The Only Exception

"Don't call me like we're close."

"Why not? One year apart makes us friends."

"You trying to put yourself on my level?"

"You never treat me like a little brother anyway. Give me equal footing and I'll take it."

I snorted.

Kang Min-hyeong smiled like a decent human being, but he was anything but easy. Compared to his father, whose schemes were transparent as glass, Min-hyeong was far more cunning and far more dangerous. That oily, ingratiating smile of his resembled my father's more than his uncle's — it was obvious whose playbook he'd grown up studying.

"Chae-yoon's a hard-ass too, huh."

"She used to tell me not to call her noona. Who knows what she'd say now."

"Show some respect."

"...Hyung. Don't tell me you're actually thinking about marrying her?"

"Who knows."

I sat down and looked straight ahead. I couldn't say I was thinking about marriage, and I couldn't say I wasn't. Whatever I told Kang Min-hyeong, he'd only twist it into a weapon. His gaze brushed my cheek and fell away. He turned that easy, affable smile on an executive and struck up a conversation — a talent I didn't possess.

Even if Min-hyeong was better than his father, he was still transparent. He wanted my father's seat. He wanted my seat. He wanted recognition so badly he couldn't sit still. I'd grant him this much: that smile of his really did win people over. If he'd just put that talent to actual work, it might even be useful. Unfortunately, both Kang Min-hyeong and Kang Je-hyun were more obsessed with golf than with their jobs.

They each served a purpose, I supposed. That was why my father kept them around.

Gangju Group belonged entirely to my father. He had taken the chairman's seat in his late thirties — an early promotion — and Gangju had grown up alongside his youth. There were executives who sided with my uncle, but most were my father's loyalists. The ones who'd held the company together since my grandfather's era also had deep ties to the old woman.

My uncle — and Min-hyeong — believed my father had put me in the successor's seat simply because I was his only son. That was probably the primary reason, of course. But more important than that: there was still no one who could replace me. Because compared to Min-hyeong, I was simply better at the job.

My father — Kang Cha-hyun — was not a man who let emotion sway him. Even his own blood, if it failed to meet his standards, would be discarded without hesitation. There was Min-hyeong. There were my aunt's children. Every one of them held a subsidiary of their own, and every one of them was watching my seat, waiting for a chance to take it.

I had simply not wasted the last chance my father had given me. As if I ever could. The moment I fell from my father's favor, I would lose everything. Every hour I had spent standing there, enduring his contempt and his abuse, would be stripped of meaning in an instant. That, I could not bear. I would, without fail, take this group — the group that old woman, who'd despised me more than anyone, had loved more than anything — and I would make it mine.

"The Chairman has arrived."

My father entered the conference room looking exactly as he had yesterday. Tension flickered across even Min-hyeong's face — Min-hyeong, who'd been hunting for flaws to tear me down with. A taut, thread-like strain pulled tight across the faces of the older executives as well.

Your dad's actually really sweet, you know.

Min Chae-yoon's voice brushed past my ear. I smiled before I could stop myself. Min-hyeong stared at me like I'd lost my mind.

They say you can't hide a sneeze, poverty, or love. As of today, I needed to add one more to the list. You can't hide being a lunatic, either.

Min Chae-yoon showed up to work like nothing was wrong. After kissing me like that yesterday — after that, that... kiss — she struck up conversation as if nothing had happened at all.

"So this is what they mean by waking up famous. I've never been this popular in my life."

"How is that your popularity? That's mine."

"Ah, so I'm just the fox walking with the tiger?"

She really was a fox. The underhanded kind that bewitches you and then plays innocent.

I leaned back in my chair and glared at her. She paid my stare no mind whatsoever, cheeks flushed pink, words tumbling out in a rush.

"My phone's been blowing up since yesterday, you know? The battery died and the whole thing shut off. And then I get to work today and people who have no reason to meet with me are booking meetings, and I spent the entire morning listening to complete nonsense..."

I could guess. I wasn't sorry. I had paid a fair price, and Min Chae-yoon had been the one to accept the contract. She knew what she was signing up for. She wasn't some idiot who couldn't tell right from wrong. She was an adult who took responsibility for her own actions.

...Then why did she kiss me.

I hooked my elbow over the armrest and rubbed my chin. The swelling in Min Chae-yoon's lips had gone down considerably, but they were still fuller than usual. The surface looked a little dry, too. I knew I shouldn't look at just her lips, but I couldn't, by any effort of will, pull my eyes away. Closing them would have been better.

"You're taking all those meetings?"

"What else am I supposed to do, turn them down? It's not like we had nothing to discuss — these are ongoing projects. I can't exactly ask them if they booked the meeting because they wanted to know how I snagged a chaebol heir."

"Not like you'd have any secret to tell them anyway."

"Nope. Can't explain what I don't understand myself."

Min Chae-yoon shrugged. She went on complaining that she'd wasted the entire morning and afternoon on pointless meetings. The kind that drag on forever and produce absolutely nothing — those, she said, were the worst meetings in the world.

"Or I could just tell them. It was my looks."

"Your looks..."

I let out a short, deflating little laugh, and Min Chae-yoon glared at me. The upturned corners of her eyes were faintly red. If I was finding even that suggestive, my ability to function in daily life was in genuine trouble. Dizzy, I looked up at the ceiling for no reason and asked,

"Do your parents know?"

"No. Grandpa doesn't know either."

Min Chae-yoon shrugged.

"It'll be over in six months anyway. No point worrying them over nothing."

"My father might tell your grandfather."

"Then that's that. Grandpa won't ask me about it no matter what he hears. And he won't tell my parents, either."

If it was Min Chae-yoon's grandfather, that was probably true. The problem was my side of the family. Kang Min-hyeong hadn't even tried to hide his interest, and my uncle had gone so far as to suggest having a meal with her. I had no idea what gave him the right to force a dinner my own father hadn't even proposed, but considering the events I'd be dragged to from now on, I couldn't dodge this forever. The bigger problem wasn't my uncle, though. It was my aunt. She hated me thoroughly, and her son was a notorious degenerate.

"Aren't you going home?"

Min Chae-yoon had been watching me rub my temple. She asked it suddenly. Her voice, tossed out so casually, was startlingly clear — like dragging a finger across a mud-smeared screen and watching the image snap into focus. If that sensation could be a sound, it would be this. I answered by looking at her. Min Chae-yoon came toward me, slowly. Her steps were careful, unhurried, the movements large enough that I could track them.

You're fine. You always have been.

I didn't say it out loud, but she needed to know that Min Chae-yoon had always been all right. She should have known without my having to say it. That for me, it had always, only, been Min Chae-yoon who was the exception. She should know that.

She moved in a way that left me an out — close enough to reach me, far enough that I could still pull away if I wanted. That measured tenderness wasn't so bad. She took my arm, then pressed her fingers to my forehead. Her fingertips were cold.

"I have to..."

My voice caught in my throat.

"No fever."

"I just didn't sleep."

"Ah. Because I stole your bed?"

"......"

"Hey, while we're on the subject — it's still October. Why'd you already pull out the goose-down duvet? I thought I was going to cook. Goose down's a nightmare to wash, too. What were you going to do if I soaked it in sweat?"

"I'd just buy a new one."

"Don't flex the chaebol thing, seriously... I saw you had a summer blanket in there. Why go out of your way to wrap me in a winter duvet?"

"I should've just left you to sleep on the sofa."

"Honestly, the living room wasn't that bad?"

"Why sleep in the living room when there's a guest room?"

"Oh, right. I'll take that room."

"What?"

I thought I'd misheard. The headache forgotten, I looked up at her. She'd already pressed in close beside my chair, grinning at me, all teeth and ease.

If I breathed in, air mixed with Min Chae-yoon's scent would enter me. A distance where I could feel her body heat was dangerous. I held my breath and glared at her fiercely. This was a fight I hadn't prepared for. I'd never faced anything like this. And Min Chae-yoon spoke with the most defenseless face in the world.

"You're busy."

"...I am."

"It's only six months. If we want to look like a real couple, nothing beats living together, right?"

Right? Min Chae-yoon beamed. Her plump, swollen lips glistened. I lost my answer, eyes stolen by those lips. There was no bigger idiot than me.