MOON Ch 10

At Taeha’s question, Chaeon bit her lip and tightly clutched the hem of her school uniform skirt. His eyes narrowed slightly. In the eyes meeting his, all sorts of things were mixed together. Longing, shame, embarrassment, jealousy, hatred… such byproducts.

Even if she tried to hide it by acting precocious compared to her peers, to him, Yoon Chaeon was still laughably a young child. The emotions underlying her calm-feigning face were easily read.

A desire that she would like to try possessing the things he enjoyed living with at least once, a jealousy and hatred directed toward what she couldn’t have upon immediately recognizing her reality again.

In the first place, the things he possessed were not things that ordinary people could enjoy in the same way just because they coveted them. He had seen countless people who, while trying desperately to get close to him, turned around and showered him with curses like ‘That arrogant son of a bitch’ when he showed a lukewarm response, or expressed an inferiority complex because they couldn’t admit to themselves that they envied him.

Coveting what one cannot have is a difficult thing, but hating and despising it is easy. Entertaining or expressing negative feelings alone made them feel that his worth was lowered, gaining petty comfort, or trying to cover up the goodwill directed at him with negative emotions. The humans he had experienced were generally that way.

“Yes.”

“…”

“Please pretend you didn’t see it.”

Her terribly pitiful eyes were desperately taking on a sharp edge. As if she didn’t want to look miserable in front of him, of all people. Acceding to that insignificant pride was no big deal to Taeha.

However…

“Fine.”

The moment he spat the answer out of his mouth, his mood was somehow strangely filthy. Even though she was a good-for-nothing girl who was caught examining him with a greedy gaze as if she was dying of curiosity, yet putting up her guard and taking on a sharp edge while pretending otherwise.

Nevertheless, as always, pushing unnecessary emotions to the back, he brought the most efficient emotions to the fore. Making himself have bothersome thoughts was something he could just treat like an object as always. Under the roof of any house, there was bound to be at least one nuisance, after all.

Taeha’s gaze moved to the tablet PC. Inside the car, the same silence as a moment ago flowed once again. As if they hadn’t shared any conversation at all.

The cheeky girl who had been frozen while clutching her skirt hem turned her head back to the window. Taeha, who was reviewing the materials in a businesslike manner, hung a faint cold smile on his lips.

Thinking that while she was pretty, she already knew how to strangely irritate a person.

∞ ∞ ∞

By the time they arrived at Songbaekwon, the rain had stopped. The mansion that arrived after piercing through the water fog was steeped in the deepened smell of grass and submerged in tranquility.

“Thank you for giving me a ride.”

Without even looking at Taeha’s face, Chaeon bowed her head slightly and left the car as if running away. She wanted to break free from his scent, which was felt every time she inhaled. She felt a sting gaze behind her back, but without turning around, she merely walked steadfastly in case she might run into anyone.

If Heejung were to see this state, it was as clear as day that her heart would break again. It was a school where the majority were kids who spent money like water, and the influence of parents was particularly strong. Even if she found out the truth, there was nothing Heejung could do for Chaeon. Even if there were, at best she would rely on the help of Im Soyoung, that woman, again. She hated that more than dying.

It was when Chaeon was hurriedly picking up her pace while feeling a throbbing somewhere in her side every time she walked.

“Ah!”

Her wrist was caught by someone, and her body was turned around as it was. When she looked up in fluster at the chest wearing a white t-shirt abruptly visible in front of her eyes, a familiar face stood there looking even more surprised than her.

“You…”

Jang Yeonjun, it was that man.

After leaving behind a meaningful remark to see each other often and treating her with a meaningful attitude, he really ran into Chaeon so often afterward that it was confusing whether it was a coincidence or deliberate, and every time, he kept coming up warmly and making her uncomfortable.

Ah… Why, of all times, right now.

Seeing that they ended up running into each other like this without fail despite her deliberately avoiding him continuously, she thought that while it couldn’t be, was he following her around? She swallowed a sigh reluctantly and offered a moderately polite greeting.

“Hello.”

“…”

At her attitude of showing overly strict politeness, Yeonjun merely looked down at Chaeon in silence for a moment. He moved his gaze to her swollen red cheek and furrowed his eyes.

“What’s wrong with this, your face.”

“Ah…”

When Yeonjun reached out his hand without hesitation toward her swollen cheek and carefully traced that spot with his fingertip, Chaeon flinched at the throbbing sensation and shrank her neck. Due to that, she failed to see his gaze looking down at her sink faintly cold for a moment.

“Chaeon.”

Perhaps not expecting her name to be called, in Chaeon’s gaze looking up at Yeonjun again, a somewhat confused look was laced.

“Did you get hit?”

“No, I, I’m okay. If you could let go of this…”

Looking around with an anxious expression, her face showed worry that someone might see the two of them. Looking intently at Chaeon, who was covering her cheek with her own hand and trying to keep bowing her head, he gently pulled her.

“First, let’s go inside and talk.”

“Huh? Go inside, to where?”

“My room.”

At the gentle reply dropping without hesitation, Chaeon opened her mouth slightly in fluster. Yeonjun shifted his steps while holding Chaeon’s hand. The fingertip surprised by the unhesitating contact seemed to flinch and tremble, but in the end, Chaeon quietly followed behind Yeonjun with her head deeply bowed.

Taeha, who was just getting out of the car in dumbfounded disbelief at Chaeon, who had fled in an instant, suddenly turned his head at a face that grazed past.

His neat brow, recognizing the opponent, crumpled subtly. Yeonjun, who should definitely be stuck in his room around this time, was entering the main house while holding the hand of Chaeon, who had hurriedly fled from his car a moment ago.

The two, have they already met?

Inside his car, she was practically stuck right against the door the entire time as if she didn’t even want to touch him and then fled, but with Jang Yeonjun, she was following behind like a gentle sheep even while having her hand held plainly. With his handkerchief tightly clutched in her other hand. That fact somehow provoked a strange unpleasantness.

Even after looking like a completely soaked puppy, he had gone out of his way to give her a ride despite her stubbornness, yet of all places, she ran off right over there. A ferocious hollow laugh burst out. Even if she picked the wrong person to act obediently toward, she picked far too wrong.

∞ ∞ ∞

Chaeon, stepping foot into the main house for the first time, helplessly lost her mind to the things dazzling her gaze as she walked down the hallway following him. That place looked as if it were a scene that would appear in a classic movie.

Luxurious marble floors, a gorgeous chandelier hanging above an endlessly high ceiling, soft-colored hydrangeas decorating various parts of the spiral staircase railing, large well-trimmed wooden planters placed everywhere so it wouldn’t look empty…

On one wall of the living room, a large painting by an unknown painter was positioned, and over a large rug with an arabesque pattern, a fabric sofa that looked difficult to manage even at a glance and a long solid wood table of a deep color were situated. Looking mesmerized as numerous cushions embroidered with colorful individual embroideries were placed like decorations on the sofa, Yeonjun whispered in a voice laced with laughter.

“Mother likes traveling. Every time she goes abroad, it’s her hobby to make all different cushions like that with luxury fabrics bought from that country and decorate them.”

“Ah…”

Passing the living room, a long hallway continued. On the walls repeatedly engraved with unique geometric patterns, large windows were pierced at regular intervals, and silver candlesticks were decorated between window and window.

It was not a scenery that could be easily seen anywhere. To Chaeon, who lived in a narrow world thinking that wealth was just all about gauging by clothing or money, a space that felt this detached from reality was quite shocking. Saliva naturally went down with a gulp.

If there was one unique point, despite the mansion being that vast and luxurious, lights were turned on sparsely, relying mostly on natural light. The atmosphere like some European grand mansion was naturally beautiful, but on the other hand, it also gave the feeling of walking into a different era; due to the dim lighting, it was somehow mysterious yet a little eerie.

“Are the lights usually not turned on much like this?”

“Mm…”

Yeonjun smiled somewhat bitterly and whispered in a low voice.

“If it’s too bright…. There’s someone in the mansion who gets nervous breakdowns.”

“Ah.”

“A kind of implicit consideration.”

At his somewhat dark face, she couldn’t bring herself to ask who that was.

The hallway was long and long enough that they reached their destination only after sharing a few words of conversation. Yeonjun’s room was located at the end of the 1st-floor hallway of the main house, and the moment he opened the door and entered, Chaeon had to swallow her surprise once again at the area that was about three times larger than her room.

“Would you like to sit there for a moment?”

“Yes.”

Sitting somewhat awkwardly on the sofa, Chaeon slowly looked around the room while taking advantage of the gap when he stepped out for a moment.

The room, with a clear view of the rear garden through the full-length window, exuded a cozy atmosphere for some reason despite being that spacious, perhaps due to the tranquility offered by the greenery. On one wall of the room, sketch materials were densely posted. Human hands, muscle structures, torsos, heads, feet, skeletons…

It couldn’t be said to be completely neat, but it wasn’t messy either. As if preserving the room of an artist that would definitely appear in an art textbook as it was, it was a space with its own set of rules. Chaeon, carefully raising her body, walked in front of a display cabinet occupying one side of the room and examined its inside.

A gorgeous crystal paperweight in the shape of a sailing ship, small and elegant ceramics with sleekly stretched necks, tie pins engraved with luxury brand logos, expensive-looking watches lined up in a row on the bottom shelf… Because she couldn’t dare touch them, Chaeon carefully traced the top of the glass door with her fingertips.

Having been born in a place like this for a lifetime, he must have lived only in places like this. What kind of feeling is that? How much would those things cost again? She couldn’t even dare guess. Just entering inside this space made her heart throb.

A beautiful mansion, picture-like scenery, unceasing abundance. The young master of this house who enjoyed such things as if natural. What arrived right after envy was a strange sense of deprivation.

When she was looking around at the expensive-looking props in various parts of the room, Chaeon was startled by the faint sound of footsteps heard outside the door and sat back on the sofa pretending nothing was wrong.

Yeonjun was holding an ice pack and ointment in his hands. Naturally sitting beside Chaeon, he looked at her cheek while furrowing his eyes. When she was wearing an awkwardly stiff face in case she might get caught looking at the display cabinet without permission, unexpectedly, he asked an entirely unexpected question.

“Who did this.”