Later that evening, they arrived at Ru Shi’s grand family mansion. The house was enormous, cold, and unfamiliar—much like her relationship with him now. Yura stood in the grand entrance hall, feeling the weight of everything that had happened.
Ru Shi followed her in, but Yura didn’t turn to face him. She was too consumed by her own thoughts, the walls closing in around her. She wanted to scream, to run, to escape the life she had just been forced into.
The silence between them was suffocating until Yura finally spoke, her voice laced with bitterness and anger.
“I will never love you,” she said, her words cold and cutting. She turned to face him, her eyes burning with hatred. “I hate you, Ru Shi. I hate you with everything in me.”
Ru Shi’s face remained calm, but there was a flicker of pain in his eyes. “Yura, I didn’t want it to happen like this. I never wanted to hurt you.”
She scoffed, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. “You don’t know the first thing about love. You think because you’re rich and powerful, you can control people’s lives? You think you can just buy my love, buy me with your influence and your empty promises?”
Ru Shi stepped closer, his voice low, filled with an emotion she couldn’t read. “I never tried to buy you. I care about you, Yura.”
“You care?” she laughed bitterly. “You don’t care about anyone but yourself. You think you’re helping, but you’ve ruined everything. I only married you to save Minho. And now I’m trapped in this... nightmare with you.”
Her words hit him like a punch to the gut, but he refused to back down. “I know you don’t believe me right now, but I never meant to hurt you. I was trying to protect you.”
“Protect me?” Yura spat, her eyes blazing. “From what? From my own happiness? From the man I love?”
Ru Shi clenched his fists, trying to contain his frustration. “Minho isn’t who you think he is, Yura. I didn’t do this to destroy your life. I did it because—”
“Because what?” she cut him off, her voice trembling with rage. “Because you wanted me? Because you thought you could have me, no matter the cost?”
Tears welled up in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She couldn’t show him how much this was breaking her. She wouldn’t give him that satisfaction.
Ru Shi reached out, his hand hovering just above her arm as if he wanted to comfort her, but she jerked away from his touch.
“I will never love you,” she repeated, her voice sharp and unyielding. “I will hate you for the rest of my life, and nothing you do will ever change that.”
The Meaning of Love
Yura’s harsh words echoed in the room, and Ru Shi stood there, silently absorbing the weight of them. He had known from the start that this marriage would be difficult, that Yura would hate him for what she believed he had done. But hearing it from her lips, feeling the depth of her pain, was more than he had anticipated.
She turned her back on him, walking toward the large windows that overlooked the city, her arms still crossed defensively. The moonlight filtered through the glass, casting her in a soft glow, but to Ru Shi, she looked more distant than ever.
He took a deep breath and finally spoke, his voice soft yet determined. “You think I don’t know what love is? Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’ve never known love the way you do. But what I feel for you… it’s real.”
Yura stayed silent, refusing to acknowledge his words.
“I never planned this, Yura,” he continued, his voice filled with a sincerity she hadn’t heard from him before. “I didn’t frame Minho. I didn’t force this marriage to control you. But I do love you, and I would do anything to protect you, even if it means you hating me for the rest of your life.”
Yura’s heart clenched painfully at his words, but she pushed the feeling aside. She didn’t want to hear it. She didn’t want to feel anything for him.
Without turning around, she whispered, “You don’t know what love is. Love is selfless, not selfish. You’ll never understand that.”
Ru Shi stood there, watching her, knowing that no matter what he said, no matter how hard he tried, she might never believe him.
And as Yura stared out at the city lights, her heart heavy with sorrow and anger, she silently vowed to keep her distance from him—to guard her heart from the man who had taken everything from her.
