A Child Needs Warmth

She set the tray she'd brought down roughly onto the desk. It was a carefully prepared meal of steaming hot cabbage doenjang stew, the side dishes the child liked, and multigrain rice. When it came to the menu, Kim Ju-yeon tended to accommodate Gaon's requests readily enough. In this moment, even that contradiction felt utterly detestable.

What's the point of carefully preparing meals and using good medicine if the room looks like this?

If Gaon let her attention slip even a little, they sidelined the child like this. No matter how hard she tried to dismiss it as a misunderstanding or her own hypersensitivity, the cold air of the second floor—set against the warm air of the first—was an undeniable reality.

"I'm really not cold, Unnie. Don't get mad."

Gayoung muttered, watching Gaon's face for cues.

The sight made Gaon's chest tighten even more. She walked straight out of the room and down to the first floor.

I can't take it anymore.

To avoid unnecessary clashes, she had been swallowing every grating detail since the start of the year. Kim Ju-yeon consistently ignored Gaon's fussing, always picking at and criticizing Gayoung's abnormal behavior with open disapproval.

But this really isn't right.

The child hadn't been in good condition lately as it was. Cha Taekyung's mere presence was enough to drive her out of her mind, and on top of that, the cold on the second floor thoroughly scraped at Gaon's nerves.

"Kim Ju-yeon!"

The moment she reached the first floor, she called loudly for the employee who would be in the kitchen.

Further inward from the hall lay the dining room. The woman who had been tidying that spacious room turned toward Gaon with startled eyes. Kim Ju-yeon—pale, bloodless face, delicate features that looked neurotic at a glance—stiffened the instant she confirmed Gaon's thorough rage. Gaon had long since noticed how those pretty eyes grew colder whenever they fell on the sisters. Hatred was inevitable. Everyone formed all sorts of thoughts and judgments when looking at people who weren't "normal." But causing Gayoung direct harm was another matter entirely. Gaon had absolutely no intention of standing by and watching that.

"Did you turn off the boiler in the second-floor room again?"

Wiping her wet hands on her apron, Ju-yeon furrowed her brow slightly.

"It's spring now, Miss."

Her answering voice carried both weariness and fatigue. Gaon's boiling insides felt ready to explode at any moment. She drew a deep breath.

"Turn the heat up right now."

Gaon ordered.

"……"

But Ju-yeon stood rooted to the spot, merely staring at her. The emotions in Ju-yeon's gaze were unmistakable. Weariness. Contempt. Disobedience. Defiance. Every negative feeling swirled in those eyes.

"To be honest, the oil costs are a waste."

Those emotions spilled out in words as well.

"……Ha."

Gaon was so dumbfounded she exhaled the breath she'd been holding. Normally, even when Gaon came on this strongly, Ju-yeon would comply with her requests while looking displeased. Today was different.

"Heating the second floor too doubles the oil cost."

"So you only heat the first floor and neglect the second? There's still a spring chill and it's quite cold. Especially the second floor—more wind gets in, so the temperature drops lower. There's a thirteen-year-old child alone up there, and you're saying you won't heat it?"

"Yes. If you're that worried, why not have Gayoung sleep with you in your room on the first floor, Miss?"

"Are you seriously saying that…"

Gayoung couldn't come down to the first floor. She was a child who couldn't take a single step out of her second-floor room. Coming down as far as the stairs recently had been an extremely unusual event.

It wasn't as if Kim Ju-yeon didn't know that, yet the face with which she boldly made the demand was shameless beyond measure.

"Gayoung is sick. You, Kim Ju-yeon…"

"I heard she came down to the stairs recently. In my opinion, continuing to heat the second floor is a waste."

"Are you paying for that money, Kim Ju-yeon?"

"My employer is Mr. Baek Jeong-hak."

It was clear. The emotion filling Kim Ju-yeon's eyes was contempt. At the same time, Gaon felt a crushing sense of powerlessness. It was the first time that woman—who at least pretended to listen whenever Gaon made requests—had come out this shamelessly. What had filled Ju-yeon with such defiance? What should she say? How should she act?

You're fired.

Get out of this mansion right now.

Stay away from Gayoung.

All sorts of words rose and vanished in her mind. But none of them made it past her lips. The reason was that she was cruelly realizing, in this very moment, that Baek Gaon had no authority to fire Kim Ju-yeon.

"What's all this racket?"

And Uncle Baek Jeong-hak—who could be said to have contributed to all this powerlessness—appeared in the dining room. He seemed to have come for alcohol; an empty liquor bottle dangled from his thick hand.

Ju-yeon immediately shut her mouth. But Gaon, on the contrary, felt a surge of stubbornness. She didn't want to back down here like this. If it had concerned only herself, she might have covered it up and moved on. But it involved Gayoung. The treatment the child was receiving was unjust.

"The second floor is freezing. Because there's no heating."

Gaon answered shortly.

Baek Jeong-hak seemed to grasp the situation from that one line, looking back and forth between Gaon and Ju-yeon with bleary eyes.

"If you dislike looking after the child that much, you can just leave the mansion, Kim Ju-yeon. That's what your job is, after all."

Gaon muttered quietly. Even to her own ears, the tone carried not the slightest authority.

Why were they all clinging to this mansion when they had no interest in Gayoung whatsoever? She felt drained of her own accord.

"There, there, Gaon."

Rather than reprimanding the employee, Jeong-hak approached while soothing her. It was an entirely unsurprising response. He'd always been like this.

"Kim Ju-yeon is the one who manages the household here. This is an island, and maintaining a mansion of this size requires no small amount of meticulousness. The reason we can keep such a large place running is all thanks to Kim Ju-yeon. How thrifty and reasonable she is."

This was why she couldn't expect anything from her uncle. Gaon suddenly felt isolated. There was no one on her side in this mansion. It had been that way from the beginning, but the fact struck her anew with vivid clarity, leaving her feeling lost.

"Besides, how much have oil prices risen this year. You don't know because you're stuck on the island."

"Oil prices…"

She was sick of the money talk. Gaon couldn't accept it.

"There should be money my parents left me. Even if I just leave it with a financial planner, I don't think it'd be at a level where we'd worry about oil costs."

Jeong-hak's gaze changed in an instant. A sharper edge settled into his hazy eyes, and the corners of his eyes trembled faintly. Gaon met that gaze without yielding. A heavy silence briefly crushed the dining room.

Soon Jeong-hak's eyes curved benevolently.

"No matter how much you have, you have to cut down on unnecessary waste. That's why I can't leave you alone. You're still a child. You don't know how the world works."

On the surface, he was always in the position of a good uncle. Gaon wanted to believe that too. What else could she do if she didn't believe? She couldn't leave Gayoung's side, she had to stay stuck on this island, and there was no one around her who would take her side. Until now, Baek Jeong-hak had filled everything the sisters needed as much as possible.

It was inevitable that she felt a sense of alienation and distance whenever incidents like this occurred.

Then a low voice cut through the silence.

"……Heating a thirteen-year-old child's room can hardly be called a waste."

It wasn't something Gaon had said. A low tone that, once heard, couldn't help but linger in the mind. A leisurely, calm manner of speaking that seemed to draw the words out. Everyone's gazes suddenly turned to Cha Taekyung, who had appeared at the entrance to the dining room. The towering Cha Taekyung filled the space with his presence alone. Gaon's gaze was stolen by the orchid pot cradled in Taekyung's large arms, then she slowly raised her eyes to his cold face.

"Adults can just dress a bit warmer in spring, but a child needs to be warm. Especially if it's a child who's not in their right mind. Schizophrenia, was it? Or delusional disorder."

In a dry tone, as if issuing a prescription, the man spoke.

Silence settled. No one opened their mouth first. Cha Taekyung quietly cast his gaze behind him and said,

"Right? Uncle? What's your opinion as the attending physician?"

At the end of his gaze was Cha Gil-ho, who had gone pale.

"Th-that's right. It's best to accommodate their requests as much as possible."

Cha Gil-ho nodded frantically while wiping away sweat. Standing the uncle and nephew side by side like that, one could see how little the two resembled each other. Compared to Cha Taekyung, who was large enough to fill the kitchen, Cha Gil-ho was slight, and unlike Cha Taekyung's impression that was calm to the point of coldness, Cha Gil-ho looked weak-willed. There wasn't a single similar feature in their faces either. Cha Taekyung was an outstanding beauty at a glance.

"So spend some money. Just as Baek Gaon said."

That beauty said with a faint smile.