MR 04

Chapter 04

The Prodigal Child Returns.

The mansion, embracing a spacious garden, had outer walls that looked like a massive sculpture. The natural stone used as finishing material was so elaborate and beautiful, like a work of art, that I couldn’t take my eyes off it. As if by the architect’s design, the path to the front door was also laid out to wind around the outer wall along a deck.

The interior I finally stepped into was just as luxurious and dazzling as the exterior. The corridor connected by sliding doors, the tasteful antechamber, and the vivid Richter painting hanging at the front of it all.

That whole scenery felt, how should I put it, like a world thoroughly isolated from the outside.

“It’s so nice having you home after so long, noona. You’ll have dinner with us too, right? No wait, why don’t you just stay the night?”

“I’d love that. But where’s Dam?”

“He said he’d come after finishing his run. Ah, wait here a moment. I’ll go get Mom. Dad left early for a breakfast meeting, but he’ll probably be back around lunchtime.”

The excited San scurried off to call Mom. I tidied my neatly tied hair and fell into thought. What should I say for the first words?

‘Hello.’

Too stiff?

‘I’m here.’

Too cheeky?

‘How have you been? I’m sorry for worrying you.’

Yes, this seems humble and good. It fits perfectly with the concept of a gentle, well-behaved eldest daughter. Let’s cleanly erase the image of the thoughtless troublemaker.

Having finished my deliberation, I looked around the open living room. The space, unified in cozy tones throughout, was made warmer by the wooden fireplace installed on one side, and on top of it were several framed photos.

“Cute. They looked even more alike when they were young.”

What stood out at a glance was the young twins, always dressed in matching outfits in every photo. The faces of my parents, smiling brightly beside the mischievous children, were—as expected—unfamiliar.

They’re the ones who gave me life and raised me, yet I can’t even remember their faces. Whether before or now, I’m an unfilial daughter through and through.

Swallowing the bitter feeling, I looked closely at each photo one by one.

Admissions and graduations, picnics and trips—looking at the moments captured forever in these photos of happy times, there was no doubt this was a warm and harmonious family.

Except for the fact that I wasn’t in any of them.

That’s when it happened. A woman who seemed middle-aged and yet somehow younger crossed the living room.

She had an age that was hard to pin down but an atmosphere as subtle as a Renaissance portrait—she was unmistakably my mother.

Even without having seen the photos, I would have recognized her at once. Her deeply extended eyes and nose tip like a flower bud just before blooming closely resembled Baek Ijun’s—that is, the ones I’d seen in the mirror.

I bowed my head toward her as she approached, wearing the most amiable smile I could manage.

First impressions matter. First, a greeting……

“You’ve been well—”

“Mom—!!”

Behind San’s horrified shout, what sliced past my ear was a sharp crashing sound.

At the same time, a shattered vase rolled at my feet.

“Who do you think you are, crawling back in here.”

The house, as vast as the world, went as silent as if a mouse had died. I stood motionless, watching the water spilling from the vase darken and eat into the soft carpet.

“You worthless wretch, less than a bug—how dare you…….”

“…….”

“After doing all that, you show your face so shamelessly—who do you think you are—!!”

Blue-black nerves shot out like needles, relentlessly stabbing at my skin. Blood dripped from my ankle, cut by glass shards.

It’s sad enough being turned away everywhere, and now I’m bleeding too.

A self-mocking laugh tried to surface, but if I misread the mood at a time like this, it seemed like it wouldn’t just be a vase flying at me but maybe a knife—so I bit down hard on my lower lip.

Right, what have I done to deserve a welcome? If I’m going to get scolded, I should get scolded.

“What’s your scheme? As if trying to kill my family wasn’t enough, what’s your scheme to make Han Jeha a widower and ruin the business too! We gave you everything, didn’t we! You took the executive director position at the planning office as the price of marriage—so you should have kept that important contract!”

“Mom, are you crazy? Why are you doing this, seriously!”

“What do you have to feel so wronged about all by yourself, huh? If you were born a wretched girl, you should have spent your life atoning and paving the way for your younger siblings—who told you to claw and scheme to steal even what belongs to the children, you greedy, presumptuous—!”

I don’t need to think deeply to know. This kind of verbal abuse and contempt isn’t a one-time thing. The insults and degradations I must have suffered hundreds, thousands of times.

It might have been somewhat effective in trampling on the old Baek Ijun.

But unfortunately—or fortunately—the woman before me called my mother was more unfamiliar than a lady I’d pass at the market, and to the present me, her words sounded like nothing but lines from a morning soap opera.

“Noona—!!”

That’s when I heard someone rushing up behind me, and a hand immediately shot out and grabbed my bleeding ankle. It was Dam.

His voice, spat out roughly, was sharper than ever before.

“Are you in your right mind? Noona was just discharged. She’s still a patient!”

“Do you know what that girl did? She’s the one who lured you two away and even tried to abandon you! I still can’t even look your father properly in the face—I’m ashamed I gave birth to that thing! And don’t you dare misunderstand—the reason we let this matter pass quietly was for your sake. We covered it up because we couldn’t let a criminal record into the Baek family, with the most unbearable feelings!”

“Mom, please! Noona came here to try to make things right! To someone like her…… this is abuse—emotional and physical abuse!”

Even San is raising his voice and defying his own mother. For my sake. When the one who actually hit and tormented them was me.

The tip of my nose tingled and something rang dully in a corner of my heart.

Dam, San. You two really are the best little brothers in the world. This pathetic noona will get her act together from now on, if only for your sakes.

“You must have been very shocked—I sincerely apologize.”

I bowed as politely and respectfully as I could. Bowing too deeply might look like mockery, so I had to maintain just the right angle, and my thighs trembled slightly from the effort. I counted three seconds in my heart and raised my head with a sorrowful expression.

Think sad thoughts. Sad thoughts, sad thoughts……

“I don’t understand myself why I did such things either. Spilled water can’t be gathered back, but still, I apologize like this. If you were hurt by my immature and rude behavior, I’m truly sorry.”

“You. What are you doing right now?”

She contorted her face at my sincere apology, then as if dumbfounded, snapped sharply.

“First you babble about losing your memory or whatever, and now you’re going to try acting too?”

As expected, she didn’t believe a single word about losing my memory from the accident aftereffects. It was a passage that indirectly showed just how outrageous Baek Ijun’s tyranny had been—enough to make even a doctor’s diagnosis untrustworthy.

But I didn’t back down before her doubt-filled glare and lowered myself even further. Before this could be misunderstood as a self-staged accident too, I needed to lie flat.

“I know it’s truly unforgivable to drive nails into Mother and Father’s hearts and then act as if nothing happened because I can’t remember. Even I would find it absurd and infuriating. You don’t have to believe me, but I didn’t think it was right to just pretend I didn’t know, so I came.”

Despite the still distrustful and shooting glares, I steadfastly maintained the concept of ‘the prodigal child who returned regretting and reflecting on the past.’ Perhaps it had an effect, because her fierce eyes seemed noticeably softer than before.

You’re doing well, Baek Ijun. Like this, ease the mood, somehow make peace, and settle in.

“However—”

……Huh?

“Wouldn’t it be nice to fix that habit of speaking so carelessly? You wear expensive clothes and live in a nice house—if your mindset is cheap, that’s a problem, isn’t it.”

“……What?”

In an instant, the air around us turned cold.

What? What did I just say?

Before I could even replay it, what cut through the silence and rang out clearly was unmistakably my own voice.

“No, I mean, it’s true, isn’t it? What era are we living in, saying things like ‘wretch’ and whatnot—honestly, it’s tacky. And you seem to have had your fun using that wretch—oh my, Executive Director. You bragged so much I thought you’d handed over the company.”

“You insane…… insane thing…….”

Yes, I must be insane.

My mouth won’t stop saying what I’m saying—if that’s not insane, what is!