TWB CH 05

Chapter 5

The moment he stood beside her, the woody scent she loved so much and was so familiar with gently tickled the tip of her nose.

Like snow melting, Seol-ah’s expression slowly, little by little, began to crumble.

He was truly an arrogant man, arrogant to the very core.

And he was cold.

There was nothing new about that. She knew exactly what he was like.

He was the man she had loved so desperately despite knowing all of it…

She hated this man who did not love her and who completely ignored her family.

Yet, at the same time, she could not help but be deeply grateful to him for staying until the very end of her mother’s funeral, even though he clearly knew that the elders of his family were against it.

Her feelings made her feel like a dog endlessly wagging its tail toward a heartless owner.

Seol-ah pressed the tender inside of her lip tightly and lowered her gaze.

Her long eyelashes, lowered at an angle, were trembling faintly.

They buried her mother beneath a cornelian cherry tree.

Gicheol had originally wanted a modest pine tree planted over the grave, but Seol-ah stubbornly refused until the very end.

She hated the thought of a pine tree with its sharp, needle-like leaves that remained the same color throughout every season.

It seemed to reflect her mother’s difficult and monotonous life too perfectly.

Instead, Seol-ah chose a cornelian cherry tree.

In spring, it would bloom with yellow flowers.

In summer, its leaves would shine fresh and green.

In autumn, it would bear red fruit.

And in winter, it would enter a long winter sleep.

Seol-ah chose it because she wanted her mother to rest peacefully beneath a tree that changed with the seasons.

Gicheol had been watching Moon-hyuk, who stood beside Seol-ah, and eventually gave in to her wishes.

They dug the ground.

The urn containing her mother’s cremated ashes was carefully placed inside, and soil was scattered over it.

Then a pure white chrysanthemum was laid on top.

Mom, I’ll come often.

With those words, Seol-ah’s farewell to her mother finally came to an end.

“Cha Seo-bang. You’ve worked hard.”

Gicheol spoke.

There was a faint look of relief on his face.

At the same time, although he was trying his best to maintain his dignity and speak politely as the elder, there was an awkwardness in his manner.

Gicheol continued, trying to find some way to exchange even a few more words with his son-in-law, a man whom it was harder to see than the stars in the sky.

“You must be hungry, right? Have lunch with us before you leave. I know a place that serves good, neat food.”

Having gone this far, he even lightly patted Moon-hyuk’s solid forearm.

But—

“……”

Moon-hyuk did not answer.

He merely frowned openly and looked down at Gicheol with an arrogant gaze.

Then he slowly shifted his eyes downward and coldly stared at Gicheol’s hand tapping his arm.

“……!”

Gicheol’s expression visibly stiffened.

Apparently, the gesture he had intended as a friendly sign had offended his son-in-law.

At the same time, embarrassment washed over him.

Even though Samdong was only a third-tier construction company in the provinces, wasn’t he still the head of a company?

For someone like him, having his son-in-law show such obvious disgust through his expression and gaze, as though Gicheol himself were carrying some contagious disease, made his ears burn red.

“Ahem.”

Gicheol covered his embarrassment with a cough and withdrew his hand, which had nowhere else to go.

His violently trembling eyes instinctively searched for someone to vent his frustration on.

Naturally, that person was Seol-ah.

Even though his daughter’s face looked so pitiful after becoming completely worn out over the past few days—

They say that if a man’s wife is beautiful, he’ll even bow to the post at his wife’s parents’ gate. Tsk! How did she manage to fail so completely at winning a man’s heart?

She had inherited his delicate and attractive appearance, but perhaps she had inherited her mother’s nature too.

To Gicheol, his daughter looked like a foolish, hopeless woman who could not even properly hold on to her husband’s heart.

In contrast, Se-eun, dressed in black mourning clothes that somehow made her look even more radiant, was subtly gazing at Moon-hyuk with eyes sparkling like a morning star.

Seeing her, Gicheol’s heart burned with regret.

They say you can live with a fox-like woman, but not with a bear-like woman.

I should have gotten my eldest daughter married somehow. If I had, we wouldn’t be treated like this!

Just as he was glaring at Seol-ah again with narrowed, spiteful eyes—

“Uh, Director.”

Manager Kim Tae-woo, who had been standing some distance away, approached them.

His arrival broke the uncomfortable tension.

Gicheol, Se-eun, and Seol-ah all turned their eyes toward Tae-woo.

“……!”

Seol-ah’s eyes shook for a moment.

Her eyes had met Tae-woo’s directly.

The moment Tae-woo’s eyes met Seol-ah’s, he hurriedly shifted his gaze toward Moon-hyuk.

Moon-hyuk did not miss that brief moment.

But he showed no reaction.

He merely raised an eyebrow, looking slightly amused and faintly mocking.

Tae-woo immediately composed his expression into that of a capable aide.

“The Chairman is waiting for you. You also have a video conference at three regarding the Riyadh underground tunnel construction project.”

Tae-woo stopped there, but the meaning behind his words was obvious.

You need to leave now.

It was something an aide naturally had to say.

However, the timing of his intervention, just as Gicheol was glaring at Seol-ah, and the way Tae-woo’s gaze had lingered on Seol-ah like a passing breeze had been caught by Moon-hyuk.

“……”

Moon-hyuk did not answer immediately.

With his characteristic deep, cold gaze, he looked at Tae-woo, then slowly shifted his eyes toward Seol-ah.

The short moment lasted less than ten seconds, yet it felt painfully slow.

A faint sneer appeared as one corner of his sensual lips tilted upward.

But soon, Moon-hyuk completely erased his expression and firmly tugged at the lapel of his suit.

Snap!

The sound of him straightening his clothes seemed to bring the situation to an end.

Moon-hyuk turned toward Gicheol and spoke.

“I should be going now.”

“Y-yes. Of course. You should go. Thank you so much for coming.”

“Thank you, Brother-in-law.”

Se-eun, who had been watching Moon-hyuk every chance she got, quickly added her words as though she had been waiting for the opportunity.

But he did not even glance at her.

“Then.”

Moon-hyuk merely gave Gicheol a brief nod and immediately turned around with a perfectly controlled movement.

He began walking away with measured, disciplined steps.

Tae-woo politely bowed to Gicheol and Se-eun without saying anything, then immediately followed behind him.

Seol-ah’s eyes endlessly followed their backs.

No.

They followed Moon-hyuk’s back.

With every step Moon-hyuk took farther away, it seemed as though she could hear the sound of his footsteps beside her ears, even though there was no way she could actually hear them from that distance.

Gicheol and Se-eun were no different.

They stared blankly at Moon-hyuk with their mouths slightly open, looking almost like meerkats.

Whoosh.

A gust of wind swept past.

The wind was stronger than expected, sending Seol-ah’s black mourning skirt fluttering and mercilessly whipping her hair against her face.

The sky was incredibly blue and clear.

Yet the leaves rustling loudly as they collided and scattered in the wind seemed to be warning of a fierce storm.

And it wasn’t an illusion.

“Damn it!”

Gicheol exhaled roughly and glared at Seol-ah as though he wanted to devour her.

His clenched fist trembled so violently that the veins stood out.

She had thought that her mother’s death had finally severed the last remaining thread between herself and her father.

But habits built up over so many years were truly frightening.

At the sight of her father’s fierce glare and his entire body radiating irritation and anger, Seol-ah instinctively flinched.

Her shoulders curled inward.

“You’re a completely useless girl! Even if I try to find some use for you, there isn’t one. You’re never any help. Why on earth were you born in the first place, of all people…!”

Gicheol’s vicious words came crashing down on Seol-ah like a storm.

She tried to straighten her shoulders.

She tried to raise her head and face Gicheol directly.

But in front of him, as he growled and hurled abusive words at her without hesitation, she became a child once again.

It’s because I’m useless.

Because I’m a bad person.

Because I’m stupid.

She had spent countless nights crying herself to sleep during her childhood because of the sharp, cutting words that came from her father’s tongue.

It had been a reality she could not endure unless she denied herself and blamed herself for everything.

She knew how pathetic she looked like this.

Even so, she felt as though she had been dragged back once again to the days when she used to cry silently through the night.

And because of that, she did not notice that Moon-hyuk had stopped walking.