SATURDAY 53

“So, what you’re saying is, those people swapped Inha and Inyoung.”

My uncle visited the next day shortly after lunchtime. Since he is an early riser, he must have been waiting quite anxiously until this hour. No matter how urgent, he probably couldn’t just barge into a newlywed home first thing in the morning….

When he first entered the house, my uncle seemed full of rage, but when he saw me standing there hesitantly, his expression softened and he stroked my hair.

Those were the first words he spat out as we sat around the table with it between us. Just in case, I had sent all the staff home before my uncle arrived.

“Those dogs, I never liked them from the start.”

“Watch your language, Mr. Chaein. To be honest, this might not be the right time to say it, but don’t you think you’re partly responsible for Inyoung being treated so poorly, Mr. Chaein?”

“No, Mr. Taeseon. My uncle was….”

However, my uncle quietly placed a hand on my knee and answered with a dark face.

“I can’t say I’m not.”

Beyond that, my uncle didn’t defend himself, nor did he try to explain how the situation was this or that. But I knew. Everyone in our family believed the Shaman’s words, and my uncle was alone in that.

In fact, the atmosphere became such that my uncle, who took my side, was ostracized, and even when Inha damaged my uncle’s paintings, no one scolded him. Of course, my uncle didn’t just sit still.

As I mentioned, my uncle was a famous painter. He filed criminal charges against Inha, who was 19 at the time, for various offenses and even claimed compensation for damages. Since Inha had taken the painting out of the house entirely, a charge of theft was established.

Jegang Group had many connections in the legal world, but my uncle was also a member of the family. In the end, because of the troublesome situation, Inha was severely scolded by our parents and the matter ended with him kneeling and apologizing to my uncle, but that incident only deepened the rift between the family and my uncle.

Actually, Inha had committed that act and tried to pin it on me. However, due to a coincidence, I had been with my uncle at the exact time Inha stole the painting, so he wasn’t able to follow through with it.

My uncle… is a truly scary person when he’s angry. Besides that, since we were children, whenever Inha and I were lying down, he would only hug me, or secretly take me out and buy me delicious things…. He openly showed favoritism toward me over Inha. And he hated Inha terribly. Sometimes to the point of ignoring Inha even when he greeted him.

Once, I asked my uncle why he treated Inha so harshly. My uncle looked at me for a long time as if looking at something strange and said:

‘Don’t you feel anything from the way I act?’

‘I don’t know….’

‘Sigh, never mind. What’s the use in saying it.’

Back then, looking at my sighing uncle, I was just puzzled… but as time passed, I understood.

The attitude my uncle had toward Inha was not much different from the attitude the rest of the family had toward me. Except for corporal punishment or discipline.

That’s right. Corporal punishment, discipline. This was the same. Whenever I was being punished, my uncle somehow knew and would come running to stop my mother and father.

Half the time I was punished it was my fault, and the other half was Inha’s fault. When Inha did something wrong, I was hit instead. This was because they believed ‘the beast and evil spirit that I am breathed bad energy into Inha, making him do wrong.’

During those times, Inha would stay in the Shaman’s arms and listen quietly to what was said. I could hear the content too. It’s not your fault, Inha. It was mostly that kind of thing.

Inha didn’t have a very good personality. I suspect it was because of this method of discipline. Inha would even do wrong on purpose just so I would get beaten. No, that happened quite often.

My uncle scolded such an Inha only twice. Once was the lawsuit over the painting incident, and the second time he… hit Inha. He literally beat him until he wailed. No matter how much I tried to stop him, it was no use. I still don’t know the reason.

“Do you remember when I hit Yoon Inha?”

“…Yes.”

Whether I remember it or not, I was thinking about it just now. Mr. Taeseon’s eyes widened.

“That was probably… after the marriage between you and the Managing Director was decided, I think.”

My uncle’s way of addressing Mr. Taeseon was inconsistent. He would call him Mr. Taeseon, then CEO Lee, then Director, and now he calls him Managing Director. It wasn’t a particularly important matter, so I let it slide. My uncle continued speaking.

“At that time, he said this. I’m going to kill Inyoung. When I asked what he meant, he just laughed and said he meant it literally.”

The marriage between Mr. Taeseon and me was decided relatively quickly. Mr. Taeseon hesitated a bit because I was still young, but I wanted to marry him quickly. So, not many months after we met, we went to get permission to marry.

At first, there was naturally opposition. First, the excuse that I was too young, the excuse that the age gap between Mr. Taeseon and me was too large, and this and that…. But the biggest reason must have been because Mr. Taeseon was L&L’s Lee Taeseon.

He was a marriage partner everyone coveted, and that was the same for Inha and my parents. Compared to L&L, which only had a general logistics network in the Korean business sector, Jegang Group’s main pillars were convenience stores, open markets, cold chains, and early morning delivery, so being joined to L&L through marriage would be a significant benefit to both.

And a young Omega who, while having a bit of an age gap, wasn’t at a level to be criticized. Inha was in a very advantageous position in terms of conditions. In fact, talks of an arranged marriage meeting were already underway. If only I hadn’t met Mr. Taeseon by pure chance and progressed straight into a relationship before then.

I’ve been curious for a while. Did Inha really want to kill me just because he couldn’t marry Mr. Taeseon because of me?

“Uncle.”

“Yes?”

“Why did Inha want to kill me?”

My uncle looked at me intently, glanced at Mr. Taeseon, and said:

“…Listen, Inyoung. You have a servant who always follows you around.”

“A, a servant?”

“Just listen anyway. That servant’s role is to make you stand out. If you’re about to get a 10 on your art homework, he swaps it with his own 100-point homework. If you don’t understand a book you’re reading, he writes the book report for you, and if a math test is hard, he tells you all the answers.”

Somehow, they were all things I had done for Inha.

“That servant is mistreated at home, becomes a target for comparison—anyway, he’s like a flashlight that makes you shine. By ignoring him, you maintain your self-esteem and build your abilities. If such a servant, who must absolutely be in a lower position than you, suddenly rises above you, how would you feel? What would you say?”

“Uh…. That’s great?”

“….”

My uncle and Mr. Taeseon looked at each other. They had expressions of disbelief. Did I say something wrong?

“A normal person couldn’t forgive that. Though even saying ‘forgive’ or not is strange, especially so if it’s someone with a bad personality.”

Mr. Taeseon spoke.

“Did he really do that just because I was marrying Mr. Taeseon…? No….”

Actually, it wasn’t that I didn’t understand. If it were Inha, he is more than capable of that. What I was curious about was why Inha tried to kill me. Inha would have needed me in his future life. Since Inha had lived using me as a stepping stone until now. Wouldn’t it be troublesome if the stepping stone suddenly disappeared?

But….

Come to think of it, once I got married and left, the stepping stone would be gone anyway. If so, he might have thought that whether I was killed or simply gone, it was all the same. He might have thought it was better to kill me for the sake of his own feelings.

“Well, still….”

Still, I wondered if one could think of killing someone so easily, but then I remembered the stories I had heard. From what I heard from Kim Sunkyung to what Mr. Taeseon had said.

“….”

Before I knew it, the gazes of my uncle and Mr. Taeseon were gathered on me.

I don’t know the exact details of how Inha ended up dying, but I have a rough guess. Because since we were twins, I can grasp his actions and thoughts.

He gets into an accident. And he says I pushed him. He specifically chose a road without CCTV for that purpose. It was strange from the start when he suddenly suggested going to an alley lined with vintage clothing stalls, which he usually had no interest in.

And before we had gone very far, he said we should turn back because it was raining. We were walking on a narrow sidewalk sharing a single umbrella when… suddenly Inha bumped my shoulder with his. In that moment, I reflexively looked at Inha.

It was a bad sign. Because Inha used to bump me like that whenever he was plotting a mean prank.

Inha smiled widely and said:

‘Hey, ghost.’

‘….’

‘Watch closely.’

And then the umbrella went thud, falling to the ground.