MHLM 13

Chaper 13

It had not even been a month since she came to this house, but her face had filled out nicely and even seemed to glow with health.

“Ah, hello.”

Soyul bowed politely.

However, after greeting him, her lips stuck out slightly.

It reminded Taeheon of the sulky face she had made that morning.

Suppressing a laugh that almost slipped out, Taeheon pretended not to notice and spoke.

“I was wondering how you’ve been doing and whether there’s anything uncomfortable or anything you need.”

“Oh, yes. I’m doing well. There’s nothing uncomfortable, either.”

Except that everyone keeps treating me like a child….

Soyul swallowed the rest of her words.

“There must be things you need while you’re staying here. Even if nothing else, transportation expenses or meals when you go out. But you haven’t used the card I gave you even once.”

“Ah, that’s because… I have money too. It’s more comfortable for me to use my own, and I feel like I’m imposing on you too much….”

Imposing.

At those words, a faint crease appeared between Taeheon’s brows.

“I’m the one imposing here by rushing the marriage. Moving in was also due to our circumstances, so does it make sense for you to spend your own money while living here? If anything, that means I’m imposing on you.”

“No. How could you be imposing on me, Taeheon? I don’t think that way.”

“You may not think so, but I do. So….”

Taeheon took one more step toward Soyul.

The distance between them, which had been about a handspan, quickly narrowed.

Without realizing it, Soyul drew her shoulders in and swallowed hard.

She glanced up at his face. It looked especially perfect today. That only made him seem colder.

“I’d rather you didn’t make me into a discourteous person.”

Dis…courteous?

Soyul’s red lips parted slightly.

When he put it that way, she could not refuse.

“…Okay, I understand. Then I’ll use it gratefully.”

In the end, Soyul gave a heavy nod and answered.

“Good. I’m glad you understand.”

Taeheon’s voice softened slightly.

He walked past Soyul and crossed the room toward the dressing room. He had also come to get clothes to change into after washing up.

As he took off his jacket in the dressing room and hung it up, he suddenly remembered something Soyul had said to Taemin while eating a late-night snack a while ago.

“Then I might bother Young Master every single day.”

She had said that so comfortably and familiarly to Taemin.

Yet with him, she stubbornly refused something as harmless as using a card, something that would not inconvenience her at all.

‘Is it not the card that makes her uncomfortable, but me?’

She was close to Taemin in age, so perhaps she felt comfortable with him.

As for himself, he was Youngho’s friend and the man who would become her brother-in-law, so it was only natural that she would find him more difficult and be more careful around him.

But still.

For some reason, that obvious fact remained in his mind like a tiny pebble inside his shoe.

Even after he had finished changing.

After Taeheon left the dressing room, Soyul plopped down onto the sofa.

She took two cards out of her wallet and looked at them.

They were black cards, the kind she had only ever seen in dramas.

“These don’t suit me at all. I feel like I should put both of them somewhere safe and never touch them.”

Soyul muttered awkwardly.

“Hmm, hmmm… Ah, right! I can use them when I take a taxi.”

Even after coming to this house, Soyul had continued using the subway or buses.

Taeheon and her future in-laws had offered to provide her with a private car and driver, but that would make it difficult for her to go elsewhere when she went out under the excuse of attending auditions.

So she had insisted that public transportation was better and had barely managed to refuse.

“Taking a taxi every single day…! I really feel like I’ve become the daughter of a rich family.”

Thinking about it made her excited.

After deciding on an appropriate use for the card, Soyul finally lay down with a light heart.

However, the next morning.

An unexpected high-difficulty mission landed in Soyul’s lap.

“Come to think of it, if you don’t get used to spending money, you probably won’t spend it again. So go out and spend ten million won. I’ll check what you bought tomorrow.”

Taeheon had given her homework on the way to breakfast.

So that morning, Soyul headed to a department store alone.

“Ten million won, lightly? So that’s what he considers light. Good grief…. Should I just say, ‘I’ll take everything from here to there,’ like the male lead in a romance drama?”

Soyul muttered as she walked through the department store.

It did look pretty cool when she imagined it.

Of course, she did not have the courage to actually do it.

“Something I want…. Come to think of it, what did I want?”

When she actually tried to think of something, her mind went completely blank, and Soyul stopped walking without realizing it.

It was strange. There must have been things she wanted. But no matter how hard she searched her memory, nothing came to mind.

Then again, it made sense.

Back at her family home, even thinking about wanting something had been a luxury.

Perhaps, somewhere along the way, she had forgotten what it felt like to want something at all.

“This is a problem. Then how am I supposed to spend this money? I already have plenty of clothes and bags. There are things Oppa bought for me, and things Mother bought for me too….”

As she wandered around, thinking about it, a dress on a mannequin caught her eye.

Most of the skirts Taeheon and Jin Sun-mi had bought for her came down to her knees.

Unlike those, the dress in front of her ended around the middle of her thighs.

And unlike the dresses she owned, which fell straight down, this one was tightly fitted at the waist.

“It’s feminine…. And mature.”

Would she look more grown-up if she wore something like that?

She did not even expect to look pretty. It was not a relationship where she should be wishing for something like that.

She simply did not want to be treated like a child with comments about how she was still young and had plenty of growing left to do.

“…No. Why is that even so important?”

Soyul shook her head.

But her feet were already carrying her into the store.

Soyul tried on the dress herself.

“Oh my, miss! You look so feminine and mature!”

The employee even clapped her hands as she praised her.

Soyul shyly rubbed the back of her head.

Even she thought she looked a few years older than usual, which pleased her.

In the end, Soyul bought the dress.

“Will I ever get a chance to show him while I’m wearing it?”

Then he definitely would not be able to call her a child or anything like that anymore.

Just imagining it put her in a good mood, so Soyul hummed as she continued shopping.

After looking through the entire floor—

“Huh?”

She suddenly stopped again in front of a store.

Soyul’s eyes sparkled as she looked through the display window.

She had just found the second thing she would buy.

At the same time.

Taeheon was at a factory belonging to one of the company’s partners on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.

It had been selected as the first site for the industrial safety monitoring system.

Normally, he could have simply sent the employees in charge, but Taeheon had made time to inspect the place himself.

He had said he would personally handle the backlash, so he had no intention of making his subordinates deal with it instead.

“Did you identify all the sensor blind spots?”

“Yes. We found two additional ones and fixed them.”

Then the records here could no longer be tampered with.

Even if someone left a fire door open, it would remain in the records.

After completing his inspection, Taeheon returned to his car.

‘I wonder if she’s doing her assignment well.’

Taeheon had secretly been waiting for a notification showing that she had used the card, so he checked his phone.

There were two notifications.

The first was from a women’s clothing brand.

‘So she bought clothes.’

Taeheon gave a short nod.

The problem was the second notification.

A seven-digit number.

And the brand name beside it.

“She’s really making an effort….”

…or so he thought.

Taeheon’s eyes narrowed.

Something about the brand name seemed strange.

It was a brand he knew well, one that sold fountain pens with a dignified, classic design.

It was a brand mainly sought after by men.

“There’s no way it’s for herself.”

Then who was she buying it for?

Her father? Her grandfather?

Then, for a fleeting moment, the face of that male classmate from last time came to mind.

“…No.”

Taeheon shook his head and pushed the thought away.

Whatever the case, he would find out soon enough.

For now, Taeheon called Soyul.

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