The peaceful days continued without much incident. After that, Seung Ho never came looking for Ji Hyun again. Kim Sil Jang, who had roughly grasped the situation, also stopped coming to call her on weekends. It was a good thing either way.

With more free time on her hands, Ji Hyun would pick out the rocks in the garden that Chairman Shin’s wife found bothersome or occasionally help Hyun Sook with the hand laundry.

“Once you’re done with your assigned tasks, go and rest. You shouldn’t be doing this kind of work.”

As always, when Ji Hyun volunteered to help and reached out her arms, Hyun Sook’s hands held flashy underwear as she tried to stop her.

‘No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t seem to be Madam’s taste….’

As if reading Ji Hyun’s thoughts, Hyun Sook threw the underwear into the basin.

“These are the underwear of the girlfriends who come to meet Young Master Myung Ho. They always need to be prepared as a spare.”

“Girlfriends?”

Startled by the plural term, Ji Hyun jumped.

‘He’s seeing multiple women at the same time?’

Even as she shuddered, Hyun Sook did not forget to advise Ji Hyun.

“It’s not just one or two girlfriends visiting. I don’t know how he has such stamina, but the women are always changing. You must never run into them.”

Hyun Sook quickly looked around to see if anyone was listening and muttered softly.

“He has bad habits and when he gets in the mood, he’ll bring in any woman….”

“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Nodding her head, Ji Hyun thought that although she had never met Myung Ho so far, she hoped she would never have to meet him in the future either.

“I haven’t seen your face before, who are you?”

Why did she have to pull weeds in the garden today of all days…?

Ji Hyun regretted inwardly as her eyes met the horizontally long eyes. Tall stature, sturdy body, resembling Shin Seung Ho but with slightly thicker features and a sly way of speaking, murky eyes. She instinctively realized.

The man looking down at her was none other than Chairman Shin’s eldest son Shin Myung Ho, whom Hyun Sook had shuddered at the mention of….

The colorful underwear Hyun Sook had shown overlapped with Myung Ho’s face. Ji Hyun reluctantly got up and bowed her head.

“I’m a part-time worker here.”

At the answer that completely missed the point of the question, his lips twisted.

“Of course you are. I asked for your name.”

Despite being brothers, his smile was slightly different from his younger brother Seung Ho’s. Unlike the expressionless and cold feeling Seung Ho gave off, Myung Ho was a person who exuded a sticky heat.

“Choi Ji Hyun.”

Myung Ho stared at the fidgeting Ji Hyun with an interested face.

“It’s unusual for Manager Kim to hire a part-time worker. I thought he would only employ ajummas after the last incident.”

Ji Hyun, who had been standing still and listening to his words, swallowed her dry saliva.

What could have happened?

“Anyway, leave what you’re doing now and bring a glass of ice water to my room.”

“…Pardon?”

At the sudden order, Ji Hyun’s face darkened. Leaving aside the unpleasantness, the second floor of the mansion was where Seung Ho stayed. Just thinking about that place made her uncomfortable now. She didn’t want to run into Seung Ho even by chance.

“Manager Kim told me not to go up there.”

“What does that have to do with anything? Come to my room later.”

Ignoring Ji Hyun who was rolling her eyes and coming up with excuses not to go, he left the garden with a light step. Having no choice but to follow him into the mansion, Ji Hyun filled a glass with ice water and went up to the second floor.

It was a chilly temperature in late autumn, but Myung Ho gulped down the ice water Ji Hyun brought refreshingly.

“Ah, I feel like I can live now.”

Ji Hyun stared at Myung Ho’s hand with anxious eyes.

She thought that as soon as he finished drinking the water and lowered his hand, she would take the glass and leave immediately. However, Myung Ho did not hand over the glass as expected.

He tilted the glass at an angle and shook the ice to make a sound. Her arm, which had quickly reached out into the air thinking he would hand over the glass right away, felt embarrassed.

Myung Ho held up the glass, as if to show Ji Hyun.

“What should I do? I like eating ice, so it’ll take a while.”

“Then I’ll be going first….”

As Ji Hyun turned her body without hesitation to leave, Myung Ho spoke.

“Since you’re going out, I was hoping you could run an errand for me.”

Why does this household always ask for errands? Will their wrists break if they do it themselves?

Suppressing the rising irritation, Ji Hyun turned to face Myung Ho.

“Please tell me.”

Slowly scanning Ji Hyun from head to toe, Myung Ho smiled obscenely.

“Go to the convenience store and buy that for me.”

“Pardon?”

“I heard even teenagers can buy it, of course it’s not for you to use, so don’t get any strange ideas.”

Looking at Ji Hyun who frowned, not understanding what he meant, Myung Ho did not take back his unpleasant smile. A bad feeling crept up from her toes.

Was the sound of ice clinking always this chilling?

“Are you pretending not to know what I’m talking about? Come on, kids these days know everything.”

“….”

If his younger brother Shin Seung Ho openly treated her like a servant and mocked her in front of people, his older brother was even worse. Myung Ho, known for his numerous female relationships, was blatantly harassing Ji Hyun.

“Could it be that you haven’t done it before?”

“….”

“Is that it?”

Unable to endure the unpleasant and filthy words Myung Ho was spewing, Ji Hyun tightly closed her mouth. Myung Ho, who had been talking excitedly by himself, seemed displeased by Ji Hyun’s silence and raised the corners of his eyes.

“Pretending to be innocent and not know anything, you think I wouldn’t know? Girls like you….”

Clang!

At that moment, the sharp sound of shattering glass rang out from outside the door, echoing through the second floor.

Startled by the sound that mercilessly pierced his ears, Myung Ho hastily opened the door.

“Wh-what happened?”

The first thing that caught his eye was the shattered glass fragments. The glass of a large frame next to a work with a butterfly specimen was broken, and Seung Ho was standing in front of it.

His surroundings were a mess of broken glass and blood, as if he had struck it with his fist. His expressionless eyes slowly turned to Myung Ho and then to Ji Hyun.

Meeting eyes with the clear and chilling eyes like glass, Ji Hyun couldn’t move due to the eerie feeling.

Discovering his blood-covered hand, Myung Ho was horrified.

“Your hand….”

Only then looking down at his right hand, Seung Ho opened his mouth.

“Ah, my mistake.”

His face greatly distorted, Myung Ho raised his voice while cursing.

“You crazy bastard, Manager Kim! Manager Kim!”

Manager Kim, who ran up gasping for breath at the loud voice calling for him, looked as if he would stop breathing at any moment upon seeing Seung Ho’s hand.

“Wh-what is this, Young Master Seung Ho!”

Ironically, the one who showed a more intense reaction than the injured Seung Ho was Myung Ho. Constantly wiping his face as if trying not to look at the scene that had become a mess due to the glass shards, he muttered with unfocused eyes.

“That son of a… He did it on purpose knowing I hate blood. To kick me out of this house, it’s terrible. I’m getting goosebumps. That creepy bastard.”

Manager Kim, who was hurrying down to call a doctor, shouted at Ji Hyun who was standing in a daze.

“Don’t just stand there in a daze and move quickly! Clean this up right now!”

Coming to her senses with a start, Ji Hyun moved towards where Seung Ho was with slow steps. At that moment, the corners of Seung Ho’s mouth slightly rose, but Ji Hyun, who was only looking at the blood-covered floor, did not notice.

Myung Ho could never forget that day from his childhood.

His younger brother Seung Ho, who had never shown interest in anything, finally found something that intrigued him. It was collecting and mounting butterflies as specimens. Their uncle was happy that his nephew was finally showing interest in something and obtained rare butterflies for him.

The butterfly flying inside the transparent glass jar was quite beautiful.

The blue wings, said to resemble a snake’s eyes to avoid predators, were more mysterious than threatening. The butterfly with its flashy appearance captured the attention of even Myung Ho, who usually had little interest in insects.

“Please, can’t I touch it just once?”

“No.”

For the first time, Seung Ho, who had never desired anything, refused.

However, Myung Ho was not the kind of older brother who would kindly accept his younger brother’s refusal. Watching for an opening, he pushed aside Seung Ho, who was smaller than him, quickly grabbed the glass jar, opened the lid, and grasped the butterfly’s wings.

Unable to fly, the butterfly flailed its legs hard. Myung Ho wanted to see the mysterious blue-tinted wings just one more time.

But his small, immature hands were not delicate, and the thin wings ended up tearing.

“Ah….”

Myung Ho immediately glanced at Seung Ho’s reaction. Seung Ho was staring blankly at the torn wings.

“Wh-what, the wings are incredibly fragile. Aah!”

Just as he was reassuring himself that his younger brother, who rarely had any desires, wouldn’t make a big deal out of it, a sudden flash of pain rushed in.

Seung Ho had pierced Myung Ho’s finger with a long needle. To be precise, the needle had accurately penetrated the butterfly’s body and stuck into Myung Ho’s finger.

“It’s your fault, hyung. My possession got damaged.”

Seung Ho’s monotonous voice was so cold that it made him forget the pain in his finger. There was no hint of guilt in his calm eyes. It was terrifying.

Myung Ho screamed in fear, but Seung Ho pulled out the needle without hesitation, his face expressionless. Blood gushed from Myung Ho’s hand.

The butterfly wing that fell to the floor was quickly soaked with blood. After that, Myung Ho never dared to provoke Seung Ho.

Today was such a day. Seung Ho, who had shattered the glass, was looking at him with the same face as the day he had touched the butterfly.

“This is all your fault, hyung.”

Was he really blaming me? If so, he should have attacked me like he did with the needle, so why did he harm himself?

Min Woo, who had come to visit Seung Ho after hearing about his injury the next day, was stopped by Myung Ho before he could even go to Seung Ho’s room. He poured out his grievances that he couldn’t tell anyone else to Min Woo, who was his younger brother’s friend and cousin.

“There must have been a bug next to the butterfly.”

After hearing the whole story, Min Woo responded indifferently. His concern was Seung Ho’s condition, not Myung Ho.

‘The great Shin Seung Ho lost his temper and shattered the glass.’

Min Woo glanced at Myung Ho who was relieved that it wasn’t his fault. It was clear that the foolish and dense older brother had no idea what he had touched.