“Oh my! And then?”
“Naturally I blocked him and said no. But then the customer tried to just shove his way in!”
“Oh my, oh my!”
The Aunt lightly slapped the table and covered her mouth with one hand. I snapped a biscuit clean in half and launched into the story with enthusiasm.
“But the really funny part was, when I blocked him, the customer tried to climb over the counter to get in?”
We were having a cozy chat over coffee and biscuits. Mine and the Aunt’s faces were reflected in the gleaming surface of the dining table we’d cleaned together. All skills honed from my time working at a cleaning service.
I’d grown close to the Aunt in under an hour. She was gentler than I’d expected. When I told her a bit about my life while helping with the work, she quietly wiped away tears, and the earnest advice she offered made it clear she was a warm-hearted woman.
She’d even ended up telling me not to use that stiff title and to just call her Aunt, taking my hands in both of hers. Dropping the formal title brought us closer at a rapid pace, and the Aunt chatted away about all sorts of things with a liveliness that made it hard to recall the first impression she’d left.
“I was so shocked when the young master told us he had someone he was going to marry.”
“Ahaha, I was a bit surpr……”
Oops. I’d almost spoken about the contract without thinking.
“Surpri……sed too. I didn’t expect him to suddenly propose like that.”
Well, it wasn’t a lie.
“The Madam was happy too, but the Chairman was especially delighted.”
The family clearly had no idea there was a contract between Baek Yihyeok and me.
“They’re already very pleased just by your trait alone, and when they see you in person, they’ll be asking for the wedding to happen right away. You’re so lovely and personable.”
“I’ll have to do my best.”
I put on the smile the Aunt had called lovely.
“So do Yihyeok’s siblings know about me too?”
“……The young master will tell them when the time comes.”
It meant they didn’t know I existed yet.
“I have a call coming in—please excuse me.”
The Aunt stood up with her phone. She did seem to be steering away from the topic of siblings, but her phone really was ringing.
“I’m leaving now.”
I stood up along with her, and the Aunt, call now ended, looked regretful.
“I have to head to the Chairman’s residence now.”
“Take care on your way.”
“See you tomorrow.”
The Aunt left not through the elevator the secretary and I had come up in, but through the entrance connected to the garden.
With her gone, the house that had been quiet to begin with now felt truly still. I wiped my hands on the white apron I’d put on to help with the work and headed to the living room.
Then I stretched out flat on the sofa. There was no one around anyway, so a little lounging couldn’t hurt. All the energy I’d been burning since morning had finally run out.
“Mmm……”
I woke from a light doze some tens of minutes later. I stretched out, savoring the sunlight still coming through the windows, and my shoulder gave a satisfying crack.
I did some neck stretches and got up from the sofa. Out in the corridor, the soft indirect lighting was on.
I thought I heard someone. Did I imagine it?
Still covering a yawn with my hand, I was on my way to get some water when something felt off. I turned back to look down the corridor, and the elevator indicator panel at the far end caught my eye.
The elevator was at the third floor.
The Aunt and I had used the stairs throughout the day, and the elevator had only been used when coming up to the first floor earlier. After that, Baek Yihyeok’s secretary had gone back down to the basement, so the elevator should have been at the basement level.
They’d said staff couldn’t use the elevator unless specially permitted, so…… had Baek Yihyeok come home?
I left the elevator and crept quietly up the stairs to the third floor. It was likely Baek Yihyeok, but just in case.
Rustle, thud.
Then, from beyond the third-floor study, came a sound. Like someone rifling through drawers.
I pressed my ear to the study door, which hadn’t been fully shut, and slowly pushed it open. Bracing myself on the inside to face a masked intruder at any moment.
But.
“……Oh.”
The scene that greeted me the moment the door opened was a little—quite a lot—different from what I’d imagined.
Inside, a woman was standing in front of Baek Yihyeok’s desk. She had straight black hair that reached just past her shoulders. Caught by the sound of someone approaching, she turned to look at me—she’d been holding up a white paper bag and examining it under the light.
“Who are you?”
The tension eased a little. At my question, the woman—clearly someone who’d been raised with privilege, it showed in her every movement—tossed her hair back over her shoulder and set the paper bag down on the desk with a thwack. Then she pulled open one of the desk drawers without a moment’s hesitation.
“And who are you?”
“Oh, I’m……”
“Actually, I can probably guess. What on earth possessed him, of all things.”
The woman blinked her sharp eyes slowly and raised her head. She tossed a small notebook onto the desk, folded her arms, and came toward me. At eye level with me, she arched one neatly shaped eyebrow.
“So big brother actually went and hired a housekeeper?”
Her face was pale and flawless—not even a visible pore. She wound a few strands of her silky hair around her index finger and peered at my face with razor-sharp attention.
“He’s so insufferable that Aunt is barely managing to keep coming, and now suddenly a housekeeper?”
“Um…… why are you doing this.”
Nervous. I clenched my fist. Normally I’d have pushed back more firmly, but something about the way she was pressing close and scrutinizing me like she was conducting a biology study made it impossible to move. Maybe it was because I’d already figured out who the woman in front of me was.
She was Baek Yihyeok’s younger sister, Baek Irang. Features that had an uncanny resemblance to his. The face was identical to the one I’d seen online the night before.
I held her gaze without breathing until it felt like it would never end, and then I awkwardly tugged the corners of my mouth into a smile and took a step back.
“I’m sorry for startling you. I should have introduced myself sooner—I’m not the housekeeper, I’m……”
Wait.
But how am I supposed to introduce myself? The siblings supposedly don’t know I exist yet—is it okay for me to tell her on my own?
I was mentally combing through the contract clauses trying to remember if there was anything relevant, when Baek Irang let out a small snort at my silence, apparently making her own interpretation.
“Alright, alright. Household helper. Does that work?”
“No, that’s not what I……”
I started to say the truth, then let it go. Even if I said I wasn’t a household helper, I had nothing to follow it up with. I couldn’t exactly tell her I was her brother’s fiancé without Baek Yihyeok’s permission.
There must be a reason his siblings still aren’t supposed to know I exist. Even their parents hadn’t told them.
I looked at those dark eyes and chose words that a household helper might plausibly say.
“I’m sorry. I heard a noise and thought it might be Baek Yihyeok.”
“Baek Yihyeok?”
Baek Irang’s eyebrow lifted as if she’d just heard something she hadn’t expected. Only then did it cross my mind that an ordinary household helper would probably use a different way of referring to him. But fortunately, she drew her own convenient conclusion.
“He must treat you pretty well, huh? Well—fair enough, I suppose.”
Arms still folded, Baek Irang looked me over from head to toe.
“Either way, I’m not exactly pleased to see you. I came in when I saw Aunt leaving, I didn’t expect anyone to be here.”
A chill ran through me. I didn’t know much about Baek Irang, but it was probably that look in her eyes—something about it wasn’t ordinary. Whether to call it charisma or coldness, that gaze of hers swept over me as if measuring me up.
Those eyes were the spitting image of her brother’s. Though Baek Yihyeok’s carried more weight.
I swallowed.
“……What were you doing in here? If there’s something you’re looking for, you can just tell me and I’ll……”
“Can’t you see? I’m looking for leverage.”
“Pardon?”
Baek Irang glanced around the room with complete composure as she spoke.
“I said I’m looking for leverage on my brother. Not that I found anything worthwhile this time either, but that’s fine. I will find it eventually.”
Baek Irang smiled—coldly.
“Tell him if you want. I don’t care.”
Brazen didn’t even begin to cover it—there was an utter shamelessness to her that called to mind the spoiled chaebol heirs you only ever saw in dramas. Siblings were siblings after all; she felt lighter than Baek Yihyeok, but at the core they seemed cut from the same cloth.
How do two siblings both manage to be…… completely unhinged?
I turned over what to say, then let the tension drain from my shoulders.
“But there’s a CCTV camera at the entrance—won’t he already know you’re here?”
“Are you stupid? You think my brother sits around staring at his home security feed? You really haven’t been here long, have you.”
Hearing it put that way, she had a point. There was no way someone who was an executive director would be watching his home surveillance footage.
Then I need to let Baek Yihyeok know his sister is here as quickly as possible. The contract clause that said to report immediately upon any contact with a BN Group affiliated person drifted through my mind.
After going back and forth, I made up my mind to leave the study first and deal with Baek Irang later.
“Then I’m sorry for intruding. Please make yourself at home.”
Whether she found leverage on Baek Yihyeok or not, contacting him was the priority. I’d wrapped up the conversation and was about to leave when—
“Where are you going?”
Baek Irang grabbed my arm.
“Since we’re here anyway, let’s go clear our heads together.”
“What? Wait, just a moment!”
And then she started dragging me out of the study without a second thought.
“Where are you going?!”
“Good things should be shared between siblings with a close and loving bond, don’t you think? Right?”
