Chapter 70
"...Did you sleep well?"
"Does it look like I slept well?"
Baek Eunseong's face looked refreshed, as if he had slept soundly. Meanwhile, someone couldn't sleep because of him and had all sorts of thoughts.
I answered sullenly and looked down at Baek Hamin burrowing into my chest in his sleep. Seeing that face so similar to Baek Eunseong's sleeping peacefully, a sudden rush of heat flared up and I almost pinched his cheek, but instead I gently shook his shoulder to wake the child.
"Uncle...?"
Baek Hamin, yawning wide enough to split his mouth, looked around the living room with a bewildered face.
"Why am I here?"
At the child's question, Baek Eunseong shook his head. Seeing both of them looking like they knew nothing made me grind my teeth unknowingly.
"You don't remember anything? Both of you?"
"Mmm..."
"Yes..."
I turned away from the green and pink eyes watching my reaction and pressed my forehead. How audacious. So audacious I couldn't stand it. They slept soundly, and now what? They don't remember anything?
"Yesterday, you..."
Wait a moment.
As I opened my mouth and then closed it, Baek Eunseong carefully met my eyes and tilted his head.
No, why would I even ask? What if they answer that what was said yesterday was real? What would I do then? What if I had asked Baek Eunseong to do that thing?
I shook my head at the endless stream of embarrassing imaginings. Whatever the truth was, I didn't want to know. It was something to bury as just nonsense spoken in feverish delirium.
As I started folding the blanket with my mouth firmly shut after trailing off, Baek Hamin, who had been rolling around on the blanket, watched my mood and helped arrange the pillows.
While Baek Eunseong and Baek Hamin put away the bedding, I sat on the sofa with my legs crossed, lost in thought. It wasn't just my legs that were crossed—my arms were crossed too, and my lips were twisted.
Baek Eunseong, who had been watching me sitting with everything that could be crossed crossed, cautiously approached me.
"Yesterday... did I perhaps make a mistake?"
I reflexively glanced down at the back of my hand that Baek Eunseong had kissed and clenched my jaw.
"No."
As I spat out the word, Asil, who had crawled out from somewhere, shot golden threads into the sky as if to indirectly show what kind of mood I was in.
Baek Eunseong, who watched this silently, didn't try to talk to me anymore and took a step back. Then he moved to help Choi Jaegun, who had gone to work, prepare breakfast.
Even when Baek Hamin called me to eat, when Yang Jiyul and Baek Kyeongmin came to greet me, and even until I finished eating and cleaned up, I remained on the sofa stirring Asil, and only slowly rose when Baek Jiseong contacted me through the senses.
With a creak—and the crashing sound of something tumbling down. And a while later, the front door was thrown open roughly.
"Kyeongmin!"
"Father!"
Baek Jiseong, who had practically rolled in through the entrance, carefully inspected Baek Kyeongmin's condition before glaring at me with eyes wide open. Then he let out a deep sigh and held out his hand to me.
"Let's call it here, Hunter Seong Dohyun."
"Whatever you want."
I nodded and reached out my hand to Baek Jiseong. Baek Jiseong handed over a black bead without relaxing the tension in his glaring eyes.
[Would you like to view the information?]
As I nodded, 'Seed of Hawanu' appeared on the golden status window. When I carefully stored the seed that looked like a bead in Asil's bundle, I saw the scattered contract pages gathering together. Baek Jiseong, who tore them up with both hands, pushed Baek Kyeongmin behind him and gestured with his chin toward me.
"Then get out of here now."
"Brother, what are you doing right now—"
"You're managing the guild members, aren't you? I was trying to clear things up since you were staying even after the contract period ended."
"Good grief."
Anyone watching would think I forced my way in and lived here. If they didn't even have the guts for this, why did they tear down my house? I let out a hollow laugh and glared at Baek Jiseong, who looked like a gamecock protecting its chick.
Anyone watching would think I was the attacker. Who struck first anyway?
In the thin-ice atmosphere, when I came out carrying the luggage I had prepared in advance, Baek Hamin looked ready to cry, and Baek Eunseong furrowed his brow.
"Are you... leaving?"
Unexpectedly, the first one to speak was Baek Kyeongmin.
"Your dad is telling me to leave, isn't he?"
I pointed at Baek Jiseong and chewed the inside of my mouth. I was going to leave slowly anyway, so leaving the house wasn't a problem, but it felt unpleasant because it wasn't leaving on my own feet—I was being kicked out.
"Kyeongmin, come here."
Baek Jiseong stopped Baek Kyeongmin from coming to me and opened the front door. Should I cause a scene before leaving? As I looked around, Baek Eunseong, who met my eyes, shook his head slightly.
What a shame. I was thinking of sending a warning never to mess with me again as a finale.
"Just a moment, please."
Baek Eunseong, who asked me to wait, ran up to the room, and after a while, came back down having changed clothes and called his secretary. Meanwhile, Baek Hamin, who had been clinging to my thigh, sniffled before finally bursting into wailing, stamping tear stains shaped like eyes, nose, and mouth onto my pants.
I got into the car, leaving behind Yang Jiyul and Baek Kyeongmin who were looking back and forth between me and Baek Jiseong. Baek Jiseong stood in front of the door as if determined to watch me leave with his own two eyes, and next to him, Yang Jihwan was visible.
Seeing Yang Jihwan grinning made my head start to boil. Ugh, I should have stomped on him so he'd never see sunlight again. I ground my teeth, but anyway, I had achieved my intended purpose, so I tried to head home in a good mood.
"Baek Hamin, stop it."
"Waaah."
If only it wasn't for Baek Hamin crying as if the ground was collapsing, it would have been a truly pleasant ride home. Baek Hamin had summoned all kinds of vines, including morning glories, and bound my entire body tightly.
"Should we stop circling and go straight home?"
"Ah, there's traffic, so going this way is faster."
That's funny. I looked out the car window with the only part of my face not wrapped in vines. We were already on our third circle. At times like this, I could just quickly say goodbye and promise to see them tomorrow, but my hands and feet were tied, so I couldn't do anything.
"Baek Eunseong."
When I called Baek Eunseong one last time, he smiled quietly and instructed his secretary. Only then did I see the way to my house. Let's go home first, clean up, and get some sleep. As I thought that and closed my eyes for a moment, last night's events started coming back vividly.
Baek Eunseong's calloused hand pulling mine, his rough breathing, and what settled on the back of my hand....
"Aagh!"
"Uncle?"
"Hunter Seong Dohyun?"
When I suddenly screamed, I shook my head at Baek Eunseong who looked back at me with a bewildered face, and met Baek Hamin's eyes.
"Untie me."
"But..."
"It's not like we're parting forever. If I visit the Academy, we can meet, and if you come visit my house, we can meet too. If you get permission from your uncle and come, I'll even let you stay over sometimes, so untie me."
"Will you buy me jelly too?"
"Yeah."
I could only escape from the vines after making a pinky promise with Baek Hamin, stamping it, and even signing it. My whole body was stiff, and as I was stretching, Baek Eunseong was looking at me.
"What."
"Can I come too?"
"Say something that makes sense."
At my words, he let out a hahaha laugh, then lowered his long eyelashes, dropping his gaze before speaking slowly.
"What if I miss you?"
At those words, the car came to a stop with a screech.
That guy's nonsense wasn't something from just a day or two, so I could easily ignore it. And more than anything, thrilled by the fact that we had arrived, I didn't bother retorting and happily opened the car door.
Finally, my house.
I could finally enter my long-awaited home.
However.
"This is definitely our... house."
Why is there nothing here?
The place we arrived at was an empty lot with nothing on it. Blinking, I looked at Baek Eunseong standing next to me and asked with an absurd expression.
"Where did my house go?"
"We're going to build it now."
"What?"
As Baek Eunseong, who smiled sweetly at me, reached out his hand, a stone pillar appeared. Like an ice castle in an animated movie, stones rose up and formed a house every time Baek Eunseong moved. Looking at the space that was created in an instant, like a country house, I asked.
"Is this kind of thing possible too?"
"Skills are all about how you use them."
That's... true.
No, still, I didn't know he could build a house like this... I watched Baek Eunseong creating marble walls, Baek Hamin with puffy eyes supplying materials where wood was needed, and the secretary installing doors, before chiming in with a comment.
"The sunlight comes in better here than there. Make this side the master bedroom."
"Okay."
The house completed after following Baek Eunseong around like that... perhaps because it was finished to my taste, it suited me perfectly. If Baek Jiseong were to tear down this house, I was prepared to fight him to the death.
While I was looking around the house, Baek Eunseong, who had been organizing where the electricity would come in, approached me.
"I tried to persuade my brother as much as possible to let you stay, but honestly, I failed. That house was only in my name, but the land was included in the Baekwoo Guild territory, so... Even if my brother tried to kick you out, I couldn't stop him, but that's no longer the case."
"...Why?"
"Pardon? Ah, didn't I tell you? The owner of this land is me now."
Is it okay for the landowner to change so suddenly like this?
"The house across the street is mine too."
The person living in the house across the street too?
While I was letting out a hollow laugh, Baek Eunseong smoothly took out furniture from his inventory. Seeing him even take out and spread out bedding, my legs gave out from the sheer absurdity of it. As I sat on the edge of the bed, Baek Eunseong grinned broadly and looked at me.
"Do you like the house?"
As I stayed silent with just my hand pressed to my forehead, Baek Hamin, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, hopped over and jumped onto the bed.
"Uncle! So now you're going to live here with us!?"