Prenup of a Third Son novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Indiscretion

Seo-yeon confronts Tae-joon at his foundation's gala in front of the press; Do-hyun tells the cameras the indiscretion is his, then asks her to marry him in the parking garage and tells her to write the prenup herself.

The article had no byline.

It quoted "a source close to the Hwaseon Art Foundation".

The source said the engagement had ended "over the bride's personal indiscretion", and that the family "wished her well".

Underneath, eleven hundred comments.

"Gold digger got caught."

"She got in his COUSIN's car the same night lol."

"Poor Tae-joon, he looks so gentle."

Bo-ra was sitting on the end of the shop bench with her phone in one hand and a rice ball in the other.

"The foundation's autumn opening is tonight," she said. "Hannam-dong. Press, collectors, half of Cheongdam."

"I know," Seo-yeon said. "I designed the gallery."

"I know you know." Bo-ra bit the rice ball. "I'm asking if you're going."

Seo-yeon was.

She wore black. She always wore black, but this was the good black, the one with the long sleeves.

She hadn't been invited, as of this morning.

The girl at the door recognized her and went pale.

"Ms. Baek, I'm so sorry, your name's been taken off."

"I'll just look at my walls," Seo-yeon said, and walked past her.

The gallery was full of people holding champagne and not looking at the art.

Seo-yeon had drawn every line in that room.

The long skylight, the pale oak floor, the gap in the east wall where the evening sun came through in a single bar.

Tae-joon was standing in the bar of light, in a cream suit, talking to a reporter with a camera.

Yu-na stood next to him in white.

She was wearing Seo-yeon's ring.

Not on her finger. On a thin chain around her neck, where everyone could see it.

Seo-yeon walked straight across the floor.

People moved out of her way.

"Tae-joon."

He turned.

His face did something complicated and then went perfectly gentle.

"Seo-yeon. You shouldn't be here."

"I came to ask you something." She said it clearly, for the reporter. "The article says I was indiscreet. What did I do?"

The reporter's camera came up.

Tae-joon opened his mouth.

He closed it.

"It's a private matter," Yu-na said smoothly, touching his arm. "Out of respect for both families."

"Then I'll make it public," Seo-yeon said. "Tae-joon. What did I do?"

The room had gone quiet around them in a widening ring.

He looked over her shoulder, for his mother.

She wasn't there.

He had nobody to look at.

"I think you should go," he said finally, in his soft voice. "Please."

"That's not an answer."

"The indiscretion was mine."

The voice came from behind her.

Seo-yeon knew it before she turned. Low, flat, unbothered.

Do-hyun was standing in the doorway in a dark suit with no tie, a glass of water in his hand.

He walked over and stood beside her, not touching her.

He looked at the reporter.

"Kang Do-hyun, Hwaseon E&C," he said. "Write it down."

The reporter wrote it down.

"Ms. Baek's firm is designing my company's library in Mangwon. The contract was signed at midnight, at her mother's table."

He paused.

"Last night she gave back his ring in front of his mother, and she said yes to me."

A murmur went around the room.

"To the library," Seo-yeon said.

"To the library," he agreed. "So far."

Somebody laughed and turned it into a cough.

Tae-joon's face had gone pink.

"Hyung," he said. "This isn't the place."

"You chose the place," Do-hyun said. "Your foundation gave the quote."

Yu-na's hand had closed around the ring on her chain.

Seo-yeon looked at her, at the diamond in her fist.

"Keep it, Ms. Cha," she said. "It never fit me."

She walked out.

He walked out after her.

The parking garage under the gallery was cold and smelled of concrete and rain.

Her footsteps echoed. His didn't. He walked like a man who'd been told to be quiet as a child.

"You didn't have to do that," Seo-yeon said, without turning around.

"You keep saying that."

She stopped by a pillar and turned.

"Why did you?"

"Because it was true." He stopped too, a step away. "Most of it."

"What part wasn't?"

He looked at her for a long moment.

Under the garage lights his face was all angles. He had never once smiled at her in eleven meetings.

He didn't smile now.

"'So far,'" he said. "That part was a lie. I'm not planning to stop at the library."

Seo-yeon's back was against the pillar. She hadn't noticed moving.

"CEO Kang."

"Do-hyun."

"You're my client."

"Since last night." He put one hand on the pillar beside her head, not close enough to touch.

"Do you know what I wanted to say, at the third meeting? When you told my engineers their atrium was a fire hazard?"

"What?"

"That I'd never heard anyone say no so well." His voice dropped. "But you were wearing his ring."

His eyes went to her mouth and stayed there.

Her heart was banging.

"I'd like to marry you," he said.

She laughed. She couldn't help it. It echoed off the concrete.

"I gave back a Kang ring twenty-four hours ago."

"I know. I was there." He didn't move his hand. "I'm not offering a ring."

"Then what are you offering?"

He reached into his jacket and took out a pen. A plain black one. He held it out.

"Write the prenup," he said. "Any clause you want."

"And?"

"And I'll sign it in front of my aunt."

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