Chapter 184
They were just finishing their meal when someone knocked on the door from outside. When Tae-geon instructed them to come in, Scott entered, pulling a small trolley.
When Scott answered Tae-geon’s question about what it was by saying it was dessert and lifted the silver dome cover, Hyeon-woo’s eyes nearly popped out.
“Scott!”
With a cry that was almost a scream, Hyeon-woo jumped up from his seat and quickly ran to the trolley. His desperate attempt to hide something only piqued Tae-geon’s curiosity.
“…What is that?”
“It’s a millefeuille that Ian made, starting at five in the morning without sleeping. I brought it for the young master-”
“Scott!!”
Hyeon-woo cut off Scott’s words, but it was already too late.
“Give it here.”
As Tae-geon spoke, pushing aside the empty plate in front of him, Scott placed the millefeuille Hyeon-woo had made on it. Hyeon-woo glared at the plate in front of Tae-geon as if he was looking at something terrible.
Although Scott had apparently tidied up its appearance, making it neater than when it was first completed, it still looked awful. It was a visual that didn’t stimulate appetite at all.
Scott, who had caused this situation, left the room alone in a cowardly manner. An awkward silence fell over the space where only the two remained. Tae-geon asked Hyeon-woo, who was standing there awkwardly, unable to do anything:
“Did you really make this?”
“……”
“For me?”
“……”
As Tae-geon’s questions continued, Hyeon-woo’s face grew redder. Of all times, why did he have to remember the tomato pasta he had made for the first time in his life?
It was the first dish he had ever cooked in his life, made for Tae-geon who had injured his hand on a broken plate. The embarrassment of that day, when he had entered the kitchen with an excited heart only to hear loud popping sounds like grenades exploding and red tomato sauce splattering everywhere, seemed to be repeating itself now.
Why did he always end up showing such pathetic sides of himself to Tae-geon?
“Don’t eat it!”
Hyeon-woo shouted involuntarily as Tae-geon’s fork touched the terrible millefeuille.
“That’s made wrong. It’s the first time I’ve made something like this… I’ll make it again for you later, don’t eat that one.”
Despite Hyeon-woo’s incoherent protests, Tae-geon’s fork cut into the millefeuille without hesitation. Unable to watch as the fork carried a piece of the pie into Tae-geon’s mouth, Hyeon-woo tightly shut his eyes.
He was sure Tae-geon would mock him, saying something like, “Is this what you woke up early to make?” Tae-geon wasn’t one to miss such an opportunity.
As Hyeon-woo hunched his shoulders, bracing for the criticism about to be hurled at him, Tae-geon’s soft voice reached his ears.
“It’s delicious, Hyeon-woo.”
But the content was different from what he expected. Hyeon-woo opened his eyes at Tae-geon’s voice, which neither looked down on him nor teased him. For a brief moment, their gazes intertwined.
“Thank you, I’ll eat it well.”
Tae-geon, sitting with his back to the pouring sunlight, reached out to the plate in front of him again and again. Clank. Clank. Each time, the friction sound of the dishes colliding transmitted a clear and refreshing resonance like wind chimes hanging in a temple.
The millefeuille made for revenge completely lost its original purpose and disappeared without a trace.
When Hyeon-woo came down to the kitchen and looked around with fire in his eyes, Scott was nowhere to be seen. It seemed he had hidden himself to avoid Hyeon-woo.
As Hyeon-woo was cleaning up alone, fuming, something caught his eye in a corner of the counter. As he approached, his eyes widened. A piece of his millefeuille left over from the shaping process was sitting on a plate.
Hyeon-woo frowned deeply as he picked up the plate. He couldn’t stand the sight of it. Just as he was about to put it in the food disposal, he suddenly remembered Tae-geon eating it all up, saying it was delicious.
Curiosity quietly raised its head.
…Maybe it only looks bad, but it’s actually insanely delicious? That must be why Tae-geon, who hates sweet things, cleared a whole plate.
With that thought, Hyeon-woo grabbed a fork and boldly put a cream-covered piece into his mouth. And then.
“Ptuii!”
He spat it all out without even being able to chew it.
It was terrible. Not because he knew what a millefeuille was supposed to be like, but because it was so bad that anyone in the world would involuntarily gag upon tasting it. The sticky texture felt like eating a sack full of moldy, caked sugar.
‘It’s delicious, Hyeon-woo.’
…He said it was delicious.
How could this be delicious?
‘Thank you, I’ll eat it well.’
He remembered Tae-geon saying that to him with eyes full of emotion. At that moment, Hyeon-woo inhaled sharply at the pain that pierced his heart and collapsed to the floor.
His heart ached so much that he simply couldn’t stand.
*
Contrary to Hyeon-woo’s worries, Jerome adapted well to the unfamiliar mansion. Just the fact that he could see his dad every day made Jerome happy enough that he didn’t mind the changed environment at all.
Although he was sad that he couldn’t often see Yejun’s aunt who adored him, all the adults in the mansion were kind and gentle.
There was occasionally a grandfather who looked down at him with scary eyes, but when Jerome greeted him with a “Hello” and a slight bow at the waist while smiling brightly, even the stern grandfather’s eyes would melt helplessly.
“Grandfather!”
On Friday evening, as Jerome was waiting for Hyeon-woo to finish work while sitting in Driver Yoon’s car, he spotted the butler wandering around the mansion. Jerome jumped out of the car and ran to him. Then he took something out of his kindergarten bag and held it out to the butler.
It was a keychain with a laminated four-leaf clover attached to a silver dog tag chain. The butler stared at it for a moment, then raised one eyebrow sharply. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t four leaves but three. Someone had attached an extra leaf somewhere to disguise it as a four-leaf clover.
“Last year, I went to a rabbit farm with Dad, you know? White rabbits were sleeping on clovers. I felt bad about waking them up, so instead of playing with the rabbits, I played a game of finding four-leaf clovers with Dad. Grandfather, do you know?”
As if starting to tell a secret, Jerome lowered his voice and whispered.
“Clovers usually have three leaves, but if you find a four-leaf clover hiding somewhere, they say it brings good luck!”
The butler, who had been looking at Jerome speaking so articulately with admiration, was surprised by the small hand suddenly holding out the keychain to him.
“I’ll give it to you, Grandfather.”
“…Huh? To me?”
“Yes!”
“…Why?”
“Because Grandfather’s hair is like a rabbit’s~”
Jerome smiled brightly, looking at the butler’s white hair.
“Thank you.”
As Jerome felt proud seeing the grandfather’s happy reaction, Tae-geon suddenly came to mind.
…Ah, there was one more person. Someone who rarely smiled at him.
Jerome found Tae-geon scary and uncomfortable, but he didn’t dislike him. It was because of the way Uncle looked at his dad. Sometimes, Uncle would look at Dad with the same eyes Dad used when looking at Jerome. Although Uncle’s gaze would suddenly change when he made eye contact with Dad, as if it had never happened, Jerome saw it clearly. The gentle and warm thing contained in Uncle’s eyes.
Moreover, the young Jerome instinctively felt that his dad, who was always stiff and proper, became genuinely relaxed like a child only when he was with Uncle Tae-geon.
Would there come a day when Uncle Tae-geon, who always cast cold and frosty glances at him, would smile at him like Grandfather did?
Hyeon-woo, who had just finished work and was coming out, spotted Jerome standing with the butler and gave a slight bow.
“I’ll be going now. See you on Monday.”
After briefly exchanging greetings, he got into the car with Jerome.
“Did you wait long? Why weren’t you waiting in the car?”
“Hehe.”
Jerome just grinned, even though Hyeon-woo wanted to ask what they had been talking about.
As Hyeon-woo thought about how he seemed to be running into the butler more often like this around the time Jerome returned from kindergarten, he shook his head to dispel the suspicion creeping up.
No way. That stubborn old man couldn’t have been wandering outside the mansion just to see Jerome.
Hyeon-woo couldn’t understand why the butler, who had treated Jerome like royalty and even separately instructed the staff about him, had changed his attitude. However, Hyeon-woo preferred it this way. Thanks to the butler, the staff’s attitude towards Jerome, which had been excessively deferential, had naturally become more normal, like ordinary adults. The ridiculous title of “young master” had also naturally disappeared.
Hyeon-woo casually glanced out the moving car window. The newly renovated entrance’s magnificent scenery quickly passed by beyond the car window.
*
As morning broke, Hyeon-woo went into town with Jerome. Perhaps because the sunshine was good, there were many people on the streets.
As soon as they arrived at the bookstore, Jerome ran to the children’s book section and picked out a book. Having found one he liked, he took off his shoes, climbed onto the mat, lay on his stomach, and immediately immersed himself in reading.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
