Chapter 64
Chapter 64
Yu Ha-neul supported Sara, whose legs seemed to have given out, and helped her back to her room. Fortunately, the door lock recognized Sara's fingerprint without any trouble. She opened the locked door, went inside, and sat her down on the bed for the time being.
The maid who was always at Sara's side was nowhere to be seen. Once inside the room, Yu Ha-neul, Lee Su-a, and Shin So-hee couldn't just leave Sara sitting there so drained, so they worked together to help her change into different clothes.
Perhaps it was because of the state Sara was in. Even while they were helping her, no stray thoughts crossed their minds. They were simply worried about her.
They laid Sara down on the bed, now changed into pajamas, and the three of them stood there awkwardly for a moment.
But no one came to the room.
That made sense. They'd been told that aside from Sara herself, the only people who could enter this room were the maid and the Chairwoman. With the maid nowhere in sight, it was only to be expected.
"...I think we should head out for today."
In truth, Yu Ha-neul wanted to stay by Sara's side and look after her. Shin So-hee and Lee Su-a probably felt the same way. But this wasn't the atmosphere for that.
The Sara lying on the bed, looking up at Yu Ha-neul, seemed like she very much wanted to be alone.
Sara gave a quiet nod at Yu Ha-neul's words.
Yu Ha-neul, Shin So-hee, and Lee Su-a glanced at each other once, then gave Sara a small farewell.
"See you on Monday."
"Yeah, get home safe."
Sara answered in a quiet murmur.
The three of them left Sara's room, their steps just a little hesitant.
With a beep and a click, the door lock engaged.
...That sound made a lot of thoughts start turning.
Right. Sara had always walked them out, all the way to the front gate, whenever the three of them left the mansion.
Now that locked door couldn't be opened again until Sara chose to open it.
"...Let's go."
How long had they stood there blankly in front of the door? Yu Ha-neul was the first to speak. When she started walking, the other two followed.
They didn't talk to each other as they walked down the hallway, or even as they went down the stairs.
Each of them was lost in thought. Yu Ha-neul could easily guess that the subject of those thoughts was Sara.
The mansion was so pointlessly vast that it took time just to reach the exit.
Fortunately or not, aside from the personal maid, the rest of the household staff seemed to still be in place. The two servants standing at the mansion's great doors opened them.
The three of them kept walking without a word.
They crossed the sprawling front garden of the estate, and the path to the gate felt especially long. Even though the only thing missing was one person—Sara.
They passed through the mansion's main gate.
Even though they'd only crossed that single line, it felt as though the stagnant air had begun to move. Outside, the world was full of countless people walking and talking and making noise. A completely different atmosphere from the total stillness inside the mansion.
Only now did they begin to grasp, even a little, what kind of life Sara had been living all this time.
Everything they thought they understood had been wrong. What they had been able to imagine was only a sliver of her life. Beneath that, far beneath, in a reality so cold it could freeze your heart solid, Sara's life had been sinking all along.
"......."
What was she supposed to say?
Her head was so full of thoughts that Yu Ha-neul couldn't quite figure out how to say goodbye to her two friends.
She was hesitating like that for a moment when—
"Everyone."
Someone called out to them.
It was a young woman in a women's suit. A small travel suitcase stood beside her.
...The same person who, just a little while ago, had been wearing a maid uniform.
"Um...."
As Yu Ha-neul hesitated and fumbled for words, the woman gave a slight bow and spoke.
"My name is Yang Hye-in. Until just a short while ago, I was Young Lady Ye Sa-ra's personal maid."
"Yes...."
Did "until just a short while ago" mean she no longer was?
Shin So-hee and Lee Su-a turned their heads toward her as well.
Yang Hye-in slowly looked at each of the three in turn, then spoke in a calm voice.
"Would you happen to have a moment?"
*
Once I confirmed that all three of them had left, I quickly pulled myself up.
Strength had returned to my body, it seemed. Thank goodness.
I pushed the blanket aside and got out of bed right away. Then I headed straight for Ye Sa-ra's desk.
The few records Ye Sa-ra had left behind.
Even though they were brief, Ye Sa-ra's thoughts were contained inside them. Reading them now, after I'd come to understand even a little of what was in Ye Sa-ra's heart, would be different from the first time.
Only now, reading them, would I truly grasp what Ye Sa-ra had been thinking.
If I were lucky, some of Ye Sa-ra's memories might even come back—
But when I opened the third drawer, all that sat inside, stark and alone, was a single notebook.
No letter envelope. No pill bottle.
"...Huh."
I stared down into that drawer, frozen for a long moment, then all the strength drained out of me and I slumped forward, resting my head against the desk drawer.
Ah. Right.
This room wasn't a place only I could enter.
Outside of school breaks and weekends, this room sat empty most of the time.
A maid could come in to clean, and that meant someone could open the desk drawers.
All this time, I'd taken it for granted that nothing had been touched, assuming it without a second thought.
No.
This wasn't the time to be sitting here.
The Chairwoman had gone back for now, but there was no telling how she would act going forward.
The reaction Yang Hye-in had shown me today flickered through my mind. The way she couldn't quite bring herself to meet my eyes. The way she seemed awkward and uncomfortable, so unlike her usual self.
If she had read that letter, a reaction like that wouldn't be surprising at all.
I straightened up.
Had she handed that letter over to the Chairwoman? Or did she still have it?
Judging from the Chairwoman's reaction, it didn't seem like she'd passed the letter along yet. There was no way someone like that could read that letter and remain unfazed.
I opened the door and went outside. I was still in my pajamas, but that didn't matter. I wasn't going to leave the mansion anyway.
I'd always been a person who stayed inside this mansion, after all.
But that day, I couldn't find Yang Hye-in.
*
Was it because it was the weekend? Most of the cafés were packed with people.
They ducked into a few well-known franchise cafés, came right back out when there were no seats, and repeated the process until they wound up at the little café tucked into an alley, the same one they'd come to with Sara last time.
Did Yang Hye-in, walking at the front of the group, know that?
Yu Ha-neul figured she probably already did. She was someone from the household that tormented Sara so much. It wouldn't be strange for them to have someone keeping tabs on her.
They each had a cup of coffee in front of them, seated across from each other. It hadn't been intentional, but with the round table in the middle, the arrangement made it look like Yang Hye-in alone was facing off against all three of them.
But Yang Hye-in didn't seem particularly bothered by it.
"May I ask what you wanted to talk about?"
Yu Ha-neul asked, making an effort to keep any edge out of her voice.
"It concerns Young Lady Ye Sa-ra."
Even though she'd said she'd quit being a maid, her manner of speaking still hadn't shed the maid's tone.
"...What kind of story?"
"Before I begin, there is one thing I would like to ask you all."
Yang Hye-in's voice remained calm throughout.
"What do you think of Young Lady Ye Sa-ra? How do you feel about her?"
The three of them, caught a bit off guard by the question, glanced at each other for a moment.
"...I think of her as a friend like no other."
Yu Ha-neul's answer was somewhat restrained. Of course, "a friend like no other" wasn't a light phrase. It meant one single person among all your friends.
But at the same time, it was the kind of thing you could say about any friend.
The truth was, there were feelings hidden beneath those words. But those feelings hadn't matured enough yet to be laid out in the open. She still wasn't sure herself whether those feelings were really that kind of feeling.
"I... want to become someone like Sara."
That was Lee Su-a's answer.
Of course, she probably didn't mean she wanted to be a bird trapped in a cage. It was the opposite. A bird that boldly opens the cage and flies freely into the sky. In Lee Su-a's eyes, Sara seemed to be that kind of person.
"I like her."
Shin So-hee answered last.
She laid her feelings out honestly, just as they were.
"I even want to marry her."
An indifferent expression. Her chin propped on her hand on the table. At a glance, it might have seemed like a flippant remark with no real sincerity behind it—a sarcastic quip or something tossed out without much thought.
But if you knew how she'd acted up until now, you'd have no choice but to see it differently.
For her, it was such an obvious truth that it wasn't something to be embarrassed about or something she needed to work up the courage to confess.
Yu Ha-neul was a little envious of that side of her.
"Is that so...."
Yang Hye-in was silent for a moment, then spoke again.
"In that case... how far would you all be willing to go for the young lady?"
"......."
None of the three answered.
But that wasn't because the question was hard to answer.
It was because they all thought there was only one answer.
Reading the mood among the three of them, Yang Hye-in didn't wait for a reply. Instead, she pulled something out from inside her jacket.
A white envelope.
For a split second, Yu Ha-neul wondered if she was about to press money into their hands and tell them to break it off. Then she noticed that the edge of the envelope had been torn open. And also the words written on it: "To Mother."
"Would you be willing to read this?"
Yang Hye-in placed the letter on the table.
"......."
The three of them exchanged glances for a moment.
It was Yu Ha-neul who picked up the letter. For an envelope brought by the former maid of the richest person in the country, the paper didn't seem especially high-quality.
The stationery inside was the same. Thin, unadorned, the kind of common letter paper you could buy at any neighborhood stationery shop.
But the contents of the letter were anything but common.
"Ah."
After reading the first few lines, Yu Ha-neul murmured blankly. Then she read the rest of the letter with a stiff, frozen expression.
"......."
The other two pressed in close beside Yu Ha-neul.
They couldn't yet know what kind of letter this was. Still, it was Yang Hye-in who had brought it. And they remembered what she'd said before showing it. Because of that, even without reading the letter directly, the two of them could easily guess who it was connected to.
"......."
After skimming the letter, the other two had much the same reaction as Yu Ha-neul.
Their faces rigid and stiff, they didn't say a single word.
Because the contents of that letter were that shocking to the three of them.