“We’ve arrived.”
The car stopped just as I gave up counting the streetlights. The fact that we had driven for so long even at night, with no traffic, proved how far we were from the dilapidated neighborhood. My mom stepped out with empty hands, walking confidently. I followed, holding the bags in both hands absentmindedly, until the chauffeur took the bags from me, snapping me back to reality.
Only then did I properly take in the scene before me. My simple imagination of standing at the gate and ringing the doorbell shattered instantly. The car had driven into the mansion’s grounds. Right in front of me, I saw stone steps. Beyond the steps, a vast garden stretched out, seemingly endless.
It was truly a luxurious mansion.
I felt like I had come to a place where I didn’t belong. A fear gripped my chest. But my mom walked up the stone steps with her back straight, as if she rightfully deserved everything here. The sound of her high heels striking the ground echoed loudly in my ears. I stared blankly at her back figure, walking away.
“Please, go up, young master. The chairman is waiting.”
A chill ran down my spine. The chauffeur who had driven us here now called me ‘young master’ and urged me forward, holding my bags. Even though I knew my new stepfather was a chairman, I hadn’t imagined I’d be entering such a mansion.
I didn’t feel happy or excited. Instead…
I felt afraid.
I finally managed to move my feet, which seemed glued to the ground, and climbed the steps. I crossed the vast garden, not daring to look around. It wasn’t because the night was dark, but because I was overwhelmed by the grandeur. After following the path for a while, I saw my mom standing with her arms crossed, waiting at the end of the path in front of the front door. When our eyes met, my cheek, which had been slapped earlier, burned. The fierce look on her face made me quicken my steps, fearing she would scold me for delaying our entry into this house. It was an instinct honed over 17 years of living with my mom.
“Don’t be so unsophisticated. It’s crude.”
My mom said through her smiling lips in a facade as we approached the massive front door, which was probably twice my height. Thoughts of how trying to fit into this house’s class wouldn’t hide our past uncouth life swelled up, but I swallowed them down without retorting. I wasn’t foolish enough not to recognize this was not the appropriate place for a confrontation.
Before we could touch it, the door opened by itself. Beyond the open door, a woman bowed politely. Seeing her, the front door no longer appeared as a mere door but an entrance to another world. Unlike me, hesitating at the threshold, my mom confidently removed her shoes and stepped inside, as if she had lived in such houses all her life. I watched her confident back for a moment before dragging my heavy feet across the door. I felt curious eyes on my swollen cheek as I took off my shoes. I was long accustomed to the stares directed at the wounds on my face.
We walked down a hallway so wide that I couldn’t touch the walls with outstretched arms. After walking down the seemingly endless corridor, we reached the end. Turning towards the light, a spacious living room came into view. The ceiling was very high, and the chandelier’s crystals sparkled like afternoon sunlight. I found myself looking up at the ceiling, mesmerized, before slowly lowering my gaze. The first thing I noticed was a large leather sofa, so big it could be mistaken for a bed in the middle of the living room. Then, I saw him.
“You arrived late.”
The man sitting on the sofa said, gracefully placing a thick book on the tea table.
“Oh my, I didn’t expect you to be waiting.”
Hearing my mom’s voice as she spoke to the man was like a confirmation shot. More than a mansion with a vast garden, more than the chairman who owned it being my mom’s new husband, this moment was more unreal.
He was surprisingly young. The man who had been waiting for us.
“Is this your son?”
“Yes. Yeowoon, greet him.”
The gaze fixed on my mom smoothly shifted to me. At that moment, my cheek throbbed. I had grown used to other people’s stares, but now, I suddenly felt conscious of my swollen cheek. I tilted my head slightly to avoid his gaze. It was a novel experience for me, hiding an injury out of shame. I lowered my eyes to avoid his eyes.
I lost count of how many fathers I had when it reached ten. I wasn’t even sure how many fathers I’ve had now. They came and went away fast so frequently that I could only vaguely remember them.
Although I had many fathers, none of them had the status and wealth of a chairman, he was the first. But I felt no excitement, no anticipation. It wasn’t mine anyway. Whether it lasted months or years, it would eventually end, as it always had.
That’s all I thought, nothing different, until…
“Yeowoon, greet him.”
My mom’s voice, now cold, reminded me that I had been so busy hiding my face that I hadn’t greeted him.
“…Hello.”
I said, my voice so faint it would have been inaudible if the living room hadn’t been quiet. I bowed deeply, turning my swollen cheek away from his gaze.
“Oh my, why are you greeting so weakly! I’m sorry, he’s just a shy child.”
The way she spoke down to the driver, as if she had been waiting for this moment, then smoothly shifted to a polite and respectful manner, left no room for doubt. It was real. This man, who had been waiting for us with the living room’s grandiose lights on late into the night, was indeed Chairman Ji, my mom’s new husband.
Although I only saw his face for a brief moment, the short moment of that face caught in my eyes left an indelible impression. It couldn’t be helped, because it was so unexpected and astonishing. When I heard the new husband would be a chairman, I naturally thought of an old man with not much time left to live.
However, the man standing before me, who was supposed to be my new stepfather, looked younger than my mom, possibly even closer to my age. That a man so young held the title of chairman was surprising, but even more shocking was the idea of him having a mistress, if that was common in the world of the rich. It seemed unbelievable. Maybe my mom had finally lost her mind. Or perhaps it was this man who was crazy.
“What happened to your face?”
I thought I had only shown my face for a fleeting moment when I bowed briefly, but the man’s sharp eyes missed nothing.
Startled, I instinctively turned my head. My eyes met his as he scrutinized my face. This time, I missed the chance to look away. But as I stared back, I couldn’t believe it and couldn’t easily look away. Even though I knew it was impolite, I met his gaze directly and studied his face. And, I was convinced. He wasn’t just exceptionally youthful; he was actually a young man.
“He fell on his way back from studying late at school. This is so upsetting.”
Even without looking in a mirror, I could guess how badly swollen my cheek was to elicit such a question. I couldn’t answer immediately, not because I couldn’t tell the truth about who hit me, but because the deep, resonant voice, beautiful as a melody, struck my ears. I was stunned by the fact that a man with such a harmonious voice and striking looks had willingly taken in a woman with a grown up son. It was so incomprehensible that I couldn’t even frown at my mom’s blatant lie.
“Why are you so late? I almost fell asleep waiting.”
I finally managed to look away when another voice broke the silence of the living room.
“Chairman! I almost got sad!”
My eyes unconsciously followed my mom’s movements and stopped at a point. My mom ran over to a man who had walked in through an open door on one side of the living room and took his arm playfully, her voice completely different from before.
I stood there, frozen and stunned by the scene before me. It felt like I had been struck on the back of my head.
“But Director Ji was here to welcome you.”
“How can that be the same as being greeted by you?”
“Haha, such a tease. So, is this your son Yeowoon?”
Oh. I see.
“Introduce yourself, Yeowoon. This is Chairman Ji. No, he’s your father now.”
The real one was here. Smiling kindly but with tiger-like eyes, this old chairman was exactly the new stepfather I had imagined while sitting in the sedan. Then, who was…
“Cheonghyeon, you must be happy. You always begged for a younger sibling when you were little, and now you finally have such a cute one.”
I turned my head again and saw the young man’s curled lips, smiling with an unreadable expression.
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