A Father's Summons

Her spirits soared as if she were floating through the sky. She came back to herself almost at once under the weight of those burdensome stares, though.

Yuju had no proper explanation for those aching looks, so she could only smile awkwardly.

He's not my boyfriend—he's my husband…

For a moment she considered setting the record straight, then let it go. She had deliberately kept the marriage quiet, wanting to live as unobtrusively as possible at school.

Being cast as Seo-won's girlfriend in the rumors by accident didn't even feel bad. It was the same possessive instinct she had recognized in herself at the couple's event they had attended together not long ago—an urge she still couldn't fully name.

While she was lost in thought, her phone buzzed. When she checked the screen, Yuju's expression turned strange. It was a message from Seo-won.

Living with him had taught her just how careful and considerate a person he was.

She had always known he was upright and principled, but those qualities alone couldn't account for everything he did.

Seo-won never seemed to act out of some grand design. Even so, Yuju found herself assigning meaning to every small gesture of his, trembling and fluttering alone over each one.

The feeling she had begun to outline a short while ago was crystallizing, little by little, in that very moment.

"Excuse me a second."

When she checked the caller on the phone vibrating again and again, Yuju's face darkened noticeably.

She could feel her classmates sensing something off. Without a word of explanation, she left the house.

The hallway wasn't private enough; afraid her voice might carry, she headed for the emergency stairwell. The conversation she was about to have was one no one else could overhear.

"Hel—"

The greeting was cut off before it could properly form. Situations like this with her father were familiar enough that Yuju didn't bother feeling resentful. What swallowed her instead was tension—she had no idea what he wanted.

Something to say?

What could that be?

Those few words set countless thoughts spinning through Yuju's mind. She never arrived at an answer, but one thing was certain: it wouldn't be anything good. Not once in her life had her father summoned her alone for happy news.

While she was still unable to reply, the call ended. It wasn't the first or second time, so there was nothing left to be surprised by. Right now her focus had already shifted somewhere else entirely.

A private meeting with her father.

It was the moment Yuju feared most in the world. As she grew older the physical blows had grown rarer, but being driven into a corner by words alone was no different.

Just recalling those times made her blood run cold. She clenched her trembling fist and forced herself to calm down.

It was something I was going to have to do eventually anyway.

She already had serious things to discuss with her older brother before long. This was simply one of the steps she would have to endure before she could set that plan in motion.

The reason she had decided to continue this marriage was for her brother's freedom.

She wanted to ask what he wished to study next, and, if possible, urge him to get as far from their father as he could on his own. She hoped he would meet someone good, someone based on love.

She had been too overwhelmed until now, and she had been afraid of meeting him in case he discovered the bargain she had struck with Seo-won.

Remembering her purpose, Yuju regained her composure. She steeled herself by turning over in her mind all the things she would have to face from here on.

Yuju took one step and sighed, another step and sighed again, repeating the pattern over and over.

It was the same private-room restaurant she and Seo-won had visited before. Her father seemed to have taken a liking to the place near his workplace, because he kept summoning her here.

He had never cared about her school diploma—he had known from the start she didn't want it. So of course he paid no attention to his daughter's attendance in the middle of the semester either. He simply did as he pleased.

Seeing her father like this was nothing new, yet every time Yuju was still astonished. He was the kind of man who taught you, by example, what basic human decency was not.

"It's Yuju."

After long hesitation she finally reached the door. She knocked and announced herself; from inside came a curt, "Come in."

The whole sequence—opening the door, stepping into the room—was harder for Yuju than anything else.

And when she at last faced her father, she froze so completely she forgot how to breathe.

"So you were useful after all. I figured you'd spend your whole life as a useless freeloader who couldn't even earn her keep."

Beomsu clicked his tongue at the daughter who still couldn't bring herself to sit. Yuju said nothing; she only clenched her fists.

All her life, whenever she failed to prove her "usefulness," her father had freely hurled abuse and threats. Things that would make any outsider gasp—and he did them under the name of father.

He jerked his chin toward the seat across from him for the daughter who had automatically shrunk into herself. The moment she perched awkwardly on the chair, words poured out. None of them reached Yuju's ears.

It was only a face-to-face conversation. Even so, her stomach churned so violently she could barely hold back the nausea.

She had prepared so much to say for her brother's sake. She had practiced and practiced in case she froze the moment she faced her father—and still not a single word would leave her mouth.

Disgusted with herself, she silently cursed her own cowardice. She was just gathering the courage to force out one sentence when—

Knock, knock.

A sudden knock rang out. Then, without waiting for permission, someone opened the door and walked in. Yuju's eyes went wide.

It was Seo-won. The man who had no idea she was meeting her father today—the man who ought to be at the company right now.

"Oppa, why are you—"

"I'll just sit for a moment."

Yuju was so full of questions she almost forgot she had been terrified. Shouldn't he be at work?

But before the questions could lengthen, Seo-won cut her off. Then he sat down naturally in the seat beside her.

"What brings you here, Choi?"

Yuju held her breath at the oddly shifting situation. Then her gaze wavered at the words that came out of nowhere.

She had assumed her father had called him. But her father seemed just as ignorant of the reason.

She couldn't tell what intention had brought Seo-won all the way here. Before she knew it she was so focused on his every move that she had forgotten her fear. Her father, unlike her, did not stay puzzled for long.

"Perfect timing. I had something to say to you anyway."

"Please go ahead."

"No need to rush. We can take our time. By the way—I heard you attended S Group's founding ceremony last time as a couple with Yuju."

They had known each other a long while without ever being close. Yet Beomsu was treating his son-in-law with an almost paternal warmth that looked thoroughly benevolent.

At the tender affection he had never once shown his own children, Yuju's lips twisted in a bitter smile. It was the same reaction that always rose whenever her father wore his salesman's smile for other people.

The contrast with how he treated his wife and children never failed to make her skin crawl.

"Because she's my wife."

Yuju, who had been forcing down her nausea, lifted her head at those words. Seo-won's gaze was still fixed on her father, utterly serious.

There was a weight of meaning in his bearing. In that instant every suspicion about why he had appeared here so abruptly vanished.

She had known in her head that they were husband and wife, yet hearing the word from the very person involved left her feeling strangely off-balance.

But while Yuju took the word in an emotional sense, Beomsu interpreted it in the most worldly way. A satisfied smile spread across his mouth.

"That's right. Yuju is your wife."

This was not the satisfaction of a father glad his daughter had married well. Beomsu simply looked pleased that they were speaking the same language.

The more pleased he looked, the darker Yuju's face grew. She could already half-guess what he was about to say.

For his own profit he would use his daughter as collateral and squeeze every drop of usefulness out of Seo-won. And unfortunately, Yuju's prediction did not miss by so much as an inch.