I Want to Marry You, Teacher
“I’ll do it. I want to marry you, Teacher.”
The bold declaration from Jeong Dayeon sent an instant silence through the room. Chairman Cha’s wrinkled eyes, seated at the head of the table, and Cha Siheon’s sharply tilted gaze from across the table both turned sharply toward her.
Sitting upright with her back straight, Jeong Dayeon met their gazes without the slightest tremor. No, it felt as if her determination burned even brighter.
“Hoera. Just like I thought, Dayeon-ssi has the decisiveness to follow in Professor Heo-ik’s footsteps. Smart head, and ambition too.”
Chairman Cha smiled warmly, his eyes lowering slightly as he looked at her. “It seems quite fitting for her to one day become the mistress who leads this household.”
Jeong Dayeon smiled shyly at the praise. “It’s an honor.”
The conversation unfolding before him was too much for Cha Siheon to bear. He shot to his feet from his seat. “What are you doing to a child like this?”
“A child? Dayeon-ssi is already a proper adult…”
“Enough. I didn’t come all this way, making time difficultly, just to hear such talk.”
She had come after putting aside her work because there was something important to discuss. Tsk. Clicking her tongue, he turned to leave, but his gaze fell on Jeong Dayeon still sitting neatly on the sofa. Seeing her eyes only rolling as she stared at him, frustration rose to the back of his throat.
What on earth is she thinking?
“Come.”
Cha Siheon strode over and grabbed Jeong Dayeon’s wrist. The moment they stepped outside, he dropped her hand as if tossing it away.
“Do you even know where you are? And do you even understand what you just said?”
“Of course I do. Grandfather, or rather Chairman Cha, told me to marry you, Teacher.”
Jeong Dayeon blinked with innocent eyes, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. A laugh escaped at her naive face, which seemed untouched by the world’s ways.
“Jeong Dayeon. This isn’t a game for children. Do you even know what marriage is, and what a husband and wife do?”
Despite Cha Siheon’s cold threat, Jeong Dayeon’s cheeks flushed bashfully.
“Of course I do. I’m an adult now too.”
Jeong Dayeon pulled out her resident registration card as if it were a warrant for a secret agent.
“Hah.”
Cha Siheon shook his head in disbelief and looked at her. Her cheeks were flushed red. She hadn’t expected to confess to her teacher in this way. Until recently, Jeong Dayeon had been satisfied just with the fact that she had met her teacher again.
Jeong Dayeon’s mind drifted back to the time a few days ago when she had met Cha Siheon.
* * *
A cafe in Seoul. A girl in school uniform sat with her hands neatly folded on her knees. Her fingers fidgeted nervously as she sat before a middle-aged man whose hair was half shaved, sipping hot coffee and blowing on it.
What on earth was happening? Jeong Dayeon still found the situation confusing. Today was the day of her high school graduation ceremony. Right after she read her valedictory speech as the representative graduate on stage, she was dragged by her father to this cafe.
Expecting something special, she had waited quietly, but what appeared instead was a bald-headed uncle. The man swept his gaze over Jeong Dayeon’s body over the rim of his coffee cup, then let out a long “huh” and cleared his throat loudly.
“Hohoho. President Jeong has a short temper. I did say I wanted to set a date quickly, but… bringing an unmarried girl in school uniform like this.”
Occasionally, glances from around the cafe were directed at them. Curiosity filled those prying eyes. What were they doing with a girl and two uncles sitting there?
“As you know, my situation is urgent. It’s a bit complicated, but… I’m an adult, an adult. My birthday has passed, and today is my high school graduation.”
Father Du-seop explained about her to the unfamiliar man in a stream of words.
Just what is this?
Jeong Dayeon’s eyes rolled in confusion as she couldn’t understand the current situation.
“Then, Mr. Go, let’s talk.”
Du-seop, who had been fawning submissively before Gosa, poked Jeong Dayeon’s side with a threatening look.
“You’ll see me later at home.”
A chill ran down her spine at the muttered words. After the business failed, her father had started looking at her not as his daughter but as a useful tool.
The way he calculated how to sell her for a high price or how to use her for profit made him seem more like a merchant than a father.
Clang. Soon after, Du-seop left, and the door bell rang. Before Du-seop could leave, the man known as Gosa spoke up.
“So. Your birthday has passed? When exactly?”
“Do I really have to say that…?”
Jeong Dayeon answered in a voice that was forced.
“Hohoho. What a strange girl. You still don’t understand the situation?”
He laughed mockingly and scanned Jeong Dayeon from head to toe, clicking his tongue.
“President Jeong’s business hasn’t been doing well lately. You know that too, Dayeon-ssi?”
“Yes.”
“…So President Jeong borrowed a lot of money from me. You don’t know, but that’s how adult life is. Even a small amount becomes a big debt if it’s a stranger, but when it’s family, even a big amount becomes a small one, something like that.”
The man, perhaps his throat was dry, gulped down the cold water beside him.
Still, Jeong Dayeon didn’t understand the words.
“Family? How do we become family?”
“For example, hah… like marriage.”
Gosa’s thick fingers pointed at Jeong Dayeon, then at himself.
Me and this uncle… marriage?
Her mind cleared as if she had been doused with cold water. Why had her father been so desperate with this man? Why had this man been questioning if she was an adult in school uniform? Now she finally understood.
So she was standing in this position now. Sold off by her biological father.
While Jeong Dayeon processed the situation, Gosa kept glancing around. With Du-seop gone and the two of them alone, the gazes from the cafe now openly stared at them.
“Hah. People are watching. Let’s move our seats.”
“Seats…?”
“First, let’s go somewhere without people. There’s my business nearby.”
Alone with this uncle in a place without people?
Jeong Dayeon’s face paled as her imagination reached its limit.
The girl who had been clutching her hands on her knees opened her mouth with difficulty, as if making a decision.
“I’m sorry, but I didn’t know this was the kind of place.”
“Huh? You didn’t know this was the kind of place?”
“I’ll go first. You can finish talking with my dad.”
Jeong Dayeon reached for the graduation certificate and award she had placed beside her to stand up, but Gosa grabbed her wrist with a snap.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Why are you like this? Let go.”
Jeong Dayeon tried to pull away, but Gosa gripped her more tightly and lectured her.
“You don’t know anything because you’re young. Marriage is something you do without knowing. I did my first marriage that way too.”
“……!”
“As long as you marry me, I’ll treat you like gold and jade, cherish you and take care of you. In plain words, it’s much better than struggling to find a job and leaving you to fend for yourself.”
“I don’t want to. And let go of my hand.”
She had been aiming for medical school admission for a long time. She couldn’t let her dream of becoming a great doctor like her mother after graduating collapse like this.
“Shut up!”
The sly eyes that had been half-closed suddenly sharpened. He made a threatening sound by swallowing saliva loudly, his eyes bulging with fat.
“Why are you backing out now? How much money did your father take from me?”
The words stung her eyes. On a day like today, ending her long school days, sitting across from an unknown uncle to be matched like this.
Beyond the murky emotions, an image came to mind. It was the appearance of the teacher who always encouraged her dreams.
Why was the teacher appearing in this moment? She had sent countless messages for two years, but he had never replied even once.
“Let’s go first. Once we go, the uncle will take care of you…”
Before Gosa’s words were even finished. Someone swung a bouquet of flowers at Gosa’s head. Amid the scattering petals, a more beautiful face came into view.
A tall man nearly 190cm, with well-built muscles stacked on top and broad shoulders. With those features that would make anyone’s gaze unable to leave.
A man who made the heart pound and breath catch just from looking, was Jeong Dayeon’s first love and the teacher who had taught her, Cha Siheon.
“Tea… Teacher?”
The voice that slipped out trembled as if disbelieving, and her vision blurred like mist.
The person she had waited for so long was standing before her. Jeong Dayeon’s heart felt like it would burst at the sight of Siheon.