Affectionate Obsession - Chapter 15

“Haa……”

Yeonhee let out a deep sigh as soon as she entered the newlywed home with Junhyeok.

She couldn’t understand why she had been feeling so tired these past few days.

Then again. Ever since she met Sera, one incident after another had come crashing down without a break, so it made sense.

Yeonhee sat down heavily on the sofa with a thud and weakly pulled up her lips.

Rolling her dry eyes and fluttering her eyelids once, she checked the time out of habit.

It was almost 10 PM.

“I was there for quite a while.”

It was on her way back from visiting Yeonjeong, where she could finally relax after a long time. This was thanks to Junhyeok leaving for a business trip to Busan early in the morning.

She had enjoyed being able to spend a long time with Yeonjeong without having to watch anyone’s reactions, but coming back home, she felt strange.

Her heart felt hollow. It was like something that had filled her chest had suddenly vanished.

Yeonhee looked around the frighteningly quiet house.

She felt as if Junhyeok’s phantom, who must be in Busan right now, was appearing before her eyes.

‘Let’s eat dinner. What do you want to eat?’

It was the words Junhyeok always said when he came home from work.

Had she only heard him say that three times?

The problem was that they had only lived in this house together for five days since returning from their honeymoon.

On the first day, they had returned from the villa in Gangwon Province and were too exhausted to do anything but sleep. On the second day, they had met Chairman Jeong and his wife.

So, excluding the two unavoidable days, Junhyeok had asked her that every evening.

“……Kimchi stew.”

Yeonhee mumbled.

“I want kimchi stew, Junhyeok.”

Junhyeok had only been gone for today. Yet, loneliness washed over her, making it unbearable.

Yeonhee pulled her legs up onto the sofa and hugged them.

Truthfully, she hadn’t felt at ease for a while.

She wasn’t someone destined for a life of ease to begin with, but she had never felt this uncomfortable before.

And yet, these past few days had been truly unbearable, her heart aching.

‘I want to take that money, Junhyeok.’

It started from the moment she said those words.

‘Yes. Help me, Junhyeok.’

‘…….’

‘I want to be by your side. The money Sera promised.’

‘…….’

‘I really want to receive it.’

These were words she spat out, her emotions twisted by Chairman Jeong’s attitude, who only saw her as Yoon Sera. So, even knowing Junhyeok would be hurt, she said it.

Because my heart ached, because the wound in my chest stung so much. Because I hated being the only one in pain. Because I wanted him to feel as much pain as I did.

Because hurting Junhyeok felt like it would hurt Chairman Jeong’s heart too.

In the end, the flames of her emotions directed at Chairman Jeong had leaped onto Junhyeok.

As she spoke, she knew she shouldn’t say these things, but she couldn’t stop. If I was going to say them, I shouldn’t regret it, but the moment I saw Junhyeok’s final expression, I couldn’t help but regret it.

‘Don’t worry. I’ll do everything you want.’

Junhyeok was smiling the moment he said those words.

It was an unprecedentedly gentle smile, as if trying to comfort her, who was deeply hurt.

But it became a sharp dagger that pierced Yeonhee’s heart.

Junhyeok must have known.

If there was anyone in the world who knew Shin Yeonhee better than Shin Yeonhee herself, it would undoubtedly be Jeong Junhyeok.

He would have already known what she was thinking, how much she was hurt, just by looking at her expression after she vomited.

That’s why Junhyeok must have responded with a sincerity greater than ever before.

Junhyeok would surely do as he promised her.

He would make sure she received the remaining payment from Sera, and in the process, even after she received the money, he wouldn’t resent her for her selfish words for even a moment.

Weren’t the past three days proof enough?

Instead of confiding his hurt feelings, Junhyeok always treated her with a nonchalant expression.

More tenderly and considerately than ever before.

He proved, with every fiber of his being, every moment, that his words—that he didn’t care about anything as long as Shin Yeonhee was by his side were not mixed with a single lie.

Jeong Junhyeok was that kind of man, then and now.

And because Yeonhee knew this fact about Junhyeok better than anyone, she couldn’t find peace.

“Haa……”

Yeonhee let out a deep sigh. Junhyeok’s afterimage grew stronger and stronger. The more it did, the more her guilt and longing for him grew.

After lingering on the sofa for a long time, Yeonhee suddenly got up and moved as if in a trance.

She stopped in front of Junhyeok’s study.

Recalling Junhyeok’s habit of heading to his study for late-night work, Yeonhee sat down at his desk.

As soon as she did, an object on Junhyeok’s desk caught her eye.

“……”

Yeonhee picked up the object without a word.

“How could this……”

It was a photograph of her from 10 years ago.

Given how passionately they had loved each other, it might not be so surprising that he had a photo of her.

Yet, she was this surprised because the moment captured in the photo was one Junhyeok had never seen.

Yeonhee stared at the photo for a long time. Even staring at it wouldn’t conjure memories that weren’t there, but she thought deeply.

The silence in the house was broken not long after.

Her quiet phone suddenly began to ring loudly.

Startled by the sudden noise, Yeonhee flinched but quickly checked the screen.

The name that met her gaze made Yeonhee’s already anxious heart even more desperate.

“Hello.”

She hastily pressed the call icon, but the voice that escaped her lips was remarkably calm.

Still, Yeonhee swallowed dryly. She longed to hear Junhyeok’s voice.

－It’s me.

It was a disappointingly monotonous answer, given how much she had been waiting.

Nevertheless, because it was Junhyeok’s voice, Yeonhee instantly forgot the loneliness she had felt moments before.

“Yes. I know.”

－What are you doing?

Junhyeok asked an easy question. But Yeonhee couldn’t readily answer it.

She gently stroked the photo in her hand with her thumb.

If she could, she would have honestly confessed that she had come into the study, seen her photo on his desk, and was wondering how he had it.

And then she would have asked for the answer to this question that she couldn’t figure out no matter how much she thought about it.

“……”

But Yeonhee couldn’t bring herself to speak.

No matter how she thought about it, she felt she had no right to ask such a question.

“I was just here.”

It was an unenthusiastic answer after a long pause. Yet, Junhyeok didn’t scold her.

－Did you eat dinner?

Instead, only his gentle consideration returned, pushing her further into the abyss of loneliness at this late hour.

That kept making Yeonhee’s heart flutter.

“……”

Yeonhee bit her lower lip hard. Tears threatened to spill from her weakened heart.

When she had met Junhyeok again as Yoon Sera’s substitute, she had been so flustered that she couldn’t think, but she had vaguely known.

She didn’t know what fate had brought them back together, but she knew that this time too, the end for Jeong Junhyeok and Shin Yeonhee would be separation.

There was no other way to think.

He was standing there to become another woman’s husband, and she was merely replacing the bride.

Everyone in this country, except for the guests at the wedding, Jeong Junhyeok, Shin Yeonhee, and Yoon Sera, knew this.

That the bride and groom who pledged their lives that day were Jeong Junhyeok and Yoon Sera.

She might be able to deceive for a moment, but she couldn’t live as Yoon Sera for a lifetime.

Looking at it that way, Shin Yeonhee was someone who had to disappear from this picture eventually.

No matter how much Jeong Junhyeok clung to her, there was nothing he could do.

Perhaps the reason she had hurt Junhyeok wasn’t just because her twisted emotions were expressed due to Chairman Jeong, but also because she was saddened by the fact that Shin Yeonhee’s role, both 10 years ago and now, was simply to disappear.

That fact wouldn’t change, no matter how much she clutched her chest in pain.

So this time too, after fulfilling her role, she would have to be cleanly erased from Jeong Junhyeok’s life, as if she had never existed, just like 10 years ago.

Even thinking of the inevitable day she had to disappear, she had to maintain the boundary of being the woman who desperately sought Yoon Sera’s money for Junhyeok.

She couldn’t be consumed by her emotions any longer.

However…….

“……I miss you, Junhyeok.”

It was impossible to deny the feelings she had already acknowledged, no matter how hard she tried.

“I miss you so much.”

She missed him terribly.

It had been less than 24 hours since she last saw him, yet her chest felt like it would burst from the intense longing.

It felt like the longing she had ignored for 10 years was crashing down all at once, and she couldn’t bear it.

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