Deal Breaker - Chapter 82
“Hyeji-ya…”
“Ah, my head.”
The moment he called her, Hyeji grabbed her head with both hands and groaned. Kanghyeon sat her down in his chair and perched himself on the edge of the desk.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
Leaning her head back against the chair, repeatedly muttering “Aigoo, aigoo,” it felt familiar somehow. Then it clicked. She looked like a chaebol family madam in a drama, collapsing while clutching the back of her neck because her only son, born with difficulty and raised as the best of the best, declared he would marry a poor woman.
Why are you the one doing that though?
It was obviously a trick to avoid the conversation. You think only you know how to do that? Kanghyeon took out his phone and stepped onto his own detour.
“I told Grandmother that I’m the baby’s father…”
“What?”
“I said I genuinely love Hyeji and want to marry her, but Hyeji keeps lying, so I asked her to help me.”
“M…Marriage?”
“I also said I’d come see her soon. She told me to make sure I do.”
“My grandmother did?”
“I always keep my promises to elders. Should I see her today? What does Grandmother like? Korean course meals?”
Hyeji’s eyes flew open. Kanghyeon turned on his phone as if he were about to make a reservation, already searching a high end Korean restaurant on the map app, the kind you only take honored guests to.
Why is this man suddenly going out of control. Do emotions need guiding too?
“Director, please calm down…”
Hyeji grabbed Kanghyeon’s hand tightly.
“How about taking enough time and calmly going over your feelings again?”
“Then should I confess again tomorrow?”
“No.”
“How about next week?”
“Are you seriously scheduling this right now?”
“Yes. Secretary Noh, Noh Hyeji-ssi, please set a confession date when you think you might accept my feelings.”
“I think you’ve lost your mind.”
A hollow laugh burst out of Hyeji’s mouth. She sprang up and grabbed Kanghyeon’s head with both hands as he laughed along.
“Director, did they really swap out your brain?”
She turned his head this way and that, parting the gelled hair and checking thoroughly, but she saw no surgical scars.
“They say it’s possible through the nose.”
“What are you even looking at.”
When she tilted his head back to look up his nostrils, Kanghyeon covered his nose and narrowed his eyes.
“Noh Hyeji, is it really that hard to believe that I love you?”
“Yes.”
“Please breathe before answering.”
“If I didn’t believe it this much, do you think I’d be suspecting things like whether you secretly took out a huge life insurance policy in my name, or whether you’re asking me to marry you to cover a financial hole from the rescue operation?”
“……”
“Even though I know you’re not that kind of person, that’s how far my doubts go. Right now, Director, you’re way too different from the you that I know. You’ve changed one hundred and eighty degrees all of a sudden, so how am I supposed to just accept that?”
“What’s different about me?”
“You weren’t interested in me.”
“Do I buy luxury goods for people I’m not interested in?”
“Didn’t you just buy them because I looked pitiful?”
“What’s pitiful about someone with a Han River view apartment?”
“Ah, I thought you’d just been giving things away for so long it became a habit. You’re so good to your employees.”
“That’s only when other employees have specific circumstances. Did I buy clothes and bags for other female employees too?”
“I wouldn’t know that.”
“Well I didn’t.”
“Oh, really? Thank you.”
“Then will you gratefully accept my feelings too?”
“Then were you harboring ulterior motives toward me from the start?”
Noh Hyeji, you slippery loach. Look at how she twists the conversation.
“Ulterior motives? When I bought things for you, I thought of you like a younger sibling and was just looking out for you, but once I realized…”
…Did he actually have an ulterior motive then?
I must be a shallow puddle, getting my head turned into muddy water every time I get swept along by slippery Noh Hyeji.
“…I thought it was just kindness, but it was affection I guess?”
I thought so too. Kanghyeon looked down quietly at the suddenly speechless Hyeji, then leaned in. He thought that was enough understanding for now, but his kiss was blocked by Hyeji’s hand.
“You said marriage is a business with bad cost-effectiveness.”
“That was…”
“Oh? Then I guess it’s cost-effective with me?”
“Oh.”
Marriage is a business where the benefits are small compared to the enormous costs. However, marriage with a matched Guide was a business where the benefits overwhelmingly outweighed the costs.
“That’s not why I’m asking you to marry me.”
Because of impure men who used marriage as a means to monopolize their Guides, even someone sincere like him gets lumped together and falsely accused. It’s infuriating.
“And children are environmental destruction.”
“That was just an excuse. Yes, that’s my fault for saying that thoughtlessly.”
Not knowing it would one day be aimed at his own child.
“Hyeji-ya, I’m really sorry.”
“You should be sorry to Mother Earth, not me.”
“I’ll live protecting the environment as much as our child destroys it. Ah, I already did.”
He had already prevented carbon emissions by killing three terrorists who were unrecyclable human trash, so one could say he had contributed to environmental protection.
“So that means it’s okay to have up to three.”
