Chapter 3
Silence settled over the table. Unable to meet the cold gaze flying at her from across from her, Lee-jae lowered her head deeply.
After a long while, Lee-jae opened her mouth as if she had finally made up her mind.
“……I-I can do it.”
“Do what.”
“I can work hard at married life!”
With her face burning red, Lee-jae shouted loudly enough to shake the restaurant.
That was how desperate she was.
‘Just get married right away. You have to repay the cost of being raised somehow! Luckily, plenty of men seem interested in that pretty little face of yours.’
Once the title of promising ballet talent disappeared because of her injury, Professor Seo began looking for men to sell off his niece to as quickly as possible.
Most of them were men at least thirty years older than Lee-jae. A record of domestic violence was nothing, and there had even been several who said they wanted to take Lee-jae as a mistress.
“If there’s a kind of marriage you want, I’ll do my best to fit it. You can meet women outside, and also…….”
Lee-jae tried to present herself as a convenient woman for marriage.
Beom Do-geon was thirty-two.
The age gap between him and Lee-jae was not a small one.
But compared to the other blind-date candidates who were more than thirty years older than she was, this felt like nothing. And no matter how frightening his background might be, it was still better than being forced to marry a man she did not want.
Once again, silence fell.
The moment Lee-jae began to say, “Um,” the man abruptly rose from his seat. The heavy chair scraped back with a harsh sound.
Do-geon slowly approached. Lee-jae sucked in a shallow breath.
He grabbed her chin and muttered low,
“I gave you a chance to run away from a bastard like me.”
“…….”
“So why couldn’t you take it? Is it because you’re a baby?”
The man’s sharp gaze landed on Lee-jae. She felt as though that blade-like stare might pierce her, and her shoulders trembled faintly.
Perhaps noticing that slight shiver, Do-geon let her go.
“If you’re going to tremble like this, go home.”
In the end, Lee-jae, who had endured without saying anything, unwillingly rose from her seat and turned her back.
Was this really the end? Had she really thrown away her last chance just like this?
“Um, but.”
Lee-jae slowly turned back around.
The gaze of the man leaning crookedly against the table with his long legs stretched out was cold.
“Even if I still have baby fuzz… my body isn’t completely childish.”
His remark about what he could possibly do with a baby who still had fuzz stirred up a pointless rebelliousness in her. So she said something she did not need to say.
And how had the man reacted to that?
Had he mocked her, saying she had nerve?
Too afraid to see Do-geon’s reaction, she quickly dropped her gaze and rushed out of the restaurant.
“Executive Director told me to escort you safely to your home.”
As she came out of the hotel, the driver approached her.
Lee-jae looked up at the hotel for a moment. Even though she knew that could not be the case, the sudden thought came to her, like an illusion, that the man was watching her from somewhere high above.
“Then I’ll leave it to you.”
Lee-jae considered going back up to the restaurant to try persuading him again, but soon got into the car instead.
Hoping, just once, that Do-geon would contact her.
* * *
Lee-jae entered Professor Seo’s house.
“Where have you been? Miss Hyo-won has been in an uproar looking for you.”
The housekeeper came hurrying over.
“……Was she very angry?”
“Should I prepare ointment and painkillers in advance?”
At her worried voice, Lee-jae shook her head.
“It’s all right. I’ve become tougher now.”
“Lee-jae…….”
“Please don’t worry too much.”
Leaving behind the housekeeper, who worried for her, Lee-jae went into the storage room tucked away in a corner on the second floor.
A tiny space where not a speck of light entered unless the lamp was turned on.
It smelled musty with mold.
Filled with cleaning supplies, this place was both a storage room and Lee-jae’s bedroom.
“Seo Lee-jae! Where did you go!”
Hyo-won came pounding down the hallway. It seemed she had heard that Lee-jae was back.
“You freeloader b*tch! You vulgar b*tch!”
Freeloader.
That was what they called Lee-jae in this household.
When Lee-jae earned a high result in a ballet competition she had entered together with Hyo-won, Professor Seo and his wife were so displeased that they instructed the servants not to feed her until she nearly died.
It was the nickname given to Lee-jae after she had gone hungry for several days and was caught secretly eating food scraps the servants had left behind in the kitchen.
“You, you fox-like b*tch! I’ll k*ll you!”
The moment Hyo-won entered the storage room, she raised her hand.
Smack! With that sound, Lee-jae’s face was struck to the side.
“You did it on purpose, didn’t you?”
“……What?”
“The blind date with the Mujung Group heir! You tricked me on purpose and said you’d go in my place, didn’t you?”
“You were the one who asked me to go in your place.”
Smack!
Once again, Hyo-won slapped Lee-jae across the cheek.
Lee-jae covered the cheek she had been struck on with her hand.
It throbbed. No matter how used to it she became, being hit always hurt.
“Of course, when I heard gangster, I thought he’d be some pig wearing a gold chain around his neck!”
Hyo-won’s body trembled with rage. Her glare was fierce enough to look as if she might k*ll Lee-jae at any moment.
Seeing the cell phone in her hand, it seemed she had only just now looked up a photo of the Mujung Group heir.
“It turns out he’s an incredibly famous man! Not just for his abilities, but for his looks! I was the only one who didn’t know because I never watch the news.”
“…….”
“All the women from chaebol families are making a huge fuss because they want to marry him!”
Hyo-won absolutely could not stand the fact that she had been deceived by that fox-like Seo Lee-jae.
“So, did you go and sell your body to that man?”
“What are you talking about? Don’t say things like that.”
“What do you mean don’t? You must take after your mother too. Your mother sold her body and set up another household, didn’t she!”
“Watch what you say! Don’t insult my mother!”
Unable to bear it any longer, Lee-jae raised her voice.
“What is wrong with your whole family, are all of you freeloaders? Your maternal grandmother too, why not just let her die already? Does she really have to go on living so pathetically with an oxygen tube attached? All she does is waste money.”
Three years earlier, after Lee-jae’s father died and even her maternal grandmother collapsed from illness, Lee-jae had moved into the home of Professor Seo, her eldest uncle.
Her mother had abandoned Lee-jae and left the house long ago after her father’s business failed.
There was only one reason Lee-jae could not run away even though she was in danger of being forcibly sold to a man she did not want. Professor Seo was fully paying for her grandmother’s hospital bills.
When Lee-jae began preparing to escape by saving up bit by bit from part-time jobs to cover her grandmother’s medical expenses, Professor Seo went so far as to move her grandmother to a hospital no one knew about.
He had taken her grandmother hostage.
“Well, look at that?”
Hyo-won lifted up the framed photograph resting on the dresser and curled her lips in an ugly smile.
“Unnie, give me my grandmother’s picture! It’s the only one I have.”
Crash!
Hyo-won hurled the frame against the wall. Shards of glass flew around the room like splinters.
Seeing the shattered glass and the crumpled photograph, Lee-jae glared at Hyo-won. The inside of her throat stung.
“What’s with that look in your eyes? Who said you could look at me like that?”
Lee-jae dropped down onto the floor. She was trying to pick up the photograph from among the glass shards.
When Hyo-won kicked her hard in the stomach.
Thud, thud.
“Give me the picture! I’m going to tear it up!”
Hyo-won struggled to snatch the photograph Lee-jae was clutching to her chest. But when Lee-jae curled her body around it and held on, Hyo-won kicked and even stomped on her injured left ankle instead.
“What is all this noise!”
Just then, Professor Seo came down the stairs.
Hyo-won stopped gleefully beating Lee-jae and gave an awkward smile.
“Dad, I was just bored, so I was hitting her a little. You said so yourself, Dad. Lee-jae is my punching bag.”
Professor Seo looked down at Lee-jae, curled weakly on the floor, with contempt, then spoke warmly to his daughter.
“Were you bored, our Princess Hyo-won? What happened with the blind date with that Mujung Group Executive Director I told you about?”
“Ah, th-that blind date…….”
Hyo-won stammered. Glancing at Lee-jae, she lied without the slightest hesitation.
“Executive Director from Mujung Group liked me a lot! If things go well, I think marriage might even be possible. Please tell them to arrange another meeting soon.”
“Really? That’s wonderful. As expected of our princess. Executive Director Beom is the number one groom candidate in South Korea right now! If we form a marriage alliance with Mujung Group, it’ll be a huge help to our family.”
Professor Seo smiled greedily, delighted.
Not long after Professor Seo left, Hyo-won grabbed a fistful of Lee-jae’s hair and yanked her face up.
“You did a good job pretending to be me at the blind date, right? Just try telling Dad that you went in my place!”
“…….”
“If another date gets arranged next time, I’ll just make some excuse then. Did you really think Executive Director Beom would want to marry a freeloader like you in the first place? He’d want someone like me, who grew up loved.”
“…….”
“What I hate most is a b*tch like you who won’t even cry that it hurts when she gets hit.”
Ptui, Hyo-won spat in Lee-jae’s face and walked out.
Even after she was left alone, Lee-jae remained curled up in one corner of the room for a long time.
Her bruised chest, abdomen, and thighs throbbed. More than anything, her left ankle, where only the faintest sensation remained, ached sharply.
How much time had passed?
Lee-jae limped to her feet and wiped the spit from her cheek with a tissue.
‘What I hate most is a b*tch like you who won’t even cry that it hurts when she gets hit.’
“Grandma, it hurts…….”
As Lee-jae looked at the photograph of her grandmother smiling brightly, tears finally burst from her.
The sobs she had held back so hard in front of Hyo-won simply would not stop.
“Grandma, are you doing well? I miss you. I’ll come get you soon.”
In the photograph, her grandmother and the younger Lee-jae were smiling happily. It was the last photograph they had taken together before her grandmother was hospitalized.
Lee-jae gently stroked the image of her grandmother in the photograph with her fingertips.
‘Just get married first. I raised you with such effort because you were supposed to be a ballet prodigy who would bring honor to our country, but then you just have to get injured and become useless, don’t you? You should repay the cost of raising you. Only then will I pay for your grandmother’s treatment.’
She missed her grandmother.
“They said you’re very sick? I’ll definitely, definitely find you and get you treated. Just wait a little longer.”
A tear fell in drops onto the photograph.
Lee-jae wiped the stained picture clean and stored it carefully in the drawer. Then she took out the music box beside it.
When she opened the lid, the ballerina figurine turned once, and a beautiful melody began to flow out.
‘Baby, a Christmas present.’
On sad days like this, looking at the music box comforted her.
She had treasured it for three years. In case it broke and might be hard to repair, she had cherished and protected it, opening it only when she was truly lonely and having a hard time.
Back then, when Beom Do-geon had handed her the music box, he had felt as dependable as though he could protect her from every hardship in the world.
To Lee-jae, Beom Do-geon was the only adult she had.
The man who had left a rude impression at the blind date.
And yet the man who had lent her a sedan because she limped when she walked.
He had always been like this, even in the past. Cold without end in front of her, but always taking Lee-jae’s side behind the scenes.
Lee-jae lay down on the cheap mattress and closed her eyes.
A pleasant melody flowed into her ears. It truly felt as if it were soothing her lonely, exhausted heart.
Bzzzz-.
Her phone vibrated.
Startled, she looked down at it.
The moment Lee-jae saw the name on the screen, her eyes shook violently.
