Watch Your Manners
“Welcome.”
The moment their eyes met, Baek Yeo-eun broke into a wide smile and greeted Kang-hyun.
Today’s Yeo-eun was, for lack of a better word, a bride itself. Not a metaphor—literally. An ankle-length pure white dress, accessories that neither overdid nor underplayed the wearer, and her long hair neatly coiled up. She could have walked straight into a wedding hall without looking the least bit out of place.
Just how desperate was she?
Kang-hyun swallowed a sigh and a sneer in the same breath, offered the lovely bride nothing more than a perfunctory nod, and immediately turned his gaze to Chairman Baek.
Everyone already knew how this marriage had come about. There was no need to put on a lovesick newlywed act for each other.
“I’ve kept you waiting.”
When Kang-hyun offered the first apology, Chairman Baek waved it off with generous ease.
“Not at all. Our eldest isn’t here yet either.”
“Honestly, this girl. I told her so many times not to be late.”
Song Min-jin, the chairman’s wife, cut in at once and let out a pointed, theatrical sigh.
“Our Actress Baek has been so frantic preparing for a new project. She says she’ll be here soon, so please understand.”
“I’m fine with it.”
It was a stock reply, yet not an insincere one. The bride’s older sister was hardly required to show her face at a formal introduction.
“Come to think of it, I don’t believe you’ve properly greeted my wife yet.”
As if sharing the same thought, Chairman Baek shifted the topic and signaled the true start of the introductions.
Kang-hyun straightened his posture and faced the mistress of Cheongbaekwon.
If one had to name the person who had changed the least at Cheongbaekwon, it would almost certainly be Song Min-jin. The thought rose unbidden at the sight of her glossy, luminous face, where the years had left almost no trace.
“I never imagined we’d end up connected like this. Nice to meet you, Tak son-in-law.”
Song Min-jin greeted him first, all warm familiarity.
Even at the title that refused to settle comfortably in his ears, Kang-hyun showed nothing. He would have to grow used to it eventually.
“The pleasure is mine. I look forward to your guidance.”
Kang-hyun bowed with proper courtesy, then straightened again.
When their eyes met, Song Min-jin cupped one cheek like a fifteen-year-old girl and cooed an affected “Oh my.” Apparently it was not only her skin that refused to act her age.
“No need to be so stiff between us. Just…”
“Chairman, the eldest young lady has arrived.”
Fortunately a servant intervened at the perfect moment and halted the madam’s unbecoming display.
Every gaze in the dining room turned naturally toward the doorway—except for Baek Yeo-eun, who demurely lifted her teacup and savored the fragrance of the tea.
“I’m here.”
Baek Chae-young, sunglasses covering half her face even indoors, strode across the dining room with regal confidence. The dense scatter of cubic stones on her flamboyant floral dress caught the lights and glittered to the point of pain.
“You’re late.”
Chairman Baek’s voice was stern as Chae-young made for the seat beside Song Min-jin. Reading his mood, Song Min-jin hurriedly scolded her daughter as well.
“Yes, Chae-young. Mom told you so many times not to be late today.”
“Sorry. Traffic was bad.”
The high-pitched excuse carried not the slightest note of apology. Typical of people who needed the spotlight wherever they went.
“That’s why I said to just start without me…”
Fussing as she took her seat, Chae-young’s gaze finally swung forward. At the same instant the hand that had been about to remove her sunglasses with an exaggerated flourish froze in midair.
Kang-hyun met, without interest, the eyes that stared at him intently through the half-lowered lenses.
The faintly trembling gaze looked startled, or perhaps flustered. Either way, it had nothing to do with him.
“Honey, what are you doing?”
Finding her daughter’s sudden halt strange, Song Min-jin poked Chae-young’s side.
“Huh? Oh—oh.”
Startled by the prompting, Chae-young finished removing the sunglasses. In the brief instant her bare face was fully revealed, it felt strangely unfamiliar.
“Is that really you, Kang-hyun? My god, I barely recognize you.”
Whether mere social flattery or not, Chae-young’s cheeks were faintly flushed as she piled on the admiration.
But that was something Kang-hyun should have said instead. If Song Min-jin was the one who had changed least at Cheongbaekwon, then Chae-young was the one who had changed most—there was not a single trace of her former self left to find.
Still, answering “You too” would somehow feel rude, so he was carefully choosing his words inside when—
“Unnie.”
Baek Yeo-eun, quiet until now, suddenly cut into the conversation and leaned toward him. A faint scent of fresh roses mixed with the green smell of grass—had she been out in the garden again today?—brushed his nose.
“Mind your manners.”
“What?”
“How can you just casually call the name of the man who’s going to be your little sister’s husband? If Unnie acts so unrefined, it’s embarrassing for me.”
The edge on the words was too sharp for a simple reprimand. Chae-young’s face flooded with disbelief.
She seemed quite close with her parents. Apparently any attempt to improve relations with her sister had failed.
“You…”
Muttering as if chewing something stuck in her mouth, Chae-young soon turned her head away as though she no longer wished to engage.
He remembered how, as a child, she had tried somehow to embrace even her prickly little sister. After more than ten long years, Chae-young’s patience seemed to have finally run dry.
Well, one could roughly tell just from Yeo-eun’s showy attitude—resting her head on his shoulder for all to see even while her older sister flushed red and blue.
“Even if Yeo-eun was a bit blunt, she’s not wrong. No matter that we’re becoming family, there should still be lines.”
Even Chairman Baek stepped in to defend Yeo-eun. Chae-young bit her lip tightly without a word, while Yeo-eun wore a triumphant little smile at the corners of her mouth as if she had won.
Thanks to that, the already chilly air froze beyond any easy recovery. For Kang-hyun, the seat that had been uncomfortable from the start growing still more so made little difference.
“It’s a happy day, so let’s only say nice things. We’re all here now—hurry and prepare the meal.”
Trying somehow to lighten the mood, Song Min-jin put on a deliberately bright voice and quickly gestured to the servants.
Skilled hands soon laid a feast across the table. Braised short ribs, a nine-section platter, soft tofu soup—the neatly arranged full-course meal with dishes piled high rivaled any famous traditional restaurant.
Yet even every delicacy of land and sea proved insufficient to lift the irreversibly sunken atmosphere.
Each person focused on their own meal without a single word of conversation, the scene desolate enough to feel like complete strangers rather than family. Exchanging empty chatter to force a warm mood would have been ridiculous too, but this bleak silence was just as torturous.
At this rate it looked exactly like a formal introduction forced through for a marriage the entire family opposed—except for the fact that one of the parties involved did not welcome the marriage either.
“By the way, about the two of you’s wedding.”
Chairman Baek, who had taken a spoonful of the sweet pumpkin jelly served as a palate cleanser, finally broke the long silence.
“My wife would prefer we hold the ceremony a bit more slowly.”
“…The wedding ceremony?”
At the unexpected suggestion one of Kang-hyun’s eyebrows rose askew as he questioned back.
As if fully understanding his bewilderment, Song Min-jin quickly added,
“Well, of all times, our Actress Baek is going into a historical drama, and there are so many location shoots she says she can’t free up any time at all. She said it’ll finish next year at the earliest?”
“Yeah.”
Chae-young replied listlessly.
He had no idea what Chae-young’s schedule had to do with their wedding, but instead of objecting Kang-hyun quietly listened to the continuing words.
“There’s no reason to rush it anyway, and weddings have so much to take care of. So rather than setting a date right away, how about taking some time and preparing slowly? These days there are plenty of couples who file the marriage registration first and hold the ceremony later.”
When Song Min-jin finished what was clearly the point she wished to emphasize, Chairman Baek, who had been listening silently beside her, chimed in.
“I wouldn’t call it a substitute, but going on the honeymoon first would be fine too. Wherever you end up going, we’ll support you so you won’t envy anyone.”
Kang-hyun barely swallowed the hollow laugh that tried to escape.
Truly, like a marriage that had been wrong from the start, the procedures themselves were slapdash.
If his parents had heard such talk from the in-laws, how would they have reacted? They would have insisted that at least the ceremony should be held, wouldn’t they? Perhaps they would even have suggested reconsidering the marriage itself.
But such assumptions were meaningless. Right now he was entirely alone, and there was no one left to worry about his situation either.
Moreover, if marriage was a promise to spend a lifetime with the person one loved, then he and Yeo-eun were already long past ruined—they had neither “love” nor “lifetime.”
So a wedding ceremony or whatever could hold no meaning now. No—if, while they kept putting it off, he could strike at Chairman Baek, he would rather welcome the delay.
Yet instead of nodding readily, Kang-hyun turned his gaze to the seat beside him.