Chapter 33

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: Those Lips
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Taeseo woke from a nap and sat at his computer. Outside the window, the sky was darkening.

Sitting at his computer, he drafted a report for the head office. It detailed a proposal to raise the land purchase price from 1 million to 1.2 million won per pyeong, on the condition that they could skip the usual procedures and relocate the graves immediately.

An Yuna's uncle would do anything to sell the land for 1.2 million won per pyeong. This was just preparing the groundwork in advance.

After working on the report for a while, Taeseo leaned back in his chair and pressed the back of his hand to his eyes.

He was tired from the light nap. The report needed more work, but the words on the screen wouldn't register, so he hit the save draft button instead of send.

“Damn, I'm tired.”

He considered sleeping more, but he knew sleep wouldn't come even if he lay down.

“That girl… Ha, she's crazy, completely insane.”

An Yuna's decision to settle with Jaeseop for a mere 1 million won was both vexing and infuriating.

When the victim treats the crime so lightly and settles for a pittance, there's no way the perpetrator will ever feel remorse.

The law should be applied strictly for the sake of victim protection and preventing recurrence, but its very logic had been twisted.

To reduce herself to someone worth only 1 million won… An Yuna had dug her own grave.

Whatever happened to a cheap woman like that, he was done with this neighborhood's affairs.

Just as Taeseo was trying to erase An Yuna from his mind, there was a knock at his studio apartment door. Knock, knock, knock.

It was obvious who would come looking for him in this neighborhood. Hyunwoo wasn't the type to show up unannounced, so it had to be An Yuna.

Taeseo pretended he wasn't home. He even held his breath, planning to ignore her completely, but the knocking continued without pause.

An Yuna wasn't the type to persistently bang on someone's door.

Did something else happen? The moment the thought crossed his mind, Taeseo was already standing at the front door.

When he opened the door, An Yuna was, of course, standing there.

Yuna thrust the bag she was holding toward Taeseo and spoke.

“Please teach me how to drink.”

At the mention of alcohol, Taeseo's expression soured.

“What about drinking?”

“They say you're supposed to learn how to drink from someone older.”

Yuna's words made Taeseo's face turn even more grim.

“Have you lost your mind?”

That was the exact line that bastard Jaeseop had used to try and seduce An Yuna.

“You idiot. Do you really want to parrot what that bastard said?”

Yuna hurriedly made an excuse.

“It's just that I didn't have any other excuse.”

“What?”

“If not for that… I wouldn't have had the nerve to ask you to have a drink with me…”

*Ha, this girl is really crazy.*

The sight of An Yuna wanting to drink made his head throb. Drinking was for people who knew how to drink; first-timers were bound to make mistakes.

He couldn't guarantee there was only one guy like Jaeseop in this neighborhood, so he couldn't let An Yuna drink alone.

“Come in.”

Taeseo stepped aside, and Yuna entered the apartment.

“I heard you had to pay a large settlement because of me… I'll figure out a way to pay you back. If I get an advance on my salary and scrape everything together, I should be able to manage…”

Taeseo scowled at her dejected tone.

“An advance, you say.”

5 million won was pocket change to Taeseo, but not to Yuna.

“You went to work the day after you got your head cracked open, and you went to work even after you were almost sexually assaulted. If you get an advance on your salary, are you going to keep working even if you get a knife in the gut?”

It was painfully obvious how An Yuna would live her life trying to pay back that 5 million won.

“Work… is something I have to do.”

Exactly like that.

If he told her to pay him back, An Yuna would stubbornly work herself to the bone, oblivious to her own failing health, until she paid back every last bit of that 5 million won.

With the same foolishness that made her work until her bones broke to feed the very people who abused her, An Yuna would live her entire life in this miserable state. The sight of her enraged Taeseo even more.

“I'll handle my own compensation, so stay out of it.”

“…”

Yuna walked to the table in silence and set down the plastic bag of alcohol. As she rustled through the bag, taking out the drinks, she looked at Taeseo.

“Your car.”

That formal address, "you," uttered with such difficulty, got on Taeseo's nerves this time.

“You fucking called that bastard who looks like a cattle thief ‘Older Brother’ without a problem, but you call me ‘you’?”

“Then what should I call you? We're not close enough for me to call you ‘Older Brother’… Besides, you're—”

“Careful, or you'll start calling me ‘this person’ and ‘that person,’ right?”

“Taeseo.”

“…”

For a moment, Taeseo, who had been on the verge of exploding, was left speechless.

“Your car, Taeseo. I heard the payments are expensive.”

“So, because I'm ‘car poor’ and have to make car payments, you're going to pay the compensation for me beating up that bastard?”

“It was because of me that you resorted to violence in the first place…”

“Wow, I'm seriously going to lose my mind.”

“…”

“I beat that bastard to a pulp because I couldn't control my own temper, so you just take your one million won settlement and live well.”

Honestly, he couldn't care less about 5 million won. No, even if he couldn't reach a settlement and ended up with an assault charge on his record, it wouldn't affect his livelihood in the slightest.

“Wow, the more I think about it, the more pissed I get.”

But what really enraged him was that because An Yuna had settled, that cattle-thief bastard got to walk away like he'd done nothing wrong.

“You're a girl who was almost sexually assaulted, and you settle for one million won? Would you let him do it for a million won? Are you empty-headed? Or just insane?”

“I… I didn't try to settle… I really didn't do it…”

Yuna rambled, as if making an excuse.

“Then what was it?”

“My grandmother… my grandmother came and settled it. She said if rumors spread in the neighborhood, a woman's life would be ruined. She told me to just live with it and marry him…”

A bitter laugh escaped Taeseo's lips at her words.

“So you're going to marry that cattle thief?”

“…”

“The more I see of you, the more pathetic you are. You think anyone appreciates you working yourself to the bone like this? An Yunho? Your grandmother?”

“…”

“Look at this. They hear you were almost sexually assaulted, rush over to settle for a measly 1 million won, and then tell you to marry the bastard. Why do you live like this, working ten-plus hours a day to take care of family like that? Huh?”

Taeseo's harsh words made Yuna's face drain of color, turning deathly pale. With confused eyes, she tried to defend herself.

“Once I pay off the loan on this place, I'm going to study… and do other things I want to do.”

He'd heard this before. She'd said she could pay off the loan by the time she was 25 or 26. Then she'd live her life doing what she wanted. But Taeseo's opinion hadn't changed one bit.

When that time came, her family would surely find another reason to hold her back.

“Like hell you will. I guarantee you, the people you think of as family don't think of you as family. To them, you're just a useful servant in that house. A servant.”

“You don't have to say it like that…”

He wanted to land a blow on An Yuna, who was still defending her family even now.

“Your uncle came to see me today. Said he was here to get the compensation for the land.”

Compensation. Uncle. The shock of those two words must have been significant, because Yuna froze, her mouth agape.

“Let that scoundrel take the compensation. You think he'll use it to pay off the loan on this building as thanks for all your hard work? He'll pocket the money and let you keep suffering.”

“You can't give the compensation to my uncle! The compensation… my grandmother has to receive it herself!”

“That's your family's problem. I don't care who receives the compensation. Whether your uncle brings your grandmother here or gets her official seal and comes as her representative, it's none of my business.”

“I'll convince my grandmother. Please, just don't give it to my uncle. Please.”

“Enough. I'm going to finish this job as fast as I can and get out of here, so just know that.”

“Please…”

“Why should I?”

“Money… I'll give you money.”

A dry laugh escaped Taeseo's lips.

Offering him money…

If someone who actually had money said it, it might make sense, but this was not something An Yuna—the girl who'd been beaten until her head bled just to protect 600,000 won—should be saying.

“Is money all you know?”

“Money… money is the best thing, isn't it? Everyone works for money… money is…”

She was probably like this because money was the very thing that made her life so miserable.

Even though she'd lived with relatives because she had no parents, if those relatives had been well-off, her life wouldn't have become so wretched.

She lived this wretched life because of a lack of money, so of course money would be the most important thing to her, the thing she constantly obsessed over.

“Stop this bullshit. Compensation or whatever, you stay out of it.”

“Please… Please don't do this…”

“You seem to think you're something special for taking care of that inhuman family of yours, but you're just twenty years old. Twenty is too young to be making decisions about land or anything else, so stay out of it.”

“Please…”

The building, the convenience store, the apartment—none of them were in Yuna's name, yet he couldn't stand the sound of her muttering as if they were hers, as if they were her responsibility.

“Taeseo, please… Please don't do this… If the compensation money goes to my uncle, my whole family will end up on the street…”

Even if that family fell apart, An Yuna wouldn't end up on the street.

Among all the people Taeseo had ever met, An Yuna was one of the most diligent. If she were to earn and live on her own, she was more than capable of taking care of herself.

The only way An Yuna would end up on the street was if she went down with those inhuman people she called family—the ones who tore her flesh, broke her bones, and sold her for cheap.

“I'm begging you…”

That was why he couldn't stand the sounds coming from An Yuna's mouth.

“To my uncle…”

He wanted to shut her up.

He reached a hand toward Yuna. As his large hand approached, she squeezed her eyes shut. He wasn't even reaching out to hit her, yet she trembled with her eyes closed.

Taeseo's hand landed on her shoulder. He gripped her slender shoulder, which fit easily in his hand, and pulled her toward him.

As her body was pulled easily toward him, he embraced her firmly and lowered his head toward her face.

Taeseo's lips descended upon her small ones. He silenced the lips that spouted nothing but absurdities with his own.

Only then did the words he didn't want to hear finally stop.