“You’re making a mistake! I was trying to help you!”
Seo Tae-joon turned his back on Hwang Jo-yoon, who strained against the bonds holding him to the tree, his body taut with the effort.
“I’m trying to save you from a gold digger, damn it! Do you have any idea what kind of a bitch Han Ji-woo is?”
Ignoring the shouts, Seo Tae-joon walked to Ji-woo and leaned down, gathering her into a quiet embrace. His arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her close. She didn’t push him away.
“Her family is completely broken! They fell in love with each other, committed adultery—”
“I know.”
Hwang Jo-yoon’s tirade stuttered to a halt. “You know?” he asked in disbelief.
“I’m her husband. Of course I know everything about her. She told me,” Seo Tae-joon said dismissively, pulling Ji-woo tighter against him. She could finally breathe a little easier. As Hwang Jo-yoon tried to spew his venom again, they simply walked away, deeper into the garden, leaving his voice to fade behind them.
“Seo Tae-joon?”
“Hm?”
“The tree,” Ji-woo said, her voice small. “If we leave him tied to it, the branches might break. It could be damaged.”
He pressed his lips to her forehead, his heart aching for her. Even now, in her own pain, she worried about her trees.
“The staff will find him soon enough and let him go,” Seo Tae-joon said softly. “But this isn’t the time for you to be worrying about trees, Ji-woo.”
“What?”
“I told you I was ruthless, didn’t I?” he said, his voice dropping. “If you’re going to run away, don’t get caught.” He led her farther into the garden, and the headache that had been plaguing him vanished as if it had never been there at all.
“You!” Hwang Jo-yoon trembled as a man materialized before him—the same man from the bar. He wore a server’s uniform, as though he had just stepped away from the party.
“I told you to live quietly.”
“Fuck Director Seo!” Hwang Jo-yoon shouted. “You’re all a bunch of thugs! You threaten people every time you open your mouths. Do you think you can cover up that stench so easily?”
“Who is Han Ji-woo’s husband?” Hwang Jo-yoon spat. “Is he a thug, too? Does he kill people?”
Jang Beom-hee, who had been looking at his phone with the stoic air of a veteran soldier, suddenly raised his head. For a moment, his composure cracked.
“The young master is different from us.”
His thumb pressed the screen, sending a message. It read: Get the bucket ready.
A short while later, only a silk tie remained on the tree, swaying gently in the evening breeze. The man was gone.
“I’m sorry,” Seo Tae-joon said. “I made it perfectly clear to that bastard that he wasn’t to bother you again. I never expected him to show his face here.”
The Venus Garden, the pride of the Cheongdo Grand Hotel, was a mysterious and beautiful place. Seo Tae-joon led Ji-woo toward a thicket of trees, and she followed him quietly. They sat down together in the dappled shade of the largest one they could find.
“Did you… did you hear what Hwang Jo-yoon said? About my family?”
“What do you mean?”
“My… my family’s story.” She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. Seo Tae-joon, however, paid that no mind. He only wanted to gently tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
“We’re a married couple,” he said. “Of course I would have known, wouldn’t I? I must have just forgotten it along with the rest of my past.”
So, you don’t know, she thought. The whole situation felt absurd. Just a moment ago, he had been irritable because he knew nothing about her. Now he was pretending he knew everything, just to comfort her.
“I… I never told you. Not even before the wedding,” she confessed, her voice barely a whisper. “I deceived you.”
A heavy silence fell between them. Ji-woo braced herself for what would come next. She had confessed—not the whole truth, but a part of it. She had deceived him then, and she was still deceiving him now.
Then, Seo Tae-joon burst into laughter.
Ji-woo stared, bewildered. She didn’t know what she had expected—anger, perhaps—but his laughter felt completely out of place. He leaned back against the tree trunk, lacing his hands behind his head, looking utterly relaxed.
“Then why tell me now?” he asked.
“What?”
“Are you implying I’m more reliable now? More trustworthy than I was before?” He looked at her, his gaze steady. “Is this a confession?”
How had he interpreted it that way? He squinted into the light, a slow smile spreading across his face. His eyes never left hers.
“Ji-woo, if you say things like this so suddenly, I might get the wrong idea. Just saying.”
“No… I… it’s not like that,” she said hurriedly. “I just meant that I tricked you. You were tricked by a woman with a complicated family history. You have to understand the situation!”
“I might be an idiot, so maybe I don’t,” he said, dabbing at his lips with his tongue. “But if it’s you doing the tricking, I think I like being led on.”