Burning The House Of Cards: taking revenge on my billionaire family
Chapter 68 - 67. Doors That Should Not Be Opened

Chapter 68: Chapter 67. Doors That Should Not Be Opened

While his master was enduring a long battle against drowsiness in front of a professional yapper, Hajin was busy tending to the flower beds around the annex’s entrance.

The summer roses and hibiscus were in full bloom, with bright colors that would suit his master very much. But then again, his master would look pretty with any flowers.

"I see you also have quite the green fingers."

While he was contemplating which roses he should pluck for his master’s bedroom, he heard a voice. Not enough to call it familiar, but Hajin remembered hearing it once before.

Looking up, he saw the middle-aged woman he remembered from that accursed family dinner. Right--it was the aunt. The three--or was it four?--times widower who spent her time traveling the world to ’look’ for brands to be brought to the country.

Or so she claimed. Who knew if she was just using the company’s money to fund her traveling hobby?

Hajin contemplated for a second before standing up and bowing his head, remembering that he shouldn’t be the one acting all hateful. "It’s the gardener’s work," he said humbly, politely, but also dryly.

Basically, how the chief secretary usually talked.

"But you make them prettier," the aunt smiled, stopping beside the flower bed Hajin had just tended. Her eyes curled at the sight of the bodyguard in a black shirt that accentuated his broad chest. "Makes me wonder what other things those fingers could do."

Hajin looked uncomfortable, which he didn’t even need to act for. The Aunt laughed in response, the giggling mouth hidden behind a hand fan she always seemed to bring everywhere.

"Oh, look at you being all serious! I’m talking about your cooking, you cooking~" she laughed again, fanning herself cheerfully. "I heard you’re so good at it that the girl doesn’t even eat in the main house anymore."

"It’s too high of a praise," Hajin said briefly.

"Well, why don’t you cook me something so I can be the judge of that?" the aunt chuckled while stepping onto the porch, clearly meant to head to the front door.

With a speed befitting of a talented bodyguard, Hajin arrived in front of the door quicker than her. Rather than opening the door for the member of the family employing him, however, Hajin stood like a fence.

"My Master is not at home."

"Master?" the aunt arched her brow. "You don’t really need to still call her that when she’s not around, do you?"

Hajin bit the inside of his cheek. It felt weird, but he tried to spell it anyway. "The Young Miss is not at home."

"Yes, I know," the aunt chuckled. "But what’s the problem? This building is not her property."

Hajin tried hard to keep his expression flat. Besides, the woman was right; the building itself was built to accommodate a shameless mistress, although it ended up as a refuge for the legal wife. It was a cursed place as much as it was nostalgic.

Still, it was their ’lair’ now, and Hajin personally didn’t want anyone to invade it.

"I don’t want to incur the Young Miss’s wrath," he said with a frown, looking uncomfortable and confused at the same time.

"Hmm...what a pickle," the aunt groaned softly, looking up while sighing. "I did hear she was being difficult these days."

Glancing at the main house, the aunt recalled the story she had heard when she had just arrived that day, about how Sarah destroyed a lot of decorations belonging to the third wife. She even heard the chairman tell her not to mind it and just buy a new one, despite some of them could only be found through auction.

Must have had something to do with the blind date.

"Well, we can’t have you getting reprimanded later," she turned around while giving Hajin a wink. The bodyguard thought that was the end, but she continued. "Why don’t we use the main house’s kitchen, then?"

"...Pardon?"

"Or would you rather I barge into your master’s place?" the aunt smirked, as if taunting him.

Ah...this was where Hajin felt the limitation of his status. With Sarah around, he just had to follow his master’s whim, and she would be the one talking shit to others.

As a mere bodyguard, he couldn’t do that. Especially not when the chairman had just threatened Sarah with his employment.

"How about it, handsome?" the aunt swayed her fan to point at him. "Shall we go?"

Swallowing his sigh, Hajin just bowed his head once. "Yes, Madam."

Well...might as well see what this woman wanted from him.

Hajin followed the aunt through the side door and into the kitchen, where she practically bullied the chef to surrender his territory. She also kicked everyone out of there, leaving just the two of them in the room.

"Make something for me, boy." She took a seat on a chair in front of a serving table and tapped the table with her fan. "A nice vongole."

Were there even clams in this house? Hajin opened the large fridge curiously and arched his brow at the plethora of seafood filling a section. He took a bowl of clams that was already soaking in salt water--he had no idea what the chef was going to use it for, but...should he care?

Certainly not.

With that thought, Hajin raided the fridge with an easy mind. He had no intention of doing his best--because his best was reserved for his master--but making something less than decent felt like insulting his master’s praise of his skill.

What a pickle.

Silently, he prepared the ingredients, which weren’t much. He just sliced a few cherry tomatoes and chopped some parsley and garlic, but the aunt still found a way to slip in some praises in between his silence.

"Oh, you’re very skilled," she said with a drawl. "Were you working in a restaurant before this?"

"No, Ma’am."

"Oh? Where were you before?"

Hajin contemplated whether or not he should tell the truth, but then he remembered it was already in his resume anyway. "I worked in Aegis before."

"Oh, wow! Isn’t that an elite company?" the aunt snapped her folding fan shut. "Why did you come here, then?"

"The works were dangerous, and...it didn’t really match the pay," Hajin shrugged while preparing the boiled water and pouring extra-virgin olive oil into a pan.

"My, my--I understand that," the aunt nodded sympathetically.

How could you, though? Hajin snorted inwardly.

"Watching over a girl is probably much easier, isn’t it? Even though you have to do more than guard," the aunt giggled.

"Well..."

"But if it’s money and an easy job you’re after," her eyes curled, twinkling under the dim light of the kitchen. "It doesn’t have to be that girl, right?"

Hajin lifted his head, looking at the aunt inquisitively, even though his hands did not stop moving to cook the clams.

"I can see that you’re actually quite...uncomfortable," the aunt smiled deeply. "Besides, you probably won’t be able to work with her once she gets married, right? Which I assume wouldn’t be very long..."

Wow...she really thought the match was already fixed? On the other hand, Hajin was rather proud that his ’uncomfortable’ acting was convincing enough.

Still, he kept his silence while closing the pan with a lid, letting the sound of the opening clams fill the kitchen while he was pretending to think.

When the clams stopped making noises, the aunt spoke again. "I already said this much, so you probably understand it already, right?"

Hajin frowned slightly, looking conflicted. "That’s--"

"Ah, you don’t have to answer it now--just think about it carefully," she waved her hand, laughing dismissively in a light tone.

Hajin narrowed her eyes slightly while looking down to concentrate on finishing the pasta. It was rather unexpected, since he thought the aunt would be the type to want to snatch him right away. She seemed so eager to belittle Sarah during family dinner, so this ’patience’ made him feel unsettled.

Still wondering about it, Hajin served the pasta he had ended up making without much thought. Out of habit, he prepared the cutlery and a glass of water too.

"Oh, it smells good!" the aunt gasped in genuine awe. Yeah, even Hajin thought he was good enough to join a cooking competition at this point. "Mmh...it tastes even better than the one I had with Alice Choi."

Hajin paused; the reaction did not escape the aunt’s observing eyes.

"Have you met her, handsome?" she asked with a gleam in her eyes. "The wife of Younha Trading’s chairman."

Hajin replied dryly. "No, Ma’am."

"Pity," she smiled while taking another mouthful of the delicious pasta. "I remembered seeing her husband a few times before--one of my ex-husbands used to golf with him in the past, you know."

Hajin just stood silently on the side, cold crawling along his spine as the middle-aged woman continued her monologue.

"I must say, he was rather a charming man when he was younger," she chuckled, waving her fork before pointing it at Hajin. "I can imagine he looked just like you."

The Aunt giggled briefly before leaning into her propped hand as she flicked her gaze toward the stiffening young man.

"Perhaps if your master can bring you to Mirae’s founding party, we can actually see him there," she said with a deep smile. "That would be interesting, don’t you think?"

* * *

The last half hour of the blind date wasn’t very boring anymore as Sarah listened closely to the man’s flexing babble. She even chimed in from time to time, using the strategy she used to face Mason--by throwing empty, nice-sounding praises--to urge the man to spill more.

Because of that, she found out about a rather big government project that would happen on that site, and how much money each plot of land could fetch. It seemed like the company was still in the middle of gathering investors to purchase all of the land, but the man was confident everything would be done by the end of the year.

Sarah nodded and clapped with a bright, innocent smile, derived from calculating the additional money she could get by selling the deeds in her hands.

She had planned to end it with that one meeting only, but she changed her mind. At least, she should take advantage of this event that the third wife gave her, right?

Turned out, the man didn’t try to dismiss her. His personality was just originally like that, and he agreed to further contact.

Well, at least it wasn’t just a waste of time.

Sarah returned home in a rather good mood, wondering what Hajin would cook for her dinner. She had eaten a lot earlier, but she found out that listening to people’s yapping needed energy.

When she arrived at the annex, however, what greeted him was an empty building and a phone call from Little Bird.

"Birdie?" Sarah gasped. "Did you find something?"

Curiously, Little Bird did not reply immediately. Sarah could hear a rustling sound, as if the girl was pacing back and forth anxiously in her nest.

[Umm...umm...I f-found it, b-but...but...]

Sarah frowned. "What is it, Birdie?" she pressed down her impatience and asked gently. "Just tell me who it is. I know it could be someone I know, so--"

[Ethan...] Little Bird said quickly, almost shouting, as if she only had one chance to spell it. [I-it’s y-your assistant--Ethan Yoo!]

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