Chapter 5 – His Smile, Her Scorn

People say laughter is medicine.

If that’s true, then I should’ve been cured by now.

Instead, it feels like poison—because the moment I laughed, I saw her face.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

---

The day started like every other: with me drowning in a sea of corporate contracts and my soul slowly eroding under fluorescent lights. Law firms are basically graveyards with better lighting. The only difference between me and the corpses? I’m still expected to smile.

That’s when Ji-yeon walked in.

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Ji-yeon.

My junior associate. Bright, cheerful, endlessly optimistic.

She’s the kind of person who thinks problems are just puzzles waiting to be solved, which makes her either a genius or a lunatic. Maybe both.

“Hyun-woo sunbae!” she chirped, setting a coffee cup on my desk like it was a peace offering. “You look like you’ve been negotiating with Satan.”

“Close,” I said, glancing at the stack of files. “Hong Group’s legal team.”

She laughed—the kind of laugh that makes people turn their heads. Genuine, unfiltered, annoyingly contagious. Before I knew it, I was laughing too. Not because it was that funny, but because it had been so long since someone around me sounded… alive.

---

We talked. About work, about the absurdity of certain clients, about nothing in particular. It was easy. Effortless.

Which should’ve been my first warning sign.

Because nothing in my life is effortless anymore.

---

“Sunbae, you really should smile more,” Ji-yeon teased, pointing at the lines near my eyes. “You look ten years younger when you do.”

“Thanks,” I muttered, trying not to feel weird about that compliment.

We laughed again—louder this time. And that’s when I felt it.

That prickle on the back of my neck. The sixth sense you get when someone’s watching you.

---

I turned.

And there she was.

Hong Hae-in.

My wife. The Queen.

Standing by the glass doors of my office, arms crossed, eyes colder than a Siberian winter.

---

For a second, time froze. The room felt smaller, heavier, like the air had been vacuumed out.

Ji-yeon, bless her innocent soul, noticed her too and bowed so fast I thought her neck might snap.

“C-Chairwoman Hong!” she stammered before fleeing like a rabbit escaping a predator.

Smart girl.

---

Now it was just us.

Me, holding a half-empty coffee cup.

Her, holding enough judgment in her gaze to crush an empire.

---

“Hae-in,” I said carefully. “You’re early.”

She walked in slowly, heels clicking against the marble floor like gunshots.

“I had a meeting nearby,” she replied, voice smooth as glass. “Thought I’d stop by and see my husband.”

On paper, that sounded sweet.

In reality, it felt like a death sentence.

---

“Your timing is… impeccable,” I said, setting the coffee down like it was evidence.

She glanced at it, then at me.

“Must be nice,” she said lightly, “to have such cheerful company at work.”

Sarcasm. Subtle, sharp, and lethal—her favorite weapon.

---

I forced a smile. “She’s just a junior associate.”

“Of course.” Her lips curved, but her eyes didn’t. “You seemed… very amused by her. Laughing like that. When was the last time you laughed like that at home, Hyun-woo?”

And there it was.

The shot fired straight through my chest.

---

I opened my mouth to answer—to say something, anything—but nothing came out. Because the truth is, I didn’t remember.

When was the last time I laughed with her?

Not a polite chuckle. Not a fake smile for the cameras. A real laugh. The kind that makes your ribs ache.

I couldn’t recall.

And that realization hurt more than her words.

---

She walked past me, her perfume lingering in the air like smoke after a fire. She glanced at the files on my desk, flipping through them like they were beneath her interest.

“Busy as always,” she murmured. “Don’t let me interrupt.”

Then she looked at me, and for a fraction of a second—just a fraction—I saw it.

Something raw. Something like… hurt.

But it vanished as quickly as it appeared, replaced by that perfect mask.

“See you at dinner,” she said, and walked out, leaving the door swinging behind her like a gavel slamming down.

---

I sat there for a long time, staring at the empty doorway.

Ji-yeon’s laughter still echoed faintly in the room.

But all I could hear was her voice:

When was the last time you laughed like that at home?

And the worst part?

I didn’t have an answer.

---

That evening, the mansion was quieter than usual.

She skipped dinner. Claimed she had work to do.

I didn’t believe her, but I didn’t press.

Because deep down, I wasn’t sure what scared me more:

That she was angry…

Or that she didn’t care at all.

---

Later, lying in bed, I replayed her words in my head until they burned.

And for the first time in months, I wondered if this wasn’t just a failing marriage.

Maybe it was a battlefield.

And maybe, just maybe… the war had already begun.

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