Lights Don't Go Out in the Annex - Chapter 22
CHAPTER 22
‘Oh, you’re a face I don’t recognize.’
‘Go upstairs.’
Drunken slurring. Unlike the rough and disheveled appearance on that fateful day, the man now was quite well dressed.
The man, dressed in a suit like Mr. Gong walked past the wall Leeseo was hiding on. The man strode briskly toward the front door of the detention center, pulling his cell phone from inside his suit top. He tapped the screen to call someone, then exchange nods with Mr. Gong and turned around.
The two men got into their respective cars and sped out of the parking lot. Leeseo stood there for a while, watching the taillights of the departing cars.
* * *
After getting off the bus, Leeseo walked slowly up the gentle incline.. By the time she had taken the subway from Songdo and entered Seoul, it was already dark. Occasionally, cars passed by, their headlights casting long beams as they drove past her.
Her steps were slow and deliberate, swaying like the waves. She began to feel the effects of alcohol belatedly. After going to school for the first time in a long while to meet friends and have dinner, they naturally moved on to drinking.
It was an unplanned and impulsive decision to go to school. She couldn’t get the scene from the detention center out of her head and didn’t want to go back straight to the mansion.
Her classmates who were a semester away from graduation were fully immersed in preparing for the national pharmacist exam, often visiting the school library during their vacation. Her friends, who hadn’t seen Leeseo for a long time after she abruptly took a leave of absence and lost touch with them, pestered her about her latest news and wouldn’t let her go.
Combined with the effects of alcohol, her body felt heavy and sluggish due to spending the entire day moving around. It had been a while since she had left the confines of the mansion where she had been cooped up, and she felt like her mind was somewhat refreshed by going out.
She was moderately intoxicated and fatigue. She wanted to take a shower and lie down to collapse into a deep sleep, as soon as she gets to her room. With that thought in mind, Leeseo staggered towards her destination. She felt that if she could just lay her head on a pillow right now, she would fall into a deep slumber. The overwhelming sense of exhaustion covering her entire body was strangely comforting.
She used the staff entrance to enter the mansion. Both the main building in the distance and the staff quarters were engulfed in complete darkness, not a single window illuminated, but somehow, as she walked, her drunkenness lifted and her consciousness became clearer.
Sure enough, a blinding light was shining from the annex. While the entire mansion was shrouded in darkness, the annex stood out like a solitary island, glowing brightly.
Her steps slowed down gradually, like walking underwater. The buzzing of cicadas in her ears gradually faded. The morning conversations of the staff in the quarter building echoed in her ears as if she had pressed the repeat button.
‘The young master mother’s memorial day is the same as Lady Shin’s birthday.’
‘Oh my, what a coincidence of dates. How lonely must he feel, staying alone in the annex on his mother’s memorial day? Doesn’t he perform ancestral rites or something like that?’
‘Do you think the master would do something like that with his personality? There probably wasn’t anyone in the United States who could teach him to take care of such rituals.’
It was hard to imagine the man, who seemed to have everything in the world, being so sad and alone. It would have been understandable if he were having a lively party as usual, appearing carefree and free-spirited.
Is he throwing another party all night tonight? Putting on that facade of boredom and indifference to the world.
Suddenly, Tae-gyeom’s languid face came to her mind. His deep, melodious voice as he spouted absurd excuses, his long, slender fingers moving deliberately, and the strangely tingling sensation when he brushed past her earlobe.
Memories that had been locked behind a gate suddenly burst forth, flooding her mind uncontrollably. Oh, had I had too much to drink?
For a moment, she faltered.
Her stomach churned. Standing against the wall, she shook her head vigorously, as if to clear the memory.
She felt irritated and repulsed by the fact that she had indulged briefly with a man who had a bad personality and was frivolous in everything. But that wasn’t all. In fact, what angered her more was that his attention and interest were only superficial.
She realized that, despite mocking his shallowness, she ultimately became the only one to find it amusing. It felt pitiful and foolish. The bitter smile that hung at the corners of her mouth gradually hardened into something cold.
Leeseo staggered along the wall, avoiding looking in the direction of the annex intentionally.
***
Entering her home, Leeseo immediately took a shower and dried her hair. Time had flown by, and it was now close to midnight.
Checking the clock, she walked over to the window to draw the curtains. As she gripped the ends of the sagging blackout curtains, her fingers inadvertently tensed.
Slowly blinking, her eyelids twitched convulsively. A silhouette stood motionless against the bright lights in the second-floor window of the annex. It was Kwon Tae-gyeom.
Since when had he been watching me? No, why…
At that moment, a complex and inexplicable wave of emotions overwhelmed her. She couldn’t describe what it was or why she was feeling that way. She couldn’t explain it, couldn’t make sense of it, it just happened. She just acted on instinct. Leeseo opened the door and went outside.
The lukewarm night air embraced her limbs. The thin, airy material of her dress wrapped around her legs. She hadn’t even been aware of the fact that she was in a sleeveless sundress meant for sleepwear.
As she walked, Leeseo looked up at the windows of the second floor of the annex. But the window was now empty. It was as if the window wanted to tell her that no one had ever stood there.
But she didn’t stop walking. She had a feeling that it didn’t really matter if she was mistaken.
Just as she opened the gate to the annex, someone opened the front door and stepped out into the courtyard. It was hard to make out the man’s face against the light, so Leeseo stared at him, brows furrowed.
“Hmm? I’ve seen you before, haven’t I?”
The scruffy-faced man was still dressed as he had been when he was with Mr. Gong earlier in the day. The only difference was that his suit jacket was off and draped over his arms, his shirt sleeves were rolled up to his forearms, and his tie was loosened. That alone made him look much worse than he had this morning.
“Right, Nightingale. Did Tae-gyeom called and told you he ripped his palm off again?”
The man held up his own palm to the side of his face and waved it around, laughing. It sounded like he was referring to the last time Kwon Tae-gyeom had hurt his hand, a nuance that made it sound like he’d done it to him.
When Leeseo continued to stare at him without responding, the man scratched his chin with his index finger.
“Isn’t that it? You’re here to comfort him? Good, because I was about to leave. He was getting on my nerves.”
“…”
“On days like today, it’s a bit difficult to leave him alone. Even though that bastard talks like sh*t…”
“Are you a lawyer?”
The man tilted his head at Leeseo’s question.
“Hmm? Do I look like a lawyer?”
He rubs his chin with his hand and the corner of his mouth curls up in a smirk.
“Well, thanks for the compliment. But what should I do? I’m not smart, so I just pay for lawyers.”
Leeseo narrowed her eyes slightly.
If he wasn’t a lawyer, then why had he visited my father with Mr. Gong, and what were they talking about?
There was no way to find out unless she asked him directly. And it was unclear whether she would have another opportunity to question him. For all she knew, he could be just a regular employee of the company, like Mr. Gong, or for some other mundane reason.
With that in mind, Leeseo didn’t hesitate. She immediately spoke up.
“I saw you today at the Seoul Detention Center. You were coming out of the visitation room with Mr. Gong.”
Leeseo didn’t miss the slight twitch of the man’s mouth as it hardened.
“What did you talk about with Hyun Gyu-cheol?”
As she asked this straightforward question, the man’s face contorted in discomfort. Leeseo suspected that he might already know that she was Hyun Gyu-chul’s daughter. Otherwise, his reaction wouldn’t make sense.
“I don’t know what you’re suddenly talking about. It’s nice that you’re interested in me, but it’s a bit uncomfortable when you come at me so suddenly without any context.”
The man scratched the back of his head, feigning ignorance.
“You didn’t follow me all the way there just because you’re interested in me, did you? If that’s the case, I feel sorry for Tae-gyeom. Oh, not that I don’t like it. I’m the type who likes it when someone actively approaches me, so don’t be disappointed.”
The man’s strange and evasive conversation tactics seemed oddly reminiscent of Kwon Tae-gyeom. It was as if they were conducting some kind of research or manipulation, even between friends. Leeseo looked at the man with annoyance.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. You know exactly what I mean.”
“I got caught, huh?”
The man shrugged his shoulders and responded dryly. Then, he rummaged through the inner pocket of his suit jacket and retrieved his wallet, taking out a business card.
“Here, that’s all I can give you.”