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Chapter 12
There were a little more than two and a half weeks left before school started again.
The next dawn, Aunt was summoned to the main house. She had been fussing over breakfast more than usual, and while cleaning catfish at the water spout, she followed Mr. Yang-gyu with a troubled look, unable to hide her despairing sighs.
About twenty minutes later, Aunt crept back to the annex, glancing around nervously, and hesitated before speaking.
“…Uh, you’d better go too.”
“…Me?”
“Madam said to bring you as well.”
Not Park Jeong-un, but Seo Yeon-woo. Aunt had begged on her knees that she’d keep a close eye on Jeong-un, and yet the summons had come for Yeon-woo instead.
Since collapsing last night, Aunt’s body still ached all over. Grimacing, she sat down.
“Go and see what it’s about. If she asks about last night, just say you don’t know anything.”
Her brows drawn tight and her thick lips sulking, Aunt looked as if her pride had been deeply scratched. Madam must have lashed out at her plenty, but hadn’t hinted at the real reason for calling.
With a heavy heart, Yeon-woo stepped into the main house. Mrs. Yang-gyu pointed her in a direction—“Over there.” Yeon-woo carefully, silently moved forward until she stood before a door. She knocked.
“Come in.”
A refined voice answered.
Opening the creaking wooden door, she saw a table draped with a white lace cloth.
Madam, her hair set in curlers, turned to face her.
“You’re here? Ah, my manners. Please, speak comfortably, Yeon-woo.”
“…I was told you called for me.”
Only when she saw Madam’s fine dress, clean in black and white, did Yeon-woo remember the floral apron tied around her own neck. She should have taken it off. Feeling shabby, she clasped her hands together and stood before the table.
“You may sit, you know.”
“You seemed to have something to say… I’ll listen. I need to help Aunt prepare breakfast.”
She knew she was only being polite. The two of them stood exactly as they were—mistress and servant.
Her courteous stance seemed to soften Madam’s face, as if showing she wasn’t in the mood to casually share tea with the noisy annex family from last night.
Her flawless, wrinkle-free face carried a coldness different from Woo Jeong-ha’s.
Where Jeong-ha’s eyes sometimes hid a subtle warmth, Madam’s gaze felt impenetrable—like she could remove someone from her sight without so much as a tremor.
That made it even harder to guess why she had called Yeon-woo. Madam glanced at Yeon-woo’s tightly pressed lips and spoke.
“Yes, you must be busy. People think someone like me neither knows nor does anything, but when I was young I was very busy helping my parents too. There’s always so much to do in an orchard.”
“…”
“That’s why I swore my children would never have to do this sort of work. Do you understand even a little of what I mean, Yeon-woo?”
My children.
Her preamble was long, but Yeon-woo immediately understood why Madam had summoned her. It was because Jeong-ha had come in with her last night. Madam knew.
Had she simply asked whether Park Jeong-un was always violent, it wouldn’t have felt like a stone lodged in her throat.
But Madam, smiling faintly as though unconcerned with “last night’s incident,” fixed her gaze on Yeon-woo, as if waiting to hear what answer would come from those small lips.
“I don’t know exactly… but I think I understand what you mean.”
When Yeon-woo replied in an even tone, Madam’s doll-like face curved into a deeper smile.
She sipped her steaming drip coffee, then lifted her chin slightly.
“So, I’d like you to help.”
“…Me?”
“I heard you’re very good at your studies. Mr. Yang-gyu and his wife do have a way with words.”
“…I’m just from the countryside…”
“But you’ll need to keep doing well if you want to go to university, won’t you? Ah, though I suppose your circumstances might make that difficult.”
There was a knife hidden in her gentle, leisurely voice. Yeon-woo’s face went blank as if struck, though Madam’s expression didn’t change at all.
A faint, irritating ache pressed inside her chest.
She already knew everything. Yeon-woo felt as if she were kneeling despite standing upright, her eyes wavering with nowhere to rest.
“…”
“Our Jeong-ha has already finished all the high school curriculum—he could even pass medical school entrance exams. Later, he’ll inherit his father’s business… There’s nothing good to come from wasting time in this countryside, don’t you think?”
Yeon-woo faintly understood why such words were being said to her. Madam had seen it—the moments the two of them spent together.
Her lips pressed until a salty tang filled her mouth.
Then—bang! The door burst open as if it might be torn off its hinges.
“…”
Both turned to look. Standing there with damp, un-dried hair was Woo Jeong-ha.
“Seo Yeon-woo. Come out.”
He growled at his mother like a beast. But Madam, glancing once at him and once at Yeon-woo, lowered her eyes again as calmly as if she hadn’t seen him at all.
“People say you’re upright and kind, Yeon-woo. I hope you’ll keep Jeong-ha out of trouble.”
“Mother!”
Even his raised voice didn’t make her shoulders flinch. She only kept her sharp gaze on Yeon-woo, making sure her point had landed.
Yeon-woo felt as if her apron were tightening around her throat. She bowed her head.
“…If there’s anything I can…”
“There will be.”
Her muttered words were cut off, sharp as a blade. Jeong-ha’s breathing grew louder, tearing through the heavy air.
“I’ll be going.”
Yeon-woo bent in a bow, then brushed past Jeong-ha into the hall. The moment she left Madam’s room, the warm air outside felt cold.
She lengthened her strides, trying to ignore Jeong-ha’s presence following close behind. But he quickly caught up, grabbing her slender wrist.
“…You.”
Breathing hard like an angry child, Jeong-ha couldn’t form his words properly. Yeon-woo’s unfocused eyes looked straight at him.
She had once needed his broad shoulders and wide chest. His kindness had once made her resolve to die crumble like a sandcastle. But not anymore.
Snapping her head aside, she shook off his hand.
“Pretend you didn’t hear it.”
“…What do you mean, Young Master?”
“Hey.”
She deliberately emphasized the words Young Master. Her throat stung.
“…I heard you don’t even need tutoring, you study so well already.”
“…What?”
He looked at her blankly, not understanding. Yeon-woo’s face contorted, and she glared up at him.
“Do you think I’m easy? Fun to play with?”
“…”
Even a paltry pride hurts when wounded. Though she knew Jeong-ha wasn’t the real culprit, Yeon-woo bared her teeth at the easiest target.
