Chapter 40.1

Chapter 40.1

“No one who has ignored my words has walked away unscathed. Ah, but that wasn’t directed at you, Lee Goyo.”

“I know.”

At Goyo’s expression of gratitude, Jae-heon’s tense face loosened slightly.

“You see, I absolutely hate being disregarded or played with. But lately, a certain reckless father and son keep taking turns pushing me to my limit.”

The son covets what is his, while the father tries to manipulate his emotions. There’s nothing more despicable in this world than giving something and then taking it away.

They should know their place before making a move—how dare they test him like this? Thinking of Lee Yi-taek, whose presence reminded him of a venomous snake, Jae-heon ground his teeth.

Goyo could understand exactly how Jae-heon felt.

Lee Yi-taek had sponsored and raised Goyo, but never once had he treated her as his own child. Instead, he subtly looked down on her because of her lowly birth. Since he did, his relatives followed suit, treating her with disdain.

“How do we know she wasn’t born out of some filthy affair? Her uncle took her in because he’s too soft-hearted. It was his case, sure, but who just picks up a child out of pity and raises them?”

Among those who saw Goyo as an eyesore—no, as nothing more than a pest—was Kang Gyuri. She even blamed Goyo for her aunt’s death and suspected she was actually Lee Yi-taek’s illegitimate daughter.

No one knew where such suspicions had come from, but at JH Law Firm, Goyo was treated like the family’s sworn enemy. The moment they found even the slightest flaw in her conduct, they swarmed like hyenas to tear her apart.

Even though it was Lee Yoon-gun himself who had insisted on bringing Goyo in, he never stopped his cousins. In fact, he made things worse.

“Bark, bark! Woof, woof! If you’re a dog, then bark like one—grrr, grr!”

He had humiliated her, demanding that she bark like a dog. Watching, Kang Gyuri had burst into laughter, mocking her right alongside him.

It happened so often that she should have grown numb to the humiliation. But wounds like these never stopped being freshly carved into her.

“I’m planning to arrange a meeting soon to have a serious talk.”

Seeing Goyo’s pale face, Jae-heon felt a surge of irritation toward Lee Yi-taek and his son. He exhaled a long, agitated stream of smoke into the air.

“……Yes.”

“Do you even know what it is?”

“Do I have to?”

Goyo had agreed without much thought, but she wasn’t curious about this so-called serious conversation. Whatever Kwon Jae-heon meant by ‘talking,’ it certainly wouldn’t align with the dictionary definition of a mutual exchange of words.

“It’s fine if you don’t. You wouldn’t understand anyway.”

Jae-heon muttered, his brows deeply furrowed.

Well, if words don’t work, there are always other ways. If sending them to the hospital isn’t enough, sending them to prison is another solid option.

With his fingers, Jae-heon flicked the ash off his cigarette. The gray specks floated briefly before falling to the floor, joining the pile of discarded and crushed cigarette butts already there.

“Before that, let’s finish our own conversation first.”

“……?”

“You said you were fully healed, right?”

“Yes.”

Goyo murmured, watching the cigarette in Jae-heon’s hand.

His hands were beautiful, a reflection of his meticulous nature. His neatly trimmed nails made it impossible to imagine that they belonged to someone who lived a rough life.

“Wh-what are you…?”

She had been staring absentmindedly at his hand when, suddenly, he reached out.

The fingers she had just thought were beautiful brushed against the tip of her nose before trailing down to her cheek.

“Stay still.”

Jae-heon’s fingers roamed across her face, examining it. Then, without hesitation, he slipped a finger between her lips.

He prodded around inside her mouth, pressing against her molars with the tip of his nail. A bitter taste spread as he tapped against her teeth.

“The bruises on your face are fading, and your teeth seem fine.”

He was only checking the injuries she got from Yoon-gun last night. Yet, Goyo felt oddly unsettled. Every slow press and stroke of his fingers against her soft flesh sent heat pooling low in her stomach.

The way his fingers brushed against her tongue was almost obscene.

Her tongue twitched involuntarily, wrapping around his finger.

Goyo froze, shocked by what she had done. She hadn’t meant to, but she had sucked his finger in—her tongue curling around it. The sensation was so shockingly lewd that her body prickled with goosebumps.