Chapter 36

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Girlfriend
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The area they arrived at after an hour and a half was once the site of a king's temporary palace during the Joseon Dynasty, a region now known by its modern administrative name, Asan.

About twenty minutes from the city center was a rural village where houses were scattered like flowers blooming in a thicket.

Taeseo parked in front of an old traditional house on the outskirts of the village. Stirring awake as the car stopped, Yuna looked around and asked.

“Where are we?”

“My father’s country house.”

“Country house?”

The old house was where Taeseo's father had been born and raised. Though it cost a considerable amount to maintain, it looked like nothing more than a worn-out old home, making it awkward to call it something as grand as a villa.

Taeseo got out, walked around the car to the passenger side, and opened the door. Following his lead, Yuna stepped out in a daze, blinking as she stared at the old house’s main gate.

Through the wide-open gate, an old man who had been cutting grass in the courtyard of the traditional house looked up.

“Oh…”

The man let out a sound like a groan, dropped the sickle he was holding onto the lawn, and rushed outside.

“My goodness, Young Master, what brings you here?”

“How have you been?”

The man managing the house had worked for Taeseo’s family for a long time. When he retired and expressed a wish to live in the countryside, Taeseo's father entrusted him with the care of his childhood home.

“But, without any notice…”

“I just felt like it. Keep my visit a secret from my father.”

“Looks like you’ve caused some trouble and are on the run.”

Having served the Kwon family for so long, he knew the personalities and habits of its members like the back of his hand.

“Trouble? What trouble?”

“Don’t you worry. I’ll keep it a secret, of course.”

The caretaker’s gaze shifted to Yuna.

“Is the lady with you your girlfriend?”

“Yeah. She’s a bit run-down, so I thought we’d rest here for a couple of days.”

“For two days? The house has been empty for a while, so there are no groceries at all…”

“Should I leave then?”

Every spring and fall, Taeseo’s mother would come to the old house to rest, but she hadn't been able to this past spring due to a severe cold, leaving the place empty for a year.

“Go where? I’ll run out and get some groceries. I’ll buy plenty of your favorites, so please, just rest. I cleaned this morning, so the house is spotless. You shouldn’t have any trouble.”

“Of course. Look who’s managing it.”

The caretaker squeezed Taeseo’s hand tightly in a warm welcome before letting go.

“I was just thinking about you, Young Master. It’s so good to see you, even like this. You must be tired from the trip, so please, go on inside.”

As the caretaker picked up his sickle and headed for the gate, Taeseo called out to him.

“Oh, right.”

“Yes?”

“Your sister… is she still working as a nurse?”

“Ah, my sister? She’s been at home lately, not working. Are you looking to get an IV drip? She can get the medicine if you need it.”

His suggestion that she get an IV drip hadn't been a lie. Taeseo had genuinely brought Yuna here to get her a nutrient infusion.

“She’s been through a lot recently, and I’m worried she’s going to wear herself out.”

Taeseo pulled Yuna close by the waist, and with his other hand, he gently lifted her hair to show the caretaker where her stitches had been removed.

“Look here. She had to get stitches on her forehead.”

“Oh my, a scar on such a lovely face. I’ll call my sister and tell her to bring the best and most expensive stuff. You two just rest. If she arrives while I’m out, just let her in.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

The caretaker left through the gate. Once they were alone, Yuna finally took in the sight of the old house’s courtyard.

Inside the courtyard, a flowerbed sectioned off with large stones was in full bloom with summer flowers like irises, zinnias, and touch-me-nots. Along the stone wall that separated the inside from the out, crape myrtle blossoms were abundant, and below them, large blue flowers bloomed in clusters on hydrangea bushes.

From the outside, it looked like just a rundown old house, but inside the stone walls was a veritable paradise.

“Quite a sight, isn’t it?”

“Yes. The flowers are so beautiful, and even though it’s an old house, it’s so well-maintained. There aren’t any real traditional houses like this left in my neighborhood…”

Just as Yuna said, not a single traditional house remained in Seongwu Town. They had all been modernized during the rural development movement of the past, when old houses were renovated.

The old house had survived here because of the area's unique character. Not only was it where the Onyang Temporary Palace once stood, where kings came to rest long ago, but it also preserved a great number of cultural assets, including the house where Admiral Yi Sun-sin lived after his marriage.

“They say this area has hot spring water, so my old lady—I mean, my mother—comes here to rest every spring and fall.”

Yuna wasn’t listening to Taeseo. Her gaze was fixed on the hydrangea bushes that formed a thicket in front of the wall.

The hydrangea bushes had grown to the height of a woman’s head, with large, round flowers hanging from every branch. To Taeseo, they were a common sight, but Yuna was captivated by the magnificent display.

“First time seeing hydrangeas?”

“I’ve never been on a trip before. And no one in my neighborhood grows flowers like this.”

That made sense. Hydrangeas, with their large blossoms, couldn’t survive the winter in the central region. It was unlikely any house there would have them as garden plants.

Even these hydrangeas were dug up by the roots each winter and moved to a place untouched by the cold wind for safekeeping.

Yuna seemed to want to look at the hydrangeas a little longer, but Taeseo snapped off a luscious blossom, placed it in her hand, and then took her hand, leading her toward the back of the house.

In a shady spot, traditional earthenware jars were clustered together, cordoned off with a sacred rope. Past the jar terrace, a glass sunroom stood at the rear of the house.

Inside the sunroom was a large hinoki cypress bathtub, big enough to fill half the space.

“This area has hot spring water. It’s not as hot as in the tourist areas, but the mineral content is similar. I’ll run a bath for you in there later.”

“Oh, no, you don’t have to do all that…”

Taeseo cut off her hesitant refusal at once.

“You’re here, so you should rest properly.”

She might have gotten a few days off from the factory, but the idea of Yuna actually resting at home was absurd.

With her uncle itching to throw a punch the moment he saw her, An Yunho thinking only of ditching the convenience store on her to go have fun, and her grandmother whose eyes gleamed at the thought of working her to the bone—yeah, she’d get plenty of rest.

Before Yuna could say anything more, Taeseo led her into the house through an entrance connected to the sunroom.

The old house had been remodeled; a balcony had been built where the main wooden hall once was, allowing for a view of the landscaped yard. Through the wide-open window, the hydrangea bushes that had so captivated Yuna were visible.

Yuna moved closer to the window and gazed blankly at the garden scenery.

Hydrangeas were something you could see to your heart's content just by visiting Jeju Island in this season, but for Yuna, who had never traveled, even this garden was a spectacle.

“My, my, look how radiant our young master looks.”

The old house grew lively after the caretaker’s sister arrived.

“When you asked me to prepare an IV drip, I thought you’d gotten into another fight and were on the run again.”

“Auntie, we don’t even see each other that often. How can you be so blunt?”

They didn’t see each other often, but Taeseo, who had followed the caretaker around since he was a child, affectionately called her 'Auntie'.

“You’d have to cause less trouble for me not to say such things. Just the other day, in the news…”

She was about to say she saw him in the newspaper, but when Taeseo pouted as if offended, she laughed and changed the subject.

“It’s because my older brother is always worried about you, Young Master, saying you get into so much trouble.”

The caretaker’s sister took an IV bag, nutrient ampoules, and a syringe from the plastic bag she was carrying.

“There you go lying again, Auntie. As if he would ever bad-mouth me. He likes me best out of everyone in my family.”

“That’s why he worries about you, Young Master. If he didn’t like you, why would he worry?”

Yuna watched the middle-aged woman and Taeseo. She seemed fascinated by how casually he spoke with a woman old enough to be his aunt, even though they weren't related.

Noticing Yuna’s gaze, Taeseo finally introduced them to each other.

“This is the caretaker’s sister. She used to be a nurse. And this is my girlfriend?”

“If she’s your girlfriend, she’s your girlfriend. Why end it with a question mark like that? You’re making her feel awkward.”

Unlike when she looked at Taeseo, the woman faced Yuna with a bright, sincere smile. Yuna bowed her head in return.

“Hello.”

“I’ve heard so much about you from the young master.”

Taeseo clutched his stomach and laughed at the lie she’d just made up on the spot.

“Come on, Auntie. We’ve only been seeing each other for a few days. When could you have possibly heard about her?”

“Is that so? Well, just go along with it. Why do you have to be so particular?”

Listening to their back-and-forth banter, Yuna’s expression relaxed.

The caretaker’s sister, moving as if she were familiar with the house, hung the IV bag on a standing coat rack in the corner of the living room and mixed the nutrient ampoules.

“I asked my old hospital for the best and most expensive medicine they had. Should I send the bill to our young master here? Maybe add about a hundred thousand won for a house call fee?”

“Auntie, house calls are illegal in this country. And you don’t even have a doctor’s license. Don’t you know you’d be in big trouble if I reported you for taking medicine from the hospital?”

“The rich are always the stingiest.”

The woman had Yuna sit in an armchair and felt for a vein in her wrist. Despite her talkativeness, her hand was steady as she inserted the needle.

“I mixed in all sorts of good stuff, so it’s good for fatigue, good for your skin… Anyway, it’s all good.”

After setting up the IV drip in Yuna’s arm, the woman tore a page from a notepad on the table and wrote down her number.

“My brother said he’s buying some squid for shabu-shabu and told me to get things ready, so I’ll be stepping out. Call me if the IV bag gets low. I should be back before it runs out, though.”

“As if you wouldn’t be back in time.”

Despite his words, Taeseo took the note she offered and tucked it into his pocket.

Just as the woman finished her task and stood up to leave, Yuna’s phone, which was sitting next to the armchair, began to ring.

Yuna’s expression darkened when she saw the name on the screen.

Taeseo scowled at the name on the phone, and even the woman, who had been about to leave, turned back with a curious look.

The caller was An Yunho. It seemed he had been eagerly waiting for Yuna to return to the convenience store and had finally called.