Reason for Marriage - Chapter 18

Chapter 18

A cold-blooded person who is hotter than anyone else in the world

“Can you let me use your arm?”

Sang-yeon gave up one of his arms as Minju requested.

Minju seemed to be hesitant for a while, but very carefully wrapped her body in Sang-yeon’s arms from head to toe.

After a few turns, the bodies of the two intertwined like a single chain.

They were just hugging each other, but each other’s bodies reacted. It was a fascinating and mysterious thing.

Minju’s bare skin raised a lot of goosebumps on Sang-yeon’s skin, and Minju’s lips, which had turned blue, gradually returned to their natural color.

The unknown heat, which started from her stomach, gradually spread throughout her body, magically reviving the sensations in her fingers and toes.

“Look at this. It got warm quickly.”

Minju whispered in Sang-yeon’s ear.

When the small, gentle breath tickled his ear, Sang-yeon changed his posture and hugged Minju tighter.

It was so strong that she felt like suffocating with her ribs crushed, but Minju thought she wanted to stay in it forever.

Badump badump badump! The sound of Sang-yeon’s heart pounded Minju’s chest.

“You’re not cold-blooded. It’s pounding. Your heart… It’s too fast.”

Just as Minju’s body warmed up with Sang-yeon’s body temperature, Minju’s words warmed up his frozen heart.

Sang-yeon wanted to feel and confirm at this moment that he also had feelings, that he had a heart that was beating as if it were bursting, and that he was alive.

“I want to do it… Crazy.”

“It’s not even Monday today?”

Sang-yeon broke his promise to do it only once a week on a set day.

Minju took a moment to enjoy the feeling of winning even for a moment.

“If you say no, I won’t do it.”

Sang-yeon said politely, but his body was already ready.

“Instead, there’s a condition. You’re the one who broke the rule, so don’t say things like a set day again in the future.”

Sang-yeon admitted his defeat cleanly and begged Minju for love.

Minju wanted Sang-yeon to be rewarded instead of apologizing for deceiving her. The reward of love…

So she teased him and asked for more.

Whether he knew it or not, Sang-yeon obeyed Minju and did everything she wanted until she was satisfied.

Now it did not matter who Sang-yeon was originally.

At this moment, it was none other than Minju herself who dominated Sang-yeon’s body and mind, and it would continue to be the same.

‘Seo Hye-ryeong, there is no place for you to come back. This man is mine now. I will never give it back. I won’t miss it no matter what.’

She was not a foolish nervous lady who was jealous of a woman whom she had never seen.

Instead, she was an attractive woman screaming for victory in greater excitement created by the guilt of stealing her man.

It was a hot night when everything burned down and disappeared.

It was around 3 a.m. when Minju opened her eyes to the thirst of burning her throat.

She completely separated her body from Sang-yeon’s, who was hugging her, and gently went down to the first floor so that he would not wake up.

After making love, she took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and drank it, as if she was about to refill all the body fluids that had escaped from her body.

As she poured water down her throat, Jerry’s cry came from somewhere.

Minju was so surprised that she spat the water she was drinking.

Cough! She coughed for a long time until her eyes turned red because she was choking and had trouble breathing for a while, so she could barely hear the sound again when it calmed down.

Meow~

It was intermittent, but it was clearly Jerry’s cry. Minju slowly followed the subtle sound.

Oops! There was this room. Why did I forget to look here?

It was not until she reached the front of the room at the end of the hallway on the first floor that Minju realized that she had not been looking around here.

When she put her ears to the closed door, Jerry’s cry grew louder and louder.

“Jerry! Jerry, are you there?”

Minju turned the handle of the door, but the tightly locked door did not budge.

When Minju was convinced that Jerry was definitely in there, her hands became stronger.

‘The cat cry I heard when I got Sang-yeon’s call in the hotel parking lot wasn’t an auditory hallucination! Then it means that Sang-yeon came home, and knew that I went out without permission…?!’

It was the moment when the questions that had been swirling in her head since daytime found a link and led to a reasonable doubt.

Minju grabbed the doorknob like a crazy person and shook it. The moment when the doorknob was shaking dangerously as if it was about to break!

“Minju-ssi, what are you doing now?”

In the dark, Sang-yeon’s firm voice was heard.

“Open the door to this room. I think Jerry is here.”

“How can a cat enter a locked room?”

“But please open it up a little bit. I can hear the sound of a cat crying inside.”

At Minju’s words, Sang-yeon stood silent and waited for the sound. He stayed immobile for a long time, but strangely, Jerry’s voice that Minju had heard was no longer coming.

When it became a strange situation as if she had made up something that she did not want to say, Minju knocked on the door in embarrassment and called Jerry’s name.

“Jerry-ya, I know it’s you. Jerry is nice, right? Could you answer? Jerry?”

“What sound do you hear? I can’t hear anything. Are my ears weird? Or yours?”

“…He has been crying until just now. It’s true.”

“That’s strange. The sound was cut off when I appeared.”

“Jerry-ya!”

“Do you have a tinnitus or auditory hallucination? Even during the day, you keep hearing cat sounds.”

Minju, who was furious at the word tinnitus and auditory hallucination, looked at Sang-yeon with a bitter face.

“Don’t be rude and open the door! Hurry up!”

“It’s not something to be ashamed of. You can tell me anything. Because we’re a married couple.”

Sang-yeon walked out of the darkness and slowly approached Minju.

Rumble! Lightning struck in the dry sky.

At that moment, Sang-yeon’s eyes flashed like those of a nocturnal beast aiming for its prey.

Surprised by his unfamiliar face, Minju unknowingly took a step back.

“I… I’m not sick.”

“Did you forget it already? You promised me. You’ll never be curious about this room.”

Promise? She had really completely forgotten. Only then did Minju remember the last third clause of the promise she made with Sang-yeon.

Do not enter the room at the end of the hallway on the first floor.

But weren’t promises just unilateral prohibitions? In addition, Minju felt resentful and unfair when she saw Sang-yeon blocking her by talking about promises in this situation.

“That’s true, but… still.”

Minju, who had no logic to refute otherwise, stuttered when she was driven to a corner.

“All right. Will you be satisfied if I open the door of that room and see that Jerry is not here?”

“You’ll have to open it to know.”

Minju immediately rushed in and replied recklessly when Sang-yeon took a little time.

“You look at me as if I ate Jerry.”

“…”

“You don’t deny it? Yes, being suspicious means that the trust between us has been cracked. Minju, you decide. Whether you open that door.”

Sang-yeon readily held out the key to Minju.

He was warning her that the moment she opened the door, regardless of whether Jerry was truly inside or not, the relationship between the two could never go back to before, and was clearly asking her to take responsibility.

At this point, would she erase all of her doubts about Sang-yeon? Or would she believe in herself until the end?

In the end, Minju chose the latter.

She grabbed the key and opened the door. Minju did not doubt herself until she searched the wall inside the room, turned on the light and saw nothing.

However, she realized that she was wrong only after looking into the room for more than five minutes with everything clearly visible under the bright light. Jerry was nowhere to be found.

It was the moment when the blade of doubt directed toward Sang-yeon completely turned to Minju herself.

‘What did I hear? Was it really hallucination? I thought it got better. Didn’t it?’

Minju could not believe it, so she tapped her ears with her palm and shook her head around. Indeed, she could no longer hear Jerry’s cry.

With her head down due to uncontrollable frustration and remorse, she stood blankly and looked at the rain that had just begun to fall.

She was recalling every single thing that her foolish choices had ruined…

“What were you doing when Jerry disappeared?”

It was a stabbing question that pierced her.

‘Yeah, this wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been away. It’s all my fault.’

“Stop it. I’m fully reflecting on myself.”

Minju may have hoped Jerry’s disappearance was not because of her. Because she wanted to blame someone instead of herself. She might have aimed at Sang-yeon for no reason to shift the responsibility to him.

“…Is there anything else you want to say to me?”

Sang-yeon said, staring into Minju’s eyes as if he knew everything.

Minju thought, barely holding back her confession by trying to stop her eyes.

‘Even if you know that I broke the rules and went out secretly, even if you know that I know the existence of Seo Hye-ryeong, it’s not the right time. Let’s pretend we don’t know about this. I think that’s better.’

Because she did not have the courage to know all of him or show all of her yet.

It took quite a bit of determination to take off the masks that had been put on each other and to face each other’s true faces.

But what if Minju had confessed everything at that time? She thought about it a lot, but it was all useless.

“I’ll admit that I heard it wrong.”

Even if this was not what Sang-yeon wanted to hear, it was not a big deal. It was the best for Minju.

“I think you need to rest. If you need treatment…”

“Thank you for caring, but it’s not that much. I know my body well.”

“Then it’s good. Instead, I hope you won’t come into this room again.”

Finally, Minju, who looked around the room one last time, came out of it without clearing her dubious mind.

Sang-yeon locked the door of the room tightly again, and the two were silent.

What if Minju had trusted Sang-yeon and had not opened the door of the room that day?

But the door was already open and the water was spilled.

Sang-yeon’s warmed heart froze again. Much stronger and colder than before.