Chapter 06
“As you can see, she’s not feeling well. We’ll just greet you and head over today.”
“Tch, honestly.”
Seo Chang-soo clicked his tongue in displeasure.
Just then, Eun-mi, who was standing beside him, stepped forward with a kind expression.
“Right. You must be tired, so go in and rest. Oh, wait.”
As Harry turned to leave from behind Tae-min, Eun-mi hurriedly grabbed Harry’s arm.
“They say this is good for anemia. I was so worried when I saw you collapse at the wedding hall.”
Eun-mi tried to force a bag into Harry’s hand with a gentle voice.
In the process, the distance between them closed.
Beneath the wide-brimmed hat, Harry’s eyes, revealed above the mask, met Eun-mi’s directly.
That was the moment.
Eun-mi’s hand stopped midair.
Her eyes, fixed on Harry, trembled.
Harry roughly brushed off Eun-mi’s hand.
“I don’t need it.”
Thud.
The paper bag tumbled to the floor.
“I’ll go ahead.”
Harry spun around and fled the living room as if escaping.
Watching Harry’s retreating back, Seo Chang-soo burst out.
“Th-that, that insolent brat! Chairman Jung must have spoiled her rotten, that’s why she has no manners.”
“That’s enough.”
Tae-min cut off Chang-soo’s words with a cold, lowered voice.
“Jung Hee-sun has to be comfortable here for the 200 billion won to come in. Have you forgotten that?”
At the mention of the investment money, Chang-soo’s mouth, which had been spewing complaints, clamped shut.
He wanted to argue but couldn’t.
Right now, the leash of the BS Group was in Tae-min’s handsāor rather, in his precious daughter-in-law’s hands.
“ā¦Tch!”
Passing by Chang-soo’s reddening face with indifference, Tae-min looked at Eun-mi.
She was still staring blankly at the entrance where Harry had left.
Tae-min nudged the medicine that had fallen to the floor.
“Don’t prepare things like this in the future.”
“ā¦Huh? Oh, sorry. I did something unnecessaryā¦”
Eun-mi flinched and frantically picked up the medicine bottle that had fallen.
Looking down at her, Tae-min’s eyes were filled with fierce contempt.
“Don’t do anything. Just like you always have.”
Eun-mi’s hand froze.
“Tae-min.”
Eun-mi urgently called her son’s name, but Tae-min turned away without even a reply.
Eun-mi’s lips moved, but in the end, she gave a weak smile and bowed her head.
“ā¦Alright. Go get some rest.”
Without looking back, Tae-min walked steadily toward the entrance where Harry had disappeared.
*
Once outside, Harry was standing idly in front of the entrance.
“Let’s go.”
Tae-min firmly wrapped his arm around Harry’s shoulder.
He didn’t let go of her as they walked through the corridor to the annex.
From a distance, he looked like a husband protecting his fragile wife, but in reality, he was supporting and holding up Harry, who was swaying.
Thudā
The annex’s front door closed, and only after entering the space cut off from the outside did Tae-min’s hand release.
“Ughā¦!”
As soon as the supporting force vanished, Harry slid down against the entrance wall.
She couldn’t breathe.
She roughly tore off her mask and hat, but the air of that house, lodged deep in her lungs, wouldn’t leave.
Harry clutched her chest, suppressing the nausea that threatened to rise.
‘I was so worried.’
Eun-mi’s hand, which had touched hers moments ago.
That kind, warm hand had been the only one that made her feel maternal love, growing up without a mother.
She thought tears would burst out.
No, they should have burst out.
That should have been the only way to pour out this misery and injustice, but instead of tears, only a bitter nausea rose.
‘ā¦They won’t come.’
Harry stared into empty space with hollow eyes.
Since the night five years ago when she was driven out of this house, Harry’s tear ducts had ceased to function.
Her body had become one that couldn’t cry even when she wanted to, couldn’t scream even when she wanted to.
Grief was a luxury, she told herself.
To survive, she must not cry anymore.
Perhaps it was a gift and a curse from heaven.
“You look like a mess.”
Tae-min’s dry voice came from above her head.
He bent one knee and sat in front of her, meeting her at eye level.
His tone was cold, but he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and meticulously wiped the cold sweat beaded on Harry’s forehead.
‘Oppa is here againā¦’
As a child, Harry was a crybaby.
Once she started crying, she couldn’t stop easily.
Whenever she hid alone in the vast mansion and cried, Tae-min always appeared.
Her oppa, who normally ignored her without even a glance.
The oppa she thought hated her would always appear and sit beside her whenever she cried.
He didn’t comfort or soothe her.
He just silently stayed by her side until Harry’s crying stopped.
Even now, when her tears had run dry, that oppa was by her side.
“You’re not crying today.”
He probably didn’t know that her entire body was screaming and crying.
Harry looked at Tae-min with bloodshot eyes.
“Because it’s disgusting. Those people smiling as if nothing happened.”
Harry’s voice trembled.
If they had hit or abused her, at least she could have hated them.
But the pain of having the time she believed she was loved completely negated was horrifying.
The betrayal was as great as the happiness she’d felt, and the wounds were as deep as the warm memories.
“So, what do you want to do?”
Tae-min’s dark eyes pierced through Harry’s wavering interior.
“I want to make sure they can never smile again.”
Harry clenched her fist.
The pain of her nails digging into her flesh woke her hazy mind.
Tae-min withdrew the handkerchief and cupped Harry’s cheek.
His thumb pressed and stroked her cheek firmly.
As if wiping away tears from her dry cheeks.
Meeting Harry’s venomous eyes, Tae-min curled the corners of his mouth with satisfaction.
“I like that.”
He brought his lips close to Harry’s ear and whispered languidly.
“So seduce me. So I can give you everything you want.”
*
The annex was quieter than the main house.
Beyond the living room finished with floor-to-ceiling glass, the garden asleep in darkness spread out like a painting.
The interior was far more refined and cozy than she’d expected.
Dark wood-toned furniture and cold marble floors.
And the indirect lighting placed here and there created a strange harmony.
This was where Tae-min had lived alone since childhood.
‘Don’t go to the annex. Especially don’t go near Master Tae-min.’
If Harry even peeked out of curiosity, the servants would panic and stop her.
‘I heard Master Tae-min broke a hunting dog’s neck on the spot.’
As a child, Harry’s curiosity always came before frightening rumors.
She’d always wondered what it was like inside there, what her oppa inside was doing.
And now, this place had become his and Harry’s honeymoon home.
Harry turned her gaze toward the firmly closed study door.
He’d gone in for work and hadn’t come out for a long time.
‘Seduce me.’
His languid voice revived like an auditory hallucination, tickling her ear.
Tae-min’s proposal to thoroughly use him for revenge.
Harry was confused.
Was Tae-min a savior?
Or a monster leading her into another trap?
If she could seduce him and wield the blade of revenge, just as he saidā¦
Harry stopped in front of a full-length mirror.
In the mirror, a strange woman was facing Harry.
“ā¦Jung Hee-sun.”
Her long hair that once reached her waist was gone, replaced by a sharp bob cut at her jawline.
Just before entering Seo Chang-soo’s house, she’d cut her hair while looking at Jung Hee-sun’s photo.
Slowly.
Harry’s fingertips rubbed her now-bare nape.
At that moment, Tae-min’s image came to mind.
The large hand that roughly gripped her nape, the hot, ragged breath that touched her neck.
The sensation came back vividly, and her heart began to race uncontrollably.
Harry stared intently at Jung Hee-sun’s red lips in the mirror.
If she were really Jung Hee-sun.
What expression would she wear to shake that monstrous man while held in his arms?
Harry borrowed Jung Hee-sun’s mask in the mirror and imagined herself in Tae-min’s arms.
Buzzā Buzzā
The phone in her hand vibrated loudly.
[file content end]
