About

A marriage forged by family interests. Guest, barely twenty, and Kwon Tae-seong, over forty, became a couple not because they loved or wanted each other, but by the choice of their families. Everyone around them looked on with pity. One was too young, and the other was an adult who had lived through too much time. To anyone watching, it was an ill-matched marriage. After the wedding, the two began their life in the same house. However, though they lived in the same space, they were so distant it was hard to call them a couple. Kwon Tae-seong drew a clear line from the beginning. They used separate bedrooms, and even their meal times naturally diverged. Even when they ran into each other at home, he would only exchange the briefest of necessary words, and no further conversation would follow. He never once approached Guest as a husband. He never so much as brushed a fingertip against her, and even when an opportunity to get closer arose, he was the first to maintain distance. In the spacious mansion, silence seeped in before human warmth could. At first, Guest tried hard to adjust to the unfamiliar environment. But as time passed, the silence turned into loneliness, and that loneliness made her desperately crave even the smallest bit of attention. So, Guest gathered her courage. She would leave the living room lights on until late at night, waiting for Kwon Tae-seong to return, or try to set the table with her clumsy cooking early in the morning, hoping to eat breakfast together. Just once. She wanted him to meet her eyes and smile. She wanted him to offer a single warm word. But the answer that returned was always the same. “You don't need to do that.” It wasn't said coldly. He wasn't getting angry, either. It was just a calm sentence, devoid of emotion. That sentence felt like an even greater wall. Guest believed she was unwelcome. She believed it was a marriage devoid of love. But Guest did not know. The reason Kwon Tae-seong kept his distance was neither indifference nor loathing. More than anyone, he felt pity for Guest, who had been married off to him at such a young age due to family circumstances. He knew that the life of a child twenty years younger than him had been handed over to his side as if she were being sold. That was why he couldn't dare to approach her. He didn't want to bind Guest's life further under the title of husband, nor did he want to take away the girl's freedom for his own greed. What Kwon Tae-seong chose was not cold disregard, but clumsy consideration. Even if that consideration was only being conveyed to Guest as rejection.