Chapter 37

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: The Itch
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Taeseo picked up the phone and handed it to the caretaker's younger sister.

“Auntie, you're a smooth talker, right? Tell them she's been hospitalized.”

“What?”

The caretaker's sister questioned Taeseo as she pressed the call button.

-Hey! An Yuna! You said you were going to get your stitches out, so why aren't you back?

At the mention of stitches, the woman's gaze shifted to the scar on Yuna's forehead.

Understanding the situation just from An Yunho's voice over the phone, the woman activated the speakerphone and spoke in a firm tone.

“This is the hospital.”

-The hospital?

“Yes. The patient, Ms. An Yuna, had a stress-induced seizure and is currently resting with an IV drip. Her condition is quite poor right now.”

Taeseo held up three fingers for the caretaker's sister to see. Understanding his meaning in a flash, the woman nodded.

“Malnutrition, anemia… it looks like she'll need to be hospitalized for at least three days to recover. Are you her guardian, by any chance?”

-Ah, yes? Ah, no. I'm not her guardian.

An Yunho dodged the question, afraid he'd be asked to pay the hospital bill. Even if that wasn't the case, he was scared Yuna might blame his friend for her condition, so he quickly backed down.

-Is Yuna very sick?

“Yes, it's quite serious. She's lost consciousness…”

-C-Consciousness?

At the mention of losing consciousness, Taeseo mouthed that she was going too far. The woman immediately changed her words.

“Yes. I mean, she fell asleep after getting the IV.”

Though it was suspicious, the flustered An Yunho fell for it completely.

-Ah, yes, yes. Please tell her to rest well.

“Okay. I'll let Ms. An Yuna know you called when she wakes up.”

Finished with her nurse act, the woman shrugged as if it were nothing and hung up. Taeseo gave her a thumbs-up.

“Um… is this really okay?”

After the caretaker's sister stepped out of the room for a moment, leaving them alone, Yuna asked worriedly.

“What is?”

“What if they come looking for the hospital where I'm admitted…?”

Only then did Taeseo realize what Yuna was worried about.

“I guarantee you, your family will never come looking. They'll be more worried you'll say you don't have money for the hospital bill.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah. An Yunho seemed totally unable to stand up to that guy Jaeseop. Because of that bastard, he won't be able to say a peep to you for a while, so don't worry. He'll figure out the convenience store himself.”

Given An Yunho's personality, his prediction was very likely to be correct.

“Is it really okay to do this?”

“If it looks like we're about to get caught, we can just go then. What's there to worry about?”

If you're about to get caught skipping out, you just stop. It was a lesson learned from experience.

* * *

As the sun began to set, they set up a low dining table in front of the living room window overlooking the garden.

The caretaker had gone to Sapgyoho Lake to buy seasonal webfoot octopus, and his sister bought ingredients like crown daisy, bean sprouts, and napa cabbage to make a shabu-shabu broth.

When Yuna, who had fallen asleep after the IV drip, sat down near the table with a much brighter expression, the caretaker's sister added a bowlful of the octopus to the shabu-shabu broth.

The octopus had thin flesh that cooked to a reddish hue the moment it touched the hot broth. The caretaker's sister stirred the broth with a ladle.

“The Young Master's girlfriend must be from Seoul. How is her skin so fair?”

It seemed she thought Yuna was from Seoul. Taeseo didn't correct the misunderstanding and played along smoothly.

“You don't look like you've aged a day either, Auntie. Anyone would think you were a young lady.”

The caretaker's sister cackled and slapped Taeseo's back.

“This is why I adore the young master.”

Although he could be prickly, Taeseo had a lot of lingering affection, and the old house's caretaker and his family all found him endearing.

The caretaker's sister ladled a heaping bowl of the octopus shabu-shabu and placed it in front of Yuna.

“I'll get a bowl for myself, so let's eat together. I'll tell Uncle to come in too.”

“My brother went to catch a chicken since the young master is here. He's probably bustling about at home, planning to stew it with the mountain ginseng he grew on the hill out front.”

“You don't have to go that far.”

“Thanks to this family, I'm still earning a living even though I'm nearly seventy. It's the least I can do. I'm going to go help my brother, so just leave everything when you're done eating. I'll come clean up in the morning.”

Yuna offered to clean up herself, but the woman smiled and waved her hands dismissively. She explained that her brother would feel awkward if she didn't even do the one month of work she does a year.

“Anyway, seeing the young master with a girlfriend really makes me feel my age. It feels like just yesterday he was being carried around on my brother's back.”

To Chairman Kwon Seongtae and his wife, their firstborn was a difficult child, being the first they'd ever raised. But their second son grew up more easily, thanks to their prior experience.

Though he had his eccentricities, the healthy and energetic Taeseo was passed around and cared for by many of the people who worked for the Kwon family.

Unlike with their firstborn, whom they treated so delicately he might blow away, Chairman Kwon and his wife let their second son do as he pleased as long as it wasn't dangerous, an experience that helped shape Taeseo's personality.

“Lately, only the Madam has been visiting in the spring and fall, so I was curious about how the young master was doing. Thank you for not forgetting to visit.”

“There's no need to thank me.”

“It's thanks to your family that my brother is still working after retirement, but for old people, there's no greater joy than seeing the people they miss.”

“I'll come more often.”

“Please do. Well then, you should get some rest too, young lady. I'll get another IV bag tomorrow and set it up for you, so please don't go anywhere in the morning.”

Not wanting to make the two uncomfortable, the caretaker's sister said her goodbyes and left. Taeseo saw her to the gate and returned inside.

“Seeing you drive such a nice car, I thought you were 'car poor,' but it seems you're the son of a well-off family.”

The way she added "well-off" suggested she hadn't made the connection to Namgyeong Group.

“What did I tell you? I said I'm not car poor.”

“I thought you were just bluffing. But this is really delicious.”

“Auntie is a great cook.”

He hadn't particularly intended to hide it, but the topic shifted naturally.

Yuna ate the octopus shabu-shabu with relish.

“This is my first time trying webfoot octopus, but it's more delicious than squid.”

“Seasonal food is always the most delicious.”

Taeseo moved Yuna's empty bowl aside and filled a new one with hot broth and ingredients for her.

“You can just put it in the bowl I was using.”

“The food doesn't taste as good when you mix it with cooled broth.”

Watching Yuna bring her spoon to the second bowl, Taeseo also ate his meal in comfort.

After dinner, the two went for a walk around the old house. They crossed the single-lane road in front, followed a path through the rice paddies to circle the neighborhood, and then circled the house again, walking along its stone wall.

The air here smelled different from Seongwu-eup. While Seongwu-eup, with its land torn up for development, had a strong earthy scent, this place carried the full fragrance of summer.

Unknown wildflowers bloomed in clusters at the base of the stone wall. As she looked around, darkness fell upon the tiny, fingernail-sized flowers.

After their walk, Taeseo returned, took a shower gown from the closet in the dressing room, and led Yuna to the sunroom.

He had turned on the water after they finished eating, so the bathtub was now full, and the sunroom's glass walls were fogged with white steam.

“You actually use this bathtub?”

“What, is it a decoration?”

“It's so big, I never imagined it was actually used…”

“I told you this area has hot spring water. I didn't have enough time to fill it completely, so I mixed in some tap water, but it should still be better than regular water. Go change into the shower gown.”

Taeseo flipped a light switch inside the sunroom. The string of bare bulbs circling the glass walls lit up with a yellow glow.

Even under the yellow lights, Yuna's face was visibly red. Taeseo teased her.

“What are you thinking about to make you blush like that? Thinking about bathing with me?”

“No. It's not that.”

Yuna waved her hands in the air, denying it, before her expression turned worried.

“But is it really okay for me to use this huge bathtub all by myself?”

“Why? You want me to scrub your back?”

At his sudden remark, Yuna's face looked like it was about to explode as she took the bath gown.

After Yuna left the sunroom, Taeseo dipped his hand in the water. It was a pleasant, hot temperature, perfect for a spa bath.

A moment later, when Yuna returned to the sunroom dressed in the gown, he left her alone.

“Relax and come out when you're ready. I put a fresh gown on the table over there, and I'll find some clothes for you and leave them in the living room.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

“Wash up, clear your mind, and go to sleep. See you in the morning.”

Taeseo took one of his mother's nightgowns from the dressing room, found a new, unopened set of underwear, and placed the box in front of her door.

He prepared a bed for Yuna in a small room. Then he went to the room he was using, spread out his own bedding, and lay down.

It felt like a night when sleep would not come easily.

The monsoon front was said to be moving north, but no rain fell; the dry spell continued.

Thanks to the high humidity, an unidentifiable scent hung thick in the air.

The tip of his nose tickled, and he twitched his face. Even after rubbing it with the back of his hand, the itching sensation didn't go away.

Perhaps because of that inexplicable itch, he found it unusually difficult to fall asleep that night.