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Chapter 5
“B-But, young master. You two are still young. I can’t just leave the two of you alone.”
The nanny said this, looking very flustered.
“You left just fine earlier. So you can leave when Doyoon is here, but you don’t feel safe when it’s just me? Is that what you mean?”
“…!”
The nanny’s face turned pale.
*Look at this kid. He already knows his position and throws his weight around like a pro.*
Haena watched Baek Jaehyun with a sinking feeling.
Even though he was still young, he knew exactly how to toy with people’s hearts.
He was using the fact that the nanny could get fired if she offended the chairman’s grandson.
“Sorry, but big brother.”
“…!”
“It wasn’t just my nanny who left earlier. Your nanny left too. And Doyoon just cried over ‘nothing,’ so of course my nanny would be worried. Don’t blame her for that.”
“….”
Jaehyun looked at Haena with a surprised expression.
“If you have something to say to me? And you want us to have some privacy, then don’t blame people like that. Just ask politely.”
“….”
“You’re older than me, big brother. Don’t you even know that?”
At Haena’s words, Jaehyun’s face flushed red.
“Young lady…!”
The nanny squeezed Haena’s hand tighter, looking deeply moved.
*Well, I didn’t do it just for her. I just don’t like people throwing their weight around…* But she didn’t need to say that. And since they’d be seeing each other often, she wanted to earn some points this way.
Haena grinned like a little kid.
“Nanny. It looks like Jaehyun-oppa has something to say to me. Could you give us a moment?”
“Excuse me? But… if something happens, the chairman will…”
“There’s CCTV up there, isn’t there?”
“…!”
“Does that record sound too?”
Haena smiled brightly and pointed to a corner of the ceiling.
“Ah, no. For security reasons, there’s no sound. All the CCTVs in the house are like that.”
“That’s what I thought.”
*There’s no way a chaebol family would record sound. With all kinds of information flying around.*
“Nanny, you can watch me through that CCTV. And if it seems like Jaehyun-oppa is trying to pull something bad on me, you can come running then, right?”
“Still, that’s…”
“And more than anything.”
Haena paused, then turned her head toward Baek Jaehyun.
“I know Jaehyun-oppa won’t do anything bad to me. Right, oppa?”
Baek Jaehyun’s eyes widened in surprise, then softened.
“Of course, Haena.”
—
And so, with the nanny finally stepping away with a very uneasy look on her face, Baek Jaehyun pulled his chair closer to Haena.
“Haena.”
“Yeah.”
“What are you?”
…?
*What kind of philosophical question is that?*
“What do you mean?”
“You weren’t originally this smart. And you weren’t the kind of strong kid who could make Doyoon cry and stay so calm about it.”
Baek Jaehyun smiled slyly.
“You liked Doyoon, didn’t you?”
*Is this kid really ten?*
*There’s something a little sinister about him…*
“Oppa. Haven’t you heard that a woman’s heart is like a reed?”
“Huh?”
“Well, I guess. What would you know about love, oppa? You’re only ten.”
“…But you’re seven, aren’t you?”
“They say girls are *way* more mature mentally. So if you consider our ages… I’m probably the more mature one.”
Baek Jaehyun looked at Haena as if he couldn’t believe her. But Haena just shrugged.
“Maybe I liked Doyoon yesterday, but today I don’t. My heart belongs to me, so I can do what I want with it. Is that a problem?”
“…I guess not?”
Jaehyun smiled a strange smile.
“But the adults probably won’t see it that way. Because they need the two of you to get engaged. The talks are already happening.”
“….”
*Yeah. That’s kind of the problem.*
Seven-year-old Baek Doyoon, sure, I can easily steamroll. But Chairman Baek or Chairman Hong wouldn’t give my words a second thought.
Meaning: even if I say I hate Baek Doyoon, and even if Doyoon himself can’t stand me, the adults won’t care one bit.
“Well, I’ll think about that later, little by little.”
“I don’t know… I don’t know about your chairman, but our chairman will definitely try to lock you down.”
*Huh?*
*Why me, specifically? There are plenty of chaebol daughters.*
“What do you mean? Why me?”
“Because our Cheongyeong Group doesn’t have certain businesses that your Hongil Group does.”
“…!”
“He wants a complementary relationship. Rather than marrying within the same industry.”
*Damn it.*
“B-But….”
“Even if you, Haena, reject Baek Doyoon, he’ll try to offer me instead. That’s just how our chairman is.”
“…!”
“Our family’s line is thin. The only young boys are me and Baek Doyoon… That’s how I was able to get into this family in the first place.”
*Ah.*
Haena was a little surprised by Jaehyun, who casually brought up such a dark story.
That was right. Although Baek Jaehyun was the son of President Baek Hyunwoo, precisely speaking… he was an illegitimate child.
Not the son of the wife, but the son of a mistress.
The only reason Jaehyun could be on Cheongyeong Group’s family register was that Cheongyeong was so short on heirs.
*The madam must have been really pissed.*
…From a kid’s perspective, it was a little sad, though.
But wait. Even if she rejected Baek Doyoon, they’d offer Baek Jaehyun instead?
“But I wouldn’t want Jaehyun-oppa either, even if they offered. I don’t want either of you.”
“….”
“….”
*Sorry, Jaehyun.*
*Zero confession, one rejection added.*
“I… never had any intention of marrying you either, Haena.”
“I know. I just wanted to make it extra clear.”
Haena smiled brightly.
*Make sure you don’t forget that feeling. Keep it forever.*
“…But why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Can I ask why you don’t like me?”
*Wow, those are genuinely hurt eyes.*
Even a scheming, dark sub-male lead has some innocence left when he’s ten?
Or is this also an act?
“Because you’re sneaky, oppa. You whisper behind people’s backs like this. Didn’t they teach you in elementary school that that’s bad? Trying to steal your younger brother’s fiancée? What is this, some cliché morning drama plot?”
“No, I told you, I never intended to steal you… But, morning drama?”
“Uh-huh. Don’t you watch morning dramas at your house?”
“…I think the madam watches them, but I don’t.”
*He doesn’t call her ‘mother,’ he calls her ‘madam.’ That’s a little sad.*
“Then you should watch one. There are tons of bad guys like you, oppa. Go learn something.”
“Learn… what?”
“At least the handsome bad guys on those shows show some *effort* when they make a proposal like this!”
“Effort?”
“Yeah! If you want to propose an engagement, at least bring some jewelry! You didn’t even bring jewelry, oppa. Disqualified.”
“…But I never… had any intention of proposing an engagement….”
*That’s the way the world works, kid!*
*If you want to propose a political engagement, you bring a 10-carat Tiffany or something, so at least I can pretend to be tempted!*
“Then… if I wanted to propose an engagement to you… I just need jewelry?”
“Huh? I thought you said you never intended to marry me?”
“…Just answer. If I have jewelry, you’ll accept?”
“Uh-uh?”
*That’s not it either.*
*That would be too much of a loss.*
“No?”
“What? But you just-”
“Grandfather said that marriage is a major life event. How could a young, immature, and adorable child like me make such a big life decision?”
“…You weren’t immature at all. Up until just now.”
*He’s not denying the ‘adorable’ part. Well, Hong Haena is adorable.*
“Oppa, have you ever read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms comic?”
*Do kids these days read the Three Kingdoms?*
*When I was little, I read the comic version a lot.*
“Yes, I have.”
*Good, he’s read it. I guess being a chaebol family, they have plenty of books at home.*
“Then did you see what Liu Bei did to win over Zhuge Liang?”
“…W-Win over?”
“You don’t know about the three visits? He visited him three times, bowing and begging, just to get a strategist. And you thought I’d fall for you just because you showed up once, flapped your lips a bit, and asked for *my* hand? Someone way more important and precious than any strategist?”
Baek Jaehyun stared at Haena with a very blank face, but the blanker he looked, the more triumphantly Haena smiled.
“I may look like this, but I’m the sole heir of Hongil Corporation. My grandfather said: if you’re going to do a losing deal, don’t do business at all.”
…She remembered reading that line somewhere, so it was probably correct.
“If you want to propose an engagement, write up a proper proposal and bring it. Make it so good that even my dad and my grandfather would nod in agreement. Then I’ll think about it!”
Of course, that would be impossible.
Since Jaehyun was an illegitimate child with almost no chance of becoming the successor, while Doyoon was the legal wife’s son and heir, their standing within Cheongyeong Group was completely different.
“That’s easy.”
“Huh?”
*That’s… not easy…?*
“Adults always want the same thing. You just give them more money and more power.”
*Was that supposed to be easy?*
*Suddenly, I feel relatively deprived.*
“But Haena.”
Baek Jaehyun asked, for the first time with a serious face.
“I know adults want those things. But Haena, you’re just a little kid.”
“…Aren’t *you* a little kid, oppa?”
“Then what do *you* want?”
