MOON Ch 37

A few snowflakes that were slowly falling gradually increased in number, and before long, it began to snow quite heavily. In the midst of the white falling snow, he, clad entirely in pitch black, looked remarkably distinct.

“Why, how…”

She wanted to ask how he was here, but of all things, her voice trembled. Was it that her tension dissolved at the sight of a familiar face before her eyes? The moment she looked at him, tears gathered like a lie, forcing Chaeon to bite her lip tightly.

“How did you know?”

“I was passing by, and I happened to see a familiar face in an unfamiliar place.”

“You could have… just gone, why…”

Without a word, he stepped a bit closer to Chaeon, reached out one hand, and grasped Chaeon’s cheek, which had been hidden inside her muffler.

“You don’t look like you’re in a condition where I can just go.”

At the cold hand, Chaeon flinched for a moment, but that hand was so cool and she had no strength to push it away, so she entrusted her face to him as it was. Chaeon’s face was almost buried inside his large hand.

“It feels cool…”

As Chaeon looked up at Taeha while rubbing her face against his large hand as if acting spoiled, he narrowed his brow slightly.

“Why are you running such a fever?”

“I… am sick.”

Perhaps because her stuffed nose was not yet cleared, a groggy sound came out. She didn’t know why such a sound had blurted out, but she just wanted to vent to anyone.

“I ruined my exam, too.”

“…”

“Nothing goes the way I want…”

She tried to hold it back… but this time, the tears that had been brimming over flowed down her cheeks in streaks. Taeha, who slowly scanned Chaeon’s flushed face and eye rims, slowly rubbed her soaked cheek with his thumb.

Wiping away her tears, he withdrew his hand and slightly tilted the large umbrella toward the direction where Chaeon was sitting.

“Get up.”

His low voice felt as though it echoed all the way to her chest. When Chaeon shook her head, he spoke once more.

“Get up.”

“…”

“Or… do I have to make you get up?”

“…”

“Go home.”

Gazing up blankly at Taeha, Chaeon helplessly lifted her body, which was heavy like water-soaked cotton. Following his lead, she moved her steps toward the parked black sedan. With every step she took, her head buzzed.

Wheezing, as she was about to open the rear door, he naturally opened the passenger door first. Seeing that the driver’s seat was empty, it seemed he had driven today himself.

Once Chaeon got into the car, he closed the door for her, walked around to the front, and got into the driver’s seat. The moment his body leaned toward Chaeon, a dense fragrance and warmth drew abruptly close. He had probably intended to fasten her seatbelt.

“…”

If he reached out his arm, he would inevitably be close enough to embrace Chaeon. Even in her dazed state, she became so conscious of it that Chaeon unconsciously held the breath she was exhaling.

Firmly clenching his teeth for a moment until his jaw muscles bulged, he pulled his body back again and spat out in a low voice.

“Seatbelt.”

“…Yes.”

Replying in a voice as small as an ant, only then did Chaeon fasten the belt with trembling hands. The passenger seat quickly grew warm, and warm air came out from beneath her legs as well, as if he had turned on the heater. In the midst of the chills rushing in, she felt like she would melt away into the temperature warming her entire body.

Almost buried in the seat while sniffling her nose, Chaeon looked back at the driver’s seat. To think she was riding in a car driven by this man. She even wondered if she was briefly dreaming because she was sick, but throbbing pain arose in places as if reminding her every moment that this was reality.

For a long while, neither he nor Chaeon said a word, so the inside of the car was simply quiet. Chaeon stared spellbound at the prominent veins on his hand as he deftly turned the steering wheel. Even though his environment since childhood must have been one where there was no need to do harsh work, surprisingly, there were reddish, rough scars here and there on his long, sleek fingers.

She recalled having heard in passing that the hobby of this man, who seemed like he would be static and ascetic, was combat sports. For a person who looked this calm to do such violent exercise… Somehow, it wasn’t easily imagined. Things like sweating and catching his breath while running hot…

“Since when have you been sick?”

Startled by the low voice that broke the silence abruptly, Chaeon let out a small cough. Since when was it again? She couldn’t remember the exact date. Only…

“Since the day guests came to the house.”

That much she remembered clearly. Because from that day on, her inside kept throbbing, the pit of her stomach felt heavy, and then the fever broke out. Smoothly moving the steering wheel with one hand, he asked.

“The day Harin came?”

Harin. It was a rather friendly name. Unconsciously, Chaeon tightly clutched both hands placed on her knees.

“Yes.”

“Did you catch it?”

Muttering like a monologue, he made a left turn into a familiar driveway and spat out casually.

“I was the one attached to her all day, so why would you catch it?”

“…”

It seemed that woman had caught a cold. At the somewhat strange nuance, Chaeon turned her head away from him, let out a small cough, and shot back sharply.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because my fate is miserable.”

At her lukewarm response, he leaned his chin obliquely on one hand and turned back to look at Chaeon.

As the fever ran, her head ached, breathing was arduous, and while her entire body throbbed, her inside kept aching without knowing the reason just like before. Since her body had no leeway, her heart seemed to be like that as well, so bold talk blurted out smoothly without fear.

I don’t know. In the midst of a headache and ruining the exam, could such a thing as politeness matter right now? At Chaeon’s unfamiliar attitude, Taeha let out a light, dry laugh as if he had seen something quite amusing.

“You said so yourself to me. That I was miserable.”

It meant that because you threw that out casually, those words kept weighing on her mind until now. Chaeon merely glared out the blameless window where fine snowflakes like clumped cotton were fluttering.

“Yoon Chaeon.”

“…”

“Have you decided to stop putting on an act now?”

“An act?”

“You know. What you’re good at.”

“What is…”

“Pretending not to mind even if you feel bad, pretending not to know while knowing.”

“…”

“You surely didn’t think I wouldn’t know.”

Ha. An exasperated laugh leaked out from Chaeon.

“Then, what was I supposed to do?”

“What?”

“Should I express all the annoyance and anger just as it is when you pick on me, young master? For you to see?”

Just as he said, pretending it wasn’t so, pretending not to know as usual. It was something that could be done like that, but somehow thorn-studded words shot out. Looking at Chaeon’s face grimaced in displeasure, Taeha unexpectedly snickered and moved the steering wheel.

“Express it.”

The moment Chaeon turned back in flustered surprise without realizing it, the car entered a metasequoia tree-lined avenue stretching long like the giant pillars of a temple on both sides of the broad road. The mansion was right in front. A few workers who were clearing thin layers of snow and fallen leaves offered a bow to him sitting in the driver’s seat. Tipping his head lightly to them, Taeha said in an ordinary tone.

“It looks much better now than disguising yourself by pretending not to be.”

The moment she felt that tone was somehow a bit cool, the car that had passed through the main gate pulled up to a stop in front of the mansion.

“Whether it’s a lie or deception… I hate that so much that…”

“…”

“Sometimes I even want to kill it.”

With what in mind did he say those words? Instinctively, Chaeon felt the fact that at least the last words were not directed at her. That emotion was probably buried very deep inside and then erupted fitfully…

A couple of servants came out to greet Taeha, then stopped in flustered surprise upon seeing Chaeon sitting in the passenger seat.

A suffocating silence flowed inside the car. On his face, sculpted to the point of feeling unrealistic at times, there was no warmth whatsoever. Was it because she heard his bloodcurdling tone? Chaeon’s chest throbbed fiercely with tension.

It felt like her pulse was beating inside her ears due to the fever, and now that sound was thumping at a level as if someone were beating a drum against her earholes.

Closing her trembling lips tightly, Chaeon avoided his gaze and unfastened her seatbelt. Without any separate words of greeting, she bowed her head deeply and stepped down from the passenger seat, whereupon in an instant her vision flared white, and she collapsed onto the ground without realizing it.

“Oh dear. What’s wrong with this child? Chaeon!”

Flustered, Gunsan-daek ran over and raised her up, and following that, Taeha, who stepped out of the car, clicked his tongue low and handed the key to Director Kim who was standing beside him.

“Director Kim, please park as you usually do.”

“Ah, yes.”

Gunsan-daek barely caught in her blurry vision Director Kim, who received the car key from Taeha, moving away with quick steps. Her head was too hot, and the breath she inhaled and exhaled through her nose was stinging, making even her throat throb.

“Ma’am, please contact Professor Shin.”

“Oh my, right now?”

Loosening the tie that was choking his neck, Taeha stared intently at Gunsan-daek.

“If there’s a sick person right now, we should call him right now.”

At his overbearing tone as if asking why she was re-asking something obvious, only then did Gunsan-daek shut her mouth with a gasp and bow her head. Supporting Chaeon and turning around, she soon whispered softly.

“You, really! Hey. Why is a child who came back after taking the CSAT today in this state? Your mom was so worried because you weren’t answering your phone.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Aiya, it’s fine. It’s enough that you returned home safely. Your body is a complete ball of fire.”

“…”

Walking while almost embraced in Gunsan-daek’s arms, Chaeon turned her head to look back. However, as if the attention he would spare ended right there, he had already turned his body and was receding far away.

Glancing at Taeha’s back along Chaeon’s gaze, Gunsan-daek lowered her voice to the utmost as if cautious lest someone hear, and asked.

“By the way, how did you come riding the young master’s car?”

Reading the expectation harbored in those eyes, Chaeon smiled with a bitter face.

“I got off one stop past the bus stop. I sat there to rest for a bit because I wasn’t feeling well, and he must have seen me while passing by.”

“…So you came riding it?”

“Yes.”

“The eldest young master isn’t the type of person to pay attention just because someone is doing that…”

The reason everyone inside Songbaekwon found Taeha difficult was that even though he seemed to maintain dignity and politeness equally to everyone, there was a distinct line he had drawn. Even if he seemed to be a supremely gentle master, he was a person with a clearer consciousness of hierarchy and the master-servant relationship than anyone living in this mansion.

Yet, that he went out of his way to put a servant of the mansion in the passenger seat and bring her here? Even if she sat past ten bus stops, even if he saw her, he would have ignored her and passed by if anything…

Looking at Chaeon’s cheeks, which were red from the fever, with a meaningful gaze, Gunsan-daek soon shook her head as if to shake off stray thoughts. What was she thinking while holding a sick child? Even more so, this child was a young girl who hadn’t even graduated high school yet.

No matter how much the eldest young master was a man in his prime, there was no way. Even if Chaeon had a remarkably pretty face, he was a person with superior tact than anyone, so he wouldn’t be in such short supply of women that he would have to play around with a mere young girl.

Having reached her own conclusion as she pleased, Gunsan-daek soon clicked her tongue briefly as if feeling sorry for Chaeon, who was taking steps while panting from the fever.