Chapter 06
“Madam is heading in now.”
In the car, which was so quiet it felt like a mouse had died inside it, Director Kim’s voice suddenly rang out through the speaker. “Already? Did something happen?”
Mi-kyung, who was driving and serving as security, hurriedly pressed the volume button on her phone.
She really does put a lot of people in difficult positions.
The secretary’s office staff who would be blindsided tomorrow without even knowing why. The department store’s VIP team. The restaurant manager. Director Kim and everyone at Yeonhaedang who would be flustered to see Seo-young returning early.
Thinking about how so many people had been toyed with by a young girl’s prank made a sigh escape her lips.
“Mi-kyung, if you want to buy a house, where do you go?”
Seo-young, who had been leaning back with her eyes closed, suddenly asked.
Mi-kyung blinked, caught off guard. It was surprising enough that Madam knew her name. The question itself was even more unexpected.
“Um… You go to a real estate agency. Most people do.”
She glanced at the rearview mirror, her expression clearly saying, You’re not “most people,” so why are you asking that?
“A real estate agency.”
Seo-young repeated the words like a child learning to speak.
The moment she heard the term, related knowledge flooded her mind like water from a pump: real estate, land, property, buildings, sales, gifts, transfers.
And then another fact surfaced.
“I already have houses. Even now.”
Not just one—several properties, all listed under the name of “assets.”
And she was only just remembering that now.
Mom. It’s no use.
From the moment she had first begun to walk, the resources her mother poured into her education had been enormous. Time, money, manpower—nothing had been spared.
But what was the point, when she hadn’t been taught the things necessary to actually live?
She should have taught her how to cry like that woman. How to look weak. How to hide behind a man.
Muttering words that would have made her mother leap from her grave, Seo-young closed her eyes again.
But—
Her mother, and her maternal grandparents, had given her something else.
Something that did not waver before obvious deceit and lies.
And now, she no longer needed someone who did waver before such things.
First love? Marriage? What use were those?
It wasn’t even a family important enough to make headlines if they divorced. There would be rumors, perhaps—but that was all.
Maybe I’ll pick a house.
And live however I want.
That was what the inheritance had been for, after all.
Seo-young hummed softly to herself. Mi-kyung glanced at her again in the mirror, as if wondering what had gotten into her today.
Regardless, Seo-young smiled lightly.
It’s all right now.
Tears slowly welled in her smiling eyes. Outside, the night streets, just beginning to feel the spring breeze, blurred like a watercolor soaked in water.
As expected, Director Kim fumed so hard it seemed she might burst into profanity at any moment. The people at Yeonhaedang, worried that their heartbroken Madam might even skip dinner, quickly prepared a meal.
They watched as she spooned up the pale salted seafood broth, thinly sliced napa cabbage and radish floating within, soft tofu simmered tenderly in the soup.
When Director Kim waved her hands, saying Madam might get indigestion with everyone staring, they began to disperse gloomily—but Seo-young stopped them with a smile.
“It’s fine. Let’s eat together.”
“We already had jajangmyeon and sweet-and-sour pork earlier since Madam wasn’t here.”
“Delivery comes all the way here?”
From the entrance of the neighborhood onward, security was stationed. How would a delivery driver even get in?
“The head of security picked it up and brought it. Even if it’s delivered, we have to go down to the gate anyway.”
“I want jajangmyeon too.”
She chimed in casually, though everyone at Yeonhaedang knew she didn’t actually care much for the overly sweet dish.
“Then next time, shall we all go out together? That Chinese restaurant where Young-ji had her blind date—it’s supposed to be really good.”
“Apparently the sweet-and-sour pork was so good she almost picked up the sauce bowl and drank it in front of her date.”
“Oh my, Young-ji went on a blind date?”
“Madam didn’t know? Her mom brought a potential groom up from Changwon!”
“Does that mean you’ll have to get married and move to Changwon? That won’t do—I’ll miss you too much.”
“Don’t worry, Madam. I’m never marrying a man who looks like sweet-and-sour pork.”
Young-ji, her short black hair still giving her a girlish look, clenched both fists dramatically.
“Haha, he looked like sweet-and-sour pork?”
“Yes! My mom said he looked like Kang Dong-won! It was all lies!”
At the mention of Kang Dong-won, everyone burst into laughter.
With her stomach full and surrounded by lighthearted banter, the jagged feelings that had pricked at her heart slowly settled.
Watching Seo-young’s eyes grow more at ease, Director Kim let out a breath of relief.
Yes. Seo-young was that kind of person. Even when hurt, she did not sink into her wounds.
The elders of Mangyangjae had raised her that way, and she had blossomed gently under their expectations and love.
Even if she collided with something and was bent or bruised, she would heal herself with the strength within her.
Director Kim slipped beside Young-ji, who was animatedly describing how the sweet-and-sour-pork-looking man kept snatching only the meat pieces.
Subtly, she refilled Seo-young’s soup and placed side dishes neatly atop her rice. Seo-young ate well.
That was enough.
“No matter what happens, if you fill your stomach, you’ve solved half of it.”
Director Kim remembered Chairman Noh’s words and pressed a hand to her chest.
“What should we do with these shoes?”
Just as Seo-young was heading back to her room, Young-ji approached cautiously, holding the heels.
Since she was in charge of Seo-young’s dressing room, it was only natural to ask.
Oh, honestly. So tactless.
Director Kim shot her a look, but Seo-young remained calm.
“There’s no blood on them, right?”
“Madam, are you hurt?”
Even if the CEO had sent them, she shouldn’t have been made to wear ill-fitting shoes.
Director Kim fussed as she examined Seo-young’s heel. A thin stocking, delicate as a dragonfly’s wing, clung to her skin, stained with dried blood.
“You’re hurt? Where?”
The Yeonhaedang staff, who had only just dispersed, gathered again. Seo-young laughed lightly.
“It’s not serious. If there’s no blood on the shoes, keep them and put them up for the May charity bazaar. If there is… then just throw them away. It’s a shame, but it can’t be helped.”
“The restaurant, the shoes—they weren’t mine anyway. No wonder they felt big.”
Everyone remembered her saying that, slightly weary, when she had first come home. Poor Young-ji, still holding the shoes, found herself receiving glares from all sides.
Seo-young, the calmest of all, bid them good night with her usual kindness and went inside.
Young-ji laughed awkwardly and slowly backed away.
“Maybe you should just marry that sweet-and-sour-pork guy after all.”
At someone’s teasing remark, Young-ji made a tearful face.
“Are you really okay?”
Hearing Director Kim speak casually for the first time in a while, Seo-young smiled at her as she carefully tended the wound like a mother.
“It doesn’t hurt. It’ll heal soon.”
“Not the wound. Your heart.”
Without looking up, applying ointment and placing a sterile bandage, Director Kim asked evenly.
“My heart is fine too. Of course.”
Director Kim didn’t miss the way Seo-young’s fingers briefly clenched the bedsheet.
There was no way she was fine.
“After ten years, they say couples live on loyalty. Even if love burns bright, how long can it really last?”
Director Kim spoke deliberately cheerfully. It wasn’t exactly something to say to a couple married only five years, and one that hadn’t exactly been ablaze with passion to begin with.
“Love, please.”
Seo-young murmured bitterly.
But it had been love.
“It wasn’t like that.”
Even if it hadn’t been returned.
The boy who had clumsily tied the hair of a seven-year-old child. Who had given an eight-year-old girl rides to school on the back of his bicycle. Who had saved a nine-year-old from being ostracized for being a rich man’s daughter, like a hero.
She had loved him.
