Bound by a Ruthless Contract - Chapter 16
“That’s nice.”
“What is?”
“When you laugh like that.”
Ah, did I laugh?
Ga-eun’s cheeks reddened as she cleared her throat and tapped her mouth with the back of her hand.
Making compliments with such an expressionless face…
“Don’t say strange things.”
Si-heon stared at Ga-eun as she lowered her head shyly.
Her unique scent. The sound of her soft breathing. Her lightly flushed cheeks.
Suddenly, he felt his blood rushing to one place.
She was the first woman to both arouse such desire and make him sleep so deeply.
A week ago, the night he shared his body with Ga-eun.
Si-heon had slept.
Very deeply.
It was impossible for him to not notice a woman slipping away from his arms until dawn.
His momentary shock at this unbelievable reality was brief.
He became obsessed with the effects of that deep sleep.
His mind worked faster than usual, his body felt lighter, and he was less irritable, rarely getting angry.
Si-heon learned that day how brilliantly colorful the world could be.
The sunlight wasn’t damn bright but warmly heated his head, and the trees he hadn’t even noticed standing there looked remarkably fresh and green.
Who knew there would come a day when he’d notice flowers blooming at his feet?
But without her by his side, the world sank back into darkness.
He devoted all his efforts to finding the woman who had gifted him sleep and color.
Like a child who has tasted candy once, it was impossible to resist or forget that taste.
* * *
That’s how they arrived at this moment today.
Si-heon would do anything if it meant keeping her.
But he wouldn’t tell her about his insomnia.
He’d lived a life where it was natural to put a leash on others and pull them in.
He had absolutely no intention of giving anyone a leash to hold onto him.
Never.
“I got promoted. So my workload increased. Therefore, I don’t want to waste even a minute.”
He continued with deliberate casualness.
“Instead of going through the trouble of finding someone else, I’m giving our Ga-eun the first opportunity.”
Implying she wasn’t his only option.
“Is there time to hesitate? If I change my mind, you might have to marry that man.”
“…”
“And it won’t be easy to find someone else who surpasses that man like I do.”
“Are you… much higher positioned than the person who was sitting in front of me earlier?”
“Who?”
About to say ‘that person,’ Ga-eun remembered how he had barely contained his anger when he had to tell her his name for the fourth time, so she changed her words.
It seemed better to show what courtesy she could.
Perhaps he could be the only lifeline dropped into her perpetually muddy life.
“Mr. Kwon Si-heon?”
Just calling his name.
She could tell how satisfied he was by his eyes and the corner of his mouth lifting.
Could someone really be that happy about hearing their name?
Then again, there were times when she too had loved hearing her name.
“Ga-eun. Who named our Ga-eun again?”
“Mom and Dad!”
“Mom and Dad put their heads together to think hard. We wanted to give our baby a name filled with love.”
She later learned that those words were only half true.
Gye Young-chul hadn’t known about her mother’s pregnancy, so there was never any joint naming of their child.
It was just her mother’s wish.
Back then, her mother had truly loved a man who had promised to marry her, then suddenly married another woman, and came back to her while hiding that fact.
Not for a moment did she think the man had betrayed her.
That’s the kind of person her mother was.
Pure, bright, always thinking the best of everything.
That must be why she caught the eye of a snake like Gye Young-chul.
The clearer and brighter something is, the more noticeable it becomes.
“Who named you, Mr. Kwon Si-heon?”
Thinking of her mother always made Ga-eun feel like she was being pulled into some distant part of the universe.
It meant she wasn’t in her right mind.
That’s why words would sometimes slip out without passing through her brain, like just now, and each time, they would ‘educate’ her for it.
So that an illegitimate child wouldn’t appear illegitimate.
“…I’m sorry. Please forget my question.”
But Si-heon answered readily, showing no sign of finding it strange.
“My grandfather named me. ‘Si’ meaning begin, ‘Heon’ meaning lofty. It means to start everything from a higher place than anyone else.”
Ah. Ga-eun nodded.
Only this arrogant and imposing man could live up to such a name.
“And to answer your earlier question.”
He leaned back leisurely.
“That old man who was sitting in front of our Ga-eun earlier.”
His manner was remarkably relaxed and confident.
“From where I stand, he’s barely visible as a dot.”
