DM Chapter 37
The air becomes stifling in the sharply contrasting atmosphere. Sarin, unable to interfere in their conversation, silently continues to eat the remaining food. No one can blame her for eating in this situation, no matter who asks.
“Do you want some more stew?”
As no one attempts to answer about Nikolai, Gayeon turns her gaze on the almost-empty plate of Sarin and asks. The three of them looked at Sarin at the same time.
“Thank you. I’ll have some more.”
She didn’t decline. The warm food not only relaxes her tense muscles but also seems to make her heart more forgiving. Her mind, which had been still, slowly began to turn. In response to Sarin’s answer, Gayeon crawled over to get more.
“Eat a lot. I feel even better when you enjoy food like this.”
Seeing Kirill, who had a similar atmosphere to Owen, Gayeon was pleased to watch Sarin enjoy her meal.
For them, food is merely a means to obtain essential nutrients, not something to savor. Even if they are starving, they won’t touch the food. Owen was no different from Kirill.
Warm food and warm company.
“It’s really good.”
Gayeon smiled brightly at Sarin, who complimented the taste.
[Your face looks so pale. Is everything okay?]
Out of the blue, she spoke to Sarin in Korean. Sarin blinked for a moment and thought about what she meant. She was okay. She had to be okay.
[….]
As Sarin began to speak in Korean, Owen covered her eyes with the palm of his hand.
“Your girlfriend seems to be going crazy, as if she’s about to die.”
Owen’s cold words sliced through the atmosphere at the dining table. Kirill squinted his eyes slightly, reaching out to protect Gayeon as if naturally shielding her. It was an intimidating atmosphere, as if they could leap over the table at any moment. The cold gazes, knowing each other as formidable opponents, settled heavily.
“She just asked how Korea is these days.”
Sarin desperately spoke, tightly holding Owen’s hand, which covered her eyes. Even before, the atmosphere between cousins wasn’t particularly friendly, and now, the barrier of blood relations that had been blocking the two has crumbled.
“Am I an idiot who doesn’t even know that?”
Owen scoffed lightly at Sarin’s words.
He knew from the look of Gayeon’s eyes and the low tone of her voice that she wasn’t asking about the well-being of their homeland.
Owen was convinced when he looked at Sarin, hesitating with her words.
“Look at her face. Is that the face of someone at ease? I’m not entirely ignorant about the men in this household. Kidnapping? Imprisonment? Which one is it?”
Gayeon placed the torn bread down with a thud and stared at Owen, asking. She, too, was initially kidnapped by Kirill and ended up living a life on the run together. What she realized during that time was that Kirill and the man in front of her, who resembled him, were of a similar kind. They seemed to hate each other because they were too alike.
And if they were similar, Gayeon thought Sarin’s situation wouldn’t be much different from hers.
“He pays a lot of money. Owen is also taking care of the child.”
“…A child?”
“Yeah.”
At the mention of a child, Kirill seemed momentarily at a loss for words. Sarin slowly lowered Owen’s arm. He withdrew his grip obediently, curious about her answer. With a face that couldn’t hide her exhaustion, Sarin looked at Gayeon and spoke.
She couldn’t say the reason her face was in such a state right now was because she had been mixing with this man for more than half a day. Owen’s fault was not giving her time to eat.
Whether she likes it or not, Sarin was able to forget her memory without alcohol because she was focusing on something else. The problem was that Owen had so much stamina that she wondered if alcohol would have been better.
“I’m his dog walker.”
Owen, as always, found Sarin’s response most interesting. She deliberately avoided looking at Gayeon and scratched her cheek with her finger, as if it itched.
“Ah, a dog walker. You mean someone who walks dogs?”
“Yeah.”
“The child is the link between the two of you….”
Gayeon’s words became vague. Her gaze at Owen was as if she regarded him as a pretty piece of trash. With a gaze that implied, “Do you torture even a woman with a child like this?” he became trash. Sarin suppressed a laugh inwardly.
“She’s my niece. She’s not in great health, so Owen brought her here for treatment. Isn’t that right?”
Sarin’s gaze smoothly shifted from Gayeon to Owen.
A place where his cousin and the woman he cherished like his own life were present. Asking about Hayan’s safety in the presence of others seemed rather tactless. The woman facing him now wants to know if he kept his word.
Owen’s lips curved slightly.
“Quite.”
“You said your grandfather cherishes the bloodline, but you didn’t say you do.”
She meant it literally. While she believed he would not harm Hayan, she wanted reassurance. If the child had been brought here, she wanted her to receive the best treatment.
“She’s going to receive the best care. After all, I hired a very expensive dog walker.”
Clang.
Kirill set the bread knife down. He casually brushed his hands and silently left the kitchen with Gayeon. Owen kept his gaze fixed on Sarin, not even glancing in their direction.
“Besides, Yuri called.”
He continued talking, poking at his thick and chapped lips.
“Hmm.”
“He said the child arrived safely.”
“Let me speak to her.”
“After undergoing some tests at the hospital,”
“Then I can go there…?”
Owen watched her slowly as she became agitated at the mention of the child.
“The child needs to rest. I’ll let you meet her after the tests are done.”
Seeing her slight smile and the joy in her eyes that she couldn’t hide, he chuckled slowly.
“Thank you.”
“You’re so kind, even though she’s not your child.”
It’s an emotion he can never understand.
For Owen, who grew up under a woman who pushed even her own child into the dog’s den, the emotion unfolding before him was something he could never comprehend. Nevertheless, he calculated in his mind that he should make use of this.
“…After my mother died, there was still debt left, and the child kept getting sick.”
There was no one to tell. It’s something she can’t say while holding young Hayan, but it just comes out in front of this man. He is someone who won’t sympathize with or blame her.
Even saying these words, he would likely not have any emotions. He’s a perfect stranger, a man who will never, ever understand the life she’s lived. Words deeply buried in her heart flowed freely from her lips.
“It seems like I looked pitiful in my sister’s eyes. I set the alarm to go to work at the restaurant and went to sleep, but when I woke up, it was too dark outside, and the alarm was off.”
A silent night.
While the child was in the hospital, she fell asleep in their old countryside house, where not a single light was turned on. Panicking at not even hearing the alarm, she quickly checked her phone screen and found a message from her sister.
She told him to get a good night’s sleep and that she’d take over the restaurant.
“I thought it was the first time I had been in so much pain since I was born. It feels like I’m being torn apart. Almost like entering a pit of fire bare-skinned.”
Sarin’s small hand pressed firmly against her heart. Even now, if she remembers that day, this area reflexively hurts.
Owen was silently looking at her with an expressionless face. Sarin’s lips curled, as if she were about to cry, but she never did.
“…I knew something was wrong with my other half.”
It was instinct.
Her instincts told her that something terrible had happened. Crawling on the bare floor in pain, she received a call. She didn’t want to answer, but her hands instinctively reached for the phone.
“One time I was drinking in the middle of the night at my sister’s funeral when no one was around, and I saw Hayan sleeping in front of me.”
Sarin sobbed silently for a long time, unable to put the drink back in her mouth, when she saw the young one.
Owen looked into Sarin’s already sunken eyes. Eyes that had long since lost their sparkle as they simply endured another day without any hope.
“If I hadn’t fallen asleep that day, if I had gone to work as usual, everything would have been fine.”
Guilt, remorse—anything was fine. Sarin could cling to anything that would make her stand up again.
“I’m not kind. I’m just trying to find a reason to stay alive.”
It wasn’t until much later that Sarin answered Owen’s question. Her heart felt empty. Hunger struck again. She kept forgetting meals. Whenever her head became dull and she couldn’t think, she instinctively felt the need to put food in her mouth. She had to eat at least one meal a day for her body to function.
“I don’t feel much, though.”
Owen said as he reached out and gently touched Sarin’s face.
“What?”
“You could hit my other half and I wouldn’t feel a thing. It would probably be the same if they died.”
A gap had opened between him and Sarin.
Sarin, tormented by her sister’s death, and Owen, who wouldn’t feel anything if Pavel died, faced each other very close.
“Ah….”
“That’s why Ms. Lee Sarin is fascinating. You could just care about yourself, yet you insist on stepping into dirty places.”
Just like how they met.
Unable to stop the willing smile that had appeared on Owen’s face after a long time, his lips twisted.
