Chapter 05
That evening, Yeonhaedang received visitors: a grim-faced Han Seoha and a crestfallen Kang Naeun.
The people of Yeonhaedang were in a panic because Seoyoung stubbornly refused to go to the hospital or receive treatment.
She had never once scolded a servant and had always taken it upon herself to notice and handle difficult matters. But today was different. Blood still seeped through the hastily wrapped bandage on her hand, yet she wouldn’t let anyone touch it. The family physician stood outside the drawing room like a punished child.
Han Seoha entered with a gust of cold air, glanced at the doctor, and pushed Naeun forward toward Seoyoung.
Like a child forced to apologize, Naeun stumbled ahead in tiny steps.
Seoyoung, her hair slightly disheveled, sat blankly holding a teacup in her injured hand. Perhaps frightened by her expression, Naeun hesitated before speaking.
“I’m sorry. I grew up with oppa since I was little. I was too careless. I’ll be more careful, unni. I never even imagined you could misunderstand. I naturally… I could never even think of such a misunderstanding…”
In the end, she was saying it was Seoyoung’s fault for misunderstanding. Tears streamed down her face as she twisted her words. Seoyoung did not even glance at her.
Han Seoha grabbed Naeun and left, his face even more crumpled than when he had arrived.
“If she doesn’t receive treatment today, you may as well resign as her physician.”
That was the warning he left behind.
Only after he had fully left Yeonhaedang did Seoyoung set down her teacup.
She couldn’t have an innocent person suffer because of her. Slowly, she began unwrapping the bandage herself. Manager Kim, reading the room, quickly brought the physician in.
A misunderstanding?
Seoyoung recalled the way Kang Naeun had begun looking at her—directly, provocatively.
It hadn’t been a misunderstanding. Nor had she misseen anything. Naeun had been throwing herself at Han Seoha with all her strength. Hiding behind him while shaking Seoyoung. For a very long time.
And just as Naeun wanted, Seoyoung had wavered helplessly.
Was today’s incident a coincidence? Were all those countless past incidents coincidences too?
Her hands began trembling again. The physician assumed it was from pain and worked swiftly.
Once the puzzle began to align, even the tiniest pieces snapped into place.
His coldness after his parents passed away. Naeun’s unusually pale face whenever she met Seoyoung. The subtle unease among the servants in the main house.
Seoyoung had been shut away here in Yeonhaedang like a concubine, while Kang Naeun played the lady of the house in the main residence.
Whenever Naeun visited on weekends, curtains unsuited to the season would be changed. Tableware Seoyoung never used. Paintings not to her taste. Gaudy flowers. Someone had taken pleasure in altering those things.
Seoyoung let out a hollow laugh, like a madwoman. The physician flinched and quickly left after finishing the bandage, only reminding her not to let water touch the wound.
Manager Kim stepped cautiously closer.
“Tell Manager Yang from the main house to come over.”
Her face had turned cold.
Manager Yang, who oversaw the main house, had spent the day walking on eggshells because of the discord between the couple. Within ten minutes, she stood before Seoyoung.
“Move Kang Naeun’s room back to the third floor. From now on, don’t change curtains, fabrics, paintings, flowers, or tableware without my permission. And…”
The once gentle young madam now spoke like ice. Manager Yang nodded without even remembering to respond.
“I won’t be dining in the main house anymore. I’ll receive guests in the Yeonhaedang drawing room. Monday morning reports will also be given here. Only you need to come.”
Manager Yang swallowed.
It was no different from cutting off the main house entirely.
“Even meals… you mean?”
Every morning breakfast, and dinner about once a week. Manager Yang knew how much effort Seoyoung had put into those meals with him. But Seoyoung simply answered, “Yes.”
They hadn’t been an affectionate couple, but they had never been this cold. As Manager Yang worried about what to tell the elder madam—
“I’ll speak to Mother myself.”
As always, Seoyoung anticipated the burdens of those beneath her. Manager Yang hesitated before turning to leave.
“Madam.”
“Yes.”
“The president was extremely angry. And he already ordered that Miss Naeun’s room be moved back to the third floor. He yelled so much, telling her never to give you reason to misunderstand again, that she kept crying…”
“Manager Yang.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t relay such things to me anymore. Nothing about Han Seoha.”
Manager Yang bowed her head as if she herself had committed a crime.
Recalling that day, Seoyoung sighed.
If she had to relive it, could she have handled it more elegantly? More skillfully?
Instead of screaming and throwing things like a madwoman, could she have calmly assessed and corrected the situation?
She shook her head.
Her mother had taught her to be kind and gentle—but also to express her emotions.
If you’re angry, be angry. If someone is rude, reprimand them. If something must be returned, return it.
So after that day, Seoyoung expressed her anger. If she couldn’t understand something, she questioned it. She stopped letting ambiguous, unfinished feelings pile up.
And as though she had been waiting for that moment, Kang Naeun openly revealed her intentions.
In front of Han Seoha, she trembled and cried with a cunning face hidden behind fragility. In front of Seoyoung, she provoked her, saying that no matter how much she begged oppa to forgive her sister-in-law, it was useless.
The more Seoyoung unleashed her emotions, the more pitiful Naeun appeared, hiding further behind Han Seoha.
“If you love her, then just say you do! If you didn’t want to marry me, you shouldn’t have! If she’s that precious to you, you should have lived with her forever!”
Every time Seoyoung lashed out while Naeun hid behind him, Han Seoha treated her like a madwoman.
A madwoman who suspected his younger sister. Who entertained filthy thoughts unfit to be spoken.
At first he scolded her. Later he tried to soothe her. After cycles of calm persuasion turning into bursts of anger, he eventually gave up.
Naeun stopped coming home even on weekends.
With her out of sight, Seoyoung gradually calmed as well.
Maybe Han Seoha isn’t like that.
She chose to believe in a innocence he himself never insisted upon.
Maybe it was just admiration for a cousin she grew up with.
She forgave Naeun, who had never sought forgiveness.
When something is out of sight, it’s easier to be generous.
Even if that wasn’t the truth.
It must have been a fleeting first love. And fleeting first loves fade when unseen.
Clinging stubbornly to her own first love, she lived day by day beside Han Seoha, indulging in such arrogant thoughts.
She grew accustomed to standing on a fragile resignation that could shatter at any moment.
Until recently.
When Han Seoha rushed to Daejeon on her mother’s memorial day, Seoyoung’s heart began to crack apart. It felt like someone had forcibly ripped the scab from a barely healed wound.
When Manager Kim later discovered that Han Seoha had bought Naeun a house near the company, her heart fractured further.
And today, when Han Seoha appeared at Le Jardin—though he had never once dined out with Seoyoung since the day they first met—the last traces of it disappeared.
Now Seoyoung could stake her entire fortune on the certainty that Han Seoha would scatter even the one remaining chance like a feather in the wind.
That was what she was to him.
The only one who hadn’t known it was the fool—herself.
Even that young girl clinging to him had known it.
Only Seoyoung had not.
