After the Starlit Yacht Night
The blissful night on the yacht, where we'd promised eternity under a cascade of starlight, had faded into memory, and time—indifferent and swift—hurtled toward mid-June.
"Haah... this is driving me crazy, for real."
I let out a deep sigh at the mountain of thick major textbooks piled up before me. No matter that Taesung Group, ranked fifth in Korea's corporate world, had my back, or that I owned shares in a shopping mall under my name and an amusement park worth tens of billions— the pressure of third-year first-semester finals squeezed my neck just as mercilessly as it had in my dirt-poor days.
"Jinwoo-ya, don't sigh like that. The ground might cave in."
Seol-ah, sitting across from me with her chin propped up, gazed at me intently and smiled languidly. We weren't in some run-of-the-mill study cafe down a school alley. When I mentioned needing to cram for finals, she'd declared, 'I can't bear to see my Jinwoo stuck in that stuffy library with a bad vibe, rubbing shoulders with everyone else,' and in just one day, rented out an entire floor of Gangnam's top-tier private reading room on a long-term lease.
Spacious desks crafted from premium hinoki cypress wood, custom ergonomic chairs costing millions each, and instead of white noise, the faint strains of orchestral classical music drifting through the air. Heck, in one corner lounge, a head chef flown in from Switzerland stood by 24/7, ready to serve top-grade organic blueberries and handmade macarons whenever my blood sugar dipped during study sessions.
"How am I supposed to focus when you're staring at me like that?"
I grumbled, setting down my mechanical pencil, and Seol-ah rose from her seat, sidled over, and plopped down right next to me. Her subtle, luxurious perfume scent pierced through the hinoki aroma, tickling my nose.
"It's because you're ignoring me for those books. What do these scraps of paper have that they're stealing my Jinwoo's gaze? Should I just burn them all and buy out the university foundation to make you president?"
"Ugh, here we go again. Please, my queen, let me earn my grades on my own. I've gotta graduate properly, you know."
I pretended to flick her forehead lightly, as if dealing with an incorrigible child, and she burst into giggles, throwing her arms around my waist. The silvery ring gleaming on her left ring finger brushed my bare skin, sending a pleasant coolness through me.
"What's a diploma good for anyway? You're already mine from head to toe. And do you know how much it hurts me to see my husband slaving away like this?"
Seol-ah pouted, nuzzling her face against my chest. Gone was the ruthless planning director who'd been sharply reviewing multi-billion-won overseas investment approvals on her tablet moments ago. In front of me, she was just a lovable puppy starved for affection.
"Still, a student's gotta do what a student's gotta do. I've just got one more subject to nail. The last required major exam is the day after tomorrow. Once that's done, I'm free."
"For real? Once your exam's over the day after tomorrow, you have to play with me all day. Not even a second apart."
"Obviously. The second it's done, I'll stick right by your side."
At my firm promise, Seol-ah finally looked satisfied, planting a loud, wet kiss on my cheek before returning to her seat. But even back in her spot, her eyes weren't on the approval docs—they busily traced the contours of my face. Every flip of my book page, every slight furrow of my brow in concentration—she drank it all in with those huge eyes brimming with fiercely blind devotion.
I chuckled dryly and turned back to my textbook. Sure, I had a breathtaking chaebol heiress eyeing me like prey(?), and limited-edition baked goods from a Michelin chef in my mouth, but finals still had to be conquered.
And finally, two days later. Late June, with stifling heat rising in shimmering waves from the asphalt. I handed in my last answer sheet to the professor in the business school's large lecture hall and stepped out, greeted by the cicadas heralding summer's start pounding in my ears.
"Haah, it's finally over!"
I stretched lightly and took a deep breath. The long, grueling third-year first semester was perfectly done. Back at the semester's start, trembling over a thousand-won difference in cafeteria prices and scraping by on discarded convenience store triangle kimbap—the life of an invisible dirt-poor returnee student felt like a distant past life now.
The campus-shaking capitalist crash course, the vow on a yacht worth hundreds of billions, and this hefty diamond ring on my finger. It had been a tumultuous, overwhelming semester that upended my entire life.
Stepping outside, I spotted a massive custom black limousine drawing every student's gaze in the blazing sun at the center of the campus quad. And in front of it stood Seol-ah, in a breezy sky-blue summer dress of premium silk, wide-brimmed hat atop her head, waiting for me. Bathed in dazzling sunlight, she looked unreal, like a magazine spread come to life.
"Jinwoo-ya!"
Spotting me emerge from the lecture hall door, Seol-ah flung off her hat and ran over like a kid. The shocked stares and whispers from surrounding students? She couldn't care less. She leaped into my arms, wrapping around my neck, standing on tiptoes to pepper my cheek and lips with kisses.
"You did great, my Jinwoo! How'd the exam go? The prof didn't pull any weird tricks, right? If even one grade gets dinged, I'll march straight to the university foundation chairman, cut off all funding, and bulldoze the buildings."
"Ugh, the queen has arrived. The exam was perfect, so please leave the president and foundation alone. I've still got semesters left to graduate."
I laughed helplessly and hugged her slender waist tight. Seol-ah buried her face in my chest and let out a clear, tinkling laugh.
"What's a diploma good for? You're already mine. Come on, hop in! AC's cranked up full blast."
Led by her hand, I slid into the limousine's cool rear seat. As the car smoothly pulled away, Seol-ah pulled a thick, luxurious pearl envelope from her premium leather briefcase and set it on my lap.
"What's this? Don't tell me it's more company secrets or share transfer docs."
"Why would I give you company papers? You'd get a headache. Open it quick."
I carefully opened the pearl envelope and nearly gaped at the contents. Two top-tier private jet tickets dated for a week later, destination blank. Beneath them, a brochure packed with photos of a dreamlike private pool villa floating in turquoise ocean waters.
"Wha... what's all this? The sea?"
"Yeah. Finals are over. Time for our perfect summer break—yours and mine."
Seol-ah leaned her head on my shoulder, playfully fiddling with the silver ring on my finger as she murmured drowsily.
"You've been cooped up studying in that stuffy reading room without playing with me, working so hard. I can't have you shoved into some crowded beach resort with people everywhere. The thought of anyone else's eyes on my man's skin for even a second is horrifying."
She turned to me with a seductive smile.
"So I bought a quiet South Pacific coral atoll uninhabited island. Threw my entire interior team at it last week—totally remodeled into a luxury resort just for us two. It's a strict no-fly zone for tens of kilometers around, not even a bug can get in. We can just swim and play all day, no prying eyes."
A woman who buys a whole uninhabited South Pacific island to build a resort for a summer getaway. At this insanely sweet capitalist scale, my shock had evolved into an exasperated chuckle.
"For real... I'll never get used to your scale. Han Seol-ah's scale is insane."
"Don't like it? Then should I buy a whole castle in Europe right now? Or an Alps ski resort?"
"No, no. I love the sea. From a sweat-drenched single room surviving on one fan to a private island resort—I've made it."
At my teasing reply, Seol-ah giggled and threw her arms around my neck. Her big eyes sparkled with excitement and anticipation for our long, sweet summer alone together.
"Jinwoo-ya."
"Yeah?"
"Good job this semester. Now forget it all and spend a perfect summer with me. Got it?"
Out the window stretched a blindingly blue early summer sky, and in my arms nestled the world's scariest, most lovable first love.
"Yeah. Let's play for real."
I pressed a deep kiss to her forehead and smiled. The end of brutal finals. And the perfect curtain rising on our first summer vacation with this maddeningly adorable queen who'd locked me in her golden cage.