The small, vibrant sign for "SEUL & STYLE," Lee Seul-bi's independent fashion brand, felt heavy with rain and impossible debtThe eviction notice taped to the glass, stamped with the ominous logo of the Skyline Group, was what drove her to the top floor of the Skyline Tower.
Twenty-five years old, fueled by caffeine and an extroverted fury, Lee Seul-bi was not a woman who begged.
She found Kang Joon-hyuk, the Vice President, alone in his colossal office, staring out at the rain-slicked city. He looked tired, his sharp suit a cold armor, but his eyes were fixed on nothing.
"Mr. Kang Joon-hyuk!" Seul-bi announced, throwing her business card onto his polished mahogany desk. "My shop is profitable, my designs are unique, and your construction tax is criminal! You close SEUL & STYLE, you kill local commerce just to put up another soulless tower! You have to give us a chance!"
Joon-hyuk didn't move for a long moment. He was preoccupied, trapped by the voice on his phone moments earlier: "You will secure the marriage with Miss Choi and bring a worthy Granddaughter-in-Law to the family, or you will not be CEO. This is the final word, Joon-hyuk." The words of the Chairman echoed in his mind.
He slowly turned, his expression cold. "Ms. Lee. I'm afraid corporate strategy is not determined by the passion of a local designer."
"Corporate strategy is determined by greed!" Seul-bi snapped back, bracing her hands on the desk. "You're about to let the Kang family reputation take a hit just to get a title! Don't you care about anything but the CEO seat?"
Before Joon-hyuk could form a proper, dismissive reply, his private office door whooshed open. His assistant, pale and wide-eyed, stood frozen.
"Vice President Kang, the media... and Miss Choi Se-ra—they heard you were up here. They're coming up the elevator now."
Joon-hyuk's cold logic instantly clicked. Choi Se-ra arriving meant the end of his last chance for independence. He had to show the world—and his Chairman—that his relationship with the Choi family was finished.
He moved faster than Seul-bi could blink.
He reached across the desk, grabbing her wrist with a grip of steel, pulling the startled designer out from behind the mahogany barrier. He ignored her sharp, surprised gasp and propelled her toward the panoramic window, placing them directly in the sightline of the hallway cameras and the descending elevator doors.
The moment the doors slid open, revealing Choi Se-ra's horrified face and a flashbulb frenzy of the assembled media, Joon-hyuk acted.
He looked directly past her at the cameras, his voice resonating with loud, manufactured conviction. "I apologize for the misunderstanding, everyone," Joon-hyuk announced. "The rumors about my impending marriage were correct, but the bride was wrong. Meet my fiancée, Lee Seul-bi. She is the only woman who will ever be my wife and the Chairman's only true Granddaughter-in-Law."
Seul-bi, recovering from the shock, opened her mouth to deliver a furious, defiant rebuttal—she was not his fiancée!
But before a single word could escape, Joon-hyuk crushed his lips against hers, cutting off her inevitable, disastrous outburst.
The kiss was desperate, possessive, and entirely public.
He ended the kiss abruptly, pulling back just enough to hold her stunned, furious gaze. He wrapped his arm tightly around her waist, gripping her hand with authority, and steered her through the chaotic media scrum and back toward his private office.
"Thank you for coming, everyone," Joon-hyuk announced to the reporters, his voice dismissing them. "We have important matters to attend to."
As soon as the heavy, soundproof door whooshed shut, sealing them back in the office away from the flashing lights, Seul-bi exploded.
She shoved his chest, completely forgetting the debt, the Chairman, and her shop.
"You arrogant maniac! You stole my first kiss!" Seul-bi shrieked, her voice echoing off the glass walls. "My first kiss was supposed to be perfect, not a corporate stunt! Who do you think you are?!"
Joon-hyuk's face went white. He genuinely hadn't expected the personal revelation.
Just then, his assistant rushed forward, holding a legal document. "Sir! The contract you requested!"
Joon-hyuk took the contract, his mind already calculating the pivot. He pressed the paper into Seul-bi's trembling hand.
"That," Joon-hyuk said, his eyes now cold and purely transactional, "is the deal. Marry me for one year. You get your shop—debt free, forever. You walk away a year from now with a fifty million won settlement. Do we have a deal, Ms. Nonstop talker? Or does SEUL & STYLE become dust tomorrow?"
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Written by Lee So-yun