Chapter 8
No matter what explanation Jaekyung gave, Yugam probably wouldn't believe her easily.
And with her heart pounding and Yugam's strangely familiar scent surrounding her, she couldn't answer anymore.
“Are you sleeping at the jjimjilbang again tonight?”
“...No.”
Earlier, after hearing what Teacher Kim said, Jaekyung had checked the group chats.
There were many comments about her and the new chairman.
Most of them were unfavorable toward Jaekyung.
“Move into my house.”
Jaekyung was startled, but she tried not to show it.
“I'm not asking you to live with me.”
“Then what are you asking?”
“We're already married.”
Yugam spoke as if it were obvious.
“So there's no reason for us to live separately. Until the paperwork is settled, living together is the natural choice.”
Just as Jaekyung was about to refuse, her phone buzzed.
[Uitae Foundation Audit Office: A home visit to Teacher Seo Jaekyung is scheduled for this evening. If your marital status and current residence cannot be clearly verified within 48 hours, you may be removed from duty. Please confirm your address.]
A second message followed.
Attached were the photos taken at the restaurant.
There were also pictures of Jaekyung entering and leaving the jjimjilbang.
Jaekyung looked up in shock.
Her eyes met Yugam's, who had been watching beside her.
Because of the audit office's message, Jaekyung had no choice but to move into Yugam's house.
Her own home was under seizure, leaving her with nowhere else to claim as her residence.
Thanks to Yugam's consideration, the audit team verified her identity outside the front door and then left.
“Are you planning to stand at the entrance forever?”
“...No.”
“I won't attack you. Come inside.”
Even after taking off her shoes, Jaekyung's legs refused to move.
She had no idea what might happen once she entered this space.
Yugam's eyes shifted downward.
“What's that?”
“Saebom.”
Jaekyung tightened her arms around the flowerpot.
“...It belonged to my mother.”
She couldn't leave the plant, one of the few things left behind by her late mother, in an empty seized house.
“I hate animals and plants.”
A faint crease appeared between Yugam's brows as he looked at the flowerpot in Jaekyung's arms.
“Put it somewhere I can't see it.”
“I'll keep it somewhere out of sight.”
Afraid he might come into her room and throw it away, Jaekyung carried the flowerpot inside and locked the door tightly behind her.
She looked around and placed Saebom inside the dressing area.
Jaekyung hadn't taken particularly good care of it, but the plant had somehow survived.
To her, Saebom was almost like a younger sibling.
At least she liked the luxurious bathroom far more than she wanted to admit.
Worried she might fall asleep in the bathtub again, Jaekyung took a quick shower instead.
Afterward, she rubbed her wet hair roughly with a thick, expensive towel.
“This is seriously humiliating.”
She buried her face in the hotel-like bed and collapsed onto it again.
Just thinking about what might happen next already made her head hurt.
Yugam's words returned to her.
“Try not to seduce me too much if you don't want me calling you a gold-digger.”
“Haa... I really don't want to go outside.”
She buried her face deeper.
“That man really is insane.”
Then she muttered angrily,
“I never seduced you!”
She had spent the entire night tossing and turning, swallowing all the anger she had failed to throw directly into Yugam's face.
She had only been twenty.
She had accepted the contract marriage without having the luxury to question it because of her mother's hospital bills.
Since the proposal came from an executive of a major corporation, she had believed they wouldn't hurt her simply because money and contracts were involved.
She remembered her mother's final words.
“Jaei. Don't suffer because of money like I did.”
“And don't live being pointed at or looked down on just because people call you a shaman's daughter.”
Her mother had only wanted her only daughter to live an ordinary, beautiful life like everyone else.
But the world hadn't made that easy.
Yugam had suddenly appeared and said they were starting again.
She still couldn't understand what he meant.
So far, all he had done was threaten her with money and glare coldly.
But she couldn't let her guard down.
I should just work hard.
But then he told her not to work too hard.
What exactly did he want?
A soft piano melody suddenly came from the next room.
Did he turn on music?
Jaekyung recognized the solo piano melody immediately.
Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, third movement.
It was deeply familiar to her.
A memory from high school surfaced.
“Go clean the principal's office every day.”
Because she was receiving a scholarship, Jaekyung hadn't been able to complain about cleaning the principal's office.
Beside it was the music room.
Every time she cleaned, beautiful piano music drifted through the wall.
The melody had felt lonely and warm at the same time.
Like walking alone through a garden after nightfall.
It always made Jaekyung think of her mother, and her eyes would grow damp.
The next day.
And the day after that.
At some point, she had gotten used to cleaning while listening to that piece.
“I'm jealous. He's good.”
She had once wanted to learn piano herself if she ever got the chance, like her friend Yeseul, who had won first prize at a piano competition.
Jaekyung had peeked through the small window in the music room door.
The person at the piano had been a male student.
Tall.
Large hands.
Maybe he's lonely too.
Perhaps it was because of his black school jacket, but watching him had felt like watching a real pianist perform.
Piano Man.
Jaekyung had secretly given him that nickname.
She would hum along with the familiar melody.
It touched her heart gently, like walking beside a quiet lake covered in mist.
Her mother had left home when Jaekyung was seven.
Her father was rarely around.
