Watching Cha Muyoung’s face turn icy in an instant as he checked the sentence Eunwon had written down and handed over, Park Minho marveled inwardly.
*Yeah, the kid really is sharp. He really knows how to stick it to Cha Muyoung. This is fun.* Park Minho nearly let out a heartfelt exclamation, undefended, but shut his mouth with a start at the chill seeping from Cha Muyoung’s side. Then he quickly composed his expression and turned to his VIP client — to obtain agreement on adding the clause.
"…Add it."
Glaring as if he might tear up the paper — no, tear up Seo Eunwon who’d handed him the paper — Cha Muyoung still managed a cool-headed answer of consent.
Trying to hide his rising laughter, biting his upper and lower lips at once, Park Minho added the clause Eunwon had demanded and printed a new contract.
And finally.
Before each of them lay a contract of unknown identity — like an overly excessive prenuptial agreement, like a viciously obsessive confinement permit — drawn up with both sides’ agreement.
"…Ha."
Watching Eunwon dutifully sign his three characters — Seo, Eun, Won — one by one and stamp his seal, Muyoung’s feelings grew endlessly complicated. But there was no justification or need now for him to step forward and rage, *Are you out of your mind, signing a contract like this?!* and overturn it.
Quickly packing his things after a final check of the sealed contract and the marriage registration form, Park Minho threw out his closing line.
"…So, shall I submit the marriage registration on my way, in my capacity as your proxy?"
"No, I’ll do it myself."
"Yes! Then I’ll leave it with you."
He’d thought to crack a joke to lighten the heavy atmosphere, so unfitting for an engaged couple who’d just promised their future — but Cha Muyoung’s face was too terrifying, so he just shut his mouth.
"Thank you both for your hard work today. I’ll be going—" Even the simple greeting came out as an echo all his own before he exited.
Cha Muyoung staring at Seo Eunwon, and Seo Eunwon with his head dropped to the floor. The two sat in silence for a long while, their respective contracts between them.
The heavy quiet ended when the secretarial staff — who’d been killing time outside on the CEO’s message, *Fill up the whole lunch hour, go have an off-site meeting, come back around three* — returned.
"I’ll be going now…"
Leaving a bow far too formal for a fiancé who’d just promised marriage, Eunwon fled the CEO’s office as if escaping.
Watching his retreating back, Muyoung — frozen like a plaster statue for a long time — let out a very long sigh. And with a complicated gaze, he looked down at the final clause added at Eunwon’s sole request.
Article 24 (Special Provisions After Contract Termination) 1. After the termination of the contract (divorce), each party’s whereabouts shall follow entirely their own will, and neither shall in any way interfere in or contact the other’s life, if the other does not wish it.
The redefinition of his relationship with Seo Eunwon, dating, cohabitation, marriage and plans for children —
Long-cherished wishes achieved all at once, yet the reason one corner of his chest felt so achy and unsettled was surely—
Because of that sentence, carrying the meaning: *After the divorce, let’s part cleanly as strangers and live without getting tangled up again.*
That sentence — the one and only place in the contract holding Seo Eunwon’s demand —packed the punch of a perfect one-hit KO, powerful enough to make him feel like a complete loser, even though every one of the dozens of clauses stuffed with Cha Mu’s sinister desires had passed.
But.
All he had to do was never end the contract.
Amid the bitter aftertaste, Muyoung repeated like an incantation the absolute principle he’d emphasized to Park Minho several times before — that there would be no divorce —and tried his best to shake off the afterimage of the sentence that had dealt him critical damage.
Chapter 5 — "[Case Name: Marriage Registration]"
No matter how many times he turned it over in his mind, the situation refused to make sense. Eunwon was tilting his head, about to sink back into the round-and-round merry-go-round of his thoughts, when—
"Seo Eunwon."
"Baby."
"Huh… yes?"
"Let’s go."
"Huh? …Where to?"
"You’ll see when we get there."
He had no idea how long Muyoung had been standing there. Without a sound, Muyoung had approached — Eunwon’s jacket, bag, and phone naturally gathered in one hand, while the other hand laced their fingers together and tugged him along.
Then, to Team Leader Jeong — who had been summoned to the CEO’s office just moments ago and now stood beside them, looking dazed — Muyoung tossed the words offhandedly:
"Secretary Seo Eunwon is taking the afternoon off, effective now."
It was a one-sided announcement with no regard for the person’s consent, but no one would dare object.
"Uh, um…"
Flustered, letting out a small whimper, Eunwon did as he always had his whole life —followed obediently where Muyoung led. Even as he was herded down to the parking garage and loaded into the car, he couldn’t muster the courage to ask again, *Where are we really going?*
Unlike the tender hand fastening his seatbelt for him, Cha Muyoung’s expression hadn’t softened at all from the grim look he’d worn when Eunwon had asked to add that final clause to the contract.
Muyoung believed Eunwon had demanded that clause with the intention of cutting him off completely and running away someday. But Eunwon’s intention had been the exact opposite.
It was a sentence he’d put forward hoping that, once everything was over and Cha Mu had gotten everything he wanted, he would finally be able to let go of the tiresome, shabby Eunwon without a shred of regret.
Once he’d placed a baby in those arms and Muyoung’s one and only goal was fully achieved, Eunwon had resolved to take only the 650 million won he’d originally named and disappear quietly.
*150 billion won?*
That was such an absurd amount he couldn’t even bring himself to covet it, and thanks to the contract at least being dressed up under the name "prenuptial agreement" rather than "special marriage contract," Eunwon — just as Cha Muyoung had said — could keep a bare minimum of pride and dignity. Which made it all the more impossible for his conscience to accept that much money.
And to be honest — marrying Cha Muyoung… for Eunwon, who loved him, there was nothing to lose. In a way, for someone who had secretly loved him for so long, it was like a dream.
Of course, in Eunwon’s sweet dreams, a "real marriage" — loving each other fiercely and spending a lifetime together — was far removed from this bitter reality.
Contract marriage, living like a married couple, then giving him a baby and divorcing cleanly.
Objectively speaking, it was almost astonishing — that for even a brief moment, he got to stand beside Cha Mu, pretending to be his mate.
Which was also why he couldn’t quite believe it.
Could it be that Muyoung had just acted in a moment of impulse and was regretting it now?
He’d have to confirm that once more, for certain. But if what Muyoung truly wanted was only those things…
Eunwon felt he could quietly give him everything he wanted — not for the money, but to repay even a little of the overwhelming kindness he’d received his whole life — and then leave.
While he was lost in these thoughts, the car crossing the city pulled into some building barely ten minutes after they’d set out.
*You’ll see when we get there, huh.*
The place Muyoung had brought him — plunked down, just like that — was, ridiculously enough, in front of the civil service counter at the district office.
「MARRIAGE REGISTRATION Once filed: abso- lute- ly NO CANCELLATIONS」
The notice, in thick, blood-red letters that hinted at just how much had happened to bring them here, felt like a warning aimed straight at Eunwon.
He flinched, tightening his grip on the hand that had somehow, so naturally, been laced with his. Muyoung — silent and brooding since they’d set out — tilted his head crookedly and looked down at him.
"Once filed: absolutely, absolutely no cancellations, it says."
At the stern warning, delivered in a tone Eunwon couldn’t read, his shoulders gave a small jolt. He looked up at Muyoung, who was staring him down, and slowly nodded.
"I’m fine with it… but are you sure you’re okay with this, sir?"
"If I weren’t okay with it, would I have come all this way to do this?"
"…Still."
"Me, on the other hand—"
"I’m so excited to marry you. Seriously."
He said it with the same fierce, grim face he’d worn while angry, so there was no way the feeling came across as genuine. Eunwon wasn’t a fool, of course, so he didn’t sweetly misread Muyoung’s words to his own liking.
Right. There’s no way hyung could like me.
The resignation was familiar. And fast.
Shedding yet another foolish, empty hope, Eunwon coolly reorganized his thoughts about Muyoung’s "objective," as he’d been doing all along.
To escape the elders’ nagging about marriage. To finally release the desires he’d suppressed his whole life because of his mysophobia and omega aversion. To neatly resolve the thorny heir problem.
And considering the enormity of his wealth, 15 billion won might be a perfectly reasonable price to pay to resolve all these annoyances at once.
Seen that way, Muyoung’s claim of being "excited" made perfect sense now.
Lawyer Park Minho had filled in the blanks of the contract, and the one box that had remained empty to the very end — "witness" — now bore the name and signature of Team Leader Jeong from the secretarial office. Realizing that even Team Leader Jeong knew, this contract marriage finally began to feel real.
What would the adults… think?
Mom would be hugely surprised, and hyung’s parents… they’d hate it, since I wasn’t the "proper, respectable dominant omega young lady from a good family" they’d been hoping for since the blind date. And they might fly into a rage, asking how we dared decide something as grave as marriage on our own.
Since no real conversation passed between them, the registration was processed smoothly in under ten minutes while Eunwon sat alone with these practical worries.
「Case Name: Marriage Registration」
Receipt in hand, Eunwon looked once more at the notice: *Once filed: abso- lute- ly NO CANCELLATIONS.*
Now it was truly a done deal… beyond undoing. Muyoung took hold of the dazed Eunwon again and pulled him along.
"Let’s go, honey."
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