Chapter 2

Jun-hyeok stared at the woman who had appeared in front of him and muttered, bewildered.

“Don’t tell me this is some kind of hidden-camera prank.”

His eyes narrowing to a sharp line, he strode over to the men who had been muttering together a little way off and seized one of them by the shoulder.

“Ugh, hell, you scared me. What now?”
“That woman who just came out…”

Jun-hyeok held back the rest of his words and kept his eyes on Seo-ha, while the man grinned at him with an ‘I knew it’ look.

“So you’ve got an appetite too, once you actually see her?”
“Shut up and answer only what I ask.”

The commanding tone seemed to rile the man, but he couldn’t manage much of a comeback.

“The girl you lot were talking about just now, the one who can’t see. That’s her?”

The man nodded, still wearing the same offended look.

“Keeping your mouth shut is commendable, but when a man asks you a question, you answer, don’t you?”

Only when Jun-hyeok’s big hand clamped down hard on his shoulder did the man scramble to speak.

“Y-Yun Seo-ha. Assemblyman Yun Jeong-hwan’s adopted daughter, over there. He’s famous in these circles for adopting a disabled girl who can’t even see and raising her like a treasure.”
“She can’t see?”
“That’s right. You think Yun Jeong-hwan threw a charity gala for the visually impaired for nothing? It’s all about putting his daughter out front, getting his morals certified and his image packaged. There’s even talk he’ll be appointed Minister of Health and Welfare soon.”
“Blind. Since when.”
“Ah, how many times have I told you she’s been stone blind for ages! What, she’s the blind one and you’re the deaf one?”

Something sharp flashed in Jun-hyeok’s eyes. In the same instant the man’s arm wrenched around and his upper body slammed down onto the table.

Champagne glasses toppled with a loud clatter, and the sudden disturbance drew every eye nearby.

“Ah, my apologies. My friend has had a bit too much to drink.”

Jun-hyeok flashed the room a handsome smile and turned his grip on the man’s arm into a mock shoulder-hug.

“You’re not a child. Pace yourself.”
“Hey… you mad-dog son of a bitch.”

Twisted around and shoved before he even knew what was happening, the man panted with fury.

“Look how old you are, and you still swear the second you’re drunk.”

Jun-hyeok offered the people around them a brief apology, then grabbed the man by the collar, hauled him upright, and lowered his voice to a whisper.

“There’s one thing you’re good at. Running away from the mad dog. Now’s exactly the time for it.”

An indifferent smile still hung at the corner of his mouth. To anyone watching, he looked like a man tending to a drunk friend without letting a flicker of irritation show, his expression perfectly controlled and perfectly unhurried.

“…Business, my ass. He’s nothing but somebody’s errand boy.”

Still muttering curses at him, the man finally fled, weaving through the crowd. Naturally, Jun-hyeok did nothing to stop him.

“Go on, then. Run all you like.”

He drained what little champagne the spill had left on the table and gave a scornful laugh.

Curious, he let his gaze travel slowly over Seo-ha’s pale face once more. Not once in his life had he doubted his eye for faces.

It was definitely that woman.

Just then, another commotion broke out in the hall, and whatever else was uncertain, one thing was not: the ten minutes he had promised had long since come and gone.

Seo-ha’s unfocused eyes turned toward the front, where the light looked like starlight bursting and breaking apart.

Her gaze drifted emptily in midair, and yet her eyes were a pitch-black lake without the faintest trace of cloudiness.

“Good evening. I am Yun Seo-ha. First, let me offer my thanks to my father, who arranged such a precious occasion as this.”

Yun Jeong-hwan, standing beside her, smiled benevolently and patted her on the back, and the applause broke out all over again. They cheered out of sheer habit, yet every one of them was busy muttering this and that about her on the sly.

“It is my hope that through this event, the young visually impaired people of the Republic of Korea will receive more support, find professional work, and go forward toward a bright future.”

Her greeting done, Seo-ha swept her gaze once across the gathering. She had put in eye drops a short while ago, so nothing but bright bubbles wavered before her; no image took proper shape.

As she stepped back from her place, a chilling remark slid into her ear. A bleak cold crept across her skin, and she instinctively drew her neck in.

“Don’t forget. Feeling is a luxury, and a mistake is a sin.”

That mouth might cut like a knife, but Yun Jeong-hwan would be looking at her tenderly, so she turned a thin smile toward him.

“Yes. I know.”

Then, for a moment, the hall fell into disarray. Even in the middle of her greeting, she had sensed that one corner of the room was oddly restless.

“Assemblyman Yun, my apologies. I’m Inspector Park Mun-cheol of the Drug Crime Investigation Unit, Metropolitan Investigation Corps, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. We’ve had a report that someone here is in possession of narcotics.”

Unable to get a feel for the situation, Seo-ha put on a bewildered expression. With nothing to see by, she always struggled to respond when something sudden like this came up.

People must have crowded in around them, because Dodam led her off in another direction. At times like this, the only one Seo-ha could trust was Dodam, and no one else.

She had just tightened her clammy grip on the harness when it happened.

“Ah—!”

Seo-ha swallowed the scream that had nearly escaped her. Someone had taken her hand and was pulling her along. Still holding the harness, she could do nothing in her confusion but go where she was led.

Her head was in such a whirl that, up to that point, she had assumed it was someone from her father’s or her mother’s circle. But as the man’s hand closed around hers, so large that her small one was buried in it, fear slowly crowded in.

“Haah… Wait a moment, please.”

Seo-ha, who usually kept herself hunched and drawn in, straightened her shoulders. Standing up straight drew attention to her large chest, so she tended to avoid it on purpose, but perhaps she was too dazed even to register that now.

Fortunately, the man stopped where he was. When she twisted her captured hand, he even let it go obligingly, and the fright that had gripped her slowly ebbed.

Feeling Dodam lie down at her feet, she found her courage and asked.

“Who are you?”
“Hi.”

A fine crease formed in Seo-ha’s smooth brow. If he could answer her question with a greeting, there was no reason she couldn’t do the same.

“Yes. Hello.”

She heard a faint laugh break from him, one that had unmistakably forced its way out between his lips.

“How old are you?”

Seo-ha’s baby-pink lips parted slightly, showing her white teeth. Dragging her out of the hall without a word of explanation was rude, and so was a question like this.

“Hold on, let me guess.”

He must have moved, because beneath a heavy, spreading musk, a sharp-edged citrus brushed the tip of her nose. Her head followed the scent before she meant it to.

“Let’s see… twenty-six? Or seven?”

Frowning faintly, she let her age slip without thinking.

“No, I’m twenty-four.”

She saw her mistake too late; she had already taken the man’s bait.

“Surprising. You look older than I’d have thought.”

At a loss for words, Seo-ha pressed her small lips tightly shut. Just this once, she wished she could make certain of that man’s face with her own two eyes.

A faint scent of lime still hovered nearby. She drew it in deeply, let it out, and spoke again.

“I asked who you are.”
“Me? Want to guess? Guess right and I’ll give you a prize.”

Bewildered that he would tell someone known to be visually impaired to guess how old he was, and unable to hold down the contrary impulse rising in her, Seo-ha answered.

“From the way you talk, I’d say about… four?”

He burst out laughing, right there in the open. He was a strange man, yet his laugh alone rang so clear and bright that it made her even more uneasy.

“You use casual speech the moment we meet, and you only say what you feel like saying.”

He must have come closer, because the heavy scent swept over her. She stepped back half a pace.

“Well, you got the last digit right. I’m thirty-four. Call it half right, so I suppose I owe you half a prize.”

He really was a strange man.

Feeling as if she had dropped abruptly into another world, Seo-ha tightened her grip on the harness a little, and she felt Dodam rise to his feet.

“No, that’s all right. Well then, I’ll be…”

Eager to get away, Seo-ha bowed her head in parting. Whoever he was, trading any more words with him might lead her into a mistake.

“No point going back to the hall; it’ll still be loud and in a mess. Stay here a minute.”

Seo-ha tilted her head quietly, as though she couldn’t understand.

“Say, do you like candy?”

She blinked a few times at the question out of nowhere, but answered obligingly.

“I don’t like sweet things.”
“That’s good, then.”

Though the words were approving, something oddly unpleasant ran through his tone, and Seo-ha cocked her head at the subtle mismatch.

“And if somebody tries to coax you with star candy, don’t go gulping it down.”
“I won’t eat it.”

Seo-ha said it firmly to the man who kept treating her like a child. After a brief silence, he finally introduced himself.

“I’m Han Jun-hyeok.”

At that one name, her heart seemed to stop for a moment. Luckily, even then, her lips didn’t forget their job.

“Are you, by any chance, Chairman Han Dong-pyo of H Bio’s…”
“That’s right.”

His answer sounded oddly grudging, but Seo-ha paid it no mind. All that mattered was that the person she had been hoping to meet was standing right in front of her. A moment ago she had been trying to escape; now she hurriedly changed her tune.

“Um, that half a prize you offered. I’ll take it.”

Han Jun-hyeok was right in front of her. She absolutely could not let this chance slip.

“I know why you came here. And of course I know perfectly well that someone defective like me isn’t to your liking. You must hate an arranged marriage between houses. Because divorce may not even be possible.”

Until the presidential election, her father’s final goal, she had to remain a piece on his board, and asking for a divorce before then was out of the question. Beyond that, though, Seo-ha had a reason of her own why she absolutely had to bring this marriage off, and it had nothing to do with the father who had told her he would not tolerate mistakes.

“In that case…”

Swallowing dryly once without meaning to, Seo-ha made her proposal in a low voice.

“If you can’t divorce, how about being widowed?”
“What…?”
“Because it would be cleaner than a divorce.”

Maybe from saying so much all at once, she felt dizzy. Even so, Seo-ha forced out the last words.

“Will you marry me? I’ll do you the favor of dying, so that nothing is left to blemish your record.”