I Married My Chaebol Rival to Keep My Company novel · Chapter 2 of 24
Chapter 2: Terms
They marry at the registry under the uncle's tipped-off cameras, move into one house, and Do-yoon says sex is not a term; at midnight the monitor arrives and Jae-wook pulls him under him.
The registry office in Jung-gu had a plastic fern and a ticket machine.
Do-yoon and Jae-wook took number forty-one and sat two chairs apart.
Outside the glass doors, four photographers stood in the autumn cold with their cameras raised.
Somebody had told them where to be.
"Your uncle works fast," Jae-wook said.
"He works from a list."
Nam Ji-ho stood behind Do-yoon's chair with a folder against his chest.
Ji-ho was Do-yoon's secretary, and the only friend he had who had never wanted anything from the Yeo name.
"The monitor's office confirmed," Ji-ho said. "Four unannounced visits in twelve months. Day or night."
"Of course," Do-yoon said.
"He reports to the trust, and the trust answers to your uncle's lawyer."
"Then we give him nothing to report."
"We could give him a happy marriage," Jae-wook said.
He said it without looking up from his phone.
"I don't do happy."
"You'd do it beautifully. You do everything beautifully. It's tiresome."
Do-yoon didn't answer.
The papers had called him cold, sharp and ruthless, and none of those had stung like tiresome.
Number forty-one lit up.
The clerk was a woman in her fifties with reading glasses on a chain.
She read the form, looked at it again, and looked at the two men.
"Two men," she said.
"Is that a problem?" Do-yoon asked.
"No. It's just a first for my desk." She stamped the paper twice. "Witnesses?"
Ji-ho stepped forward.
A young woman in bright sneakers came out of the corridor, with a honey-brown bob and Jae-wook's dimples.
"Hwan Se-ra," she said to Do-yoon. "His sister. I'm here to be unbearable."
"She's very good at it," Jae-wook said.
The clerk stamped once more and slid a certificate across the desk.
It was done.
Do-yoon had been married for forty seconds, and his knees felt weak.
"One more thing," the clerk said, suddenly shy.
"The office takes a photograph for our record. It's the custom to, well, seal it with a kiss."
She looked at the photographers on the other side of the glass.
Then she looked at Do-yoon.
"I think you know, sir."
Jae-wook turned in his chair.
He was so big that he seemed to take up the space around him as well.
"Do-yoon-ah," he said.
It was the first time he had said Do-yoon's name without the surname in front.
"You don't have to," Se-ra whispered.
"I know," Do-yoon said.
He stood, and Jae-wook stood.
Do-yoon had to tip his head back to meet his eyes, and he hated that too.
Jae-wook was close enough that Do-yoon could smell him, cedar and sea salt and warm skin.
"If you bite me," Jae-wook said, soft, "I'm going to be insulted."
"I'm not going to bite you."
"Good."
"I'm going to win."
Do-yoon took the front of Jae-wook's waistcoat in his fist and pulled his mouth down.
He meant it to be quick, a signature on the record.
It was not quick.
Jae-wook's lips were warm and a little rough, and his stubble scraped Do-yoon's chin.
Jae-wook made a low sound, surprised, and then his hand came up and spread across Do-yoon's back.
The kiss turned from a fight into something worse.
Jae-wook tilted his head, and when his tongue touched Do-yoon's, heat shot all through Do-yoon.
Do-yoon kissed him back as hard as he could, and Jae-wook took it and gave it right back.
Behind the glass, the cameras went off.
Somewhere Se-ra said, "Oh my God."
When they broke apart, Jae-wook's chest was heaving under Do-yoon's fist.
His eyes had gone dark.
"That's one," Jae-wook said, a little rough.
"One what?"
"One thing you'll lose."
"You wish."
Do-yoon walked out through the glass doors with his chin up and his mouth still burning.
In the back seat of the car, he put his glasses back on and stared at the seat in front of him.
"The house is in Hannam-dong," Jae-wook said. "It's got a lot of glass."
"I'll need the study."
"You'll have the study."
"And I want something understood now."
"Go on."
Do-yoon turned to him.
"The agreement says one home and one bedroom. It says nothing about sex, and it never will."
"Go on."
"If you think the bed is part of the price, say so now. I'll walk away and lose everything."
Jae-wook was quiet for a moment, and the smile left his face.
"I don't buy that from anyone," he said. "Not in my house."
"Good."
"If we ever do, it'll be because you want it so badly you can't stand it."
"That will never happen."
"Then you're safe," Jae-wook said, and he looked out of the window.
Do-yoon saw his jaw working.
The house sat above the road on its slope, all glass and pale stone.
The bedroom was on the top floor, with a window wall over the whole city and one bed the size of a small country.
Do-yoon stood in the doorway and refused to look at it.
"I'll take the left side," he said.
"I sleep on the left."
"Since when?"
"Since the day I bought the house."
"Then take the sofa."
At 12:07 that night, Do-yoon was sitting up on the left side of the bed with a laptop and a headache.
Jae-wook was on the right in a grey T-shirt, with a ledger open on his knees.
Neither of them had said a word in an hour.
The doorbell rang.
It was long and patient, the ring of someone who had the right to stand there as long as he liked.
Downstairs, a door opened.
A voice Do-yoon had never heard said, politely, "The trust's compliance office. Unannounced visit number one."
Footsteps started up the stairs.
Jae-wook closed the ledger.
He looked at Do-yoon for a moment.
Then he put Do-yoon's laptop on the floor, took his wrist, and pulled him down underneath him.
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