Deviation

Day three of the lockdown.

The weather forecaster on the morning news announced that the monsoon season would begin in earnest starting today. The sky beyond the window hung heavy and gray, as though rain might come pouring down at any moment. Rainy days made the trip down to the village even more treacherous than usual — even without the ban, there would have been no reason to step outside.

Perhaps it was the sweetness of the word forbidden, but Lee-seol found herself spending a little longer than usual staring out the window.

Truth be told, all that met her eyes was the same stretch of verdant greenery as always. She let her mind wander vaguely to the forest of skyscrapers in the city. She couldn't quite picture herself woven into that landscape — but Tae-shin, striding imperiously through the heart of downtown, fit it like a bespoke suit.

...What on earth am I even thinking right now. Lee-seol pressed her cheek hard, for no good reason.

Making a show of quiet penance, she kept herself confined to her room except at mealtimes and for cleaning, gazing out the window as she always did.

And she and Woo Tae-shin had had no contact whatsoever.

Whether he was minding Granny Yoon-hwa's temper or not, the time he spent at Sehwawon had shrunk considerably. He climbed to the summit of Mt. Hyeonak in the dead of pre-dawn, and once he came back down, he went out again, not returning until late in the evening.

While he kept up that routine, he made no appearance at the dinner table either. The seat where he would sit and lift his spoon stayed empty for three days running.

Granny Yoon-hwa said nothing about his absence. As if she had cleanly excised him from the picture. As if this way of living were only natural.

Until just a few days ago, the only two people who sat before this long cherrywood table had been Granny Yoon-hwa and herself. His absence had been so much a given that she never even registered it.

And yet, somehow, the place where he used to sit felt strangely bare.

"The Director must be awful busy these days, looks like."

Tongyeong-daek, who had been setting dish after dish onto the table, heaved a deep sigh. The way she kept sneaking glances at the empty seat made her disappointment plain. Lee-seol, dreading that the tactless old cook might overstep some unspoken line, held her breath —

"Miss Lee-seol, you ain't heard anything, have you?"

The arrow swung around and pointed at her without warning. She answered quietly, betraying as little feeling as she could on the surface.

"...I really couldn't say."

Granny Yoon-hwa's gaze burned fiercely against her skin. Lee-seol dropped her head deep toward her rice bowl.

In fact, it wasn't entirely true that she'd had no contact with him at all. There was one secret the two of them had made together.

The phone he had given her was always hidden beneath the bed mattress. Afraid she might carelessly drop it on the floor or that a notification might chime, she had never once carried it down to the first floor, and whenever she left the room, she always tucked it reverently under the mattress again.

She thought it best to keep it hidden from the other household staff as well. There was no telling when, or in what form, word might reach Granny's ears. It was truly a secret known to Tae-shin and no one else.

"They say the rain's gonna come down hard from this evenin' on, so master, missus — keep them windows latched tight, ye hear."

"Yes."

Carrying on with her meal at a leisurely pace, Lee-seol flashed Tongyeong-daek a smile. Granny Yoon-hwa said nothing, but her bulging, penetrating stare stayed pinned on Lee-seol throughout the entire meal.

After dinner, she returned to her room. Changing hurriedly into a nightgown, she gingerly lifted the mattress.

The moment she took out the carefully concealed phone, the screen flickered to life. There was one new text message. Only one person ever sent messages to this phone.

Sitting down heavily at the head of the bed, Lee-seol quietly stared at the message he'd sent.

Over the past three days, Tae-shin had sent her messages now and then. Trivial little notes like What are you doing right now or I was a bit busy today. They weren't anything terribly shameful, but if Granny Yoon-hwa ever found out, she would surely fly into a rage.

Until now, Lee-seol had never once replied to any of his messages. To be honest, it wasn't that she'd made a deliberate show of ignoring him — she'd simply been uncertain.

Whether it would be all right to reply. Or not.

Whether their contact could stay within the bounds of polite courtesy, or whether it couldn't......

All it would take was a few flicks of her fingers and a stock pleasantry or two — and yet it felt as if she'd be doing something wicked. It felt that way even now. Her thumb, hovering over the keyboard, kept losing its way and hesitating.

I just came up after dinner.

Still, it would be rude to ignore him completely...... She pressed the send button firmly and sank down onto the bed. Guilt pricking at her, Lee-seol found herself glancing furtively at the firmly shut door of her room.

Granny Yoon-hwa rarely came up to the second floor anymore, so the chance of her opening this door and walking in was slim to none. Lee-seol knew that perfectly well — yet something about it bothered her, and her eyes kept drifting back to the door.

His reply came almost instantly.

The desk clock read seven thirty. A little past dinnertime.

Maybe she should have told Tongyeong-daek to prepare a simple single-serving meal. The moment word spread that the Managing Director would be eating, the old cook would forget all about the inconvenience, roll up her sleeves, and plant herself in front of the stove.

...No, no. He'd have managed to eat on his own somewhere. Besides, if Tongyeong-daek got all flustered and asked how on earth she knew the Director would be arriving at this hour, she'd have no answer for her.

Staring blankly at the screen, Lee-seol idly swayed her outstretched legs back and forth. Soon, two more notification banners lit up.

...What am I supposed to do with that?

Not knowing what on earth to say back, Lee-seol agonized for a long while.

Should she apologize? But she didn't particularly feel sorry for having ignored his messages. On the other hand, simply firing back a what do you want me to do about it seemed a bit much as well.

In the end, she chose to bring up a different topic. And, conveniently, she decided to throw in the one question she'd been most eager to ask him.

His reply arrived quickly again.

Four days from now — the very day the lockdown ended. What a slyly chosen date.

If all he intended was to hand the book back, any other day would have done just as well. Honestly, he could have simply left it in front of her door and she'd have collected it without a word.

And yet the fact that Tae-shin had deliberately picked four days from now — didn't that mean he, too, was willing to talk with her about the book? That thought gladdened her, a little.

She was curious. What he might have to say. She wanted to hear it, just once.

It was the moment she summoned her courage and pressed the send button.

BANG!

The door to her room burst open with a tremendous crash.

The one who came storming in was Granny Yoon-hwa, gasping for ragged breath. And there was Lee-seol, frozen mid-motion, facing her grandmother with the very phone he had given her still clutched in her hand.

"You. What exactly is that thing."

Granny Yoon-hwa strode angrily into the room, her face twisted with fury. A calloused, weathered hand snatched the phone right out of Lee-seol's grip. Her bloodshot eyes bulged as though something out of a nightmare.

"G-Granny, why are you here......"

Unable to hide her bewilderment, Lee-seol stammered.

It had been a very, very long time since Granny Yoon-hwa had set foot in this second-floor room. And of all moments, her first visit in ages had to come while Tae-shin's gift was in her hand. If luck could be bad, it could be this bad.

"So he's the one who gave it to you."

"I, well, that's......"

"Did I not tell you, plain as day, to keep your distance from that thing!"

Granny Yoon-hwa's irascible voice swelled louder and louder.

Even with ten mouths, she would have had nothing to say. Of course — it was true that she had broken the condition her grandmother had set. And yet......

Even as she absorbed the full brunt of her grandmother's rage, Lee-seol felt anew how absurd this whole situation was.

She had never been greedy. Whenever Granny spoke, she had always obeyed, meek and docile. Even when her grandmother blocked the road ahead of her, she never once rebelled.

This was the woman who had taken in a homeless child and raised her. She had believed that yielding to her wishes was her duty. No matter how unreasonable, how illogical, that demand might be.

When she thought about it, she was the one living here in Sehwawon who was most stifled — treated graciously on the surface, but suffocating all the same. She alone. Only she.

"Never entangle yourself with that man, do you hear me!"

Something soft and heavy, like a clump of mud, surged up from inside her chest.

Twenty-three — an awkward age, too old to call herself a child, too young to claim she was fully grown. And at that age, a late-blooming adolescence seemed to have arrived. Whether it was resentment or defiance, she truly could not tell.

"He only gave it to me as thanks for showing him around the village."

She didn't want to simply sit and take it. For the first time in her life, Lee-seol talked back to her grandmother — her grandmother, who had been like heaven to her. Granny Yoon-hwa's grizzled eyebrows shot up at a grotesque angle.

"What did you say?"

"I never asked him for it first, and I've never done anything that would shame you, I haven't——"

CRACK!

Her head snapped violently to the side.