I searched for Yang Hye-in for a long time, but after receiving no answer from the servants, I accepted that she had quit and went back to my room, lying on the bed.
A new servant will come eventually, right?
Of course, that person will be different from Yang Hye-in.
They might be more affectionate than Yang Hye-in, or perhaps more cold-hearted.
If they’re affectionate, they’ll be replaced faster than Yang Hye-in; if they’re cold-hearted, they might last longer.
Thinking about it, Yang Hye-in was closer to a “cold-hearted person”.
Usually, she only did her job thoroughly.
It was only recently that she started talking to me or giving unexpected responses.
Yes, now that I think about it, she did seem more unstable than usual today.
It makes sense if it was because she found the drugs and the will.
“…”
The large room was silent.
Actually, it had been quiet for more than two months.
It had only been noisy these past few days because my friends came and went.
Now that I think about it, it’s quite strange.
I only met these kids just a little over a week ago.
Is this normal?
Well, back in school, I used to go to a new friend’s house with a bunch of other friends early in the semester, too.
Though, even if it was early in the semester, I wouldn’t visit a friend’s house just a week after meeting them.
But, well, girls and boys might think differently about these things.
I squirmed around in that silence for a while.
Even though there was still a long time before night, there wasn’t anything else to do.
Now that Yang Hye-in is gone, I don’t know where my phone or my wallet is.
Someone must have taken them over, but none of the servants in the house talk to me.
If I threatened them, they’d answer, sure, but how could that be considered a conversation?
There’s no one on my side in this mansion.
The servants who witnessed the highest-ranking person, after me, being fired will try even harder to avoid being dismissed themselves.
I don’t think all the workers here are paid as much as Yang Hye-in was, but they must have received a considerable amount of hush money.
They wouldn’t want to quit easily.
“Should I just buy them off with money?”
I thought about it for a moment, then gave up on the idea.
It’s easy to save someone buried under a pile of debt.
As Team Leader Han Garam said, the amount an individual can borrow is limited.
Even after taking out loans from proper banks and turning to loan sharks, it’s still the same.
It’s not easy for an individual to carry hundreds of millions in debt.
Come to think of it, there was a drama like that once.
They gathered a bunch of people buried in debt and made them compete for their lives with a prize of four hundred something billion won.
Most of the people whose lives were ruined by debt had only a few hundred million or, at most, several billion won in debt.
Thinking about it like this, it suddenly feels absurd.
Those four hundred billion won—
I could make that much money in less than a year.
Money makes more money.
The more money someone has, the more they naturally make.
That’s why I don’t have to watch the people around me fall into bankruptcy from debt.
But that’s about it.
Just as you can save someone with less money using a lot of money, it’s hard to defeat someone with even more money than you.
It would be foolish to challenge Choi Na-kyung using all my trust assets.
I can’t start a fight without knowing exactly what cards Choi Na-kyung holds.
When you fight with money, the first to spend it all loses.
It would be a long and tedious battle.
*
I must have fallen asleep while staring at the ceiling from my bed for a long time.
I heard a knock at the door.
I opened my eyes and immediately grimaced.
It seemed I had slept with the lights on.
As soon as I opened my eyes, the light from the ceiling was blinding.
How long did I sleep for?
Well, it doesn’t matter how long I slept.
I had fallen asleep on a Saturday afternoon, and the next day was Sunday.
Even if I had slept for a whole day, it would still be early Sunday afternoon.
However, since it was dark outside, it must not have been Sunday yet.
Well, even if I slept until Monday, who would care?
Even if I missed a few days of school, I’d still get a perfect attendance award by the time I graduated.
Maybe I could skip every day and still get my diploma.
Thinking about it, I kind of want to test that theory.
The student council president would flip out, though.
Once again, I heard a knock on the door.
Maybe a servant brought dinner.
They won’t talk to me first, but they can’t just starve me to death, either.
After all, I’m still the beloved of Choi Na-kyung, however twisted that love may be.
I wasn’t hungry.
I thought about sending them back, but I decided to eat.
I had worked hard to increase my appetite, and now I could eat a little more than I could two months ago.
It would be a waste to let my effort go to waste by shrinking my stomach again.
I’ll be exercising when I go back to school anyway…
Well, I don’t know what will happen at school next week.
Knock knock knock.
The person outside was quite persistent.
Judging by how they kept knocking, it seemed they didn’t have the authority to come in.
Come to think of it, wasn’t Yang Hye-in the only one allowed in this room?
It’s quite ironic that there’s no one to succeed her now that she’s gone.
Maybe this deliberately inconvenient system was designed this way.
As if to say, “See how inconvenient and irrational it is when an employee disappears because of you.”
It’s very much a Choi Na-kyung kind of idea—showing through the system instead of saying it directly.
I had only met her once, but first impressions are important, right?
This seemed like something Choi Na-kyung would orchestrate.
I got up from the bed and headed for the door.
Even though I didn’t hear any knocking anymore, if the person was here to bring me food, they’d be waiting outside.
Or maybe they just left it at the door.
Come to think of it, I didn’t know much about these people, either.
I slowly walked to the door and opened it.
“What took you so long to open?”
Shin So-hee, who was standing at the door, frowned and asked.
“…Huh?”
She was dressed in a matching tracksuit, looking ready to run off at any moment, which suited her, but her sudden appearance here felt extremely out of place.
There’s no way she could be here unless I personally invited her in, right?
“I’m coming in. My legs hurt from standing out here so long.”
Shin So-hee walked past me into the room, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“No, no, no, wait a minute.”
I closed the door and followed Shin So-hee.
All kinds of questions popped into my head, and I didn’t know where to start.
Uh, so…
“How did you even get in here?”
“I climbed over the wall.”
That’s a crime!
Well, it’s not a crime if I don’t report it, but still, the wall here is pretty high.
It’s not the same height as the one behind the school.
It’s not something you can climb over with bare hands.
Plus, Shin So-hee was carrying a huge backpack.
Judging by how stuffed it was, it seemed packed full of things.
“Oh, I used a ladder. I had one at home.”
Did she just leave it there?
“Well, if I buy a new one and leave it there later, no one will notice.”
“No, that’s not the important part… Or is it?”
As I mumbled in complete confusion, Shin So-hee shrugged and set down the bag she had been carrying.
It thudded as it hit the floor, confirming that it was indeed full of stuff.
It looked like a bag meant for a long stay.
“Are you planning to stay the night?”
“Huh? No?”
Shin So-hee tilted her head, as if my question was odd.
“Then what?”
“I’m planning to live here for a while.”
“…What?”
I stood there with a dumbfounded expression,
“I said, I’m going to live here.”
Shin So-hee repeated with a voice full of conviction, as if it were an undeniable fact.
“Uh, so…”
I hesitated, trying to find the right words, then sighed deeply.
Well, considering her personality, I guess this was possible.
She had seen how I was living, so she must have decided to help me somehow.
She probably wanted to help, to break through my depression in any way she could.
That’s why she secretly came all the way to my house.
“Well, I brought plenty of underwear, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
Shin So-hee tapped the bag on the floor with her toes as she spoke.
“No, it’s not that. I think you don’t understand the situation…”
There’s no way the chairwoman would let Shin So-hee and the others stay here after seeing the state of things.
Maybe they could avoid detection for a day, but it’s not like they can keep using a ladder to sneak over the wall every day.
“No, I understand it perfectly.”
But Shin So-hee’s response was completely unexpected.
“I heard your personal maid got fired.”
“…Who told you that?”
“The person herself, Yang Hye-in.”
So that’s why I couldn’t find her.
Had she met up with them?
Did she ask them to look after me?
…No, that can’t be.
The will.
The sleeping pills.
“You—”
Just as I opened my mouth wide in surprise, Shin So-hee spoke first.
“So anyway, that personal maid position is open now, right?”
Shin So-hee grinned and continued.
“I’m here for an interview. What do you think? Will you hire me?”
“Uh…”
My thoughts couldn’t keep up with what was happening.
“What did you say?”
I asked again, confused.
“As far as I know,”
Shin So-hee lifted her head and looked around my room.
“This house is yours, right?”
That was true.
Technically, it was in Ye Sara’s name, but right now, I was Ye Sara.
“Then, of course, it’s up to you who gets to live here. Shouldn’t your opinion matter more than the chairwoman’s? So I thought.”
Shin So-hee stuck her hands into the pockets of her tracksuit, then lowered her head again to look straight at me.
With a smile, she said,
“So I thought, why don’t I convince you to let me live here as your person?”
Her face showed no sign of doubt.
“How about it? Will you hire me?”
She asked me again.
“Ah…”
For a moment, I stood there in a daze, unable to give a proper answer,
“…Yeah.”
Then I nodded.
“Right?”
Shin So-hee replied with a smile, flashing her teeth again.
And—
“So, how much are you going to pay me? Considering my plans, you’ll have to be generous with the salary.”
She quickly brought up a very realistic topic.
“Ugh.”
Seeing my face instantly sour, Shin So-hee chuckled lightly.