A Playful Proposal
“If you hurt your leg that badly, does that mean the first-year is actually good at basketball? Or are you just worse at sports than you look?”
“Not at all. He was such an easy opponent I could’ve beaten him with my eyes closed.”
“Then why did you get injured?”
“It was a match I absolutely couldn’t afford to lose, so I pushed myself a little too hard.”
“A match you absolutely couldn’t lose?”
“My opponent was Kang Suho. I had to win no matter what.”
“You ran yourself ragged just because of that?”
“Yes.”
“Couldn’t you have let your little brother win just once?”
“Not really.”
“Ha… What am I supposed to do with you?”
Cha Yeri let out a dry laugh, clearly exasperated. Her expression showed zero sympathy. In romance comedies, it’s a common cliché for women to fight over a man… Maybe I should make Sua and her have a catfight over ownership of my cock. She’d finally understand what a match you can’t afford to lose really feels like.
“Are you an only child, President?”
“No. I have two older brothers. Why do you ask?”
So our president is the precious only daughter of the family? She must’ve been doted on growing up. Or maybe not…? She doesn’t seem like the spoiled, affectionate type.
“Have you ever thought about not wanting to lose to your brothers? You know, the usual rich-family power struggles over the chairman’s seat.”
“Well… Our family is very strict about passing the company only to male heirs, so I’ve never fought with my brothers over it. Besides, they’re both much older than me. They got married early to secure an heir before I even became an adult. We don’t really see each other except at big family events… So I don’t really understand the desire to one-up your siblings. In most chaebol families, succession battles are the norm. But because of the huge age gap, I never even got the chance to fight.”
In other words, she might be called the precious daughter, but she’s basically a leftover who has no shot at inheriting the company. Even in this day and age, there’s still that lingering belief that a woman belongs to her husband’s family once she marries. Why would they hand over the inheritance to a daughter who’s just going to take everything to another household instead of expanding their own?
Still, watching her live without worrying about money and with a personal maid, it seemed like she was enjoying the life of a chaebol—minus the actual inheritance. But I didn’t envy her. Raised as nothing more than a trophy to marry some faceless man and bear the next heir for another conglomerate… If she was satisfied with that life, I had no intention of interfering. However—
“You’re the most impressive person I’ve ever met, President.”
“Is that so? Thank you.”
“It pisses me off that someone as outstanding as you is being excluded from the inheritance just because you’re a woman. Doesn’t it frustrate you?”
“…I think I used to feel that way. But now I’ve completely accepted it. It doesn’t bother me anymore.”
I knew that was a lie. A woman as capable and prideful as her, shut out of the succession simply for being female, forced into a life where no matter how hard she worked, her only future was marrying some stranger and producing an heir. That kind of existence had to feel unbearably dull, filled with constant disillusionment.
“Could you hand me some ice?”
“Here.”
Cha Yeri passed the ice without suspicion, apparently thinking I was going to apply it myself.
“You’ll have to do the ice pack yourself, President.”
“Hm? What do you—Hik…!”
I placed the ice cube right on top of her head. She jolted violently at the sudden cold sensation spreading from her crown and glared at me, snatching the ice away. After shaking the moisture from her slightly damp hair, she spoke.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“You looked like you were in a lot of pain, so I thought I’d help with the ice pack. Want me to do it again?”
“Logically speaking, if your head hurts, you put ice on your forehead, not the crown. And I’m not in pain.”
“No, you are in pain. You’re just pretending to be fine, but you’re not fine at all.”
“?!”
Her eyes widened. She always acted cold and sharp, but she was surprisingly easy to read—like Sua—because she wore her emotions on her sleeve.
“I think I figured something out about you, President.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re planning to get married right after graduation, aren’t you?”
She didn’t look as shocked as before. It was more like she was thinking, So you even figured that out?
“My parents want me to marry quickly.”
“Why listen to parents who won’t even give you the inheritance just because you’re a woman? Ignore them.”
“Inheritance is the parents’ right, not the child’s. Whether they give it or not is entirely their choice. It’s not a problem if they don’t.”
“Even your parents only inherited from your grandfather because they’re his children.”
“That’s…”
Cha Yeri fell silent, apparently at a loss for words.
“President, why don’t you just marry me instead?”
“You?”
“Yeah. Better a handsome guy you know than some stranger. You probably think I’m annoying and frivolous, but I’m confident I can make you a hundred times happier and more entertained than that guy ever could.”
A faint blush crept across Cha Yeri’s cheeks at my sudden proposal. She looked almost tempted for a moment, but quickly turned her gaze away and composed her expression.
“But can I ask why you said five hundred times?”
“Just… because it sounded like the biggest number?”
“The biggest number… Pfft! Puhahaha!”
“P-President?”
Cha Yeri burst into uncontrollable laughter. When I looked startled, she finally covered her mouth, but the giggles kept spilling out as she chuckled softly behind her hand. I hadn’t exactly meant to make her laugh, but the situation had turned unexpectedly silly.
Still, it’s nice seeing her laugh so freely like that.
You could laugh like this when you’re with me, you know? If you don’t choose me, you’re definitely going to end up married to some rich, old, sick pig. Wouldn’t I be better than that? What, you think the comparison is too extreme? I just don’t want any heroine who leaves me to have a bright future. The best choice for every heroine is me—the protagonist. Only me. So if any heroine walks away, she can rot in a miserable life.
“You have to admit marrying me would be better than marrying some stranger, right?”
“Hmm? They seem about the same to me…”
“What?”
“Pfft. I’m joking.”
When I made a dumbfounded face, Cha Yeri let out a playful laugh. She must’ve wanted to tease me. Her laughter was louder than usual, like she’d been holding it in. Her pranks were cute enough that I didn’t mind at all. In fact, I almost wanted her to keep doing it.
As we grew closer, would I get to see a more devilish side of Cha Yeri? It didn’t seem likely, but if it happened, that gap would be incredibly appealing.
“So what’s your answer, President?”
“What’s in it for me if I marry you?”
Typical Cha Yeri—prioritizing practicality over love even in a marriage proposal.
“If you marry me, I’ll hand over all my financial rights to you. I’m being serious about this.”
I firmly believed that managing household finances should be the husband’s job. Living off an allowance from your wife? What kind of man lets his woman handle the money? But that only applied when the husband was the one earning. Even without the company inheritance, Cha Yeri probably had a considerable personal fortune—money I could never earn in a lifetime even if I worked nonstop. That much was worth handing over financial control. Besides, as a chaebol, she wouldn’t be stingy with her husband’s allowance. In exchange, she’d have to bring me water the moment I shouted for it. If she didn’t? I’d make sure she was leaking from somewhere else.
“You’re saying you’ll entrust all your money to me?”
“That’s the idea.”
“Then how are you going to live without money?”
What kind of question was that? She was supposed to give me spending money.
“You’d have to give me an allowance, wouldn’t you?”
“An allowance, huh… Would ten thousand won a month be enough?”
“What?!”
“Too little? Then fifteen thousand?”
“N-No, that’s not what I—”
“No, on second thought, ten thousand sounds good. It’s important to cultivate a frugal mindset in this era of rising prices in Korea.”
…Did I just seriously fuck myself over? I said I liked it when she teased me, but now I was starting to regret it. Who the hell lives on a ten-thousand-won monthly salary in twenty-first-century Korea?
“Why? Suddenly don’t want to marry me anymore?”
“Hmm. I might need to reconsider. I didn’t realize you were dreaming of reviving slavery. Let me think of some other conditions that would actually benefit me.”
“Go ahead. Hehe.”
After chatting idly with Cha Yeri during our short break from the hectic festival preparations, I noticed all the ice in the bag had melted. Only after she refilled it with fresh ice did we finally start making the posters.