46.
#An Ordinary Day Like Any Other
After finishing the afternoon broadcasting club activities, Choi Yu-na was tidying up in the club room when her classmates approached her.
“Did you see it earlier?”
“See what?”
A fellow announcer classmate looked around unnecessarily, and after confirming no one else was there, leaned close to Yu-na’s ear. As if telling a secret, she whispered, “Jeong Dawoon.”
“What about Jeong Dawoon?”
“On his neck!”
Another classmate grinned mischievously and pointed to her own nape with her finger.
“He had a bandage on. I thought it was innocent at first. But you really can’t judge by appearances.”
The classmates giggled as if they had discovered something interesting.
“Unnecessary interest in other people’s business…”
Choi Yu-na shook her head as if it was pathetic.
“It’s interesting because it’s him of all people.”
A classmate retorted lightly. She said it was more intriguing because someone who seemed like he would never do such things was acting suspiciously.
“He said he got scratched.”
Earlier, when male club members were present, there had been talk about the bandage on Dawoon’s neck. When they teased him, Dawoon calmly replied that he got injured while playing with his younger brother. He didn’t change his expression even at the mischievous jokes. So the teasing members soon gave up, perhaps finding it boring.
“You believe that? How does one get injured in that spot? Unless they keep a cat at home or something.”
Saying they had never heard of Jeong Dawoon keeping a cat, Yu-na’s classmates let their imaginations run wild.
“Whether it’s true or not, it doesn’t matter.”
When Yu-na subtly took Dawoon’s side, her classmates exchanged glances and smiled meaningfully.
“Weren’t you interested in him?”
When asked directly without beating around the bush, Yu-na looked at her classmate silently and shook her head slightly.
“You guys seem more interested.”
“Of course. He’s handsome.”
Yu-na chuckled at her classmates’ excitement. It was undeniable that Jeong Dawoon’s appearance was striking. The seniors were still considering moving him to the announcer department, saying he was better than the freshmen who had passed the announcer department test. However, it seemed unlikely to happen since he didn’t want it himself.
“I wonder when he got a girlfriend. They say the quiet cat is the first to climb onto the stove.”
“If you think he has a girlfriend, just give up. Don’t gossip.”
Yu-na sighed and responded to the chatter that was making assumptions without directly asking the person involved.
“Just because there’s a goalkeeper doesn’t mean you can’t score.”
At her classmate’s reply, Yu-na laughed and said to drop it. But she didn’t deny the statement itself.
Just because there’s a goalkeeper doesn’t mean you can’t score. Moreover, due to Jeong Dawoon’s special family circumstances, it would be impossible for him to easily date someone. Even if the bandage on his neck was really to cover a kiss mark, she didn’t care much. For someone from a chaebol family, it wasn’t impossible to casually meet women.
But it would be just casual, merely a fling. Not a proper romantic partner.
Mere kiss marks.
She really thought that way. Having seen her half-brother and cousins, she knew well that the people who played in that field were more depraved than ordinary people could imagine. They casually touched this person and that person as if sampling them, but when it came to marriage, they pretended to be noble and elegant while scrutinizing all sorts of conditions.
Because she couldn’t be like them, she lived more uprightly than others and never did anything that could be criticized, even behind closed doors.
Would the Haedo Group be any different? Although she had only seen him briefly, Jeong Hayun gave off a similar vibe to her cousins. He might look perfect on the outside, but who knows what was hidden beneath the surface.
Jeong Dawoon… was a bit different. He was similar to her. Although it wasn’t very noticeable, she could tell that he had some repressed aspects. That’s why she thought he was perfect. There was no better match than Jeong Dawoon to change her life.
Excessive greed invites trouble. So she absolutely didn’t wish for a perfect partner like her brother or cousins from her father’s family did. Jeong Dawoon, who belonged to a great family but had flaws. He was the best match that she, the granddaughter of the ruling party’s floor leader but disregarded by the legitimate children as an illegitimate child, could aspire to.
“Doesn’t it bother you?”
A classmate who still couldn’t let go of the interest in the bandage on Dawoon’s neck sought Yu-na’s agreement again.
“Not really.”
She didn’t care. Even if there was another woman, it didn’t matter. As long as Jeong Dawoon ultimately chose her, that was enough. The process could be long, and that was fine. She could pretend to be kind, or sometimes act pitiful enough to gain his sympathy in order to win his favor. It wasn’t difficult since she had already lived that way for 20 years.
“Didn’t you two seem to know each other from before?”
At her classmate’s question, Yu-na just smiled faintly without denying or confirming. Being just acquaintances wasn’t enough. She needed a relationship beyond that.
***
That evening, Hayun saw the bandage on Dawoon’s neck but didn’t ask why it was there. He seemed to know exactly why the bandage was there. That’s why Dawoon didn’t ask him anything either. He couldn’t ask. He was afraid that Hayun might answer that he had done it.
Although he couldn’t ask directly, he thought about why it had been done more than dozens of times. Would he use the excuse of teaching again? But that didn’t make sense. If he wanted to teach, he should have done it when Dawoon was clearly conscious.
A warning about blacking out from drinking? That seemed more likely. Even so, the method was strange. What kind of brother would leave a kiss mark on his younger brother?
No, maybe it wasn’t Hayun. Although it was an absurd assumption, just as Ms. Lim had approached Hayun with other intentions, there might have been someone among the mansion staff who did something weird. That was creepy in its own way. It was horrifying to think that such a person might be in the mansion.
From that day on, Dawoon developed a habit of locking his door. Because of this, Haram whined when he came to visit without warning and found the door locked. So he left it open during the day, but at night, he could only fall asleep after making sure the door was locked.
Sometimes he felt doubtful about what he was doing. Even in the house where he should feel most comfortable, he was tense as if being chased by something. As a result, he started coming home later and later with various excuses.
Two weeks passed like that. On the surface, it was an ordinary daily life as if nothing had happened.
After finishing his shower, Dawoon was drying his wet hair with a towel when he noticed Haram’s sketchbook and colored pencils on the desk. Opening it, he found drawings of three people of different heights. The tallest was clearly Hayun, and the child smiling and holding hands with the two people in the middle was Haram himself. The one colored with the brightest colors, which Haram seemed to like the most, appeared to be Dawoon. Small red hearts were flying around Dawoon.
A smile naturally spread across Dawoon’s face at the child’s drawing. He felt a bit sorry for coming home late recently with all sorts of excuses. Unlike before, even when he was at home, he felt uncomfortable and spent more days staying out until evening, using excuses like broadcasting club work or studying at the library. Whenever that happened, Haram would call and ask in a dejected voice if he was going to be late again. For some reason, he didn’t throw tantrums crying like before, but hearing the lack of energy in his voice made Dawoon feel uneasy and he would drop what he was doing and come home.
Flipping through a few more pages, there were drawings of animals and what seemed to be the landscape outside the mansion. But the most frequent were drawings of Dawoon.
Realizing how much Haram truly loved him, Dawoon felt a tightness in his chest. He had thought Haram didn’t need his help anymore since he insisted on doing everything by himself, but it seemed his feelings were the same even though he was growing up.
As he turned the pages one by one, a gentle smile spread across Dawoon’s face. By the time he closed the book after seeing the last page, his smile reached his ears. If he left it here, Haram would probably forget where he put it and make a fuss looking for it in the morning. Thinking it would be better to take it to Haram’s room, Dawoon left his room carrying the sketchbook and colored pencils.
On his way to Haram’s room, he encountered Hayun coming up the stairs.
“Just getting off work?”
“It’s a bit late.”
Hayun checked his watch and answered in a casual tone.
“Is that Haram’s?”
He gestured with his eyes towards the sketchbook in Dawoon’s hand.
“He left it in my room. I thought he might look for it in the morning, so I was going to put it back.”
As Dawoon answered, Hayun finished climbing the stairs and approached him. Seeing Hayun’s hand reach out towards him, Dawoon unconsciously took a step back. He immediately regretted it, but it was too late.
“Your hair, why is it like that? You’ll catch a cold.”
Only then did Dawoon realize he hadn’t dried his hair after showering. Hayun was just worried about him catching a cold. Dawoon felt embarrassed for overreacting unnecessarily.
“Put it down. I’ll dry your hair for you.”
Hayun gestured towards Haram’s room with his eyes.
