KISS THE SCUMBAG Chapter 5

Brown spoke as if he had been waiting for that. For a moment, Yujin felt like he was going to vomit. He quickly covered his mouth and tapped the headrest, and a startled Brown hurriedly pulled the car over to the shoulder. As soon as the car stopped, Yujin scrambled out, bent his waist, and retched. The only fortunate thing was that he hadn’t eaten anything since that morning except for a few cups of black tea. Having barely managed to spit out saliva mixed with bitter stomach acid, he stood bent in half, gasping for air.

“Are you all right?”

Perhaps afraid he might witness something unsightly, Brown asked while remaining at a distance. Instead of answering, Yujin waved his hand to signal that he was fine. After standing in the cold wind and finally settling his stomach, he returned to the car, where Brown unscrewed a plastic water bottle and held it out. This time, Yujin did not refuse and drank the water.

“Are you a bit more settled now?”

To Brown’s question, Yujin barely managed to nod.

“I apologize for being a burden.”

The voice he barely managed to let out was trembling. Brown jumped to his own conclusion about Yujin’s reaction and put on a deliberately thoughtful expression.

“You’ve been on a train all day, and now in a car; it’s only natural you’d be exhausted. I understand completely.”

He was completely off the mark regarding why Yujin was agitated. However, instead of correcting him, Yujin gave a weak, tired smile and said, “That’s right.” He stood there catching the cold air and taking deep breaths, and his head gradually began to clear.

Pull yourself together. You’re this shaken just from hearing a name—what are you going to do later?

Instead of slapping his own cheek, he emptied the rest of the water in one go. There was only one reason he returned to this godforsaken place: to hear the contents of the will and receive whatever small amount of money he could get. Let’s only think about that.

Winston Campbell or whoever has nothing to do with my life anymore.

Yujin took one more deep breath and finally got back into the car.

“I’m sorry.”

As he apologized again for the delay, Brown laughed, telling him not to worry, and started the car. Angela looked up at Yujin, unable to hide her anxious expression. This time, Yujin gave her a sincere smile.

“I’m really okay, Angie.”

There was no reason he wouldn’t be okay. He had a daughter he loved more than anyone else in the world.

∞ ∞ ∞

It was well into the night when they arrived at the estate. Standing and looking up at the grand mansion that stood tall against a backdrop of a dark sky covered in stars, Yujin’s heart became a complex tangle of countless emotions.

On the way there, it had been dinner time, and Brown had taken them to a humble restaurant on the roadside. There, Yujin ate grilled cod, and Angela had a kid’s menu cheeseburger and strawberry ice cream. In truth, he didn’t have much of an appetite, but he knew he had to eat when he had the chance. It was a bit of wisdom he had learned from his harsh experiences, but he also believed it was more important than anything to store up energy in a situation where he didn’t know what might happen next. After all, it was plain as day that the situation awaiting him wouldn’t be favorable in the slightest.

While Yujin forced the cod down his throat, Brown ate a large, well-grilled steak all by himself. They got back in the car, and only after driving for several more hours did they finally reach the estate.

Yujin stood frozen in place, holding his child who had fallen asleep on the way, looking up at the mansion. Brown, having handed his car keys to a staff member, approached him and said,

“Let’s go in. I wonder if everyone is already asleep.”

Yujin followed silently behind him as he readily took the lead and climbed the stairs to the entrance. According to what he had heard on the way, Brown had been scouted by McCoy’s law firm three years ago and had been in a different city before that. If so, he obviously wouldn’t know anything about what happened when Yujin was kicked out of the Campbell family. It was impossible that McCoy, or anyone in the family for that matter, would have spoken of it.

They probably erased me as if I never existed in the first place.

Yujin thought this, but he wasn’t particularly hurt by it. It was the same for him—he had erased them from his own life, too. He could have buried the past forever and both sides could have gone their separate ways, but he was forced to revive it. All because of the will Harold Campbell had left behind.

Just what on earth is written inside?

Seeing as McCoy had gone out of his way to find Yujin and even sent word that it would be a loss not to attend the funeral, it was clearly content that would be to Yujin’s advantage. And that would be a great help in his current desperate situation. At least, that was what Yujin believed. Otherwise, he never would have come back to this mansion.

Even while knowing exactly how he would be treated.

“You’ve arrived, Mr. Brown.”

The butler, who had walked across the hall, greeted the lawyer first. He surely must have seen Yujin standing behind him, yet he didn’t offer a single word of recognition. Yujin watched with an expressionless face as the butler greeted the lawyer while thoroughly ignoring him, as if he were a person who didn’t exist at all. If the butler could, he probably would have turned around and walked away, acting as if he hadn’t seen anything. But of course, that was impossible. Because between him and Yujin stood a third party who knew absolutely nothing of the situation.

“Caine, this is Yujin Seol, whom I spoke of on the phone. Yujin, this is Caine, the Campbell family’s butler. He has worked here for a very long time. Do you perhaps know each other?”

“Of course.”

After exchanging a few stock phrases, the lawyer introduced Yujin to the butler. Yujin answered before Caine could speak.

“Caine was the butler when I was here, too. It’s been a while, Caine. You’re still alive, I see.”

He added it like a joke and gave a thin smile, but only Brown laughed along with him. Naturally, as it was meant as a sincere statement. Caine stood with his face as expressionless as a mask. Yujin also looked at him with a straight, serious face. Brown, who had been laughing inanely, belatedly sensed an odd atmosphere and looked back and forth between the two with a flustered expression. Sensing that the situation was ominous, he hurriedly changed the subject.

“I’ll be going now. Caine… please… take good care of things. Farewell.”

After greeting Yujin and Caine in turn, Brown turned around quickly and left the mansion. Thinking that he was indeed quick-witted, as one would expect of a lawyer, Yujin fixed his gaze on Caine.

He wasn’t much different from the last time he saw him. Back then, he had been serving with complete loyalty to Harold, the master of the Campbell household. That this man was now pouring that same loyalty onto someone else in Harold’s absence was obvious without asking. Therefore, it was perhaps only natural that he would treat Yujin coldly. Caine was simply following his master’s will.

“Where is my room? I’d like to put my child to bed.”

Yujin asked while looking him straight in the eye. He had merely come here according to the will. I’ll disappear again soon enough, so don’t worry about it, Yujin thought sarcastically.

The butler glanced at the young girl fast asleep in his arms, then turned his gaze back to Yujin.

“Follow me.”

The butler didn’t speak again, turned around, and walked ahead. Yujin followed silently behind the butler, still holding the child. His arms, holding his daughter, began to ache, but the warmth and weight of the sleeping child gave him endless courage and strength.

There were only the two of them in the world. As it had been before, and as it would be in the future.

Opening a side door at the end of the hallway, the butler began to ascend a spiral staircase. Yujin felt extreme fatigue as he continued to circle up stairs without knowing how many floors they were climbing, but he followed silently. In the past, he could barely even linger around the outside of the mansion, let alone the inside. All he could ever see was the magnificent and massive exterior, and the fragmented interior glimpsed through occasionally opened doors or windows.

Nothing has really changed.

While he was amazed by the fact that he was walking inside such a mansion, he simultaneously felt that it was still the same. In the center of the mansion were wide, comfortable stairs. There was also an elevator on one side, but the staircase the butler was taking him up was narrow and steep, with walls showing no windows, as if it had been hidden on purpose.

It must be a passageway for the staff.