The Morning Star Baby Wants a Family - Chapter 13

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 13
The female servants stirred at her words.
“But still, the young mistress….”
“I’ll handle it, sister. What would we do if the master found out?”
“Enough chatter! Get to work!”
The Female Overseer silenced their murmurs with a sharp rebuke. Then she carefully folded the sleeves that Hae-na had pinned up with her small hands.
“Come here.”
“Y-yes. Yes!”
At the gruff summons, Hae-na scurried after the Female Overseer in quick, eager steps.
“Excuse me, what is your name?”
“Just call me Ham-an.”
As Hae-na rolled the name around in her mouth, the female servants began moving with practiced efficiency.
Some poured the water they’d fetched into buckets, while others began separating collars and underpieces from the piled garments.
Ham-an led Hae-na to where a cluster of large wooden tubs stood gathered together.
Each tub was easily large enough to fit five children Hae-na’s size.
“Now, step into this one.”
The tub she indicated held clothes floating gently atop water that rippled with movement.
Hae-na carefully gathered her skirt and stepped into the basin.
Cold water wrapped around her bare feet. The pleasant sensation of late summer’s heat melting away made the child’s eyes sparkle with delight.
“Now just stomp away—see that woman over there?”
Ham-an pointed to a female servant in the adjacent tub, vigorously trampling the laundry. Hae-na’s gaze followed to where the woman worked.
An elderly female servant caught her eye and smiled broadly. Embarrassed, Hae-na looked away and began slowly rolling her feet.
With splashing sounds, soft fabric wrapped around her feet. When she stepped on the air-filled portions, they collapsed satisfyingly beneath her.
A smile gradually bloomed across the absorbed child’s face.
‘This is fun….’
She had seen laundry done this way at the Yeon Family before. But the tasks given to Hae-na had mostly involved scrubbing out stubborn stains.
Because of that, her hands had cracked and bled even in the depths of winter from hand-washing. She’d expected the same today.
“How will the dirt come out if you tread so gently? Stomp harder! With more force!”
“Yes!”
Startled by Ham-an’s commanding voice, Hae-na stopped her cautious movements and began trampling the laundry with enthusiastic vigor.
Water splashed everywhere, spraying even up to her rolled-up calves.
Hae-na laughed brightly, stomping with gleeful abandon.
Watching her, a smile gradually appeared on Ham-an’s stern face.
The reason Ham-an hadn’t turned Hae-na away was simple.
She feared the child would suffer even more if cast out without being given any work at all.
She had seen a child like Hae-na before.
Years ago, during a terrible famine, she had brought home an orphan child she’d found starving on the streets.
She’d set an extra spoon at their meager table and, moved by pity for the trembling child, wrapped her warmly in the heated sleeping alcove.
Despite such modest kindness, the orphan had been overwhelmed, as if receiving the greatest honor.
Though Ham-an had roughly pushed the child into the alcove when she insisted on gathering firewood, the girl only grew more anxious.
In the end, only after sneaking out to gather wild greens did the child’s expression finally ease.
“I, I’m so ashamed… I, I want to at least earn my keep.”
Watching her bruised hands and feet, Ham-an couldn’t bring herself to scold the girl.
From that point on, she began assigning her chores.
She had her tend the fire in the hearth and wash rice and vegetables.
And so the child’s face grew brighter with each passing day.
As if she had finally received permission to exist in this place.
As Hae-na spread her palms wide to show me, the face of that girl—now as dear to me as my own child—seemed to overlay hers.
Sometimes, I realized, shutting oneself away for the sake of one’s own peace was not always the answer.
So I brought Hae-na inside. After all, treading laundry was the sort of task even a small child like her could find delightful.
Fortunately, it proved to be the right choice—Hae-na’s earlier melancholy had vanished, and her brightened face was practically dancing as she stomped.
“My, how vigorously you’re dancing! The dirt will come right out.”
“It seems the young lady’s words were not mere empty promises, then?”
The female servants laughed and teased playfully at the sight of the child bouncing about.
At their praise directed toward her, Hae-na’s cheeks flushed rosy as she smiled.
“I’ve never done anything this fun before!”
And everyone was praising her for it. At the Yeon Family, she heard only scolding every day.
Yes, Hae-na loved this place. She wanted to be recognized and stay here longer.
Her enthusiasm surged. It was in that moment of her stomping down hard—
“Oh no, oh no! The young lady is falling!”
The instant her foot touched down, the fabric slipped away beneath her. As her body lurched, Hae-na squeezed her eyes shut.
Splash!
The shock of cold water jolted her awake. When she opened her eyes, Hae-na found herself sitting in a basin.
“I’m done for. I’m done for!”
“Go fetch a cloth! She’s soaked through. She’ll catch cold!”
Amid the bustle of voices and hurried movement, people scattered about.
Through the commotion, Hae-na spotted a familiar figure standing in the open doorway.
“Chung-yeon…?”
* * *
Hae-na was fished out of the basin, dripping wet like a bedraggled mouse.
The child, dangling from Ham-an’s hands, was promptly whisked away by Chung-yeon.
Cradled in Chung-yeon’s arms, Hae-na let out a startled sound of confusion.
“Oh, I haven’t finished yet.”
But she couldn’t say such a thing. The look in Chung-yeon’s eyes as she gazed down at her was far too frightening.
“Young lady. If you disappear without a word like this, do you think I would be alarmed or not?”
There was an edge of steel beneath the gentle, smiling tone of her voice.
Chung-yeon’s bangs, usually so perfectly arranged, were damp with perspiration.
“I’m sorry…”
Hae-na apologized meekly. Consumed with the thought of doing her chores, she had forgotten about Chung-yeon, who must have found her quarters empty.
Chung-yeon let out a long sigh, then gently brushed away the water droplets clinging to the ends of the child’s hair.
“You may go anywhere within the Residence, but you must inform me before you leave. Do you understand?”
Hae-na nodded again, and Chung-yeon, who had lifted the child into her arms, spoke.
“Come now, let’s get you back inside. You’ll catch a chill standing about like this.”
Wait. Hae-na hesitated. There was still work left undone.
No—more than that. I had dropped something into the tub and would need to start washing everything from the beginning.
Yet Chung-yeon paid no mind to her own clothes growing damp as she held Hae-na close.
Hae-na gazed back over Chung-yeon’s shoulder at the receding Laundry Room, her anxiety mounting.
Then Ham-an, whose eyes met the child’s, spoke silently with her lips.
‘Come again later. Later.’
Seeing this, Hae-na released a small, relieved sigh.
Chung-yeon, unaware of the exchange, patted the child’s shoulder reassuringly.
Upon reaching the Quarters, Chung-yeon changed Hae-na into clean clothes.
Hae-na’s expression grew peculiar as she donned the silk garment.
“My, don’t you like it?”
“Oh, no!”
At Chung-yeon’s words, Hae-na hastily waved her hands. Yet her face remained troubled.
‘I won’t be able to work in the Laundry Room dressed like this.’
There had been a reason I rushed to the Laundry Room upon waking.
A servant’s undergarment was a humble thing that could be soaked or torn without consequence.
But I could not perform laundry work while wearing costly silk embroidered with golden thread.
No matter how carefully I folded the hem upward, filthy water would splash upon it. And besides, the fabric would wrinkle so badly I couldn’t even fold it properly.
‘What am I to do?’
Hae-na sat in the large chair, her mind turning over the problem seriously.
Chung-yeon, who had braided the child’s hair neatly and even pinned a cute ornament beside her ear, spoke.
“You must be hungry. Eat this while you wait a moment.”
Before the child was placed a bowl containing dried persimmons, rice cakes, and honey syrup.
Hae-na’s stomach rumbled audibly—she who had spent the morning playing in water under the guise of doing laundry.
Hae-na brought a dried persimmon to her lips as though enchanted.
“The Cook apparently ruined the meal and is preparing it again. There was such commotion this morning that I was startled….”
Chung-yeon smiled as she watched the child eat the dried persimmon with complete absorption.
And in that same moment, a brilliant idea suddenly bloomed in Hae-na’s sugar-sweetened mind.
“The meal preparations aren’t ready yet, you say?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————