The Secretary's Gambit
"You crazy bastard...!"
"...? Wait, you're saying it's my fault?"
He had been struck. Honestly, had she not read the contract properly earlier? It clearly contained clauses about this. "It's not my fau—"
"The Master is the bad person here."
"...?"
It felt wrong to be called 'Master' by someone who had just hit him, but he decided to just roll with it. If he tried to argue every little point, he’d only be the one getting tired and stressed.
"So, why on earth did you drink so much with that vixen and cause this mess?"
"It's not like I wanted to drink. Eunbyul was the one who dragged me along..."
"Senior, be quiet. That is an order."
He couldn't help but feel like he was being bound by double the chains. The arrows of the argument then shifted as the two women turned their sights on each other.
"By the way, for a secretary to have such a strong desire to drink with her boss, one could interpret that as having impure intentions, don't you think?"
"...? It was just to celebrate the project finishing well..."
"What kind of subordinate would want to drag their boss out to drink? In such an uncomfortable setting, no less."
It was a fair point, but then again, she was a college senior who had become his boss, and given Eunbyul's personality... he didn't think she felt uncomfortable at all.
"I don't feel uncomfortable in the slightest. Why do you think it's an uncomfortable setting?"
"This is... Master, it seems your secretary views you as an easy mark. Otherwise, she wouldn't be so casual about..."
Jia had struck first. That way of speaking—delivering every word after deep deliberation to drive her opponent into a corner—was Seo Jia's specialty. She had posed the question to imply that Eunbyul was either trying to take advantage of him by suggesting drinks, or, if she denied it, to trap her: If you aren't trying to take advantage of him, why did you drink with him? You're just trying to create a situation to blackmail him, aren't you?
But Eunbyul didn't lose.
"Well, you call him 'Master' this and 'Master' that, yet you glare at the man you call 'Master,' call him a bad person, and even hit him... Looking at that, it seems like you, Seo Jia, view the Executive Director as an easier mark than I do?"
She didn't back down.
"You're just trying to create a reason to find fault..."
"The one trying to find fault is you, Seo Jia. Do you think I don't know?"
"....?"
"Do you think I don't know that you've been calling him 'Master' to stick to him, trying to force a common-law marriage? Did you come back just to try and get a better property settlement?"
"What are you—we already had a clean divorce..."
"Clean... If it was clean, then you should have just cleanly disappeared. Why do you keep clinging to him?"
Seo Jia was being swayed; Eunbyul held the upper hand.
"I hate things that are pathetic. My senior told me... you hated pathetic things too, Seo Jia. What was it? You said if he did one thing wrong, you'd just divorce him instantly... and you made my senior beg and plead, didn't you? Not just once, but multiple times."
"I already told you that wasn't my true heart..."
"You said it wasn't your true heart, yet you asked for a divorce? Wow... I guess you thought of divorce like a child's game. Did you think if you felt a little disappointed, you could just press the 'divorce' button like a vending machine, and he'd beg for a thousand years, promising to do better?"
Eunbyul had just said whatever came to mind, but Jia looked as if a knife had been driven straight into her heart. Her expression turned deathly pale, and she looked at Eunbyul with trembling eyes before turning to her ex-husband. She really had thought that way, and since the divorce had actually gone through, her life had completely spiraled out of control.
"....I'm sorry, really.... If that's how you felt, Suhyun, I'm sorr—"
Seeing that, he wore a sympathetic expression, intending to tell her not to apologize. While he did wish she would move out of his house every single day—especially since she had crawled back in without being able to let go of her lingering feelings after the divorce—they had history and memories together.
However, Eunbyul chuckled dismissively, cutting in.
"Now? Do you think he'll come back to you now? What a..."
Eunbyul then hugged his arm tightly, just as Jia had done.
"You must not have read the contract properly, but the Senior is going to marry me within this year."
"You should read the back of the contract carefully, too. If I spread my legs, the Senior has to ejaculate inside me, and even if he asks when my 'dangerous days' are, I won't answer. And if I get pregnant, we'll register the marriage, and then I'll move into this house to prepare for childbirth, right?"
Then, Eunbyul leaned in close, whispering so only Seo Jia could hear.
"What did you say would happen if I moved back into this house...?"
Jia's expression turned even paler. She remembered what he had said after she had left, having had her breasts fondled while he was drunk.
'I'll let it slide for now, but if you ever come back into this house....'
'Start looking for a new place. I'm going to grab you by the collar and throw you out the front door.'
'Maybe the balcony would be better?'
In truth, Jia was actually the gentle type. Her ex-husband just didn't know it. Jia was good at acting, which allowed her to boss him around, manipulate him as she pleased, and make him tremble at the mere mention of divorce. But that was all a facade. She hadn't actually wanted to divorce him, and telling him to "get lost because it's annoying" was just her harsh way of saying she was tired, not that she was truly bothered.
But Eunbyul, who was currently smiling seductively and making eye contact with him right in front of her eyes, didn't seem like a woman who just used words to intimidate. She seemed like the type who would actually try to make her words a reality.
She had found out everything that happened between Jia and Suhyun by drafting the contract, and she had deceived her ex-husband by creating leverage so he would sign it. Not only that, but the back of the contract didn't just benefit Eunbyul; it gave Suhyun the opportunity to leave Jia and live with another woman—a woman younger than her...
'Noona, aren't babies really cute? I really want to raise a lot of kids when I get married. I don't think I could even get angry if they cried.'
For someone who loved babies as much as he did, she was effectively the woman who would give him as many as he wanted.
Unlike Jia, who was left in a dead-end with a distorted expression, wondering what to do, Eunbyul looked up at him, her voice completely changed.
"Senior... they say it's hard to have a baby after you turn thirty."
"Ah, is that... so?"
"Yes, your body gets weaker... and your eggs age, so even if you give birth, the baby isn't as smart. You know, I'm two years younger."
"...."
"Even when you turn thirty, I'll only be twenty-eight. Don't you think it would feel like a real honeymoon if you married and lived with someone in their late twenties?"
"Well, that..."
He glanced briefly at Jia and said, "It's a bit..."
"Right? I want to live with you soon, too. Watching you biting my chest earlier, you looked so baby-like and cute. I think you're so pretty, Senior..."
"No, what's pretty about me..."
"It's a woman's heart. You wouldn't know, Senior. ...If I breastfed a baby that looks like you, I'd get that feeling again, ah..."
Then, she added, "Senior, forget about things like STD test results... why don't we just do it right now?"
"....?"
"It's a safe day, by the way. ....Though it might have been better if it were a dangerous day. I could show you me getting pregnant, something that 'living sex toy' can't do."
It was a lie, of course. Eunbyul had been in her ovulation period since yesterday. If they did it today, he'd be forced to register their marriage around his birthday. But Eunbyul’s seductive voice, her beautiful smile, and the ease in her expression—it was as if she were certain she had already won, that competing with Seo Jia for one man wasn't even a contest.
So, he glanced at Jia again.
The ex-wife in his sight had completely collapsed, with several tear tracks running down her cheeks. However, it felt wrong to grab Jia and take her to the bedroom. As he had said before, Seo Jia was the very person he wanted out of his house. And from Jia's perspective, there was no leverage left to hold onto him. If she were to blindly grab his arm and ask to have sex, he didn't think he'd be in the mood, even if he were a man. Moreover, with Eunbyul’s appearance, the fear she had felt—the elements she had been terrified of—were now a tangible reality, draining her of all confidence.
What if he falls for a woman younger than me, younger than even himself?
The fear she had harbored every day while dating and even after marriage had finally become reality.
"Hmm, no? I guess it would be a bit much to say yes too early, right?"
"Well, once in a while... maybe we could practice starting now..."
He started to speak, then covered his mouth with his hand, shocked by what he had just blurted out. But Eunbyul just smiled softly and hugged his upper body completely.
"I want to do it too. You came out with so much earlier..."
"Aren't you curious if it tastes like apples, not just smells like them?"
"It won't be a weird taste. I'm incomparably cleaner than that used sex toy...!"