A Promise You Must Keep

The mere settling of a cold aura in her large eyes was enough to transform Heeseo's entire presence in an instant. The ordinary woman who had been wearing sneakers and a loose T-shirt suddenly seemed to have become a sharpshooter ready to take aim.

Even as Heeseo's demeanor shifted so abruptly, the old man showed no sign of surprise. He looked up at her with an expressionless face.

Their gazes collided in the empty air between them, yet neither one looked away.

"Marry my grandson. And kill the thing parasitizing that body."

At the old man's repetition of the same words, Heeseo clenched her fist tightly to hold down the anger rising in her throat.

He paid no mind to her insolent attitude. And the moment he uttered the price for the request, Heeseo's bag dropped to the floor with a soft thud.

"If you eliminate it—if you allow my grandson to claim that body completely…… I will help you find the parents you so desperately seek. That is my condition."

Will you accept the request? the old man asked.

Unfortunately, from the moment the old man mentioned her parents, Heeseo had no choice left.

In the end her pale lips parted, and a trembling voice followed.

"……You must keep that promise."

Otherwise I can't even guarantee what I might do.

Heeseo chewed the words hanging on her lips and swallowed them whole. The taste of suddenly facing marriage overnight was bitterly astringent.

Wedding preparations happened in an instant. It felt as though Chairman Kim had been arranging this for a long time.

First of all, Heeseo acquired a fake identity.

Only the name and gender matched; from age to place of birth, there was nothing that resembled the original Heeseo.

It must have been hard to fabricate something like this.

Heeseo scrolled through the tablet without much interest. A hollow laugh escaped at the sheer absurdity.

"Major in modern dance, hobby is horseback riding? Born in Paris? I don't think the chairman has so little to do that he'd invent this himself. Was this the secretary's idea?"

She asked the woman standing to one side of the fitting room. The woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties was the secretary Kim Jonghyeop had sent—and at the same time, a watcher.

Adjusting her clear glasses, the secretary trailed off.

"Because a high-society young lady suitable for the young master must have no shortcomings……"

"Yes, of course."

Her words weren't wrong.

The man Heeseo was to marry would become the successor of GM Group after Kim Jonghyeop's death. If the marriage partner decided by the grandfather's will rather than the party's own had any flaws, it was only natural for people to grow suspicious.

"All the more reason you must avoid arousing the young master's suspicion."

"Well, I'll try."

According to Kim Jonghyeop, the ghost occupying his grandson's body was extremely sensitive and perfectly seamless. When asked what that seamless meant, Kim Jonghyeop had answered.

"A possession that no one realizes is a possession…… Do you think so too, Secretary?"

At Heeseo's sudden question the secretary chose silence.

Heeseo hadn't expected an answer from the start. She had only been curious how the woman would react.

She suddenly recalled her call with Haejeong. Haejeong was like a sworn sister to her, and now a shaman who had received a spirit descent.

If it isn't simply a ghost the way Haejeong said, the old man might really have gone senile.

Among those who sought shamans claiming to be possessed, a surprisingly large number suffered from mental illness. Sometimes the person treated as possessed had a mental illness; sometimes it was the reverse.

Parents whose minds were not sound would drag in a perfectly healthy child, convinced the child was possessed.

The Kim Jonghyeop she had met in person had seemed mentally sound, but that alone proved nothing.

It would have been better if Haejeong had seen him herself.

Even if her spiritual power was weak and capricious, Haejeong was still a shaman who had received a child spirit as her body-lord. At the very least she could have told whether Kim Jonghyeop was ill.

If Kim Jonghyeop had not been the chairman of GM Group, the situation would have been far easier than it was now.

"……Meeting the person who's supposedly possessed would be the fastest way, but I have to be able to meet him first."

"Pardon?"

The secretary asked back at Heeseo's mutter, and Heeseo shook her head.

"It's nothing. Since using the body counts as dance if it's dance, it'll work out somehow."

Anyway, leftover muscle is leftover muscle. Heeseo answered nonchalantly and pulled off her shirt.

Confronted with her body in underwear, the secretary who had stood silently like a mannequin the entire time let out a short gasp.

"Your body…… is really excellent."

The helper who entered belatedly handed Heeseo underwear meant for the dress and voiced her admiration.

Even with two spectators watching, Heeseo changed into the undergarments without a trace of shame and straightened her waist in front of the mirror. Her major showed far more clearly when she was undressed than when she was clothed.

"Yes. Because I worked hard at dance."

At Heeseo's shameless reply the secretary cleared her throat. The helper silently began bringing out dresses that might suit her.

The secretary chose the calmest and least revealing dress among them. Because it had not yet been fitted to her body, the dress was secured by tightening the strings behind her back like a corset.

When she even put on a veil that covered her entire face, she looked like a model. Thanks to the long sleeves and the veil, only the backs of her hands and the line of her jaw remained visible.

It was a decent appearance in its own way. Even so, Heeseo was carefully examining the skin hidden inside the sleeves.

"The dress suits you quite well. It's a style that's hard to pull off."

At someone's remark Heeseo answered half-heartedly.

"Well, with this the groom won't run away from the wedding hall."

"That sounds like a remark wishing the groom would run away."

Because the fabric of the dress was too thin and soft, when she felt along the inside of her arm the uneven texture came through clearly. Heeseo stroked the cuff and thought of other people's weddings.

The groom and bride always walk arm in arm—isn't fabric this thin a bit dangerous?

There was no need to give anyone room for suspicion starting from the wedding hall itself. Wasn't she supposed to be a ballerina born in France?

Heeseo smirked and reached back to untie the strings that held the dress like a corset. The smooth fabric slid down her body in a soft cascade.

"Not this material—find something a bit thicker……"

It was then. A large hand appeared from behind, wrapping around Heeseo's waist and the underside of her chest as it caught the loosely falling dress.

"Oh my, the progress is a little too fast."

Heeseo blinked her large eyes for a moment and looked down at the hand resting on her chest.

……The hand seems bigger than when they were dressing me.

Unlike the helper's small, neat hand, the one wrapping around her was large and firm enough to completely cover one side of her ribcage, veins even standing out along the back. In other words, it was a man's hand.

Heeseo hurriedly clutched the bodice of the dress and covered her half-exposed upper body.

"……"

"Nice to meet you, Lee Heeseo-ssi. Showing a half-naked appearance from the first meeting doesn't seem very polite. I'm Kim Jeeon."

The man reflected in the mirror smiled over Heeseo's shoulder as if the expression had been painted there.

Tall stature and flawless smooth skin, an outfit that revealed a solid frame, and features so gorgeous there was nothing to criticize.

Heeseo recognized him at once. He was Kim Jeeon, the man she was scheduled to marry.

Why on earth is Kim Jeeon here right now……?

She looked back and forth between the smile as smooth as if drawn and the man's thick hand. Soon fluster mixed with anger stiffened the back of her neck for an instant.

It was fortunate she was wearing the veil. Without it, Kim Jeeon would have been facing a bride whose expression was far more vicious than her own.

"……For someone talking about manners, your hand seems to be in a very inappropriate place, Kim Jeeon-ssi."

Simply refraining from starting a word with something cruder already made Heeseo feel she had reached the limit of her patience.

Normally she would have twisted that wrist and slammed him to the floor on the spot, but unfortunately she was now the elegant ballerina who had just arrived in Korea from France.

No—even if I came from France, do I have to put up with being grabbed out of nowhere?

Still, she could not throw a punch according to her real temperament.

While Heeseo was agonizing over her false identity, the man stepped closer behind her with a smile like a flower. His solid body pressed clearly through the thin silk.

He lightly kissed the straight line of Heeseo's shoulder beneath the veil. It was the sort of kiss one might give a child as a soft greeting.

If his hand had not still been holding her waist, one could easily have mistaken him for a very affectionate man.