Chapter – 28
“Yes! It’s not a difficult task anyway.”
Jian smiled brightly and answered without hesitation.
Why are you so kind?
Even to someone who was completely unpleasant—someone who had even secretly peeked at her diary—she was still so gentle that it made his chest ache.
The two lay down side by side again and held hands.
To Yugeon, who had a lot of body heat, Jian’s hand felt slightly cool. And strangely, he liked it that way.
“Good night. I hope you have good dreams this time.”
“…You too, Ms. Eun Jian.”
Yugeon closed his eyes again.
Was it because of her little spell and her hand?
Fortunately, this time he was able to sleep peacefully until morning.
But unfortunately, Yugeon’s nightmares continued afterward.
As he repeatedly woke up screaming from his dreams, Jian began holding his hand even before he fell asleep.
Thanks to that, the dreams stopped.
Still, Yugeon’s negative feelings about Jian’s 1-night-2-day schedule didn’t disappear.
In the end, Friday—the day she would leave—came.
Waking up early as usual, Yugeon stared at Jian, who was still asleep.
‘She’s really leaving today.’
Ha. A sigh escaped on its own.
‘If the man Eun Jian says she loves is really that CEO…’
Just thinking about it made him feel so disgusted that he wanted to roll around from Seoul to Daejeon, Daegu, and Busan.
He didn’t want to let go of this hand.
Not only did he not want to let go of her hand—he even wanted to lock her in his arms.
But Yugeon eventually had to let her go to work. His adult self won over his childish self.
He tried to bury himself in work as soon as he arrived at the office, feeling restless.
But there was no more work he could immediately gather, so he simply became someone who finished work very quickly.
Instead, in the remaining time, he unconsciously tried to think of a plausible excuse to call Jian back.
“Ha… Even if there were a way to make Eun Jian come back early… would it be right to call her like that?”
But it was only for a moment. Soon he fell into self-reproach.
He couldn’t keep making excuses like this every time and block all of Jian’s outside activities.
It felt like doing something too petty to a socially active Jian.
“She has to sleep alone tonight… Lately, Eun Jian has been holding my hand when we sleep…”
He didn’t just dislike Jian spending a 1-night-2-day schedule with the man who might be her love.
He also felt lonely thinking about the night without Jian.
If he couldn’t call her to his side…
It would be nice even just to see her before sleeping. If he couldn’t fall asleep holding that hand tonight.
“Should I go visit her at night? No, for a contractual married couple, going all the way there just to see her face is too embarrassing…”
While muttering to himself—
Suddenly, he thought of Soon-Young’s younger sister, Sunja.
She lived in the region where Jian was going and had gone traveling during this year’s Chuseok holiday, so he hadn’t been able to meet her.
“Yes!”
Yugeon slapped the desk.
At that moment, he found an excuse to go there.
That evening, in a rural village in South Chungcheong Province.
“Lady Sunja. Yugeon has arrived.”
Carrying gifts in both hands, Yugeon pushed open the blue gate with his shoulder to announce his visit.
In the countryside, where neighbors knew even how many spoons each household had, the front gate was open.
“Huh? Oh my! Yugeon, you’re here!”
Sunja peeked her face out from the kitchen, wiped her hands on her apron, and ran out.
‘—Grandma, did you have a good trip to Southeast Asia? We couldn’t meet during Chuseok. I miss you, Grandma. Can I come visit tonight?’
He had received a call earlier, and his nephew-grandson had come as promised.
Putting the gifts on the ground, Yugeon hugged Sunja, who ran toward him.
The last time they saw each other was at a wedding ceremony, so it had been about one season. Naturally, Yugeon was very happy to see her.
“I missed you, Lady Sunja. This much.”
Holding Sunja in his arms, Yugeon lifted her up and spun around in place.
“Oh my! Oh my! I’m getting dizzy!”
Even while panicking, Sunja laughed like a young girl.
“Our Yugeon, you’ve been doing well, right?”
After setting her back on the ground, Sunja reached out to touch her nephew-grandson’s face so she could see him properly.
Yugeon bent down so that the short elder, who was barely 190 cm tall, could comfortably stroke his face.
The wrinkled, elderly hand of his aunt-grandmother touched his face affectionately.
“Do I need to look? You’ve become even more handsome. That means you’ve been doing very well.”
“That’s right! You’ve gotten more refined after getting married. But are you alone? That… Jiyeon?”
“Jian. My wife, Jian.”
“Yes, yes, Jian. Is Jian not with you?”
“Yes, my wife had some work to do, so she couldn’t come.”
“Oh? I see?”
Sunja tilted her head, looking very puzzled.
“She said she was busy at the company, so it couldn’t be helped. I’ll bring Jian here again soon, so please don’t dislike her.”
Yugeon waved his hands in request.
“Oh my, you’re worried that my daughter-in-law might be hated. Don’t worry about that.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Are you still hungry? Sit over there. Grandma will cook for you.”
“Let’s cook together.”
Yugeon carried the Korean beef sirloin, premium pine mushrooms, and wild ginseng he had brought into the kitchen.
Then he moved the dishes Sunja was preparing onto the low table on the wooden veranda.
“Wow, it’s really delicious! As expected, our Lady Sunja’s cooking is amazing. Have you thought about working as a hotel chef?”
“Oh my, what nonsense. Just eat more.”
Even so, Sunja happily laughed and brought more side dishes.
Though he had grown into a tall, strong young man who looked like he could fight off burglars alone,
To her, he was still a cute nephew-grandson she wanted to feed one more bite.
The two chatted warmly while eating.
Topics included Sunja’s Southeast Asia trip, Soon-Young’s health, and Yugeon’s first holiday after marriage.
By the time they finished, night had fully fallen, and Yugeon drank warm rice soup as a dessert under the cool evening wind.
“…By the way, I heard something about pottery being fired at the village community center today or tomorrow. Are you not interested, Lady Sunja?”
Placing down the bowl of rice soup, Yugeon asked casually.
“Oh, that. I went to a few banks in the city during the day, so I couldn’t go. Tomorrow I have to go to a funeral in Gangwon Province, so I can’t do it either.”
“Oh, I see. That’s a pity. Actually, there…”
He was about to say that Jian had come as an instructor.
“Hey, Sunja. Are you sleeping?”
“She’s not a young girl; she wouldn’t go to sleep this early.”
“No, she’s gotten quite old too.”
Other grandmothers’ voices were heard outside the gate.
Soon, with a creak, the gate opened, and three grandmothers familiar to Yugeon entered the yard.
They were older than Sunja, who was in her seventies, and Soon-Young, who was eighty this year.
Though not related by blood, they were as close as real sisters and hung out together every day.
Interestingly, all of them had the surname Shin, so the villagers called them the “Three Shin Grandmas.”
“Oh my, who is this? Such a tall, handsome young man at Sunja’s house…?”
“Wait a minute… Isn’t that Yugeon?”
“Oh! That’s right! When did Yugeon come?”
The three grandmas immediately recognized Yugeon.
Having visited this village often since childhood and even after becoming an adult, Yugeon was a familiar outsider to the villagers.
“Grandmas! How have you been?”
