Chapter 4.2

Twenty minutes later.

The breakfast laid out on the dining table was both elegant and abundant.

The dishes Eun-sol could confidently name included soft tofu egg soup, kimchi buckwheat pancakes, grilled marinated beef, and a trio of seasoned vegetables. As for the rest, she didn’t even know what to call them.

Most striking of all was the glutinous rice placed before her.

“Madam, you prefer rice that’s slightly sticky rather than dry. I prepared it to suit your taste.” 

Housekeeper Woo explained.

It was a preference she hadn’t even known about herself. The tingling sensation on her tongue proved that Housekeeper Woo was right.

“Thank you for the meal.”

The meals prepared by Mrs. Boryeong at the seaside mansion had been fine, but they couldn’t compare to this.

Then again, the number of staff working here far outnumbered those at the seaside mansion.

Feeling uncomfortable under their gazes, Eun-sol glanced toward the servants lined up just outside the dining room. She hadn’t realized it last night, having only met Housekeeper Woo, but there were now six visible staff members, including her.

‘Is it really necessary to have this many people serving just two diners?’

Still, it was far better than sitting alone with Kwon Jeong-hyeok, so Eun-sol quietly picked up her utensils.

There were so many side dishes that she didn’t know where to start. She took a bite of rice, then sipped a little of the soft tofu soup.

The warm, savory flavor clinging to her palate was just beginning to lift her spirits when—

“Don’t leave anything behind. I can’t stand to see you get any thinner.”

His tone was far too commanding to be taken as a simple encouragement to enjoy the meal. Her mood instantly soured.

“How could you lose more weight after just one day of running away? That’s a talent in itself.”

He smirked.

Who was he to talk? If anyone had a talent, it was him—for ruining someone’s appetite.

‘Sure, I didn’t eat much yesterday, but how much weight could I possibly lose from skipping meals for just one day?’

Technically, she hadn’t even been gone for a full 24 hours.

However, she decided not to respond. It was better not to engage in battles that had no chance of victory from the start.

She reached out with her chopsticks and picked up a piece of perfectly grilled marinated beef. She placed it in her mouth and chewed it slowly.

She had only planned to pretend to eat, but the burst of juice melting in her mouth caught her off guard.

It wasn’t just the marinated beef. Perhaps it was because she had gone hungry the previous day, but every dish was exceptional.

Gradually, her chopsticks began to reach for more plates, and before she realized it, her rice bowl was emptied faster than she had expected.

Above all, Kwon Jeong-hyeok hadn’t said a single word after his earlier remark, allowing her to continue eating in relative peace.

Soon, the empty dishes were cleared away, and dessert was served. It looked like a chamoe (Korean melon), but its scent was fresh and sweet, like a melon.

“This is a chamoe melon supplied to the Blue House.”

Housekeeper Woo ffered a brief explanation as she placed the plate in front of her.

She stabbed the white flesh of the fruit with a fork.

While Eun-sol was finishing her fruit plate, he remained silent. He didn’t touch the dessert either.

‘If he wasn’t going to say anything anyway, he could’ve just eaten alone. Why did he insist on waiting to have breakfast together?’

His silence usually made people feel chased or anxious, exerting an unspoken pressure. But today felt different.

It was as if he was giving her space to eat comfortably or waiting for her to speak if she had something to say. It might have been wishful thinking, but…

In truth, there was a lot she wanted to say. There were so many questions she wanted to ask that she didn’t know where to begin.

She wished she could find the answers on her own without having to ask him, but most of them were things she couldn’t figure out by herself.

“Why… didn’t you tell me?”

Her hesitant voice slipped out just as Chief Cheon entered the room to inform him that he could no longer delay leaving for work.

“Tell you what?”  

“That I used to work at the luxury boutique in Taepyeong Department Store.”

To be honest, she wasn’t particularly curious about the parts of her job he hadn’t told her about.

The question was more of an attempt to break the ice, as she couldn’t dive straight into the main topic with the first question.

“You hated your job. At one point, you were even taking antidepressants because of it. You didn’t get along well with your coworkers either. Since it wasn’t a good memory, I didn’t see the need to bring it up.”

The words Eun-sol had heard from Hye-mi and the fatigued expression in the photos Hye-mi had shown her matched perfectly, so she believed his explanation without question.

However, she felt a strong aversion to his extremely self-centered decisions.

“Still, I wanted to know. No matter how unpleasant it may be, I have the right to know the truth.”  

“What’s the point? You’ve already lost your memory, so there’s no need to recall unpleasant times.”

He dismissed the matter as if it wasn’t worth discussing in the first place.

“Even if I had told you the truth, you wouldn’t have believed me. You’d have gone to Taepyeong Department Store to dig around, making a scene. And I’d have ended up humiliated because of it.”

He had hit the nail on the head.

He was directly referencing the shrimp sauce emergency room incident and the police station incident.

To him, the jewelry store incident from yesterday was probably in the same context.

Eun-sol swallowed hard. She suddenly felt like she had nothing to say, even if she had ten mouths.

“For the time being, we’ll stay at the Seoul mansion longer. I need to disinfect and treat your knee, and I also have work commitments. Don’t go wandering off doing unnecessary things.”

With that final notice, he stood up from his seat.

* * *

10 minutes later.

‘Ah, what is this even…?’

Eun-sol was standing in the backyard of the mansion. The soft morning sunlight felt as scorching as the midsummer sun, making the top of her head burn.

She couldn’t quite understand how she ended up here, seeing off Kwon Jeong-hyeok.

In front of her was the sedan he was about to get into, with Kwon Jeong-hyeok standing nearby. Chief Cheon and six servants surrounded them, forming a circle, as they all bid him farewell.

Naturally, Eun-sol had no intention of participating in this send-off.

When Kwon Jeong-hyeok stood up from the dining table, she had also risen from her seat, but it wasn’t to follow him. She had simply intended to wash her hands, which were sticky from the chamoe melon juice.

But one of the servants had said, “Madam, this way, please,” and guided her. Without understanding why, she had followed the servant.

And that’s how she ended up in the backyard, where she saw Kwon Jeong-hyeok about to get into the sedan parked near the back gate.

“If you leave through the back gate, the road is closer. The CEO always takes this route to work. This is a private entrance exclusively for him.”

The servant seemed to assume that she intended to see Kwon Jeong-hyeok off to work.

She tried to go back inside in embarrassment, but she had already caught Kwon Jeong-hyeok’s attention. If she hadn’t seen it wrong, he also seemed taken aback.

“Ah, I was just…”

Under his lingering gaze, which seemed to savor her like ice cream, she couldn’t bring herself to turn away.

If she pretended not to notice the faint expectation in his eyes and simply went back inside, it would surely lead to consequences later. Besides, stepping out this far only to retreat again would look utterly ridiculous to anyone watching.

She decided she had no choice but to stay put until he got into the car. However, he didn’t move.

Not only that, but Chief Cheon and the other servants were all waiting for her to say something.

Eun-sol quickly realized that in order to end this situation, she needed to wrap it up with an appropriate farewell.

“…P-please, have a safe trip.”

Her entire body felt itchy, as though she had said something she shouldn’t have. Even her voice sounded awkward, as if it didn’t belong to her.

For a moment, it looked as though he smiled softly. Then again, she might have seen it wrong. At that very moment, the clouds parted, and sunlight poured down, making her squint.

“Alright. I’ll be back. Make sure to get some rest.”

But this… this didn’t seem like something she had misheard.

The sunlight pouring down on her head felt even hotter.

Eun-sol remained standing there until his car completely disappeared from her sight. It wasn’t so much that she wanted to see him off to the end, but rather that she had become momentarily dazed and frozen in place.