The Fox's Trap
Kim Jeeon watched her with a sly, knowing smile, but Lee Heeseo kept silently slicing her food. She had to release the anger surging inside her somehow.
Most of the guests at the banquet seemed to be Kim Jonghyeop’s closest confidants. They addressed him with a mix of titles—Chairman, Uncle—and as Heeseo listened to their conversation, one realization struck her.
…They’re treating the possessed grandson remarkably well.
Kim Jonghyeop had gone so far as to fabricate a false identity and arrange a marriage just to drive the ghost from his grandson’s body. Yet the way he treated Kim Jeeon in front of everyone now was exactly how one would treat a future successor.
Is he that certain I’ll succeed in casting it out?
Kim Jonghyeop freely expressed his trust in Kim Jeeon. When he declared that the success of GM Group’s upcoming new ventures would rest solely on Jeeon’s abilities, everyone nodded in agreement.
Heeseo had absently reached for her wine glass, but she swallowed water instead and chewed over the thought.
The way he’s praising him this much… the thing occupying Kim Jeeon’s body doesn’t seem like the type to cause scandals.
Ghosts rarely restrained their desires and cravings. Having become ghosts through unresolved grudges, once they found a tool to settle those grudges, there was no reason to hold back. And a possessed person was nothing more than a tool to them.
Sometimes that tool was used for appetite, sometimes for lust, sometimes for violence. The common thread was that their urges were almost always primitive and one-dimensional.
But from everything I’ve seen so far, I can’t call this possession at all.
She sensed no such urges from Kim Jeeon. She had only observed him for a week, yet his life was rigidly patterned. Nowhere in his daily routine had he shown a single impulsive act or base craving. If he hadn’t revealed his true existence on their wedding night, she would have doubted the possession itself—he seemed that thoroughly “normal.”
Perhaps her thoughts about Jeeon had grown too deep. Belatedly, Heeseo noticed that the table had fallen quiet. When she came to her senses, every eye was on her. Cold sweat slid down her spine.
“……My Korean isn’t very good. What did you just say?”
Fortunately, no one called out her shameless excuse.
“It seems Madam has already departed, Executive Director?”
A young man seated near Jeeon joked, and laughter erupted around the table. The sight of them all looking as if their lungs had filled with air was thoroughly unpleasant.
Feeling somehow like the butt of the joke, Heeseo turned her gaze to Jeeon. He merely lifted his champagne flute lightly and smiled, offering no explanation whatsoever.
Expecting help from him in the first place was absurd. Heeseo had been about to play dumb to the end, then changed her mind.
“Where exactly am I supposed to have departed to?”
She forced one corner of her mouth upward into a smile and asked the young man.
“It’s not the most common honeymoon destination, but it’s romantic. I hope you enjoy yourselves.”
The man who had called Jeeon Executive Director answered and clinked his glass against the empty air. At once, everyone raised their glasses and toasted her.
As Heeseo’s expression grew steadily harder at the incomprehensible words, Kim Jonghyeop spoke.
“The two of you seem to get along far better than I expected.”
“It’s all thanks to you finding me the perfect bride, Chairman.”
“Indeed. The new daughter-in-law suits you remarkably well.”
Kim Jonghyeop offered his grandson a toast of well-wishes as well. Listening to the exchange between grandfather and grandson, Heeseo nearly let out a hollow laugh before forcing it down.
It’s not just me being played by this goblin’s game…
The only faces she knew were Jeeon, Kim Jonghyeop, and Seo Hyeon-a. Sitting among strangers and listening to words she couldn’t follow was irritating enough. Their curious stares only soured her mood further.
But what finally pushed her over the edge was something else entirely.
“I trust you won’t return empty-handed from the honeymoon. Remember that I approved this long business trip for that very reason.”
“A week will be plenty, Chairman. It’ll be Heeseo-ssi’s first time in Dubai as well, so we’ll make sure everything goes smoothly.”
As Kim Jonghyeop set down his glass and spoke those words, Heeseo briefly denied reality. Someone’s going to Dubai to buy something? she thought. But Jeeon promptly dragged her back to the present.
“Heeseo-ssi and I will do our very best, Chairman. Honestly, I hadn’t been thinking about children, but if it’s a daughter who looks like Heeseo-ssi, I wouldn’t mind starting now. I’m not sure what you promised to give Heeseo-ssi, but she says that if you give it to her, even ten would be possible. Well, I’ll just have to put in the effort myself, won’t I?”
What… who looks like whom… what effort?
Ten? Ten children? With him and me?
When something was too absurd, words failed. Heeseo found herself staring at Jeeon with her lips half parted.
A mere ghost, and how much of her had he even seen? No—more fundamentally—how dare a parasite clinging to a human body say something like that?
Incredibly, even her stunned silence Jeeon regarded as if gazing at a beloved wife. Then, as though whispering sweet nothings, he leaned close to her ear.
“If our Chairman finds out I’ve already discovered your true identity… what do you think he’ll say? Wouldn’t it be better for you to pretend we’re a little happier together?”
This wasn’t a goblin’s game. This was a nine-tailed fox’s trap. When her eyes met those unreadable black ones, Jeeon smiled as if painted into existence—the smile of a man looking at the spouse he loved more than anyone else in the world.
You… you worthless stray ghost who couldn’t even earn a memorial meal…
Heeseo forced her trembling lips into a smile. Mercifully, it looked less like a strained grimace and more like the fluttering smile of a wife enchanted by her impossibly handsome husband.
“I’m… so, so looking… forward to it. The Dubai… honey… moon.”
Ha, ha, ha. Only today did Heeseo learn how awkward her own laughter could sound. Watching the two of them, Kim Jonghyeop laughed a beat late, following her lead.
It was a nightmarish first banquet for Heeseo.
When the banquet ended, Heeseo trudged out of Kim Jonghyeop’s mansion.
Jeeon had suggested they ride back together, but she was in no mood for it. If she had to endure Kim Jeeon any longer, she might have started acting like a madwoman.
The sun had already set, and her body felt as heavy as waterlogged cotton.
…If I can just send that ghost to the afterlife even one day sooner, I won’t have to keep doing this.
Playing the role of a chaebol daughter-in-law—something that had never been in her fate—had drained even the strength she’d nursed on as a baby.
Kim Jonghyeop was as inscrutable as a thousand-year-old serpent, and the ghost attached to Kim Jeeon was no ordinary opponent either.
All I’ve figured out so far is that Kim Jonghyeop is hiding something.
If he truly, desperately wanted the ghost driven from his grandson, the proper thing would have been to offer even the smallest bit of help. Instead, he had simply thrown Heeseo at Kim Jeeon’s side. And like a bystander on the far bank of a river, he merely watched her burn.
“Sly old snake of a geezer.”
With no one around to hear, she was free to curse. Crossing the lawn after leaving the garden path, Heeseo suddenly stopped. Even though her heels weren’t particularly high, the backs kept sinking into the dirt.
Nothing’s going right—absolutely nothing.
Without hesitation she slipped off one shoe and stepped barefoot onto the grass. The weather wasn’t cold; she could walk like this.
She bent to remove the other shoe, then paused. She had sensed a presence behind her.
“…….”
Heeseo finished taking off the second shoe and slowly straightened. Before she had fully risen, she swung her arm hard.
Whish! The sound of the shoe heel cutting the air was razor-sharp.
“Still got that fucking habit with your hands, huh?”
The shoe she had swung with full force stopped dead in midair. Her wrist was caught; it trembled, unable to overcome the grip.
The artificial lights faintly illuminated the man’s face. Recognizing the familiar features, Heeseo’s eyes widened.
“……Choi Jinwook. Why are you—”
In that instant she remembered him, surprise flickered across her face. It quickly curdled into disgust.
“That’s my line, Lee Heeseo. Why the hell are you here? Who do you think you are to be in a place like this?!”
“What?”
“You, who used to play at being some worthless shaman—what right do you have to be here? Huh?”