Chapter 37
The Appraisal ended three days ago.
During that time, I reported to work at Master's mansion and spent my days as usual.
My main tasks were cleaning the bed that Hee-yeon and Master had left a mess after having sex, or preparing meals for Master.
‘Not much longer now...’
Yet even while living this ordinary routine, my mental strength was being pushed to its extreme limit.
Because in just three days, I would be able to hear my mother's answer to Master's ‘hot springs trip proposal’.
If Mother now felt guilty about the affair and tried to sever all ties with Master, she would refuse the hot springs trip; otherwise, she would eventually fall into Master's clutches and suffer the same ruin as me.
‘What should I do...’
My head was spinning.
Master had corrupted someone named ‘Lee Ha-young,’ who had once shone brighter than anyone, completely ruining her and turning her into ‘Madam’; there was nothing he couldn't do to Mother, either.
If Mother went on a two-night, three-day hot springs trip with Master this time, it was obvious that her brain would be steeped in pleasure and she would be remade into a different person as easily as flipping over one's palm.
“Ooh! Hoooh! Mmm...♥ M...Master...♥”
Hee-yeon, taking Master's cock in the middle of the living room.
Even kind, bashful Hee-yeon had ended up like that.
Depending on Mother's answer in three days, Mother could end up in the same state at any time, too.
Now I had to make a choice.
‘Fuck. What the hell am I hesitating over?’
I thought.
Watching Hee-yeon with her anus gaping as she was impaled on Master's monstrosity, I wondered whether I'd really be okay with Mother ending up like that.
I asked myself again whether it would really be all right if the mother who had given birth to and raised me, of all people, ended up in such a state.
-Twitch. Twitch.
Yet, ironically, it was my body that responded to that answer first.
My sense of immorality, my corrupted way of thinking, and my humiliation—all of it devoured my reason and made my cock swell.
I imagined Mother being brought pleasure by the man who had ruined my life, abandoning her family and falling into depravity.
It was truly... truly an impossible sight.
Something that must never happen.
But at the same time, it was incredibly arousing.
“Ha...hahaha....”
I looked at the two of them.
I watched Master and Hee-yeon devour each other's genitals as if reproduction alone were their purpose.
The backs of the two as they engaged in wet, sticky sex.
Hee-yeon's snow-white buttocks and Master's deep copper-colored ones, as though their bodies had been divided into black and white, upper and lower sides.
The black and white buttocks slammed violently against each other.
A pitch-black, monstrous cock crossed the pure-white expanse without restraint, making wet friction sounds.
Hee-yeon wrapped both legs around Master's waist, taking it all in, while their anuses gaped and clenched as if keeping rhythm.
After dozens of pounding thrusts, Master's pre-ejaculate and Hee-yeon's vaginal fluids mixed into a lewd concentrate that flowed down into and seeped through Hee-yeon's anus.
Watching all that filthy activity, I began to smile little by little.
I began to wear a grotesque smile as I imagined the unspeakably depraved thought of what it would be like if the person pinned beneath Master were Mother instead of Hee-yeon.
And so, in the end, I pulled out my cock and started furiously jerking it.
***
“What are you talking about?”
Inside the silent car.
Lee Shin-ah's sharp voice rang out.
Her husband, Jeong Hyeon-jae, answered.
“Yes. It’ll be hard to believe. That ‘incident’ had something to do with Ha-young.”
That incident.
It referred to what their son had done on the day of the cooking competition.
The incident in which their once-dependable son had committed an act of public indecency during a live broadcast.
A memory regarded as the worst incident in broadcasting history, one she never wanted to recall.
“.... Just a moment.”
Lee Shin-ah pressed a hand to her forehead.
Her mind was in turmoil.
Why was her husband bringing this up at this exact moment?
Her husband was clearly having an affair with his son's ex-girlfriend.
Unless he felt guilty, he shouldn't have been able to casually say the name ‘Lee Ha-young’.
“.....”
Lee Shin-ah slowly raised her head and looked into her husband's eyes.
Her husband's eyes were pure and innocent, without a trace of ulterior intent.
Something was wrong.
“Wait. I’m going to step outside for some air.”
“Uh... okay.”
Leaving her flustered husband behind, Lee Shin-ah opened the car door and stepped outside.
She walked at a brisk pace, nearly as fast as her pounding heart, trying to sort out the tangled thoughts in her head.
The worst possibility she wanted to consider least of all was coming to mind.
‘Maybe I’ve been misunderstanding Hyeon-jae.’
They say eyes don't lie.
Especially for married couples who have spent more than twenty years together, you can often vaguely tell what a person is thinking just by looking into their eyes.
In that sense, the look her husband had just given her held concern and worry, not the look of someone trying to deceive her or feeling guilty.
It was the warm, concerned look he so often showed her in everyday life.
But—.
-Grind.
Lee Shin-ah bit down on her lower lip.
The evidence of his affair was far too clear for her to trust her husband now.
Even now, weren't photos of her husband's affair with Lee Ha-young in her desk drawer?
‘But that look he gave me....’
Lee Shin-ah grabbed her head with both hands.
She crouched down and recalled the days she had spent with her husband.
Her romance with an ordinary man despite being the daughter of a chaebol family.
Her resolve to spend the rest of her life with this man.
Though it had gotten her expelled from the chaebol family, the happiness they had ultimately achieved.
And above all, the beautiful memory of them firmly swearing on their wedding day to love only each other.
“Groom Jeong Hyeon-jae, do you swear to love the bride, Lee Shin-ah, for the rest of your life?”
“Yes! I swear, on everything I have.”
The memory of that time suddenly came back to her.
The sight of him smiling brightly at her and swearing to love her for life.
And the fact that he had never changed even once in the twenty years since then.
‘Was I... was I misunderstanding something? Had I simply trusted what the private investigator told me...’
She wiped her tears away with the back of her arm and stood back up.
Then she picked up her smartphone to check again the photos proving the affair that the private investigator had submitted.
They had definitely attached the photos as a large file.
Organizing her thoughts, Lee Shin-ah opened the text messages.
She scrolled through the message history, wondering whether there might be some manipulation or anything unnatural in the photos they had sent.
“..... Uh... uhh...”
But Lee Shin-ah froze before she could even check the messages they had sent.
While scrolling through the message history, she had seen ‘that person's’ nickname.
[Teacher Choi]
The nickname of ‘Mr. Choi,’ saved as ‘Teacher Choi.’
Her eyes remained fixed on the name as she recalled what had happened with him.
She recalled the filthy, despicable affair she had committed with him.
“Ah....ah....”
She wanted to believe her husband.
Remembering his promise, sworn with a bright smile on their wedding day, she wanted to believe him once more.
But on that wedding day, there had also been her—smiling just as brightly and making the same vow as her husband.
She had vowed to love only one man for life, even if it meant giving up her powerful family background.
But what kind of state was she in now?
Hadn't she taken a stranger's cock deep inside her and sprayed out fountain-like streams of vaginal fluid?
Hadn't she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, clinging to him like a frog and begging him to fill her with his semen?
‘I love you....’
That wasn't all.
Having become completely crazed over sex, there had even been times when she'd whispered her love to him with genuine feeling.
Even now, didn't she still harbor feelings for him as tender as those she had for her husband?
“H...hng.....hngggh....”
Lee Shin-ah sobbed.
She felt disgusted with herself for trying to pass judgment on her husband's right and wrong now.
Didn't she already lack even the right to suspect her husband?
“How can I..... What should I do....”
Her distrust of her husband.
Her guilt toward her husband.
And her love for her husband, which still remained.
All those emotions exploded and clouded Lee Shin-ah's mind.
Thus Lee Shin-ah clutched her head and agonized for a long while, then suddenly looked up at a pair of suit trousers that had appeared in front of her.
A man was standing there, looking down at her in confusion.
***
Jeong Hyeon-jae thought with his arms folded.
Recently, his wife had seemed strange in some indefinable way.
She spent longer periods staring blankly by herself and too much time on her appearance.
Her attitude toward him had grown strangely cold, and he felt she kept avoiding conversation.
Even just now, hadn't she rushed out of the car in the middle of their conversation?
-Swoosh.
Jeong Hyeon-jae unfolded his arms.
He opened the car door, stepped outside, and pressed the remote to lock it.
Then, after straightening the suit trousers wrinkled from sitting so long, he walked toward where his wife had disappeared.
It was clear from her eyes and reaction that she had a worry she found difficult to voice, and he could no longer pretend not to notice and leave her alone.
He always trusted and waited for his wife, but sometimes, as a husband, he had to step forward and guide her.
Thinking that, Jeong Hyeon-jae walked briskly toward where his wife had disappeared.
***
“Have you calmed down a little?”
Mr. Choi's office.
Lee Shin-ah nodded and sipped her black tea.
Mr. Choi leaned back in his chair as he watched her.
‘I never expected to run into Lee Shin-ah there. Could heaven be helping me?’
Having organized his thoughts, Mr. Choi smiled.
After accidentally finding Lee Shin-ah in the underground parking lot and hearing her out, he realized that his ‘conditioning’ might fail.
‘It was fortunate I found her in time.’
Lee Shin-ah was wavering.
Her faith in her husband was blossoming anew, and she felt intense guilt over her own affair.
Therefore, he could not help thinking that meeting Lee Shin-ah here was heaven helping him.
If he had left Lee Shin-ah alone, she would have returned to her husband, and then the finale of the ‘hot springs trip’ in three days would never have happened.
‘Looks like she needs to be reconditioned. What a high-maintenance bitch.’
The affection they had built as a married couple over more than twenty years, along with their trust and bond.
It had formed a sturdier outer wall than he had expected.
It had formed a formidable fortress that could deal him the only defeat in his record of bringing down every woman he had ever targeted.
But today, that too would come to an end.
It was a little early, but if he played the trump card he had planned to reveal on the final day of the hot springs trip, Lee Shin-ah's hope in her husband would crumble to nothing.
With a vile smile, Mr. Choi took out the USB he had prepared.
“Madam. I think... you need to see this.”