Chapter 504: The Ugly Truth (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 504: The Ugly Truth (3)
The final word was spoken.
“I’ve loved you ever since then, Brother-in-law.”
The ominous feeling that had crawled down my spine finally hardened into certainty, becoming reality.
So she knew.
From the moment we first met, she knew it was me.
And yet.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
Without a single hint, she pushed her way in and turned me into a beast.
A beast that lunges for its sister-in-law, no, something even less than a beast.
Ju-yeon, her expression relieved as if a long-held secret had been lifted, answered.
“Because if I told you, nothing would have changed.”
“……”
“You would only see me as your sister-in-law, and I knew our relationship would never move a single step forward from there.”
“That’s…”
She was right.
Even if this body had no connection to her, the Han Ju-yeon in my memory doesn’t change.
She was the ray of sunshine in a cold family—a precious, lovely family member.
In a web of relationships mixed with good and bad memories, she was the only one who filled my mind with nothing but good ones.
Her existence, her memory, was a sanctuary to me.
One that must never be violated, one I had to protect from any and all intruders.
The moment I remembered that, I wouldn’t have wavered, no matter how she tried to seduce me.
“Brother-in-law.”
A voice, warm as a spring sunbeam yet somehow clinging and sticky, called to me.
With a title I thought I’d never hear again.
“How did it feel?”
“What did?”
“When that ugly jealousy filled your heart, how did it feel?”
How did it feel?
“…It was disgusting.”
“Yes, it is disgusting. It makes you wonder why you have to feel such a thing, makes you desperate to get rid of it.”
Han Ju-yeon smiled bitterly, empathizing.
“But, Brother-in-law.”
Her gaze turned to me.
Her eyes, clouded with all manner of stains, were like pools of murky water, reflecting my face.
“I’ve held that feeling inside me for nearly twenty years.”
“……”
“Embracing a darkness I could never show anyone, I came this far without ever letting it slip, not even once.”
I never knew.
I never imagined such a deep darkness lurked inside the girl who was always smiling so brightly in front of me.
It was only possible because she had hidden her true feelings so perfectly, enduring the pain all by herself.
Imagining Ju-yeon suffering in secret, anger surged within me.
“Why the hell did you do that? What were you lacking that you had to…!”
She was a girl anyone would be bound to love.
A beauty so captivating you couldn’t look away.
A sensual body that made you yearn to hold her just once.
And a bright, warm personality that surpassed all her physical charms.
She was the kind of girl who could have any man she wanted.
The fact that a girl who could have been happy, who had every right to be happier than anyone, had suffered for so long because of someone like me was so, so heartbreaking.
“Brother-in-law, you’re smiling right now.”
An undeniable joy surged through me.
That a woman so incredibly attractive had loved me.
Even in a situation where I should be furious, I was simultaneously overjoyed.
What kind of person have I become?
Forcing down the corners of my mouth that kept trying to curl up, I asked her.
“…Let me at least hear the reason.”
“What reason?”
“The reason you suddenly revealed it now, after keeping it a secret for so long.”
I was curious.
After keeping it a secret so well all this time, what sudden whim made her reveal the truth now?
“Well… because I thought it was time.”
“Time?”
“You’re still wavering, aren’t you, Brother-in-law? You can no longer treat me purely as your sister-in-law, but you can’t see me as your woman either.”
“……”
I was speechless.
What kind of insane insight was that?
Seeing things like that really reminded me she was Han Ju-hee’s sister.
Not to be outdone, I added a word.
“Did it not occur to you that the moment you told me, we’d grow even more distant than we are now?”
“Not at all.”
She shook her head, her expression full of conviction, as if that were an impossibility.
“I know you well, Brother-in-law.”
“……”
“You’re possessive and territorial. That’s why you got jealous whenever Unnie talked to other men.”
“Ju-hee was my wife.”
She nodded as if accepting my desperate retort.
“That’s right. And that’s why I’m confessing now.”
“……?”
“Because now, I’ve become that kind of person to you.”
“What… Ugh.”
As if she’d been waiting, the girl beneath me wrapped her legs around my waist and flipped us over.
In that brief, startling moment, our positions were reversed.
Ju-yeon, now straddling my stomach, leaned down, bringing her face close as she whispered.
“Imagine it, Brother-in-law.”
“…Imagine what.”
“Imagine me, falling in love with a man who isn’t you.”
“……”
Against my will, my mind began to paint a picture.
The moment those suggestive words and actions, which I had only ever seen, were directed at another man.
The mere thought was horrifying.
So much that I wanted to take a knife and shred the entire scene to pieces.
A storm of complex emotions churned inside me.
Disgust for the man I was, feeling such impure thoughts for my sister-in-law.
And yet, a base desire not to lose her tore at my heart again and again.
Looking down at my contorted face, Ju-yeon’s was painted with the brightest of smiles.
As if she knew it.
“See?”
As if she knew this would happen.
“You can’t, can you?”
She drove a nail into my heart, declaring that I could never let her go.
A rebellious urge rose in me.
Who was I?
I was the tough bastard who had endured all sorts of mental attacks in dungeons without ever losing myself.
If I steeled my heart.
And if it was for her future.
“If that’s the path for both of us to be happier, then I can…”
“Shh.”
Before I could finish, her long index finger pressed firmly against my lips.
“That’s why you can’t let me go, Brother-in-law.”
“……”
“Because I’m a woman who can’t be happy anywhere but by your side.”
“Ju-yeon.”
“And you won’t be able to stand by and watch that happen. Because.”
Han Ju-yeon paused, then gave a soft smile.
Beneath that smile, which looked so fresh on the surface, I could glimpse a dark emotion.
An obsession and madness, born from a long, unrequited love, so venomous and cloying.
“Because to you, Brother-in-law, I am an irreplaceable person.”
It was a sort of confirmation, and her deepest wish.
I was suddenly reminded of something Han Ju-hee had said back when we were passionately in love.
That a woman is a creature who feels more anxious about the remaining 1% of uncertainty than the 99% of conviction she holds in her heart.
Ju-yeon was the same right now.
Even though she knew how precious she was to me, she wanted to hear me say it with my own mouth to reach that 100%.
Seeing her tremble inwardly, so pitifully.
“Yes, you’re right.”
I admitted it.
“Ju-yeon, you are more precious to me than my own life.”
“B-Brother-in-law…”
Had she not expected such an earnest reply?
Ju-yeon’s face flushed red.
Toward her, I continued with bitter words.
“That’s why this is so agonizing right now.”
“Eh…?”
Her eyes widened.
I stared calmly into those eyes filled with surprise and continued.
“There are no eternal secrets in this world, Ju-yeon.”
“……”
“We may be hiding it now, but someday, the people close to us, if not everyone, will find out.”
Perhaps sooner than we think.
One day, the truth about who I really am will be revealed.
When that happens, our relationship will naturally be put on the chopping block.
“Everyone who learns the truth will curse us.”
Your sister, who acted cold but gave you anything you wanted.
Your nephew, who followed you around saying he liked you as much as his own mom.
Your parents, who hoped your only wish now was to meet a good man and get married.
Everyone else.
“Whatever you imagine, you will face condemnation several times stronger than that.”
Perhaps the whole world will curse us, spit at our feet, and throw eggs at us wherever we go.
I called the name of my fragile sister-in-law, whose face had grown visibly pale.
“So, Ju-yeon.”
“…Yes, Brother-in-law.”
And I asked.
“Can you handle all of that?”
After a moment of anguish, her lips parted.
“I…”
* * *
She felt a sense of déjà vu.
The memory of when she saw a glimpse of his desperate life and fell for him helplessly overlapped with the present moment.
The him of the past and the him of the present were asking.
“Can you handle all of that?”
The blame and resentment that would pour down from the people she cherished and who cherished her.
Asking if she could handle it all.
She fell silent for a moment.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought about it.
She had definitely anticipated it.
That one day the truth would be revealed, and their relationship would come to the surface.
Even knowing that, she had approached him without hesitation and seduced him.
Because she didn’t want to lose it.
This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that had appeared out of nowhere.
This one and only chance to be with him, now that he was outside the fence of ‘family.’
She felt that if she let this slip away, even she would be broken.
‘I’m prepared.’
She had made her resolve long ago.
Her sister, her nephew, her parents.
Even if she were condemned by everyone else, it wouldn’t matter as long as she was with him.
So she would tell him not to worry about her.
That as long as she was with her brother-in-law, she would be fine even if a path of thorns lay before them.
“I…”
That’s what she wanted to say.
“I… don’t know.”
What slipped past her lips was not affirmation or denial, but fear.
At the same time, a single tear escaped her eye and streamed down her cheek.
This was the moment she had wished and longed for.
She was on the verge of truly being with the man she loved.
“I’m fine. As long as I’m with you, Brother-in-law, I don’t care…!”
This golden opportunity that had come out of nowhere.
If she just took one more step, she could be with him forever.
“B-But I don’t… I don’t want you to be hated because of me…”
Ironically, it was the very man she loved so dearly who was holding her back from taking that final step.
The happy future she’d imagined was vanishing like a mirage.
“What… what do I do now, Brother-in-law…?”
The sorrowful question of a woman who had lost her way reached the man.