AOA 47

“Then that’s fine. But no weirdos, okay? Someone handsome and decent. Just… just imagine you’re setting him up on a blind date with a close friend. Or a younger brother. Or if not that, then the son of a business client.”

I laid out a long list of conditions, just in case Baek Mugyeong tried to set Jaeha up with some sketchy alpha.

In a world full of underhanded, despicable people, Baek Mugyeong was at least a relatively decent human being. You could tell just from how he had apologized earlier for his careless comment.

But still, he was the type who wouldn’t hesitate to use any means necessary to achieve his goals. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so sure that Baek Jinseok would hand DS Motors over to him.

I wanted to prevent Jaeha from meeting a terrible person because of my advice. But Baek Mugyeong gave me a look of disbelief.

“Do I seem like that kind of person to you?”

“That’s not what I meant. I just thought… you know, just in case.”

“I’ll handle it.”

In other words, shut up. So I stayed silent and looked at him. Even if it was just cautious thinking, I had basically implied I didn’t trust him. In times like this, keeping quiet was best.

“You seem to be in better shape than earlier, so let me ask one more thing.”

“Yes.”

“What stock is it?”

The sudden question made me fall silent again. He had asked the same thing yesterday, but we hadn’t finished the conversation because of the commotion.

I was surprised he still remembered it. Most people would have forgotten by now.

It wasn’t hard to say it was stock from a pharmaceutical company unrelated to the Dae Song Group. But the fact that it would soon skyrocket fivefold due to a new drug announcement made me hesitate.

Whether I got divorced or ended up as a show-window couple, I didn’t want anyone knowing how much money I had. Only an idiot would lay all their cards on the table.

“A pharmaceutical company. Please don’t ask which one. It has nothing to do with Dae Song Group. Or… well, I’m not exactly sure. I bought it because it’s a well-known company.”

I didn’t ask him if we weren’t supposed to stay out of each other’s business, that would have sounded like I was picking a fight. Instead, I looked him straight in the eye, silently making it clear I had no intention of telling him which company it was.

A tense silence fell between us. That sort of thing happened often when dealing with Baek Mugyeong, but my heart still pounded.

Don’t look away. You can win this.

I cheered myself on in my head and kept my gaze steady, not relaxing my expression.

I didn’t know how many seconds passed before Baek Mugyeong’s brows twitched slightly. And finally, he spoke first.

“Jeong Minchae. This is extremely important.”

“Yes.”

“My grandfather will investigate. If you’re lying, there will be serious consequences.”

“There’s no problem. I’m not lying.”

His voice had a threatening edge, but it didn’t scare me. I looked him straight in the eye and answered with confidence. The shares were in my name, Baek Jinseok would find out no matter what. But I wasn’t worried.

Baek Mugyeong’s brow stayed faintly furrowed. It made me want to reach out and smooth the wrinkle away.

“Falling out of favor with my grandfather won’t be enough to get divorced.”

“I know that too.”

“Sometimes, I really want to look inside your head and see what you’re thinking.”

“Yes.”

I wanted to say same here, but I swallowed the words. Saying that really might lead to a fight.

In the end, people could never truly know what someone else was thinking. Especially without real conversation, it was nearly impossible to guess.

This was a marriage of convenience, and we were both living with that understanding. If we couldn’t get divorced anytime soon, we’d be a show-window couple. The fact that we were being cautious with each other was a good sign.

Still, it was odd that Baek Mugyeong said it out loud. He had said something similar before the regression, but that was during a very hostile moment.

The atmosphere now wasn’t great either, but him revealing his feelings so calmly wasn’t a bad thing.

Before the regression, we’d rarely had such long conversations. Back then, all I got from him were silent sighs and visible contempt and scorn. I was barely more than a vegetable because of the medication, there was nothing I could have done.

Now I was clear-headed, but facing Baek Mugyeong still felt like standing in front of a strict teacher. Even so, it wasn’t a bad feeling.

His furrowed brow still hadn’t eased. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, then closed it again. After a short pause, he spoke.

“Did you eat well?”

“Yes. I had lunch.”

They said swelling in the brain could affect digestion, so they’d given me abalone porridge. Maybe because it was a VIP room, even the porridge tasted good. It just wasn’t enough, so I had the caregiver buy me some bread.

Even as I answered earnestly, I wondered why he was asking if I’d eaten. It wasn’t like we were the type to exchange pleasantries like that.

I shot him a questioning look, but Baek Mugyeong didn’t explain.

“I’ll be going now.”

He gave a slight bow and turned to leave the room. I started to rise awkwardly, then sat back down.

What was that?

So many things kept happening that hadn’t before the regression. The most notable were those involving Baek Mugyeong.

Before the regression, no matter how often I met with Choi Jaeha, Baek Mugyeong had never shown up. He had never expressed his inner thoughts, nor warned me not to fall out of favor with Baek Jinseok.

By all accounts, these were positive changes. But still, I couldn’t shake the strange, uneasy feeling they brought.

I had struggled to change a disastrous future.

But canceling the marriage or running away was impossible. The best I could do was to invest the money Baek Jinseok gave me and hope for it to multiply through stocks. If I gained enough wealth to escape my biological father’s influence, then maybe I wouldn’t be killed by Jeong Guhyeon.

Refusing to have Baek Mugyeong’s child was part of that plan too. If there were no child, Baek Jinseok likely wouldn’t commit to passing on DS Motors, and that meant Baek Mugyeong wouldn’t be murdered.

So far, so good. But I couldn’t predict how far these changes would ripple. Even just yesterday, despite avoiding being mistaken for a pervert like in the past, I still ended up slamming into a wall and passing out.

If I hadn’t been lucky, I might’ve died just like Baek Mugyeong warned.

That thought sent a chill down my spine.

I had stopped one bad event, only for another to take its place. Knowing the future didn’t guarantee everything would go well, I had learned that all too clearly.

Not knowing how my actions might alter the timeline made me uneasy.

My heart beat erratically. Cold sweat broke out on my palms. It felt like I was wide awake in a nightmare.

I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them again. Then I pinched the back of my hand, the one without the IV.

You can’t do that in a dream.

The sharp pain snapped me back to reality. Just in case, I pinched the inside of my forearm too.

“That hurt.”

The anxiety and the weightless, falling feeling vanished. My heartbeat steadied. As the cold sweat dried, my back felt chilly.

“Jeez.”

I hadn’t always been this anxious. I used to live with a light heart. But after my parents died and I became the head of the household, responsibility crept in. Once my younger sibling got sick, I worried about tomorrow every single day.

When my biological father reappeared and offered to pay for my sibling’s treatment in exchange for an arranged marriage, I began living every day like I was walking on thin ice. Each time I endured his scolding, my stepmother’s disdain, and Jeong Guhyeon’s abuse, I gritted my teeth and told myself this was the best option.

That only made things more depressing. Who knows what would’ve happened if the meds hadn’t dulled my thinking?

After miraculously regressing, I tried to stay as optimistic as possible. I told myself I just had to live well, since I’d been given another chance.

This time was no different. I forced the anxiety down. I tried to focus on good thoughts instead.

“As long as the stock hits.”

The stock should be unaffected by my actions. Owning just over 10,000 shares wasn’t enough to change the future.

“Everything’s going to be fine.”

I clung to the hope of a future where I became rich.

Separate from my fears about the future turning out worse, there was someone who remained just the same: my biological father, the one who used his son as a bargaining chip.

He found out late that I’d been hospitalized and called me early Sunday evening. Not one to discuss serious matters over the phone, he showed up at the hospital in person.

He didn’t ask if I was okay. Before anything else, he made sure to complain that he’d had to postpone an important evening appointment because of me. Then he scolded me for looking so disgraceful in the Chairman’s home.

Officially, I had simply tripped on the stairs. But my biological father kept repeating the same question, what was I thinking, tripping like that? He nagged over and over again, asking if I thought I could earn the Chairman’s favor like that, and telling me not to act so dumb and clueless.