MOON Ch 13

Taeha simply smiled quietly once again. After all, it was only a little while ago that he had thought to himself that it was about time those words were spoken. The stages he had been stepping through one by one—marriage was perhaps an important part of those steps. Rather than romantic or outdated notions like love, it was merely one of the means to complete his foundation.

“Yes.”

“You rascal, you don’t even ask whose daughter she is.”

At his unhesitating response, Chairman Jang let out a hearty laugh, haha, and continuing to hold Taeha’s hand, began walking through the garden again.

“She is the daughter of Representative Ju of Wolsong. Their family has a tight grip on the food sector, and their personal network is just as solid, so when you move over to the department store in the future, it will be of great help to you.”

“I am sure you have carefully looked into what is best for me, Grandfather.”

“Acting all submissive.”

Although he replied with a smile, Chairman Jang also knew that Taeha acted that way only toward him. On the contrary, when it came to other matters, he was a grandson so thorough and meticulous that it sometimes felt eerie.

It had been exactly half a year since he gave him a position at one of the subsidiaries to gauge his abilities. As if he were someone who already knew everything he would hold in his hands in the future, Taeha quietly offered tips on improvement plans in between his work, even for the unsatisfactory results produced by his two incompetent sons. And more often than not, those tips showed a surprising rate of success.

If he were to give him wings in the future, just how far up would he soar? What he originally wanted to give Hayeon, he intended to place entirely into Taeha’s hands—for the sake of that child who must be unable to rest peacefully, holding a heart full of scars and constantly worrying about her son.

“I will have a drink with my meal and take a little nap. Lately, my knees just aren’t what they used to be.”

“No matter how energetic you are, you must be careful. I will escort you inside.”

“No, that’s fine. Go ahead, I’ll walk around a bit by myself before going in.”

Since his grandfather was someone who enjoyed contemplation, it probably meant he would sketch out a blueprint in his mind alone once more. Taeha quietly bowed his head and turned around first.

It felt as though the air surrounding Songbaekwon on all sides had grown slightly colder, just as his grandfather had said. As he slowly closed his eyes while walking, the scent of earth damp with the recent rain and the smell of grass, deepened like its color, felt even more vivid.

Crunch, crunch. Taking in the sound of the grass brushing past the tips of his shoes, Taeha kept walking as he was. Putting strength into his fingertips that swayed naturally with his steps, he gently clutched and unclasped his fists as he slowly opened his eyes again.

Now, not much was left.

‘Taeha. Woosung is also the place where my influence is felt the most. I hope that someday, you will be able to take everything that was built up like that.’

A voice that had been buried somewhere in his memory spoke inside his head.

I will do so. Gladly.

Returning a silent answer, he blended into the scenery of the mansion over which lush greenery poured.

∞ ∞ ∞

It was a weekend afternoon when the sun was relatively less scorching. Carrying neatly folded towels on an errand for Heejung, Chaeon was heading to the linen room in the main house when she paused briefly at the entrance of a long hallway. It was because her cheek felt stingy every now and then.

‘Yoon Chaeon. Why are your lips split?’

‘Huh?’

Miraculously, the medicine had worked well on her swollen cheek, which had subsided except for a bit of redness remaining like a flush. Though she was relieved by that, Chaeon, who had been momentarily flustered because she hadn’t thought of an excuse for her split lip, remembered that Heejung also used to get cold sores whenever she was tired.

‘Ah, I stayed up late studying… I guess I take after you, Mom.’

At those cheekily fabricated words, Heejung glared sideways and said that anyone listening would think she was first in her school. Then, with a face that looked thoroughly upset about the scratch on her daughter, she applied ointment onto Chaeon’s lips.

‘Don’t take after things like this. Being in pain, having a harsh fate—all the bad things your mom has.’

Yesterday night’s memory was of how her face, whispering quietly in a voice concealing her distress, looked uniquely sad, leading Chaeon to also whisper in a slightly choked voice, ‘Still, I like taking after you, Mom.’ Pausing in thought for a moment with her eyes cast down, Chaeon let out a short breath, phew, and shook her head.

Where was there time to be buried in gloomy thoughts? If her mother thought that way, all she had to do was make sure she didn’t live that kind of life. She needed to quickly focus on graduating, getting a job, and making money. It was right when Chaeon was about to take a brisk step forward.

“Wow…”

The moment she looked ahead, a small gasp unconsciously leaked out from between her lips.

Through every window set into one wall of the long hallway connecting the annex and the main house, sunlight was streaming in like curtains. Unlike the main house, whose wallpaper was a chaotic mess of grandeur, the hallway was dazzlingly bright all over thanks to the light reflecting off the stark white wall that bore no decorations whatsoever. That sight even looked sacred at a glance—just like a temple.

Chaeon admired the scenery absentmindedly for a moment before finally quickening her pace. Since anywhere she looked in this mansion was like a picture, she often ended up dazed like this.

The mock evaluation in early September was right around the corner. Having been called here and there and beaten up recently, she hadn’t been able to study properly, so rather than constantly looking elsewhere, she intended to quickly finish her task and go study.

Passing through the long-stretching hallway and finally stepping into the main house, for some reason, several people were gathered around something, whispering to one another. Just as Chaeon tilted her head and was about to walk over, someone brightly smiled and waved at that very moment.

“Oh? Chaeon!”

It was Yeonsoo, an employee working at Songbaekwon. Being exactly ten years older than Chaeon, she adored Chaeon quite a bit, saying she was just like her youngest sibling, and Chaeon, an only child who had never known the warmth of a sibling, naturally came to follow her well.

“Hello.”

After bowing politely to the servants working together at Songbaekwon, Chaeon stepped closer, and Yeonsoo busily pulled her even closer.

“Come over here. Didn’t you say you played the piano? Come take a look at the piano.”

“Uh…”

In truth, she did not bother to mention that playing the piano was not something she had dabbled in out of routine like others in her childhood or out of brief curiosity, but an instrument she had handled so closely that she even had going to college in mind. Perhaps because of that, the pulling hand felt a bit perplexing to Chaeon, as if assuming she would greatly like the instrument for which she now felt only love-hate.

However, despite that, Chaeon was simply rendered speechless by the grand and stylish appearance revealed before her eyes.

“This looks terrifyingly expensive even at a glance, but it turns out it really is expensive. How can a piano cost over 300 million won?”

It was a model Chaeon knew well. A familiar appearance she used to see whenever she participated in competitions. A grand piano from a famous manufacturer that anyone who plays the piano would dream of owning was proudly occupying the spot next to the stairs leading up to the second floor with a splendid gloss.

Although it was not as expensive a piano as that one, because it was the very first item disposed of after her family’s circumstances worsened, a poignant emotion welled up first upon seeing the piano.

It wasn’t here a while ago… Recalling that nothing was placed in this spot when she followed Yeonjun to his room a few days ago, Chaeon cast a blank gaze at the instrument, whereupon Yeonsoo leaned against Chaeon’s shoulder and let out a deep sigh.

“It’s really cool. Originally it was in the room of the late Ma’am, but the eldest young master had it re-tuned and fixed up nicely. The Vice Chairman wanted to throw it away, but it seems the eldest young master opposed it.”

“…”

Listening quietly to Yeonsoo’s words, Chaeon asked with a somewhat confused face:

“The… late Ma’am?”

Although she had not been able to see the face of the mistress—who was said to be on the frail side—even once after entering Songbaekwon, hearing those words all of a sudden regarding a perfectly living person was bewildering. Only then did Yeonsoo open her mouth small like someone who had realized something, gently pulling Chaeon along.

“Did you… by any chance not hear anything when you came here?”

“About what?”

“No, even if the kid is young, really. It seems they truly didn’t tell you anything…”

Biting her lip for a moment, Yeonsoo muttered to herself, Ah, whatever, and whispering while sticking right next to Chaeon:

“The eldest young master, that is, Young Master Taeha, and the second young master, Young Master Yeonjun, have different mothers. And fathers, too.”

“Ah.”

“The one who passed away refers to the eldest young master’s mother—that is, the first Ma’am.”

What on earth… Facing an unexpected secret like an ambush, Chaeon shut her mouth tight in fluster.

Although she had heard snippets through the blabbermouth tendencies of the big-mouthed Im Soyoung that there were various noisy troubles in chaebol families, she didn’t know that Jungwang, which looked completely like a perfect world both inside and out, had similar internal circumstances.

Glancing over Chaeon’s shoulder at the employees polishing the piano to a shine and looking with fiery eyes for any scratches, Yeonsoo whispered almost holding her breath:

“What comes next is also something I just happened to overhear, but anyway, you just quietly keep it to yourself, too.”

“No, I…”

“What if you accidentally make a slip of the tongue without knowing? In a house like this, a single slip of the tongue like that is huge.”

Although she wondered if she would ever dare talk carelessly about something like Jungwang’s family affairs, Chaeon quietly listened to Yeonsoo’s words. The only way to satisfy the unique vanity of those who liked to gossip was to quietly listen to their stories.

Looking around and pulling Chaeon a bit away from the employees, Yeonsoo whispered while holding her breath completely just like before:

“You see, before talk of an arranged marriage between families was going back and forth with the first Ma’am, the Vice Chairman was already hiding the second Ma’am and meeting her, it seems.”

“…Hiding her and meeting her?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? Because she had flaws. The second Ma’am was in a state where she had been divorced twice already. Through her own fault. She even had a history of men.”