A single stamp at the beginning.
A single stamp at the end.
It wasn’t empty, nor was it sad. He only felt that it was a waste of paper.
An omega and an alpha. Two conglomerates representing the best of Korea. If the two families joined hands, the alliance would bring enormous benefits to both sides.
Then there was only one answer.
To bind the two families together.
To make a contract in the name of marriage.
As Jaekyung stepped out of the courthouse, rain began to patter down from the gray sky. Why did the raindrops seem heavier than usual today?
For no particular reason, Jaekyung reached out a hand and tried to catch one. The drop seemed almost within reach, yet slipped away at the last moment, falling with a soft patter onto the pavement.
“Executive Director.”
Just then, a man carrying a black umbrella hurried over and respectfully greeted the man who had been standing beside Jaekyung like a shadow. He opened the umbrella and held it out.
As though he had been waiting for it, the man took the umbrella and walked toward the black sedan with cool yet composed, deliberate steps, crushing the rainwater beneath his shoes as he went.
It was so absurd that Jaekyung couldn’t even bring himself to laugh.
They might have been nothing more than a show-window couple, but they had been married for five years, and today was the day that life together was finally coming to an end. Yet he hadn’t even offered a final farewell. He hadn’t looked at him, nor even given him a parting nod.
Should he at least be grateful that he had come in person instead of sending his lawyer?
Then again, he probably couldn’t have sent a lawyer. There were reporters gathered across the street from the courthouse, though they weren’t visible from where she stood.
News of their marriage had once sent the entire country into a frenzy, but their divorce had caused little commotion beyond a drop in the company’s stock price. Only a handful of gossip magazines and business papers seemed interested.
That was probably why he had come here today, too. He had to be mindful of those reporters. After all, they needed a headline about the two of them parting on good terms.
That way, they could keep the stock price from taking too much of a hit…
Ha. He really was like that until the very end.
A selfish man who cared about nothing but his own interests and his company. A man who didn’t even consider the family that had married into his bloodline to be family.
“It’s over.”
Jaekyung murmured the words under his breath.
No more living in his shadow. No more being his puppet. No more existing like a mute who wasn’t allowed to speak.
He was free now.
Jaekyung looked up at the sky.
He had always been conscious of other people’s eyes, never free to wear whatever he wanted or style his hair however he pleased.
So today, in celebration of their divorce, he decided to indulge in a little rebellion.
Clenching his fists as though he had made up his mind, Jaekyung took off running through the downpour, his steps light and exhilarated.
He could feel the unpleasant dampness soaking through his clothes and clinging to his entire body, but he didn’t care.
Today was a day when he was allowed to get wet.
Just as Jaekyung arrived at the entrance of his apartment looking like a drowned rat, his phone rang.
The caller was his mother.
Jaekyung hesitated for a long while, wondering whether he should answer. But he could already picture his mother spending the entire day worrying if he didn’t, so with a sigh, he finally pressed the call button.
As expected, his mother’s voice sounded deeply dejected when he answered.
[“Where are you…?”]
“I’m at the apartment , Mom.”
[You’re not coming home?]
“Dad…”
Jaekyung couldn’t bring himself to say anything more. Neither could his mother on the other end of the line.
The day Jaekyung had announced that he was getting a divorce, his father had predictably flown into a rage. Just like some over-the-top scene from a drama, he had even brandished a golf club and declared that if he went through with the divorce, he would cut him off completely.
His threat hadn’t frightened him.
What frightened him more was the thought of spending decades as Han Taeseok’s partner. If he had stayed like that for another year or two, he honestly felt he might have died.
Jaekyung didn’t want to die.
That was why he decided it was better to sever ties with his family and chose divorce without hesitation.
As a result, he had been banned from returning to his family's home.
His mother had told him to get down on his knees and beg his father for forgiveness, but Jaekyung had no intention of doing so. Even if he begged, he already knew exactly what he would say.
[…]
[“Can you send me the address? I’ll come by sometime.”]
“Ah, no, Mom. I haven’t even finished unpacking yet… I’ll let you know once everything’s settled. You can come then.”
[…You have to tell me, okay? And if anything’s difficult, call me. Promise?]
“Yes. Don’t worry about me.”
It took quite a while to reassure his mother before Jaekyung could finally hang up. The moment he entered the passcode and opened the front door, he was greeted by the small space inside. Jaekyung smiled with satisfaction.
This was the first home he had found entirely on his own.
A small studio near a university, with a jeonse deposit of 80 million won.
He had managed to save some money from the few years he had worked before getting married, and he also had stocks registered in his name. He had received his share of the marital assets in the divorce as well. With all that, he could easily afford an apartment worth several billion won in Gangnam if he wanted to.
But he didn’t want to spend lavishly.
From now on, he would have to plan for his life on his own, which meant he needed to be careful with every decision he made. He also needed money as a safety net. Unfortunately, that was simply the way society worked. If you had money, you could get through about eighty percent of life much more easily. The studio wasn’t a bad place for one person to live. The only problem was the lack of storage space, which meant he had to get rid of about half of the belongings he had brought. Fortunately, he had never been much of a clothes collector, so it didn’t take him terribly long to sort through everything.
Still, it felt strange.
He had once chosen each and every piece of clothing carefully for the sake of appearances.
No—he had been made to choose them carefully.
At a department store lounge, dozens of outfits would be lined up in front of them. His ex husband would examine each one meticulously before handing Jaekyung the ones he deemed acceptable for him to wear.
He never once asked whether Jaekyung liked them.
His eyes made it perfectly clear that it was an order: Wear this.
So Jaekyung would obediently thank him like a robot and put them on.
Of course, he had chosen them with remarkable attention to his style, skin tone, and body shape, so every outfit suited him perfectly.
The problem was the person wearing them—Jaekyung himself.
He had never thought those clothes suited him, and they were the first things he got rid of. After a week of keeping himself busy, he had finally managed to make the place feel like a real home. With a satisfied smile, Jaekyung changed out of the wet clothes. He soaked himself in a warm shower until the chill left his body, changed into pajamas, and lay down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
Surprisingly, he wasn’t thinking about anything at all.
He wasn’t troubled or sad.
He simply felt… calm.
After rolling around on the narrow single bed for a while, he picked up the phone.
As expected, there were no messages.
If he wasn’t the eldest son of Jaewang Group—no, if he wasn’t the partner of Executive Director Han of NI Company—then no one needed him.
He had only realized that at the age of thirty-three.
After getting married, he had become so tied down by his family that he had gradually lost contact with the only two friends he had left.
Thinking about it now, he suddenly felt as though he had been dropped into an entirely different world.
But it was okay.
He just had to make it work.
If he worked hard and built his life again from the very beginning, as though he were starting over with a brand-new life, he was sure he could eventually be happy.
Jaekyung installed a job-search app on his phone. After thinking about what he could do with his experience and in the fields that interested him, he picked out a few positions he liked and marked them as favorites.
He decided to contact them tomorrow, setting the phone aside, and turned off the lights.
From the little bed in his studio, the sky outside the window looked so pitch-black that it almost seemed devoid of warmth.
Just like him.
“He’s probably working late again…”
Given how precious and busy his time was, Jaekyung imagined he was probably staying late to make up for the hours he had spent coming to the courthouse today.
Then shook his head.
Was this what habits were like? Something you just couldn’t break?
No. What habit…?
He had never once ironed his dress shirts or prepared a meal for him. There was no way he could have developed a habit of doing those things.
He’d be fine.
He might even meet someone new and get married again before long. Maybe he would meet an omega who could adapt to his family and to him, and build the picture-perfect family of his dreams.
Jaekyung pulled the blanket all the way over his head.
Enough thinking about someone who had nothing to do with him anymore…
Time to sleep.