MOON Ch 31

Speechless, Yeonso stared at Chaeon, gaping like someone who had lost her ability to speak. Knowing that what she had done was shameful, she seemed partially aware of it, as her face flushed red and pale in a rather spectacular sight to behold.

“You usually say things like that without much thought, unnie. The people listening probably took it without much thought, too.”

“Hey, you, your mouth— What? Without thought?”

“So if talking like that helps relieve your stress even a little bit, keep doing it in the future. I really don’t care.”

“Hey.”

“You keep babbling lightly as you always do, unnie, and the listeners will just let it slide lightly without much thought. It’s no different from talking to thin air anyway, so what does it matter?”

“What? Hey. Yoon Chaeon.”

“But, I think it would be better if you were careful when it comes to the young masters’ stories. If someone holds it in and holds it in and then lets a word slip, I’m just the person who got cursed at, but you could get fired, unnie.”

Looking straight into her eyes, Chaeon spoke clearly and articulately, neither particularly excited nor showing any sign of displeasure. On the other hand, Yeonso, who seemed to have forgotten all the chatter she had been engaging in about Chaeon just a moment ago and was trembling her lips as if she had suffered a huge insult, was simply comical to Chaeon.

When talking about others, she was thrilled to blabber on, but if she was going to tremble like that just because someone pointed out things as they were, why do something she couldn’t handle?

Yeonso seemed to have no argument against the words Chaeon had thrown at her, standing upright, unable to do one thing or another. Chaeon, who was looking at her as if looking at someone somewhat pathetic, immediately turned around.

“Ha. Seriously, that young thing has no manners…”

The sound of blabbering behind her back was faint, just like noise. A single person talking nonsense as she pleased was merely a thread-like presence to Chaeon. What was confusing Chaeon’s head right now, more than anything else, was…

‘The chairman’s son personally called the school. He said it seems like something happened with you, Chaeon, so please pay a little attention to it.’

Jang Taeha, why did that man make such a call?

Hearing what the people at Songbaekwon said behind his back, he was the type who disliked even small flaws or mistakes, so only veteran, seasoned servants could enter his room.

So… perhaps, contacting the school was also his temperament of not being able to stand seeing a flaw in something that belonged to his house. Even as she degraded her own situation to that of an object, a strange trembling didn’t easily fade. Just the fact that she was in his mind, even if only a little bit, felt like an immensely strange thing.

Standing in front of Yeonjun’s room door, Chaeon hesitated for a moment. If so, why did Yeonjun leave it as it was without correcting it when she was misunderstanding?

Comically, what Chaeon briefly remembered in this situation was the canned coffee a boy at school had given her during the day. Lies told casually to win favor. Kindness bestowed even while taking on trouble… Somehow, it became strangely uncomfortable to look at him.

After hesitating for a moment, Chaeon eventually turned around without knocking on Yeonjun’s room door, just as she reached the end of the hallway.

“Huh? Isn’t that Chaeon?”

“Mr. Director Kim.”

Director Kim, who was walking over with a few pieces of dry firewood tucked under one arm, greeted her warmly. Glancing over Chaeon’s shoulder, he narrowed his eyes playfully and smiled.

“Did you come to learn how to study from the young master?”

“No, well… just for a second…. More importantly, what is with the firewood?”

“Ah, this. Songbaekwon is surrounded by mountains and forests, so the cold comes a bit earlier than in other places. I have to start checking the fireplaces in the reception room and living room. I brought them to try lighting a fire in advance.”

“You go through a lot of trouble every time.”

“It’s nothing. Thinking that this is all work that only I can do, as I do it, this work is just fun, too.”

Looking at his warm, smiling face, she recalled the voice from earlier that had tried to shield her and say only good things all along, feeling somewhat affectionate. Almost similar in age to Uicheol, if she had a person like Director Kim as a dad, would her teenage years have been a little less dry? She had such thoughts.

“…”

Director Kim, who was closely observing the large clothes Chaeon held in her arms, asked gently.

“Well, is there anything I can help you with by any chance? You look like you have a lot on your mind.”

“Did it show?”

Chaeon smiled a bit sheepishly, looked down at the clothes in her arms, and carefully handed them to Director Kim.

“Um, then… Director, could you perhaps deliver these clothes to the second young master?”

“Why wouldn’t I be able to?”

Manager Kim didn’t ask further about why Chaeon, who was merely the daughter of a servant at the mansion, had the second young master’s clothes. Rather, he only guessed that there must be some reason why she couldn’t deliver them herself and turned back even though the young master’s room was just a few steps away, only feeling concerned internally whether this child also knew what people like Yeonso were babbling about.

“Then, excuse me.”

“Ah, ah, right…”

Handing Yeonjun’s clothes to Director Kim, Chaeon bowed her head deeply and passed right by him. Somehow her footsteps felt heavy, but right now, she wanted to soothe her complicated head first.

∞ ∞ ∞

In Songbaekwon, where the setting of the sun felt uniquely fast, it was always darker than other places from early evening. By the time Chaeon pushed away the thoughts that kept overflowing and managed to finish solving all the past exam questions, headlight beams shone through the slightly opened window gap, and the sound of his car arriving could be heard.

A quiet evening time. That sound struck her ears with particular clarity. Even though it was a sound she was used to hearing, today her heart seemed to race extra fast, so pressing on her chest for no reason, Chaeon carefully opened the window to look below.

Nodding lightly to the driver who bowed to him, he gradually came closer. Impeccable and handsome as always, but his aura felt strangely sharp. The way he lightly narrowed his brow and rubbed his eyes made him look fatigued at a glance. Was he still unable to sleep well, just as before?

Once he disappeared from her sight, Chaeon hesitated for a moment before leaving her room. Walking down the long hallway into the main building, it felt uniquely quiet and desolate, perhaps because it was late evening when all the servants had returned to the staff dormitory. Standing in front of Taeha’s door, hesitating a little, Chaeon took a deep breath and knocked on the door. From the other side, a voice she hadn’t heard in quite a while came out.

“Come in.”

When she opened the door and entered, he was sitting on the sofa about to light a cigarette. Seeing Chaeon, he placed the lighter he had just pulled out from inside his suit jacket straight onto the table.

“…”

“Hello.”

Leaving the cigarette he had held in his mouth resting as it was on the ashtray, he twitched an eyebrow.

“Why.”

“That is…”

He was still wearing a suit without a single speck of dust, but seeing a couple of unbuttoned shirt buttons and a tie loosely draped over the back of the sofa, it seemed he was about to change his clothes. She came to ask about the truth and express her gratitude, but the words wouldn’t come out now that she was here.

“Speak.”

Instead of smoking, he poured the whiskey sitting on the table and lightly moistened his lips. Taking a deep breath as if she had made up her mind, Chaeon stepped closer to the side of the sofa where he sat.

From him… whenever she approached within this distance, a scent so dense and alluring drifted that it made her heart flutter every time. Feeling her heart thumping a bit at the scent filling her lungs, Chaeon carefully broke the ice.

“I heard… you made a call to the school.”

Clink. Setting the glass lightly on the table, he asked in a low voice.

“Did some problem come up?”

“No, just…”

“Just.”

“I wanted to say thank you.”

Even after saying it herself, it felt like an extraordinarily stiff greeting, making her feel a bit embarrassed. However, without saying much else, he watched Chaeon for a moment and then nodded his head.

“Okay.”

It felt a bit deflating at his dry answer, but he was a person who didn’t say much in the first place. Rubbing his eyes slowly as if fatigued, he gestured lightly toward the door with his head.

“You may go.”

Bowing her head to leave, she happened to turn her head slightly, and she saw him picking up something that looked like medicine from the nightstand beside the bed, swallowing it down quickly with water. After deliberating for a moment, Chaeon turned back toward him again.

“You know.”

Having just taken off his vest, he looked back at Chaeon with an expression asking what else she was trying to say.

“Do you, by any chance, still have trouble sleeping these days?”

“Why ask that.”

“Um…”

Gauging his reaction for a moment, Chaeon blurted out impetuously without realizing it. It was a single phrase she had wanted to ask all along, yet held back, held back, held back, and held back again.

“May I play the piano for you?”