Looking for the Villainess’s Contract Husband
Chapter 26
The children peered over the windowsill, each chiming in with a comment.
“It’s not like oppa is particularly shy or anything.”
“But why does he barely answer or smile when he’s actually standing in front of adults?”
“That’s why the adults feel awkward around hyung and end up picking another kid instead.”
“Is he the type who chokes under pressure?”
“What does ‘chokes under pressure’ mean?”
“I don’t know, I just heard it somewhere.”
Having grown somewhat close to the children over the past few days, I found myself tilted my head to the side while standing among them, a baby cradled in my arms.
‘It certainly is strange. He didn’t seem like the type to dither like that.’
[What exactly are you? There are plenty of kids here who are desperate, even if you aren’t. I’m the same way.]
On my first day here, Benjamin was the boy who had sniffed out my suspicious nature through the smallest of actions and even showed the initiative to drop me into a pit. He had said he was that desperate to be adopted.
But the Benjamin reflected in my eyes right now didn’t look desperate at all.
“From now on, we are family. Let’s get along, child.”
Outside, a middle-aged couple was stroking a child’s head with beaming smiles.
A short distance away, standing beside the teacher seeing the child off, Benjamin had his lips pressed firmly together and his fists clenched.
However, that appearance felt somehow different from the resentment of not being chosen.
“Ah, hyung is leaving.”
“Where is he going?”
Just then, Benjamin turned around and began to run off somewhere.
The teacher tried to catch him, but he was so fast that he vanished from sight in an instant.
‘Hmm.’
After a moment’s thought, I handed the baby I was holding to another child and stepped out of the room.
[That pit is a place I go to sometimes to avoid the teachers’ eyes, so there’s a rope ladder next to it.]
Maybe he’s there?
With that thought, I made my way to the backyard of the orphanage.
Unexpectedly, however, he wasn’t in the forest connected to the backyard, but was instead crouched under a tree not far from the back gate.
Wondering if he might be crying, I held my breath for a moment and observed Benjamin’s back, but his breathing was steady and his shoulders weren’t shaking.
Once I confirmed that Benjamin wasn’t crying, I quietly stepped forward and approached him.
At the rustling sound of grass being stepped on, he flinched and looked back; seeing that it was me and not a teacher, he turned his head away again.
Gathering my wind-blown hair behind my ear, I sat down beside him.
Even then, Benjamin refused to look at me, stubbornly keeping his gaze fixed straight ahead.
After a long silence, I tentatively spoke up.
“You….”
“Wh-wh-what! What, why!”
“…I haven’t even said anything yet.”
“…Ugh.”
He had started snapping and shouting before I could even get a proper word out, but then he let out a groan-like sigh and whipped his head away.
But the outburst was short-lived.
Benjamin soon curled into a ball, hugging his knees as he lowered his gaze gloomily.
The face that was usually cheerful and self-assured when facing me was now, rarely, soaked in melancholy.
I stared quietly at his profile before moving my lips.
“You said you had a hyung, right?”
At those words, Benjamin jumped in place.
He hurriedly looked around and then whispered aggressively.
“Hey! What if someone hears you…!”
“It’s okay. I just came from seeing all the kids run off because one of the teachers said they were giving out snacks. There’s no one around right now.”
“…Really?”
“Is there any reason for me to lie?”
When I spoke with a shrug, Benjamin looked at me with a suspicious gaze.
But since there wasn’t a single lie in my words, I met his eyes confidently.
Eventually, letting out a deep sigh, Benjamin turned his head back to the front.
Leaning his face against the arms hugging his knees, he mumbled sullenly.
“…What are you curious about.”
‘Duck lips.’
Seen from the side, his protruding lips looked like a duck’s.
Observing this with fascination, I began to speak.
“What does it feel like to have a hyung?”
“What?”
Whether it was an unexpected question, Benjamin looked at me with startled eyes.
Meeting his gaze calmly, I continued.
“I don’t have any siblings. And for family, it’s only been my mom since I was born. So I was curious what it feels like to have family members other than a mother.”
“…….”
As I spoke, the light in Benjamin’s eyes gradually sank.
He stared at my face in silence for a long time with an expression that was hard to tell if it was sympathy or pity.
I didn’t rush Benjamin, patiently waiting until he chose to answer of his own accord.
After a long wait, Benjamin let out a sigh so deep it felt like the ground might cave in, and then he opened his mouth.
“…I don’t know either.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t exactly call that person my hyung.”
A distorted smile hung on the corner of Benjamin’s mouth. It looked closer to self-mockery.
He turned his gaze to watch the trees swaying their leaves in the wind as he continued.
“…How do you think it would feel if your dad was called ‘Dad’ by someone else’s mouth too?”
[Oh, my son! Daddy’s home!]
Benjamin’s biological father couldn’t come home often because of work, and he spent seventy percent of the year wandering outside, but he was a man whose smiling face was as bright as sunshine.
[Why are you so late! I’m going to forget what you look like at this rate!]
On the days his biological father was due to return, Benjamin would linger by the window pretending he wasn’t, then rush out and throw himself into his father’s arms.
Then his biological father would laugh heartily, saying he was sorry, and pull out a snack from his coat, while his mother’s voice could be heard from behind, nagging about worrying over his teeth rotting.
Though they weren’t wealthy, it was a life of happiness without lack.
[…Dad?]
[Father!]
While out on a trip to buy groceries far away for his sick mother, he had happened to run into his biological father, who had supposedly gone away for work.
And if he hadn’t discovered the young man calling that biological father ‘Father.’
That sentiment would probably have remained unchanged forever.
At first, he thought he had simply misheard.
[You rascal. You’re old enough to enlist, yet you’re still such a child.]
But his biological father was laughing as brightly as when he looked at him, ruffling the young man’s hair, and the young man had a face that was undeniably similar to his.
[You’re going to make the boy go bald, honey!]
After confirming the woman standing beside them, nagging just like his own mother, Benjamin found himself stumbling backward before turning around and starting to run.
Forgetting he even had to buy his mother’s medicine, fleeing as if escaping.
Returning home, Benjamin curled up beside his sleeping mother and cried under his breath for a long time.
‘Does Mom… know about this?’
Such questions filled every gap in his mind, but he didn’t have the courage to wake his mother and ask.
If she didn’t know, the shock might worsen her health, and if she did know….
‘…I don’t know.’
Benjamin decided to push his worries into a corner, at least until his mother’s health improved.
The secret his biological father was hiding was a truth far too heavy for his young self to handle.
‘Come to think of it, it’s about time he returned.’
Afterward, Benjamin cleared his mind and nursed his mother diligently, then suddenly looked out the window.
It had already been a significant amount of time since his biological father had left, saying he was going to work.
Though he didn’t come home often, it was about time he stopped by once.
Why wasn’t he coming?
The moment he thought that.
“…Huh?”
Benjamin spotted a carriage stopping outside the window and his eyes widened.
But unexpectedly, the people who stepped out of the carriage were not his biological father, but the young man and the woman he had seen in the market before.
Thump—
Benjamin’s heart sank. He inadvertently dropped the basin he was holding.
The wooden basin rolled across the floor with a dull thud.
At the sound, Benjamin’s mother struggled to pull herself up and came outside.
“Benny? What’s….”
“Excuse me… Mrs. Stanford. Are you inside?”
Immediately after, a gentle and upright voice was heard from beyond the door along with a knock.
Benjamin realized this was the voice of the young man he had seen and reflexively tried to grab his mother’s sleeve.
But his mother was already turning the doorknob.
“I am Jerni Stanford…. Who might you be?”
Benjamin’s mother greeted the visitors with eyes tinged with a slight wariness.
The visitors exchanged a glance with each other before turning their heads back to the front. Among them, the woman spoke with a complicated expression.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Madam. I am….”
The woman, who trailed off for a moment, soon uttered shocking words.
“My name is Lesia Stanford. There is a fact I must inform you of regarding Madam’s and my husband….”
