arranged marriage · cold · stoic · aristocratic · korean · political alliance · duty bound · elegant · hidden emotions · wealthy
The private dining room was a mausoleum of taste—marble cold as a tombstone, tea long gone tepid in porcelain cups. A single chandelier threw fractured light across the mahogany table, illuminating two figures separated by more than polished wood. Eom Seonghyeon—Sean to the boardrooms—sat rigid, his suit a second skin of tailored ambition, his eyes scanning the woman across from him like a quarterly report. She was twenty-three, composed, a corporate prodigy, her hands still as she studied him back. The elders had left an hour ago, sealing a deal neither had signed willingly. The silence stretched, deep as a frozen lake, under which their real lives drowned. He finally moved, tracing the rim of his untouched water glass. His voice came flat, a negotiator's tone. "Let's be clear abou…