Yeoheon Jin was standing outside the door.
The moment I heard his name, my heart beat one beat late.
That couldn't be.
The Yeoheon Jin I remembered wasn't someone who came to see me the night before our wedding.
Even during our engagement, we had met alone only a handful of times.
The secretaries' offices and wedding teams from both families handled the preparations, and anything that required confirmation between us was usually settled by email.
The last time I'd seen his face was at a meal with both families two weeks ago.
Even then, it had lasted barely an hour.
Yeoheon had gotten up first at the end of the meal, citing an overseas investment meeting.
And he hadn't been expected to return until the day of the wedding.
That was how it had actually happened in my past life.
I slowly lowered the receiver.
It was quiet outside the door.
Quiet enough to make me wonder if I'd heard wrong.
But a moment later, there was another knock.
This time, it wasn't two knocks.
One.
Low and brief.
As if he knew I was inside and intended to wait.
I looked down at the paper on the table.
[I have no intention of proceeding with the marriage scheduled for today.]
My clear signature beneath it.
Haeon Ki.
Until a moment ago, I'd planned to show it to my father first thing in the morning.
But the situation had changed.
If I wasn't going to get married anyway, I needed to tell Yeoheon too.
In a way, this was for the best.
It was better to end things now than announce it at the wedding venue.
Even as I thought that, my feet refused to move.
Because the person on the other side of the door was the Yeoheon Jin I knew.
No.
More precisely, the Yeoheon Jin I believed I knew.
The man I'd lived with for seven years and ultimately known nothing about.
His face, crying at my funeral, flashed through my mind.
I immediately looked away.
What could tears shed before the dead possibly do for the living?
There was only one thing I had to do now.
In this life, I had to avoid marrying him.
Holding the paper stating my intention to break off the marriage, I walked toward the entryway.
I paused just before taking hold of the doorknob.
After taking one breath, I opened the door.
Yeoheon Jin was standing there.
A black suit.
A white shirt buttoned neatly to the throat.
A dark gray tie.
His eyes behind thin metal-rimmed glasses looked a little more tired than I remembered.
It was truly strange.
His face was exactly the same as the one I'd seen on the day of my wedding in my past life.
But his expression was different.
The moment the door opened, Yeoheon looked straight at me.
The instant his gaze touched my face, the man's breath stopped for the briefest moment.
It was short enough for me to be certain of it.
His eyelids slowly lowered, then rose again.
He returned to his usual expressionless face.
“I'm sorry for coming so late.”
His voice was the same too.
Low and calm.
I answered without opening the door all the way.
“What brings you here?”
Yeoheon's gaze dropped briefly to my hand.
Even after seeing the folded paper, he didn't ask what it was.
“May I come in?”
“At this hour?”
“That is why I'm asking first.”
It was exactly the sort of answer the Yeoheon Jin from my past life would have given.
And yet, strangely, I wasn't reassured.
I stepped aside.
“Only for a minute.”
Yeoheon entered.
When the door closed, the spacious suite suddenly felt cramped.
I walked toward the sofa first.
He followed me, then paused in front of the vanity.
A black leather folder lay open.
The Marriage Property Agreement.
The signature line still blank beneath my name.
Yeoheon's gaze lingered on the documents.
“You haven't signed yet.”
I stood across from him.
“No.”
“Are you planning not to?”
The question came too quickly.
I studied his face.
“Is that what you came to ask?”
“Partly.”
Partly.
That meant there was another reason.
Yeoheon didn't sit on the sofa.
Instead, I slowly took a seat.
So I wouldn't be swayed by anything I heard from this point on.
“Go ahead.”
He was silent for a few seconds.
Like someone selecting what to say.
Then he asked an unexpected question.
“Was anything wrong today?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you feel unwell?”
For a moment, I thought my heart had stopped.
I struggled to keep my face composed.
“Why are you suddenly asking about my health?”
“Please answer first.”
His tone was firmer than usual.
I slowly laced my fingers together.
“I'm fine.”
Only then did the tension ease, ever so slightly, from Yeoheon's shoulders.
It was strange.
No matter how I looked at it, it was strange.
We weren't the kind of people who asked about each other's health.
Throughout our engagement, he had never shown any interest in whether I'd caught a cold, stayed up all night, or gone to the hospital.
At least, that was how it had seemed to me.
“Is that all?”
“No.”
Yeoheon finally sat on the sofa across from me.
He didn't lean back deeply.
Even the way he lightly rested both hands on his knees was excessively proper.
He had always been like that.
A man who never let himself become even slightly disheveled.
Except for the way he looked after I died.
I pushed the image out of my mind.
“There is something we need to confirm before the wedding tomorrow.”
“I have something to tell you too.”
“Go ahead.”
I wasn't giving him an opportunity.
I just wanted to finish this quickly.
I placed the paper I was holding on the table.
Yeoheon's eyes moved down the words.
It took him only a few seconds to read the first line.
He didn't pick up the paper.
His expression barely changed.
I waited for his reaction.
Whether he was surprised.
Whether he got angry.
Whether he started calculating the losses Hyeonrok Group and Haedam Distribution would suffer.
I could have expected any reaction.
But Yeoheon said nothing for a long while.
In the end, I was the first to speak.
“I won't get married.”
The gaze behind his glasses lifted.
“May I ask why?”
“Because I don't want to.”
“Since when?”
The question was unexpected.
I paused.
“Does it matter?”
“If someone who's supposed to get married tomorrow afternoon changed her mind after midnight, it would be understandable to wonder.”
“I didn't change my mind today.”
It was true.
It had taken seven years.
Of course, I couldn't tell him that.
I continued as calmly as possible.
“I've been thinking about it for a long time. I've only just made my decision.”
Yeoheon's finger moved once.
That was all.
“Is this because of an issue involving Hyeonrok Group?”
“No.”
“Because you dislike me?”
This time, I couldn't answer right away.
Did I dislike him?
I had hated him before.
On every night I'd grown tired of waiting.
As I stared down at my phone, which never received a message.
Every time I saw him place a hand on my waist and pretend to be affectionate only at events.
Every time I'd wanted to ask him why he'd married me.
But at some point, I grew too tired even to hate him.
Yeoheon Jin had become someone who existed in my life and yet didn't.
“It isn't about liking or disliking you.”
At my answer, something in his eyes sank ever so slightly.
“Then what is it?”
“I don't want this marriage itself.”
“Ms. Ki.”
For the first time, he called me by my name.
It felt strange.
Even during our engagement, he usually left out forms of address.
He only called my name when necessary, in places crowded with people.
“If you're going to say it's difficult to cancel the marriage because of the contract between Hyeonrok and Haedam, I already know.”
“How much do you know?”
“As much as I need to.”
Yeoheon's gaze shifted to the agreement on the vanity.
“Did you read that document?”
“Yes.”
“All of it?”
“Why are you so surprised?”
He didn't answer.
Was it really that unexpected for me to read the agreement?
In my past life, I hadn't read it.
But I was the only one who knew that.
A strange thought crossed my mind, then vanished just as quickly.
Impossible.
I returned to the practical matter at hand.
“I know the two companies will have a lot of contracts to sort out if the marriage falls through.”
“It goes beyond that.”
“That still isn't a reason for me to get married.”
“Even if employees and business partners are affected?”
My fingertips stopped moving.
I raised my head.
“What are you talking about?”
Yeoheon looked at me for a moment before speaking in a low voice.
“Haedam Distribution has short-term borrowings due for repayment by the end of this week.”
This was the first I'd heard of it.
“So?”
“Hyeonrok Capital is scheduled to execute a bridge loan tomorrow morning.”
“As a condition of the marriage?”
“That isn't the stated condition.”
I couldn't even laugh.
In the end, it was the same.
A loveless marriage.
The company.
Money.
A transaction.
“So if the wedding falls through, the loan disappears too.”
“Under the current contract structure, it will likely be subject to a new review.”
“Hyeonrok can just cancel it.”
“I can stop that from happening.”
The answer was unexpected.
I narrowed my eyes.
“But?”
“The problem is external confidence. If tomorrow's wedding falls through, the joint venture between the two groups will also undergo a full review. Haedam's business partners are likely to make the first move.”
His words were calm, but their meaning was coldly realistic.
I quickly calculated the implications in my head.
I hadn't known in my past life.
I only learned later that Haedam Distribution had been under financial pressure when we got married.
Even then, the exact figures hadn't been shared with me.
The company had been my brother's and father's domain, and I had only handled the projects I was needed for.
But the wedding had been tied this closely to that problem?
“So you came here to tell me to get married?”
“No.”
The denial came so immediately that I was left speechless instead.
Yeoheon drew the paper in front of me toward himself with his fingertips.
My declaration of intent to break off the marriage.
He read it to the end, then set it down again.
“If you don't want to get married, you don't have to.”
I stared at him.
I thought I'd heard wrong.
“What did you just say?”
“I have no intention of making someone who doesn't want to get married stand at the altar.”
“Then what about the contract between Hyeonrok and Haedam?”
“We'll sort it out.”
“You said employees and business partners would be affected.”
“I told you because it was something you needed to know before making your decision.”
“You weren't trying to persuade me?”
“If I were trying to persuade you, I would have put it differently.”
He certainly would have.
Yeoheon was the kind of person who quickly grasped what the other party feared.
He could have cornered me with the company's problems.
He could have settled things with my father first and then simply informed me.
But he hadn't.
Instead, he said I didn't have to get married.
Words I never could have imagined hearing in my past life.
“Why?”
I asked without meaning to.
“Why what?”
“Why are you accepting this so easily?”
His face hardened.
It was the first time.
For the briefest moment, I saw Yeoheon Jin unable to find an answer.
“Marrying me is something Hyeonrok needs too.”
“Something being necessary and something being mandatory are different.”
“Were you the kind of person who made that distinction, Mr. Jin?”
Only after saying it did I realize how much it sounded like I knew about him.
Yeoheon's eyes sharpened.
“What kind of person do you think I am?”
I had to be careful.
I didn't look away.
“Someone who chooses what the business needs before emotion.”
Silence.
“Am I wrong?”
Yeoheon said nothing for a while.
Then he answered in a very low voice.
“No.”
Strangely, that one word stayed with me.
His face didn't look like someone admitting I was right.
He looked like someone hearing words he'd been told long ago all over again.
He rose from his seat.
“You don't need to decide tonight.”
“I've already decided.”
“Wait until morning.”
“Waiting won't change anything.”
“I know.”
His answer made me pause again.
Yeoheon picked up the coat he'd left beside the sofa.
“Even so, let's talk again in the morning.”
“Why?”
“There is something I need to confirm.”
“What are you confirming?”
This time, he didn't answer.
He walked to the entryway and took hold of the doorknob.
I remained seated, watching his back.
If I let him leave like this, I felt an odd uneasiness would linger.
“Mr. Jin.”
He turned around.
“You asked if I was feeling all right earlier.”
A very brief silence.
“Yes.”
“Why did you ask?”
This time, I saw it clearly.
His expression hardened.
At a single question.
Yeoheon slowly removed his hand from the doorknob.
“I just wanted to make sure.”
“Make sure of what?”
“That you...”
He cut himself off.
His gaze slowly moved over my face.
My eyes.
My lips.
My shoulders.
Then back to my eyes.
As if confirming that I was alive.
“That you were all right.”
A strange chill spread through my chest.
I couldn't answer.
A moment later, the door closed.
Even after Yeoheon Jin disappeared, I stood there for a long time.
The declaration of intent to break off the marriage I'd written remained on the table.
And beside it.
I noticed something that definitely hadn't been there before.
A black business-card wallet Yeoheon had left behind.
I hesitated, then picked it up.
A small card slipped from inside and fell to the floor.
It wasn't a business card.
It was a hotel key card.
For the floor where I was staying.
But the room number was different.
The suite directly across from mine.
I stared down at the key card.
The front desk employee's words came back to me.
“Someone has come to visit you.”
So he hadn't just arrived at the hotel.
He'd already booked a room on the same floor.
The night before my wedding.
Yeoheon Jin, who should have still been overseas.
In the room across from mine.
He had been staying there without me knowing since when.