“What appointment did Jiyong make that I needed to fill in for instead?” Chaerin asks curiously as Assistant Gong sits next to her in the back of a company car. He’s such a thorough businessman, it’s atypical of him not to provide her with any information.

“I don’t remember,” Minji replies after looking up at the ceiling carefully. “It seemed important.”

Chaerin gasps as the car parks and she realizes where they are. A bridal boutique.

“Kwon Sajangnim asked me to take you dress shopping.” Minji tells her with a mischievous smile. “I’m sorry for having to ask this but you don’t have many friends, do you?”

“That’s a little harsh.” Chaerin laughs but her assistant gives her a pointed look.

The two women go into the boutique, immediately greeted by a sales associate and each given a flute of champagne. The young CEO walks into the showroom with Minji following behind her, flipping through the racks of dresses. She lets her finger ghost over the different fabrics and feels the smoothness of the silks, taffetas, and charmeuses.

She can’t believe she’s actually doing something about the wedding. The glittering diamond ring and the extravagant engagement party were nothing.

It didn’t feel real.

Assistant Gong was right, she doesn’t have any friends. Jiyong and Youngbae were all that she knew, her whole life revolved around loving one and missing the other. She knows it’s her fault that she’s alone, that she doesn’t have friends to go out to dinner or go shopping or talk about sweaty idols with.

A salesgirl brings Chaerin back into a fitting room with an armful of dresses, helping her into the first gown. Grasping onto the ivory fabric, she carefully walks out onto a platform. She’s shocked when she sees that the redheaded assistant isn’t there, but instead Kwon Jiyong sits on a couch watching her intently.

He walks toward her with a mystified look on his face.

“You look beautiful.” He tells her and she smiles.

She deserves to be with Jiyong, she doesn’t deserve Youngbae. If her father’s company had really been responsible for Youngbae’s disappearance and paid out by Kwon, then she doesn’t deserve him.

She deserves the ache in her heart that she’ll marry Jiyong and not Youngbae.

She deserves the pain of never really allowing herself to fully love or be loved.

She deserves the shame of being the daughter of a man that arranges murder and torture for his own greed.

“What’s wrong?” Jiyong asks, wiping her tears away carefully so as not to smear her makeup.

“I’m just happy.” She tells him, shaking her head. “I’m really happy, I can’t wait to marry you. It’s finally starting to feel… real.”

“Chae, I’m happy, too.” Jiyong kisses her excitedly.

She gives him a sad smile as he holds onto her hands.

“So, are you going to try another dress?” He asks her before sitting back down on the couch. “I’m not sure that one is what we want.”

---

“I wanted to show you something.” Chaerin says with a courteous smile after having a sip of tea and setting the cup down at the table in her office.

Lee Soohyuk sits across from her, a cup of tea in his hands as he stares at her with a blank face.

“I don’t trust you - but I don’t really trust anyone anymore.” She pulls a worn leather bound ledger from her purse and looks back up at him. “Have you seen anything like this?”

“It’s one of the Mr. Kwon’s account books, of course I’ve seen it.”

“Isn’t this year familiar?” Chaerin asks as he holds the ledger in his hands, rubbing his fingers over the scratches on the leather. He doesn’t say anything but the look on his face tells her everything. “Kwon had hidden two of these ledgers in his desk.”

“Two?” Soohyuk asks, looking up in shock. “What was the other year?”

His voice is desperate, his eyes dangerously dark. Chaerin had a gut feeling she should show what she had found to Soohyuk but she didn’t anticipate his reaction. She had never seen him act like this before, he was always perfectly composed.

“1990.” She says. “I wasn’t even alive yet, the year didn’t seem significant to me.”

She watches his eyes light up and he excitedly grabs her hand.

“Do you have it with you? I need to see it.” His voice is urgent, forceful. Something feels off.

She holds her purse tighter in her lap, feeling the bulk of the second ledger in the bag.

“No.” She tells him. “I didn’t even take it out of the office.”

“What?” Soohyuk asks, his expression full of wonder and disappointment.

“I put it back in the cabinet with the other ledgers.” She lies smoothly, watching the lawyer carefully.

“Are you stupid?” He shouts, pulling back his hair in frustration. “Why would you do that?”

“You’re out of line, Lee Soohyuk.” She says authoritatively, watching as he calms down and returns back to his usual stone mask.

“I need that ledger.” He tells her after a moment of silence and she doesn’t miss the underlying threat in his quiet voice.

“Sajangnim?” A voice calls over the intercom, cutting through the thick tension in the office. “The representatives from YG Corporation are here.”

“Let them in,” Chaerin says pleasantly, arching an eyebrow at Lee Soohyuk in warning.

The brooding lawyer keeps his gaze on the ground as Park Bom walks into the office, Park Taeyang following behind her. He looks more cleaned up, more sober. Chaerin gets up to greet her guests with Soohyuk silently beside her side. Her eyes never wander to the young president.

“Our shareholders voted for the merger.” Bom is the first to speak once they’ve all sat around the meeting table. Chaerin smiles but Taeyang looks less than pleased by the announcement. “Yang Hyunsuk has also agreed to retire to the Board.”

Chaerin nods slowly, playing with a pen dangling in her fingers.

“Taeyang-ssi should take on the role of CEO.” She says thoughtfully. “He already has an MBA and has studied in America, I need more experience and education in order to be looked at favorably by the shareholders. It only makes sense.”

“We won’t become your puppets now that you’re standing aside.” Bom interrupts.

“There can’t be two CEOs.” Chaerin reasons, not backing down, as Taeyang looks at her cautiously.

“Lee Chaerin has been nominated member of the board.” Soohyuk mentions, causing the glamorous lawer across from him to laugh.

“Are you crazy?” Bom asks, moving her curled hair off of her shoulder with her perfectly manicured fingers as she begins to stand up. “We’re leaving.”

Taeyang stops her with a hand on her arm.

“Why are you doing this?” He asks Chaerin suddenly but she only smiles.

“I want to diversify our stock shares now that my father and I are majority holders.” She answers with a hint of a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. “At this vulnerable moment in both of our companies, merging as a family group would be beneficial to us all.”

“Keep your office.” Taeyang tells her. “I’ll rely on you to oversee the GD Group branch office.”

“We’ll pose further restructuring to our Board,” Bom intersects. “But it seems that this will be the family group.”

“I’ll walk you out, Park Bom-ssi, and we can discuss some of the paperwork.” Soohyuk suggests, offering his arm to the young woman. The two lawyers walk out the office, leaving Chaerin and Youngbae alone.

“I told you I don’t want your pity.” He tells her, walking toward where she stands. He leans in closer to her and she’s not sure what he’s doing as his expression softens and his voice lowers. “We heard the yelling from your office.”

She furrows her brows in agitation, stepping back from him.

“If you hate me you’re not allowed to be concerned for me.” She commands in a quiet anger. “Or eavesdrop on my meetings.”

“Yeah, I hate you.” He barks out defensively. “I really, really hate you. I blame you for everything and I can hardly stand to look at you. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t love you, Chaerin.”

“You’re not allowed to say that!” She cries out in frustration.

“Do you sleep in separate bedrooms? Do you think about me at night?” Youngbae smirks as he corners her to the table, the young woman tripping over a chair as she looks away trying to evade his advance. “In a way that’s kind of like winning.”

“You need to stop right now.”

“Why were you in the hospital?” He asks suddenly, his voice thick with concern.

The question shocks her as she adjusts her weight to lean against the edge of the table. He’s standing so close to her that their thighs just barely brush against one another.

“I could destroy you.” Chaerin whispers to him as he puts his hands on either side of her body, caging her against the table surface. “Kwon’s dead. I’m the devil now.”

He watches her as if in a daze, realizing for that all this time he never really wanted to protect her.

He just wanted to protect himself.

“You’ve always been the devil,” He breathes out huskily, his lips brushing against hers as he moves his hand to cup her face. He roughly captures her lips and like a bomb ignited they move against each other in a violent passion.

She moves to sit up on the table and he helps her, cupping her in his hand as he lifts her using his body weight as a lever. His hips grind into hers as she straddles him, her skirt hiking up over her thighs. Her heels dig into his back as she wraps her legs around his midsection just to be closer. Closer.

He at her bottom lips and she moans in a pleasured pain, clumsily throwing off his suit and ing his shirt. Her fingers wander greedily across the plains of his muscles, determined to conquer every inch of skin. He growls as her thumb brushes across his , her fingers pinching the sensitive tissue.

He scrapes his teeth across her jaw, and kissing until he reaches the hollow of her nape. He teases the thin flesh with his tongue, gently kissing it with his soft lips and then biting the translucent skin. She cries out at the sensation, her nails stabbing into his neck as she pulls him closer to her.

The young man returns to again, their tongues sloppily battling against one another. Her body slams onto the table so that she’s now completely laying down beneath him. His hands roam hungrily down her curves as her chest heaves shakily. He begins to unfasten the small buttons on her blouse as he once again devours her soft skin like a starved castaway.

He pulls away to look down at her, propping himself by his elbow. Her heavy lidded eyes stare back up at him, her lips are flushed and swollen, her hair a disheveled halo around her. Slowly, he moves to undo his belt as he watches her, mesmerized by her catlike gaze.

Chaerin can hear her father’s heavy footsteps as he paces wildly inside his office, her pressed against the door. He’s been on the phone speaking brusquely, his angry voice intelligible as he slurs his words. He’s been drinking all night which concerns her.

Her father is a man of discipline.

He doesn’t drink or smoke.

He always goes to bed right after work and wakes up early in the morning to have a cup of tea.

Suddenly, the door flies open, knocking Chaerin onto the ground as Mr. Lee stares down at her crumpled on the floor like a dead butterfly. His face is reddened with anger and drunkenness as he picks her up roughly by the crook of her arm.

“Appa, I’m sorry.” She squeals as she’s righted back onto her feet but he doesn’t say anything. Her mother said that he’s just worried about her, that he’s concerned for her safety.

“I’ve got to go.” He tells the voice on the phone still held against his ear, his voice heavy with a strange emotion. “We’ll discuss the failure of the operation at a later date.”

Chaerin looks up at her father, frozen by the intensity of his features. Youngbae was kidnapped while walking her to the Kwon Estate, Jiyong’s life could be in danger. It makes sense that Mr. Lee would be concerned for her, worried for his oldest daughter. But as he hung up the phone and stared at her, he didn’t look concerned. He looked… disappointed.

“I can’t do this.” She tells Youngbae, pulling away from him.

His hands grip tightly onto the edge of the table until his knuckles turn white. His eyes focus in on her left hand anxiously smoothing the wrinkles on her skirt. The diamond ring on her finger sparkles tauntingly and he grits his teeth. She notices his reaction and gently helps him button his shirt back up.

“This isn’t about Jiyong.” She tells him calmly, carefully fastening each button in its loop. “It’s about you.”

He gives her a strange look, the heat of their previous encounter dissipating into a tranquil lull. Chaerin rubs his now clothed shoulder gently and he shrugs her off.

“How is this about me?” His voice is angry and hurt as he steps back away from the table.

“I’m not good for you.” She tells him in a quiet voice, looking down at her knees.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” He laughs shakily. “But I don’t really do what’s good for me.”
He watches her for a long time, expecting her to crack a smile but she only looks at him sadly.

“I just can’t, oppa.” She tells him quietly, in a small whisper that cuts him to the bone as he nods in shock.

“Fine, I get it. I’ll go.” He tells her roughly before storming out of the office and slamming the door without looking back.

Chaerin slowly slides down from the table, buttoning her blouse and walking toward her desk. She notices underneath her desk is Youngbae’s suit jacket, thrown haphazardly to the side. She picks the jacket up carefully like a precious artifact and holds it to her nose, taking in the smell of his cologne.

Is this what her Youngbae has always smelled like? Minus the expensive cologne, of course.

She laughs quietly to herself as she sinks down to her knees, holding the jacket tightly in her arms.

---

Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who has subscribed, commented, and upvoted. I am forever blown away by the amount of love and support I've been shown by you all. Nothing motivates me to keep writing like my amazing readers. How do you feel about this chapter? Let me know! I'll try to update soon, can you guess what will happen next?

Update: I decided to make a poll after a suggestion from xxxchaelin!