You Are the Real One

Yeon swept a glance around the dark room, caught Seol-woo's hand, and rose. Had the thoughts she'd fallen asleep with driven her to crawl in here?

"You need breakfast. Chen made soybean-paste stew."

"What about something like a long cord? Long enough that I could get from my room to the living room. Though then it might not mean anything."

"He grilled sausages too, he says."

"At the hospital it was a little uncomfortable. Oh! It was in that movie I saw on TV last time. Chains going clank, clank."

"We should wash our hands first. You're covered in dust."

"Or just so I can get to the bathroom easily……."

"Will you stop? Are you asking me to put a leash on you?"

Seol-woo had been answering at cross-purposes the whole time, and when he suddenly snapped, Yeon jumped, her shoulders giving a startled flutter.

"Why are you angry? I only said it because I don't want to be a burden like this. I'm not even the real Sun Woo-yeon."

"You are."

"What?"

For a moment Yeon doubted her own ears. A foolish thought followed—was she still dreaming? And if it was neither of those, then what on earth was that impossible answer supposed to mean?

While she faltered, Seol-woo was already leaving the study. Yeon hurried after him in quick little steps.

You are. Three short syllables, and the shock they sent through her was too vast for words.

"What do you mean, real?"

"There you are—you found her? Hey, squirt! Where'd you sleep this time? Do you have any idea how worried we were?"

"Looks like you bumped into something. There's a bruise on your knee."

"You're not going to answer me?"

Yeon pushed between Chen and Ethan as they crowded in and caught hold of Seol-woo's sleeve.

"Doesn't it hurt? Look at this. What good is tearing the whole house apart and rebuilding it if the dangerous parts stay exactly the same?"

"Yeon, let's eat breakfast first. Oppa made plenty of good things."

The flurry of morning greetings went on, but Yeon's usual bright voice never rose to meet them. The air was nothing like an ordinary morning.

"Your name is Sun Woo-yeon. The three of us aren't kind enough to dote on a total stranger just because she looks like someone, and we aren't idle enough to stay glued to her side all day."

It was Ethan and Chen who startled at the sudden confession.

"I… I don't really understand."

"You don't need to understand it, so keep it simple. The rest you can learn little by little. What matters right now is that it's time for you to eat breakfast. Take her in, Ethan."

"Come on. Let's go."

Ethan steered Yeon, still standing there with a blank, stunned face, toward the dining room.

The shock had slowed her blinking to almost nothing, and she let herself be drawn along, limp in his hands.

"Why all of a sudden? You said you were hiding it so she wouldn't be shocked."

"Making her walk on eggshells is worse. I can't stand watching her tie herself in knots every time, terrified of falling out of favor."

"That's on the people who had her. Even if she finds out she is Sun Woo-yeon, she'll still be watching our faces the same way."

"If she could feel that what we give her is wholly hers, I thought maybe that dangerous illness of hers might ease. Even a little."

A sigh threaded through Seol-woo's words.

"The test results will be out soon. It isn't Yeon who's urgent right now—it's you. I understand you're worried, but you're too on edge. If you're going to tell her the truth, you have to explain it so the kid can actually understand."

Chen took him to task, brow drawn tight.

He wasn't unaware of the turmoil an illness full of unknowns stirred in Seol-woo, but Yeon had grown up in a place that left her no other way to be, and someone so unlike other people needed a little more kindness.

Sweat soaked the fist Seol-woo held clenched.

He hadn't meant to say it like that, and it hadn't been a moment that called for cornering her. But seeing her crawl out of the corner where she had slept curled up, then calmly ask to have her wrists bound, the ache in him had spilled out the wrong way.

"I got angry. She must have been startled."

"Ethan will smooth it over."

"Go on in ahead of me. Showing her the photo will be the fastest way."

When Seol-woo turned away, Chen stepped into the dining room.

"Know who this is?"

"No."

"A silver hairtail, all the way from Jeju. Nice and plump."

Ethan set a piece of golden-brown grilled hairtail on the plate, tipped his chin high, and shot Yeon a look.

Banished to the dining room, she had been sitting there sullen, but little by little her attention drifted to his chopsticks.

Swish, flick. In only four strokes he stripped every bone from both sides of the fish, then laid the thick slab of flesh from along the spine onto her white rice.

The metal rods moved as smoothly as a dance, a world apart from the training chopsticks in her own hand.

"Whoa."

Seeing her face soften, Ethan made no effort to hide how pleased he was.

"Eat the whole thing in one bite."

Am I really this simple?

With the tempting fish in front of her, Yeon set the tangle of feelings aside and gladly put the spoon, heaped with flesh, into her mouth.

"Good, right?"

Yeon nodded hard and raised a thumb.

A rich, nutty savor filled her mouth as the flesh melted softly away.

Ethan grinned. Put something delicious in her mouth and her mood cleared at once. She was simply adorable.

"This is mackerel, and this is Spanish mackerel. I'll debone them, so try the soybean-paste stew too. Chen got up early and made it for you."

Looking after her like a mischievous youngest brother, Ethan showed off a care that didn't suit him in the least.

"It's delicious."

"Nice, isn't it, eating something this good."

"Yes."

"And living with us at Felice is nice too."

"Yes. I like it."

"Then that's enough. Don't get all tangled up. Seol-woo will explain everything, step by step."

"I don't know. There were so many moments I wished I were Sun Woo-yeon……. I don't understand why I would be her."

She had been intent on emptying her rice bowl as Ethan kept piling side dishes onto it, and now she let out the feeling she had been hiding.

"Yeon, how is it? Good?"

"Yes, it's delicious."

Chen, who had come up beside her before she noticed, smiled with satisfaction.

"Eat plenty."

Yeon looked toward Seol-woo as he followed Chen into the dining room. At a tilt of Chen's head, Ethan tactfully gave up his seat.

Seol-woo said little, only deboned the fish until her bowl was empty.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For making you worry, over and over."

"You're sick. That's not something you apologize for. Want more?"

"No. I'm full."

At the bowl scraped clean in no time, Seol-woo smiled faintly and held out a photograph he had brought.

"Is that me?"

It was a picture of her hanging from Seol-woo's neck, her face full of mischief.

The child beaming as if she owned the whole world clearly resembled her, and yet the air she gave off was entirely different.

"Your father was Sunwoo Jae-ho. He worked for my grandfather. This is Sunwoo Jun. Your oppa."

"I'm in Oppa's arms."

Of all the faces she couldn't remember, the Seol-woo holding her was the most familiar.

"You used to follow no one but me."

"I don't remember. Not Dad, not Oppa, not when I was little. None of it. Do I still smile like this?"

Yeon studied the girl in the photograph for a long while, then smiled, soft and bright.

She was still pretty, still lovely, but she was not what she had been. A long imprisonment in unhappiness had laid a shadow over her.

"You're plenty pretty now. Let's take the rest slowly. For today, this is enough."

"One more thing. Please tie me when I sleep. I think I'm moving worse and worse. You know that, Oppa."

He had flared for a moment at the way she spoke so lightly of the pain of having been locked away, but whether it was sleepwalking or something else, he knew well enough that leaving her like this was dangerous. He couldn't stay beside her the whole time she slept, and if she wasn't to be hurt, binding her was the best he could do.

"I'll find the softest cord I can. I just hate the thought of it being uncomfortable."

Seol-woo stroked her hair again and again. The worry was already running ahead of him.

"Want to come to the office during the day? You'll be bored otherwise."

"Is that really all right?"

"Yeah. Come and play."

"Then I'll wash up quick and be right back."

"Keep your head on straight in there. If you fall in the bathroom, it'll be serious."

"Okay."

Thrilled at the thought of going out, Yeon ran off, her pajamas fluttering.

"Did the talk go well?"

Ethan and Chen, who had been waiting in the living room, came straight into the dining room. Chen scooped rice for the breakfast they had put off.

"She's gentle to begin with. Maybe because she has no memories, she didn't take it as hard as I thought."

"What did you say to make her run out that excited?"

"I told her to come to the office and hang around."

"For real? Ohh!"

Ethan, mid-bite, let out a cheer.

"You sure that's all right? Felice is a closed community, so nothing leaks from here, but if you take her to the company, people are going to talk."

"I don't care."

"Ah, what are we going to play? I should bring Jenga."

"You're out in the field today."

"No way."

At news like a bolt from a clear sky, Ethan set his spoon down. Cold water dumped over the excitement that had been building at the thought of spending the day with Yeon.

"You've been playing with Yeon for a week. Do some work."

"What do I have to do? Let me finish fast and come back."

"We're starting the operation. Go see Kwon Sang-cheol."

"And when I see him?"

"Yeon has no intention of giving herself up, so tell him to name everything he wants."

What would be the surest way to drag into ruin the people who had shut Yeon away in a psychiatric hospital and gloated over it? For people blinded by money, money itself would do nicely.

"What are you planning?"

"I hear Jang Se-hee enjoys stocks, and gambling on top of that. That's how she burned through every last bit of her fortune. The moment money shows up, she'll pour it right back in. Chen, set up an investment circle. Let's draw her in that way."

The three men rinsed their mouths with the coffee already set out, and a grim resolve sat in their steady gazes. In passing judgment on the ones who had isolated Yeon, there would be no mercy to spare.

They had come up by private elevator, but a fair number of people still passed in and out of Seol-woo's office, and because of that, rumors about the unfamiliar woman spread remarkably fast.

The blonde who had thrown the whole company off-kilter with her sudden appearance was sunk in a plush recliner, every bit of her attention stolen by a comic.

"Send them in."

The moment he finished speaking they filed in and lined up across the front of the desk, stealing glances at Yeon in turn. Whenever her eyes met someone's, she bowed her head in a proper little greeting.

"Start with Team One. Keep it short and then leave. One sentence each, if you can manage it."

"This is the article going out tomorrow morning to promote Paradise's summer event. Please review it and give final approval."

"Fine. Next."

"We plan to change the Paradise Resort promotional model from actress Ji Ha-yeon to Han Seo-jun."

"Han Seo-jun?"

"Yes. He's one of the actors with the best public image these days."

At the familiar name, Yeon turned her head toward Seol-woo. Even that irritated him. His face was thoroughly displeased.

Was I always this small-minded?

When it came to Yeon, he found himself ridiculous, charging ahead on feeling alone.

Once the last team had finished its report and left the office, Seol-woo came over to her.

"Having fun?"

"Yes. It's fun."

"You're good at entertaining yourself."

"I'm being quiet so I don't get in the way of your work, Oppa."

"We should have lunch. Anything you want?"

Sorry for snapping at her that morning, Seol-woo looked after her more gently than ever.

Yeon thought for a moment, then turned the comic she had been reading toward him. It was the panel where the hero was inhaling a gleaming plate of black-bean noodles.

"Black-bean noodles?"

"This too."

"Sweet-and-sour pork. All right."

Seol-woo went back to his seat and pressed the intercom.

"One black-bean noodles, one spicy seafood noodle soup, one sweet-and-sour pork. Order them now."

"We'll be eating in here."

The voice on the other end was plainly flustered. The same man who used to snap at the faintest whiff of food from the secretaries' office now meant to eat Chinese in his own. The staff out there would be beside themselves.

"Morning work is done, so you can read on the sofa now."

"Okay."

Yeon stood with a tiny hup of effort.

Seol-woo moved the comics stacked beneath the recliner onto the sofa table, then roughly straightened his disordered desk. In the middle of it, the intercom beeped again.

"The food's here already?"

"There was nothing on the schedule. Tell them to make an appointment and come back."

"What a nuisance. Send him in."

That old viper, showing up without an appointment.

Hearing that a guest was coming, Yeon blinked her round eyes and went back to the recliner.

A light knock, and the door opened.

The old man, dressed in an easy everyday hanbok, wore a genial smile that slowly died when he saw the woman seated on the left side of the office. He himself had nothing but a single photograph. It galled him that Seol-woo, by sheer luck, had claimed that exceptional child.

"What brings you here without so much as a call?"

Impudent brat.