Dry Monsoon

Chapter 11 part 2

Unlike the drive to Mr Kim’s villa earlier, the road back was quiet. He glanced at me after stopping the car in front of the traffic lights. He continued with a blank expression concealing his emotions.

“I only found out three months later. Yoon Jae-sun wanted to reveal it to the press, but Seoryang quickly put a stop to it. If she exposed it to the press, things would have gone out of control. Seoryang’s reputation will fall to the floor. Things would have gotten more complicated.”

“Then building a house is one of your requirements?”

“Yes. Seoryang will be responsible for the child Yoon Jae-sun gives birth to. And through a marriage annulment lawsuit, Yoon Jae-sun will be able to start anew with a completely blank slate.”

“Do you really want to do that? I don’t know much about marriage annulments, but giving up her own child is a bit…”

For a moment I saw him thinking about the words I spoke, but he soon cut off my words with a cold expression.

“I want my whole family to live a comfortable and ideal life.”

I looked out the window. The green roads were once covered with king cherry trees. Even when the construction was in full swing, I felt a rush of excitement as I walked up and down this road. But now, my heart felt tight, and it was filled with the opposite feeling.

I think he felt guilty towards his family. It was an emotion that I didn’t have to imagine hard.

Kwon Lee-Hyun was in charge of the construction site where the accident happened and his twin brother died. He was responsible for his brother’s wife and the unborn child. All the things were against him.

Perhaps…perhaps he suffered from a heavy sense of guilt, making Yoon Jae-sun’s future his liberator in a way.

I tried to block the pouring rays of the sunset from my hand. With a small frown on my face I looked at Lee Hyun, he was tightly gripping the steering wheel, I could see his knuckles had turned white from the grip. I stared at his face and muttered to myself,

“I don’t think you are serious…”

The traffic light turned green. He slowly moved the car forward and asked.

“Why? At what point did you feel that way?”

“Just…pretending that you care for others, aren’t you just trying to live a more comfortable and easy life?”

“Why? Did it look that way?”

“Because this part is stiff right now.”

I reached over and gently pushed the side of his lip. I could feel a warm pulse from where I touched him. He was shocked by my sudden touch, he clenched his jaw. I could see his Adam’s apples bobbed up and down. The long column of his neck constricted as he swallowed.

“Then, can you tell what I’m thinking right now?” He asked while not breaking from my touch.

“Well… don’t feel too guilty. And it’s someone else’s business anyway. No matter how hard you try, you can’t control other people’s happiness. I’m sorry about what happened to your brother.” I said.

I could feel the strength in his hands holding the steering wheel. I removed my hand which blocked the light away from my eyes and instead I closed my eyes. Even though my eyes are closed I could feel his stare on me. His lingering gaze left sparks on my skin. My cheeks were heating up, maybe it is because of the direct rays of light I thought.

“Lee Ji-Eun.”

In a deep voice, Lee Hyun called out my name. I shook my head, covering my ears with both hands.

“Forget it. Pretend that a stupid woman blabbered some nonsense without knowing the subject. Actually, I don’t even know what I’m talking about.”

I pretended to be joking, but my heart felt like it was about to explode at any moment because just now, stirred from a wild impulse, I had started talking nonsense. I tapped each finger gripping my handbag, hoping to fall asleep like last time.

The speed of the vehicle gradually slowed down. Eventually, the car came to a stop, and I slowly blinked my eyes open. The bright glow of the sunset reflected on the lake through the car window, bathing my whole view in white. I was stunned by the scenery, it was so dazzling. Without knowing my mouth had opened slightly in surprise.

However, I was not lucky enough to appreciate the beautiful scenery. The tip of my chin was suddenly caught by Lee-Hyun’s hand, and my entire front view suddenly turned dark.

“Then, you should ignore it, too.”

My eyes were wide open and my pupils were trembling.

“…Pardon?”

“It’s wrong. I was thinking about how to take Lee Ji-Eun to a hotel.”

Then in a split second, Lee-Hyun pulled my chin forward.

***

“Your father wants to bring you. I think that would be good, Ji-Eun.”

It was Saturday and 4.40 pm. I took a sip of the tea in front of me after checking the time.

A few days ago, I didn’t know what actually got into him to drive to Seoul with me. It didn’t finish from there, he helped me to get out of the car and escorted me to the front of the architecture office. And during that whole time, my hand was in his grasp.

I haven’t been able to sleep properly since that day. Of course, he didn’t kiss me, but I thought he was going to. He brought his face inches away from me and rolled up the corners of his lips giving me his devilish smile.

I’ve been suffering from insomnia ever since I met Kwon Lee-Hyun. That night, the day I last saw him, I kicked my blanket away and went to drink a cup of hot milk to calm my nerves. Yet the whispers of a man named Kwon Lee-Hyun always kept lingering in my ears, which kept me awake all night.

The quarrel with Lim Soo-wan was nothing. I had lived and endured through all sorts of storms, but this was the first time I felt exhaustion all throughout my body.

“Hey, are you listening to me?”

I came out from my train of thoughts and raised my head to see Kim Hee-Joo’s beautiful lips. It was already Saturday afternoon, the day I dreaded not to come. This is the same day Lee-Hyun had spoken about. I had tried to cancel this day, but in the end, I had to come along with my stepmother.

“I’m listening. But when I join Iris, it will get complicated. Besides, I’m an adult…I can make my own decisions. I don’t want to bother with it.” I told her.

“Well…as you know, our chairman is not in very good health at the moment. What’s worse, his children have low fertility and only have a few kids. Unfortunately, I’m infertile too.” My stepmom said.

“It’s not your fault.”

Hee-Joo smiled and shook her head as she looked at me.

“Well, what I want to say is that I think your mother is about to make a fresh start. You, as her grown daughter, shouldn’t become an obstacle in her way, right? Besides, we need you. I think this is a win-win situation for everyone.”

I stopped twirling my fingers along the rim of my teacup when I registered what she said. I frowned and asked,

“Were you digging around about my mom?”

(T/N: So I want to summarise the story that had happened up until now. As y’all can remember, the novel starts with a meeting that was arranged at a restaurant by Ji-Eun’s father. It is a blind date set for Ji-Eun and Lee-Hyun to meet each other. At this point, they didn’t know each other and Lee-Hyun didn’t appear at the date making an excuse that he was busy. After that Ji-Eun went to Germany along with her staff for an award ceremony. So their first encounter was in Germany.  After that, they ran into each other several times. Now that blind date that was cancelled was rescheduled again. Since then Ji-Eun tried her best to convince Lee-Hyun to cancel their upcoming date. But in the end, it didn’t happen and now she has come to that rescheduled blind date along with her stepmother. Also, now it’s more like a marriage meeting than a blind date. The story continues from there.)