as she asked him back.

“I’m not interested in women like that.”

“Wow.”

“So, how much experience have you had with men?”

Regardless of how she felt, he asked again.

“What if I have?”

Of course you would.

In truth, it was not a particularly big issue for Dong-in.

He himself was not inexperienced, and considering the various cultural environments he had encountered throughout his life, he actually believed that healthy relationships between adult men and women were perfectly normal.

But having a messy private life was an entirely different matter.

He did not even know what kind of dirty problems might be lurking beneath the surface.

It was not that he demanded purity only from his partner, either.

Dong-in simply believed that, as human beings, people should never lose control or self-restraint, and that they had a duty to carefully protect themselves in every aspect, both physically and mentally.

In that sense, regardless of whether they were male or female, young or old, he absolutely hated people who could not value themselves or control their desires.

In fact, it would be more accurate to say that he simply hated human beings as animals.

“I told you, I’m not interested. Don’t make me say it twice.”

Anyway, his words had probably sounded rather rude, and just as he expected, they seemed to have thoroughly gotten on his prospective fiancée’s nerves.

“Let’s just get up and leave.”

She abruptly stood up with a vicious look in her eyes.

Well, this result isn’t bad either.

“Suit yourself.”

When Dong-in casually shrugged his shoulders, Im Arang, who had been glaring at him for a while, eventually plopped herself back down in the chair across from him.

Only ten seconds? I thought she’d last a little longer. Hmph, what a disappointment.

Then, it was time to get to the main point.

“There is only one purpose of marriage. A child. Give birth to our child.”

He said it without hesitation.

But in truth, Dong-in had not had even the slightest intention of continuing this meeting.

Having fallen into an unfounded prejudice against Im Arang, he did not bother hiding his disgust.

“……”

His prospective fiancée continued glaring at him, her expression showing that she was grinding her teeth.

“When you decide that you want to get married, bring me a medical certificate from an obstetrics and gynecology department.”

“Then you go to the urology department and bring me a medical certificate, too.”

She shot back at the end of his sentence.

At least she has common sense.

As he had repeatedly said, he was not actually demanding his prospective fiancée’s virginity.

His main purpose was to find out whether the woman who would become the mother of his future children was physically healthy.

“……”

“To see whether you’re capable of doing it or not.”

His prospective fiancée seemed to be the kind of person who paid back one word with ten.

“……”

Well, there was nothing wrong with having that kind of personality.

But Dong-in absolutely hated people whose words were bigger than their actions.

He sincerely hoped that his prospective fiancée was as healthy as she boldly claimed.

He would emphasize it again: she would be the mother of his children.

At this point, someone might throw a stone at him for saying such things.

Objectively and subjectively, there was some truth to that criticism.

After all, Dong-in himself was also merely a tool for continuing the family line, so in the end, he was not much different from her.

In that sense, he was willing to cherish, devote himself to, and protect the mother of his children out of a sense of shared hardship.

But somehow, he had a feeling that this woman did not qualify for him to devote the rest of his life to her.

Dong-in stared intently at the back of his prospective fiancée as she approached the automatic door of the hotel lobby coffee shop and irritably waved her hand in front of the sensor.

She could not even wait for the brief moment it took for the door to slowly open before walking out of the coffee shop.