You stared at Jaebum before a hoarse coughing fit took over, your hand thumping on your chest to dislodge it. You wondered if you could remove the lump that was forming in your throat with how hard you were coughing too.

Sitting up, Jaebum reached over you for the bottle of water on the nightstand and handed it to you. Nodding in silent gratitude, you took a couple of harsh gulps before the desire to cough eased. You gripped the bottle in your hands, unsure of what to think or say.

“Y/N,” Jaebum started, and you willed your eyes to look at him. He looked nervous momentarily before squaring his jaw. “Do you want to divorce me?”

“It was part of the plan,” you replied, feeling like a coward as you looked away. Your mouth was dry already, and you took in more of your water, hoping it would fill the space where he was waiting for you to continue.

Jaebum sighed heavily. “I’m asking if you want to divorce me. If that’s the end game for you.”

“Is it for you?” you whispered, blinking back your rising emotions. Gnawing on your bottom lip, you choked on your next words. “I wasn’t prepared for this.”

“For what?”

“You,” you confessed, blurrily looking through your tears at your husband. At the man you had come to love after spending all this time together. The laughter, the differences, the bickering, you had come to enjoy it all at his side. Jaebum excited, challenged, and accepted you. All this time, you believed it was because of mutual benefits. You would get your career promotion, and he would be a whole lot richer. But as you thought through the past few months, you found yourself uncaring of the senior partnership. You spent more time planning what you’d do with Jaebum and what foods you’d be willing to compromise on so he would share the same meal with you. You thought about him when you were out shopping for clothes, picking up things you wanted to see him. You had watched all your favourite movies together and had more to share with him.

A year wasn’t enough time. It would never be enough.

Jaebum seemed to guess all that was running through your head, a smile spreading across his lips. “Don’t divorce me. I don’t want this to end just yet. If ever.”

“But—”

“You know what happened to get us in this whole predicament?” Jaebum asked, and before you could respond, his index finger pressed against your lips. “An old man listened to his grandson drunkenly tell him how in love he was with the woman he was sleeping with. For some reason, he took it upon himself to make a bargain with that woman, one that would catch her attention. By that time, I was more than lucid and angry as hell with him for even putting that on you. That senior partnership was already rightly deserved. You didn’t need to service me to get that. But before I could even refute it, you agreed to the terms, and suddenly you becoming mine was a reality.

“God, Y/N, I was a ing fool. I should have told you no. That I wanted to do this the right way. With you saying yes to me, not to my grandfather. But every time I went to broach the topic before our wedding, you would smile sweetly at me, and all I could think about was how you would learn to love me back. That if we were together for an entire year, you could see just how much I cared about you, and we’d get to this point and be laughing at how different our story together had begun. Instead, you’ve been miserable and—”

“I’m in love with you,” you cut in, swallowing back your emotions and nodding your head when Jaebum gaped at you. “I didn’t even see it coming. I just got comfortable with you. I found myself looking forward to every moment with you. The physical chemistry slipped into something more without me realising it and when I finally started to see that I was falling in love with you, I started to panic. We had always said about the year limit, and I didn’t know how to suddenly ask for a renegotiation.”

Jaebum laughed heartily. “You cannot take the lawyer out of you. A renegotiation. , I love you.”

“Last night, you said you would have made love with me. I heard you say that, right?”

“I’m amazed you remember that. I’ve been whispering that into your ear for months now.”

“Don’t whisper it anymore. Don’t hold back from it at all. Of course, there’s a small part of me that’s annoyed that you were in on the deal your grandfather gave me—”

“Not willingly, might I remind you. I had no idea until he threw the signed contract down on my coffee table.”

You gave Jaebum a look before leaning in to cup his face. “All those looks you’ve been giving me.”

“The indecent ones, so Tessa calls them?”

“You were looking at me like I was yours.”

“You are mine. Right?”

You smiled. “Yeah, I’m yours. Wait. You can’t kiss me.”

“Excuse me? I should be able to kiss my wife whenever I want to,” Jaebum refuted, but you jerked back. He eyed you warily.

“I was throwing up last night. I bet my breath is atrocious and—mmph!”

“Don’t care,” he mumbled into your mouth, kissing you lazily. “Married life means we are comfortable with each other in any situation.”

“Any situation?” you echoed, and Jaebum hummed against you. “Jaebum, I want to ask you how comfortable you are in disappointing your mother.”

“You hate those events, and for an entire year, you obediently went to them. For me.”

“I’m not going anymore,” you announced, and Jaebum grinned.

“Thank God. I never went to them as much as I have as a married man, and I’m sick of them.” You gaped at Jaebum, who grinned and tapped you playfully on the nose. “Oh, and that trust fund of mine? I’ve invested the money already.”

“Did you really have to get married to access the money?” you wondered, and Jaebum sighed as he nodded. “Wow. I was wondering if it actually existed since you didn’t need an incentive to marry me.”

“My grandfather organised it long before I was an adult. I knew about it but assumed I’d never see a cent of it. Marriage wasn’t exactly on the cards for me for some time. And when I did gain authority over it, I didn’t want a dime of it.”

“Jaebum, that was a lot of money. We could have bought a house with it,” you breathed out exasperatedly, blinking dazedly when he kissed you again.

“I bought you something better with that money.”

“What?”

“Your career,” he announced, and you regarded your husband curiously.