# Chapter 133
Iyeon opened his eyes wide. The white sand also quickly dissolved into the air as if fleeing.
“Explain.”
It was Sano who answered instead. Seeun seemed a little frightened by his cold expression that looked like not even a needle could penetrate it, but soon she began to speak hesitantly.
“I was going to the guest house because I wanted to see Heesu oppa.”
“Heesu oppa lives in the guest house with Mirae,” Seeun added. Come to think of it, he had mentioned taking on the role of guardian instead of Mirae’s grandmother. So it seemed she was staying in the guest house where Mirae lived, not in the main house where the mistress of the house resided.
“I know he’s been too busy to come home lately, but I thought maybe…”
Seeun murmured dejectedly, then managed a weak smile. “But I’m glad I got to meet you two, at least.”
“What happened to Mirae?”
At Iyeon’s question, Seeun quickly lost her smile. With a darkened face, she lowered her head and confessed like a criminal admitting guilt.
“Semi… Semi took Mirae away.”
“Lee Semi-ssi is in this house too?”
D.S’s suspicion wasn’t wrong. When Iyeon asked again for confirmation, Seeun nodded slightly.
“Why did she take her?”
“…That’s…”
Seeun wasn’t unable to answer because she didn’t know. She couldn’t speak because she knew it was wrong. Her guilty expression made her look weak and pitiful, but Iyeon, knowing the situation, had no room for sympathy.
Lee Semi, who was caught by her mother D.S for making and selling illegal superpower bracelets. What she would do after taking Mirae was actually quite obvious.
“I saw the news article.”
“…”
“What were you thinking when you helped Semi-ssi escape?”
Accusatory words poured down on Seeun.
“Did you not expect this? Did you think Semi-ssi would live honestly from now on? What did Mirae do to deserve this?”
The more he spoke, the more his anger grew. Though it took the form of berating Seeun, those weren’t words directed at her. Iyeon gritted his teeth. The sharply honed words had no handle. The more force he put into stabbing, the more the person doing the stabbing got hurt as well.
Foolish Semi. Naive Semi. Short-sighted Semi.
Stupid.
“Jung Iyeon.”
A large hand pulled at Iyeon’s shoulder. Iyeon’s body moved slightly away from Seeun. Only after being pushed back half a step by the gentle force did Iyeon finally come to his senses. The young face quietly enduring the criticism being poured out before his eyes had her head lowered so deeply that he couldn’t see it clearly.
“…I’m sorry.”
Iyeon swallowed a short breath and muttered quietly. Seeun shook her head slightly, but her body trembled from the intermittent deep breaths.
– Come on. Calm down. Finding Mirae is the priority right now.
Hyegang’s gentle words reached his ear. Iyeon nodded almost imperceptibly. There was no point in pressuring Seeun like this. They needed to find Mirae first.
“Can you guide us to where Mirae is?”
His anger subsided as he took a deep breath. When his voice flowed out more calmly, Seeun nodded vigorously with her head still down.
“…We’ll have to walk a bit.”
Seeun spoke carefully in a subdued voice as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. With a sniffling sound, she raised her head, and her eyes were slightly reddened.
The three moved quickly. Seeun occasionally looked around cautiously, but she seemed to know the house’s structure well, as her steps were basically unhindered.
“How long have you been here?”
Semi obviously hadn’t taken Mirae just to play with her, but aside from that, there were too many gaps in the puzzle. At Iyeon’s question, Seeun seemed to hesitate a little but soon began to tell her story willingly.
“We’ve been in this house for more than half a year.”
Seeun, Semi, and their father entered this house as soon as they set foot in Chohosi. Their father explained that it was a distant relative’s house and they would stay temporarily until they found suitable accommodation. And while they were at it, they would also help a little with the household affairs.
Their father seemed very familiar with this atmosphere, and Semi had a naturally easygoing personality and quickly became accustomed to it since she didn’t pay attention to areas that didn’t interest her. But Seeun was different. It was her first time in such a large and magnificent house, so she felt intimidated and couldn’t adjust even after a few days. She would startle easily whenever the staff just spoke to her.
Seeing Seeun having such a hard time, Jin Jeongwon, the head of the Jin family, called her son Heesu and instructed him to take good care of the two. Although Seeun was initially scared of Heesu, whose face she had seen on TV a few times, she soon let down her guard with him as he treated her kindly. Heesu was busy, but whenever he saw the sisters coming and going, he always welcomed them warmly. As they engaged in small talk, they developed a somewhat friendly relationship where they at least knew basic information about each other.
That’s how Seeun gradually adapted to this household. She found the courage to greet the taciturn staff and occasionally engaged in simple conversations with them. She also became comfortable moving around the house.
Her father was a very capable researcher, which seemed to be why the family was pleased to invite him and entrust him with work. They gave her father a laboratory in the basement of the main house and provided generous support. So her father was cooped up in the laboratory every day.
“Wait. The laboratory is in the basement of the main house?”
“Yes.”
If that was true, it would be an enormous scale compared to the club’s research facility. Iyeon unconsciously looked at Sano. Sano remarked indifferently:
“They’re swimming in money.”
The twins had access to the laboratory as their father’s assistants. Although they were called assistants, their father didn’t actually assign them any tasks.
Seeun, who inherently enjoyed staying still, was content just sitting in the laboratory watching her father busily moving around. But Semi was different. She began by touching various objects in the laboratory and soon received a desk where she focused all day. When Seeun asked what she was doing, Semi said she would tell her when it was finished and kept it secret. All Seeun knew was that there were sparkling jewels rolling around on the desk.
Her father seemed to have figured out what Semi was making early on. Not only that, but he also occasionally gave her advice. The two soon noticeably began spending more time together. Seeun frequently saw them seriously discussing theories and formulas that she couldn’t understand.
No matter how much she enjoyed watching, constantly observing her family who seemed to be in their own world created a strange sense of alienation, and always seeing the same scenery reduced the enjoyment. So Seeun decided to explore the large laboratory.
The laboratory, which occupied the entire basement as large as the ground floor, had many small storage rooms and sub-labs besides the main research lab primarily used by her father and Semi. Even her father, a renowned researcher, said he had only used a laboratory of this scale once a very long time ago.
With such a spacious place, there were many locations for her solitary exploration. Seeun crept around, opening doors as if conquering territory.
It was by chance that she discovered a child hiding in the basement.
When Seeun’s eyes met those of the little girl sitting alone behind a stack of large cardboard boxes staring at her, she screamed without thinking.
‘Ack! What the—?’
But the girl instead put her index finger to her lips as if warning Seeun to be careful.
‘Shh. You shouldn’t make noise in a place like this.’
‘W-who are you and why are you here?’
Only Seeun’s father, Semi, Seeun herself, and the head of the household Jin Jeongwon had permission to enter this place. How could this child…? Wait, a child?
‘I’m Kang Mirae. What’s your name, unni?’
So this is that child. Seeun finally realized that this bold little girl was the baby that Heesu was raising. Seeun reflexively opened her mouth to introduce herself but hesitated. Her father didn’t care what the twins did, but there was one strict prohibition: going to the guest house. He probably wouldn’t like the fact that she had revealed her name to a child living in the guest house.
‘Mine is… a secret.’
‘Your name is a secret? What’s your family name?’
‘…Lee.’
‘So you’re Lee Secret unni.’
That’s not right, she thought fleetingly, but it was too late to correct it. Seeun inadvertently became “Lee Secret.”
