DMH Ch3

“Excuse me…”

“Yes.”

“If water drips on the floor, won’t people slip and get hurt?”

With each step, water dripped, making him worry about the marble floor. He had never experienced the generosity of the wealthy, but he couldn’t help but fret about someone falling and claiming insurance or accident fees. Wan felt pathetic for even asking about such trivial things, but he couldn’t help it. Growing up under Park Gwangcheol, who was useless, he had learned that nipping potential problems in the bud was a hundred, a thousand times better. Chief Kim nodded once at Wan’s unexpected question and replied.

“Everyone working in the mansion wears indoor shoes, so they won’t slip.”

After speaking, Chief Kim lowered his gaze, stopping at Wan’s hands. He was holding the sneakers he had been wearing outside in both hands. At Chief Kim’s gaze, Wan hid his hands holding the shoes behind his back. Then, he made an effort to offer an unasked-for excuse.

“There’s dirt on the sneakers… I was worried you’d have to clean again.”

“There are many people working here. You don’t have to worry about things like that.”

“…”

Wan felt hurt by Chief Kim’s firm reply. Was he saying that because there were people to do the work, he could deliberately rub his mud-covered body against the wall? Slightly offended by the man’s words, Wan didn’t respond. The annual salary of people working in such a mansion was usually similar to or higher than that of people working in large corporations. So, Wan worrying about them was like a crow tit worrying about breaking a stork’s legs.

Wan closed his mouth and silently walked in the direction Chief Kim was heading. Walking through the lobby, he saw a high staircase directly ahead. Chief Kim bypassed the stairs and headed for the hallway on the left. Luxurious works of art were hung regularly on the walls of the endless hallway. Underneath them, display items such as ceramics were displayed on narrow tables.

Chief Kim walked along the hallway and pointed to a closed door around the corner.

“Take care of your business here, and then come to the drawing room through the hallway on the right. I’ll have a new school uniform brought there.”

“I don’t need a new school uniform, though?”

“I didn’t think I’d be able to dry it in time for you to wash, so I asked them to get a uniform from the school you attend.”

“No! I’m fine with…”

“Then I’ll be on my way.”

The man’s actions were neat and efficient. As soon as he finished his task, he walked down the hallway without hesitation. Wan watched the man’s disappearing back and entered the bathroom. The dry bathroom had a perfectly dry floor.

“Is this a bathroom?”

It was more like a room large enough for someone to live in than a bathroom. There was no humidity, making it awkward to enter with wet clothes. Wan sniffed his wet uniform and threw off the heavy clothes one by one. Even though he had wrung them out like a dishcloth since the yard, the remaining water bothered the dry bathroom floor.

“Is there gold plating on the faucet or something?”

How much would it be worth if I peeled off a layer and sold it to a gold shop? Wan touched the golden faucet with a regretful hand and turned on the hot water.

***

The uniform Wan had been wearing for less than three years was loose on his body. The reason he wore a large uniform was purely due to misguided foresight. When he first got the uniform, Park Gwangcheol and he thought that his height and shoulders would grow rapidly. However, his height, which he thought would grow quickly, stopped in the middle of his seventeenth year and did not grow beyond 175cm. It stopped right there. Other people said they took medicine to prevent their height from growing because they were too tall, and some people got growth plate injections from a young age because they didn’t grow. But those were stories from another world for Wan.

“Are you uncomfortable at all?”

“No. Not at all.”

Wan smiled and replied to the employee with a friendly impression. The new uniform fit perfectly. Unlike the loose uniform he had been wearing before, the rustling texture of the new fabric touching his skin felt unfamiliar. He looked around the place the man had called the drawing room, which he hadn’t had time to look at because he was in a hurry to get dressed.

He wondered why the temperature was so cool, but the drawing room was also made of marble. Everything in this house was built with expensive stone, so it would be safe from natural disasters. It must be cool in the summer. Wan fastened the last button of his shirt and smoothed out the stiffly ironed uniform.

“By the way, is this the living room?”

“No. This is mainly where guests who visit the house stay.”

“Ah…. You sleep here.”

“No. There is a separate place to sleep. This is where you spend time having tea or chatting.”

“…”

He made his lips round as he listened to the explanation of the employee with the friendly impression. He involuntarily made an “Oh…” sound. The room was large for simply chatting and drinking tea. To be exact, it was about the size of a school classroom where 40 people were crammed in, connected to the next class. Wan looked at the clock on the wall and put on his sneakers, the soles of which had been wiped clean. It was almost time to go to school.

“Then I think I have to go because it’s time.”

“Yes. I understand.”

“Thank you for your trouble.”

The man who had first taken him to the bathroom did not show up until he left the mansion.

“Then go in carefully.”

The employee with the friendly impression saw him off with a kind face. Wan bowed to the employee again as he left the drawing room. After leaving the drawing room and returning to the bathroom where he had showered quickly for 5 minutes, Wan walked along the hallway he had walked with the man. As he passed through the lobby, he looked up at the magnificent staircase. The second-floor hallway, where the lights were not on, showed nothing but the light coming through the windows.

Stepping down the marble stairs leading to the garden, the scorching sun greeted the top of his head. The past few minutes of showering in lukewarm water felt like they had never happened. Wan took out his cell phone and checked the time.

“Whew…”

Wan sighed as if the ground was sinking and walked along the garden path he had come from. He gradually moved away from the columnar cactus that Park Gwangcheol had planted. His feet hurt when he walked on the stone path in the center of the garden because of the thin soles of his shoes. He walked quickly and looked at the large greenhouse in the back of the center. Several people were gathered at the entrance of the greenhouse. The people gathered like vassals waiting for the king’s orders were waiting for something without even chatting.

Thanks to the people gathered in front, the inside of the greenhouse was not visible in detail. All that could be seen through the transparent glass window were the white chair legs and the long lower body of the person sitting on them. He was curious about the identity of the mysterious person who was barely visible through the standing people and the greenhouse window, but he didn’t have time to approach. The entrance to the garden and the greenhouse were bent at a 9 o’clock direction.

Wan lifted his heels and stretched his neck. The lush palm trees in the greenhouse gradually blocked his view. Through the gap, an employee wearing a white apron around his waist was seen approaching the greenhouse with a clattering sound. The small, cute ceramic teacups moved slightly each time the employee walked.

“Some people water the flowers, and some people sit elegantly and drink tea.”

A small, complaining sound came from Wan’s mouth as he left the garden entrance. The sun chased him as if urging him to leave quickly.

***

Even as the day waned, the humid temperature did not drop.

Another guest visited the garden.

“Why didn’t you come to school and what did you do at home?”

It was Yoojin, Mu Jeonghoo’s friend. He asked, leaning his arm on the wide-open greenhouse window.

“It rained at lunchtime.”

“As if rain is a big deal when you drive around in a car.”

Yoojin shook his head at Mu Jeonghoo’s answer and threw a coin into the small pond near the greenhouse. The small coin hit the surface of the water and sank to the bottom. Jeonghoo asked, looking at Yoojin taking out another coin from his pocket.

“Does something come true if you throw it in there?”

Yoojin pointed to the goddess statue standing proudly on the pond. The goddess, holding a handful of flowers in her arms, was wearing thin clothes, and the wrinkles of the fabric wrapped around her thighs were depicted in hyperrealism. If you shine a subtle light on the statue in the middle of the night, it was so detailed that you would mistake it for wrinkles that actually move and appear. Yoojin, who had thrown the remaining coins with his eyes closed, entered the greenhouse where Jeonghoo was sitting.

“I see something new here every day. Your taste is so refined, young master.”

“Why did you come?”

“I was bored.”

He wandered around the greenhouse and approached Jeonghoo, who was holding a book open on his lap.

“What. I thought you were reading a book.”

“…”

Inside the book placed on his lap, the cell phone screen was brightly lit. He leaned his upper body to Jeonghoo’s shoulder height.

“Who is it?”

He frowned to see the person in the photo Jeonghoo was looking at in detail. Mu Jeonghoo brought the cell phone he had placed on the book closer to Yoojin. Then the person in the photo appeared clearly. It was a photo taken of Wan from beyond the trimmed bushes after ordering Chief Kim to turn on the sprinklers. Wan, who was hiding in the grass, was the way he looked before he got soaked.

“Do you know what school uniform it is?”

“Let’s see…”

“…”

“It’s Oham High School, isn’t it?”

“Oham High School?”

“Yeah. I see that uniform at the front gate of our school sometimes.”

“Why?”

“Why else. It’s a dog trick to bite an alpha to try to change its fate.”

“…”

“It’s quite close to our school. The parents say that school is muddying the waters of the neighborhood and want to get rid of it. Anyway, they’re being a nuisance.”

“Is that so?”

“Who is he?”

“You know someone there.”

“At Oham High School?”

“Yeah.”

“Why suddenly?”

“You don’t need to know that.”

Yoojin thought about something for a moment and then opened his mouth again.

“Well… The son of the man who works at my house goes to Oham High School…”

“I have something I want you to do.”

“Okay. Bring him here sometime, whatever.”

“…”

“But are you really not going to tell me what’s going on?”

“Later.”

“You’re no fun.”

Yoojin threw the cell phone lightly with a face that had lost interest in the bland answer. The cell phone screen that had been on for a while went black. Jeonghoo, who had been sitting in the chair, stretched out his arms and got up. It was worth taking refuge in the greenhouse from the tireless heat. The inside of the greenhouse was pleasant, unlike the outside where the hot sun was shining brightly.

Jeonghoo put the darkened cell phone in his pocket. The small figure crossing the garden while drinking hot black tea came to mind again. As Chief Kim said, he wondered if he had washed up, and even his wet nape shining in the sunlight looked alluring. It wouldn’t be difficult to meet again.

Was there anything in this house that was not his property?