Contract Marriage with Memory Loss on Top - Chapter 2
The cool water moistened his mouth, but he suddenly choked. Yeon-woo coughed a few times and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Well, that makes sense. The phone vibration must have woken Ki-won up, even if it was brief.
Yeon-woo slightly raised his lowered head. He was still looking at him. Although it couldn’t be possible, it made him nervous as if he was trying to read his mind.
“Ah, well… I went out on the terrace to get some air because I wasn’t feeling well.”
“Really? Now that you mention it, your complexion doesn’t look good either. Should you go to the hospital?”
It seemed the stress from the private loan recently had shown on his complexion. Yeon-woo nodded his head largely, pretending it was nothing.
Maintaining composure while hiding something was quite difficult. His expression kept hardening as his feet kept feeling numb. He felt like he needed to change the subject.
“By the way… hyung.”
Using the term ‘hyung’ once made it a bit easier the second time. Yeon-woo spoke slowly so it wouldn’t seem like he was hastily changing the direction of the conversation.
“I’m thinking of getting a part-time job… Would that be okay?”
The contract marriage was also a type of employment. As he had the job of being Ki-won’s spouse, he needed permission to have a second job. Yeon-woo’s attitude was cautious as he had not yet found a proper reason for needing to work.
“Is there something you want to buy?”
“No, that’s not it…”
His eyes were rolling around, trying to squeeze out a reason somehow. As Yeon-woo hesitated for a while, the man opened his mouth again.
“If you’re bored at home, you can go out and have fun. Use the card as much as you want.”
He seemed to understand that Yeon-woo couldn’t buy what he wanted, was being cautious, and eventually tried to earn money.
“Yeon-woo, I always tell you, think of it as your own money and use it.”
Yeon-woo swallowed lightly. For Yeon-woo, who had to wire 1.5 million won every month, it was difficult to figure out how to make him understand. It was also awkward to insist on earning and using his own money when he was told he could swipe the card without asking for permission.
‘Should I secretly do a daily part-time job after all?’
It seemed like if he brought up the story further, far from making him understand, it would only make him look suspicious. Just as he was about to hold back his words to hide the fact that he had a debt, Ki-won started tapping on the table. His index finger lightly tapped the flat surface and lifted, making Yeon-woo swallow dryly for no reason.
“If there’s nothing you want to buy, why do you want to work?”
At the muttered words that sounded like he was talking to himself, Yeon-woo’s heart started beating fast.
“It’s not like there’s another reason.”
It wasn’t an atmosphere where he could just laugh and brush it off lightly. It felt like a command to give an accurate reason, making Yeon-woo’s lips tremble.
“Hmm? Yeon-woo.”
As Yeon-woo couldn’t give an answer, the man asked again, slightly tilting his head. How should he handle this to be called wise? Unable to hide his perplexity, Yeon-woo ended up blurting out nonsense.
“I recently developed an interest in claw machines!”
“Claw machines?”
It was over.
It wasn’t natural at all and didn’t sound plausible either. Yeon-woo, who blurted out whatever came to mind, broke out in a cold sweat. Was there really nothing else to say? He wanted to slap his lips that moved on their own. He had to properly take care of this now that it had come to this.
“Doll claw machines. They only accept cash…”
Yeon-woo glanced at his face like a thief. His expression didn’t change much, as if he didn’t find the answer suspicious.
“I’m not good at it yet, so I fail every time I try. The game price is also very expensive… I can’t borrow money to play claw machines, so I was thinking of working.”
What kind of person would get a job to play claw machines in this world? But words that have been spoken cannot be taken back. Yeon-woo decided to go on brazenly.
While Yeon-woo was rambling on about things that didn’t even make sense, waving his hands, Ki-won, who had been listening quietly, took out his wallet.
“I didn’t know you’d be interested in such things.”
What he took out was a stack of 50,000 won bills. Without counting, it looked well over 10 bills.
“Tell me if you need more. You can also withdraw cash from the card and use it.”
Did it work for now…?
Feeling like he had somehow taken care of it, Yeon-woo was relieved without showing it.
Yeon-woo looked down at the 50,000 won bills sitting at the corner of the table with a dumbfounded face.
“Is it not enough?”
At the calm question, Yeon-woo hurriedly shook his head. Of course, it was an amount that was difficult to fill the needed 1.5 million won, but it was sufficiently helpful. Yeon-woo left a short thank you along with an answer that he would take it after finishing his meal.
Afterwards, they had a quiet time eating. As he sped up his eating pace because the money on the table bothered him, the rice bowl soon showed its bottom. Yeon-woo, who scraped it clean as if he wouldn’t miss even the last spoonful, was about to get up from his seat. At that moment, Ki-won, who had finished his meal faster and was waiting, let out a small sigh.
“Oh no.”
“What’s wrong?”
Even if you heard it briefly, there was a noticeable discomfort in the breath-mixed sentence. Yeon-woo, who reacted to the sound, examined Ki-won who was fiddling with his cell phone. His face was oddly distorted as if he had suffered a mishap.
“I urgently need to make a work call, but the battery is low.”
“Oh no… Do you need to use your phone right now?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Then would you like to use mine? I charged it before going to sleep at dawn.”
Yeon-woo, who heard a thank you reply, put down the tableware he was holding and moved his feet to the bedroom.
‘Did only I charge it before going to sleep yesterday? I think there were two chargers plugged in.’
It was a thought he had when he picked up the cell phone sitting alone on the desk. Since it was a scene he saw in passing, trying to recall it again filled his head with hazy fog.
Anyway, it was surprising that Ki-won, who seemed thorough when it came to work, showed a gap with just a cell phone battery. Indeed, there was a human side even to Ki-won who seemed perfect. Yeon-woo, who learned something others didn’t know, giggled to himself and returned to the dining table.
“Here. The pattern lock isn’t set, so you can just use it.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
He fiddled with Yeon-woo’s cell phone a few times and then looked up.
“Since it’s a work call, I think I need to do it in a quiet space. Can I use it in the study?”
“Of course! I’ll clean up here, so go and talk comfortably.”
The head shook up and down vigorously. It didn’t sound strange for him to go to the study, saying it would get noisy once the dishwasher started running.
“I’ll be back.”
Ki-won, who took Yeon-woo’s cell phone, wore a faint smile.
***
He didn’t intend to do such a childish thing from the beginning. Ki-won, who entered the study, leaned against the chair and rubbed his thin face.
‘I should turn it off just in case.’
There’s no way an office worker, especially someone in charge of important tasks, would forget to charge their cell phone. It could be seen as an obvious ploy, but to hand over the cell phone with an innocent face, that innocence made him chuckle automatically. Ki-won, who decided to turn on the power after going to work, pushed his cell phone into his inner pocket.
These days, Seo Yeon-woo’s behavior was strange. Spacing out or frowning at the slightest thing was basic, and he would secretly leave the bedroom every dawn. He didn’t know the reason for frowning during the day, but he clearly knew the reason for leaving the room at dawn.
Phone calls.
The first time, he had let it slide. However, the number of suspicious calls kept increasing day by day, far from decreasing. Eventually, Yeon-woo set his cell phone to silent mode and quietly left the bedroom whenever a call came. After watching him walk on tiptoe several times, he suddenly became curious.
“Cheating?”
The short word popped out softly. When the word with a raised end was finished, his brows furrowed. In the first place, since it was a relationship established by contract, he had no right to talk about cheating. However, the contract clause clearly stated that one must not have a lover until the expiration period.
Seo Yeon-woo didn’t have the guts to violate the contract. But it didn’t seem like a relative or family either. To solve the question that was becoming more and more of a mystery, he decided to use a definite method, even if it was childish.
Ki-won, who organized his thoughts, hesitated while trying to access Yeon-woo’s call history. If he borrowed the cell phone saying he would make a call, it would look strange if there was no call history. Ki-won called his secretary. Normally, the call would be answered within three rings, but there was no immediate response, perhaps because it was an unknown number.
– Hello?
“This is Ki-won.”
When he answered the call that was finally connected, a startled voice returned. It felt like he was flustered by the unfamiliar number and then hurriedly pulled himself together.
– …I apologize. It seems I missed a number. I will save this contact as well.
“No, this cell phone is borrowed, so you don’t need to do that.”
– Ah… Do you have any instructions for me?
“Please keep the call connected for 3 minutes. I have nothing to convey, so you can relax.”
The secretary’s voice sounded dazed as he answered that he understood. Ki-won, who went into the call history, began to scan through the accumulated records. It was around then that the man’s brows, who had been secretly examining Yeon-woo’s private life, gradually narrowed.
It’s not there.
There was no record of him receiving calls at dawn. His own record of calling Yeon-woo before getting off work was the end. Ki-won, who rubbed his lips as if tracing them, rolled his eyes. He didn’t know how to interpret this.
If the call history was completely deleted, it wouldn’t have been suspicious. Deleting only the dawn contacts seemed like there was something to hide. He checked other days just in case, but the result was the same.
Did he really start seeing someone? Ki-won’s eyes narrowed.