Divorce in Bed Chapter 4

He passed through the hallway, which was so spacious and quiet that his footsteps echoed, and headed up the stairs. The floor was cold marble that reflected the light, and the ceiling was as high as a cathedral dome. Paintings hung on every wall. They were abstract pieces that looked expensive but uniformly gave off a somewhat dark and desolate impression.

It was clearly a beautiful and sophisticated space, but for some reason, it didn’t feel like a house where people lived. It felt devoid of warmth. It was like a museum or an art gallery.

After looking around thoroughly, he discovered a firmly closed study door on the second floor. Unlike the other rooms, the door was made of dark mahogany wood.

Yeohwi reached for the doorknob to turn it, but remembering the cold voice from last night saying, ‘That’s enough,’ he pulled his hand away.

Instead, he took a selfie with the door as a backdrop and sent it.

This is Dowon’s room, right? You didn’t give permission, so I won’t go in.

As expected, there was no reply.

Having explored the whole second floor, Yeohwi came down to the first floor and looked around the large drawing room. Paintings were hanging here and there as well.

Finally, he went down the stairs to the basement and saw a space like a warehouse, including a wine cellar. Next to it was a separate door leading to a private garage.

Yeohwi gazed blankly at the bookshelf placed against the warehouse wall. There, items like plaques for excellent business entrepreneurship were on display, and thick original foreign books that were hard to decipher, law books, and professional journals were plugged in row after row.

Scanning the bookshelf blankly, Yeohwi struggled to pull out one book whose title caught his eye.

Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish.

So you read things like this. Click. Send.

1:00 PM. Sitting on a plush sofa, Yeohwi, who had been immersed in reading, suddenly looked up at the sound of someone calling him. The sentences had been suffocating from the very first page, but as he pushed through and read on, he had already finished quite a bit.

Madam Park called Yeohwi and took care of his lunch. Yeohwi emptied the bowl completely and took another photo.

Photo of lunch.jpg

What did you have for lunch, Dowon?

3:00 PM. Feeling stiff after only reading books, he went out into the garden. Holding an iced americano Madam Park had made for him, he strolled across the lawn near the neatly groomed acacia trees.

Photo of the garden and coffee.jpg

The weather is really nice.

Even if you’re busy, have a stretch! Look at the sky, too!

5:00 PM. The sun began to set gradually.

7:00 PM. He began to eat dinner alone.

10:00 PM. After washing up, he sent the last text while rolling around on the bed.

‧₊˚🍊༉‧₊˚.

Meanwhile, at the KD Group Director’s Office.

Outside the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, a city view as glamorous as a movie unfolded. However, the air inside the conference room was as sharp as a battlefield. Dowon’s face was cold as he presided over an executive meeting that felt like walking on thin ice.

It was then, while he sat in the seat of honor listening to endless reports.

Bzzz.

Dowon’s personal cell phone, placed on the table, vibrated.

The eyes of every executive in the meeting room turned toward it for a moment, but Dowon didn’t even flinch. He merely motioned with his chin to continue the report.

But a short while later, Bzzz again.

Dowon finally set down the first-half performance report and checked his phone screen.

[6 New Messages]

The sender was an unknown number.

When Dowon unlocked the screen, he saw a photo of a dressing room. A pair of unfamiliar jeans hanging next to his suits.

‘It’s that guy.’

The moment he frowned and turned off the notifications, the next messages arrived in a row.

[⚠️ This user is not registered as a friend. Please be careful to avoid damage from financial requests, etc.]

Seong Yeohwi

Photo of toothbrushes.jpg

‘Ha, is he sane?’

Dowon’s finger faltered. The expression on his face as he glared at the screen became lethal.

Should I block him? After a moment of hesitation, he shoved the phone into his suit pocket.

His dry, jet-black eyes without light scanned the executive meeting room, which had grown quiet as everyone watched for his reaction.

“What are you doing? Continue.”

The executives swallowed hard at the atmosphere, which had somehow grown even chillier than usual.

‧₊˚🍊༉‧₊˚.

That night, returning home past midnight, Dowon stopped in his tracks at the entrance.

On the central stairs of the mansion’s foyer, a large lump was curled up on the cold marble floor.

It was Seong Yeohwi.

With his head buried between his knees, he seemed to have fallen asleep and was nodding off while waiting for Dowon. Exactly like a large dog that had fallen asleep at the entrance after getting tired of waiting for its master to return from work.

His comfortable pajamas and fluffy brown hair glowed softly under the dim yellow lighting.

Dowon looked down at the sight while loosening his tie as if exhausted.

He didn’t know whether he should be angry or laugh at this continuing, absurd behavior.

Eventually, intending to just ignore him, he took a step up the side of the stairs to bypass Seong Yeohwi. But whether he sensed a presence or had developed some kind of animalistic sixth sense, Seong Yeohwi snapped his head up.

“Dowon! You’re home?”

He shouted huskily in a half-asleep voice, then jumped up like a springing coil.

A look of joy appeared on Seong Yeohwi’s face. But it soon flipped into a pouting expression.

“Why are you ignoring all my texts?”

“…I worked.”

Dowon answered shortly as he passed him to climb the stairs. He was tired.

“Can’t you even look at your phone when you work?”

Yeohwi trailed after him. The sound of his slippered feet dragging across the marble echoed exceptionally loudly.

“What about your meal? Did you eat? If you haven’t had dinner yet, should I heat up some seaweed soup for you?”

Dowon stopped in the middle of the hallway.

As he slowly turned around, a shadow the size of Dowon’s frame covered Yeohwi’s face.

“You, how did you get my number?”

It was a low voice laced with annoyance.

Yeohwi was slightly intimidated by that overbearing aura, but he didn’t back down.

“It’s a secret. I can’t tell you.”

“It’s my number, though?”

“I found it out on my own.”

“It was Madam Park.”

Yeohwi looked straight up into Dowon’s eyes and said:

“It’s not her fault. I forced her to help me. It’s all my fault.”

“Ha, so you know you did something wrong?”

Dowon tilted his head at an angle as if it were absurd. With his arms crossed, he carefully scanned Seong Yeohwi again from head to toe.

“Right, it is your fault. It’s your fault, but…”

“…”

“So what are you going to do about it? Is the one who did wrong going to receive a punishment or something?”

Dowon took another step closer. Pressed by that momentum, Yeohwi flinched back without realizing it. He felt the hard wall of the hallway touch his back.

As if to say there was no place to run—thud. Dowon placed one hand against the wall, pinning Yeohwi in.

The hallway lights cast shadows over his sharp nose bridge and shaded eyes.

“Do you know what you’re trying to do, coming at me like this?”

Dowon’s gaze swept over Yeohwi’s reddened face before lingering on his lips, where their teeth had collided last night.

“You send trashy texts all day, and you sit huddled at the entrance late at night waiting for someone. Since you’ve drawn a reaction out of me like this, are you satisfied now? Is this the ‘attention’ you want so badly?”

His long fingers lightly gripped Yeohwi’s chin and lifted it so he couldn’t resist.

The scent of his body mixed with cedarwood perfume made Yeohwi’s breath catch.

“What do you gain by doing this?”

“…”

“Is it what you couldn’t do last night—that?”