Prey - Chapter 2
“Excuse me.”
Seol Suhyeon, carrying the laundry basket, was heading toward the orphanage courtyard.
At Lee Hyejin’s call, she paused and turned around.
‘She really is beautiful.’
Standing beneath the sharp sunlight, Seol Suhyeon’s obsidian-like eyes sparkled. For a moment, Lee Hyejin felt as if she were entranced.
The women from the conglomerate families weren’t wrong—she could see how a man might lose his mind over her.
Seol Suhyeon’s unusually red, lush lips parted like ripe fruit.
“Me?”
“Yes. You’re Seol Suhyeon, right?”
A few reporters with cameras were trailing after her, which made the situation slightly uncomfortable, but Lee Hyejin approached her with a smiling face.
“Let me help you.”
Lee Hyejin grabbed one handle of the laundry basket as she spoke.
Seol Suhyeon looked at her briefly, as if trying to gauge her intentions. Then, with her pale face, she smiled.
“Thank you.”
She looked even prettier when she smiled.
If fairies were real, wouldn’t they have faces just like hers?
Though it seemed like she noticed Lee Hyejin’s curious gaze, Seol Suhyeon simply kept smiling quietly as they walked.
As they moved, carrying the laundry basket together, Lee Hyejin asked,
“You came in with your husband earlier. Why are you doing this alone?”
“My husband is busy.”
Even her voice was calm and clear.
The reporters with cameras were closely following them, as if they were trying to catch every bit of the conversation.
‘Being next to Seol Suhyeon must mean they’ll get a few extra shots,’ Lee Hyejin thought to herself before speaking.
“Busy husband or not, I’m still envious. The two of you always attend official events together, don’t you? You seem like such a happy couple.”
“……”
The smile that had been lingering on Seol Suhyeon’s lips suddenly froze, and she came to a stop.
Lee Hyejin stopped as well, looking at her.
Seol Suhyeon, with a serene smile as if from a painting, held her gaze in silence.
‘What is this?’
Lee Hyejin felt a strange sensation. Although Seol Suhyeon was looking directly at her, her eyes seemed distant, as though she was staring somewhere far beyond.
“Is that how it seems?”
…Ah!
The gentle question snapped Lee Hyejin back to her senses, and she quickly recalled what she had just said.
What had it been? That they seemed like a happy couple, right?
“Yes. Everyone is envious. You two are such a perfect couple…”
“But you know,”
Seol Suhyeon’s calm voice overlapped with Lee Hyejin’s hurried attempt to continue.
Ah, I see now.
As she looked at Seol Suhyeon, Lee Hyejin finally understood the source of her unease. Seol Suhyeon wasn’t looking at her—she was staring directly at the reporters behind her.
With her gaze fixed firmly on the journalists and a graceful smile on her face, Seol Suhyeon spoke,
“This marriage is absolutely dreadful.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, there was a moment of silence.
“…What?”
The silence was abruptly broken by Lee Hyejin’s shocked question.
Click-click-click!
The reporters, recognizing the scoop of a lifetime, quickly fired off their camera flashes.
The journalists holding their recording devices stretched their arms even further toward Seol Suhyeon.
Watching her serene smile, unshaken by the commotion, sent chills down Lee Hyejin’s spine.
‘Did she say that on purpose? For the reporters to write it down?’
Without a hint of concern for Lee Hyejin’s bewildered expression, Seol Suhyeon, still wearing that elegant, flawless face, looked at the reporters and continued,
“I said it’s dreadful. My husband, and this marriage.”
* * *
Six months later.
A sense of ease lingered in the courtroom.
Do Jeonghan, the director of the headquarters, sat in the defendant’s seat, shielded by Cheonkyung’s elite legal team, a group comprised of the nation’s top legal minds.
No one in the room doubted his victory.
Even the journalists, seemingly uninterested in the trial’s details, were casually chatting among themselves.
“You’ve already written the article, right?”
“Just need to hit send.”
A reporter answered with a yawn, bored.
The outcome was so obvious that they had already written the body of the article, predicting the crown prince’s overwhelming win. After the verdict, they’d only need to tweak a few details.
