Contract Marriage 18+ [A Hopekook Fanfiction] ✓

11.6🥀

"I think it's time you told me about Jungha," Hobie finally said and he inhaled deeply, before sitting down next to her. Hobie reached over and took Lily from him. Thankfully the baby continued to sleep peacefully.

"Jungha..." he shut his eyes as he tried to gather his thoughts. "She's the kind of woman I always pictured myself marrying. Poised, sophisticated, beautiful... she keeps all her emotions locked up tight, which suited me fine because I never appreciated messy emotional scenes. We dated and got along pretty well. I fancied myself in love with her. It was a very neat, clinical and uncomplicated version of love. I thought that we were perfectly suited..." Hobie tried to keep her expression neutral but it hurt so much listening to him talk about the other woman in such terms. "Then I came here to meet your father and saw you for the first time. Your quiet beauty drew me immediately. I don't think I ever told you that. I couldn't keep my eyes off of you that first time and I wanted you with a violence that shocked the ever-loving hell out of me. If your stupid father had left things alone, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to keep my hands off of you. But when he forced the issue, he did the one thing that guaranteed I would keep my distance from you. I don't like being told what to do, hobie. And even though you were exactly what I'd wanted, I very perversely kept you at a distance.

"I resented you and I resented your father for messing up my life and my future plans. I went into our marriage, determined to grab that damned divorce with both hands as soon as you had a son. But things got messy... and emotional. I tried so hard to keep you at a distance, I refused to kiss you, I pretended to want other women and all the time I couldn't stay away from you. I could see how much I was hurting you and..." she watched him struggle to find the right words before he shook his head and dropped his gaze. "At first I didn't care. I rationalised that it was nothing more than you deserved. But the more distant and closed off you became more frustrated I became with you. I told myself that it was because I wanted to see you suffer but when I gave it any serious thought I knew it went deeper than that. I hated not having your attention. When we first married you showered me with attention, you knew something was wrong but you were always so determinedly affectionate and loving. Seeing that affection and that trust fade from your eyes... it was so much harder than I'd ever anticipated."

He got up and started to pace again. Hobie watched him prowl aggressively around the room and felt the ice around her heart melting with every word he uttered. He was being so brutally honest with her, some of his words were ugly and hurtful, while others sent her heart soaring.

"Every time I returned to Japan I spent time with Jungha..." he confessed roughly, stopping his pacing abruptly to pin her with his fierce gaze. "I never touched her. I want you to know that. Not in any sexual way. I never wanted to. My mother and sisters kept arranging these little get-togethers with her family and ours; they tried to push us together more often than not. I very rarely sought out her company. I saw her at parties and family gatherings but never felt the need to contact her at any other time. You were never far from my thoughts while I was out of the country. I found myself wondering what you were doing, who you were with, if you were happy... if you missed me," he cleared his throat self-consciously. "I really wanted you to miss me, Hobie. I told myself it was because you would suffer more, wondering what I was up to... what a joke! I wanted you to miss me because I missed you. The few times I called home you were so distant and it drove me out of my mind. All I could think of when I was in Jungha's company was getting back to you. I fantasized about the things I would do to you when I had you naked beneath me again. Why else do you think I was always so damned horny when I got home after those trips?" Hobie blushed as she recalled a particularly memorable homecoming; Jeon had returned on a Friday and hadn't let her out of bed until the Monday morning. The man had been insatiable.

"That morning when you said you wanted a divorce," he shook his head. "You shocked the hell out of me. Up until that point you'd been so passive and accepting of the situation."

"The quintessential doormat you mean?" She inserted drily.

"I don't think you were ever a doormat, Hobie. I think you were trying to make the best of a bad situation and in the end when you no longer could, you showed me who you truly were. I was fascinated with you before but once I started seeing the real you, I fell hard and fast. I was appalled when I realised that you knew nothing about your father's sick arrangement. I hated what I'd done to you, how I'd made you suffer for his mistakes. I tried to make it up to you but by then you clearly despised me and with good reason. I wanted get to know you, I wanted us to have a real marriage but you insisted that you wanted nothing to do with me... and Hobie, if you ever wanted revenge for the way I'd treated you, you got it in spades when it felt like nothing I was doing or saying was making any difference to the way you felt about me.

"And then when you told me you were pregnant," he knelt on the bed and stared down into their sleeping baby's face, before raising his eyes to hers. "Suddenly it felt like there was a ticking time bomb in the house. I didn't have all the time in the world to make you love me again; I had only a few short months. The one thing I'd wanted above all else in the beginning was now a noose around my throat, tightening with every passing day. I loved the baby with everything in me but I feared it too because I was terrified that it would eventually take you away from me. I didn't want you to exclude me from the pregnancy, I wanted to show you what we could like if we operated as a solid family unit but you were so depressingly obsessed with having a son that it felt like a constant uphill battle. I started praying for a girl because I knew a girl would buy me more time. A girl would keep you with me longer; it would also prove to you, once and for all that your father's ridiculous contract meant nothing to me anymore. That I wanted our marriage to last forever." He finally seemed to run out of words, taking in a deep breath of air and exhaling it shakily. His eyes searched hers desperately but she kept her expression neutral, despite the joy bubbling up inside of her. This vulnerable and naked passion was what she'd been waiting for. He'd finally bared his soul for her and it was almost blindingly beautiful.

"So you want our marriage to last forever?" She finally asked after a long silence.

"Yes."

"And you love our baby?"

"Yes, of course."

"And you love me?" Her voice shook a bit at the enormity of that realisation.

"God, yes!"

"Good."

"Just good?" He asked in disbelief.

"Well, what else do you want from me?" She asked innocently and he growled. She laughed at the feral sound, before reaching up her free hand to cup his tense jaw. "Jeon, you gorgeous idiot... I never stopped loving you. I just got much better at hiding it from you. I was too afraid of being hurt again."

"I'll never hurt you again," he promised vehemently.

"Don't make promises you can't keep, jeon" she warned direly.

"Okay, I'll try my best not to inadvertently hurt you again," he rephrased carefully and she smiled, the old affectionate smile that she used to shower him with in the beginning of their marriage. She heard Jeon's breath catch at the sight.

"Much better," she approved and he growled again, this time the sound was more a sexy purr than a warning. He swept both her and Lily up in a fierce hug but when Lily made a high-pitched sound of protest, he let them go reluctantly.

"I love you with all my heart, Hobie and I want to marry you," he said huskily and she started.

"I love you too, Jeon but the last time I checked we were already married."

"I want to give you the wedding you should have had, hobie. I want to make my vows again and mean them with all my heart."

"You don't have to do that, Jeon," she shook her head. "I know you love me. You don't have to prove anything to me."

"I don't have to do it, Hobie... but I want to do it. I want my family there to see me marry the woman who holds my heart in her hands. Please marry me again, Hobie, and make me the happiest man in the world."
She wound an arm around his neck and dragged his head down for a long kiss.

"Yes. With all my heart yes, Jeon."

🥀THE END🥀