Chapter 192
“It’s not because of Seol Suhyeon. It’s because of my own fear.”
“……”
Jeonghan spoke, firmly locking eyes with Suhyeon.
“After losing my parents.”
Suhyeon froze momentarily.
Meeting her gaze with a serious expression, Jeonghan continued.
“I was young, but I had this resolve to never go through something like that again.”
That’s why he tried not to form attachments to anyone precious.
He didn’t want to feel that kind of world-shattering loss ever again.
“I even made an effort not to completely open my heart to the chairman.”
Speaking in a low voice, he let out a dry laugh.
“…Though, it didn’t work out as I planned.”
“I know. That you cared deeply for the chairman.”
At Suhyeon’s words, the smile on Jeonghan’s face deepened.
“Is that so.”
Jeonghan spoke softly, erasing his smile as he looked up at Suhyeon. His handsome face, bathed in the hues of the sunset, gazed intently at her.
“One of the reasons I tried not to love you was that.”
“…….”
“That was the hardest thing to control. Well, there’s nothing in the world as difficult as that.”
Jeonghan spoke self-deprecatingly, lightly laughing as he looked at Suhyeon.
Suhyeon silently gazed back at him.
Shifting his gaze from her, Jeonghan stretched out his arm to pull a small shopping bag placed beside him.
“When did you…….”
Suhyeon asked in surprise, her eyes on the shopping bag. Jeonghan took out a ring case from it.
A ring?
Suhyeon blinked, looking at Jeonghan.
“The ring is right here.”
Suhyeon raised her hand to show him. The ring she had immediately put on when she stopped by home had remained on her finger all along.
Jeonghan took the ring he had given her off her finger and said,
“I couldn’t even propose back then. I want to do it properly this time.”
Ah……
At his words, Suhyeon froze momentarily.
Jeonghan opened the ring case. A diamond ring, reflecting the sunset over the sea, shimmered brilliantly.
“Seol Suhyeon.”
Jeonghan, holding the ring, looked up at Suhyeon seriously and said.
“Marry me.”
“…….”
Suhyeon quietly looked down at him. Her nose stung with emotion.
So this is why he insisted on going on vacation—he came to propose. It must have been bothering him that he couldn’t propose properly the first time they got married…
With tears welling up in her eyes, Suhyeon smiled.
“……Yes.”
In a voice thick with emotion, Suhyeon took the ring out of the case and slipped it onto her own finger. Then, with tearful eyes, she looked at Jeonghan.
“I’ll marry you.”
Jeonghan gazed at Suhyeon, who was smiling brightly with reddened eyes, as if dazzled.
Under the setting sun, Suhyeon’s smile shone radiantly.
So much so that he could barely keep his eyes open.
Taking a deep breath, Jeonghan extended his arms toward her from within the pool.
“Come here.”
He smiled as he said it.
Suhyeon, smiling in return, leapt into his arms as if diving into them.
Splash-!
The spray of water sparkled in the sunlight. The two shared a deep kiss in the spot where a rainbow had lingered.
* * * * *
Two years later.
Seol Hee-nam was sentenced to death in court.
Park In-ok, who had been an accomplice to Seol Hee-nam’s serial murders and had shared in the profits since her time as his secretary, was convicted of bribery involving Do Cheoljun and sentenced to life imprisonment.
After the two were imprisoned, Seol Hana’s mind completely unraveled. She made several attempts to break into luxury stores before ultimately being confined to a psychiatric hospital.
However, Seol Hee-nam did not serve even a full year of his sentence before he died.
Some people reported hearing his screams in the early hours of the morning, but the matter was quietly buried. His death, disguised as a suicide, was never reported in the media. It passed as if it had never happened.
It didn’t even reach Suhyeon’s ears.
Utterly silent.
And just like that, Seol Hee-nam vanished from the world.
For someone who had once praised a country without executions, it was a fittingly poetic end.
-The end
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