Translator: Nox

Chapter 5

The Villain’s Pure Devotion

Ivory Magnolia

Yeonwoo’s footsteps dragged as if she were hauling heavy weights.

“As long as I’m standing here with my eyes wide open, there will be no exceptions. Taking your mother’s place? My foot. What kind of work do you think you can do with wrists like toothpicks?”

It was an unexpected outcome. She had assumed that if a young daughter offered to work in place of her injured mother, they would naturally accept.

No, rather than being certain of acceptance, her desperate longing to remain at Domyeongjae had been so fierce that the feeling of being flatly rejected was devastating.

She left the main building and walked wherever her feet led her. It didn’t occur to her that the path she entered was different from the path she was taking out; she simply moved forward aimlessly, following the open road.

What do I do now? What should I do?

“If you go that way, you’ll be getting much further from the exit.”

It was a moment when despair made her footsteps falter.

Startled by the man’s voice, Yeonwoo flinched and spun around. The backlight of the setting sun obscured his features, so she squinted to see him. Even though she knew it couldn’t be, she was instinctively seized by fear that he might be someone sent by Cha Yunseok.

“If you’re lost, I can help you.”

Ah. Only then did Yeonwoo seem to come to her senses, taking a couple of steps back. She turned her head to the side, looking toward the main building as if confirming the path she had taken.

She realized immediately that she should have turned right but had passed the way.

“No, thank you. I was lost in thought and missed the turn. I know the way out.”

When she finished speaking, Seongheon shifted his gaze toward the main building in the distance. After scanning the path just as Yeonwoo had done, he looked back at her.

Every time their eyes met, her pupils felt a stinging sensation, as if she were facing something harmful. It was a mutual feeling.

“You seem to be a visitor. What business do you have at Domyeongjae?”

He already knew the answer from Manager Mun, but the question slipped out anyway.

“I came to see Manager Moon Ok-rye, who works here. I had something to give her and something to say.”

“Is your business finished?”

“I think so.”

An ambiguous answer came back. Not a clear yes or no, but the vague expression ‘I think so’ made Seongheon tilt his head slightly.

The woman wasn’t lost, nor was her purpose for visiting unclear, yet he found himself continuing to ask questions.

“By ‘I think so,’ do you mean you weren’t able to fully convey what you needed to say to Manager Moon?”

When Seongheon asked again, Yeonwoo pressed her lips tight. For a moment, a conflict surged within her heart: should she ask him for a favor?

Nam Seongheon, a member of the Nam family and the master of Domyeongjae.

If it’s this man, wouldn’t he be able to grant my request?

“Um, excuse me. By any chance…”

Her hasty lips opened first. Seongheon’s eyebrows twitched minutely.

As he watched her with an intense gaze, like someone waiting for any word to fall, Yeonwoo swallowed hard.

Using the small incident from that morning as an excuse, she wanted to say that she didn’t need any other compensation and just wanted to work here. The words she couldn’t bring herself to speak filled her throat.

However, just looking Seongheon straight in the eye was overwhelming enough; she couldn’t force the words out.

“Speak slowly. I have plenty of time.”

Yeonwoo wondered just how much of her complicated emotions were written on her face for him to say he would wait. She pulled her precarious spirit together. Then, as if grabbing onto the thread of reason, she shook her head.

“No. Thinking back, I think what I needed wasn’t time, but a sense of shame.”

“I’ll be going now. Goodbye.”

She turned her back to return. He wasn’t someone she could pin her hopes on, nor was this a situation for it.

“Then, does packing up your shame mean your business at Domyeongjae is entirely finished?”

Yeonwoo stopped, exhaled a calm breath, and squared her shoulders. It sounded like he was telling her never to come to Domyeongjae again, and for some reason, she wanted to speak firmly.

“Yes. It’s finished. Goodbye.”

After giving her farewell, Yeonwoo walked away. The sound of soil crunching under her feet followed her path, and Seongheon stared intently at her retreating figure.

The scent of ivory magnolia drifted to the tip of Seongheon’s nose.

It felt as though it were fading away.

---

Arriving at her mother’s hospital room, Yeonwoo didn’t try to sleep on the guardian’s cot until late at night. But as her recent dreams had been, she was chased by an unidentified man with a blackened face. Once caught, her clothes were torn by his rake-like hands.

If you die, I’ll let you go.

If you die, I’ll let you go.

If you die, I’ll let you go.

With a gasp, Yeonwoo snapped her eyes open. The breath that had been blocked in her sleep burst out in heavy gasps. Looking at her deeply sleeping mother, Yeonwoo covered her own mouth and shed tears of terror.

- 3 -

She instinctively clutched her collar as if closing her torn clothes. Fearing her sobs might leak out, Yeonwoo rushed out of the hospital room without even putting on her slippers. Crouched in a corner of the pitch-black hospital corridor, she did nothing but vomit out endless, terrified sobs.

If you die, I’ll let you go.

In the dawn, the reason she had barely held onto with all her might vanished from her half-awake mind.

It felt like she would never be able to escape Cha Yunseok until she died. Huddled with her shoulders hunched, Yeonwoo was crushed by a shapeless horror.

“Please save me…”

Her monologue, begging anyone to save her, went on for a long time.

As expected, the remainder of the night would be long and grueling. She wouldn’t be able to sleep or lie down comfortably anymore.

Just as she had yesterday.

Just as she had a month ago.

The next day, morning dawned at Domyeongjae.

Seongheon’s uncle and aunt had returned to Seoul late the previous evening, leaving only Seongheon, who planned to stay for about a month, to unpack his things. It was unusual for him to visit except for ancestral rites, and staying for more than a day was truly a rare occurrence.

It was a space where no special effort or alarm was needed to wake up. The morning at Domyeongjae was filled with the sounds of birds and the distant, echoing crow of a rooster, acting like natural sound effects.

Having washed up early and chosen his clothes, Seongheon stood before the mirror and tightened his tie. Preferring the Windsor knot among tie styles, he tied it with volume and adjusted the symmetry.

Then, he paused for a moment. A scene from yesterday suddenly pooled in his thoughts. To be precise, it was the thought of the woman he had seen at the bus stop and near the lake at Domyeongjae.

Standing still before the mirror, Seongheon continued his train of thought before letting out a short, dry chuckle and finishing his tie.

It turned out to be a coincidence that she was the daughter of a long-time employee at Domyeongjae, but it wasn’t a connection significant enough to occupy his mind from early morning.

Turning away after neatly tying his tie, Seongheon packed his briefcase. Stepping out along the hallway lined with cypress wood, he noticed employees busy sweeping away the petals that had fallen overnight.

“Good morning, Vice President.”

“Did you sleep well, Vice President?”

Seongheon passed them with a slight nod in response to their greetings. After a long time of only workers filling the space, the presence of a member of the Nam family at Domyeongjae made the employees appear somewhat tense.

Even his casual steps on the ground were upright and straight. The employees paused their sweeping for a moment to watch Seongheon’s retreating back.

At the time of Gogu (Grain Rain), when the crops finally become lush, the master of Domyeongjae had returned.

“I will have your meal ready immediately, Vice President.”

Upon entering the main house, Manager Mun was waiting. Seongheon followed her and sat at the dining table.

Manager Mun had prepared chestnut porridge, following Seongheon’s preference for a meal that merely warmed his stomach.

As Seongheon parted his lips slightly to take a spoonful of porridge, Manager Mun stood beside him.

When Seongheon swallowed the porridge with minimal jaw movement and showed no particular expression, Manager Mun quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

It likely meant it suited his palate.

“There are no decent restaurants around the site. We will personally prepare your meals on time, Vice President.”

“That’s fine. I’ll just eat something with the staff, so don’t worry about it.”

When Seongheon declined with a short sentence, Manager Mun waved her hand dismissively.

“Oh, ‘something’ won’t do at all. If nothing else, your eating and sleeping is the duty and task of us here at Domyeongjae. Don’t you worry about a thing; just go about your business and we’ll have everything ready on time. We’ll take responsibility for the staff’s meals too, so please put your mind at ease, Vice President.”

The area around the construction site was a vast empty field, and Manager Mun had concluded that the workers’ meals should be handled within Domyeongjae.

The reason a common construction site cafeteria hadn’t moved in was that Manager Mun, who was extremely picky about food, had blocked them in advance, distrusting private contractors.

Since Domyeongjae was taking responsibility even for the workers’ meals, Seongheon offered no further rebuttal.

It was after he had taken three or four bites of the porridge. Another employee approached Manager Mun and whispered in her ear. It was the employee who had called Yeonwoo on the house phone yesterday to deliver the news of her mother’s accident.

“Manager, Yeonwoo hasn’t left and is still standing out there. I don’t know if we should just keep her waiting like that?”

When the employee asked, Manager Mun gave her an angry look, telling her to be quiet.

“Be quiet. Didn’t I tell you I can’t let her inside the house until the Vice President leaves for work?”

It meant she shouldn’t disturb the Vice President’s meal.

“What is it?”

When Seongheon asked while wiping his mouth with a napkin, Manager Mun straightened her posture and spoke.

“It’s nothing, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

“What is it?”

When the second question fell, the employee standing next to Manager Mun quickly intercepted the answer.

“The daughter of the injured employee has been waiting since the crack of dawn. She says she absolutely must speak with you, Vice President.”

“Tell her to come in.”

After swallowing some lukewarm water and setting down his glass, Seongheon spoke, but Manager Mun shook her head briefly.

“After you leave for work, I will go out and meet her. You must be busy, so don’t bother with such trivial matters…”

“I didn’t realize it before.”

Seongheon dropped his napkin onto the table.

“But you have a knack for making me say the same thing twice, Manager Mun.”

Seongheon looked up at Manager Mun. Her face went blank for a moment, and Seongheon tilted his head.

“Tell her to come in.”

“Ye-yes. Vice President.”

“I’ll hear what she has to say myself.”

“Understood, Vice President.”

As Manager Mun barely answered in a suppressed voice, Seongheon finished his meal.

‘Thinking back, I think what I needed wasn’t time, but a sense of shame.’

He wanted to hear what words she had discarded after he thought she had packed up her shame. Just what kind of grand thing she intended to say. Personally.

At the entrance of Domyeongjae, Yeonwoo had been pacing for three hours.