2.1

“It’s so beautiful.”

Standing at the top of the stairs, Chaeyoon stopped in her tracks, genuinely amazed by the landscape unfolding before her eyes. 

Starting at the top of the stairs, a carpet of large, luscious blossoms in white, pink, and purple spread out like a carpet.

“Peony? These are peonies, right?”

Chaeyoon’s eyes widened. Peonies were so luscious that even a single bloom was radiant. Gathered together, they were spectacular.

“Didn’t I tell you? It’s exactly your taste, right?” 

Joo-eun said with a satisfied smile.

“This is my first time seeing so many peonies. Peonies have a short blooming period, so people usually plant roses that can be enjoyed for a longer time.”

Peeking out from the deep green leaves, the tempting peonies in white, pink, and purple hues were even more varied up close, including both double and single varieties, which made looking at each one never boring.

“They are really well-maintained.”

Chaeyoon brought her nose close to a particularly striking purple peony and inhaled its scent. She was enchanted by the beauty and the subtle fragrance of the peonies, feeling purified in her heart.

“Do you also like flowers?”

Seonho asked Chaeyoon with an expression of surprise. The nuance of “you also” sounded peculiar to Chaeyoon.

“You think I don’t like them?”

“To be honest, I wouldn’t have guessed. I didn’t think you’d like flowers and other sentimental items.”

“Why?”

“You always seem so focused on your studies, it seems like you wouldn’t be interested in anything else.” 

“Hey, I can’t resist flowers. My dad’s a garden designer, you know. I might not have been interested if it weren’t for my dad being a garden designer, since I take after my mom who is more logical. Thanks to him, I also like flowers and have a lot of interest in gardening.”

“I see. But why do women like flowers? I can understand liking luxury brands or jewels, but flowers? They wither so soon, it seems like they have no value.”

“Well, to put it in marketing terms, they’re valuable because they seed quickly, and this flower I’m looking at right now is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I’ll never see it again after it wilts.”

“Ah! Marketing!”

“Well, that’s our major, so we should approach everything from a marketing perspective, right?”

“I guess top graduates are different after all.”

Seonho grinned wryly, but between them, there seemed to be sparks flying.

Joo-eun looked at them as if she couldn’t contain herself and shook her head excitedly.

This kind of interaction wasn’t new for them. They never threw harsh words at each other. Seonho was always smiling, and Chaeyoon was exceedingly polite.

Yet there was tension between the two. Enough to make the observer tense as well.

“You’ve completely redone the garden.”

The tension seemed to dissipate with Joo-eun’s voice.

“Have you been here before?”

Chaeyoon asked Joo-eun.

“I was invited once. When was that?”

Joo-eun looked at Seonho as she spoke.

“It was when my mother bought and built this place. About 5 years ago?”

As they crossed the spacious garden, a villa reminiscent of a European fairy-tale village came into view. It was more quaint than grand, a charming villa.

“The villa is also beautiful.”

Chaeyoon marveled once again. It was an architectural piece that felt crafted by artisans, not a conventional building.

“It’s pretty, but isn’t it a bit small? Relative to the property, I mean.”

Joo-eun remarked, looking at Seonho.

“It doesn’t need to be big. It’s a villa meant for lovers.”

“Lovers?”

“It was meant for my mother’s affairs. The location and access are very private.”

“No wonder. I thought the interior decoration was a bit decadent last time. The seashell bed was really something. Did you change the interior too?”

“Of course I did. Why would I leave that pink, vomit-inducing atmosphere?”

Chaeyoon slipped behind Seonho and Joo-eun, who were casually discussing this, and whispered to Seokhyun.

“When Joo-eun talks about these things so nonchalantly, it makes me feel like she’s from another world; it’s strange.”

“I feel sorry for them, actually.”

“For what?”

“It’s the fact that they accept something so abnormal as if it were normal.”

A son who knows his mother enjoys bringing men other than his father to the villa.

If the son knows, wouldn’t the husband know his wife is unfaithful? Maybe the husband also has a mistress somewhere else.

“Maybe they consider it a privilege? The vice chairwoman giving this villa to Seonho as a gift could also mean ‘you can have your affairs here too.'”

Chaeyoon referred to Seonho’s mother as the vice chairwoman. Since she couldn’t just be a friend’s mother in her eyes, she always used the formal title “vice chairwoman” even in private conversations.

Seonho’s parents were considered to have had a very successful arranged marriage. Publicly, they were seen as excellent partners. Thus, Seonho’s brother also had an arranged marriage, and Seonho was expected to follow suit. 

Perhaps the reason they could continue these arranged marriages without issues was that they kept spouses and lovers separately. What lessons their children learned from seeing this was quite clear.

They say ‘there are no problem children, only problem parents’, but they don’t see any issues with their lifestyle.

“It’s tragic, really. They have so much, yet they’re lacking something fundamental, so they feel the need for more.”

“Oppa, you’re kind too. It’s hard to see it that way because it looks like they have too much.”

Chaeyoon’s voice was cold.

“You don’t need as much as you think to live in the world. Even if you have more than enough, if you don’t have what’s truly important, you’ll be unhappy. What’s even more unfortunate is that they don’t realize that.”

Seokhyun’s eyes were filled with sadness as he looked at Joo-eun.

“Ignorance is bliss.”

“In that sense, we’re really happier because we have what we truly need.”

Seokhyun smiled gently at Chaeyoon.

Chaeyoon felt he understood what Seokhyun meant. Chaeyoon had grown up in a modest environment thanks to her capable parents, but more importantly, her parents were loving and faithful to each other. In that, Chaeyoon had grown up feeling loved enough.

“That’s right. We really have what’s necessary, thankfully. So, Oppa, do you want to share that with Joo-eun too? That’s kind of funny. The one who has less is taking care of someone who has more.”

Chaeyoon’s voice was quite sharp.

Seokhyun was a handsome and talented man, kind and capable, a jack-of-all-trades, kind-hearted, church-brother kind of guy who had a cult following of local girls.

Moreover, at only 28 years old, he was a promising young entrepreneur who had garnered attention. Having entered engineering school, he focused on app development during his studies and started his own business even before graduating.

After selling his first company at a good price, he continued to expand his assets through similar ventures. He had a filmography that would be impressive no matter where it was presented.

But of all people, he had to date Joo-eun. If it wasn’t for Joo-eun’s family background, would he have been acknowledged? 

Chaeyoon was terribly distressed that the man, who could have been celebrated, chose a chaebol’s daughter and was placed in a situation that could ruin him.

In the end, he would be discarded.

“Am I really that much of a saint? I know it sounds cliché, but love isn’t always what you make it.”

Seokhyun’s deeply sunken eyes reflected his anguish.

“I told you to just like her, but now you already love her?”

“Yeah. As an engineering student, I underestimated Cupid’s arrow, maybe too much.”

“Ha. Then let’s go with the second-best option. Just date her casually, okay? As lightly as possible to avoid getting hurt. It won’t be easy, of course.”

Even as he spoke, she realized that it didn’t make sense. Love was one of those things that didn’t go as planned.

Still, Chaeyoon couldn’t help but say it. This is how Chaeyoon loves her friends.

“I’m so happy that you’re by Joo-eun’s side.”

Seokhyun ruffled Chaeyoon’s hair. His gentle smile was like a blade piercing Chaeyoon’s heart. She felt like crying, even though she usually didn’t cry.

How she wished she could say to him, “I’m glad you’re with Joo-eun,” too because she knew he would love and cherish Joo-eun so much.