MOON Ch 19

Rustle.

White, long fingers turned the page.

The most important method among ways to move someone’s heart is, first of all, to make that person need me.

Yeonjun, lying stretched out on the sofa with a book in hand, diligently rolled his eyes as he read through the text. It was not a particularly bright room, but it was not too much for reading. As if to render the small chandelier on the delicately crafted ceiling colorless, the room relied only on the sunlight coming through the window.

Yeonjun’s room was generally like that. During the day, sunlight poured into the well-lit room all day, so he did not turn on lights otherwise, and even then, he disliked excessive brightness, so he kept thick curtains drawn over every window except for one large picture window. As if completely concealing himself from the outside world.

Soft sunlight also settled on the white shirt with loosely undone buttons. Had the direction of the sun already changed this much? When he turned his eyes to the clock on the wall, it was already early evening.

Only in the early dawn-like morning did all the family members of Songbaekwon move busily. Because each of them had a role assigned to them. But Yeonjun was always the exception.

Unlike the Joongwang people who were all born with plausible talents for handling money, the only talent the outsider Yeonjun possessed was the artistic talent inherited from his biological father whose name he did not even know. To Chairman Jang, who found it distasteful even to take in Yeonjun, who did not share a single drop of blood, as a household member, that could not have looked good.

‘Be grateful just to be allowed to set foot in this house.’

Songbaekwon, which he entered around the age of ten holding his mother’s hand, was a beautiful prison then and now. Chairman Jang made it possible to enjoy anything he wanted within it, but that was half like being told to live as if dead. In exchange, Yeonjun and his mother were bound hand and foot.

After that, for over ten years, it was a succession of tedious days. Before becoming an adult, unless there was a special instruction from Chairman Jang, he could not even go out freely except when going to school. The servants of the mansion politely ran whatever errands Yeonjun and his mother wanted, but they were never kind.

The only person who was at least warm to the mother and son…

Yeonjun, who had been looking up at the unlit chandelier hanging from the ceiling, slowly closed his eyes.

‘The child has no fault. If you, a grown adult, emotionally mistreat a child who knows nothing, that is simply abuse.’

The hand that gently wrapped around his shoulders when he was always alone, the beautiful face that smiled more tenderly than his mother, the good fragrance, the piano melodies that always came from her room.

But even that person was no longer in this mansion.

The day she died. The memory of that terrible day permanently damaged something in Yeonjun’s emotional circuitry. And his mother’s mind as well. A terrible secret that no one knew, that only the mother and son knew… The guilt that lay at the foundation gnawed at the two of them.

Yeonjun is a child I cherished like a son as much as Taeha.

Please, even if only for my sake, do not cast out that child and his mother.

Nevertheless, the will of that woman, who worried about Yeonjun to the very end, ultimately became a shackle for Chairman Jang. Just as that woman cherished Yeonjun, he too cherished her like a daughter. Chairman Jang simply kept Yeonjun and his mother at Songbaekwon, like objects that were troublesome to deal with but must not be carelessly discarded anywhere.

Neither he nor his mother could go anywhere else, broken in some way unlike ordinary people, so they complied with staying here. Someday, whenever it might be, his use would be decided by Chairman Jang.

As always, opening his eyes languidly as soon as the sun rose, showering, and then what Yeonjun did was fill in what he had lost. Because the broken ’emotions’ could only be filled through learning.

It was not that he could not read all emotions, but sometimes he could not understand the moments when a person needed to disguise themselves to win favor, the moments when sympathy was needed, or things like how to naturally win favor.

『How to Grasp People’s Emotions,』 『The Hundreds of Meanings Contained in a Smiling Face,』 『How to Live Mixed Among People』…. Books with such titles were piled disorderly like a tower on the floor beside the sofa.

In order to know what emotions that person feels toward me, I must grasp the behavioral language revealed when conversing. For instance, the meaning contained in the gaze directed at me, or the direction in which the body leans.

Yeonjun’s gaze, reading through the passage in the book, narrowed slightly there. Behavioral language. The meaning contained in the gaze directed at me. Yeonjun, who had left the book open and briefly laid it on his chest, recalled one face that had been sporadically invading his daily life lately.

That kid appeared before his eyes one day, like a sudden downpour pouring over his head.

It was a certain midday when, as usual, he had woken late, showered, brewed coffee, and was sitting by the window sketching the scenery of the rear garden with a serene hand.

It was when he was adjusting the pressure of his strokes, adding light and shadow, and translating the densely packed greenery on all sides into black and white.

“…”

Yeonjun, who had unconsciously raised his head to take in the scenery again, narrowed his eyes. It was because of a shadow that suddenly appeared as if invading that scenery.

…Did an outsider take a wrong path.

No, that could not be. Nowhere in this area was there a place as heavily guarded as Songbaekwon. If it had been an outsider of unknown identity, they would have been blocked from the main gate far below where the car came up.

Then, was it a guest who had come to the mansion. Even so, a stranger appearing in the rear garden was something Yeonjun was experiencing for the first time since living here.

He watched her quietly with his hand stopped. She was, to use a worn-out expression, so pretty that one could not take one’s eyes off her, but her extremely pale, clear face held a particularly strange atmosphere. Enough to make him think he wanted to capture that appearance somewhere without losing it.

When she slightly smiled as she looked up at the statue of the Virgin Mary he had made, Yeonjun moved his hand diligently so as not to miss it. Into the scenery that had held only dense green forest, one slender girl was drawn over it.

After that, while Chaeon came in and out of the rear garden several times, he observed the unfamiliar figure through a single window for a while. In several drawings, Chaeon appeared differently each time. Some days she sat on a bench in the rear garden reading a book, and some days she was hanging laundry.

But no matter when or in what appearance he drew her, it was not as good as seeing her with his own eyes. The habit of slowly blinking her moist eyes, the movements that seemed to flutter because of her slender limbs. Such things could not be captured on canvas.

And finally, the day the two first met.

‘Hello.’

His heart pounded with a strange tremor. He could recognize it at a glance. Eyes so thoroughly marked by deprivation. A face that looked clean as if untouched by worldly grime, yet so sorrowful and emotionless it seemed she had already given up entirely after going through too much.

‘Were you crying? Or were you about to.’

‘No. It’s not that…’

The delicate is beautiful because it is easily damaged. To describe Chaeon, whom he had finally met up close, in a single word, that was it. It was the atmosphere he had been searching for, the atmosphere he wanted to draw.

I want to draw her.

At the same time, desire suddenly surged. It was an emotion he had never once felt since entering Songbaekwon. The emotion felt upon meeting a muse who inspires—he finally came to know it as well. For one who keeps art close, aesthetic appreciation was indispensable, and as a natural course, he was instantly captivated by Chaeon.

But the wall surrounding Chaeon and her wariness toward others were quite solid than expected. She had deliberately avoided him all along as if determined not to run into him as much as possible, and she did not even want to properly meet his eyes.

Watching that, he naturally realized. If he did not somehow break that down, that kid would never open her heart or give him a glance to the very end. She intended to keep her distance, let time pass, and leave whenever she wanted.

An urgency he had never felt before made his heart pound.

…One may also feel a strong sense of connection to a partner with whom one has shared a vulnerable part. Even more so if that partner was by one’s side giving strength to overcome hardships and trials. In the countless media mixes dealing with love, the reason creators give trials to the male and female leads is also…

But the moment a passage he had once read in a book brushed through his mind, everything was organized all too easily.

So the method he chose was…

Knock knock. A small knock pierced through the thoughts that were about to continue.

Yeonjun slowly opened his eyes.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Chaeon.”

The door opened, and Yeonjun, dressed notably loosely, greeted her. His slightly disheveled hair made his already languid and somehow always dreamily sunken atmosphere even more peculiar.

“Hello.”

When Chaeon gave a bow, Yeonjun leaned against the doorway and stepped aside. As she entered the room with a slightly awkward bow of her head, it seemed he had been reading, because several books were piled haphazardly beside the sofa and on the sofa table.

Emotions, psychology, smiles, speech…. The words visible in the titles had an obvious commonality at a glance. Did he have a lot of interest in things like psychology? Chaeon’s gaze suddenly stopped on one of them.

“How to Converse Tenderly…”

When she unconsciously read the title in a small voice, Yeonjun came over and picked up the book.

“Want to read it? Curious?”

“No. It’s not that I want to read it…”

“Yes?”

“I just don’t think you need to read books that teach you things like that.”

At those words, Yeonjun smiled with a subtle expression and placed the book back on the table.

“Can I interpret that as meaning I’m tender to you?”

As Chaeon nodded slightly as if a little embarrassed, Yeonjun’s gaze, which had been looking at her, briefly clouded with pity. It was because he noticed the traces of the slap and fingernail marks still slightly remaining on her cheek.

“I’m sorry, about your mother…”

“Ah, um. It’s okay…”

His delicate, long fingers gently stroked Chaeon’s injured cheek. At the tender touch that seemed so natural, it felt as if her heart was sinking again. Gazing at Chaeon’s cheek with a sorrowful look, Yeonjun whispered.

“Your mother, she hasn’t been able to sleep well for a long time.”

On the first day she came to this mansion, she had learned through Chief Kim’s warning that her mother had sleepwalking, so Chaeon quietly listened to the words that followed.

“She often suffers from anxiety too. She has a bit of an illness of the mind.”