CHAPTER 2
The house with the pretty blue roof looked exactly like it had in the photos and videos.
There was one small house and a yard even smaller than that.
After being renovated, the house was in a perfectly livable condition.
The first thing Seyeon noticed when she stepped through the gate was a yellow-striped cat stretched out beneath the wooden porch.
The cat looked so dignified lying there with its indifferent eyes that it seemed more like the owner of the house than she did.
Even after Seyeon placed her suitcase on the porch and sat down beside it, the cat did not run away and merely let out a long yawn.
“…Take care of your health, be careful around people, and don’t push yourself too hard. If things don’t work out, come back right away.”
“Grandma, I haven’t even been here for a full day yet. Besides, I came here to work.”
Holding her phone between her shoulder and ear, Seyeon unpacked her luggage.
Lady Yeonsuni, her grandmother, worried about nothing but Seyeon.
She had been the one who opposed Seyeon moving alone to an unfamiliar countryside village until the very end.
“Teacher Kim Daehyun is coming over later to say hello. If Chairman Myung approves, it sounds like they’ll be setting a date soon.”
“…Really?”
Kim Daehyun was the son of the head of internal medicine at Hansung Hospital, a famous general hospital in Seoul.
He himself also worked there as an internal medicine specialist.
Until recently, he had been Seyeon’s boyfriend.
Now, however, he was dating her cousin, Myung Soyoung, and very few people knew that their relationship had begun while he was still dating Seyeon.
“You should have stayed to see them before coming down here. You don’t start work until next week, so why did you leave in such a hurry?”
“Because I have a lot of things to prepare.”
In truth, Seyeon already knew that Daehyun was coming to visit her family in Seoul that evening.
She did not want to waste her energy trying to control her expression while looking at him, and she genuinely needed time to adjust to her new surroundings.
So her answer was half truth and half lie.
Although Seyeon and Soyoung were both granddaughters of Chairman Myung of First Living, they had different grandmothers.
Seyeon’s grandmother had once worked as a maid before becoming Chairman Myung’s second wife.
Even now, after marrying Chairman Myung, giving birth to his son, and watching that son raise a daughter into adulthood, she was still called “Madam” by the family of Chairman Myung’s eldest son.
“Is there really not a single man around you who likes you?”
“No. There isn’t.”
“Why do you always say that? So many people ask me to introduce you to them.”
“They’re only saying that to be polite. I told you not to take it seriously.”
The men recommended by her grandmother’s acquaintances all seemed decent on the surface, but every one of them had some sort of flaw.
It was like selling bruised fruit at a discount.
Kim Daehyun had been the flawless fruit Seyeon met by chance while accompanying her grandmother to the hospital.
“Have you met the neighbors? Is the person next door nice?”
“We exchanged greetings earlier, and he even wished me luck.”
“That’s a relief. I was worried that some strange person might live next door.”
“You should come visit sometime. I think you’d really like this place.”
The man living across from her was certainly strange enough, but Seyeon chose to tell a harmless white lie.
She did not want to add one more worry to her grandmother’s already overflowing list of concerns.
After ending the call with Lady Yeonsuni, Seyeon stepped onto the porch and looked at the cat lying in the yard.
For a moment, she had thought it had left, but somehow it had returned and resumed the exact same position.
It definitely seemed to think of this place as its own home.
Sitting cross-legged, Seyeon rested her folded arms on her knees and stared at the cat with interest.
The cat refused to avoid her gaze and challenged her to a staring contest instead.
“Cheshire.”
Resting her cheek against one hand, Seyeon spoke lazily.
The peacefulness of the moment gradually eased the tension in her heart.
“From now on, your name is Cheshire.”
Just like the mysterious cat from Alice in Wonderland.
Smiling to herself, Seyeon stood up.
From the porch, the rooftops below were even more beautiful.
Climbing so many stairs was certainly inconvenient, but the sight of the sunset spreading over the clustered rooftops transformed that disadvantage into an advantage.
As she quietly watched the sky turn red, Seyeon suddenly remembered something her grandmother had once said.
“Grandma thought ‘beautiful sunrise’ meant sunset until she was quite old. My older brother told me that’s what it was called. I don’t remember much else, but I remember that clearly. Beautiful sunrise.”
Her grandmother had once had an older brother who was not very good at English.
On an evening pier where the sunset painted the sea and sky the same color, he had supposedly taken out a piece of bread he had carefully saved and offered it to his younger sister.
It was the only memory her grandmother still held onto after losing her parents and siblings at a young age and becoming an orphan.
When had that older brother, who might still be alive somewhere, realized that he had gotten the words wrong?
Considering that he gave the bread he had saved to his younger sister instead of eating it himself, he must have been a very kind brother.
“…Beautiful sunrise.”
Seyeon chuckled softly.
For some reason, it felt as though working at Sunrise Resort was her destiny all along.
—
“Cheshire, I’ll go find us some food, and you’ll guard the house. Those are our rules.”
After solemnly instructing Cheshire to watch the house while she went out in search of food, Seyeon left early in the morning.
Communication between them was somewhat difficult, but knowing that another living creature shared the house with her was strangely comforting.
She sat on the bench at the bus stop, where buses stopped only three times a day, waiting for the first bus to the terminal.
If she bought the things she needed at the market near the terminal and looked around the local shops, the timing would probably match up with the return bus.
Cheonghae-ri was a quiet village, but it was not completely lifeless.
According to her research, the opening of the luxury resort Sunrise had breathed life back into the once-dying town.
Even so, compared to Seoul, the place still felt peaceful and serene.
It was the sort of peace that made her feel as though she could understand and forgive everything.
Just not enough to forgive her ex-boyfriend.
While waiting for the bus, Seyeon remembered the text message Daehyun had sent her a few days earlier.
“I want to climb higher than my father. That’s all.”
Daehyun, who needed the title of First Living’s son-in-law in order to become more successful, had at least been honest.
He quickly realized that Myung Soyoung would be more helpful to his ambitions than Seyeon ever could be.
Her uncle, the eldest son of Chairman Myung’s first wife, had started as an executive in the management planning team and had risen to become president at an early age.
Meanwhile, Seyeon’s father, who had started as a manager in research and development, was still only an executive director in the same department.
Soyoung had graduated from an obscure foreign university and begun her career as the head of the sales planning team.
Seyeon, despite graduating from one of Korea’s most prestigious universities, had started as an assistant manager in the B2B team.
That was why her assignment to Cheonghae-ri was so important.
Chairman Myung had publicly declared that the future of First Living would be entrusted to the person who contributed the most to winning the Sunrise Resort contract.
Do I also want to climb higher, just like Kim Daehyun?
Lost in thought as she stared ahead, Seyeon noticed an expensive car slowly stop in front of her at the traffic light.
It was the kind of car rarely seen in the countryside.
“…”
The face of the man behind the wheel looked familiar.
An expensive car, a luxury watch, an appearance lacking humility, and a personality that was anything but selfless.
For someone who acted as though he owned the countryside, he lived an excessively urban lifestyle and made no effort to hide it.
Seyeon watched him with sharp eyes.
Maybe he wasn’t actually an academy director, and his name was simply Si Won-jang.
Could he possibly be my competitor?
There was no guarantee that Best Furniture, the industry leader, had not sent someone like her to this village.
At that moment, the man noticed her gaze and turned his head.
The instant he saw Seyeon staring at him, his lips moved slightly.
“What are you looking at?”
“…”
The rude man drove away as soon as the light changed.
When she arrived at the bus terminal, which was quieter than the day before, the corn-selling grandmother was still sitting in the same place.
“Oh, miss, it’s you again. Did you get home safely yesterday?”
The grandmother greeted her warmly as soon as she spotted her.
“Yes, hello, Grandma.”
Just as Seyeon bowed her head in greeting, the pager lying beside the grandmother suddenly flashed red and began to vibrate loudly.
It was the round pager commonly seen in cafés.
“Oh dear, it’s already my turn.”
Holding the vibrating pager in her hand, the grandmother hurried away.
An old man carrying an identical pager followed right behind her.
Outdoor pagers—it was a rather strange sight.
Wondering whether there was a café nearby, Seyeon watched them.
The place they entered in such a hurry was not a café at all.
It was Seoul Clinic, a building that stood proudly among the rows of small shops.
