Show Me Their Traces
The day after the wedding, Heeseo was summoned to breakfast with Kim Jonghyeop the instant she opened her eyes. Kim Jeeon had vanished before dawn, leaving her to face the old man alone.
The elderly patriarch showed no surprise at her solitary arrival, as if he had been waiting for her to come without company from the start.
“Has ‘it’ noticed anything?”
Kim Jonghyeop asked from the far end of a long dining table that looked as if it had been lifted straight out of a drama or film.
Heeseo, who had been glaring at a thick steak, swallowed the answer that nearly slipped out.
Noticed? He’s already caught on completely.
There was no need to confess that she had spectacularly ruined things on the very first night.
“No.”
The lie caught in her throat; she was unused to telling them. Fortunately her usual blank expression meant nothing showed on her face even when she lied.
“You must have had a hard time of it. Playing bride to a possessed man couldn’t have been easy.”
Instead of answering, Heeseo picked up her fork and knife and began cutting the meat. The steak was so rare that blood welled the moment the blade touched it. The sight killed what little appetite she had left.
In truth, Kim Jonghyeop’s warm, grandfatherly manner toward her—as if she were already his real granddaughter-in-law—had done far more to ruin her appetite.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t give you much time. Half a year. Within that period, remove ‘it’ from my grandson.”
Half a year was far more generous than the hundred days Kim Jeeon had mentioned on their wedding-night bed the evening before. Yet it was still only half the year Kim Jonghyeop himself had originally proposed when he first raised the subject of marriage.
Heeseo had never intended to spend a full year on the job, and she had never trusted Kim Jonghyeop, but the sudden change in terms still needed to be called out.
“The original condition was one year, sir.”
“Yes. It was. But age makes a man impatient. I hope you’ll understand.”
Despite the request for understanding, there was not the slightest hint of apology in Kim Jonghyeop’s demeanor. Heeseo swallowed a bitter laugh and set her utensils down completely.
Of course.
Though she lacked spiritual sight, Heeseo’s eye for people was sharper than most.
To her, Kim Jonghyeop was a man who would change his word whenever it suited him—someone who placed himself at the absolute center of everything.
That was precisely why she had been willing to share a bed with a possessed man in the first place: to finish the job quickly.
But Heeseo was no soft target. She was the woman who hunted evil spirits far more terrifying than a man like Kim Jonghyeop.
“This won’t do, sir.”
“……Won’t do?”
“You’ve never said a single word about the spirit clinging to your grandson. You claim you don’t know what it is, that you have no suspicions, that you never did anything to earn a grudge.”
In exorcism—the work of driving out spirits—the most important thing was discovering the spirit’s true identity.
From the very beginning, an ordinary shaman could not even start if they failed to learn the spirit’s name.
“I must not let the spirit discover my existence. It must not be allowed to slip back into your grandson’s body. And your grandson’s body must not be harmed.”
“…….”
“I endured this ridiculous marriage just to keep all those conditions. I trusted your promise that if I stayed by his side for a year and completely erased ‘it’ from his body, you would help me find my parents.”
Heeseo was no fool. If her parents had not been on the line, she would never have given the demand the time of day.
But if Kim Jonghyeop was now trying to shift the terms little by little…… she had not the slightest intention of being led around by him.
“From one year to half a year. Well, it isn’t impossible. But if this is how you’re going to act, what exactly am I supposed to trust enough to keep playing your grandson’s wife? Your grandson’s face is my type, sure, but not enough to put up with all of this.”
“Heh heh.”
She had not raised her voice, nor had her tone turned openly aggressive. Yet Heeseo’s words were bold enough to cross every line. No one else would have dared speak to Kim Jonghyeop that way.
The wrinkled hand that had been crushing the meat set down the silverware. Despite the short laugh, the eyes that regarded her were ice-cold.
“My mother. Or my father—either will do.”
Heeseo scraped her chair back and rose. Kim Jonghyeop’s piercing gaze followed every movement.
“Show me some trace of my parents. Do that, and I’ll free your grandson in half a year—no, even three months.”
She started to leave the dining room, leaving the still-warm food untouched, then paused. She could feel Kim Jonghyeop’s boiling rage at her back, but she still had something left to say.
If only for the sake of a few peaceful months of newlywed life.
“And we’ve only been married a day. Summoning me in broad daylight is a bit much. I’ll pay my respects once a week—see you next week, Grandfather-in-law. Enjoy your meal.”
Her steps out of the dining room were light. People really did need to say what they had to say.
When she returned to the newlywed house, Kim Jeeon was still nowhere to be seen.
Asking the secretary revealed he had gone to work at dawn. Heeseo wondered whether he might simply be running away from her. The man was quick on his feet, that was for sure.
The man waiting in the foyer to greet her was Kim Jeeon’s butler. He looked a little older than her own secretary and carried a similar air.
When she asked what relation he had to the secretary, he answered casually that everyone who worked in Kim Jonghyeop’s household was related by blood.
Given a man of Kim Jonghyeop’s stature, it made sense that he would be wary of outsiders.
In the same vein, the only buildings standing on the vast grounds Kim Jonghyeop owned were his own mansion and Kim Jeeon’s. High stone walls rose along the property line, giving the place the look of a fortress.
He said he slept in his usual room, left for work before sunrise, and that nothing was different from any other day…… The butler who’s watched him all this time didn’t notice anything strange either? Does that add up?
Back at the mansion, Heeseo filled her empty stomach while turning over the conversation with the butler.
Both butler and secretary already seemed to have received instructions about her from Kim Jonghyeop; they were as cooperative as possible. After she finished eating, however, the room maid and butler she ran into could not hide their discomfort.
“Madam, um…… what exactly are you looking for?”
Heeseo, who had been rummaging intently through something, paused for a moment. Then she turned to the butler with a perfectly serious face.
“I’m allergic to the word ‘Madam.’ Let’s change the title.”
“Pardon?”
“Just call me Miss, or use my name. Hearing ‘Madam’ gives me goosebumps.”
Heeseo scratched her innocent arm and shook her head. The butler and maid exchanged bewildered looks, but Heeseo paid them no mind and asked the maid,
“You change the pillows and sheets every morning, don’t you?”
“Yes. We change them on schedule during the morning hours. Everything has already been replaced today.”
“Don’t change them tomorrow morning. I want to see them.”
“The bedding, ma’am?”
“The blankets, the pillows, the sheets. Oh—and if there’s any underwear he left out, the underwear too.”
The unexpected request made the room maid lose control of her expression again. Even as a professional, the idea of inspecting an adult man’s underwear was enough to make her recoil.
Heeseo, however, caught the flustered maid and spoke firmly.
“I need Kim Jeeon’s underwear. Extremely. Desperately. Absolutely.”
“…….”
“I need it.”
“…….”
“Without it I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep, so please. Understood?”
The maid’s face twisted even further. Yet she could only nod at someone she dared not contradict.
Kim Jeeon did not return until late into the night.
Heeseo, who had dozed off waiting for him, woke with a start and bolted down the corridor.
But this inefficient, extravagant mansion required her to cross every hallway on the second floor just to get from her room to Kim Jeeon’s.
She even kicked off her indoor slippers in her haste, yet by the time she reached his door Kim Jeeon had already left for work. Same situation as yesterday.
This bastard—he ran again, didn’t he?
While Heeseo was still fuming, the room maid she encountered bowed politely.
“The sheets! You haven’t changed them yet, right?”
“No. As you instructed, the sheets and pillowcases are still as they were, Miss.”
“Good. Give me a moment alone, please. Oh—and are his pajamas still in the bathroom?”
“Yes. The clothes he changed out of are in the bathroom as well.”
“Understood. Thank you.”