Chapter 1

“What do you mean by that?”

Seo-ah hurriedly grabbed the collar of her husband, Lee Dong-ha, who had finished getting ready to go out.

“Don’t trust Jin Se-yeon.”

Dong-ha, who had been checking his appearance in front of the mirror, had suddenly brought up something strange.

What Seo-ah wanted to know was about her father’s accident.

Four months ago, just two months after his daughter’s wedding, Seo-ah’s father had taken his own life.

It was something she simply could not believe.

The day of the accident had been Jin Seo-ah’s birthday. What parent in the world would ever think of dying on the birthday of their only daughter?

Especially when they had even made plans to have a family dinner that day.

It had been a tragic incident, but the family’s insistence that it could not have been suicide and the police’s conclusion that it had been suicide remained firmly at odds.

In a situation like this, the only person Seo-ah could cling to was Dong-ha.

Because of their marriage, her father’s company, Wonjeon Electronics, and her father-in-law’s company, Dong-ha Motors, had recently begun interacting frequently.

Then perhaps Lee Dong-ha knew something.

She had anxiously waited through a long silence, secretly hoping he might have an answer.

But instead, her husband had brought up the name of her cousin.

Se-yeon was the person Seo-ah trusted more than anyone.

Dong-ha knew that very well, too, so what could possibly be his reason for bringing up such an uncomfortable subject?

“Oppa?”

However, even as Seo-ah pressed him for an answer, Dong-ha seemed more concerned with checking his wristwatch.

“Dong-ha oppa!”

As Seo-ah’s voice grew louder, he frowned as though desperately holding back a sigh that had risen all the way to his throat.

He looked frustrated with her, as though she were someone who knew nothing and had no way of finding anything out.

“About our marriage. Have you never thought there was something strange about it?”

“……What?”

As though swallowing the words he had been about to say, Dong-ha took a deep breath and shook his head.

“No. Let me organize my thoughts and talk to you again.”

Seo-ah could not understand why Dong-ha had suddenly brought up their marriage.

What on earth did her father’s death have to do with the marriage between the two of them?

“I don’t know what’s strange or what you’re trying to sort out, but please, Oppa. I want you to answer my question first.”

“It’s not something I can talk about easily. Not Jin Se-yeon, and not your father’s matter, either. Let me go to the airport first, and then we’ll talk.”

“Oppa!”

In all the months she had lived with him, Seo-ah had never once seen Lee Dong-ha speak carelessly.

There had to be a reason why a man like him was speaking so incoherently now.

“Se-yeon unni and our marriage aren’t what’s important right now. And the airport? Why do you keep changing the subject today? I asked if you knew why my father died. That’s what I want to know!”

Seo-ah could not believe either the autopsy report stating that her father had died from a fall or the police’s claim that it had been suicide.

She was walking through a dark reality where she could not predict what would happen even a moment ahead. Who could possibly understand how she felt?

And even in such a situation, her husband and his family had completely ignored her and pretended not to know anything—as if they were strangers, or even worse than strangers.

“Even if we aren’t a real married couple who share a bed, isn’t this going too far? He was still your father-in-law. How could you……?”

“I’m not okay with it either. Don’t make it sound like I am.”

“Really? Then tell me everything before you go.”

Seo-ah spread her arms wide and blocked the entrance to the room.

Dong-ha’s gaze fell upon her resolute face, which made it clear she had no intention of stepping aside.

Jin Seo-ah was still dazzlingly beautiful even at this moment, despite her bloodshot eyes and dry, cracked lips.

Yet even with such a woman as his wife, Dong-ha’s gaze remained cold and tense.

As though he simply wanted to escape this troublesome situation, he ran a hand through his neatly combed hair and furrowed his brow.

“I’m late. I’m leaving.”

Just as he glanced down at his wrist again, Seo-ah snatched off his wristwatch and threw it away.

“Jin Seo-ah!”

“I need to know! I have to hear it today! What do you know, and why the hell can’t you tell me?!”

At Seo-ah’s raised voice, Dong-ha squeezed his eyes shut.

He had intended to tell her everything anyway. Not a single day had passed comfortably since the day he married her.

But right now, there simply wasn’t enough time for him to give her an honest answer.

“…….”

The longer Dong-ha remained silent, seemingly lost in thought, the more desperate Seo-ah’s eyes became.

Eventually, realizing that he could not get away without telling her something, he opened his mouth.

“……Someone deliberately leaked confidential information from your father’s company, Wonjeon Electronics.”

“……What?”

What he said after a brief silence was difficult for Seo-ah to immediately understand.

But Dong-ha did not wait for her to catch up.

He seemed eager to end this tiresome argument and escape from his wife as quickly as possible.

“Then, on the day your father had his accident, our company released the exact same…….”

His words, which had been coming out rapidly, suddenly stopped.

It was as though even he could not believe the truth he was putting into words.

“Oppa?”

At Seo-ah’s voice, he swallowed dryly and moved his lips as if trying to continue.

“……The exact same product. We released it. That’s why Taeyu Motors, which had been a business partner, terminated its contract with Wonjeon Electronics. They cited the leakage of confidential information as the reason.”

One unexpected revelation after another came at Seo-ah.

“What happened?”

“Exactly what I just explained.”

“How does that make any sense? Why did your company make the same thing as a Wonjeon Electronics product? Why?!”

“…….”

“D-Did your company do it on purpose? You said there was a leak of confidential information, and that’s why Wonjeon Electronics lost the contract!”

Dong-ha did not hastily answer yes.

Even he found it difficult to be certain about what had happened.

“Answer me! I’m asking you!”

After being pressed repeatedly, Dong-ha slowly raised his head and looked at Seo-ah.

“Given the circumstances, it’s possible. But we still…….”

At that moment, Seo-ah remembered something.

The day her father’s company, Wonjeon Electronics, had been struggling financially, and her father-in-law’s company had suddenly offered to invest in it.

The condition had been none other than their marriage.

“Ha! Don’t tell me you deliberately married me by using the investment as bait? Was this your purpose all along? To steal my father’s company secrets and use them for something else?!”

As though he had anticipated a reaction like this, Dong-ha tried to remain calm despite the sharp expression on Seo-ah’s face.

“It may sound like an excuse, but I didn’t know that my side had invested in Wonjeon Electronics. One day, my father suddenly brought you up, and I simply agreed to the marriage.”

Seo-ah was dumbfounded.

They had not married because they were madly in love with each other, but they had spent six months together.

Even after spending enough time together for some affection to grow between them, this man’s excuse was still so cold.

“Let’s talk when I get back.”

Dong-ha walked past Seo-ah and finally left the room.

“Where are you going?!”

As he hurried down the second-floor stairs, Seo-ah’s heart began racing as well.

“No. Talk to me now.”

Dong-ha turned around when she grabbed his arm.

His expression was calm, but his voice trembled strangely as he spoke.

“Gi-young…… is leaving today. I’m just going to see her off. I’ll come right back.”

That name again.

Seo-ah’s fingertips trembled as she clutched Dong-ha’s jacket.

Kim Gi-young and Lee Dong-ha were unusually close, and there was something strangely affectionate about their relationship.

Even so, with so many things that needed to be resolved regarding her father’s accident, Seo-ah could not understand why that name had to come up again.

She was furious—furious beyond words.

“You’ve got your priorities wrong. Even in this situation, is Kim Gi-young more important to you? Is her name so precious that you have to say it like that? Your family ruined my parents’ company, and my father-in-law died because of it!”

Dong-ha pushed away Seo-ah’s enraged hand and finally reached for the front door without even looking back.

“I’ll be back. I’ll tell you everything when I return. I really will.”

He had never once smiled at Seo-ah.

Yet, as though he had foreseen the end, he smiled for the first time.

And it was as though it would be his first and last smile.

“Oppa, Dong-ha oppa! Hey, Lee Dong-ha!”

And then.

Leaving Seo-ah’s calls behind him, Lee Dong-ha stepped outside the house.

Two hours later, he died in a traffic accident.

He was only twenty-six years old.

It was the last week of a bleak February, at the funeral hall of a university hospital in Pyeonghan-si, Gyeonggi-do.

A man’s shout abruptly shattered the silence inside the empty funeral room No. 5.

“Team Leader! Team Leader Kang Tae-kyung!”

At his desperate cry, the atmosphere inside the funeral room instantly became noisy.

Yet the man who had stepped out of the funeral room paid no attention to the sharp calls behind him and hurried onward.