Chapter 24….
When Seung-a returned home, she laid out her belongings in the bedroom and inspected them.
There weren’t any noticeable defects, but since she wasn’t an expert, she couldn’t be completely sure.
Seung-a let out a heavy sigh and muttered to herself,
“Do you guys not want to part with me? Why does everything keep going wrong?”
She remembered Yoo-jin, who had maintained a smile without showing any change in expression.
What was he thinking when he saw the items scattered on the emergency stairs?
Even after returning to the mansion, he hadn’t said a single word about what happened earlier.
If he had asked something, she would have openly told him—about needing the money urgently, about having to sell the items despite feeling sorry.
‘Let’s just say it was a bad day,’ she thought.
After neatly organizing the luxury items, Seung-a went outside for a moment to catch her breath.
Walking among the garden trees, accompanied by the chirping of insects, one tree caught her attention.
A crepe myrtle whose branches were still bare, as the leaves hadn’t sprouted yet.
To others, it might have been just an ordinary garden tree, but to Seung-a, it was special.
It was the tree her father had planted for her tenth birthday.
“It’s grown so much.”
She felt so happy to see that the tree was still there when she returned to the house.
As she ran her hand over its smooth bark, the tree seemed to shake its trunk in response.
It was just like the first time her father had introduced it, when he had said,
“Let’s call this tree the <Seung-a Tree>. This tree is ticklish, just like you, Seung-a. So we can also call it the <Ticklish Tree>.”
The Seung-a Tree had deeply rooted itself in the mansion even after the family had left, for over ten years.
Seung-a watched the trembling tree and sat down on a nearby bench.
The bench faced the mansion, offering a view of the garden with just a turn of her head.
But the garden no longer looked like it did in her childhood. Everything except the crepe myrtle had changed.
‘We used to dig the ground over there with Seung-min… and we planted flowers with Mom around there. Now there’s a tree.’
Lost in childhood memories, Seung-a noticed Yoo-jin coming out of the mansion.
He approached her holding two mugs.
Wearing a T-shirt that revealed his neck and lightweight cotton pants, he blended perfectly with the lawn.
“Coffee? Tea?”
The rich aroma of coffee carried on the spring breeze reached her nose.
“Coffee. I’ll drink it properly.”
After taking a sip, Yoo-jin immediately said,
“Drink that and sign the contract.”
“Oh, I’ll spit it out.”
“You already swallowed it.”
“Ah… oh no. I can’t exactly throw it up.”
Seung-a looked frustrated, like someone who had been tricked, but Yoo-jin didn’t flinch and simply drank his own tea.
Seung-a muttered,
“You should’ve told me in advance—if I drink this, it means I’m engaged to you.”
“You would’ve done it anyway,” he said, sitting down next to her.
“Weren’t you just watching the house thinking, ‘If I sign, this house will be mine’?”
“Well… yeah.”
Though he spoke jokingly, Seung-a instinctively sensed his true intention.
It seemed he had guessed that she was in financial trouble.
“I can’t deny that. And this house was originally ours, so I thought it would feel like getting it back.”
As she spoke, Seung-a scanned the mansion.
The white-toned walls and modern design blended well together. The exterior hadn’t changed since her childhood.
Yoo-jin looked at her intently and asked,
“So this was your house?”
“Yes. I lived here until I moved in my first year of high school.”
“Because of your parents’ transfer or something?”
“My father passed away then. His company went bankrupt, and he collapsed. That’s when we lost this house too.”
Yoo-jin didn’t press for more details and said,
“You were lucky to meet my grandmother.”
“Right? I was surprised when she showed me this place, saying she had a monthly rental. It felt like coming home again.”
“Until I returned to Korea, that must’ve been true.”
“You know a lot, huh?”
“Somehow, you were stubborn about not leaving,” Yoo-jin said, shaking his head as if recalling the time.
Seung-a shot back,
“From my perspective, Yoo-jin was the unwelcome guest, you know?”
“So that’s why you still feel attached to this house?”
“A little? It’s been so long. Nothing particularly memorable.”
“So that’s why you were gently caressing the tree?”
Oh no, he saw that.
Seung-a quickly looked away and mumbled,
“I… I just like touching trees.”
“This tree was here when you lived here, right?”
“Yes. It even has a name—the Seung-a Tree. My father planted it for my birthday.”
Yoo-jin took in the long branches with his eyes.
Then he turned to her, gazing deeply as if setting a mood, and whispered,
“I’ll have to pull it out later.”
“Wow. That’s really mean.”
“Then you just become the owner of the house.”
“Even if it’s not me, don’t pull it out. It grew beautifully.”
“I’m going to pull it out.”
He was so determined that Seung-a couldn’t argue.
“If you want to protect the tree, sign the contract.”
Should she really sign the contract right away?
Doing so would solve everything quickly if she was with him. It was a problem she could have solved on her own.
Selling the luxury items would cover most, though not all, of her remaining debt.
But… it wasn’t the best solution.
This way, she couldn’t prevent her family from moving. She’d have to sell the restaurant building to reduce the debt.
Lowering her head, she noticed the scratch on her leg.
Her family would soon move into the dilapidated building where she had met that troublemaker.
If that happened, her grandmother, who had struggled all her life, might have to spend her remaining years in that shabby house.
‘That can’t happen!’
On the other hand, if she signed Yoo-jin’s contract?
A year later, her family would live together in this mansion.
It would be a truly, truly, truly happy life.
It was so ideal that it was almost unimaginable.
“I…”
As Seung-a opened her mouth, a buzzing sound came.
It was Yoo-jin’s phone.
“Hello?”
—Uh, uh! Yoo-jin!
The man’s voice came clearly through the phone, so close by.
“What’s this? Making calls now?”
—Haha! Well, I came to have a drink, and guess who I ran into here.
Yoo-jin furrowed his brows.
He looked stiff, unwilling to continue the conversation.
“I’ll hang up.”
—W-Wait, uh?
Then a woman’s voice followed, as if someone had grabbed the phone.
—Oppa! Is it okay to talk now?
Assuming confidently, Yoo-jin replied curtly,
“I don’t know who you are, but I’m busy.”
—Why? It’s me, Chaerin! You kept ignoring my calls, so I asked Ji-hyuk.
It seemed that Chaerin was someone Yoo-jin didn’t want to speak with. She must have run into him while he was out drinking with a friend.
Her speech was slightly slurred, perhaps from drinking.
—Didn’t you hear from Chairman Geum? Why aren’t you contacting me? I want to meet you officially.
Watching Yoo-jin on the phone, Seung-a heard him explain briefly:
“This person? The woman my grandmother wanted me to meet.”
“Oh… that…”
An annoying person?
When Yoo-jin treated her leg in the sunroom, she had asked him:
‘What kind of person is she?’
‘I just don’t like her.’
Now, his expression clearly showed that he really disliked her.
Realizing Yoo-jin wasn’t alone, Chaerin raised her voice.
—What? Who are you with, Oppa? Is it a woman?
Yes. A woman.
And she’s the one pressuring him to get engaged.
Seung-a tilted her head toward Yoo-jin.
As he looked at her, asking ‘Why?’, Seung-a spoke:
“Oppa, what are you doing? Go wash up quickly.”
Her gentle voice surely carried through the phone.
Before Yoo-jin could widen his eyes in surprise, Chaerin reacted at the speed of light.
—What? Who is that woman!
Yoo-jin’s friend, flustered, said,
“Uh, Chaerin?”
—Stay there. Oppa is with a woman right now.
—What? That can’t be. I heard he went home earlier.
Chaerin yelled,
—What did you say? You brought a woman home?
Beep.
With a short sound, Yoo-jin ended the call.
Lowering his head, he chuckled.
Unlike him, Seung-a, with no intention of holding back, burst out laughing.
“Haha! This is really fun!”
“What were you thinking?”
“Ahaha! Why?”
Seung-a grinned, fully concluding the matter.
“I’m your fiancée, after all.”
Cute.