AOA 39

Baek Mugyeong must have picked up on the sharp look in my eyes.

“Is something wrong?”

“Do you really have to ask… Haa.”

My trembling voice felt so humiliating that I let out a deep breath. I couldn’t afford to be emotional at a time like this.

“Jeong Minchae?”

“I’m just… not feeling great. Thank you for the gift.”

I suppressed the urge to tell him to shove it and instead calmly offered my thanks. Then I stared straight at him.

It was my way of saying, You threw out my gift, but I’m the better person, so I’m still thanking you.

It was a childish gesture, no doubt. But somehow, doing it helped ease the anger a little.

“I also received your gift. Thank you.”

“…?”

I didn’t immediately realize that the gift Baek Mugyeong was referring to was the handkerchief.

Why was he thanking me? Didn’t he throw it away?

My mind was in turmoil. Then I suddenly remembered, what I saw in the trash was just the paper bag. I hadn’t seen the box or the handkerchief itself.

Once that clicked, my heart dropped. I frantically reviewed what I had just said to him.

I sighed. I’d only mentioned feeling off. Thankfully, I hadn’t demanded to know why he’d tossed the gift.

Wow. I had almost made a complete fool of myself.

Relief was quickly followed by embarrassment. I’d misunderstood everything, gotten upset, and hurt myself for no reason.

At least I’d kept my mouth shut, that had saved me from being a total idiot. If I had actually accused him, I would’ve spent the whole night kicking my blanket in shame. Or worse, I might have had to start avoiding him altogether.

“I’ll accept the gift this time. But going forward, I’ll return everything. So please don’t waste your effort.”

“Ah. Okay.”

I was lost in thought and answered awkwardly. Normally, being told don’t waste your effort would’ve sounded rude, but not this time.

Maybe sensing something off, Baek Mugyeong looked at me with a strange expression.

“I just came from meeting Chairman Jeong Suchan.”

“Already?”

“The Chairman promised that Jeong Guhyeon won’t contact you directly again.”

“Jeong Guhyeon isn’t the kind of person to listen that easily… If something like that night happens again, I’ll contact you.”

I looked at him directly as I said it, indicating that I’d keep him informed from now on. It was one small way to build trust and ensure a smoother future.

Baek Mugyeong fell silent again. Just like earlier, he looked like he had a lot to say.

“I understand.”

Despite his expression, his response was brief. He gave a slight bow and stepped out. I watched until the door closed and he disappeared, then shut my eyes tightly.

“Seriously…”

Relief drained the strength from my legs, and dizziness swept over me. Like someone drunk, I staggered and collapsed into the chair by the table.

My heart was still pounding. It felt like catching a phone just before it fell into the toilet.

You can always buy a new phone, but confronting Baek Mugyeong like a madman about throwing out a gift? That wasn’t something you could take back.

“I just won’t give him anything anymore.”

I told myself there’d be no more gifts and rubbed my face with both hands. I also promised to check the trash properly next time before jumping to conclusions.

“Whew…”

I let out a long sigh of relief and turned my gaze to the deep green paper bag still sitting on the table. I already knew what was inside, but I checked anyway.

Inside the dark red box, branded with a luxury logo I’d never even heard of before the regression, was a black leather case. Inside that was a gold bracelet. No gemstones, just a unique clasping mechanism and a significant price tag.

I frowned at the sight of it. In the previous timeline, I’d thought, What kind of man wears a bracelet? and shoved it into a corner of the dressing room after a glance.

Then one day, I wore it out for some occasion, and that’s when trouble began. The gold plating had worn off.

Im Songyoon, the wife of Vice Chairman Baek Jaehan, saw it and sneered, asking if I was wearing a fake. It had been a gift from an overseas buyer, so there was no way it was counterfeit. But I hadn’t known what to say at the time and let it go.

It was Baek Mugyeong who got to the bottom of it. My stepmother and half-brother, who had taken my wedding jewelry, were the prime suspects. But the real culprit turned out to be Kim Juhyun, the housekeeper. Baek Mugyeong found evidence that she had sold a bracelet of the same model to a dealer.

Once concrete proof surfaced, Kim Juhyun insisted she had only done it at my request, claiming I needed money and asked her to sell it.

Fortunately, Baek Mugyeong traced all the money from the sale directly into Kim Juhyun’s bank account and even confirmed she’d used it herself. That spared me from being falsely accused. Still, I had to endure criticism for not properly supervising a household staff member.

I racked my memory. I wasn’t entirely sure, but I thought the bracelet switch had happened sometime in the first half of next year.

I couldn’t say for certain whether Kim Juhyun would do it again this time. Maybe she’d be more cautious, now that I was more alert. But if the same thing did happen, I needed to be ready.

I stared at the glittering bracelet for a long time, deep in thought.

*

Baek Mugyeong didn’t believe in things like familial affection or blood ties. He barely remembered his parents, who had died in a helicopter crash before he entered elementary school. Both had been so busy that even seeing their faces once a day had been rare, no bonds had ever really formed.

His grandfather, Baek Jinseok, had ignored him completely due to his low alpha manifestation rate. As if he didn’t exist, he was handed off to his maternal family.

They were just as cold. All they cared about was the profit they could extract from Daesong Group in exchange for raising him.

By the time he was in upper elementary school, Baek Mugyeong had been sent to a boarding school in the U.S. There was never a shortage of money, but he received no real care. He returned to Korea during school breaks out of obligation, but once he became an adult, he stopped visiting altogether.

He only returned to Korea because of a proposal from his grandfather. Baek Jinseok offered a massive lump-sum investment into Baek Mugyeong’s business in exchange for working in Korea for a few years.

In this world, family meant competition. It was common to fight, exploit each other, and strip everything away. Parents selling off their children for profit happened all the time.

That’s why Baek Mugyeong couldn’t have a high opinion of Jeong Minchae’s father, Jeong Suchan, especially when it was so obvious he favored one son over the other.

“My eldest son’s friend said they saw Executive Director Baek at the Carva Hotel. He’s so strikingly handsome that he recognized him instantly. He insisted, absolutely insisted, he never put anyone on Baek’s tail.”

Even as Jeong Suchan sat across from him, desperately trying to explain with two teacups between them, Baek Mugyeong’s face remained hard. Jeong Guhyeon’s excuses sounded plausible. But that wasn’t the only issue.

“I know everything. That Jeong Minchae lived as Lee Eunho. That he only graduated high school. My grandfather told me to overlook it. But Jeong Guhyeon used it to blackmail him.”

“That’s…”

“Two months ago, you told me Jeong Guhyeon would stay quiet. But here we are again. How am I supposed to trust you, Chairman Jeong?”

In the previous timeline, Baek Mugyeong hadn’t cared about Jeong Minchae or his family. He thought they were all cut from the same cloth. He had planned to simply fulfill the time his grandfather asked for, then return to the U.S.

Only after reliving life did he realize how thoroughly Jeong Minchae was being used by his family. Getting beaten up by that so-called brother, and having his father still take the abuser’s side, it all said enough. But he’d only understood it now.

It was only now that he finally grasped why Jeong Minchae had been plagued by nightmares at the hotel after their first arranged meeting. Watching him desperately beg for his life made everything clear.

When he first witnessed Jeong Guhyeon assaulting Minchae, Baek Mugyeong had seriously considered canceling the wedding. But his grandfather’s will had been unyielding.

The marriage had become unavoidable. Still, Baek Mugyeong resolved to separate Minchae from his family.

That was the least he could do.

It wasn’t until the wedding that he fully registered that Minchae was only twenty-two. He had known it before, but only as a number. Realizing that, at twenty-two, he himself had been enjoying carefree college life, he couldn’t just stand by.

That’s why he was here now, meeting with Jeong Suchan and applying this much pressure. At the very least, he was determined to prevent Minchae from being abused any further.

“I promise, this will never happen again.”

The pressure worked. Jeong Suchan, sitting across from him, was flustered and sweating. He had every reason to be. Even if this marriage was one of political necessity, it wouldn’t be hard for Baek Mugyeong to walk away.

And Baek Mugyeong had plenty of ways to make Jeong Suchan suffer, even without a divorce.