The Price of Honor

“Taerin, it’s a misunderstanding. Listen to me. What happened was…”

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”

“Uh…?”

“I asked if you really thought I wouldn’t know you had another woman.”

“…You knew?”

“Ha… Just how much of a fool did you take me for?”

Taerin let out a hollow, scoffing laugh and shook off Se-hyun’s hand, which was wrapped tightly around her wrist.

She had already known he was carrying on a secret love affair. When her engagement to Jeong Se-hyun was finalized three years ago, her father, Won Kyung-pil, had been the one to tell her.

“He’s a healthy man, so of course women will flock to him. Manager Choi went through a lot of trouble to find this out. It means he’s been meeting her while avoiding people’s eyes, so there’s nothing to worry about. He’s a smart fellow, so he’s kept her well-hidden.”

“Father, but…”

“It’s up to you. You are a Won; what do you lack that you can’t even handle a guy like that? Make him yours. Playing at love is only a fleeting thing.”

“…Does it have to be him?”

“A man who is too outstanding is difficult to keep in the palm of your hand. Perhaps because he grew up in the shadow of an impressive older brother, his inferiority complex is vast. He’ll become poisonous with just a little poking. His abilities are decent enough. My eye for people is accurate.”

After weighing numerous options, Won Kyung-pil had seemingly made up his mind to keep Jeong Se-hyun on a short leash. Taerin knew that once her father made a decision, there was no reversing it, so she said no more. She was reluctant to engage herself to a man who had a lover, but Taerin had no right to decide.

Thus, three years ago, following her father’s orders, Taerin became Se-hyun’s fiancée and turned a blind eye to his secret affair.

However, there was one thing Won Kyung-pil—the man with the supposedly “accurate eye”—had failed to perceive. Jeong Se-hyun was more of an indecisive romantic than expected, and his affair had continued to this very day.

“…You said I could see other women.”

Taerin let out a cynical laugh at a self-justification that came faster than an apology. Over Se-hyun’s face, as he tried to shift the blame for the current situation onto her, she saw a flicker of his past self.

“Let’s go up and talk more today.”

On the day of their third meeting after the engagement was decided, what Se-hyun had placed on the table after finishing dinner at the hotel restaurant was a key card. Throwing off his polite mask, the man’s expression as he suggested they sleep together was nothing but nonchalant.

The thought of a man trying to possess her body while having a lover was repulsive. Because of that, Taerin had drawn a clear line for Se-hyun.

“Were we in a romantic relationship?”

“…”

“You asked me to be a fiancée that anyone would look at with envy. I will keep that promise.”

She was telling him not to expect the actions or conversations of ordinary lovers in private settings. Realizing the hidden meaning, Se-hyun had knit his brows in displeasure.

“Are you saying it’s okay for me to see other women?”

“Just don’t get caught. As long as you don’t cause me any harm, I don’t care.”

“Ah, so if I’m going to meet someone, meet them discreetly?”

“It will be equally difficult for you, Se-hyun, if rumors start to spread.”

“You’re more generous than I thought. Fine. Let’s do that. In exchange, I’ll grant you a secret freedom as well. Anything else you want?”

“Just don’t tarnish the honor of myself or my parents.”

“That won’t happen. I promise.”

The man who had smiled so confidently back then was now biting his lip with an anxious expression in front of Taerin. It was the behavior of a man who knew exactly how he had broken his own promise.

“Don’t you remember me telling you not to get caught?”

“…”

“Did you just get caught? You’ve made it so the whole world knows. I told you. Do not cause me harm.”

This afternoon, a message had circulated claiming that A, the second son of a certain construction company, had been enjoying a secret affair with another woman at an overseas resort behind his fiancée B’s back. The problem was that it also became known that B was the daughter of a political titan.

People immediately surmised who A and B were, and Taerin, who learned of the situation through her secretary, called Se-hyun right away. It was the day of a gallery pre-opening party, so she was incredibly busy, but this was absolutely not a matter to be overlooked lightly. That was how the two came to face each other now in the empty sub-exhibit hall of the gallery.

“I don’t care. Who you meet. Whether three of you roll around or four. It has absolutely nothing to do with me.”

“…Then why.”

“You still don’t know what you did wrong? The name Won Taerin is floating around in the gossip spread through messenger apps. You’ve dragged my name and my parents’ names through the mud!”

“…”

“You hid it well for a while, but lately, there have been too many sightings. Just how much was I supposed to endure?”

“Taerin, that’s…”

“And now, you’ve made it so even things like this are sent to me.”

Taerin opened her handbag and hurled a bundle of photos. The photos, which scattered across the marble floor with a sharp clack, vividly captured Se-hyun and his lover, Ha-yeon, in the middle of a sexual act.

Recognizing the source of the dozens of photos filling his vision, Se-hyun’s clean-cut face turned deathly pale.

“…This, this is what Ha-yeon and I took last week… What is this.”

“Yeah. That video you and your woman took. She sent it to me, too. She said she wouldn’t spread it if I broke up with you.”

“…”

“It’s not like she took it without your knowledge. To embrace each other naked in front of a camera and confess your love—how romantic. Jeong Se-hyun, have you lost your mind?”

Preventing secrets from leaking through the media was not difficult. Se-hyun had blocked it primarily, and Taerin had blocked it secondarily without Se-hyun’s knowledge. But this time, the nature of the problem was different. This had gone beyond the point of being able to overlook it.

Above all, her pride would not allow it. The caution of the man who had hidden his lover from the world had grown laxer by the day, and now their story had degraded into a joke for people to gossip about.

Ultimately, she had even received threatening photos from the woman Se-hyun was seeing. Therefore, she had to be clear. This was honor she had protected with her life. She could not overlook him daring to scratch the results of her long-standing efforts.

“Tie up this loose end yourself. And from now on, that woman you’re seeing should never contact me again. In any way.”

Just as Taerin shook off Se-hyun’s hand as he tried to grab her wrist and turned to leave—

“Let’s break off the engagement.”

Taerin stopped dead. She slowly turned around. She looked up at Se-hyun, whose head was hanging weakly, her fine brows contorted.

“What?”

“I said, let’s break off the engagement.”

Slap! The sound of the hit sliced through the space. It was a force strong enough to whip Se-hyun’s head to the side. Blood welled at the corner of his mouth because of the engagement ring Taerin wore on her index finger.

“How dare you!”

It was the first time in her life she had ever hit someone. But her trembling hand was not due to shock. It was pure rage.

“You talk about breaking the engagement? Someone like you? By what right?”

Se-hyun rubbed the corner of his mouth where blood was seeping with a bitter expression.

“Taerin, you don’t love me. I… I want love.”

Taerin laughed as if she were appalled. She had known Jeong Se-hyun for three years. In all those three years, the Jeong Se-hyun of today was the most pathetic. To have Jeong Se-hyun mention “love” to her—if this was how it was going to be, she couldn’t understand why he had gotten engaged to her in the first place.

“Then ‘love.’ Keep grabbing any woman you want and do it, just like you’ve been doing. Who’s saying otherwise?”

“Do you know how I feel… every time I see you, who won’t even let me touch you unless it’s a public setting?”

“Ah, so to you, touching a woman’s body is love?”

“That’s not what I’m saying!”

“This time, even my father will have to admit it. He’ll regret pushing for this engagement, claiming he had an eye for people.”

“…”

“But what can we do? The general election is only three months away. I can’t trouble my father with your womanizing issues. I won’t tell my father, so clean this up properly. Make sure no more filthy stories circulate.”

“Taerin!”

Despair was shadowed in the eyes of the man as he grabbed Taerin and shouted as if he were sick to his stomach. To an outsider, it was a sight that could be mistaken for a man angry at a cheating fiancée. Taerin had no intention of facing Se-hyun any longer—a man who was the one to break the promise yet acted like the victim.

“Listen carefully. If anyone says we’re breaking the engagement, it’ll be me. You are the one being discarded.”

“…”

“But not right now. Not yet. So, Jeong Se-hyun.”

Taerin twisted her wrist, which had been caught again. Se-hyun’s hand dropped away, limp.

“Don’t overstep your bounds; go and keep your woman under control.”

“…”

“You should have behaved when I was playing along and pretending not to know.”

“…Do you know? A woman like you really, really… makes a man feel miserable.”

“Is that so?”

Taerin tilted her head. She gazed at him quietly with an expression of incomprehension, then one corner of her mouth curved upward at a slant.

“Then you should have been more impressive.”

Muttering lightly as if it were a shame, Taerin crossed the gallery’s sub-exhibit hall with a posture that lacked even a single tremor.

Click, clack. Se-hyun had to stand there, staring only at the photos fallen at his feet, until the sound of her receding heels could no longer be heard.