Chapter 17
Later, I did get a little carried away with my own performance and exaggerated things somewhat.
Fortunately, it worked on the young lady. She had completely frozen up and couldn’t move an inch from the spot.
I had to suppress how hard I was laughing as I watched her.
An apology from the young lady? I wasn’t expecting one.
Her remorse? I knew there was no chance of that.
So this was just a little revenge, with a bit of playful teasing mixed in. If the young lady’s stomach was a little upset while I was gone, that alone was enough for me.
And so, it wasn’t until the next day that I headed back to Sonangwon.
‘…It’ll be fine, right?’
Honestly, at this point, I was getting a little nervous.
After all, it was true that I had skipped work without permission. What if the young lady was so upset that she became annoyed with me and went berserk again? What if word got to the steward, and I really got kicked out?
Just imagining it made cold sweat pour down my back, but there was only one way to find out: I had to open that door.
After taking a deep breath, I spoke.
“Young lady, I’ve brought your medicine. May I come in…?”
Swing!
“Wha–?”
I opened my eyes wide.
The young lady… the young lady had opened the door and come out first?
“Y-young lady? Why did you suddenly open the door…? Where are you going? Is something wrong?”
“……”
But the young lady didn’t say anything.
She merely stared at me, though I couldn’t see her face because she was wearing her veil, and then suddenly turned around and went back into her room.
I stared blankly at the young lady’s back. Then, belatedly, I followed her inside.
The young lady continued to act strangely after that. Normally, she wouldn’t pay any attention to whatever I did and would sit at the table, proudly reading a book. But now, she wasn’t even reading. She was simply sitting in a chair and staring intently at me.
Thanks to that, I had intended to casually strike up a conversation as soon as I entered, but I ended up standing there awkwardly, as if I had swallowed my tongue.
‘Wh-why is she acting like this?’
Was she angry? Was this revenge? Was she silently pressuring me to confess my wrongdoing while there was still time to say something nice?
Just as I was about to make some sort of excuse,
“…was.”
“Huh?”
Suddenly, the young lady raised her voice.
“…I didn’t do it on purpose!”
I blinked.
On purpose? What did she mean?
“Huh? What are you talking about…?”
“……”
“…Ah.”
I realized belatedly.
Come to think of it, there was only one thing the young lady could be talking about like that… Yesterday’s incident.
“……”
“…Yesterday.”
As expected, I was right. The young lady slowly continued.
“I didn’t… I didn’t do it on purpose. It’s just, you suddenly shoved the flowers at me. Even though I said I didn’t want them, you kept doing it, so I got angry…”
“……”
“…You could’ve just stopped being so stubborn, couldn’t you? If I said I didn’t like it, why couldn’t you just accept that? Why did you have to be so stubborn? You should have listened when I told you to put them away!”
“……”
“And bringing flowers every day was the same. It’s not that I like… dislike flowers, but it’s not as if I want to see a new flower every single day. Bringing flowers from the garden every day is such a hassle, so why go through all that trouble for nothing…!”
“……”
“…It would have been better if you hadn’t done that.”
The young lady had raised her voice in excitement, but perhaps she belatedly noticed my gaze, because she cleared her throat and lowered her voice.
The young lady hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“An-anyway, I was wrong… or, well, something like that. As for those trumpet flowers, if you’re really upset about them, tell me. I can ask Steward Jeok to plant the whole courtyard of your house full of trumpet flowers…”
“……”
“…Are you listening?”
“Huh? Y-yes?”
I suddenly came to my senses and answered. For a moment, the young lady’s body trembled, but she soon muttered in a low voice, as though suppressing herself.
“Forget it, if you didn’t hear me.”
I smiled awkwardly at her.
‘No, I was just too surprised.’
Who would have known?
That the young lady would apologize.
She had rambled on and on like that, but if you boiled it down to one sentence, it was simply this: ‘I’m sorry.’
I’m sorry? She was saying sorry?
Our young lady?
No, why? What kind of change of heart brought this about? I had thought that if our young lady committed some heinous crime worthy of heaven and earth’s condemnation, she would rather bite her tongue and kill herself than apologize. Yet she was actually apologizing…?
At first, I thought I might be dreaming, but there was no doubt this was reality. Especially when I saw the young lady secretly glancing toward me while keeping her back turned.
My mouth opened on its own.
“Um, honestly, I was surprised too…”
“…I see.”
“And I was a little hurt…”
“……”
“But if the young lady is apologizing to me and saying she’s sorry, then I suppose…”
“When did I ever say I was sorry…!”
“I’m not right?”
At my question, the young lady shut her mouth.
“…Think whatever you want.”
Looking at the young lady fidgeting awkwardly, I spoke in a gentle voice.
“You don’t have to give me trumpet flowers. Why did I bring them in the first place? I brought them because I wanted you to be happy.”
“……”
“If I’d known you would hate them that much, I wouldn’t have done it. I’m sorry too. For forcing them on you… I really need to break myself of this habit, but it’s hard. I keep getting stubborn about things…”
“……”
“You probably feel something similar, right? Still, how can a person change overnight? Let’s take it slowly and work on it together. I won’t be stubborn, and you can… speak up as you did just now.”
“……”
“If you don’t tell me, I won’t know either. I’ll also try to listen seriously. Okay?”
The young lady was silent for a long while. She merely fidgeted with the hands resting on her knees, as though lost in thought, before answering in a tiny voice.
“…Mm-hmm.”
I smiled brightly.
After that, things went back to normal.
I chatted with the young lady about what I had done yesterday when I hadn’t come here, and told her that it would never happen again, while the young lady simply listened quietly without saying much.
However, if there was one thing that was different from before, it was that the young lady wasn’t reading a book. She was quietly watching me instead. My heart leaped with excitement.
This feeling, this atmosphere.
This was it.
“Lady.”
The young lady looked at me when I called her.
“Um, actually, there’s one more thing I wanted to ask you for besides the trumpet flowers…”
“……”
“May I tell you?”
The young lady hesitated before asking,
“…What is it?”
“You’ll do it for me, right?”
“What is it?”
“Would you please take your medicine?”
The young lady answered in a gentle voice.
“No.”
***
To cut to the conclusion, the young lady did take her medicine.
It was an absolutely tremendous achievement.
Of course, getting to that point required an endless battle of wills with the young lady. Her ‘I don’t want to’ illness had flared up again.
“Why don’t you want to? Why? You can take your medicine just once, can’t you? You said you’d do anything for me! You even said you’d pluck a star from the sky for me!”
“When did I ever say that? Stop being so stubborn. You said you’d make an effort too!”
“No, I have to understand the reason before I can decide whether to make an effort or not. How long are you planning to go without taking your medicine? Until I grow old? Until my black hair turns into white roots? Until I die and get buried in a coffin?”
“Before that, I’ll probably die first…”
“Oh, I can’t take this anymore! You clearly said you were sorry, but I guess it was all a lie. You definitely promised, hand in hand, that you’d decorate my room with trumpet flowers, and that we’d decorate our bridal chamber with trumpet flowers too, yet you can’t even take this little bit of medicine for me…”
“I said I understand, so will you please be quiet?!”
In the end, the young lady gritted her teeth and said,
“…Just this once.”
And so, I succeeded in getting the young lady to take her medicine.
I wanted to share this joy with the steward immediately. So I grabbed the empty bowl and ran straight to him, and, as expected, the steward practically jumped out of his skin.
“Th-the young lady took her medicine?”
The steward was absurdly happy.
He asked me several times and even looked inside the empty medicine bowl over and over. Then, as the reality of what had happened finally sank in, tears streamed down his face as he spoke.
“My boy, I knew you could do it. I knew you could! I can’t believe it. The young lady, who refused even when we begged her so earnestly, has finally taken her medicine. How could this not be a deeply moving occasion…!”
“Th-that much is…”
“It seems the heavens have not yet abandoned the young lady. Ah, the gods of heaven and earth. Thank you, truly, thank you…”
“……”
“Is it really enough to bring the gods of heaven and earth into this?”
But I could understand the steward’s feelings. It had been quite a struggle even for me to get the young lady to take her medicine, so how anxious must the steward have been all this time?
He had known the young lady since she was little, after all. I waited for him to stop crying. After wiping away his tears, the steward looked at me and gave me a bitter smile.
“I’m sorry. For showing you such an embarrassing spectacle…”
“It’s all right. I can hardly believe it myself.”
“Yes, it is unbelievable. You accomplished something like this. I was right to trust you. And what you said to the young lady as well…”
“Huh?”
“No, never mind.”
The steward shook his head, then suddenly said,
“Is there anything you want? I’ll grant it all. I’ll grant whatever you want, so tell me without hesitation!”
My eyes lit up.
Yes, the time had come. After an achievement like this, wouldn’t it be all right? The steward would do whatever was within his power, and even if it was difficult, he could at least speak to the estate master on my behalf.
“Then, if it isn’t too much to ask, there is one thing I’d like to request from you, Steward…”
“Steward!”
Who was that at such an important moment?!
I grimaced and turned around. Then I was bewildered.
An uncle named Hwang was standing there with an unusually urgent look on his face.
“The estate master has arrived!”
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