DDOS 08

Chapter 8

The faucet and tiles were so clean and shiny that they looked as though they had never been used.

After hesitating for a long while, Yeo-eun carefully turned the faucet.

Hot water poured down from the showerhead mounted in the ceiling.

Yeo-eun stood beneath it for a long time, letting the water wash over her.

For a brief moment, she thought she could finally breathe again.

Then she laughed to herself at the absurdity of having such a thought.

Yesterday, I was regretting taking a hot shower for no reason.

After showering, she went into the powder room and dried her hair.

Her reflection in the mirror looked absolutely terrible.

Her lips were cracked all over, and her cheeks had become gaunt.

She applied some pleasantly scented cream and put on the new underwear and clothes prepared to one side.

Everything was comfortable and fit her reasonably well.

Do people normally give guests things like this?

Yeo-eun had rarely brought guests into her own home.

Still, she knew enough to understand that this wasn’t exactly normal.

She left the powder room and unexpectedly found herself lost.

The house was simply too large.

So this can happen when a house is this big.

Rather than being amazed, she was simply fascinated.

There were too many rooms along the hallway.

Does Ki Seung-do live here alone?

Does he even use all these rooms?

While she wandered around with these pointless thoughts, a savory smell reached her.

Yeo-eun followed it.

“There isn’t much prepared, but eat plenty. The doctor who came earlier said I absolutely have to make sure our guest eats well.”

Kangpyeong-daek said this as she placed a glass of water on the table in front of Yeo-eun.

Even the glasses they use for water are so pretty.

Yeo-eun had another pointless thought.

Everything in this house had been like that ever since she’d opened her eyes.

There was nothing broken or spoiled.

The dishes on the table and the food arranged inside them were all neat and immaculate.

Ji-on was already sitting in a child’s chair across from her.

While abalone porridge and various side dishes had been placed in front of Yeo-eun, Ji-on had an omelet rice of her own.

It looked like something straight out of a cartoon—or a model of food rather than something real.

“The little one was waiting for you to come so she could eat with you.”

Ji-on nodded.

Yeo-eun picked up her spoon.

Contrary to Kangpyeong-daek’s modesty, there were so many side dishes that Yeo-eun didn’t know which one to try first.

“If you can’t eat anything fishy, tell me. There’s also porridge with beef and vegetables.”

“It’s fine. Thank you.”

Yeo-eun took a spoonful of the abalone porridge and put it in her mouth.

It tasted just as good as it smelled.

After going days without food in her stomach, her body seemed to send out a signal that it was finally being kept alive.

Yeo-eun slowly emptied the bowl of porridge.

When she finished the entire bowl, Kangpyeong-daek looked delighted.

“Oh my! You finished the whole bowl. Good girl.”

It was the first time anyone had praised Yeo-eun for finishing her food.

Once the dishes had been cleared away, fruit and tea were placed on the table.

Ji-on took a bite of a pale green grape and widened her eyes.

Apparently, she liked it.

“Executive Director Ki said he’ll call soon. Rest until then.”

Kangpyeong-daek smiled brightly and offered Yeo-eun some fruit as well.

Yeo-eun put a grape into her mouth.

It was incredibly sweet.

It was a peaceful table.

After eating, she took a walk through the central courtyard.

It was a beautiful garden filled with many small, carefully tended trees.

The phone call that was supposed to come soon never did.

Yeo-eun hadn’t brought Ki Seung-do’s business card, so she couldn’t contact him first.

She could have asked Kangpyeong-daek again, but she didn’t.

It wasn’t until after sunset that she finally heard Ki Seung-do’s voice.

“Oh dear, he said he was in Jeju Island, but I wonder why the connection is so poor. Wait a moment. I’ll put you through.”

Yeo-eun took the phone Kangpyeong-daek handed her.

Jeju Island.

She mulled over the place name before speaking.

“Hello?”

The man who had called didn’t say anything at first.

After a long silence, all he said was—

—The door lock at your place really was broken.

The call quality was poor.

Doesn’t Jeju have good reception these days?

“I’ll have to get it fixed when I go back.”

—I tore it out. Along with your landlord’s face.

Yeo-eun was rendered speechless by the unexpected remark.

Was he joking?

But remembering what he’d done to her landlord, she couldn’t completely dismiss the possibility that he was serious.

Before she could recklessly respond, Ki Seung-do spoke as though he’d been watching her from somewhere.

—I’m joking.

“That’s not funny.”

For some reason, the fact that she said it wasn’t funny made Ki Seung-do laugh.

The sound of his laughter mixed with the roar of the sea breeze in the background.

—Don’t go.

It certainly wasn’t a heartfelt confession.

Ki Seung-do spoke casually.

—You have something to give me, don’t you, Ms. Kang Yeo-eun?

“Me?”

Yeo-eun asked in confusion.

There was no answer.

What on earth do I have to give this man?

She couldn’t even begin to guess.

People had told her that subtitle translation didn’t pay well.

Why don’t you find a more practical career? You’re good at studying.

Yet despite hearing things like that, she’d chosen her current profession because she wanted to spend her entire life watching movies and dramas.

If she could watch them and make money at the same time, why not?

During the years when she didn’t have a mother, she would turn on the television whenever she was left alone at night.

She was alone every day, so naturally, she watched television every day.

Loneliness, shame, and television had been Yeo-eun’s friends.

Through television, Yeo-eun encountered all kinds of worlds.

Happy families.

Comfortable homes.

Friends she could trust.

Most of them were things that didn’t exist in her own world.

After spending half a day in Ki Seung-do’s house, Yeo-eun realized something.

There were people who lived with a world beneath their feet that seemed as though it couldn’t possibly exist in reality.

A world that looked like something straight out of a television show was simply reality—and everyday life—for some people.

Ever since waking up in this house, an unsettling sort of peace had been temporarily operating in Yeo-eun’s world.

Everything had been peaceful.

When she washed herself with warm water.

When she ate a carefully prepared meal.

When she walked through the perfectly maintained garden.

It felt as though she’d stepped into a world she could only see in the movies and dramas she worked on.

And within it, she felt as though she existed incorrectly, like a distorted pixel.

Yeo-eun became even more curious.

She couldn’t imagine it.

What could she possibly give Ki Seung-do?

What was she supposed to give him?

Why had he brought her here?

Was it really only because of Ji-on?

The man changed the subject.

—I’ll be back the day after tomorrow, so stay there until then.

The call ended quickly.

Ji-on opened the door and came in.

Thanks to Kangpyeong-daek, the child seemed to have regained her composure.

After chatting beside Yeo-eun for a while, she eventually fell asleep.

The call with Kang Yeo-eun had ended quickly.

But Ki Seung-do, who had stepped out onto the balcony, didn’t return to the room even after hanging up.

He had used the phone call as an excuse to escape for a moment from the mahjong table that had been going on for two hours.

Although it was early summer, the sea breeze was cool.

Feeling the wind cleared his head somewhat.

He leaned against the railing and pretended to look at the sea, but it was already nighttime, so he couldn’t see much.

The sky and the sea were both simply pitch-black.

Ki Seung-do searched his trouser pockets.

Before going back inside, he wanted to smoke a cigarette.

But his fingers found only a lighter.

Apparently, he’d left the cigarettes on the table.

His mouth felt dry and rough.

He hadn’t been able to lie down in a bed for several days.

Cutting down on sleep while working wasn’t anything new to him.

He was used to it.

But this week had been different.

The funeral, followed by Lee Hwa-shin—it had been one exhausting thing after another in a short period of time.

Suddenly, the calm voice he’d heard moments ago came back to him.

Me?

He’d expected that response.

But for some reason, it bothered him.

When he’d told her she had something to give him, Kang Yeo-eun had simply asked that and hadn’t questioned him any further.

Doesn’t she even know who trashed her house?

Of course she didn’t.

The burglars who broke into Kang Yeo-eun’s house had been Seung-do’s own men.

There was nothing at Kang Yeo-eun’s house.

While Kang Yeo-eun had been stuck at the hospital because of Lee Hwa-shin, he’d ordered his employees to search her home first.

After Lee Hwa-shin stole the ledger, Kang Yeo-eun was the only person she’d met before the accident.

If you thought about it simply, there was a good chance she’d left something at Yeo-eun’s house.

The employees were professionals in that line of work.

They’d entered Kang Yeo-eun’s tiny home and searched every corner.

But what Ki Seung-do was looking for hadn’t been there.

Are you the kid’s father?

When Kang Yeo-eun first saw Ki Seung-do, she’d asked whether he was the father of her half-sister.

She had no idea why he’d come looking for her or what her mother had done.

When he denied being the child’s father, Kang Yeo-eun treated him as though he’d merely come to collect a debt from Lee Hwa-shin.

Did you learn that kind of thing from Lee Hwa-shin?

She hadn’t believed his claim that Lee Hwa-shin owed him anything, either.

Does she really know nothing?

Or is she pretending not to know?

Either way, the situation was going to become complicated.

If she really didn’t know, he’d have to grab the collar of Lee Hwa-shin, who was lying unconscious in the hospital.

And if she was pretending not to know…

Seung-do flicked the useless lighter.

A tiny flame appeared, then went out.

Each time it did, he remembered the eyes of the woman who had been so wary of him.

Black eyes.

They weren’t the eyes of someone hiding something.

More than anything, Kang Yeo-eun seemed utterly sick and tired of Lee Hwa-shin.

The face of Kang Yeo-eun, sitting alone in an empty fast-food restaurant in the middle of the night, had been covered in layer upon layer of pale misery.

And the source of that misery was none other than her own mother—the gambler.

It was an ordinary story, as common as the lyrics of a pop song.

To Kang Yeo-eun, Lee Hwa-shin seemed to be nothing more and nothing less than an unhappiness she couldn’t cut herself free from.

Yet when Seung-do had asked her whether she wanted Lee Hwa-shin to die, she’d looked so startled—as though he’d exposed her innermost thoughts—that she couldn’t say a word.

She’d merely averted her eyes, trying to hide the ripples that had appeared in her pupils.

That had been rather amusing.

Amusing enough that, just once, he’d considered letting himself be fooled.

Ki Seung-do didn’t trust people.

He believed the old saying that you could know what was ten fathoms beneath the water, but you could never know what lay one fathom inside a person’s heart.

So he’d brought Kang Yeo-eun here from a house where there supposedly wasn’t anything.

Laying a woman burning with fever on his own bed hadn’t been part of the plan, though.

A tiny flame rose from Seung-do’s fingertips, then went out again.

If you don’t know what’s in the water, then get wet and find out.