Divorce in Bed Chapter 17

He hadn’t skipped his meals and protested out of some young, foolish spite. He hadn’t cooped himself up to wail in sorrow after being hurt, either.

‘A brat with no countermeasure. Without a single intention or plan. Do you think you’re prepared to handle the consequences?’

Dowon slowly laid Yeohwi down on the bed, which was covered in piles of documents. He then stared down silently at the exhausted Yeohwi with sharp eyes.

‘You idiot…’

I told you I’d let you go, to go your own way—I taught you the correct answer so clearly.

Why would you step foot into this rotten quagmire and subject yourself to this?

What else happens when you crawl into a trash heap besides your entire body getting filthy?

No matter what you’re expecting when you lunge in, it’s obvious you’ll eventually collapse and break.

This festering marriage—I guarantee it won’t last even a year before it goes sour. We’re bound to become a couple that only shoots blame and resentment at each other anyway, so why are you so desperate to clash already?

‘…’

Just then, the lips of the cold-sweating Yeohwi twitched.

His parched, white lips let out a faint breath and fluttered anxiously. He seemed to be having a nightmare.

“…I hate it.”

“…”

“Don’t go…”

The lightless pupils wavered for a moment.

“Mister Dowon, I don’t want to do this… I don’t want to divorce…”

“…”

“Please…”

Dowon clenched his fist tightly. His shoulders trembled ever so slightly. After a moment, having regained his composure, he turned his hand and roughly rubbed his face.

‧₊˚🍊༉‧₊˚.

A clear diagnosis was only reached after the family doctor had visited.

Extreme stress and lack of sleep. And dehydration. It was staggering.

“You were really surprised because of me, weren’t you…? I’m sorry.”

The awakened Seong Yeohwi mumbled with a haggard face. A transparent IV line hung in clusters from his forearm.

The IV fluid dripped slowly into the vein. Drip, drip. Standing by the bed, Dowon watched the transparent droplets fall with a chilling intensity.

He had only roughly loosened his tie; he was still in his formal suit. His eyes were hollow as if he had stayed up all night, but the pitch-black pupils within shone with a razor-sharp glint.

Yeohwi spoke with a weak voice.

“If I were to make an excuse, it’s not like I did this on purpose. I was focusing so hard that the time just flew by without me even realizing I was starving. Before I knew it, whoosh…”

“Whoosh, you say.”

“Yes… whoosh…”

“And so.”

“Yes?”

“Is that the end of your excuse that doesn’t even sound like an excuse?”

Dowon shot back in a voice like icicles formed in the dead of winter.

“I thought you were on a hunger strike. All that just for ‘focusing’? This is the result of being cooped up in a room for days without eating just to focus?”

Dowon’s gaze swept over the messy piles of documents on the bed and the thick professional books rolling around the floor.

“Stop this crude protest. You’re the only one who loses if you ruin your body with this kind of stunt. Don’t try to pull a trick to stir up my guilt through self-harm.”

Yeohwi’s eyebrows twitched at those words. His eyes, which had been drooping with apology, stiffened like a taut bowstring.

“…Mister Dowon.”

A sense of futility, like dry fallen leaves, seeped into Yeohwi’s voice.

“You really don’t have even this much intention of looking at me, do you?”

That night in the bathroom, even though he had clung so desperately, kissed him, and poured out his very soul…

The man in front of him was dismissing his sincere efforts as mere self-harm or a trick.

“Well, I suppose so. Since you planned to divorce from the start, that would be the natural reaction.”

Disappointment and resentment were laid bare on Yeohwi’s face. And then he realized. Sincere feelings or appeals didn’t work on this man. The way Yeohwi had tried to convey his heart through conversation until now was nothing more than noise to Dowon.

He was a person who could not understand the language of emotion. In that case.

“But I don’t have the slightest intention of divorcing quietly.”

Yeohwi lifted his wet eyes and stared straight at Dowon. Within his light brown eyes, a chilly spite—like shards of a pale moon—flashed. It was a thorn sharper than any insult.

“I don’t have any intention of being obedient as told, either. I won’t get scared and back down quietly.”

“…What?”

Yeohwi reached out and grabbed a bundle of documents lying by the bedside. He then tossed it lightly against Dowon’s shoulder.

“If you want to divorce me that badly, then do as I say. You like things like profit and loss, calculations, deals… intentions and plans.”

“What is this?”

“Read it.”

Dowon glared at Yeohwi with sharp eyes. After staring menacingly for a while, he slowly lowered his head. His gaze landed on the documents that had fallen open on the floor.

It was a summary written by Yeohwi himself, titled ‘Current Status of Inheritance and Strategic Management Plan.’

The moment he read a few lines, Dowon’s eyes froze. This wasn’t just a simple list of assets.

Every single letter running across the paper was like a razor-sharp blade.

He picked up the documents and flipped through the pages.

Aggressive analysis on how the vast liquid assets, major downtown real estate, and prime unlisted stocks Yeohwi possessed could be weaponized at this point.

How that capital could be used to secretly purchase friendly shares of KD Group under borrowed names.

And decisively, how to track and pressure Do Jingyu’s weakness—his overseas slush funds.

Furthermore, the total inheritance Seong Yeohwi had received was of a threatening scale, vastly exceeding the level known to the world by dozens of times.

“I’m not so reckless that I’d commit self-harm just because I was dumped,” Yeohwi said in a dry voice.

“Mister Dowon, you said it. This marriage is just a political one arranged by Chairman Do, and I’m not even in a position to handle the consequences.”

“…”

“But, you know. I’ve been sitting on a pile of money since the day I was born. After my parents died and even my grandfather, the only one left, got sick, there was no one on my side in this whole world—only hyenas swarming to rip my money away.”

Yeohwi laughed self-deprecatingly. His face, as precarious as cracked glass, shone faintly with a mix of sadness and resentment.

“All sorts of people saw only my money, not me. Because it was an astronomical amount for a kid to handle, they’d say they’d manage it for me, or ask me to invest. They swarmed like blowflies until I was confused whether I was a person or a money bag.”

Dowon stopped flipping through the papers and looked at Yeohwi.

“That’s why… I didn’t want to be like this with Mister Dowon. Even knowing it was a political marriage, I wanted at least my husband, my spouse, to look at me for who I am, not my background. I wanted you to just smile and be kind to a person named Seong Yeohwi, without any profit involved.”

Yeohwi’s voice, dragged out from his throat, trembled minutely. It was deep and pained.

“But in the end, I’m ignored at every turn, made to act like a trophy, and even given a notice of divorce…”

“…”

“Fine, Mister Dowon is right. No matter how much I resist, we’ll eventually end up divorced, even if it’s forced. When Chairman Do passes away and that time you want arrives.”

Yeohwi raised his hand with the IV still inserted and pointed to the documents Dowon was holding.

“So, until then, make a deal with me.”

“…A deal?”

Dowon’s gaze fixed intently on Yeohwi. It was a cold, searching look.

“I’ll let you use everything I have as stakes. I’ll bet my entire inheritance on crushing CEO Do Jingyu and taking over KD Group.”

Yeohwi continued solemnly.

“You can treat me like a money bag. If that’s my only use, I’ll gladly be that for you. Since this money means nothing to me anyway, instead…”

“…”

“Until we divorce, treat me as your husband.”

Dowon’s eyebrows twitched. It was an unexpected request.

“Like I acted the part of a trophy husband. This time, I’m saying Mister Dowon should act the part of a proper spouse.”

Yeohwi bit his trembling lip hard and then let go. A red mark remained where he had bitten.

“Do you understand? Sharing a bed with me, contacting me frequently, like real couples. Become my person. Even if it’s only until the divorce.”

“…Ha.”

Dowon let out a hollow laugh as if he were dumbfounded.

His grip tightened on the documents. The paper shrieked as it crinkled.

“You’re going to bet this magnificent inheritance just to play house like that? It’s the only thing you have left to boast about.”

“Why?”

Yeohwi did not back down. Instead, he raised his head even more confidently.