Episode 4
“Chayeonbyul.”
Baek Hah-won is an obsessive chaebol.
“Since you keep doing things you shouldn’t,”
He’s so obsessed,
“I feel like I know.”
He’s a man who holds both power and money in one hand and shakes it.
In his eyes, there were only two extreme outcomes.
One was applicable to everyone, and the only one was Yugyeom’s case.
“You might not know.”
In the moment when I was reflected in his pupils, I felt that I had failed.
Since I couldn’t be Yugyeom’s case, the result of this gaze was obvious.
I couldn’t regain my senses from the eerie coldness spreading from the cold fingers that touched me. To him, there was an atmosphere of crushing a person’s throat at once.
“This is Doctor, Boss.”
At that moment, a pleasant voice broke the suffocating silence, and Baek Hah-won’s gaze finally left me.
Fortunately, I was released.
It was only a temporary measure.
* * *
“Should I tie up my hair or leave it down?”
“Well, please let it down.”
The party was held exactly a week later. For a week, I explored the room, not leaving.
The woman who introduced herself as Jane spent the week rummaging through my room, picking out dresses, necklaces, and such, and every time, I was busy finding something as unobtrusive as possible.
The preparations made to suit Chayeonbyul’s taste were so dazzlingly bright that it was beyond imagination.
“Try on a dress.”
As I grasped the soft, flowing dress in my hand, it really hit me that today was the day of the party.
After tonight’s party, I will leave Baekcheon in the near future.
“But how do I put this on?”
At a glance, I thought it was just a simple basic design, but the design was subtly confusing about where to put my legs.
I roughly squeezed my body into the dress and went out, and Jane quickly rushed over to tidy up my appearance.
“You look absolutely beautiful, Miss!”
I almost screamed at my reflection in the mirror.
The dress, with its layers of thin, white silk, had delicate jewel details that sparkled, making it light and intricate.
The floral decorations on the waist and chest, which could have been bland, stood out more thanks to the flowers.
I thought it was a modest dress, but that was only when viewed from the front. The back was cut out from the neck to the waist, making me, who was not used to exposure, quite uncomfortable.
“Is there a problem?”
I considered changing into a different dress at this point, but then I thought of the other dresses in the running and shook my head.
With the wavy, long, flowing curls covering it, it wasn’t very noticeable.
Overall, today, no, Chayeonbyul was dazzlingly beautiful. The white, sparkling accessories matched the dress, contrasting with the black hair.
Smart.
At that moment, after a knock, the door opened, and a familiar face came in.
“The boss is looking for you.”
Jiwoon seemed to have come to deliver Haewon’s message.
“Got it.”
Haewon smiled brightly at Jiwoon, but there was no change in his expression.
“I still have some things to prepare, are you going to come with me?”
“I’ll wait outside.”
As Jiwoon left, Jane sat me in front of the mirror and started trying out various hair accessories.
“People will be amazed when they see you.”
Jane said as she attached a small white lace ribbon with closely embedded jewels, like a dress, to the part she had pointed out.
“Do you think so?”
“It seems like the atmosphere is very different from usual. Not only the style, but also the behavior seems to have changed a lot from the usual.”
Jane raised her red lips and smiled. I agreed with her words.
Chayeonbyul was far from innocent. She, who always felt a thirst for affection, adorned herself to be more dazzling so that everyone could look at her.
As I had been doing the opposite of my current style, my appearance today was likely to look different.
“I keep doing things I didn’t used to do.”
Baekhawon’s words struck me, but what was more important was changing the original development.
If I continued to live as I had, I would end up as the villain who dies in the first meeting of the main characters. I can’t help but not do things I didn’t used to do.
“He’s waiting on the first floor office.”
Nodding lightly at Jiwoon’s words, I followed Jiwoon, taking a slow breath.
I can do it.
I can survive.
As I descended the curving stairs that wrapped around the lobby of the square, I saw a giant white bird-shaped sculpture in the center. It’s a symbol of peace.
At the end of the corridor, with the sculpture behind me, the transparent jeweled door gleamed dazzlingly in the sunlight from a distance.
Without needing to knock, the men guarding the door opened it as soon as they saw me.
“….”
Baekhawon, dressed in a suit and reading documents, paused when he saw me. He briefly scanned me from top to bottom and then got up from his chair and walked towards me.
His neat hair and the shimmering black suit made him look like a prince, unlike his usual self. I was momentarily stunned.
When his hand reached out to me, I snapped back to reality.
“Will you escort me now?”
“Because there are many eyes watching.”
Not caring about his reputation, huh?
Well, it seemed like he had been relaxed about the family affairs. Anyone could have been a target on this ground, and a small rumor could become a weakness.
So, did he stupidly kidnap Chayeonbyul from Utopia as a hostage?
Even if it was because of rumors, it was clear that Chayeonbyul would have liked to die due to Haewon’s actions. And it was her fate to die so lonely, desiring more from life, all because of his greed.
That’s why I decided to act differently.
“Thank you, boss.”
Calling him “boss” instead of “oppa”.
“But there’s someone who’s supposed to escort me.”
I can’t die.
I will survive.
“Who is it?”
“It’s supposed to be Dosiya. I need a partner too.”
And that new path to survival was Dosiya.
It was a bit concerning that there was no information on New Faces, but since he wasn’t a villain in “Boss’s Man,” it was a condition that I could accept.
“So, you two love each other on your own!”
I said with a cold face and a steady gaze at Haewon, without any change in expression.
Their first meeting might be awkward, but if they were destined to be together, they would somehow meet and fall in love. I sincerely supported their love.
Above all, I hoped that my favorite, Yugyeom, would be happy.
But Haewon moved in a direction that I had never expected, shattering my expectations and hopes that I thought I would retract my hand that I had extended.
“I don’t like that.”
He approached me, narrowing the distance with each step, and took my hand that I had extended.
“I think of you as my only sibling who knows nothing.”
A bitter laugh. That wasn’t kindness.
“Wouldn’t it be shameful to entrust your hand to just the successor of Doga?”
A strong force wrapped around my hand, strong enough to make me unable to move. The voice that whispered low had a stronger force than the grip on my hand.
Sure, here is the translation:
It was a good thing I didn’t say “I’ll die without Baek Ha-won.”
I was momentarily wondering if there was something between them because of the escort and all, but his eyes didn’t show any good feelings at all.
He was just tangled up in his obsession and possessiveness over “Baek Cheon.”
I am the person who corresponds to “Baek Cheon.”
Nothing more, nothing less.
“Go down first. Jiwon will stay and guide the lady.”
I clenched my dress tightly, keeping my mouth shut.
Yeah, getting off this damn island is the priority for now. There’s no need to be stubborn enough to worsen the relationship here.
But as I turned around, I firmly made a passionate promise.
“Even if I leave when I leave, I’ll definitely give you a big present!”
* * *
As Cha Yeon-byeol left, Baek Ha-won thought of her while tying his tie. Shadows covered him instead of the light coming in from the large window.
The movement of pulling the tie was rough.
The look in his eyes, the lips that habitually twitched, and the warmth felt in the held hands.
The sparkling decorations on the white dress seemed to be the only things shining in the darkness.
He would make a face as if he didn’t understand why he was doing such things, and then he would run away at any moment.
“It seems like you’re concerned about the lady.”
Baek Ha-won stopped moving at Ji-won’s words.
I couldn’t deny it. Literally, my nerves reacted. Chasing after the change, everything I had built up was shaken.
I didn’t hate her from the beginning.
“Yeonyeol, say hello.”
“Hi?!”
The former head of Baek Cheon, who brought in a woman resembling his deceased wife after her death. And that woman’s daughter.
Every time he saw them occupying the place of his mother, whom he had loved as the only person in his life, he couldn’t control the surging emotions.
He wanted to erase everything in front of him. Even if he received divine punishment, he’d rather kill himself.
In his mind, he knew it wasn’t Yeonyeol’s fault for being brought by her mother, who knew nothing. That’s why he tried to turn away.
But the day the thunder and lightning struck and the storm raged like it would swallow the island whole, the moment Yeonyeol grabbed him with a hand bleeding from being scratched by the roses his mother had trampled and ripped apart haphazardly.
“How can I make you not hate me?”
When he read the feelings contained in her gaze, his hatred became solely directed towards her.
Realizing the deep, immeasurable hatred within himself, Baek Ha-won chose to completely erase his emotions. Because he knew that Baek Cheon, and countless lives, were held in his hands. Emotions that could veer in any direction were no longer necessary.
That’s when, after 8 years, he could only think about serving “Baek Cheon” while hiding the surging hatred he felt whenever he saw Yeonyeol.
“I’ll say it once, so listen carefully, boss.”
Something was off enough to overturn the deep emotions he had kept buried for 8 years.
The face of ‘why are you suddenly like this?’ was actually the expression he wanted to make.
He remembered the face that looked at the roses scattered and shattered in his hand.
The woman who even hurt my hand to pick the roses.
“You wished for me to disappear in front of your eyes, boss, didn’t you?”
She says something that’s not even remotely funny with a face I’ve never seen before.
Her gaze towards me has changed. It’s as if a person has completely changed, with every glance, every gesture, and even the way she smiles.
It’s as if she’s a different person.
“Well, you can’t help but look, can you?”
So, all the hatred and resentment, everything, was overturned and an unknown emotion emerged.
A small and ambiguous emotion that can’t be called affection or interest.
That small emotion brought about small changes.
“Attach one person. Someone with good skills.”
“What should I instruct?”
“Report everything you see and hear to me.”
“What about the lady’s independence…?”
Baek Ha-won paused habitually, as if about to sweep his hair back, then narrowed his eyes in frustration.
Then, with a lazy tone, he loosened his necktie and said, “Let’s put that on hold for now.”
