“Ah…!”

“……”

“Haah, Jaewoo. Yes, that feels good, ah…!”

Sewon buried her face in her pillow and pulled it up around her ears. Once again, obscene sounds had reached her room.

No matter how tightly she covered her ears, she could not block them out. Instead of fading, they only grew louder. It was as though she was meant to hear them.

She had lost her earphones the day before. Now that her last small defence against the unpleasant sounds had gone, she felt as though she were losing her mind. Sewon sat up abruptly.

I need to get out.

I need to get out.

She heard those sounds every day, but today they were more unbearable than ever. She even felt an overwhelming urge to throw things and smash everything in sight.

As she hurriedly got dressed, she struggled to swallow the anger welling up inside her. Otherwise, she was certain that she would break something before it subsided. Forcing herself to ignore the relentless m*ans of the woman, she took a deep breath and finished straightening her clothes.

She was putting on her shoes by the front door when the woman’s loud cries suddenly stopped. As Sewon tied her shoelaces, a voice behind her made her turn around suddenly. It belonged to—

“Where are you going?”

Her stepbrother, Kim Jaewoo.

“Oh, um.”

“Where are you going?”

“Just… outside.”

Sewon gave a vague answer. With his arms folded, Jaewoo leaned against the doorway of his bedroom and watched her.

Where had he put his shirt? Sweat streamed down his muscular, bronze torso. A towel was loosely wrapped around his lower body. His appearance left little doubt about what he had been doing moments before.

Jaewoo slowly approached the front door. Sewon hurriedly averted her eyes, overcome by a sudden rush of embarrassment.

She was fiddling with her shoelaces when Jaewoo spoke to her in a coaxing manner.

“It’s dark out. Tell me where you’re going before you leave.”

“I’m just going to walk around the neighborhood.”

Sewon answered at once, still avoiding his eyes.

“Hmm.”

Jaewoo tilted his head. A faint smile curved his lips.

“I’m done having s*x.”

“Wh-what?”

Startled, Sewon looked at him. Before she could respond to his unexpected remark, Jaewoo dropped to one knee in front of her. As he did so, the towel covering his lower body lifted slightly.

Sewon’s gaze immediately darted straight ahead again. Seeing his younger sister’s eyes wandering, Jaewoo let out a quiet chuckle.

“Aren’t you leaving because of the noise? We’re finished now, so you don’t have to go.”

“That’s… That’s not why.”

Sewon mumbled the denial and stood up. Jaewoo slowly rose with her. She spoke.

“I’ll be back… soon. You can keep…”

As she tried to finish the sentence, self-loathing washed over her. Here she was, encouraging him to do something that she found unbearable. She couldn’t have been more contradictory.

“You can keep going. It’s your house.”

With that, Sewon turned the doorknob. Even after she had stepped outside and disappeared from view, Jaewoo stood where he was for a while, staring at the spot where she had been standing.

***

Kim Sewon: She is the illegitimate daughter of a National Assembly member and a little-known actress.

She dropped out of high school shortly before her nineteenth birthday.

She received her primary and secondary education at the family home. Her father, Kim Inseong, was reluctant to let her out into the world.

After being educated in isolation, Sewon finally managed to enrol in high school through relentless effort. She threw tantrums and pleaded. Sometimes she cried, clinging to her father’s arm and pestering him until he could hardly bear it.

The high school she had fought so hard to attend was an ordinary building with nothing remarkable about it. Her father regarded it with disapproval. He had never wanted her to go out in the first place.

It wasn’t because he loved her too much. It was because she was precious to him. He cherished her so much that he couldn’t bear to share her with anyone. His reasons were not ordinary. He was simply ashamed.

Sewon wondered if her existence was a blemish on an otherwise perfect gem to him — one that he wanted to hide.

She was an illegitimate child born of an affair. It was a shameful secret that he had to hide. A stain on a white T-shirt.

Things that had not made sense to her as a child became painfully clear as she grew older.

At the heart of it all was his wife, Seo Haena.

The third daughter of Youngha Group chairman Seo, she had been married three times. She gave birth to Jaewoo during her first marriage. She became pregnant again during her second marriage, but miscarried.

Both husbands met unfortunate ends. One saw his company go bankrupt. The other crashed into a truck while driving under the influence of alcohol and died instantly.

Her third husband was Kim Inseong, a National Assembly member who represented the Mirae Seum Party.

Haena regularly slept with Inseong and, after considerable difficulty, became pregnant. However, she miscarried again. By then, her womb had ceased to serve its purpose.

While Haena suffered in silence following her infertility diagnosis, Inseong had an affair with another woman. That woman was Yoon Seora, an actress signed to the entertainment agency that Haena ran, and the birth mother of Sewon.

Seora went into hiding as soon as she became pregnant. The calendar pages turned, one after another. By the time Haena finally learned of the illegitimate child her husband had fathered, Sewon had just turned five.

Inseong fell to his knees when Haena demanded a divorce. For reasons unknown, she subsequently brought Sewon into her mansion. Around the same time, Yoon Seora disappeared without trace.

Chairman Seo was furious, accusing Haena of bringing ‘tainted blood’ into their family, but she refused to change her mind. No one in the family knew what she was thinking.

It was only then that Sewon became Inseong’s daughter-in-law. She also became Haena’s adopted daughter.

Nevertheless, Inseong remained ashamed of Sewon. Constantly afraid that Haena would divorce him, he watched her every reaction and did everything he could to keep Sewon hidden.

She was to stay out of sight as much as possible. That was his order. Of all the people in the mansion, Sewon was not the one who feared Haena the most. It was Inseong.

The mansion was vast. Sewon had grown up there, neglected and cut off from the outside world. She was like a flower in a greenhouse. Of course, the greenhouse was slightly too cold, so she grew misshapen.

Despite her father’s disapproval, Sewon stubbornly continued to attend school. She couldn’t tell him about the boy who had caught her eye. He was someone she kept thinking about and wanted to see.

It was her third year. The first day of the new school year had arrived. Sewon went to school as usual. When her new form teacher saw her, she asked,

“Why are you here?”

According to the teacher, her withdrawal had already been processed.

When? How?

It made no sense. She had never signed a consent form or anything similar. It felt as though her world had collapsed overnight. It was her own little world — perhaps insignificant, but precious to her.

She went straight to her father. As expected, his answer came as no surprise.

“Haven’t two years been enough?”