“…Young Master, please don’t take it too much to heart. She was upset and speaking under the influence. I’m sure she didn’t truly mean it.”
“…Okay.”
Holding the stair railing, Eunwon climbed to his room. Housekeeper Kang followed him upstairs and placed a slice of strawberry cake and a cup of warm tea on his desk.
Alone in the quiet room, Eunwon stared motionlessly at the cake for a long time—until the tea had gone cold and no steam rose from it anymore.
If it had been our Yunhan, he would have gone through with that marriage.
If his mother and father were suffering this much… he would have stepped forward first. Because he was their son. Because he truly cared about his parents.
Without you, Junhyuk is going to die…. Eunwon, please save us….
The moment he considered that his father might actually die, his entire body began to tremble.
He remembered the cold air in the hospital room where he had lost his mother three years ago, and his breath caught in his throat.
For the first time since then, he had finally found people he could depend on.
There were still parts of this family that felt unfamiliar and awkward, but they were still here beside him, calling him their “son.”
If that shelter collapsed because of his hesitation—if something truly happened to his father because of him…
He did not think he could bear it.
If it had been our Yunhan, he would have gone through with that marriage.
What Eunwon had to do was painfully clear.
For days, he had suffered because everything felt uncertain and hopeless. Now that the answer was so obvious…
It hurt.
Am I hesitating because I’m really that selfish? If I had truly been born as their biological son, would I have agreed without hesitation?
Eunwon stared blankly at the cake, its cream beginning to dry, then took out his phone.
He opened his contacts and scrolled down in search of the number Cha Sejin had saved, but there was no contact under that name.
He definitely saved his number earlier….
Wondering whether Sejin had entered it under a different name, Eunwon slowly scrolled upward.
When he had nearly reached the top, he found a contact name he had never seen before.
[Husband]
Eunwon’s lips parted slightly in bewilderment, and a thin breath slipped out.
“…….”
He knew he needed to stop delaying, press the call button, and tell Sejin his decision. Only then could he be of some help.
But he could not bring himself to press it.
He was afraid.
Is this really the right choice?
At the same time, continuing to hesitate because of his own fear made him feel unbearably selfish.
What do I do…?
Eunwon set the phone on the desk and buried his face against the knees he had drawn up onto the chair.
It was a long night in which he could find no direction at all.
***
After finishing his morning swim, Cha Sejin asked the chef to make lasagna for breakfast.
Because he had slept late, both of his parents had already gone to work, leaving the dining room quiet.
“Good morning, Young Master. Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah. Woojae, have you eaten?”
“Not yet.”
“Eat with me.”
Hearing Sejin’s words, a member of the household staff hurried into the kitchen to tell them to prepare two servings.
Sejin drank his tomato juice while watching Lee Woojae pull a tablet and several other things from his bag.
It seemed he had found what Sejin wanted within two days.
“A younger acquaintance of mine works as an assistant to the housekeeper in that home, so it was easy to look into. He moved from TK to Baum a few months ago.”
“Okay. Tell me.”
“He said the atmosphere was excellent for about two weeks after Seo Eunwon moved in. Madam Seo has always been extremely sensitive and difficult, but after their only son, Yunhan, died two years ago, it apparently became much worse. Then she brought her husband’s illegitimate child into the house and completely changed her behavior, so all the staff found it strange.”
Sejin had seen the chairman of Baum and his wife several times at social events.
They had always approached him first to greet him, and he vaguely remembered constantly hearing that the chairman’s wife had once been a famous actress.
“How did she change?”
“They said she treated him even better than she had treated her dead son. She doted on him so excessively that everyone wondered what had gotten into her. But around ten days ago, the entire house apparently descended into chaos again.”
“Why?”
“The story sounded strange when I heard it. Baum currently has an issue, but it has absolutely nothing to do with S Group. Apparently, though, they told Seo Eunwon it was connected to S Group. They said the only way to resolve it was for him to enter the arranged marriage S Group wanted.”
As Sejin finished his tomato juice, a steaming plate of lasagna was placed in front of him.
He cut it into manageable pieces with his knife, then looked at Secretary Lee as though the explanation made no sense.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“It seems they’re pressuring him by saying S Group won’t leave them alone if the marriage doesn’t happen.”
“Weren’t they the ones who came to us saying they wanted to marry him off? Why the fuck are they making us the villains?”
Sejin took a bite of lasagna, then suddenly stabbed the plate with his fork a few times as realization dawned on him.
“Ah. Telling him the truth wouldn’t get them what they wanted?”
“Yes. That seems to be the case.”
“They’ve already committed themselves to us, so they can’t keep stalling. Their solution is to wear him down until he’s in pieces and then hand him over?”
“Seo Eunwon is the only one I feel sorry for.”
“No wonder the kid looked completely wrecked.”
Sejin shook his head as he remembered Eunwon staring blankly with a face on the verge of tears, his shoulders drooping before he began trembling helplessly.
“Oh, and I received this last night. The night before that—the night you met Seo Eunwon—Madam Seo got drunk and caused an enormous scene. She hurled abuse at him, then dropped to her knees and begged him. It was apparently a complete disaster. My acquaintance sent me a video. Would you like to see it?”
“Let me see.”
The footage shook, as though the person filming had merely held out a phone in secret, but Madam Seo was unmistakably visible on the screen, creating a spectacle in front of Eunwon.
—…Madam Seo? That’s right. To you, I’m still Madam Seo! I’m the only one who thinks of you as my son. To you, I’m still just Madam Seo.
—If it had been our Yunhan, he would have gone through with that marriage.
—Eunwon, can’t you please save your father?
Sejin watched the woman on the screen pour out her resentment before immediately turning to desperate pleas, then rewound the video.
This time, instead of the lunatic delivering the performance of her life, he studied Eunwon’s face as he sat beside her.
When she accused him of still calling her Madam Seo, Eunwon looked flustered and completely at a loss.
When she said her biological son would have accepted the marriage, he froze as though struck by the words.
Then, when she finally dropped to her knees and began begging him, Eunwon lowered himself with her. He repeatedly tried to help her up, his eyes filling with tears each time she collapsed back down.
“They’re really putting one kid through all this fucking shit.”
The video, rewound once again, played for a second time.
Sejin took one last bite of his lasagna, watched Eunwon’s face crumple as though he might burst into tears at any moment, and set down his fork.
—If it had been our Yunhan, he would have gone through with that marriage.
“I doubt I would’ve. Fuck, she really dreams big. Who the hell does she think she is, shoving that ugly mug in his face?”
Swearing, Sejin stopped the video and handed the phone back to Secretary Lee.
“Good work.”
“Should we leave things as they are? It would be a problem if strange rumors started spreading because of this.”
“We can’t exactly tell them that their household staff filmed the whole thing, passed it around, and it eventually reached us.”
“That’s true…. My acquaintance might end up in trouble for no reason.”
“Still, it looks like this will be over soon. You can tell from the way he’s sitting there looking like he’s dying to see me.”
Secretary Lee tilted his head at Sejin’s words.
They had unquestionably watched the same video, yet he could not immediately understand which part of it had looked like Eunwon was “dying to see” Sejin.
“Did I miss something…?”
“Yeah. No. There are things you wouldn’t see even if you watched it a hundred times.”
“Understood…. I’ll have the car brought around if you’re heading straight to work.”
“Yeah. We’ll leave in thirty minutes.”
“Yes.”
Sejin rose and strolled away, remembering how utterly exhausted Eunwon had looked in the video.
He had been tearful without actually managing to cry, his face overwhelmed by a situation far beyond what he could handle.
The sight stirred several conflicting feelings in Sejin.
Part of him thought it had nothing to do with him, so why should he care?
Part of him was aroused because Eunwon looked beautiful even with that expression.
And part of him felt a little sorry for the young man, driven toward danger and trembling helplessly.
This would’ve been so much easier if you’d just made your decision when we met. Then you wouldn’t have had to watch that psychopath put on her little performance.
I told you I’m way fucking better than you think. Why wouldn’t you believe me?
Sejin clicked his tongue and shook his head.
Still, Eunwon had been completely out of it when they met. Maybe he had not been capable of thinking that far ahead.
But the situation would be a little different now.