MOON Ch 23

However, even that lasted only a split second; as if nothing had happened, his face returned to its usual calm state.

“Yes. Though Munjeong is a good place to live, most of the available jobs are over toward Seoul, after all. Honestly, this is a wealthy neighborhood where people with the means to comfortably commute to and from Seoul live.”

“…”

“Mom still wants to work for now, so it can’t be helped, but once she works a reasonable amount and a successor is hired, I plan to take her and leave.”

“…Ah.”

This time, his face was definitely turning cold and pale.

“Do you really have to do that?”

“Pardon?”

“I just mean, if you can stay here for a long time, isn’t it better to stay long? You have a place to live, too.”

At the unexpected question, Chaeon, at a loss for words for a moment, unintentionally avoided his persistent gaze and replied:

“Because we can’t stay here forever. Mom is getting older, and her knees aren’t very good either…”

“That’s all the more reason to stay here.”

Her words were cut off mid-sentence. Since knowing Yeonjun, it was the first time he had ever spoken in such a firm tone with such a cold face. Fearing she might have made a slip of the tongue, Chaeon studied his expression, whereupon Yeonjun quickly wore a faint smile again and continued speaking.

“So what I mean is… Chaeon, you said you even quit playing the piano when your circumstances became difficult, right? Just for that alone, she would feel sorry for the rest of her life. Even now, Ms. An is working hard to somehow send you to college.”

“That is…”

“She is a person like that, so if you start working right after entering college and try to act as the breadwinner in place of Ms. An, how sorry would she feel again?”

“…”

“Unconditionally letting her rest comfortably isn’t the only way to fulfill filial duty, Chaeon.”

Was it just her imagination? Though it was a gentle tone as if admonishing her, at the end, it seemed faintly tinged with irritation as well. As Chaeon listened to his words, feeling a bit intimidated, Yeonjun smiled again.

“So, first talk a bit more with Mrs. Kwon. In Seoul, saving money spent on house rent is also significant. If possible, it’s good to stay here for a long time, isn’t it?”

“Yes…”

“I’d also like it if you stayed here for a long time.”

Whispering sweetly, Yeonjun smiled so that the corners of his eyes rounded out. As if that cool tone from a moment ago had never existed. Only then did Chaeon, loosening her tension a bit, smile back with a relieved face.

“First of all, I’ll have to take the CSAT well before thinking about anything, though.”

“Yeah. You’ll do well. You’re smart, after all.”

“I’m not particularly…”

“So, I hope you think carefully about staying here, too. Smartly.”

“…”

Whispering in a gentle tone, he reached out his hand and gently patted Chaeon’s hair as if she were utterly cute. It was clearly a warmly smiling face just like usual, but somehow she felt like he was strangely like a stranger, so Chaeon changed the subject to break the uncomfortable air.

“Ah. Right.”

“Yeah?”

“The book I left off reading here last time, could I perhaps read it? There’s exactly half left, but I was so curious…”

“You were curious about that?”

“Yes.”

At his warmly smiling face, Chaeon blushed a little. She didn’t bother to mention that she was so curious she even dreamed about it.

“Finish reading it all today before you go.”

Yeonjun found the one Chaeon was reading among the books piled up on the sofa table and handed it over.

“All of it? May I really?”

“Of course.”

Any sign of that feeling of incongruity was gone without a trace. Looking at Yeonjun smiling prettily again as usual, Chaeon felt relieved.

Jang Taeha. It was probably just an unnecessary anxiety brought on by a heart that always stood sharply on edge whenever she ran into him. Thinking so, she took her seat and opened the page where she had placed the ribbon bookmark.

“…”

Sipping his lukewarmly cooled coffee, Yeonjun quietly stared at Chaeon’s side profile as she turned the pages of the book. Her face, immersed as if she would be sucked into the book right this instant, was endlessly serious.

Her eyelids lowered to read the book, her mouth movements gradually slowing down their chewing, her fingers turning the pages. White, slender, delicate, sorrowful. A unique aura that somehow incited a person’s protective instinct.

Ever since he first saw her, Chaeon possessed an appearance that consistently inspired a certain inspiration in him. Though she seemed like a girl who uniquely had no contact with others, he was certain that anyone who was interested in art and had an eye for beautiful things—not just him—would feel the impulse to keep looking into this girl.

That was why he coveted her like a person with an obsessive-compulsive disorder for collecting pretty things, and thought he wanted to keep her by his side for a long time… yet she spoke of a resolution to leave this place someday as if it were nothing. There was no way that could be welcome.

Yeonjun’s eyes, scanning Chaeon slowly without a word, gradually cooled down coldly.

∞ ∞ ∞

Thump.

As soon as she perceived that she had heard some sound, Chaeon’s closed eyes twitched. Managing to push up her heavy eyelids and opening her eyes halfway, what was visible right in front of her nose was merely a white wall. Chaeon, startled, abruptly sat up from the desk she had been slumping over.

“Ah…”

She had opened her books late at night to study English vocabulary and grammar a bit more, but it seemed she had unknowingly dozed off at her desk.

Wiping her dry face, Chaeon checked the time on her phone placed beside her. 3:00 AM. It would have been better if she had just slept straight through without waking up. As she stood up while massaging her stiff shoulders and neck, a thirst so severe that her throat felt parched welled up.

Leaving her room, the dim hallway where only faint wall lights were turned on here and there was a complete contrast to the daytime when sunlight entered well and everywhere was dazzling. It was a scenery like a grand mansion where ghosts appear in some horror novel. In the quiet and desolate hallway, only the sound of Chaeon’s clothes and slippers brushing against each other could be heard.

It was just when Chaeon, having arrived at the staff quarters dining room, was quenching her throat with a glass of water.

“Huu, uu…”

At a strange sound that seemed to come from somewhere far off in the hallway outside the dining room, Chaeon froze in the very pose of putting down the rinsed water cup. A sound that sounded like someone’s sobbing, or perhaps a murmur. Whatever it was, it was the kind of thing that had no reason to be heard in a dark hallway past 3:00 AM.

Listening closely to the sound while breath-held as if frozen stiff, the sound that had been heard intermittently stopped dead. Rather, that sudden silence made Chaeon hesitate to step outside. To go back, she had to pass in front of that hallway…

The saliva passing down her throat felt rough, as if it were grains of sand. Taking a deep breath, Chaeon, with her face acutely on guard, surveyed her surroundings and slowly moved her steps. It was a path she had walked without much thought a moment ago, but why did it look so dark when trying to return? She felt as though she were voluntarily being swallowed up by the darkness.

As if to make her absurd delusion of whether something might suddenly pop out look foolish, fortunately, the thing she worried about did not happen. Relieved, just as Chaeon turned the corner after passing the long hallway:

“Gasp!”

Chaeon barely managed to swallow a scream that almost escaped due to someone she ran into suddenly. Perhaps the expression that one was frightened out of their wits was a phrase created by someone who experienced a situation like this right now. It felt as though her heart had dropped all the way down and come back up.

A woman with long hair messily disheveled and wearing a white one-piece dress was standing tall in the middle of the hallway, looking out the window. Her pale skin reflected in the moonlight seemed to have lost its color completely. Chaeon, who was about to step backward while rubbing goosebumps that rose all the way to the back of her neck, only then recognized who that somewhat familiar face was.

“Ma’am…”

It was that woman who, not long ago, had slapped Chaeon as she was playing the piano, with eyes completely out of focus as if intoxicated by something. Son Jua.

‘Ma’am’s sleepwalking is a bit severe, you see.’

Recalling the warning that Director Kim had softly delivered on the day she first came to Songbaekwon over that memory, Chaeon patted her chest and quietly watched her behavior. Son Jua, looking as if she would be blown away at any moment if a wind blew, was barefoot without wearing anything. Perhaps the tie originally tethering her somewhere had come undone, for a long white cord hanging down all the way to her feet was tied around her wrist.

Was it okay to leave her roaming around so defenselessly like that? Perhaps due to the memory of being slapped without even knowing the reason back then, she naturally grew cautious that the face, which looked completely devoid of expression or vitality, might suddenly turn aggressive at any moment. And, as if reading that very thought, Son Jua turned her head just in time.

“…”

They were eyes that seemed completely and utterly empty.