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Chapter 6
“I like doing dirty things. Very much, in fact….”
The corners of his red lips curled crookedly.
“Doing it all the time like some dog in heat.”
Hongshi’s face stiffened like stone before flushing bright red, as if it might burst.
Her eyes, which had always shone so steadfastly, trembled helplessly.
Twisting his lips as though mocking the panic in her gaze, Taesan whispered lowly,
“You don’t touch things you can’t handle, kid.”
Hongshi clenched her teeth.
“Go play with girls your own age.”
“If you teach me, I’ll do well.”
She had been flustered for a moment, but so what if it was something dirty?
She could do that much.
Taesan raised an eyebrow crookedly as he looked down at her.
The eyes that had always held affection for her felt unusually cold today.
It hurt, but since she had caused trouble, she thought she should endure it.
From his perspective, how shocking must it have been for the girl he’d always thought of as a little sister to suddenly confess to him?
That was why she could tolerate him acting cruel.
“Whether it’s dirty things or anything else, I can do whatever you want, oppa.”
“……”
“If you show me once, I learn ten things. You said it yourself—I learn fast.”
A laugh suddenly burst from his lips.
As if he’d just seen something absurdly ridiculous, he laughed in disbelief before lightly flicking her forehead.
“Ah!”
Hongshi’s brows twisted sharply at the sudden flick.
“You dare make fun of an adult?”
“Why do you keep treating it like a joke? I’m serious!”
It hurt that he kept taking her sincere words as a joke.
Hongshi looked at him pleadingly.
Please understand how I feel.
“There’s never been a single moment when I wasn’t sincere.”
“You….”
Was he finally facing the truth of her feelings?
The playful expression he had worn all along stiffened.
A complicated look briefly crossed his face before he smiled casually again.
“You’re too green. You’re not ripe yet.”
As though this entire situation was nothing more than a childish prank.
“If you really want to marry me, come back after you grow up more.”
Would it have hurt less if he had simply coldly said he had never seen her as a woman?
Until the very end, he treated Hongshi’s confession like a joke.
“I should head back to Seoul now. See you later.”
Taesan turned with a smile and got into the car.
Soon, the car sped away in an instant.
With reddened eyes, Hongshi watched him disappear into the distance.
It was over.
Utterly ruined.
Still, how could someone like her ever reach someone like Taesan?
But even so, it hurt too much.
It was hard to breathe.
Now she probably couldn’t even remain his little sister anymore.
As she swallowed back her tears, something suddenly flew at her and grabbed a fistful of her hair.
“…!”
“Who do you think you are, hanging around my brother again?”
It was Taegyeong.
“Hey, you little bitch. A homeless orphan like you dares to covet my brother? Did you think I wouldn’t know what you were up to?”
Taegyeong, who had secretly watched Hongshi’s confession, violently yanked her hair.
Unlike Taegyeong, who was over 170 centimeters tall, Hongshi was around 160, small and thin, completely helpless against her.
Eventually, Hongshi fell.
The area around her cheekbone scraped against the ground and began to bleed.
“You cheap bitch! I knew this would happen! Pretending to be innocent while hanging around my brother, and now you actually confessed?”
Since childhood, Taegyeong had often beaten her, so this kind of thing should have felt familiar by now.
So why did it hurt so much…?
No, truthfully, Taegyeong’s words hurt more than the blows.
And more than Taegyeong’s words, Taesan’s rejection hurt unbearably.
“You dare covet my brother? Instead of repaying the kindness you’ve been shown, a filthy beggar like you confesses to him and pulls this shit?!”
“My goodness! What do you think you’re doing right now?!”
At that moment, Jeong Huiyeong rushed outside after hearing the commotion and screamed.
“Taegyeong, get away from her!”
Shoving Taegyeong aside, Jeong Huiyeong helped Hongshi to her feet.
The household staff all came running out.
“Throw that girl out immediately!”
“Kang Taegyeong, you really need to stop this!”
“You don’t understand, Mom! Do you know what she just did? She told oppa she loved him! That crazy bitch! We treated her well and now she doesn’t even know her place anymore!”
“Be quiet!”
“Why are you yelling at me?!”
“What is all this noise?!”
Then, Chairman Kang’s thunderous voice rang out.
“G-grandfather.”
At his appearance, Taegyeong instantly froze.
In this family, the only person Taegyeong feared more than Taesan was Chairman Kang.
Chairman Kang glared at her with eyes full of fury.
Taegyeong stiffened and nervously watched his reaction.
But soon she raised her voice again with an aggrieved expression.
“Grandfather, she’s insane! A beggar dares to say she likes oppa and wants to marry him!”
At Taegyeong’s words, gasps erupted from the servants who had been silently watching.
“Oh my goodness.”
“Has Hongshi gone crazy?”
“Young Master Taesan treated her too well.”
Whispers spread noisily through the crowd.
All she had done was confess to the person she liked, yet in an instant she had become a criminal.
“Everyone, be quiet!”
Chairman Kang’s booming command silenced everyone immediately.
After glaring around at the crowd, he abruptly turned his head toward Hongshi.
There was nothing in his harsh gaze as he looked at her.
As though she were merely a worthless pebble lying on the street.
Just as always.
Soon, he turned away, leaning on his cane.
“You. Follow me inside.”
Hongshi knelt on the floor with her head deeply bowed.
Chairman Kang sat on the cushion, silently watching her with wrinkled eyes.
Suddenly, his brow twitched.
“Has your mouth stopped working? Say something!”
“……”
“What that brat Taegyeong said—is it true?”
Even after repeated questioning, Hongshi stubbornly kept her mouth shut, causing Chairman Kang to explode in anger.
“I said answer me!”
His voice rang painfully in her ears.
Biting her lip tightly, Hongshi slowly raised her head.
“It’s true. I like Taesan oppa. So I confessed to him.”
Chairman Kang silently stared at her as she tearfully yet clearly spoke her mind.
‘Grandfather, let’s raise this child in our house.’
He suddenly remembered the day long ago when Taesan had abruptly declared that he wanted to keep Hongshi.
Chairman Kang’s past had not been a happy one.
He had clawed his way up and built the enormous Taejeong Group, only for all of his children to die before him.
His second son had died in a car accident while traveling in America with his family.
And his eldest son had died because of an accident caused by Taesan’s mother.
After that accident, Taesan stopped speaking.
He would even convulse if anyone touched him.
And then that filthy little child appeared.
At first, Chairman Kang had intended to refuse, but—
‘Because of people unfit to be parents, this child almost died. If she’s sent back there, she really will die this time.’
Something about Taesan’s words, as if he were projecting himself onto the girl, forced Chairman Kang to accept Hongshi.
After all, she was a child with nothing.
He had thought that once Taesan lost interest, he would give her some modest place to live and send her away.
But Taesan’s interest in Hongshi never faded.
If anything, it only deepened with time.
And in the end, his attention had raised her into a girl who didn’t know her place.
“So I thought at least you knew your place.”
Chairman Kang clicked his tongue.
His harsh words stabbed into her heart.
“So even though I disliked it, I let things be. And this is how you repay us?”
“……”
“That boy wasn’t raised so carefully just to be handed over to the likes of you. Taesan is my everything. And yet someone like you, with no idea where you even came from, dares to covet him!”
At his words, Hongshi tightly clenched the hem of her clothes.
She truly felt lower than an animal.
“What a pity.”
Then Chairman Kang clicked his tongue as though he genuinely found it unfortunate.
“If only you had been born to proper parents.”
She had told herself she could endure everything.
But at his quiet murmur, a crack finally appeared on Hongshi’s face.
Chairman Kang sighed again.
“I know very well that you’re smart and capable. But do you even realize that for someone with nothing, intelligence itself can become poison?”
