Two Weeks Until the Exam

Time had slipped by. Now only a fortnight remained until the CSAT — the national college entrance exam — and the whole country's students and their parents were wound tight with nerves, everyone living like monks just to keep their condition from cracking.

But not every test-taker was cut from the same cloth.

"Teacherrrr!"

Ever since the whole business with Assemblyman Park's marriage proposal, I-eum had come looking for Ji-hoon every single day without fail — no, several times a day. Chase her out and she'd come right back, like a summer mosquito. At least if she merely showed up, that was the best he could hope for.

"Marry me, please."

Ever since he'd learned the circumstances of the marriage being forced upon her, I-eum had been badgering him to marry her practically every other day. He was the one who'd ended up having to force a marriage on her, after all — a distinction that clearly meant nothing to her.

"I've been thinking about it, and marrying me would be good for you too. See?"

Here she was, two days out from the exam, and instead of studying she just rattled on about the benefits of marriage. He'd assumed those chick-like footsteps were her only talent — turns out her mouth was just as relentless.

"Did you give up on the CSAT?"

"What? No way I'd do that! I'm getting into a top university and making tons of money, no matter what."

"Then go upstairs and study."

"I can't study. I miss you."

Ji-hoon let out a deep sigh. He'd figured that if he cut her confession off at the knees like any other kid's, she'd back off — but this headstrong girl seemed not to know the meaning of retreat.

So Yeon Ho-nam's blood ran true after all, whether he liked it or not.

"Just listen. My hair's glossy, my skin's flawless, my teeth are straight, my features are pretty—"

"Says who? There are prettier girls than you lined up for miles."

"But out of all of them, I'd bet I'm the youngest and smartest. They say kids take after their mom's brains, you know. I'm pretty and smart — I could give you beautiful, brilliant children!"

"A baby? From you? You still smell like milk."

"I smell like milk?"

When I-eum actually leaned in to sniff herself, Ji-hoon hastily jabbed a finger into his own eyes. So this chick had abandoned all sense of shame along with everything else.

"Keep this up and I'm marking you down for school violence."

"What school violence?"

"Sustained harassment. Now go upstairs."

"I'm not joking, I'm serious! Please, marry me — otherwise I'll have to marry some Mr. Park ajusshi who's older than my own dad!"

She was wielding his own worry against him as a threat. Was that clever of her, or despicable enough to scold? Ji-hoon honestly couldn't decide which.

"Why aren't you answering? There's not much time left. I'll wait until you say yes, so—"

"Is that a threat?"

"It's not a threat, it's a plea."

At the word plea, Ji-hoon stole a glance at I-eum. She really did look desperate, her hands clasped tightly together.

A fate of being married off regardless of one's own will. Nobody had watched that rotten fate unfold up close quite like Ji-hoon had — his own mother had been made a daughter-in-law of Haeseong at a young age in exactly that kind of situation.

"Score a perfect score on the CSAT, and I'll consider it."

At that, I-eum's mouth fell open as if she'd witnessed a miracle. But Ji-hoon, certain there was no chance in hell she'd manage a perfect score, crossed his arms with a noticeably lighter air.

"If you're serious, then go get that perfect score."

She'd call it unfair, surely. Cowardly of him to hide behind the exam like that. And sure enough, within moments I-eum's eyes were wavering in confusion.

"Wha— come on... people make mistakes! That'd mean there's no going back at all. Can't I get one or two wrong—"

"No. Perfect score."

"..."

"Get on TV as a perfect-scorer and give an interview, and then I'll think about it."

That chattering mouth wound itself shut in an instant. All that momentum about glossy hair and straight teeth evaporated, leaving behind nothing but a newborn chick. Ji-hoon's lips curled up slightly, his mood pleasant.

Why had it taken him this long to think of such a foolproof way to get rid of her?

"Okay. Got it."

But the girl he'd expected to whine about it being impossible instead fixed him with a determined look and asked, after a moment:

"That's all I need to do?"

"...Huh? Uh. Yeah."

"Understood, Teacher!"

Something about the excessive sparkle in I-eum's eyes bothered him. Watching her sprint out of the Board Chairman's office, calling back that she'd come again tomorrow, Ji-hoon smacked his lips.

"Don't tell me."

He had looked up her academic records a while back. Getting into a top university wouldn't be a problem for her, but a perfect score on the CSAT was another matter entirely — she'd never even come close on a single mock exam.

So why did he feel this uneasy?

He had the distinct feeling that in the very near future, he'd be watching I-eum on the news, beaming as she declared this year's CSAT the easiest one ever.

The dinner table was laid out beautifully, warm food steaming invitingly. A cozy family dinner hour. Yet Bo-ra sat there without so much as lifting her spoon, glaring holes into empty air.

"Sweetheart, I made your favorite — braised short ribs. Have a taste."

"Yes, and this fresh kimchi salad looks wonderful too."

Her mother Kim Ju-yeon fussed over her, and now her new stepfather Yeon Chang-shin chimed in as well, but Bo-ra's twisted mood hadn't loosened in days. It had started the day she'd seen Ji-hoon sheltering I-eum in the rain, and it had only curdled further when she learned that the marriage Chang-shin had proposed had been flatly rejected.

The whole reason she'd studied so hard all these years was to marry well. The reason she'd kept her friendships smooth and spotless, too, was that a pristine reputation from childhood onward determined the caliber of the man you could land.

And now Sung Ji-hoon had said no.

It was nothing short of an obstacle thrown across her life's goal.

"Dad."

Bo-ra simply could not believe that he had refused her. Young and pretty as she was — how could anyone turn her down? Was even the saying that a woman's face and youth were weapons of mass seduction all a lie?

"Then who is Sung Ji-hoon going to marry?"

"Bo-ra."

"I'm just curious. You said he's been going on arranged dates to find a wife. So why did he say no to me? It doesn't make sense."

"He said you're too young."

"Did you tell him my birthday's January 2nd? Did you make it crystal clear that I turn eighteen legally the moment next year begins, so there'd be no issue with marriage?"

Chang-shin, for his part, had been sitting on pins and needles day after day. There was the daughter who wouldn't let her grudge go for days on end — and on top of that, Yeon Ho-nam had lambasted him as useless, snarling that he couldn't even close one lousy deal.

Watching the exchange, Ju-yeon quietly read her daughter's expression before speaking up.

"From what I hear, Managing Director Sung doesn't seem to treat marriage as purely business."

The daughter's eyes, which had been drilling into empty space, swung toward her.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, otherwise, how do you explain him refusing that dazzling Kang Ri-won to the point of throwing a scene in front of everyone?"

One of Bo-ra's eyebrows arched slowly upward.

The incident where Sung Ji-hoon — then soaring through headquarters as the next successor of Haeseong — was demoted to a school overnight. It had been famous enough that even Bo-ra knew the story. Ji-hoon had declared before the gathered owners of both families that he would sooner see the sky split in two than marry Kang Ri-won, the eldest daughter of KJ Group, Haeseong's sister conglomerate. The whole spectacle had been so loud and chaotic that it supposedly had dozens of witnesses.

"Bo-ra, if you really want to marry Sung Ji-hoon, why not start by dating him instead?"

"Does that even make sense? He refused marriage — you think he'll date me?"

"He refused because it was marriage."

At her mother's words, Bo-ra's expression finally shifted.

"There's no reason to refuse a date. Not with a daughter as pretty as you."

Chang-shin, who had been quietly hovering on the sidelines, hastened to back up his wife's opinion.

"Exactly. That's what I think too. There isn't a man alive in this whole world who'd turn up his nose at a woman as beautiful as you."

Only then did the sharpness in Bo-ra's eyes soften a fraction. But her mood still soured at the scene that remained vivid even now: Ji-hoon draping his jacket over I-eum's head in the rain — and toward her, eyes that went beyond indifference, flat and bone-dry.

"Don't you worry, Bo-ra."

Chang-shin smiled gently at his brooding daughter.

"In your dad's eyes, you're prettier than I-eum."