Chapter 4
Tyler, not noticing Shin-yi’s expression as he sat there unable to say another word, turned his gaze back toward the sea in the distance.
“I told you a little while ago, didn’t I? That you’re the second person who wasn’t startled when they saw me.”
“Yes.”
“It seems I have a special connection to this place. To meet a once-in-a-lifetime kind of connection twice here, I mean.”
“…”
“The first one is the person I came here to propose to, and the second is the first friend I ever made. Here I’ve gained a friend and a partner all at once. It’s truly a joyful thing.” His heart beat as if it were sprinting at full speed, and an uneasy premonition spread through his mind. And so, unable to ask what he really wanted to ask, he ended up blurting out something else entirely.
“She must be a beautiful woman worthy of you!”
“If my memory is right, she must surely have grown up beautifully. Of course, it doesn’t matter if she isn’t beautiful. I didn’t fall for her face. She was the first person who looked at my heart, not my face, and she’s someone I hold dear in my heart. So I want to make her happy for the rest of her life.” Tyler paused for a moment, then turned his gaze from the sea back to Shin-yi.
“You’ll congratulate me, won’t you? We’re friends, after all.” Shin-yi smiled brightly with effort and nodded.
“That woman will be happy. To be proposed to by someone as kind and good as you!” Shin-yi responded with sincerity, and Tyler wore an exaggerated smile like an actor who had stepped onto a stage.
“This is a secret. Since we’re friends, I’ll tell you especially!” He brought his lips close to Shin-yi’s ear again. At Shin-yi’s earnest look, ears pricked up, he smiled faintly.
“Actually, I’m a truly terrible villain. Everyone who knows me, or is connected to me, fears me. They curse me behind my back, saying my face and my heart are both those of a dreadful monster…” He met Shin-yi’s wide eyes at his own eye level, showing his white teeth.
“That’s why Hwaguchon is special to me. It makes me into someone completely different from my usual self. Only here do I feel as if I’ve become a human being with blood flowing through me, not a monster. It was the same 15 years ago, and it’s the same now. Back then it was that person, and now it’s you who makes me that way.” He could say nothing more. Feeling the pain that had started in his heart slowly seeping into his brain, he only smiled pitifully as he faced Tyler.
***
“What time is it now, still lolling about in bed! Get up right this instant!” Moran’s shrill voice shook Shin-yi’s dizzy head even more roughly. As he barely raised his body, heavy as a thousand pounds, Moran snatched the blanket that had slipped askew and flung it to the floor.
“Get up right now and change into these clothes.” Shin-yi picked up the silk clothes thrown onto his lap with a dazed face.
“Moran, what is this all of a sudden?”
A cold sneer spread across Moran’s beautiful face as she looked down at Shin-yi.
“Robert came a little while ago. You remember him, don’t you? The Westerner who brought the gold bars. He said his master, who proposed to me last night, has arrived. He said that person will be coming to our house soon.” Shin-yi’s face went white again. But leaning his heart on the faint possibility that his premonition might be wrong, he barely raised himself from the bed. Moran, with no intention at all of supporting Shin-yi as he staggered, unable to keep his balance, snapped at him in a voice full of irritation.
“If you dare put on a frail act in front of my suitor like this and embarrass me, I’ll give you no food for three days and lock you in the storehouse.”
“Do I have to go too?”
Shin-yi asked in a fading voice. He knew the obvious answer would come, but he did not want to go. He really did not want to meet Moran’s suitor.
“Do you think I like introducing a rice-beggar like you as our blood? There’s no one in this small neighborhood who doesn’t know you’re our relative, so I have no choice. Do we have money, do we come from a good family? At the very least, shouldn’t I show that person how full of affection our family is? We’ve taken in and raised a rice-beggar like you for years, so I should make use of you at a time like this.”
It seemed useless to ask, “Can’t I not go?” Shin-yi let out a short sigh, and Moran turned away with an excited face.
“Hurry, change and come to the entrance hall. We have to get ready to greet my suitor. I need to fix my makeup a bit more.”
Watching Moran’s back as she ran off excitedly, moisture rose in Shin-yi’s eyes again. But he quickly blinked it away. It was the first time he had ever worn silk clothes, but he was not happy at all.
***
The entrance hall, newly decorated with the money from selling the gold bars the suitor had sent, smelled of paint that had not yet dried. Standing in the entrance hall, decorated to the brim with the vulgar gold curtains ordered to suit his eldest aunt’s taste, cheap sculptures, and ceramics, dizziness washed over him just looking at it.
“Young master, are you all right?”
As Shin-yi staggered, unable to keep his balance, Mrs. Ma asked in a worried voice. His vision blurred and the ground beneath his feet shook, but not wanting to worry Mrs. Ma, he nodded.
“Yes, I’m all right.”
“Are you dizzy again?”
The sound of the heavy door opening cut off the two people’s conversation. Shin-yi’s body stiffened of its own accord at the sound of footsteps in shoes treading across the thick carpet.
Please let it not be him…
God, please let it not be that person…
“This is my master.” At Robert’s voice, his eyes squeezed shut.
“Welcome to our ho…”
Baek Miryu’s greeting, begun energetically, was cut off midway, as if severed. And through the living room, which had been full of excitement, an air of shock spread.
“…me.”
At Baek Miryu’s greeting, in which his bewilderment was plainly felt, Shin-yi was certain his premonition had come true. His head, slowly rising, felt heavy as a thousand pounds.
Tyler stood beside the living room’s large window. So to Shin-yi, only his unscarred profile was visible. His high, even nose, his straight forehead, his grey hair shining and glossy even more in the sunlight, and even his beautiful golden eyes.
At his dazzlingly beautiful appearance, Shin-yi’s heart constricted even more. But everyone in the living room except Shin-yi was shocked in a different sense from Shin-yi. Moran leaned against her mother’s arm with an expression as if she were about to faint at any moment, and Baek Miryu’s face was pale and twisted.
“I’m sorry. I’ve startled you all. My face is not in good shape because of an accident I suffered long ago.” Tyler conveyed his apology in a calm voice. But no one dared to answer him.
“Wh… who might you be?”
Baek Miryu asked, stammering. As if he could not believe the situation before his eyes.
“Yes, I am the person who proposed to your daughter.” Shin-yi’s legs lost their strength. A thick darkness pressed in before his eyes, and Shin-yi’s body fell backward. Mrs. Ma’s scream rang out at the same time.
“Young master!”
Mom, Dad, I… I’ve never once thought I wanted to die…
I… just this once, I wish I could close my eyes like this and die.
Really. I really…
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