The Realm of Desire — Chapter 5: What Seemed Like Gossip
"Until the elder grants her permission. There will be no change of position."
Yet the words he'd uttered while calmly continuing to eat had been as blunt as a blade — as if to say there wasn't the slightest room for negotiation. Watching him, Granny Yoon-hwa clicked her tongue in irritation.
"Stubborn as ever — you take right after your grandfather, you do……."
Woo Tae-shin's grandfather could only mean the current Chairman Woo of Haeun Construction.
Given that Granny had once made quite a name for herself among politicians and tycoons, it hardly surprised Lee-seol that she knew such an exalted figure. And yet the way she said it somehow sounded less like greeting an old client and more like she had once been closely, intimately acquainted with him.
"I hear that often."
Tae-shin brushed the remark off just as lightly. On closer inspection, he seemed utterly practiced in the art of charming people.
Well, he'd have to be — how else could he sit there before Granny Yoon-hwa without his spirit bending an inch, even managing instead to ruffle her feathers? There was no denying that his temperament was far from ordinary.
Clack. Granny Yoon-hwa set her spoon down hard. Her hard, bulging eyes stayed fixed on Tae-shin. Tae-shin, for his part, didn't spare it a flicker of attention, continuing his meal with perfect composure.
"While you stay under this roof, don't you dare get up to any mischief."
At that, Tae-shin's lips curved — a smile that looked suspiciously like a sneer.
"Mischief, you say."
"I mean don't go fiddling with my granddaughter for no good reason."
Granny pronounced it in a stern, cutting voice. Why me, all of a sudden……?
Lee-seol, who hadn't said a single word, felt her breath catch as the topic swerved abruptly onto her. Tae-shin answered with the sly, unhurried slither of a snake playing dumb.
"So that's why tonight's menu had such a mischievous streak to it."
Granny Yoon-hwa's face crumpled at once. Tonight's soup side dish was manila clam and sea-mustard soup. Judging by what Tongyeong-daek had let slip earlier, it was a menu Granny herself had specifically ordered for the dinner table.
A spiteful, pointed choice — served with the message that a detestable son-in-law could eat until the roof of his mouth peeled.
Tae-shin, as if to flaunt his indifference, scooped up a generous spoonful of the soup and swirled it around his mouth.
"I'll do my best."
Whether his best would actually get him anywhere, she couldn't say — but having no intention of ruining the meal itself, Lee-seol swallowed the retort that rose to her lips.
Not that she could deny it. She couldn't deny that she had grown into her lovely looks — lovely enough that, as the young mistress of this old estate, she could have charmed every man in this remote corner of the mountains.
Even as she continued eating with feigned calm, the woman practically radiated awkwardness — greenness practically vibrating off her.
Young. Innocent.
Not one bit different from the girl who had once sobbed in his arms.
An untouched woman. It was obvious she knew nothing whatsoever of the ways of the world. If he tried working her with smooth words, would she even understand what he meant?
Or no — surely, by now, even that much she'd have grown into……
"……"
Lee-seol stole a quick glance at the gaze Tae-shin had fixed on her. As if he'd sensed it, his heavy-lidded eyes curved gently.
Those jet-black eyes glinting beneath his coolly sculpted, languid eyelids — everything about him, his words included, was far too easy to misread. Without quite knowing why, Lee-seol went on listlessly nibbling at the stir-fried anchovies sitting right in front of her.
"And Lee-seol, the same goes for you. Don't bother our guest without cause, and don't let yourself be swayed by him, either."
Granny Yoon-hwa's words meant, in plain terms: don't go fraternizing with Woo Tae-shin. And honestly, that was exactly what Lee-seol herself wanted.
"Yes, Grandmother."
Not knowing what even tomorrow would bring, answering was the easy part.
The uncomfortable dinner came to an end.
Granny Yoon-hwa, who always finished every meal with a mandatory cup of tea for dessert, retreated straight to her room today without so much as a word.
Tae-shin was no different. He left only a brief "Thank you for the meal" before climbing up to the second floor.
I'm exhausted……
All she'd done was eat, yet somehow she felt drained. Was it because she'd been tense the entire time?
His face — the one that had been sizing her up as he said he'd "do his best" — flickered briefly through her mind.
……Good grief.
Truthfully, dwelling on it any longer would only be a loss on her part. He was a man who would leave when the time came, anyway.
Lee-seol shook her head to shake off the stray thoughts. What she desperately needed was a cup of coffee. She went to the kitchen, set the kettle to boil, and then flopped down onto the living room sofa for a moment.
"Miss Lee-seol, come over here a spell, will ye."
Tongyeong-daek, who had just finished the dishes, was shuffling her feet in place. Upon spotting Lee-seol on the sofa, she even began waving her over, come on, come on.
Tilting her head slightly, Lee-seol rose slowly from her seat and made her way over. Tongyeong-daek scrubbed her still-damp hands briskly against her apron and lowered her voice.
"Land sakes, Director Woo is handsome as can be. I've lived all my years and never once laid eyes on a man who looked like that."
Having said her piece, Tongyeong-daek beamed with delight, as if nothing in the world could please her more. She'd always had a bit of the comedian in her, but today she seemed especially giddy.
Well, this was a place where the same old faces showed up day after day — hardly any occasion to cross paths with a young, handsome man. And hardly ever any exciting news worth shaking the whole village over, either.
It was easy enough to understand why Tongyeong-daek was so worked up. That didn't make the topic any more comfortable, though.
For one, Tae-shin's very existence put her on edge, and she had no desire to waste breath going on and on about how gorgeous he looked.
But what choice did she have? Like it or not, she'd have to keep facing him day in and day out — until he wore himself out and dropped off the mountain, that was.
"Yes, well……"
Lee-seol offered an awkward smile and gave a noncommittal hum of agreement.
"Word's all over downtown Eulju-ri, I tell ye. A big-shot like that coming all the way here, bowing politely and proper, saying he'll take responsibility — morale out at the site's never been better……."
The Group chairman who had gifted Sehwawon had attached a full staff of servants to manage the estate for life, but people wear out with time. So it had been with Gyeongsan-daek, who had tended Granny Yoon-hwa's kitchen for a very long time, even before Granny moved into Sehwawon.
After more than two decades running the kitchen, Gyeongsan-daek had stepped down a few years back when her back gave out and she could no longer straighten it. Before returning to her hometown of Gyeongsan, she'd recommended a junior acquaintance famous for her fine cooking.
That was Tongyeong-daek.
Gyeongsan-daek had handed over the ins and outs of the job, but among servants whose careers averaged well over twenty years, Tongyeong-daek was, quite literally, the greenest of the green.
Perhaps that was why Tongyeong-daek had a habit of forgetting the estate's old rules.
Rules like: never carelessly bring outside business inside, and never breathe a word of what happens within these walls to anyone on the outside…… and so on.
Strictly speaking, gossiping about what Director Woo got up to out in the world fell squarely under what she wasn't supposed to talk about.
Even so, Lee-seol had always been aware of Tongyeong-daek's loose tongue and had chosen to look the other way. She was Lee-seol's one window to the outside world, and Lee-seol had no intention of giving her up.
"So he'll be staying on for a while, then?"
"For the time being."
Lee-seol answered briefly. One more mouth meant more work for Tongyeong-daek, who ran the kitchen single-handedly — it was only right to tell her at least this much.
Aigoo, came Tongyeong-daek's sighing interjection right on its heels.
"I'll be counting on you for a while."
"Aw, it's no trouble at all. There's naught in it that's bad for me — just wonderin' how long he means to stay…… Well, 'tis true the mistress herself has no way to send him off……"
"……Hm? Why not?"
No way to send him off?
Tongyeong-daek's words carried a distinctly knowing weight.
At Sehwawon, Granny Yoon-hwa's word was law, or near enough to it. To claim there was someone even the old lady could do nothing about — that bordered on the impious, to say the least.
Tongyeong-daek clearly knew something more. Lee-seol probed as calmly as she could manage. And with her spirits floating high, Tongyeong-daek's famously loose lips opened all the more easily.
"Well, see, the one who gifted this very Sehwawon to the mistress was Chairman Woo himse— gasp."
Tongyeong-daek, caught up in the telling, cut herself off mid-sentence and clapped a rough hand firmly over her mouth. Her crinkled eyes were written all over with embarrassment.
Lee-seol's eyes went wide.
That I never saw coming……
It was a fact she had never known until this very moment.
That the one who had gifted Sehwawon to Granny Yoon-hwa was none other than Chairman Woo of the Haeun Group.