With a metallic clatter, the watch wrapped around the man’s wrist came loose. His elegant fingertips slowly turned the dial, as if rolling prayer beads between his fingers.
Even that small movement was anything but ordinary. The car he had arrived in, the suit he wore, even his shoes—all of them were worth the price of an entire apartment in Nasari.
Click—the watch was placed on the table.
“Consider it the retainer.”
Gulp. The sound of someone swallowing nervously was unmistakable.
A toad-like hand hesitated as it hovered over the table, unsure whether to reach for the watch.
What had come off his wrist was not merely a watch. It was the time he had lost. Or perhaps the lingering attachment he still could not bring himself to throw away.
“The deadline is twenty-four hours.”
“Pardon? Usually, when looking for someone…”
“If you can’t do it, forget it.”
Just as the man reached for the watch he had placed down, the toad-like hand snatched it first.
Though it had only been a short while, sweat had already formed, and the man wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. Anyone would have to be a complete fool to let a watch worth hundreds of millions slip away right before his eyes.
“Twenty-four hours will be enough.”
The private information broker tucked the watch against his chest as though it were a sacred treasure, the corners of his mouth lifting like a fish that had taken the bait.
When Executive Manager Yoo handed him a business card, he accepted it with an almost reverent posture.
“Contact us as soon as you find her.”
“Yes, understood.”
At the broker’s confident reply, the man stood up.
The time he had waited. The time he had forgotten. And now, the time to turn everything back.
As if winding a stopped watch, he repeated the name engraved upon his heart.
Maria.
Baek Shin-woo, who had gotten into the car, gave a brief order.
“Take me to the village.”
When he returned to the village, he went straight upstairs without responding to the greetings of the servants. As always, the gleaming grand piano greeted him.
He approached the ownerless piano and pressed a key.
Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do.
The clear notes settled into the air, ringing out like her laughter.
As strength gathered in his fingertips pressing the keys, the once-clear note suddenly cracked. Before the vibration of the keys had even faded, the light filtering through the window had begun to grow dim.
A hurried voice called out to him as it approached.
“Director.”
His eyes fell on the documents in Executive Manager Yoo’s hand. He closed the piano and entered the study.
Executive Manager Yoo followed him inside and handed over the documents. There was a photograph among them.
He slowly picked it up and examined it.
Although the picture had been taken from a distance, he could recognize her from her silhouette alone.
It was her.
“Is this Ms. Maria?”
“It is.”
The only thing that had changed was the passage of time. Maria was still the same.
Even that silhouette in the photograph made his blood boil.
It was as though his heart had instantly brought those memories back to life. No—as though that lost time had returned, her image appeared vividly before his eyes.
Looking back, Maria had never loved him.
Her gentle gaze and soft manner of speaking had all been nothing but hypocrisy.
As the memories of the time she had deceived him resurfaced, the veins in his body seemed ready to burst.
The devastating sense of betrayal spread like wildfire.
A past that tormented him no matter how hard he tried to cut it away.
The lingering warmth of those memories seeped into his skin like an afterimage.
Maria.
Just thinking of her name made it difficult to breathe.
Even if it had all been hypocrisy, that time had been sweet.
“Are you going to see Ms. Maria now?”
“What for?”
His relaxed attitude was strange for someone who had desperately searched for her.
Executive Manager Yoo watched him with puzzlement.
He took a bottle of whiskey from the rack and leisurely took a sip. It was as though he had finally found an exit from an endless desert and could breathe again.
“But you told him to find her within twenty-four hours…”
“Manager Yoo.”
His hand moved smoothly as he loosened his tie, as though unraveling a tangled ball of thread.
Baek Shin-woo tilted his neck once and rubbed the back of it. Executive Manager Yoo carefully watched his expression before answering.
“Yes, Director.”
To him, there were two kinds of people.
Those who belonged buried in the past, and those who should be dragged into the present.
Maria was an exception.
She was a name he had personally pulled out from the past he had buried.
It seemed she had lived well while hiding for five years. At least, she had not changed in the photograph.
For five years, he had endured a life that felt like hell.
Wasn’t it time to change those years now?
Now, it was his turn to live well.
And that meant Maria’s suffocating days were about to begin.
That was the only way to restore the balance.
“Have you ever played hide-and-seek?”
“What?”
“The hair you thought was perfectly hidden was showing. So doesn’t that mean I’ve found her?”
Maria’s smiling face in the photograph irritated him.
The photograph crumpled and straightened repeatedly between Baek Shin-woo’s fingertips. His obsession deepened with every crease.
“I’ll make her come to me on her own.”
She would come looking for him herself.
She would put the shackles around her own ankles.
The corners of his lips twisted upward.
A mixture of understanding and bewilderment escaped between Executive Manager Yoo’s lips.
The next day.
Nasari, on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.
“Ms. Maria, I hope you get good news. We’ll contact you again later.”
“Yes, thank you. Have a good day.”
Contrary to her nervousness, the interview ended in a comfortable atmosphere.
They told her she would know whether she had been accepted within a week. After saying goodbye, Ria stepped outside.
She had taken a taxi on the way there, but it seemed the wait for a call taxi on the way back would take too long.
She started walking toward the entrance road to catch a bus.
A grand stone monument bearing the words ‘Dream Village’ caught her eye.
She had just glanced at the name carved into the stone and was about to pass through the main entrance arch when several black sedans began entering in a line.
Ria stepped behind the monument and waited for the cars to pass.
As the last sedan went by, a man’s hand briefly emerged through the slightly open window before disappearing inside again.
Ria stepped out in front of the main entrance.
She hoped she would be able to set foot in this place again.
Her wish came true on the day her contract with the Korea Rural Community Corporation ended.
A call finally came from the ‘Dream Village’ she had been waiting for.
When she heard that she could start working there from the very next day, Ria jumped for joy.
Although it was a contract position, it could be renewed every two years.
The benefits were good, and more than anything, she liked the high salary.
That evening, Ria bought some beef and held a small celebration with her son, Yoon.
“Mom, the meat is melting.”
“Eat plenty. Mom will work hard and buy you more.”
“Mom, you eat too. Why aren’t you eating?”
“I like chicken better.”
“I like everything.”
“That’s why Yoon should eat it all.”
After watching her son finish an entire bowl of rice, she bathed him and put him to bed.
It was a warm, peaceful night.
Ria had trouble sleeping because she was excited about starting work.
Faint light slipped through the curtains, and Ria slowly blinked awake.
She hurriedly got her child ready for daycare and headed to ‘Dream Village.’
Officially, it was a corporate training center, but inside, it possessed all the grandeur of a chaebol family estate.
Buggy cars were lined up in front of the cart maintenance room, making it feel as though she had arrived at a golf course.
Ria entered the village, surrounded by living nature and the atmosphere of the changing seasons.
The house manager came to greet the new employees.
There were ten newcomers in total, including Ria.
Everyone lived on the premises except her, as she was the only one who commuted.
Their positions were different, but the rules regarding work and conduct were the same.
“Protecting privacy is essential. Any conversations or information exchanged within this village must not be disclosed. The list of VIPs entering and leaving the village must also remain confidential.”
Ria signed a confidentiality agreement just like the ones she had seen in dramas.
Everyone was required to familiarize themselves with emergency procedures and the security-system manual.
They all nodded.
“VIP-exclusive private galas are held here quite often. There’s one scheduled for this Friday as well. Everything must be perfectly prepared by then.”
When the manager finished speaking, the laundry attendant brought over the housekeeper uniforms.
A black dress, a white apron, and even a lace headdress.
The traditional yet unfamiliar outfit was laid out before her.
Ria took the clothes and changed into the uniform in the dressing room before coming back out.
The employees who had been gathered together like a cloud began murmuring before scattering like smoke.
Then, all of a sudden, the manager and butler hurried outside.
Ria looked around, wondering what was happening.
Through the enormous glass windows, she could see a procession of the same black sedans she had seen before.
Someone stepped out of the lead vehicle.
A low whisper spread among the housekeepers.
“The owner of the village is here.”
Ria moved to the very end of the line and stood straight.
She was there to welcome the master of the estate.
The village doors swung wide open.
A man wearing a suit entered with his hands in his pockets.
Because of his arrogant stride, Ria first looked at his polished shoes.
Slowly, her gaze traveled from his feet, up his legs, to his upper body, and finally to the neatly fastened suit.
The familiar way he walked and the atmosphere surrounding him gradually tightened around her chest.
Step by step, the sound of his dress shoes striking the floor seemed to pierce straight into her heart.
Then, at the exact moment the man approached her and their eyes met—
Time stopped.
All the blood in her body seemed to freeze, and a chill spread down her spine.
