The Contract's Silent Vow
A call came from Lawyer Kang. The review of the marriage contract you instructed is almost complete.
Late at night, Director Myeong's report continued over the phone. As Siheon listened to his voice, he quietly gazed at the car lights racing along the river beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The contract itself was already finished, but since the apartment was so popular, there was still no suitable property available, so it was taking a bit of time.
Siheon recalled the list of apartments Lawyer Kang had sent last time. He nodded his head.
It was an apartment located in the most bustling area near Hankuk University, with excellent transportation and location.
After their contract ended, Jung Dayeon would go there.
An apartment that no one, not even Jung Du-seop, could lay a hand on.
“... This is quite an intrusion, but is it really okay to proceed like this, Managing Director?”
Siheon remained silent.
“Jung Dayeon seems sincere.”
Director Myeong's cautious question made Siheon's lips curl up.
“It's because she's sincere that it's a problem.”
“Managing Director...”
“She's only twenty years old now. A child who knows nothing yet. What if she runs after you with sincerity and ends up neither healed nor injured?”
Siheon had been certain that day when he returned with Jung Dayeon smiling.
She was barely twenty. An age too green and fresh to be entangled with someone as emotionally worn out as him.
He couldn't tie her to the brilliant and shining period of life next to him.
While living in the same house, the line he had drawn was constantly becoming faint and precarious.
So, it was better to make this clear. Their relationship was based on a contract, and they shouldn't expect anything more or less than that.
“... Understood.”
Director Myeong fell silent, as if realizing it was a matter beyond his intervention.
The call with Director Myeong ended after the report on Jung Du-seop's debt and Yoon Tak-su's escape.
Siheon placed his phone on the table and let out a long sigh.
A wave of irritation surged from deep within his chest.
Previously, everything had been clear, but lately, even his sharp judgment seemed blurred.
He thought he should have a drink, heading to the liquor cabinet in the living room, but he noticed a faint light seeping out from far below Jung Dayeon's room.
His footsteps were drawn to that direction.
Through the slightly open door, the stand light was spilling out. A faint smile spread on Siheon's lips as he looked inside.
“Peanut, why are you doing that?”
With a light laugh, he entered the room and stopped beside Jung Dayeon. He quietly looked down at her.
As if asleep while studying, Jung Dayeon had her cheek resting on the desk instead of the nearby bed, eyes closed.
The sound of her breathing, regular and deep, reached his ears.
Siheon's lips lifted faintly as he examined the professional books and notes spread on the desk.
The handwriting was cute and round, just like Jung Dayeon.
The words on the first page of the notebook, 'Let's Become a Wonderful Pediatrician! Let's Do It!', caught his eye.
From childhood, she hadn't been able to turn away from sick children, so it seemed she had decided on pediatrics as her future path.
His gaze, looking at her with a warm smile, suddenly stopped somewhere.
In the middle of the professional books and notes on the desk, there was a small ring.
It was a familiar object. It was the ring that had always been on his mother's hand since childhood.
“When did you get this?”
When he visited Seoyeongheon last time, there was a conversation with Chairman Cha about the management rights of Samjung Pharm. This ring was probably received from his mother then.
Siheon raised his eyebrows slightly and gave Jung Dayeon a troubled look.
“What should I do with this?”
Her hair disheveled from sleep, half-pressed cheek, the slow rise and fall of her breath beneath her slender neck.
Siheon's hesitation lengthened.
Since she had casually touched him, Jung Dayeon now had the perfect woman's figure.
After staring at her for a long time, he finally gave up with a short sigh.
Of course, he couldn't leave it like this.
The night was still long, and if he slept like this all night, her neck and shoulders would never be fine.
Deciding, he slowly lowered his body. One hand under her legs, the other supporting her back, Jung Dayeon's body was lightly lifted.
Siheon, holding Jung Dayeon in his arms, walked quietly. In just a few steps, he felt an indescribable emotion. Warmth and comfort. Or something similar.
Siheon clenched his fist and looked at the ceiling for a moment, forcing the growing heat to cool.
The thing he's holding isn't a woman. It's Chun-dol, the Jindo dog he raised in the yard of Seoyeongheon when he was young.
Even though it was just a few steps, the length of the path where he chanted the existence that emitted soft and warm warmth like an order was as long as eternity.
Finally arriving at the bed, he gently placed her on it. Jung Dayeon rubbed her head on the pillow and mumbled her lips.
“Uung, Teacher...”
Seeing Jung Dayeon, who didn't even know she had been treated as Chun-dol for a few seconds and was calling him in her dream, Siheon let out a light laugh.
“Sleep well. Peanut.”
Quietly bidding good night, he covered her with the blanket and quietly withdrew.
In the room where the door closed and darkness descended, only the faint breathing remained.
In the early morning, the sunlight pouring through the curtains was dazzling.
Ring ring, the cheerful alarm sound woke Jung Dayeon.
With a groggy body, Jung Dayeon looked around. In the distance, the desk and chair she had sat on last night were visible.
“When did I come here?”
Jung Dayeon tilted her head. Last night, she had dozed off at the desk while worrying about the relationship between Jeonghee and the teacher, but she didn't remember how she got here.
Did she come here in her sleep?
If not...
Jung Dayeon thought for a moment, then let out a “Ucha!” and stood up from her seat.
Stretching her arms high with both hands, her gaze landed on the ring sparkling on the desk.
Seeing it, Jung Dayeon firmly closed her lips.
After thinking about it many times, it seemed she couldn't put this ring on yet.
Mom had asked her to accept the ring, but she hadn't received the teacher's permission yet.
So, when she later received the teacher's real love, she would wear it then. Deciding, she picked up the ring and placed it neatly in the desk drawer.
After a light wash in the bathroom, Jung Dayeon went to the living room. Siheon was already sitting on the sofa in the living room.
“Good morning, did you sleep well?”
Jung Dayeon greeted Siheon with a raised voice. He was holding a coffee in one hand and a tablet PC in the other, turning his body to look at Jung Dayeon with a light smile.
“Yeah.”
Even though several days had passed since staying here, the time facing Siheon in the morning was still pleasant and welcome.
Jung Dayeon, barely calming the lips that kept rising, walked to the kitchen. She found a water cup and placed it under the water dispenser.
With a face as if remembering something, she opened her mouth.
“Teacher!”
Siheon, who was looking at the tablet PC, took his eyes off it.
“Um... maybe. Just maybe.”
Siheon frowned.
“What do you mean 'maybe' and 'just maybe'?”
“It's not that... I was wondering if you came to my room last night.”
It was an unbelievable thing. But isn't there also the saying that there is a 'maybe' in the world?
Maybe Siheon had come to find her last night. Then placed her on the bed after she fell asleep.
“I don't know.”
Imagining the scene of the princess carrying her in his arms and gently placing her on the bed, Jung Dayeon screamed inside.
Siheon, who glanced at Jung Dayeon with slightly flushed cheeks from excitement, turned his gaze back to the tablet PC.
“That's not possible.”
The four words he spat out as if there was no choice. That's not possible.
At that, Jung Dayeon's hopes collapsed in an instant.
“Th... really? There's no way... haha.”
Jung Dayeon scratched her head and laughed awkwardly.
Indeed. There's no way.
After the robot vacuum incident last time, unless there was something special, Siheon hadn't stepped foot into Jung Dayeon's room.
But why did she have such expectations.
It was a foolish question. The teacher didn't even see her as a woman yet.
When would she be able to escape being treated as a little brother, Peanut?
Jung Dayeon sighed and pressed the button on the water dispenser.
While watching the clear water flowing down, Siheon suddenly opened his mouth.
“What are you doing next Saturday?”