Chapter 70

Chapter 70

A rough gust of wind carrying the scent of summer blew fiercely. Even as Yoon Seohee’s black hair, the hem of her loose-fitting clothes, and the earring dangling from her earlobe all whipped violently in the wind—

Her silver-gray eyes, as always, stared straight at Yoon Juyeong without wavering.

“Look at me properly.”

“Master, I—”

“I’m not as perfect as you think, nor endlessly good, nor even unconditionally righteous.”

Even though children’s laughter rang out from somewhere far away, and a faint, cliché love song drifted from some distant place where the wind had blown through, the space between him and her was filled with nothing but silence.

“This isn’t a request or an order, Mr. Yoon Juyeong.”

Her silver-gray gaze, which seemed like it could transparently capture everything in the world, was withdrawn. Yoon Seohee had already turned her body, staring at the children running toward them from afar, and finished her words.

“As one person to another, this is a demand I’m making of you.”

* * *

The walk back to the orphanage was a bit noisy since there were so many elementary school boys, but it was peaceful without any major incidents. I glanced at Mr. Yoon Juyeong while looking after a few kids who kept falling behind as they chatted among themselves.

Ever since our conversation earlier, Mr. Yoon Juyeong had been wearing a blank expression, without even his habitual smile.

At least occasionally… like now. When our eyes met, he reflexively gave a slight smile, but that was it. When I turned my head away, pretending not to notice, Mr. Yoon Juyeong immediately went back to a blank face.

‘Is he thinking about something, maybe?’

Even though I’d been living with Mr. Yoon Juyeong for over a month now, nearly two months, I still hadn’t figured out what kind of person he was.

‘I thought I was pretty good at reading people.’

In fact, with Jeong Seojin and Avan, I’d managed to grasp to some extent what kind of people they were, and what the causes or motives behind their actions were.

But not Mr. Yoon Juyeong. He was the one who showed the strangest behavior among the three men I was living with now, while simultaneously being the person whose reasons for that behavior I couldn’t understand. That was the Mr. Yoon Juyeong I knew.

“Hey, Seohee.”

“Huh?”

While I’d been thinking about Mr. Yoon Juyeong for a while, Junseo, who was walking beside me, spoke up.

“Are you dating that guy?”

Ah, so this question was coming after all. I made sure not to stiffen my expression unnecessarily as I answered the kid’s question.

“No. We’re just simple work colleagues.”

“Then why did he follow you all the way here? It’s far from Seoul to here.”

“It’s not that far. And… well, Mr. Yoon Juyeong has always been interested in volunteering and kids.”

Of course, what I was saying right now was a blatant lie. Unfortunately, Mr. Yoon Juyeong’s interest was entirely focused on me.

‘But still, it looks pretty plausible on the surface. Volunteering and stuff.’

The one saving grace was that Mr. Yoon Juyeong at least knew how to make an effort to appear ‘normal’ in other people’s eyes.

If he hadn’t… well. I probably wouldn’t have called him a ‘nice young man’ back when he was a B-Rank hunter.

“Isn’t it just that you don’t know, Seohee? That guy’s interested in you, isn’t he?”

“Not at all. If he really were… well. At least we wouldn’t be in a relationship like this.”

Ever since he was first hit by the ‘Ruler’s Garden’ skill, Mr. Yoon Juyeong had never once looked at me with that kind of interest.

It made me laugh at myself for having been even slightly wary, thinking, ‘No matter what, he’s still a man.’

‘If anything, Avan… at least he’d said something outright.’

At least Avan had a history of telling me himself that he harbored ulterior motives toward me. …Though, judging by his actions and words, he was so straightforward that I wondered if he really felt that way.

“Reeally? I thought you two were that kind of thing since that guy only keeps looking at you.”

“That’s for a different reason… Anyway, me and Mr. Yoon Juyeong aren’t in that kind of relationship.”

“Well, that’s a relief then! Seohee, if you ever get a boyfriend, you have to show him to us! Got it?”

I guess being interested in other people’s love lives was universal across all ages. Instead of answering Junseo’s words, I just gave an awkward smile.

“Hey, you’re not answering on purpose!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m not answering on purpose… Ah.”

As I was half-heartedly answering Junseo’s chatter, the orphanage building started coming into view in the distance. I straightened my back, which I’d been slightly hunched to listen to Junseo, and looked at the young child standing in front of the gate leading into the yard.

“Yujin.”

My voice wasn’t very loud, but the child turned around abruptly as if hearing me right next to her, and looked at me.

Under the sunlight reddening as it rushed toward evening, the child’s black hair, streaked with premature gray, swayed gently.

“Seohee.”

Yujin was there, her face blooming with a full, radiant smile.

* * *

Once, a long time ago, the child had grabbed hold of her favorite Seohee in the whole world and said something.

“Seohee, don’t get married.”

It was a deep night when even the sound of insects couldn’t be heard. The black eyes that had been patting the child’s belly and humming a lullaby, since she couldn’t sleep, held a hint of puzzlement.

“Stay with us forever.”

“Seohee doesn’t even have a boyfriend yet, Yujin.”

Her voice was a careful whisper, as if worried about waking the other child sleeping nearby.

The child deliberately burrowed into her older sister’s arms, trying to avoid the gaze that was quietly fixed on her. The person who was kind and gentle, and sometimes loving yet painful, silently patted the child’s back.

“But what if you get one someday? And then…”

“And here I was wondering what you were thinking.”

A breathy laugh, as if she found it absurd, came from above the child’s head. The child deliberately clutched her older sister’s collar tightly and looked up to meet her eyes.

“But Sohee and Seunggil, who used to be here, they both left after they got married.”

“Those two had already left before they got married.”

“No, that’s not it… Those two stopped being our family.”

Suddenly, the hand patting the child’s back stopped.

“Sohee and Seunggil both have their own families now.”

“Yujin, why would you say that… For Sohee and Seunggil, they just gained another family. That doesn’t mean they’re not our family anymore.”

“Noona, I’m not stupid.”

Being young doesn’t mean being foolish. In that sense, the child knew very well what it meant that those two, once close, hadn’t shown their faces even once since getting married.

“The person Sohee noona^[1] married, he doesn’t like her coming here.”

“……”

“The person Seunggil oppa^[2] married is the same. She doesn’t like him coming here to play with me. She says now that he has a ‘real’ family, he should only care about his ‘real’ family.”

It probably wasn’t that Sohee’s husband or Seunggil’s older brother’s wife were particularly bad people. They just had clear priorities. My family, my child, my person, my spouse… So.

“So, Seohee. Can you… not get married?”

So, if the person the child loved most also met someone she loved someday, dated, and got married…

“I know it’s selfish. I know I’m saying something bad… I know. But still…”

Even that small warmth she gave to her now, it felt like some unknown ‘real family’ would take it all away.

“Still, I want to keep being your family, noona.”

* * *

Under the sunset pouring from a cloudless sky, hair of an unfamiliar color tinged with red swayed. The child, using the excuse of a long-awaited reunion, enjoyed the warm embrace she’d immediately fallen into and looked at the owner of that unfamiliar hair.

‘So that’s him.’

He was a man with looks that would make every single one out of a hundred passersby say things like, “He’s handsome,” “He looks kind,” or “He looks proper.”

The child smiled back at her older sister, who was stroking her head and saying it had been a while, while carefully making sure her gaze didn’t give away where it was really fixed, and continued to scrutinize the man.

‘…Well, objectively speaking, he is handsome… but he still looks annoying.’

The way he was neat from head to toe without a single thing out of place, and the way he immediately smiled gently when their eyes met for just a moment. He gave off the impression of someone who’d been with a lot of women, at first glance. The child thought as she carefully pulled away from her older sister’s arms.

“Are you feeling better now, Yujin?”

“Yeah! No problem at all. The doctor said if I keep wearing the thing you sent me, there won’t be any issues.”

The child said that as she lifted the necklace hanging around her neck, as if deliberately showing it off. It was a rhombus-shaped necklace with a purple gem sparkling like starlight set in its center.

“Right. You must never lose that anywhere. Of course, I did apply a tracking effect just in case you do lose it… but still, without it, you could be in danger at any time.”

“I’ll be really careful.”

As if she’d ever handle something her older sister gave her carelessly.

The child smiled brightly as she carefully tucked the necklace inside her shirt. Since the letter her older sister had sent along with the necklace said a waterproof effect had been applied too, she planned to keep it on even when she washed up.

“Oh, right, noona. Is this person… that person? The one you had a dating rumor with.”

“Ugh, we’re not like that. We’re just work colleagues or something.”

‘Just’ work colleagues. The child kept her bright smile as she studied the man. From start to finish, the man acted as if he had no interest in anything around him, his gaze fixed solely on her older sister the whole time.

‘There’s no way a mere work colleague would act like that.’