The Morning Star Baby Wants a Family - Chapter 45

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 45
‘Hae-na must have arrived.’
In her office, I held the teacup and contemplated.
A small footstep sounded from beyond the door. Hae-na’s footfalls were distinctly soft and light.
I wanted to go out and greet the child, but I could not.
I regarded the figure seated across from me with a cold gaze.
Cheon-eul, with his long silver hair bound elegantly, was sipping tea with grace. Even his trailing sleeves resembled a painting.
Yet to me, he was merely an unwelcome intruder. My brow furrowed.
Cheon-eul always arrived without warning. But today, his demeanor seemed somewhat peculiar.
The man who had burst through the Yul Family Residence’s doors without announcement lacked his usual leisurely smile.
When he encountered me stepping outside at the commotion, he reflexively smiled, but it was an anxious expression.
When I asked what the matter was while he looked like that, he did not answer.
In the end, I not only let him inside but offered him tea for the first time.
‘Have I grown soft?’
I clicked my tongue inwardly. Living with Hae-na, it seemed I had unconsciously absorbed the child’s influence.
Cheon-eul had already spent a quarter-hour drinking tea in silence. My patience exhausted, I set down my teacup with deliberate noise.
“You did not come here merely to enjoy tea, I presume.”
At my sharp inquiry, Cheon-eul slowly lowered his cup. Soon, a picturesque smile graced his face.
“I heard you are seeking a husband.”
It was an absurd question. I raised one eyebrow.
“If so, why did you not tell me?”
Cheon-eul continued, maintaining his gentle tone.
“Why should I have told you?”
“Because no one has courted you as ardently as I have.”
At my bewildered response, a cutting reply came back.
I let out a hollow laugh.
Courtship? Those words he spoke while grinning and toying with me all this time?
“Do not jest, Cheon-eul.”
“….”
“That is irrelevant. What matters is how useful you are to me.”
At those words, Cheon-eul’s laughing face froze slightly. Yet he soon smiled again and spoke.
“That makes it all the more strange. Is there anyone who can help you more than I can?”
Cheon-eul tilted his head gently. His lustrous silver hair cascaded down.
“Nok-jon and Mun-gok are already married, and Mu-gok and Pa-gun are women and cannot produce heirs.”
“….”
“Only Yeom-jeong remains, and you are well aware that he frequents the Gibang as though it were his own home.”
A hint of sarcasm colored the end of his words. His jade-green eyes, feigning composure, had grown dim.
“I had no intention of choosing from among the Seven Star Army. I planned to find a suitable candidate from families supporting the First Prince or their blood relatives.”
“It is the same for me. Am I not the First Prince’s grand-uncle?”
At this point, I had grown quite displeased. How much longer must this conversation continue?
“Keep it in check, Cheon-eul. You have no right to meddle in my marriage prospects.”
“….”
“If you truly wished to marry me, you could have simply arranged a betrothal, could you not?”
Cheon-eul regarded Seowan in silence, his expression as cold as if ice water had been poured over it, devoid of warmth.
“You have never once proposed a betrothal to me. Neither have you, nor anyone else in Yeoga.”
“….”
“We play at being amusing companions without entangling ourselves deeply. That was your intention, was it not?”
Why did such an expressionless face harbor the faintest shadow of anger?
This inscrutable person had become even more enigmatic to me.
Seowan clicked her tongue and rose to leave the room, but the moment she passed Cheon-eul, he seized her wrist.
His pale hand, with its prominent knuckles, gripped her wrist with painful force.
Seowan’s brow furrowed, and she wrenched her hand away without hesitation.
His grip fell away limply, as though it had never held such strength. Those mysterious jade-green eyes turned toward her.
He stood there bewildered, having suddenly arrived and spilled incomprehensible words—as though he himself were the one who had heard something he could not understand.
Seowan gazed down at Cheon-eul with glacial indifference. Their eyes met—his trembling faintly.
In the silence, their gazes crossed. Soon, the light in Cheon-eul’s eyes slowly dimmed.
He closed his eyes and smiled—that familiar smile he always wore.
“Seowan is my friend.”
With a smile that held no sincerity, Cheon-eul spoke gently.
“How could I not dissuade a friend from making such a foolish choice?”
Beneath his affectionate tone lay hidden thorns.
There was no need to listen further. Seowan turned away without hesitation.
“Leave. I have neither the patience nor the inclination to indulge your obstinacy.”
Cheon-eul remained seated in silence, offering no response.
As Seowan approached the door and yanked it open forcefully, it happened.
“Oof!”
A soft voice cried out from below. Seowan’s eyes widened in surprise as a child tumbled into the room with the opening door.
“Hae-na?”
At Seowan’s call, Hae-na’s large eyes rolled about in embarrassment.
Hae-na glanced nervously this way and that before asking carefully.
“Um, were you two perhaps… arguing?”
* * *
To be perfectly honest, I had not intended to eavesdrop from the start.
It was only after thinking that Geomun Seongggun might be a suitable match for Seowan that I heard he was visiting as a guest.
Though I knew I should not intrude, I could not resist my curiosity about what the two of them were discussing.
‘Should I ask to be let in, or should I just leave?’
I deliberated for some time outside the office door. As their voices grew slightly raised, and while I stood there uncertain, the conversation ended and the door opened.
Seowan’s expression when she faced me was as gentle as always. But I remembered the last words she had spoken before opening the door.
‘Leave, she said.’
Her voice had been terrifyingly cold. I had never heard such a tone from Seowan, not even when I first met her.
Hae-na glanced back and forth between Seowan and Cheon-eul, trying to read the situation.
Though Cheon-eul must have heard her voice, he remained motionless in his seat like a stone monument.
Just as the hesitant Hae-na moved to approach Cheon-eul, Seowan scooped her into his arms.
“It’s nothing. Let’s go.”
Before Hae-na could say anything, Seowan carried the child out of the office.
* * *
“….”
Hae-na held a spoon in her mouth and stole a glance at Seowan. Without even looking at the child, he spoke as he neatly picked up his side dishes.
“Don’t hold it in your mouth. Eat your rice.”
At his words, Hae-na startled and quickly spooned rice into her mouth.
But her eager chewing soon slowed, and before long, her jaw came to a halt.
Though she thought she was looking discreetly, Seowan saw everything.
Seowan exhaled a soft sigh and set down his chopsticks.
“What’s wrong?”
At his words, Hae-na hurriedly swallowed the rice she’d been holding. The child asked as if she’d been waiting for permission.
“What did Geomun Seongggun say that made you so angry…?”
Hae-na had only properly caught Seowan’s final words.
The rest came through in fragments, and she couldn’t understand what was being said.
All she could discern was that both their voices had been harsh.
At Hae-na’s question, Seowan’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Is that why you haven’t eaten your rice all this time?”
Hae-na looked down at her bowl, barely half-eaten. The child nodded, looking embarrassed.
But she couldn’t help it. She was desperate to know why Cheon-eul had suddenly visited the Yul Family Residence, what that talk of marriage was about, and why Seowan was angry.
“It really was nothing.”
Seowan placed a small piece of fried tofu onto Hae-na’s spoon as he spoke.
“He asked why I wouldn’t marry you.”
At that, Hae-na’s mouth fell open.

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