“Huh? This lady is still here. What are you doing not going home?”

Sung Tae Mo discovered Jang the housekeeper sitting absentmindedly on the bus stop bench while wandering around the neighborhood.

“Lady, the buses have stopped running. It won’t come even if you wait. You’ll have to take a taxi.”

However, as if she couldn’t hear her voice, Jang the housekeeper showed no reaction.

“Hey, you! Lady!”

Only then did Jang the housekeeper startle and awkwardly rise to her feet.

“I said the buses have stopped. It’s no use waiting.”

“Oh, is that so?”

But there was no sign of dismay on Jang the housekeeper’s face. Rather, there seemed to be a greater concern than worry about the stopped buses.

“I don’t know where you live, but you can’t go home now.”

“Really? …Do you happen to have a car? If so, could you give me a ride?”

“A car?”

“I’ll pay you. Fifty thousand won.”

“Where can you go for that much? I came out for some fresh air because I can’t sleep worrying about my son. You look well-off, spend a bit more.”

“Then seventy?”

“Is that all you have?”

“I’ll give you more. How much do you want?”

“It depends on the distance. Where should I take you?”

“Just drop me off at a nearby motel. A clean one.”

“I don’t know if it’s clean, but I’ll drop you off.”

Jang the housekeeper waited for Sung Tae Mo in front of the dark and deserted Sol Nae Market, leaning against a single streetlight.

She lost track of time thinking about Eun Seo.

Where on earth could she have gone?

She couldn’t leave this village without finding even a small clue.

Even if they met, they probably wouldn’t recognize each other, but if Song Eun Seo of Sol Nae Village was really Dong Taek’s Eun Seo, she had to chase her away by any means necessary.

All this time, she had lived in peace because the old lady had taken care of Eun Seo.

Song Bok Soon would never betray Jang the housekeeper, even if she died and came back to life.

Of course, she hadn’t been completely at ease. For some reason, the old lady had said a few times that she would bring Eun Seo to Seoul.

She had actually come to find her. But in the end, the old lady was on Jang the housekeeper’s side.

But she didn’t know she would die so early. If she had known, she might have visited her at least once when she heard she was sick.

In the distance, a car’s headlights approached, widening their range.

It was an old, worn-out truck. Jang the housekeeper frowned as she got into the car, which was a sight to behold with mud splattered here and there.

Sung Tae Mo drove to a motel in the town.

“Want to listen to some trot music?”

“It’s too noisy.”

However, as if the offer was just a casual suggestion, Sung Tae Mo turned on her favorite song and raised the volume of the car audio.

Her fingers on the steering wheel tapped excitedly.

Jang the housekeeper, her head in a muddle, leaned her forehead against the window. She kept her eyes closed like that, and only after enough time had passed for Sung Tae Mo to let her guard down did she ask her.

“Do you know where Song the grandmother is buried?”

“Huh? What did you say?”

Sung Tae Mo asked back, unable to hear properly due to the loud music.

“Where Song the grandmother is buried. Whether it’s in a park or on a mountain, or if she was cremated and scattered, it must be somewhere.”

“That Eun Seo scattered the ashes.”

“Where is that place?”

“I heard she scattered them on the village head’s mountain. It’s behind the overpass that passes through the village. But why do you keep asking about that?”

As Sung Tae Mo asked with a suspicious look, Jang the housekeeper quickly closed her mouth that she had opened. Unidentifiable things passed by on the dark road.

“Oh, I heard earlier that your son seemed to have suffered because of Eun Seo. Is that why Eun Seo went far away?”

“Oh, damn it!”

The car that had been driving smoothly on the road suddenly lurched violently. Because of that, Jang the housekeeper hit her head on the car body.

“My son liked her, that’s all. I didn’t like her from the beginning. I was willing to turn a blind eye and take her in even though she was clearly lacking, out of pity, but she got too comfortable and drowned in shit. Not knowing that, she just ran away.”

“You mean she fled in the night or something?”

“If you put it that way, yes. If I knew where she went, I’d like to follow her and grab her by the hair, but how can I know where she is? That bitch deserves to die. She wagged her tail in front of our Sung Tae first, that’s why our Sung Tae did that. There’s no one worse than her. It’s the truth. What man would stay still when a woman flirts right in front of him!”

“What about the house where Eun Seo lived?”

“This lady is really strange. Are you here to investigate? …Are you perhaps a police officer?”

Sung Tae Mo looked at her with curious eyes, more cautiously than before.

“If you’re a police officer, please help my son.”

“I’m not, but I’m not without connections.”

Jang the housekeeper lied for now. She thought this was a very good opportunity to catch even a small clue.

“Let me hear it first, and if there’s anything I can help with, I’ll help. I’m giving you a ride to the motel after all. I should repay you somehow.”

“Ah, well.”

Sung Tae Mo, not realizing that what she had caught was a rotten rope, swallowed hard before continuing.

“A few months ago, Eun Seo’s house was foreclosed. So that thing had nowhere to go and was sleeping at the community center, so my son went to help. Our Sung Tae is too kind-hearted, he didn’t mean to touch her. That damned girl didn’t understand that. My child has been so innocent since he was young. There’s a limit to ruining someone’s life.”

As the conversation veered off topic, Jang the housekeeper urged her on.

“So what happened?”

“Where was I?”

“You said your son went to help.”

“Ah, right. Then suddenly some thuggish guys appeared out of nowhere, beat our son to a pulp, and ran off with just Eun Seo. I don’t know where that girl met such scum.”

“Men? What did they look like?”

“What do you mean what did they look like? They’re all the same from Seoul, how could they compare to our son? Anyway, that Eun Seo has no luck, no luck with men either. She just fell head over heels for some clean-cut looking Seoul guy, but in looks or anything else, our son is a hundred times better, for sure.”

Sung Tae Mo, recalling Woo Young, became excited as she spoke and eventually glared outside, grumbling.

However, Jang the housekeeper was very bothered by the term ‘Seoul guy’.

“One of those damn bastards nearly killed my son, but somehow they hired such a good lawyer that I couldn’t even see the guy’s face. The police are completely useless.”

A lawyer, and the police are useless?

No way, no way.

Jang the housekeeper brought her thumb to her mouth and bit it nervously.

“Then, besides being from Seoul, was there anything special about them…”

“Ah, they seemed to have some money, I saw them in front of Sol Nae Market that day and the car was really nice. The color was so sleek, it was the first time I’d seen such a car in my life, they might have stolen it. Could be gangsters or something.”

Thump. A violent wave surged through Jang the housekeeper’s heart.

Maybe.

If Dong Taek’s Eun Seo was really that Eun Seo.

What did the old lady tell her? Is that why Tae Ha came looking for Eun Seo?

No, no.

If that were the case, it wouldn’t be this quiet. There would have been a storm by now.

But how did the two of them get involved? Could such an impossible coincidence have occurred?

Feeling a chilling sensation creeping up her spine, Jang the housekeeper’s hands trembled slightly.

[Our Tae Ha, they say he’s destined for Ha Eun. If the two of them get married, Tae Ha can live a long life.]

It was nonsense.

The beginning of this affair was Hong Ji Soo’s fear, but it was all Jang the housekeeper’s doing to use that fear to orchestrate this situation.

It wasn’t just superstition.

Jang the housekeeper had seen it. How fear relying on superstition could break down an educated, cultured madam of a chaebol family.

‘There must be a reason for this incident.’

Jang the housekeeper muttered quietly, clenching her hands tightly.

[Our Eun Seo, how pitiful she is.]

That was what the old lady had said the last time she saw her.

The ‘that girl’ that was always on her lips had somehow become ‘our Eun Seo’.

Yes, affection can grow. After living together for so long.

Eun Seo, who lived with her, must have been better than the daughter who abandoned her.

That unlucky old lady.

* * *

Woo Young is trying to hold back a smile while glancing at the rearview mirror.

Tae Ha’s expression in the back seat was peculiar. When they were going to Bali, he looked confident as if going on a honeymoon, but now his expression is somewhat ambiguous.

Disappointment? Yes, an expression close to disappointment.

He had even sent his own luggage to Bali as part of a thorough plan to avoid Eun Seo’s suspicion. When he was reluctantly packing his luggage into the trunk, Woo Young had thought he must be crazy.

He had made such a thorough plan.

It seemed he had failed to win Song Eun Seo’s heart.

Feeling somewhat sorry for his friend, Woo Young clicked his tongue and drove the car.

On a long, sunny afternoon, the car entered the uphill road leading to Dong Taek.

“That car in front looks like Housekeeper Jang’s.”

There was a dark gray sedan in front of Woo Young. Somehow, the owner of the car in front seemed to recognize Woo Young’s car too.

“I didn’t hear that the housekeeper was coming today.”

“Maybe she’s here on an errand for Father?”

Tae Ha muttered to himself, fixing his gaze.

Housekeeper Jang. Ha Eun’s adoptive mother. His potential mother-in-law if he were to marry Ha Eun.

How would Housekeeper Jang look at him now?

And the thought that her gaze was actually not recent but had been that way since right after his mother’s death made him feel strange.

Somehow feeling uncomfortable with this situation, Tae Ha tightened his lips.

Housekeeper Jang entered the parking lot ahead of Tae Ha.

After getting out of the car, Housekeeper Jang waited in front with a smile until Woo Young parked his car. And as Woo Young and Tae Ha got out of the car, she approached them, looking very pleased.

“Young master, did your business trip go well…”

However, those words ended abruptly when Eun Seo got out of the passenger seat where Tae Ha had been sitting.