# Chapter 185
‘What? That’s possible too. That’s your burden to bear.’
‘My father said the same. I thought he’d be happy I became stronger, but he wasn’t happy at all. Rather, he looked at me as if I were pitiful.’
‘……’
‘I know she’ll be angry since what I did wasn’t right. I know, but… I’m still afraid.’
Jeongheon wasn’t harsh enough to forcibly drag along someone who spoke like that. With a deep sigh, he straightened his back.
‘Okay. Let’s take it slow.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Enough. Recruiting talent is really damn hard.’
Grumbling, Jeongheon glared at Young and the girl. The two avoided his gaze in unison.
A few days later, having failed as usual to arrange a meeting between Young and D.S, Jeongheon was leaving the workshop when he noticed the girl waiting outside with a towel in her hand.
‘What’s that?’
The white towel was covered with mud as if it had been dropped somewhere. Instead of the girl, who was staring at him intently, Young answered.
‘The window of the house was open, and when I tried to close it, I found this beneath it. It probably fell outside due to the wind.’
‘Wait, why are you carrying it around? You should have put it back when you closed the window.’
‘It got dirty from rolling on the ground, so I thought it would be nice to wash it and return it.’
‘…Isn’t that stealing?’
‘I’ll wash it and return it right away.’
True to her word, Young brought back the clean towel the very next day. While the previous towel wasn’t that dirty except for the mud, the one Young brought was so fluffy it could be mistaken for new. Jeongheon couldn’t help but admire it.
‘You have talent in this area.’
‘Jaei did it.’
At Young’s words, the girl demurely averted her gaze. Though he hadn’t conversed with her yet due to her complete silence, it seemed she was quite skilled with her hands.
The two said they would return the towel while Jeongheon was inside D.S’s workshop. You’ve completely given up on coming in together, haven’t you? Although Jeongheon grumbled like that, he cooperated readily.
But when he came out of the workshop, the two had more laundry in their hands.
‘…What’s this?’
‘Jaei says she can make them cleaner.’
‘……’
And so, reluctantly, Jeongheon ended up joining the two in their house fairy activities.
At first, the two were satisfied with simple laundry, but at some point, they started cleaning D.S’s entire house. Then came the day when D.S, noticing the changes in her house, installed surveillance cameras. The two were leaning against the neighbor’s wall with gloomy faces.
‘Ah, seriously! Fine, fine!’
It didn’t take long for Jeongheon, unable to bear the sight of Young and the girl looking at the ground as if the world had ended, to cooperate despite his annoyance. Fortunately, there were exactly 10 surveillance cameras installed in the house—matching the number of Jeongheon’s fingers.
The most fortunate thing was that despite noticing someone entering her house, D.S didn’t have much will to catch the culprit. After confirming these mysterious cleaning fairies weren’t causing harm, she stopped at just installing surveillance cameras. If D.S had reported to the police or deployed homemade combat robots, the trio’s activities would have been immediately stopped.
“…And that’s how we ended up here.”
“You’ve been having fun. So you’re saying this whole thing is my fault for not being tough enough?”
D.S criticized with a disinterested face. Jeongheon lowered his head with a guilty expression.
“Of course not. Just… I’m sorry.”
As Jeongheon apologized first, Young and the girl also bowed their heads. Iyeon grumbled.
“What the hell, I really thought they were fairies.”
“As if they’d be real fairies. Where would you find such things?”
“Wow, D.S-ssi, you thought so too.”
“When did I ever.”
D.S glanced at Iyeon contemptuously before turning to Young and Jaei. The two couldn’t meet her gaze with her unreadable expression and lowered their eyes discreetly.
“Looking at this, you young punks are really trying to play with adults.”
“No, that wasn’t the intention—”
Ignoring Jeongheon’s flustered response, D.S continued.
“Stop dragging this out. I’ve set the stage this much, so just do it.”
Young still wouldn’t raise her head. A very long silence passed. Iyeon gently patted her as she stared at the floor as if something were there. Feeling the touch, Young turned to look at him. After briefly observing him with an unreadable gaze, she finally spoke in a small voice.
“I know it was a violation. I don’t expect forgiveness.”
Her hesitant words became increasingly clear as she continued. Young raised her face with a slightly tense expression and faced D.S.
“I wanted to apologize, but I lacked courage and made this into a big issue. …I’m sorry.”
D.S’s eyebrows rose askew.
“Ha?”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Alright.”
At this crisp response, the faces of the two people other than Iyeon and Young rose abruptly. D.S’s face remained as impassive as before.
“What are you looking at? I said I understand.”
“No… Is this the end?”
“I know who did it, I received an apology, and Jung Iyeon paid for the damages. What more is there to do?”
“Well… I thought you’d be angry.”
“Ha.”
D.S chuckled.
“You’re late and still talking back? I already vented all that anger. You’re way too late.”
“……”
“Besides, isn’t repeatedly trespassing into my house a greater offense?”
Young closed her mouth again. D.S looked at her with cold eyes.
“That won’t be resolved with just an apology.”
“Of course. I’ll compensate as much as I can…”
D.S mercilessly cut off Young’s urgent response.
“Where are you living now?”
“Just, here and there in motels.”
At that answer, both Jeongheon and Iyeon asked in succession with surprised faces.
“What? You weren’t living at home?”
“Huh? I thought Young-ssi lived with her father.”
Young fidgeted with her fingers.
“Jaei needs to stay with me, and… it’s also difficult to face my father. I just didn’t go home.”
“So you don’t have proper accommodation.”
D.S made a “hmm” sound as she stroked her chin. After appearing to think about something, she soon seemed to reach a conclusion and spoke.
“Let’s do this.”
What followed was a cheerful proposal.
“Have you heard of a live-in housekeeper?”
The faces of the other four were covered with question marks. Looking carefully, D.S’s eyes were shining like an eagle catching its prey.
“Well, there’s nothing special to do—just continue what you’ve been doing, but officially.”
This person… is smart? She’s going to employ them legally? Iyeon admired her scheme.
“No, no. Wait a minute.”
It was Jeongheon who objected. Having been swept along with the flow of the conversation, he finally came to his senses when the situation turned strange.
“These two already have their employment direction decided. What’s with this sudden housekeeper talk?”
“What business is it of yours?”
D.S used formal speech with Jeongheon since he was a customer, but her tone was similar to how she spoke to Iyeon. Jeongheon said somewhat bewilderedly.
“We’ve been talking about this all along. These two will join our company after finishing their community service.”
D.S blurted out without much consideration. Her words were directed at Young and the girl, who were just blinking with surprised faces.
“Then work both jobs.”
“What?”
“The housekeeping job is part of the apology, right? Well, I’m a law-abiding citizen, so I’ll write a proper contract and pay you. Let’s start with a 6-month contract and renew from there. I’ll provide a room for each of you. You’ll have to share the bathroom, but just put up with that much. Since there’s a child in the house, I’ll serve nutritious meals. And if we eat out, you’ll come with us.”
The relentless flow of words left no room for rebuttal. Whether she knew or not that all four were listening as if entranced, D.S continued to pour out words.
“And occasionally, the child will—”
“Huh?”
What interrupted the ongoing explanation of employment conditions was a cheerful child’s voice. Mirae, standing at the workshop entrance, widened her eyes and waved toward the sofa where they were sitting. D.S waved back and muttered.
“Yes, her.”
Mirae came running right away. The direction of her bright, beaming smile was not toward D.S or Iyeon, but toward Young and Jaei.
“Hi, unnies! Why are you here today? I thought you couldn’t come in!”
“…You know each other?”
D.S narrowed her eyes. Young bowed her head deeply like a guilty person and explained.
“Just… it seemed dangerous for a child to go around alone, so I escorted her a few times.”
“You promised to give me a sled ride today! I was so looking forward to it. I even wore warm clothes because you won’t give long rides if I get cold!”
“…So that’s what it was.”
Clothes suited for the current season would be too cold when with Young, an ice ability user. After ruffling the chattering Mirae’s hair, D.S looked at Young and Jaei.
“What will you do?”
After hesitating, Young answered.
“…I’m the one who destroyed your workshop.”
“Are you testing my memory now? You’d better not underestimate the cut-off score for the National Engineer Education Institute.”
“No, that’s not it, but how can you trust us…”
“You really don’t know anything about engineers, do you?”
D.S smirked. Somehow it looked ominous.
“If you cause trouble in our house and run away, tracking you down would be no effort at all. Try it if you’re curious.”
“……”
“So, will you do it or not?”
