SATURDAY 47

Lee Taeseon lightly clenched his fist. Jang Sehyeon continued to babble.

“To disappoint the whole family who thinks it’s a relief that Inha is alive and that the one who died wasn’t Inha…. Fingerprint analysis? Revealing that he is Yoon Inyoung? Do you really think Inyoung is capable of doing that?”

Uncontrollable rage welled up at that smirking face. Lee Taeseon sprang up, reached out, and grabbed Jang Sehyeon by the collar. He dragged him past the table and struck him hard in the abdomen with his clenched fist. With a dull thud, Jang Sehyeon staggered and immediately began to retch.

It didn’t end there. When he let go of the collar, Jang Sehyeon collapsed helplessly while clutching his stomach, and Lee Taeseon stood with the body between his legs and kicked him hard in the face with his dress shoe. Blood sprayed from Jang Sehyeon’s mouth and nose.

The assault continued for a short while. Lee Taeseon knew how to hit a person effectively—how to cause maximum damage while ensuring he didn’t get hurt himself and without leaving large, obvious external wounds on the opponent. Although kicking the face was an act born out of pure inability to endure anymore….

While being beaten, Jang Sehyeon laughed as if it were absurd. Lee Taeseon, looking down and laughing with him, stomped firmly on the abdomen he had hit earlier.

“Let’s see how long you can remain so relaxed.”

“…Ugh.”

“I’m curious why you can be so confident after pulling such a ridiculous trick. You think Inyoung won’t be able to do it? No, Yoon Inyoung doesn’t need that ‘family’ anymore. In fact, it’s been that way for a long time.”

Jang Sehyeon huddled his body, dripping saliva and blood from his mouth, unable to regain his senses. On the other hand, not even a fingernail mark remained on Lee Taeseon’s fist. Jang Sehyeon finally lifted his eyes and spoke in a gasping voice.

“Ha, haha…. Are you just taking out your frustrations, now?”

“And if I am?”

“….”

It was an obvious provocation, but Lee Taeseon didn’t flinch. Because it was true that he was taking out his frustrations—on himself.

Even if the ones who committed the act were Professor Jang and the Shaman, he was the one who stupidly fell for it, tormented Inyoung for a while, and even led him to a miscarriage.

“You’re right, it is a release. And I’m going to keep doing it. Go ahead and run to your great Shaman and tell on me.”

Lee Taeseon grabbed Jang Sehyeon by the hair and whispered into his ear, then stood up as if nothing had happened and straightened his slightly disheveled clothes.

Leaving the moaning Jang Sehyeon behind, Lee Taeseon packed his bag and prepared to leave, but he caught his reflection in a long horizontal mirror hanging on the wall. A familiar face was inside. A brazen and stupid face.

After staring blankly at himself in the mirror for a moment, Lee Taeseon couldn’t overcome the emotion rising like fire inside him as he looked at that face and, in an instant, slammed his fist against the mirror. It was the part where his own face was reflected.

Crash! With a loud sound that seemed to echo throughout the midnight hospital, circular cracks formed in the mirror centered around the point where his fist hit. Blood spread along those cracks.

He heard the sound of Jang Sehyeon snickering. Lee Taeseon opened the professor’s office door with his dripping hand and stepped out. The midnight hospital was silent, as if no loud noise had ever been heard.

Dripping blood, Lee Taeseon headed for the emergency room. No matter what, he couldn’t go home with his hand in this state.

Entering the emergency room, it was quieter than expected. After waiting a while while bleeding, he received treatment, including removing the glass and disinfecting the wound. His skin was torn, so he had to have a few stitches.

He felt no pain at all, even as the anesthesia needle entered right next to the wound.

The resident treating Lee Taeseon seemed to recognize who he was, but for that very reason, no conversation passed between them. There wasn’t even a question about how he got hurt. He was quite satisfied that all treatment took place in silence, except for the strictly necessary words.

After having his hand wrapped tightly in bandages, Lee Taeseon thought belatedly.

What should I say to Inyoung.

Should I say I ran into some thugs…. He chuckled to himself, thinking that he was the thug for beating someone and breaking a mirror.

Receiving medicine packaged in complex doses with a reminder to make sure to take them, Lee Taeseon looked up at the location where Jang Sehyeon’s office likely was as he left the hospital. The light was still on.

I wonder if he’s contacting that pathetic Shaman.

Lee Taeseon let out a hollow laugh and got into his car.

∞ ∞ ∞

Flustered, Mother said something urgent had come up and went back. I had no choice but to let her go quietly. If it had been Inha, he would have pressed Mother to find out what happened and surely made her cry, but that was a difficult thing for me. Beyond difficult, it was impossible.

After Mother left, I fell into various thoughts. Seeing that the staff member who brought the tea had disappeared at some point, they might be whispering among themselves in the annex about being caught.

It was Mr. Taeseon who chose the staff working at the house, at least initially. He said he only looked at the documents for the first round. The kitchen manager is someone who had worked at the main house since I was little, and Manager Shin interviewed and hired the rest.

Mr. Taeseon will be angry if he finds out that news about our house was leaking to Mother. Thinking of an angry Mr. Taeseon made my body stiffen again. It’s not my fault, but still….

Once he knows, Mr. Taeseon will probably replace the staff entirely with people he directly and meticulously chooses. Mother’s excuse for sending the kitchen manager here was ‘because she knows the foods I like well,’ but actually, the manager doesn’t know the foods ‘I’ like, so that didn’t matter.

How far did the events in the house leak? Seeing as even the fact that I brought Lili home wasn’t known before, perhaps they only just reported after seeing this miscarriage and Mr. Taeseon suddenly treating me well after the miscarriage.

If not, Mother would never have stayed quiet while ‘Inha’ received such… treatment from Mr. Taeseon. Because Mother loves Inha as if he were a mistake she herself had committed.

“Yelp.”

Lili, who was in my arms, was suddenly looking at me.

“Hmm…?”

His pupils are dilated. Did he see a bug? Bugs don’t appear in this house. Since it’s a house with a garden, that was the part we paid the most attention to. It’s too early in the season for things like mosquitoes….

However, Lili continued to open his eyes wide and look somewhere behind me, then suddenly let out a loud “Hiss” and puffed up his body and tail. Lili, even showing his claws, tried to swing his front paw as if chasing something, then suddenly stiffened and scurried down to run away somewhere.

“Lili…?”

「Lili?」

“…!”

When I recoiled in surprise at the voice suddenly heard from behind my back, a hand came up to the nape of my neck along with a snickering laugh. The hand touching my bare skin was chillingly cold and covered in scars.

“What….”

「It’s me, Inyoung.」

“….”

It was a familiar voice. A voice exactly like mine. Rare even for twins, exactly like mine….

“Inha…?”

「Yeah. Were you upset earlier because of Mother?」

I couldn’t look to the side. A cold energy was transmitted from right next to me. I felt a weight as if someone were sitting on the sofa. I also heard a “Slither” sound. I stiffened rigidly, unable to even blink properly.

My body won’t obey me, as if I’m in sleep paralysis. If there’s a difference from sleep paralysis, it’s that I just froze from pure terror. A fishy smell comes from beside me. It was the smell of rain mixed with the scent of earth.

And the scent of iron… the smell of blood.

I could look to the side even less now.

Inha has come to my side.

The Shaman said Inha’s soul had already crossed the Styx. But how can he be here? By what means did he find me? But for some reason, I felt that if it was Inha, he could do it.

「Were you upset? Because of Mother?」

Unlike when he appeared last time, this time he spoke in a normal tone. There were times he used to pretend to be kind like this even when he was alive. Whenever he did, something bad always happened. The stray cats I secretly looked after would all die, or minor accidents would happen to Inha.

They weren’t accidents where he was seriously hurt, but if something bad happened to Inha, I….

And Inha becomes kind when there is something for me to be angry about.

「Why, are you afraid Mother will really dig up your grave and throw away the remains?」

“….”

To be precise, those are Inha’s remains. Mother was thinking of throwing away Inha’s remains because it bothered her that I was buried in an auspicious site.

「So what if she does?」

“….”

「Treatment like that suits you!」

“Ack…!”

In an instant, Inha’s ice-cold hand swept violently down my face.