Chapter 2: Rage Against the Matrimony
1849 Words
Sophia slammed the car door with the
kind of fury that made a startled delivery guy almost drop his bubble tea.
Still in her lab coat, goggles shoved messily into one pocket, she stomped across the marble lobby of Hwang Holdings like a woman on a mission—to commit verbal arson. Her heels —never meant to be paired with safety slacks—clicked with righteous vengeance.
Minutes earlier, she had just stepped out of a high-energy project debrief, her team abuzz with breakthrough data. She was halfway through nerding out about chemical filtration ratios when a wave of gasps swept the room like a chain reaction.
One by one, her colleagues looked up from their phones.
“S-Sophia… is this real?” someone whispered, sliding her a phone.
She didn’t finish the headline before storming out.
“KANG GROUP HEIR TO WED HWANG HOLDINGS HEIRESS: SECRET BETROTHAL, CONTRACTED LOVE?”
The blog post featured blurry photos from a corporate gala two years ago. It wasn’t the grainy images that stopped her heart—it was the truth in the headline.
Truth no one had told her.
Now she was charging into her aunt’s office like a nuclear warhead in heels. No knocking. No pleasantries. No survivors.
SLAM.
“AUNT MAY!” she roared
The woman behind the desk didn’t flinch. Cream silk. Pearls. Lipstick unmoved. Her poise would make Buckingham Palace jealous.
“Sweetheart,” she said lazily, “I assume this isn’t a social call?”
“You announced my wedding,” Sophia growled. She glared at May Hwang as if she want to set the whole office on fire. “To the public. Without telling me.”
May set her teacup down with unnerving calm. “Darling, it was time. The public needed assurance. You needed a push.”
“A push?” Sophia hissed. “Into marriage?”
May waved a manicured hand. “It’s not like it’s a surprise. You were betrothed, remember?”
“I was five,” Sophia snapped. “I also vowed to marry the neighbor’s cat and eat glue for dinner.”
A flicker of amusement crossed her aunt’s face. “Ah, your creative phase.”
“You went behind my back,” Sophia pressed, rage cracking in her voice. “That wasn’t your call to make.”
“Oh, I think it was,” May replied, cool and smooth. “You’re Hwang blood. This alliance has been decades in the making. You’re just fulfilling your destiny.”
Sophia stepped forward. “No. I’m fulfilling your ambition.”
That got a reaction. Slight—but real.
“I’ve run Hwang Holdings since your parents passed,” May said, her tone sharpening. “Everything I’ve done has kept this company alive.”
“And everything you’ve done,” Sophia retorted, “has kept me silent and sidelined.”
“Because you weren’t ready.”
Sophia’s voice dropped. “No. Because you didn’t want me to be.”
Silence fell like a thunderclap.
Then May leaned back and smiled—sharp and glinting. “You’re adorable when you pretend to be powerful.”
Sophia’s nails dug into her palms. The urge to throw something ceramic was rapidly climbing the charts.
The door flew open.
“SOPHIA!”
Lily Jang skidded in, lab ID still around her neck and phone in hand like she’d run a 400-meter sprint through chaos.
“Emergency!” she gasped.
Sophia blinked. “Did someone hack the lab?”
“Worse.” Lily shoved the phone in her face. “You’re trending. Again.”
Sophia read the screen:
“#IceKingAndHisQueen: Coldest couple in Seoul? Watch the awkward pre-wedding video of Kang heir and reluctant bride.”
A still showed Sophia glaring at Ethan like he’d mansplained molecular bonding.
She groaned. “I look like I’m plotting his murder.”
Lily nodded. “You probably were.”
May sipped her tea. “Smile more, dear. You’ll need it when the cameras follow you home.”
Sophia turned to her. “This isn’t over.”
May’s smile gleamed like a villain monologuing before act three. “It never is.”
***
Inside the elevator ride down, jazzy music clashed with the chaos in Sophia’s brain.
"She wants me to get married because of the inheritance. I will not get complete control of the wealth without marrying Ethan." She said to Lily. Lily nodded as if she understood the world of chaebol.
“I’m going to disappear,” she muttered. “Fake my death. Move to Jeju. Change my name to something unsearchable.”
Lily arched a brow. “What’ll you do there?”
“Sell seaweed. Yell at seagulls. Date a fisherman with no internet access.”
“Sounds like a drama pitch.”
Sophia sighed. “More believable than my life right now.”
***
They didn’t even make it three steps before the flashbulbs hit.
Paparazzi. Reporters. Curious bystanders. Even two aunties livestreaming.
“SOPHIA! OVER HERE!”
“ARE YOU AND ETHAN IN LOVE?”
“IS THIS A MERGER MOVE?”
“WHO’S HOTTER—ETHAN OR YOUR R&D DIRECTOR?”
Lily snorted. “That last one’s brutal.”
Sophia ducked her head. “If Austin Min shows up with his stupid perfect hair, I swear—”
“Too late,” Lily said.
There he was. Strolling in like he owned the air he breathed. Rolled-up sleeves. Perfectly tousled hair. The swagger of a man who knew he looked like the annoying side character all the fans secretly wanted a spinoff for.
“Ladies,” he drawled, throwing Sophia a wink. “I see someone getting married.”
Lily blinked. “Wait—you didn’t know?”
Austin shrugged. “Of course I knew. But watching you implode in real time is way more fun.”
Sophia narrowed her eyes. “You knew!”
He grinned. “You’d still have gone through with it. You always do what’s right, even when you hate it.”
Her eye twitched. “That is the most backhanded compliment I’ve ever received.”
He leaned closer. “You’ll get used to me, Kang-ssi.”
She choked. “Don’t call me that.”
He grinned wider. “Why not? You’re a married woman now.”
"Not yet married." She growled.
Lily coughed behind her hand, clearly loving every second.
Sophia, however, mentally made a list of people to strangle before lunch. A week left, she'll officially become one of the Kang.
****
The ride back to the penthouse was oppressively silent.
Sophia Hwang stared out the tinted window of Ethan’s sleek black car, her expression blank, body exhausted—but her mind? A whole riot.
Her phone buzzed again.
Unknown Number: Congratulations. You’ve grown up, Hwang Min Hee.
Her breath hitched.
No one called her that name anymore. No one should.
She typed quickly:
Me: Who is this?
No reply.
“Something wrong?” Ethan asked, not looking up from his tablet.
Sophia shoved the phone into her purse. “Spam.”
He nodded. “Your aunt’s been calling. I assume you're still ignoring her?”
“She’s lucky I’m not setting her office on fire,” Sophia muttered.
He gave her a look. “You already tried that.”
Sophia leaned her head back against the seat, eyes burning. “She announced our wedding to the press, Ethan."
A pause.
“She got results, didn’t she?”
She shot him a glare. “That’s not the defense you think it is."
***
Sophia stepped into the penthouse like she was being marched into battle.
Too clean. Too glossy. Too not her.
Ethan led the way without a word. He didn’t offer to take her coat or show her around. Just pointed down the hallway.
“Bedroom’s on the left. Yours.”
She stared. “We’re doing the whole separate-wing thing?”
He glanced over. “We agreed on boundaries.”
“Right. Love boundaries.”
“Is that sarcasm?”
“No. It’s... survival.”
He gave a short nod and turned toward his study.
She called after him. “And what now? We play house for the media? Smiles and staged hand-holding?”
He paused in the doorway. “You do your part. I’ll do mine. A year—maybe two. Then we’re done.”
Sophia folded her arms. “No feelings. No real marriage. Just business.”
He looked back.
“Exactly.”
She forced a smile. “Great.”
But just before he disappeared into the other room, she caught it.
The slight tightening of his jaw.
The pause that didn’t match his calm words.
Just maybe... he wasn’t as unaffected as he looked.
***
Later that night, Sophia collapsed face-first onto the mountain of overpriced pillows decorating her bed in Ethan’s sterile, too-perfect penthouse.
“Welcome to your glamorous new life, Mrs. Kang,” she muttered into the silk. “Where love is fake, press is real, and your last shred of dignity is somewhere on Naver trending.”
Her phone buzzed.
Austin: So… how’s married life, Kang-ssi?
She groaned and didn’t reply.
Austin: Did he light some candles? Whisper sweet nothings? Gasp emoji —offer you a skincare fridge as a wedding gift?
Me: You’re annoying.
Austin: I’m entertaining. You’re welcome.
Another buzz.
Austin: So, did the Ice King melt tonight? Or are you sleeping with socks on?
Sophia blinked, choking slightly.
Me: OH MY GOD. That’s private!
Austin: Come on. I’ve known Ethan since he had braces and a tragic obsession with gel pens. I need to know if marriage thawed his programming.
Me: No one is thawing anything. We have boundaries. He’s in the east wing. I’m in the west. It’s a very royal divorcee aesthetic.
Austin: Nada happened. I must say I'm not surprised. He always was more into mergers than moaning.
She gasped.
Me: You did NOT just say that!
Austin: Just checking if you’re still alive. And emotionally stable. So far… signs point to “barely.”
Sophia glared at her screen, then typed furiously.
Me: For your information, I’ve never been more stable. I drank sparkling water out of a wine glass and practiced fake smiling for thirty minutes. I’m thriving.
Austin: That’s deeply concerning.
Another pause. Then:
Austin: If he ever forgets you’re a catch, remind him someone else knows how to appreciate a woman with a brain and rage issues.
Sophia’s fingers stilled on the screen.
Me: That sounded dangerously like flirting.
Austin: Don’t flatter yourself. You’re married now. I’m just being supportive.
Me: Support me quietly, then. From a cave. In Siberia.
Austin: A text from Siberia: you still looked beautiful today. Even while throwing dagger-eyes at the world.
She sighed, a reluctant smile tugging at her lips.
Before she could type back, her phone buzzed again.
A different number.
Unknown: You’ve grown up, Hwang Min Hee.
The smile vanished.
She stared at the message.
Old name. Older memories.
One Ethan didn’t know.
One she thought she'd buried.
She swallowed hard, fingers hovering.
Me: Who is this?
No reply.
Not tonight, apparently.
Not yet.
- Writer
