SATURDAY 59

When I returned home, Lili greeted me by raising his tail high and rubbing his body against me. He only gave a fleeting glance toward Mr. Taeseon, who followed behind me… It would be nice if the two of them became close soon. Feeling a bit regretful, I picked Lili up in my arms.

As I held Lili, I somehow lost my strength and went straight to the sofa, collapsing onto it limply.

“Are you okay?”

Mr. Taeseon cautiously reached out and touched my head as if worried. Because I wasn’t used to someone touching my hair, I involuntarily opened my eyes slightly and flinched. Mr. Taeseon pulled his hand away immediately.

“Ah…”

Flustered, I quickly turned my head toward Mr. Taeseon.

“You… don’t have to pull your hand away. I was just startled for a second.”

“Ewae. Kkayak. Kkyung. Ttyaaaa.”

Lili chattered as if scolding Mr. Taeseon. When I stroked Lili’s head to tell him not to do that, he began to purr loudly this time, sounding like a running motor. That sound mellowed the atmosphere considerably.

“Mr. Taeseon… the fact that I keep getting startled, it’s just a reflex, so please don’t worry too much. It just happens without me realizing.”

At that, Mr. Taeseon’s expression, which seemed to be softening for a moment, clouded over even more. It was a face that looked as though he couldn’t bear how complicated he felt. However, he soon erased that look and smiled gently. Just looking at his smile, it seemed as if nothing had happened.

“Worry about yourself first. Don’t try to reassure me.”

I was about to say something more when a whirring sound rang out from my pocket, and Lili jumped up in surprise. With an amazing movement, Mr. Taeseon reached out and caught Lili before he could fall back onto my chest.

“Hiss!”

In addition to being surprised, Lili was furious that he had been caught by Mr. Taeseon. The small cat slipped through Mr. Taeseon’s hand—which was supporting his belly—like a mass of water and landed on the floor, then disappeared walking sideways like a crab with his fur and tail all bristled up.

While watching that cute and funny sight, I briefly forgot the fact that the vibration was continuing. The vibration, which had stopped for a moment, began to ring again inside my pocket. Realizing belatedly that it was a phone call, I took out my cell phone, and the word ‘Uncle’ was displayed on the screen.

“Uncle?”

―Yeah, Inyoung. You said you were going to meet someone today, did it go well?

It seemed my uncle had known in advance.

“Yeah.”

Naturally, I couldn’t help but feel dejected. I hadn’t yet finished my thoughts regarding the Shaman and the Professor, and my head was in a jumble. Still, I felt like my voice hadn’t changed much, but my uncle must have noticed as he asked in a worried tone.

―Are you okay, Inyoung?

“Ah… yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

I purposely used the most comfortable voice possible. At home, I couldn’t show any sign that I was struggling or in pain, whether through my voice or my attitude. Because my parents hated it. Because the people who looked after me didn’t like it much either. Even in front of my uncle, I hid bad things as much as possible. I didn’t want my uncle to worry.

But my uncle, who knows me well, stayed quiet for a moment on the other end of the phone before speaking slowly.

―…I’m sorry.

“Wh, what? For what?”

I was flustered by the sudden apology. Because I jumped up in surprise, my head spun, and when I instinctively touched my forehead, Mr. Taeseon quickly supported my body.

―Everything. For not recognizing you sooner… Your uncle was complacent.

“Complacent…”

―I thought it would be okay once you got married and moved out. My thought was just to endure until then. I shouldn’t have done that.

“….”

―I just thought everything would become okay. If you just cut ties with that house. Or rather, I suppose I hoped it would be that way.

While holding the cell phone, I sat back against the sofa cushions as Mr. Taeseon moved my body. My uncle’s words continued.

―I should have thought more deeply. Before your brother and sister-in-law… became too deeply engrossed in that person, I should have stopped it somehow.

“Uncle…”

But that probably couldn’t have been stopped. Stopping someone else’s thoughts or turning them in the direction one wants is too difficult a task. Furthermore, my uncle was a younger brother with a large age gap from my father, and it was said my father practically raised my uncle like a son. So, there was no way my uncle’s advice would have worked. The same went for my mother.

I simply swallowed those words.

“…What fault do you have, Uncle.”

―You really are something, seriously.

My uncle let out a long sigh. Then, after a moment of silence, he spoke with a slightly darkened tone.

―I’ll go there tomorrow. Let’s see each other tomorrow. I have something to say to the Managing Director, too.

“Okay, see you tomorrow, Uncle.”

Perhaps because the sound of the call was leaking out a bit, Mr. Taeseon reflexively turned his head at the mention of the ‘Managing Director’. He waited until he confirmed I had hung up the phone and then sat down beside me.

“Inyoung.”

When I turned my head, he was sitting next to me with only his upper body turned toward me, his arms spread wide. Though one arm was held awkwardly, blocked by the sofa backrest. I watched that sight for a moment before burying myself in his wide chest. As soon as I pressed my cheek to his chest, his thick arms wound around me and pulled me close.

“Mr. Taeseon.”

“Yeah?”

“If the Shaman and the Professor are bad people…”

“….”

I could feel his pheromones and his heartbeat. His heart was thumping, neither fast nor slow.

“Then, I… my life until now…”

What does it become? I have lived while relying endlessly on those two people, so if even they were deceiving me, what remains in my life, in my existence?

Those words rose up to my throat.

This was the reason why I couldn’t bring myself to doubt the Shaman, no matter how much people told me to doubt her until now.

“Inyoung.”

“….”

“I don’t know if it’ll be a comfort… but you have me.”

I blinked.

Inadvertently… because I was looking only at the bad things during the mere twenty-two years I’ve lived, I had forgotten the best thing. The most precious thing in my life. The greatest happiness.

Lee Taeseon.

I quietly rubbed my cheek against his chest. As if comforting me, Mr. Taeseon kissed the crown of my head, then tilted his head to kiss my temple, cheek, and the tip of my nose. Then, when I turned my head, Lili had approached at some point and was looking at me with the most innocent face in the world.

While perched on Mr. Taeseon’s lap, I reached my hand out to Lili. Because the sofa was high and Lili was hopping around, Mr. Taeseon lifted him and tucked him between his body and mine. A warm sensation was transmitted to my stomach. It was somewhat bittersweet… but a smile came out anyway.

Hong Sayoung had never been completely happy a single time since the moment the doctor told her the babies were twins.

From the beginning, Hong Sayoung was very superstitious. To the extent that she never cut her fingernails at night. She always kept the entrance of the house clean to an almost obsessive degree.

If there was a move or something to be relocated, she carefully and without fail received an auspicious date. She considered feng shui, always kept the cardinal directions in mind, and was certain that there was a reason for good and bad fortune.

Since she was such a person, it was only natural that she became enthralled after experiencing the divine power of the Woljeong Shaman. Both Hong Sayoung and Yun Jaekwon were smart people. However, among con artists, methods for targeting such high-intelligence people are known to circulate secretly. Also, there are evil individuals who have known those targeting methods since birth.

The Woljeong Shaman, Shin Myeonghwa, was a human who, from birth, could not empathize with the emotions of others and took it for granted to exploit others. To Shin Myeonghwa, Hong Sayoung was sweet prey. Having enthralled her, Shin Myeonghwa proceeded to swallow the Jegang family whole, much like a spider spinning a web.

However, the late Chairman’s late-born youngest child, Yun Chaein, was the only one who wouldn’t be won over no matter what, so she gave up on him from the start. Thinking it would be better to keep him in the house and monitor him, she convinced Yun Jaekwon that ‘the youngest should stay together in the house’. Both Yun Jaekwon and Hong Sayoung naturally gave in quickly.

Yun Chaein stayed in the house silently. The reason for that was Yoon Inyoung. The root of all trouble and the harbinger of misfortune occurring in the Jegang household.

Because he didn’t believe in the Woljeong Shaman from the beginning, he tried to protect his nephew Yoon Inyoung even a little bit in this house where this madness was unfolding. That was why he stayed in the house despite despising his brother, his sister-in-law, and Yoon Inha so much.

To return to the story of Yoon Inyoung and Hong Sayoung… after hearing from the Woljeong Shaman that the child was ‘that kind’ of being, Hong Sayoung fell into great despair. It was shortly after hearing they were twins.

She was told that one of the children was an evil spirit that would live by stealing and eating the light of the other child, a wrong existence. Or rather, that the soul of a sinful beast that should be wandering the roads had stolen a human womb and was hiding there pretending to be a baby.

One child was certainly a hidden baby obscured by the other child. But to think such a being was nestled inside her own womb. It had been only a few days since she was so happy at the word twins, yet one of the two wasn’t even her own child.

The Woljeong Shaman said that the one born later among the two children was the ghost. She told her not to be fooled by the form of the baby. She said the original appearance was a monster in a terrible shape, like a lump of pitch-black tar. She said how terrible it was for such a thing to be wearing a human skin…

Naturally, Hong Sayoung believed those words implicitly. It was the same for Yun Jaekwon. Already by then, Hong Sayoung and Yun Jaekwon were in a state where they had lost their judgment before the Woljeong Shaman’s words.

To think she gave birth to such, such a child. Hong Sayoung felt so terrible and desperate. To think that because of that, her precious child had been robbed of so much.

However.

Even so, even though she knew,

It was bizarre that every now and then, that ghost child was lovely.