I Want a Divorce

I want a divorce.

Taejun's thoughts tangled into a hopeless knot. Despite having reached his own crystal-clear conclusion, he could not fathom what Chaeyoon actually wanted.

Not once in his life had Taejun ever doubted his own decisions. Whatever he set his mind to had always come to pass, exactly as he intended.

Yet for some reason, this time alone he could not be certain. The longer his thoughts ran, the more hopelessly muddled his mind became.

It was the first time he had ever felt this way — this suffocating sense of being unable to find an answer. His vision wavered, slowly blurring at the edges.

Taejun bowed his head, pressing a hand between his brows. His chest felt tight, as though his breath had been cut off at the throat.

He couldn't remember his wife's face. That was impossible. The furrow between his brows deepened. But the harder he tried to summon her image, the further the memory seemed to drift away — as if he had lost it entirely, like a man struck with amnesia.

KRAKOOM. A bolt of dry lightning tore down beyond the window.

Impossible… it was impossible. And yet the more he searched, the more distant everything grew, until he no longer felt sure of who he even was. Taejun hammered his fist against the window. At that instant, like the lightning flashing down outside, his mind went blindingly white — a burst of white light searing across his vision — and then every memory in his head went dark.

With a heavy, muffled thud, his body crumpled to the floor.

The door burst open.

"CEO Moon!"

"……"

"CEO Moon!!"

But no sound reached him.

"Why hasn't he woken up yet?"

Moon Daeshik paced back and forth, unable to keep still. Three days had passed since Taejun's sudden collapse, and still he had not opened his eyes.

"His brainwaves are normal, and every other test has come back completely clean," Professor Park replied, his heart heavy.

"Then try something else! How long are you planning to just sit there?"

"I believe it would be best to wait a little longer."

"Wait until when? If he never wakes up at this rate, will you take responsibility, Professor Park? Do you have any idea who this man is? The one meant to carry on as the fourth-generation only son and lead the Royoung Group."

Unable to contain his frustration, Daeshik's voice exploded through the room.

Royoung Group. Moon Taejun, CEO of Royoung Department Store.

His talent was beyond all comparison — this year alone, he was slated to be named the most capable businessman in the country.

"Wait — never mind that. Once the boy wakes up, there's nothing wrong with him fathering children, is there?"

At the sudden question, Professor Park broke into a cold sweat. He could not for the life of him follow how the conversation had taken this turn.

"That has absolutely nothing to do with it."

"Are you certain?"

"There has never been a recorded case of such a thing."

"Still, just to be safe, the moment he wakes up, that's the first thing you'll confirm. How am I supposed to seat a man who can't even produce children as my successor?"

Daeshik had been raging without pause, but his voice finally died down when the door opened and someone stepped into the room.

It was Chaeyoon.

"What… what is that thing doing here!"

Despite Daeshik's bellow, Chaeyoon moved slowly toward Taejun's side, where he lay surrounded by a thicket of machines.

At first, she hadn't believed that he had collapsed and was unconscious. But before she even had time to consider that he would have no reason to tell such a lie, a single photograph had left her speechless and hollow.

She was the one who had asked him for a divorce. Never once had she imagined things would unfold like this.

He had never so much as caught a cold. Even under a brutal, punishing schedule, he never complained of being tired. He simply, quietly did what needed to be done. Their marriage had been much the same.

That was why she had found it so hard to believe he had collapsed.

And yet…

Looking down at Taejun lying there without the slightest movement, Chaeyoon bit down hard on her trembling lip.

"How… why…"

The words wouldn't come, as if she had forgotten how to speak.

How could something like this happen? To a man who had always been so healthy.

"What on earth happened to him?"

No one had told her anything on the way over.

"Well… he collapsed quite suddenly," Secretary Lee answered carefully.

"Then why? He was perfectly healthy."

"We don't know that ourselves…"

SLAP. In an instant, Chaeyoon's head snapped to the side. Before she could even register the shock, another SLAP.

Her mother-in-law — Jang Hyun-ah.

"……"

"……"

"The sheer nerve of you."

At Jang Hyun-ah's icy voice, the air in the hospital room froze over solid.

"……"

"Who do you think is to blame for all this? For Taejun collapsing like this out of nowhere, when he was perfectly fine?"

At Jang Hyun-ah's rebuke, the two daughters-in-law who served as her retinue nodded along in unison.

"You vanish without so much as a word, and now you're curious? You truly have no shame. No — I've known you were shameless for a long time, but I never imagined you could sink this low. This is why people should only marry within their own level."

It had been Minjung, Moon Taesoo's wife, who had arranged Taejun's blind date.

Moon Taesoo was Jang Hyun-ah's eldest son — for all practical purposes, Chairman Moon's firstborn. The child born to his late first wife had been a daughter.

Kim Minjung had recommended for Moon Taejun a match with the daughter of an ordinary professor — a woman with no power and no connections whatsoever.

Admittedly, it hadn't been a bad recommendation on paper. The daughter of a respected professor, with an excellent education — even Jang Hyun-ah had been quite pleased with the candidate.

"It's all my fault. I should have chosen Taejun's match more carefully, but he liked you so much that I let it happen — and honestly, I regret it deeply."

Daeshik had never warmed to Chaeyoon. She had seemed far too thin and frail.

Where would a body like that even carry a child?

Jang Hyun-ah had worked him over relentlessly, practically boiling him in her own broth. She extolled the health of her chosen candidate's eggs, the pristine state of her womb, and the fact that — Chaeyoon aside — everyone on the paternal side of the family had produced sons, and only sons.

That was the point where Daeshik had swallowed the bait whole: the fact that the family line was all sons.

And so the two of them had married — but a year passed, and no child came.

"Lawyer Park."

"Yes, Chairman."

"Skip the speeches. Proceed with the divorce. And find her a suitable man to remarry, starting today."

At Daeshik's abrupt command, Chaeyoon's face went rigid.

She was the one who had asked for a divorce — but if they parted ways like this, she knew she would regret it for the rest of her life. The divorce could wait until after he woke up. It wouldn't be too late then.

"I'm sorry, but I don't want a divorce right now."

Chaeyoon spoke in a low voice, letting out a small sigh beneath the steady rhythm of the machines.

"What did this girl just say?"

Jang Hyun-ah snapped at her viciously. At her frost-glazed command, the two daughters-in-law turned their eyes on Chaeyoon as well.

"I know I've done wrong. But I want to wait until Taejun wakes up — then I'll divorce him."

"So you think you can toy with this family as you please? Are we that easy to push around? Divorce when you feel like it, refuse when you don't? Where on earth did you learn manners like that?"

Jang Hyun-ah glared at Chaeyoon, her eyes flashing with fury, and the two daughters-in-law standing beside her nodded in perfect sync.

"Criticize me if you like. Say whatever you want. But I will not divorce him right now."

"Have you ever seen anything so absurd? Do something about this woman. If it were up to me, I'd drag her out of this room right now and make sure she never sets foot near this place again."

"What are you all standing around for? Drag that thing out of here at once."

At Daeshik's furious command, his secretary stepped forward.

"Please, don't do this. I won't ask for anything else. Just let me stay until Taejun wakes up. Please. Mother. I'm begging you."

But Chaeyoon was no match for the strength of the man gripping her arms. She strained with all her might to hold her ground, yet she was dragged away, helpless to resist.

"Oppa. Taejun, oppa."

Chaeyoon called his name with everything she had — the way she had when she'd first fallen head over heels for him.

"Oppa, it's me, Chaeyoon. Please, just open your eyes."

She clutched at Secretary Lee's arm, but it meant nothing. He could neither push her off nor hold on to her, torn between the two.

"You have to wake up if we're going to divorce or whatever it is you want. Please, open your eyes. Please."

It was the moment Chaeyoon gripped the doorframe and called out to him one last time, as loudly as she could.

"What do you think you're doing?"

At the cold voice that cut through the air from somewhere beyond the doorway, the atmosphere in the hospital room froze solid in an instant.