Chapter 4

“And you are?”

Yiseo knew instinctively. This man was the owner of the large room.

This was why she felt herself at a loss for words. It would’ve been quite understandable for him to be annoyed by her presence, but his voice was excessively calm. Instead of covering up his naked body, he let the water drip down his chiseled figure.

The droplets of water fell from his wet hair and trailed down his sharp nose and wet the floor.

“I’m asking, who are you?”

Yiseo quickly looked up. But she still couldn’t say anything. It was so unlike her.

It was the first time she had ever seen a man’s naked body.

Since she was young, there had been a lot of boys and men that hit on her because of her pretty looks. One of those guys was a very popular senior at her school; but to her, he was just a rude person who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

But this man standing in front of her was different from the immature pretty boys. Even in the darkness, his distinctive features and hard build signaled that this was an adult. She felt herself blush.

She realized too late how stupid she must look. As she moved her lips to try to make excuses, the man cut her off.

He let out a deep sigh and used his long arms to reach for the wall behind Yiseo’s face and pressed a button.

A few seconds later, there was a knock on the door.

It was Mrs. Kang.

“Yes, young master, did you call…Oh goodness, Yiseo!”

Mrs. Kang’s eyes were filled with horror.

Yiseo could hear her silent screams of: “Why are you still in this room? Why are you sitting on his bed!”

“I am so sorry, young master. It’s my fault. This child…”

Mrs. Kang bowed low. She dragged Yiseo out of the bed.

Yiseo looked at his face, with a lost expression. She felt like she had done something terribly wrong.

Why did she have to let her guard down? So stupid.

The man stood there, listening to Mrs. Kang’s words.

“She is staying with us at the request of Jae Han. The president has given his permission as well.”

Just as Mrs. Kang let out her last words, Yiseo thought she saw something sharp flash in his emotionless eyes.

***

Jae Yeol Kwon.

That was what Mrs. Kang told her his name was.

He was twenty-three.

He attended school overseas, but he had come home for a quick visit because his father wasn’t feeling well.

Mrs. Kang warned her, “It is best that you don’t bump into him anymore if you can help it. There will be no helping you if he kicks you out.”

That was something Yiseo had picked up on immediately. After his arrival, the already formal air in the estate grew more stifling.

Everyone was careful of their movements, had their ears open for any command, and were on alert for his every move.

It was on a different level from the typical rich kids. As if he had an elegance deeply flowing inside of him, even his steps were dignified.

Therefore, she really had to keep out of his sight. She knew she was nothing more than an unwelcome guest.

But perhaps, inwardly, she wanted to make a good impression.

She took what little money she saved up and bought an aromatic incense. She secretly went into his room and put it in an obscure spot. Mrs. Kang’s words that he suffered from insomnia kept whirring in her head.

Luckily, she did not see Jae Yeol. Yiseo left the estate very early every morning for school and didn’t get back until very late in the evening due to her after school jobs.

So, it was in the most unexpected place that she ran into him.

“Yiseo, what are you doing here?”

As she was changing the grill in an exclusive restaurant, the girl she had fought with in school called out to her.

“I heard you had given up on your college admissions exam, but I didn’t know it was true. God, you stink.”

She had been standing in front of the grill for over four hours and the smell of smoke and grease was all over her.

Yiseo ignored her and changed the grill.

“Did you act all high and mighty to end up doing this?”

Yiseo’s hand holding the metal tongs squeezed hard.

“But then again, what else could someone like you do? It’s sad but, oh well. You can only blame the life you were born into. Bye.”

As the girl walked away, Yiseo let out a deep breath that she didn’t even realize she was holding.

It’s fine. You did good. This isn’t school but your workplace. That was very adult of you.

As she controlled the rage bubbling up inside of her and came out to the terrace, her legs froze. There was a man in a suit leaning against the wall, smoking a cigarette.

It was a familiar face. Jae Yeol Kwon.

Why…

Their eyes met, but he didn’t say anything.

He just continued to inhale and exhale from his cigarette until it was burned to the butt.

He glanced at her momentarily but like the smoke that evaporated into the night air, his gaze indicated that he was looking at nothing of importance.

The only one frozen was Yiseo.

This was why she had escaped as if she was running away when she ran into him.

She had never felt ashamed when people made fun of her for being poor or not having a father.

But whenever she stood in front of this man…

Not only did she blush profusely, she found her hands, dirty and black from the charcoal so shameful that she had to run until she was out of breath.

She found herself in situations like this occasionally after that day.

One day, she was coming home late from her job and sneaking up the stairs of the darkened house when she bumped into him in the staircase.

Or the day that she had not been able to eat anything all day and had sat in the backyard. She was hastily shoveling down the food she had bought when she caught his eye as he stood on his terrace, smoking a cigarette.

Whenever these things happened, an emotion larger than embarrassment rose to her throat.

Then, one day, Mrs. Kang came to see her with a tightly wound face.

“Did you do something to get on the young master’s nerves?”

“No…”

“Are you sure?”

Before Yiseo could ask what was going on, Mrs. Kang grabbed her arm. She was practically dragged to the front of Jae Yeol’s door.

Mrs. Kang raised her hand to knock and said formally, “Sir, it’s me.”

She heard a familiar voice from the other side of the room.

“Show her in and you can leave.”

“Yes, sir.”

The door opened and Yiseo was pushed into the room. Yiseo could not forget the expression on Mrs. Kang’s face that said, “Don’t irk him.”

“How long are you going to stand there?”

Yiseo flinched in surprise and turned around.

Jae Yeol was sitting in his antique chair and looking over documents. His hair was still wet as if he had just gotten out of the shower. She suddenly recalled his naked chest.

Yiseo quickly turned her gaze downward. She didn’t know why, but she felt ashamed. She carefully walked up to him.

“How can I help you?”

“I’d like to ask you the same thing.”

“Excuse me?”

“Why did you leave that here?”

Jae Yeol’s gaze was on the aromatic incense that Yiseo had secretly left. Realizing what this was about, she quickly started to speak.

“This is supposed to help with your sleep. I heard that you had trouble sleeping…”

“Who said that? Jae Han?”

Yiseo felt like something was going wrong.

“No, Jae Han didn’t tell me anything. I just overheard…”

“So why?” he cut her off as he looked blatantly into her face.

“I’m asking why are you paying me any mind?”

She was stunned into silence.

“Who do you think you are?”

Yiseo felt her hands roll into a fist.

Who do you think you are.

These words were harder to bear than any insult she had ever heard.

“If you need the money, wouldn’t it be faster to go after Jae Han?”

“What do you…”

“Oh,” Jae Yeol smirked.

“Is he not enough for you yet? Because he’s a bastard like you?”

Bastard? Jae Han?

She had thought that he was here under the guardianship of a sponsor.

“Or do you want to be chosen as a beneficiary, like him, and move into this house?”

“No!” she shook her head.

“I did not come into this house with such ill intentions. So don’t blame Jae Han. And that…” she said, indicating the incense, “that doesn’t mean anything.”

“Then get rid of it.”

Thinking she heard wrong, she looked at him, stunned. But he was already looking at his documents again.

“You said that it didn't mean anything. Who leaves something that is no more than trash in their room?”

Trash.

She heard the word reverberating inside of her.

The incense she had spent days deliberating about was thrown into the garbage can as Jae Yeol watched.

After that day, he called her to him often.

She had no way to object.

He had her clean his room or make his bed as he watched. Sometimes, he would have her just stand there.

Even though what he paid her was far more than the money she made working after school, Yiseo wasn’t happy.

She felt suffocated. Sometimes, she felt sad. Her body was at ease, but her mind grew more and more exhausted.

Every time she felt this way, she thought of her mother in the hospital. She engraved in her heart the way her mother was lying in a bed, dependent on a respirator.

But that last hope that was sustaining her did not last long.

Jae Han was back home from his training.

“Yiseo, your mother…” His expression was grim. Yiseo did not even look back as she ran to the hospital.

There had been a code blue at two in the morning. It was an unexpected heart attack.

The doctors told her that the next week would be critical. They told her to prepare herself.

Yiseo did not cry or feel victimized. She was in a daze all day. The next day, she took her mother’s camera and headed to the beach instead of the hospital.

As she looked at the crashing waves, she pressed the camera button ceaselessly.

They had promised to visit the beach together after graduation. Her mother had said the beach was the most beautiful place to take pictures when she worked as a photographer.

Yiseo took pictures of the beautiful ocean over and over again. She looked down to see a white seashell that had been pushed to shore by the wave.

Would mom like this?

She put her camera down on the sand and stretched out her hand. But the wave stole it back.

In spite of herself, Yiseo took a step forward. Not paying any attention to the pounding waves, she walked into the water, one step at a time. But no matter how much she reached out, she couldn’t grasp the seashell. Soon, it disappeared completely into the ocean.

Yiseo turned around to look at the shore.

“What am I gonna do?”

The large sandy beach looked like a small dot. It was too far for her to go back. It felt like her hopeless reality, and she suddenly felt her eyes tear up.

How am I going to live now?

How can I survive?

She felt so lost.

Just then, a large wave crashed on her and swallowed her whole. In an instant, her body was sucked down. She did her best to kick, but it wasn’t enough.

Yiseo felt her body relax as if she had given up.

What if she just let go? If she could just disappear?

She was scared of being left alone.

Mom, don’t leave me. I’m scared. I don’t want to be alone.

As she felt her consciousness slipping, the world grew hazy, when in her last thoughts, she thought of his face. It was Jae Yeol Kwon.

Mean.

Just as she thought she would die like this, someone grabbed her wrist. Instantly, her body floated to the top. There was a strong arm around her waist.

As the oxygen she was desperate for flowed into her nostrils, she spat up the water in her lungs. She coughed and coughed, while a vague silhouette danced in front of her.

She did everything she could to concentrate and blinked hard.

As her vision came into focus, the first thing she saw was the stone-faced Jae Yeol.