Unhealthy - Chapter 3

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 3. Shield

His tone remained calm as always, but within the sentences Taejun spoke lay an extreme indifference.

Hae-yeong’s lips pressed tightly shut. She even clenched her fists without realizing it.

But she continued speaking while trying to maintain an expressionless face.

“Then why did you bring me all the way here? You could have just shown your face at the funeral.”

Taejun’s eyebrows rose loosely. A faint breath that seemed like a sneer reached Hae-yeong.

“That wasn’t my decision, but cleanup work I took on because of a request your father left behind.”

Cleanup work. He could have chosen more refined words, but what was his intention in deliberately causing hurt?

“So, is that request ending around now?”

At those words, Taejun tilted his head for a moment. Then he pulled up the corners of his mouth loosely and stepped closer.

When Taejun lowered his head at an angle, he came close enough that she could feel his languid breath. His gaze looking down quietly was cold and analytical, as if observing a strange object.

“Do you think entering this house is your right? Just because you’ve been provided survival, do you think that’s natural?”

Hae-yeong’s eyes became hazily unfocused.

“I told you back then.”

“…”

“That staying holed up in this house would be safest for you.”

To Hae-yeong, who bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood, Taejun warned once more.

“Those words are still valid.”

His lips touched her earlobe and then pulled away. Before she could even flinch in surprise, Taejun’s body moved far away.

Just as Taejun, who had slowly increased the distance from Hae-yeong, was about to turn completely around, a pitiful voice rang out behind him.

No, it was something more than that.

It was a plea close to desperation.

“…Please help me.”

A life of enjoying peaceful daily routine and being guaranteed safe days. There was no reason to avoid this place, no reason to kick away from here.

But wanting to leave this warm nest—was it simple rebellion? Or perhaps trivial provocation?

“The woman the elder brought in.”

Taejun silently listened to Hae-yeong’s words.

“That woman lived with us in our house when I was twelve. She was my father’s one-year wife.”

“So?”

“The woman who was my mother is now living with your father—how could I possibly endure staying here?”

Rather than endure, would the expression “bear it” have been more accurate?

Though her voice came out suppressed with indignation, Taejun cut off Hae-yeong’s words as if he couldn’t listen anymore.

“If that’s your reason for trying to run away from here, it’s quite a convenient excuse.”

All those heartless words Taejun spoke rather dug deeper into Hae-yeong’s heart.

“I hope the elder, who kindly took me in despite sharing no blood relation, won’t be displeased because of me. If it weren’t for the connection with my father, I never could have even dreamed of living in such a place.”

He had roughly noticed that Hae-yeong unknowingly avoided this household that originally played in dark waters. But seeing her determination to leave immediately when the opportunity came, Taejun saw her in a new light.

“For that, I absolutely need oppa’s help.”

She wouldn’t back down. Nor would she avoid his eyes.

He could even feel her firm resolve to not yield even a little.

Though tears seemed ready to flow from her bloodshot eyes at any moment, she was serious, as if desperately trying to swallow her emotions.

“So what you’re saying is, you want to use me as a shield right now.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Taejun was truly dumbfounded by Hae-yeong’s attitude of unhesitatingly saying she needed a human shield without any effort to deny or evade.

His lowered eyes quietly stared directly at Hae-yeong.

“I think as an adult, I can help an immature person.”

“How fearless of you.”

Taejun’s voice dropped threateningly low.

The words that followed were so provocative that Hae-yeong forgot everything she was going to say.

“Listen here, Miss An Hae-yeong.”

Taejun raised his hand and gripped Hae-yeong’s chin. Her transparent pupils trembled.

Hae-yeong couldn’t open her stiff lips.

“I can see you’ve lived nicely, and I understand you plan to continue that way, so stop clinging—”

Overwhelmed by the man’s murderous aura as he added with a hardened expression, tears quickly formed in Hae-yeong’s eyes.

Her thinly trembling voice filled the space.

“You don’t know.”

The tip of Taejun’s eyebrow moved subtly.

“The feeling of losing your parents and being left alone in the world, the feeling of being so lost that everything ahead is dark, the uncomfortable feeling of having to live as a dependent in someone else’s house whether you want to or not—you don’t know any of that.”

The sorrow and anxiety that had been suppressed in Hae-yeong’s heart burst out.

The grief that had been thrust upon her unwillingly was extremely unpleasant to Taejun.

He reflected on the events that had occurred under the purpose of protecting Hae-yeong.

There was only one reason why Hae-yeong wanted to leave the house anyway. Her stepmother who had taken the place beside her father.

As for Gi Chairman bringing women into the house and replacing them, he was more excessive than An Dae-cheon, Hae-yeong’s father, if anything, not less.

As was their world, weren’t they people who didn’t hesitate to share women around?

Gi Chairman’s tastes were always predictable. He insisted on vulgar women, and his whims were severe, so kicking out women he’d brought in as wives and bringing in new women was as frequent as changing toilet paper.

So it was only a matter of time before that woman Hae-yeong wanted to avoid because she was uncomfortable would be kicked out, and if she waited a little, peaceful daily life would obviously return.

It also meant that all problems would be solved without Hae-yeong having to leave this house.

Unlike previous women, she didn’t scream loudly or get physical, nor did she try to kick Hae-yeong out of the house because she was annoyed at having to raise someone else’s blood, not even her real daughter, like a child.

Instead, she was being careful not to upset Gi Chairman’s mood, so she had no interest in Hae-yeong at all. She just always smiled calmly and steadily gnawed away at Hae-yeong’s mind.

She would deliberately put her arm around Hae-yeong’s shoulders affectionately in front of Gi Chairman, or make an effort to prepare food for her, which probably annoyed her.

Taejun knew better than anyone why An Hae-yeong so desperately wanted to escape.

But just because Hae-yeong wanted it didn’t mean he intended to quietly let her go.

Whether what she wanted was emotional protection or simple survival, either way was the same.

***

A few days later, Hae-yeong drank heavily with friends near the school until late at night and came home late.

Usually, Hae-yeong wasn’t one to stay out late.

However, after the argument with Taejun recently, she didn’t want to run into him if possible, and once her heart had turned away from this house, she couldn’t easily control it, so she didn’t want to return home at all.

If she could have her way, she wanted to boldly say she would do homework at a friend’s house and sleep over for the night, and hide anywhere. However, what forced her to suppress such impulses was purely because of Gi Chairman.

If a child who had been living obediently and well-behaved suddenly acted out, given Gi Chairman’s sensitive nature, he might try to monitor her every move to dig into her changes.

So it was right to refrain from acting out, live quietly like a dead mouse, and move out at an appropriate time.

That said, her resentful feelings toward Taejun hadn’t easily subsided.

Though she had encountered Taejun several times over many days, he hadn’t given her a satisfying answer about her request.

If she let time pass like this, even the courage she had barely mustered might disappear into nothing, so she wanted to do something, but she was afraid of getting scolded for nothing if she brought it up with Gi Chairman.

Gi Chairman was usually the most gentle person, but he had gotten angry for the first time when the child he had raised like family mentioned wanting to be independent.

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