Eighteen's Bed-Chapter 29.2

“I’m sorry.”

“No.”

“I was being rude.”

“It’s fine.”

Even if she said it was fine, I couldn’t let it go. After all, I’m the employer, and she’s the employee. I’ve lived my life constantly worrying about what others think, so I’ve gotten into the habit of not believing everything people say.

Only the sound of spoons clinking against the dishes broke the silence. I kept scooping the soup and spilling it again. The lady wiped the sink with a cloth for a long time without saying anything, and then suddenly spoke up.

“You’re really nice, student.”

“…Me?”

“Yes.”

I’ve heard that before. But it’s not true at all. I ended up smiling uncomfortably for some reason.

“I’m really not that nice.”

“People who hire you don’t know, but the local housekeepers get close.”

“Oh, I see.”

That’s a relief, I guess. I briefly pondered that thought. The lady’s indifferent tone continued with a pause in the middle. I thought I heard a sigh. Maybe it was just my imagination.

“I was close with the lady next door.”

“…Next door?”

“She was fired last week.”

“…”

“She’s had a hard time.”

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

I shut my mouth at the unsettling wave of discomfort and scratched my head in embarrassment. The food, like the boiled pork and samgyetang, seemed like the lady’s quiet protest. Then I replayed her words in my head.

Wait, if it’s next door, isn’t that Go Yohan’s house? The embarrassment vanished, replaced by curiosity. The impulse from earlier was now just a tiny flicker. I put my spoon down and asked,

“Next door?”

“The student who used to visit your house often, the one from next door.”

“…”

My hand stopped abruptly. An even heavier silence fell. It was the silence inside my head. My thoughts stopped entirely. I looked at the now-cold samgyetang with a blank mind. Why is she talking about this now?

The lady kept scrubbing the sink. Before I knew it, the sink was spotless, without a single speck of grime left. But I knew that as soon as I finished eating, it would get dirty again.

As soon as that thought passed, I realized something. The lady, too, must be sorting out her thoughts right now.

“I heard it by chance too.”

Scrub, scrub. The gray metal plate reflected the light.

The tip of the chopsticks trembled slightly. No, I was the one trembling.

The tap turned on. The lady washed the cloth in lukewarm water. I couldn’t see her face because she was facing away. It must have been expressionless, just like usual. But her response was slower than usual.

“The housekeeper from that house worked there for 20 years.”

“Ah… I see.”

“She’s old.”

She was fired. The sentence didn’t continue. Then the lady turned around and looked at me. Her calm eyes seemed to be asking me something. Does that mean I’ll be fired when I get older too? Or maybe she was just checking how much I had eaten. She always does that.

I swallowed dryly, feeling like my legs had gone numb. I understood well the change in my parents’ attitude since I entered college and started living on my own.

The lady turned back and continued washing the cloth, then spoke again.

“She got a generous severance, but she raised the three kids in that house.”

“…Ah.”

“So…”

The tap turned off. The cloth was wrung out. Every time the rubber gloves moved, the distinctive sound of rubber and water droplets splashing under the sink filled the kitchen. Once she was done, the lady spoke.

“So I heard. She was going to quit anyway.”

“Ah, yes.”

“From that… house.”

Scrub, scrub. The rubber-gloved hands swept across the sink. Was it her who invited someone into the house without permission? Was that person the one she was talking about? What was her purpose in telling me this? I tapped the now-cold meat with my chopsticks. Again, the answer was delayed.

“They say the second child in that house was very smart.”

My ears perked up. A dense forest seemed to bloom in my mind, once a blank sheet. As soon as I heard the word "second," my body reacted. My mouth dried up. I clenched my pants under the table with my hand.

“Really?”

“It was when he was in the second year of middle school. After the accident, he had some aftereffects, so his concentration dropped a lot.”

An accident? A gust of wind blew through the dense forest in my mind. I had never heard this story before. I looked up and stared at the lady. She had placed both hands on the sink and was staring out the kitchen window.

“His family believes it was an accident, but the housekeeper who raised him said it wasn’t.”

“…It wasn’t?”

“They said it wasn’t an accident.”

“…”

“The chairman hit the back of the second son’s head with a glass trophy in the middle of the night.”

“What?”

“They hit him on the back of the head with the trophy’s base.”

The lady repeated it twice, as if trying to make sure I understood. It wasn’t that I hadn’t heard it—I had, but my trembling hands could barely put the chopsticks down on the table. I made a great effort to control myself so that my nervousness wouldn’t be obvious through the clinking of my chopsticks.

“The lady sent him to the emergency room in the middle of the night. She was too scared to tell anyone, in case she’d be fired.”

“…”

My head felt heavy. It was as if I had plunged into a tank full of water. My breath became tight. On top of that, the truth, which I never expected to hear, tightened around my neck, leaving me confused.

“She lied to the madam, saying he fell down the stairs. The family thought he was just a fool who fell down the stairs that day. The second son forgot about the incident after a week of memory loss and even forgot that he was hit with a trophy. So, only the chairman and the lady knew about it. After that, his concentration drastically dropped, and he failed the entrance exams.”

They say there are no secrets in this world, and the truth comes out at the most unexpected times and places. This was exactly one of those moments.

“…Why? Why did he do that?”

The rubber gloves, soaked with water, hit the sink with a soft thud.

“I’m not sure. But…”

But? I nervously licked my lips. The fact that it ended with “but” meant there was something more to be said. I eagerly waited for that next part, scratching the table with my nails.

“As the lady sees it…”

I heard the sound of her swallowing. She wiped her wet palm on her pants. The food in front of me had long since grown cold, but I had long forgotten about it. I was only anxiously waiting for her next words.

“That day, she said he was just unlucky.”

“Sorry?”

It was such an empty response. The worry I had about something significant happening crashed down like a toppled tower. He was just unlucky. That was it. It was absurd. All the tension drained from me.

“The father is really something. They say he loves the second son the most.”

“Ah.”

The lady nodded to herself. I still couldn’t see her face, so I couldn’t tell her expression, but it was clear from the nod that she was agreeing. Tension returned. Maybe it was finally time to hear a third-party opinion. The lady, still nodding, came up with a surprising comment.

“Maybe so.”

“…I don’t think so.”

Normally, I would have just asked, "Really?" but I was fully aware that it would have been strange for me to act like I knew better. But I wanted to refute it. Even if I had to put myself at risk, I wanted to throw out the idea that "Go Yohan’s complex must have a reason."

However, the lady crushed my expectations.

“No, the housekeeper from that house said the second son has the greatest chance of inheriting the company. They moved here because of him. The chairman is actually the second son. He took the management rights away from the first son… and that's why he doesn't like the first son much.”

“…”

“She even told the first son that he would never inherit the company. It was always meant to be the second son’s.”

“Did she… really say that?”

“It was when the second son first entered middle school. During a family dinner, when everyone was there.”

“Does that mean the second son was beaten with a trophy?”

The logic wasn’t adding up. My anger surged all the way to my head.

“Such a trashy bastard.”

At least from my perspective, he wasn’t just a trashy bastard. The father of this family was a psycho with a hobby of pushing his children to their limits like racehorses.

“They say it used to happen often. He would smother the second son’s face with a pillow in his sleep, something like sleepwalking. He didn’t do it after middle school, though.”

But what I didn’t want to hear wasn’t this. I had already heard something crazier than I imagined.

“With a pillow? What…?”

“When the second son would faint, it was the lady’s responsibility to take him to the emergency room. They said it was like he was taking out his stress on his son. But it didn’t happen often. Only, very… very occasionally. Maybe he was identifying with his son because he was so similar to him.”

“What the hell… wait, are you saying that person is lying?”

“Most people would think so. After all, she was fired.”

The lady took off the rubber gloves and opened the kitchen window. Her loosely tied black hair blew in the wind. Her expression was still hidden.

“It can’t all be true.”

“…”

“Still, that lady liked me a lot.”

I wanted to believe it was a lie. More specifically, I didn’t want to believe that Go Yohan had gone through such things. It didn’t suit the proud and amazing Go Yohan to have such a past.

However, deep down, I was beginning to believe that this was the seed that had nurtured Go Yohan’s cruel nature. In the end, Go Yohan was just like his father. Horrifyingly so.

“Don’t take it too seriously.”

Why? Why did that person treat Go Yohan like that? I couldn’t understand it with my values. What the hell was wrong with that house?

“…”

I squeezed my fingers so hard that my nails dug into my skin, then suddenly realized the person in front of me and snapped back to reality. But why is she telling me this now? A chill ran through me, and I raised my head, which I had lowered in deep thought.

“Ah.”

The lady had already turned around and was cleaning the dishes. The expression I had been so eager to see held no emotion. It was a blank face. The same face she always showed. I took a deep breath, trying to act like it wasn’t a big deal, as if it had nothing to do with me.

“But why are you telling me this?”

I leaned back in my chair. See? I’m totally fine. I tried to convey it with my body. Even though my head felt like it was about to explode and my heart was pounding like I had just run a hundred meters.

The lady briefly raised her eyes to look at me and then nonchalantly said,

“Because we live together. With that student.”

“…What?”

“And this.”

The lady pulled a phone out of the pocket of her apron. It was the one I used to use. Why is she showing me this?

“She said it was broken back then, but sometimes it turns on.”

“…”

“She’ll be here soon. I kept it because I was afraid you’d find it.”

“…What?”

“Sometimes, when you're not home, she searches your room.”

What did I just hear? What? I felt dizzy, my head spinning, as I searched through my remaining memories. One fleeting memory suddenly came to mind. I’ve learned that uneasy feelings are usually right.

The only day the lady didn’t come. The morning when I suddenly heard the sound of the front door closing.

No way. No, no way. I scratched the edge of the table with my nails, denying it. My denial was frantic, and I tried to smile brightly while making eye contact with the lady.

“You must be misunderstanding. No, no, that’s not it. I have a girlfriend. I bring her home sometimes.”

But the lady glanced at me once and then pointed at the dishes.

“Did you finish your food?”

“I ate it all. I ate it all, but you know that’s not it. And she doesn’t live here either. You probably just saw her visiting.”

“Yeah.”

Her answer was brief and uneasy. Her wrinkled hands took the dishes away. If I said anything more now, it would seem suspicious. She’d think I was anxious. I knew I shouldn’t speak, but my mouth was itchy. I wanted to explain myself, but her too-simple agreement made me even crazier. She’s obviously not buying it. Damn it.

Even I knew it was a pathetic lie. And because of that, my eyes burned even more. It felt like I was standing in a dead-end alley.

The food I couldn’t finish was thrown away in front of me, and the dishes were washed. The sink, which had been cleaned just moments ago, was wiped down again. The lady wiped the sink again, even the parts that had already been wiped, and after some time, she even wiped the faucet. I bent my head down, afraid she might turn around and see my face. It felt like I was about to burst into tears. I didn’t know hardship would come so quickly.

“…Actually, I came on the weekends before. I brought some side dishes… a bit early.”

“…”

“I’m sorry.”

The sound of the cloth being wiped harshly was followed by the lady’s apology. Surprisingly, this was the first time I heard a hint of emotion in her words, the only words that were unlike her usual bluntness. Before I could even process the intention behind those words, the tears welled up in my eyes.

After that, the lady didn’t say anything else. Well, she only said one thing.

“Don’t worry. No one else knows.”

I couldn’t tell if it was a reassurance or an explanation. The sorrow only grew stronger. I desperately tried to control myself, holding back the sobs. I made an effort to keep the tears from falling, but they trickled down under the table, unnoticed by her.

Despite that, I could still hear the sound of the kitchen being tidied up.

I was the only one sitting at the table, silently crying. If I stood up, it would be obvious that I had been crying. No, I had already been caught.

“…You’re not going to tell my parents, are you?”

Since I had already been caught, I needed a definite answer. I raised my face, full of tears, and desperately asked. The lady didn’t look at me. Was this out of consideration?

She opened the refrigerator, which didn’t need any organizing, and stared at it until the warning beep sounded. Then, she said,

“I want to keep working here for a long time.”

“Does that mean you want my parents to keep you from firing you?”

“No.”

Beep. Beep. Beep. The loud noise filled the kitchen, drowning out my shaking voice.

“She meant, don’t worry.”

With those words, the lady closed the refrigerator. Then, just like always, she picked up the small bag she had left in the living room. It was a sign that she was going back to her house.

I couldn’t even say goodbye to the lady and hastily hid my face. The lady left, saying, “If you want anything, text me.”

Exactly ten minutes later, I received a text message.