Lights Don't Go Out in the Annex - Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
Taegyeom stared at Leeseo intently and said.
“There’s no point in getting tangled up with someone like me in this house. Don’t you sense the atmosphere of all people distancing themselves from me in fear of the chairman’s disapproval? What do you think you’re doing, staring at me like this?”
“S-s-staring?”
Her eyes widened in bewilderment. She was taken aback, stumbling her words.
“I just thought… since you seemed to unable find your way home, standing aimlessly there, so I thought you might be drunk…….”
“If I’m drunk…”
Kwon Taegyeom cut Leeseo off mid-sentence, tilting his head forward suddenly. The moonlight over his tilted head casted a shadow that loomed over Leeseo’s cheek.
Leeseo bit her lower lip and held her breath. He was so close, it felt like their noses could touch any moment
“Are even capable of carrying me?”
His breath tickled the tip of her nose. The atmosphere felt stifling, as if something inside her was tightening. Her fingertips tingled and her stomach rumbled, her head felt lightheaded, as if his intoxication had rubbed off on her.
“…I’ll call someone. You seem quite drunk.”
She spoke with an effort to sound composed. With his eyes meeting hers like that, he whispered softly. In an affectionate and gentle tone that didn’t quite fit him.
“Don’t be disrespectful.”
“……What?”
“Don’t even flirt in front of me.”
Ha. A bitter laugh escaped her. She was simply dumbfounded by his absurd words that he blurted out so brazenly.
Don’t be disrespectful? Don’t flirt?
Her mouth, which had been open in speechlessness, stiffened. The fine droplets of rain continued to fall onto her cheeks. Her damp eyelashes trembled from a chilly breeze.
There are indeed such kind of people in this world.
Leeseo’s eyes widened and she glared at Kwon Taegyeom.
“Excuse me. You’re being too reckless with your words.”
The words she’d been holding back finally exploded out of her.
“I tried to hold it in, but I’m the one who works for a paycheck here, not you, and nowhere in my contract does it say I have to listen to you spout off ridiculous nonsense like you just did.”
As Leeseo relentlessly fired her words, he gave her a look that said, “Look at you.” His finely shaped eyebrows furrowed, and the corners of his lips curled. His slanted eyes glittered with a strange light, a hint of interest in them. Even that seemed to enrage Leeseo’s anger.
“You say mean things to someone who’s trying to help you, and you want me to stop looking at you? Ha, I can’t believe it. If it were anyone else, regardless of who, if they were standing there drunkenly like you, I would have said and done the same thing. You think you’re something, don’t get me wrong.”
Kwon Taegyeom stared at Leeseo in silence for a while with an amused expression on his face. But, he then seemed to lose interest quickly, and soon looked bored.
His long gaze settled down. Intuitively, she knew she should stop around this point, but like a faulty faucet, she couldn’t stop.
“You’re not a kid, you’re a grown man, and you’re doing this on the street, drunk enough that you can’t even find your way home. Honestly, it’s pathetic.”
Honestly, it’s pathetic? Honestly, it’s pathetic? Honestly, it’s pathetic?
Leeseo’s last words echoed off the silent walls all around him.
After pouring out the words she had been holding in, she took a sharp intake of breath. She shouldn’t have gotten so worked up, but she felt a surge of emotions that she didn’t understand.
As if asking if she was done, Kwon Taegyeom asked with a relaxed gaze.
“Did you have a lot of that bottled up? You were quite an earful.”
He then covered his forehead with his large hand and casually rubbed his temples.
“If you’re done, go on your way.”
As if saying that’s enough for now, he lazily gestured with his chin. His sharp jawline tensed.
“I’d listen more, but my head is ringing.”
His eyes were heartless as he stared down at her. Kwon Taegyeom, not bothering to hide his annoyance, looked openly tired and fed up. Leeseo felt a prickling sensation in the pit of her stomach, as if she had been stung by his expression.
Leeseo turned around without a word. There was no need for any farewell-like gestures between the them, only the sting of his gaze on the back of her head.
She could feel that he still standing there, getting drenched in the falling rain, watching her retreating figure. But, she didn’t look back and continued walking until the end.
Step by step, firmly pressing the ground with her feet, like she was pounding on the floor. Leeseo walked resolutely until she reached her container-turned-home.
It wasn’t until she opened the door and stepped into the closed-in room that she let out a long breath she had been holding in. It had been raining, the air inside the room felt cool, a seasonally inappropriate sensation as they were crossing into summer.
The unidentifiable lump in her throat was unbearable. She quickly stripped off her rain-soaked clothes, which clung to her body.
She desperately needed a warm shower.
* * *
The season had deepened a bit. In the garden, the vegetables basked in the warm sun and abundant rain, growing fresh and vibrant. In the grassy yard under the scorching sun of the day, the sprinkler danced, and the garden was filled with the ever-fragrant scent of flowers.
In the meantime, there had been some small changes in the mansion. Kwon Taegyeom started going to work in earnest, and Jin-gyeom began attending a cram school in Daechi-dong, claiming that he couldn’t study well at home.
Shin Joo-ah, the lady of the mansion, was also often away from the mansion due to her involvement in supporting foundations and gatherings of conglomerate wives. This made the atmosphere among the employees much more relaxed.
As Kwon Taegyeom began his official workday, Mrs. Seo seemed to be hoping that his nighttime antics would stop, but unfortunately, she had given up. As the rest of the staff ate dinner together in the quarters, Mrs. Seo lamented, a little fed up.
“He’s still drinking last night, his tolerance must be great. I’m surprised he’s still able to go about his daily routine after working during the day and drinking and partying at night.”
The picked up a bunch of greens and dipped them in sesame oil, then responded.
“He probably sleeps at the company.”
“Sleep at the company? How could he manage to sleep there? He must have a way of hiding it.”
“He’s the chairman’s son, after all. They probably gave him a big room at the company. And since he’s an executive as soon as he joined the company, why would he be sitting in a same office as the rest of the employees? He must have his own fancy office.”
As Leeseo scooped up a spoonful of miso soup and ate it, she replayed the man’s title in her mind.
Executive Kwon Taegyeom. Executive Kwon Taegyeom. Executive Kwon Taegyeom…
It just doesn’t suit him.
Perhaps a casual nickname like “laid-back rascal” was just fitting for that man.
“But, Director Hwang started as the chairman’s secretary and now, he oversees this mansion. He must have been at the company for over twenty years now. And yet, some people become executives as soon as they join the company even when they’re still at a young age. Wouldn’t that be strange?”
“That’s the way it is. For now, they probably handed him the executive position to know the company inside and outside first, but soon enough, he’ll be the CEO.”
“But would the chairman really promote him all the way to CEO? Didn’t the chairman send him to the U.S. and not call him back all this time, with the intention of passing the company to his second son?”
“Maybe he had a change of heart after getting seriously ill last time. Or maybe his wife’s chanting doesn’t work anymore because his strength is gone.”
“Goodness, this person suddenly speaks hot words at the dining table. Leeseo is here too!”
Mrs. Seo slapped Chef Kim on the shoulder, causing everyone around the table to giggle in hushed tones. Their conversation about the current state of the family leader quickly shifted to another topic.
A drama currently airing on a cable channel was highly popular. The employees engaged in lively debates, cursing at the male lead character one after another and praising the excellent acting skills of the actor playing the role of the cheating husband.
By the time they finished eating, it was already past 9 o’clock. Since they all gathered to eat after all the employees were done with their work, dinner often ended up being late.
After showering and drying her hair, Leeseo absentmindedly hummed a tune. It was a melody her mother would hum when she would dry her hair when she was younger.
Especially since she had thick hair, if left to her own devices, she’d just dry the surface and call it a day, so her mother would pull her in and dry her hair carefully. Her mother’s loving touch is now as hazy the faded family photo in her memory.
‘She has a lot of hair because she took after you.’
Her dad used to tease her while laughing. Occasionally, he would also dry her hair sometimes. Just like how her mother used to dry her hair.
Her mother’s sudden death had left a heavy weight somewhere in Leeseo’s heart, and her dad’s world had crumbled completely at that time. He never quite recovered from her absence.
While Leeseo had run away to school to escape the sorrow of losing her mother, her dad had run to the gambling tables. Yelling about how he’d spend his money, he’d taken her mother’s insurance payout and poured it all into the casino, losing what little was left of their wealth.
Leeseo didn’t find out until recently. Or she didn’t even want to know. Maybe she just wanted to ignore it.
Every few months, or once a year, when she reluctantly returned to the mansion, she would see her father’s worn-out face and emaciated face, and she would knowingly turn a blind eye.
She consoled herself with the self-deceptive excuses that she needed to get out of school and graduate quickly, then earn money, and settle down, to make things better for both herself and her father.
But in truth, she simply disliked coming back to the mansion. She hated coming back to the mansion because she could see her mom’s image everywhere. Back then, it was so uncomfortable and painful.
Lying on the unmade bed, Leeseo stretched her arms and rolled onto her side. She imagined her mother’s ghostly figure lying on the empty floor, as if she could grasp her with her hand.
For the sake of their daughter, who was constantly pestering them for a bed, her parents had placed a single bed in their cramped room and said they were comfortable sleeping on the floor. Gazing at her mother’s vision, Leeseo drifted off to sleep.