The Slipped Dress
“Oh my, how thoughtful of you. I’ll return shortly.”
Once everyone had left, Tae-yeon found herself sitting across from Hyun-seo with no one else in the room. When his gaze drifted downward, she quickly pressed one hand to her chest. Seated like this, her breasts would be completely exposed at his eye level.
He said nothing, yet Tae-yeon felt his stare tightening around her like a snare. His eyes traveled slowly from her slender neck to the swell of her breasts.
Covering her cleavage with her hand did nothing to hide the overall shape and size. If anything, it only made the sight more tempting.
Sitting there like this was unbearable. Choi Hyun-seo was arousing her with nothing but his gaze. That heavy, clinging look felt like a tongue lazily caressing the mounds of her breasts and the hollow of her throat, leaving her breathless.
Was it only her imagination that everything felt different from usual?
His performance deserved an Academy Award for Best Actor. By now, every employee in the dress shop probably believed Choi Hyun-seo was utterly smitten with his bride.
Unable to endure it any longer, Tae-yeon shot to her feet. But she must have stepped on the hem, because the dress slid straight down as she rose.
“Ah!”
In her panic she managed only to cover her breasts with both hands, but the gown had already slipped all the way to her waist. Face burning scarlet, she watched him step closer.
“Are you all right?”
Before she could answer, he caught her wrists. One by one he pulled her hands away from her chest.
“Director!”
She couldn’t even cry out properly; she simply stared at him in shock as he looked at her bare breasts and spoke.
“I hear Yun-woo sucks on these every day. Even though no milk comes out.”
She stayed silent.
He studied her exposed chest for a moment, then lowered his head. His lips closed over her breast. The suction was astonishing. She couldn’t begin to understand how he could take control of a person so completely. That was exactly why it worked.
At first she was startled. Then she tried to push him away, but it was useless. Her neck arched back and, without realizing it, she was pressing her breast forward as though begging him to suck harder.
Heat flooded between her legs. When her waist bowed backward, his strong arm slid around her to hold her up. The skin that had been pressed against him flushed a vivid red.
The act was so unexpected that Tae-yeon could only gaze up at him, utterly lost. In the mirror her reflection looked unbearably erotic. The pure-white wedding dress was bunched at her waist; her naked breasts bore red marks from his mouth, and her stiffened nipples stood out shamelessly.
She felt as if she might faint. While her mind stayed blank, he stepped forward and yanked the dress upward with surprising force.
Just then two staff members walked in. He said calmly,
“This dress won’t do. I like it, but if it slips during the ceremony it would be a disaster.”
“Of course. Bride, please come this way. We’ve brought another style.”
She barely remembered walking back to the dressing room. As the staff helped her change, her breasts remained exposed. The red marks clearly showed exactly what had happened while she and Hyun-seo were alone.
“The director must love you so much. You’re a lucky woman.”
At the staff member’s cheerful remark, Tae-yeon bit down hard on her lip.
Had he planned this from the start, knowing it would provoke exactly these words? Was the story that Choi Hyun-seo had fallen so completely for his bride that he couldn’t think straight?
A sudden chill rose from the depths of her heart. Tae-yeon steeled herself. If she let this continue she would become a pathetic, wounded fool. She must never forget that this was all a contract, a role, a job.
After trying on several more dresses of different designs, they finally chose one that satisfied Choi Hyun-seo. Perhaps because he liked it, his expression softened just a fraction.
The corners of his eyes seemed to droop ever so slightly while the corners of his mouth lifted. Did he ever wear that look? She couldn’t recall seeing it even when he looked at Yun-woo. Morning and evening he saw the child without fail, yet his face never changed like this.
“We’ll go with this dress.”
He gave a small nod. There was no trace of the man who had lewdly sucked at her body only minutes earlier; he was once again neat and composed. His face showed no hint that excitement had ever touched him.
Of course. He had done it on purpose to start the rumor. This was the perfect wedding as Choi Hyun-seo envisioned it.
The days until the wedding flew by in a blur. Before that, they had dinner with his family. The occasion was unspeakably uncomfortable, and every time she endured one of those meals, compensation money appeared in her account. It was payment for not being treated like a human being.
Not only Oh Jin-hee but also Chairman Choi’s older sister and younger brother refused to treat her as a person. Everyone’s attention stayed fixed on Yun-woo alone. While sitting there, Tae-yeon felt as though she had become a modern-day surrogate mother.
No one asked her a single question about herself. No matter how much she told herself it was only a job, the setting was almost impossible to bear. She summoned every ounce of patience she possessed, finished the meal, and returned home utterly drained.
The moment she stepped into the bedroom the alarm on her phone sounded. It was the notification for the deposit of her compensation. Tae-yeon looked at the new balance, let out a long sigh, and tucked the bankbook into a drawer.
None of it brought her any joy.
On the way back from Pyeongchang-dong, Choi Hyun-seo had already transferred the money. He knew she had been ignored and wounded. The realization left her feeling hollow.
She was still standing there, unable to sort through her tangled emotions, when he entered. He seemed to have come from the dressing room in search of something in the bedroom. Seeing her, he asked,
“Did you cry?”
“No, Director. But seeing the money appear like this makes me wonder what kind of profession I’ve chosen. Is being disrespected part of my actual job description?”
He remained silent for a moment, then spoke.
“Think of it as customer service. You deal with plenty of complaints from clients, don’t you? Sometimes they genuinely disrespect people.”
Being treated like a ghost and hurt by his family was simply customer service. After all, this wasn’t a real marriage, so the comparison wasn’t entirely unreasonable. Yet she still didn’t understand why an unnameable emotion kept surging up from inside her.
Even so, she had kept hoping he would take her side at least once. That even if everyone ignored her, he wouldn’t simply allow the disrespect to continue without a single word.
In truth, the people who had wounded her were not the unfamiliar members of the Miwoo Group. The hurt had come from Choi Hyun-seo. Her own heart, which kept nurturing futile expectations only to watch them burst like soap bubbles, was far more pathetic, yet her resentment continued to turn toward him.
“The wedding is the day after tomorrow. Don’t waste your energy on pointless things. Icheon-daek already put Yun-woo to bed.”
These days Yun-woo was eating more and sleeping more. At ten o’clock every evening he went down and slept soundly for about seven hours until five in the morning. For a baby not yet a hundred days old, that was nothing short of remarkable.
To Tae-yeon, the only thing Choi Hyun-seo showed any interest in at home was Yun-woo.
Of course that made sense. The child had been born to the woman he loved.
After raising Yun-woo for three months, Tae-yeon had grown deeply attached to him. When he drank his milk and smiled at her with his eyes, he looked like an angel. Even if the whole world turned its back and hurt her, that single beautiful smile from Yun-woo made her feel she could keep living.
Yet right now, hearing Hyun-seo speak of Yun-woo in this situation, her heart sank helplessly.
What did those people matter? She should simply think of it as customer service. But even customer service had its limits. Countless employees on the CS team submitted vacation requests every day. Noticing her silence, Hyun-seo spoke again.
“If that level of comfort isn’t enough, I’ll add more.”
“There’s no need.”
“If there’s no need, then stop making that face.”
“Pardon?”
“Isn’t it inappropriate for an employee to display dissatisfaction to a superior over work-related matters?”
“No. Employees are allowed to show dissatisfaction.”
“True. However, our contract binds us for a minimum of two years. You can’t quit, so don’t. Ordinary employees can show dissatisfaction. They can even resign and forfeit their salary. But not you, Manager Min Tae-yeon. You’re stuck in this situation, unable to move, for at least two years.”
It was a brutally factual strike. A strange rebelliousness rose inside her. Any person would react this way.
“Telling me not to let any emotion show on my face seems excessive.”
“Get used to it. I don’t tolerate that kind of behavior from subordinates.”
“Then fire me.”
Tae-yeon spoke boldly. She had already received the money and secured a year of hospital fees for her mother. She knew she shouldn’t leave like this, yet contrariness had taken hold.
“You know I can’t fire you, yet you say that anyway? Are you picking a fight with me?”
Tae-yeon offered no reply. She walked to the bed and pulled the covers over her head.
“Are you really covering yourself with a blanket in front of your superior right now?”
She flung the blanket aside and lifted her head again.
“Yes! This is my workplace, isn’t it? So what am I supposed to do? It’s a live-in position; you even have to watch me pull the blanket over my head.”
Having shouted that, Tae-yeon yanked the covers over herself once more.