“What do you mean…… no, wait, Baek Irang!”
Whether she worked out or something, her grip on my arm was no joke despite her delicate appearance. Caught off guard, I forgot that I was supposed to make a good impression on Baek Irang and just shouted.
Baek Irang stopped dead in her tracks the moment I called her name. She turned to look at me, and her expression was terrifyingly ominous.
“Hey. You should say ‘Miss.’ Just because my brother lets things slide doesn’t mean I will.”
“……That, I’m sorry. But where are you suddenly taking me…… I still have some things I need to do.”
“I know you’ve got nothing to do. Not that it matters either way.”
Baek Irang turned to face me completely. The smile at the corner of her lips was undeniably pretty, but there was something slightly unnerving about it.
“We’re going shopping! Great, right?”
“What? Shopping? I’m sorry, but I really do have things Baek Yihyeok asked me to do……”
“Come on, come on, we’re going together! Take that apron off!”
In an instant she yanked the apron off me and tossed it to the floor, then grabbed my arm firmly. The hand that had been holding my phone, ready to contact Baek Yihyeok, was caught completely.
“What, were you trying to tattle on my brother?”
She’d even caught me in the middle of trying to send Baek Yihyeok a text, and Baek Irang snatched the phone from me without mercy.
“I’ll take full responsibility, so don’t worry about it and just come with me!”
The half-glazed look in her eyes as she smiled was quite frightening. I was dragged along by Baek Irang just like that and found myself being loaded into a bright red sports car parked haphazardly in the garage.
What kind of household is this—every single one of them is out of their mind.
She was so relentless there hadn’t been a single gap to resist. Not that a commoner like me could have done much against the youngest daughter of BN Group even if there had been.
“This is pretty. You like it, right? Give us that one too.”
“I’m fine, really……”
“This looks good on you too. This one as well. And this, and this.”
“No, I’m genuinely fine……”
The more Baek Irang gestured, the more shopping bags multiplied in my hands like they were dividing on their own, helplessly. She acted like she was asking for my opinion, but she wasn’t listening to a word I actually said—she was just buying everything she personally liked.
Right, fine. Baek Irang had plenty of money.
But the problem was.
“Yeah, this suits you too. Shall I get it?”
That everything was for me. Starting with a shirt, then trousers, socks, a hat, and now the sunglasses she’d just bought. Of course, I’d been secretly pleased at first, but as the items piled up, I began to worry more and more about how Baek Yihyeok would take all of this.
On top of that, a few passersby had taken photos of us, and every time that happened my lips went dry with anxiety that Baek Yihyeok might find out about this before I could explain myself.
“Since you’re living in my brother’s house anyway, I’ll give you a complete makeover in his style. You’re so grateful, aren’t you?”
Baek Irang shoved the sunglasses onto my face and offered a bizarre justification. Anyone could see she was just bored.
Part of me wanted to take the sunglasses off immediately, but I also didn’t want to get on the wrong side of Baek Yihyeok’s sister. Not to mention both my hands were so full of shopping bags I couldn’t have lifted an arm anyway.
The shopping finally wound down when there were no more hands left to hold bags.
I set the shopping bags—total value unknown—down on the café floor and let out a sigh. Following Baek Irang around had drained every last drop of energy from me and I wanted to close my eyes, even just for a moment.
Baek Irang, with no way of knowing how I felt, sat across from me, fiddling with her phone and humming leisurely to herself.
“You can keep all of that. Payment for keeping me company today.”
Under normal circumstances I’d have been thrilled about the windfall. But right now I was too preoccupied worrying about Baek Yihyeok to feel anything but growing unease—the expensive gifts felt less like a bonus and more like dead weight.
“Thank you. But I’m not sure how I’m supposed to carry all of this home……”
“Oh, that was actually kind of fun for once.”
Naturally, Baek Irang didn’t hear a word I said. She’d already turned down the department store staff who’d offered to take us to a separate VIP room and wandered wherever she pleased, so I was starting to get a rough sense of her personality.
Baek Irang absentmindedly fiddled with the scarf around her neck as she spoke.
“You’ll figure it out once you’ve been around a while, but this whole family is genuinely dull. They act like they get along at events and go around smiling and laughing, but the rest of the time they might as well be strangers.”
That pulled some of the fatigue out of me. The talk of family sparked my curiosity and I found myself leaning forward slightly without realizing it. I hadn’t said a word, but Baek Irang kept going as if it didn’t matter whether I was listening.
“We’ve never done anything together. Just pretending to be close in public, all smiles—honestly, it’s a joke.”
“But is it okay to be telling me all this?”
“What, are you going to spread it around?”
“No, never. I was just curious.”
Baek Irang stared at me with an unreadable expression. Something about that look made me uncomfortable, so I pulled my lips into an awkward smile—and Baek Irang laughed faintly in response and propped her chin in her hand.
“Forget all that. Want me to tell you something you actually need to know?”
“Pardon?”
“You’re a live-in housekeeper, right? Then you’d want to stay in my brother’s good graces if you want to keep the money coming in long-term. He’s not exactly easy to please.”
Honestly, when I thought about it, my situation wasn’t all that different from a live-in housekeeper. So I stayed quiet, and Baek Irang, not suspecting my identity in the slightest, opened her mouth.
“Want me to tell you? How to get on my brother’s good side.”
“There’s a way to do that?”
The tempting words caught my interest. Getting along well with Baek Yihyeok, whom I’d have to see every day, was better in every way. What Baek Irang would do once she found out I was the person marrying her brother was a problem for later.
“It’s really simple. Just don’t get in the way of his routine.”
“His routine?”
“Like interfering with his meals, his sleep schedule, and hovering around him under the pretense of being concerned.”
“……”
“Just don’t do any of that. Then you can quietly, steadily keep earning for a long time.”
Everything else I can accept, but the meals—those I have to interfere with. That’s literally how I make money.
I’d thought feeding him would be simple enough, but now even that felt like it had transformed into an obstacle. I was so thrown off that I forgot to say anything like “I see” or “thank you” and just sat there with my mouth slightly open.
“Babe.”
An unfamiliar voice came from behind. At the same time, Baek Irang broke into a bright smile and raised her hand.
“Babe, you’re here?”
“I thought you were shopping alone. Who’s this?”
He passed by me and dropped into the seat beside Baek Irang. The way he draped his arm around her shoulder warmly while eyeing me with wariness—he was clearly her husband. A well-built man in a clean-cut brown suit that suited him well.
Baek Irang straightened up from leaning toward me and rested her head against her husband’s.
“Why do you want to know?”
“Just curious. Where’d you meet?”
“Hmm, that’s a bit classified.”
The conversation was a little odd, but Baek Irang’s husband kept it going naturally. When Baek Irang leaned in and whispered something in her husband’s ear, his eyes went wide in an instant and he looked straight at me.
“Shouldn’t you be heading out then?”
“That’s why I called you. Let’s get going.”
Baek Irang stood up with a bright smile, and her husband got to his feet as well, picking up all the shopping bags she’d bought for me without any trouble.
“Let’s go proper shopping next time. Got it?”
Baek Irang left her husband behind and linked her arm through mine with a grin. I was so startled I tried to pull my arm away, but she wouldn’t let go, and I had no choice but to stay caught in her grip right up until the moment I got into the car.
A sharp, hostile energy emanated from behind, pricking at my back. It was a situation I was thoroughly unhappy with on every front, and my chest felt as heavy as if a boulder had been set on it.
“See you again next time!”
With those words, the car carrying Baek Irang and her husband sped away.
And I was left standing in front of the large gate, barely managing to hold a pile of shopping bags in my arms, phone in hand—the one Baek Irang had just returned to me moments ago. It was dark around me and hard to see. The night was part of it, but the sunglasses were to blame too.
Baek Irang had insisted they suited me perfectly and refused to let me take them off, so I hadn’t been able to remove them for even a second up until I got out of the car. Now she was gone, but the shopping bags filling both my hands made it impossible to even think about reaching up.
“Ha…… free stuff is great, but……”
I had no idea how to explain this situation to Baek Yihyeok in a way that would land smoothly, and the helplessness of it was suffocating.
But I couldn’t just stand here. It was evening now, so Baek Yihyeok would be home soon, and even a slight misstep in timing would make things so much harder for me. There was a clear difference between confessing before getting caught and confessing after.
The plan for now was to get inside quickly and contact Baek Yihyeok, but the distance from the gate to the main building was unreasonably long. I walked across the sprawling garden for several minutes before finally reaching the house.
This has to be over 330 square meters. I was slightly out of breath as I raised one increasingly numb arm and grabbed the front door handle.
“You look very busy.”
“……!”
A voice that had no business coming from right beside me did exactly that. I was so startled I lost my grip and all the shopping bags I’d been cradling spilled everywhere.
A cold sweat ran down my back. I turned stiffly to look, and a large man was looming over me with one arm resting against the door.
“Hmm? I said you look very busy.”
“……”
“Breaking the contract.”
It was Baek Yihyeok.
