Chapter 93
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 93
Chapter Title: Someone Else's Home, My Home (3)
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Yoo Seolhyeon personally carried the dinner she had meticulously prepared in the kitchen to the annex where they were staying.
'I'm glad Grandfather was easy to persuade. If he talked to Mother's doll too, he'd surely make the right decision.'
The one who wanted to see her mother wasn't just her.
To her, the woman was her mother. But to Grandfather, she was his one and only daughter.
Feeling a rare sense of peace after so long, Yoo Seolhyeon stood before the door to the annex.
She thought it would be best to show proper courtesy to her guests. And above all, she wanted to spend even a little more time with her mother.
"Mr. Kang Ihyeon, are you there? I've brought dinner..."
It was then, as she cautiously opened her mouth.
From inside came the faint sound of water splashing. It wasn't just the sound of bathing. It was urgent, sticky, sloppy. And mixed in between those sounds was what seemed like a woman's moan, muffled and ecstatic.
Yoo Seolhyeon carefully slid the door open.
Of course, no one was there.
'...What is it? Are they in the hot spring?'
Without realizing it, Yoo Seolhyeon stopped in her tracks and held her breath.
She quietly set the meal down inside the room and tiptoed toward the changing room by the outdoor hot spring where the sounds were coming from. Separating the changing room from the open-air bath was a sliding door finished with thin paper panels. The light from the magic lamp inside cast two faint shadows onto the door.
The moment she saw those silhouettes, Yoo Seolhyeon's heart plummeted to the floor.
'Wh-what?'
Two shadows.
One was tall and broad-shouldered, a sturdy man's silhouette.
The other was a voluptuous, soft woman's shadow, embraced by the man, her legs wrapped around his waist as she clung to him.
The shadows moved violently. Every time the man's shadow thrust his hips, the woman's shadow shook up and down fiercely. With each motion came the slap of flesh against flesh and the wet splash of water, piercing vividly through the paper door straight to her ears.
It was her mother. And Kang Ihyeon.
"Hngh... Ungh... Haa... You..."
"Haa... Yeji-yeong... Our next baby..."
She doubted her own ears.
Baby? What baby?
Her own mother was tangled up with the man who had taken her virginity, their bodies entwined. And on top of that, whispering about making a baby.
'Why.'
Yoo Seolhyeon's vision went white.
Without thinking, she clamped both hands over her mouth. She desperately stifled the scream trying to burst out.
The silhouettes beyond the paper door writhed together like long-time lovers, so familiar and sensual. Every motion—Kang Ihyeon lifting her mother and pinning her against the wall, raising her legs—burned into her eyes like slow motion.
"Haaang! Ahng... Yes...!"
The moment she heard that lascivious moan, her body betrayed her will and began to heat up.
Memories of that night when he had ravished her flooded back unbidden. His firm body, his hot breath, the overwhelming sensation that had filled her completely.
Feeling the space between her legs grow slick against her will, Yoo Seolhyeon trembled with intense self-loathing.
'M-Mother's getting ravished right in front of me, so why am I...'
She was peeping, hidden away, on her mother being taken by another man.
By the very same man who had taken her.
So why was her body reacting on its own?
Unable to bear it any longer, she fled the spot.
She ran wildly back to her room without looking back.
She locked the door, leaned against the cold wall, and panted heavily. Her heart pounded as if it would burst. Her entire body felt alien, hot and unfamiliar.
The lewd, shocking scene she'd just witnessed lingered in her vision like an afterimage.
"Haa, haa... What... What the...!"
At first, uncontrollable rage surged up.
Kang Ihyeon. That shameless bastard.
Not content with raping her, now he was laying hands on her mother too. Unforgivable.
And at the same time, disgust at herself washed over her—for getting aroused by such a filthy sight.
If she got excited watching her mother get fucked, how dirty of a person was she?
But.
After that storm of intense emotions passed, cold reason began to raise its head in her mind.
'Right. Mother... she's Mother, but really, she's just a doll. Not human. Holding him accountable wouldn't even be about morality.'
A doll. Not a living person.
Just an exquisitely crafted machine with Mother's appearance and memories.
Wasn't this guilt and disgust she felt just an illusion?
With that, she tried to straighten her thoughts and forcibly calm herself down.
As reason returned, a new question arose.
'But why would he... fuck Mother's doll?'
It didn't seem like mere lust relief.
She'd seen him with other women before, but once he was under Seraphina, he had no need to embrace a doll that looked like her 'mother' like this.
There were plenty of whores under Seraphina who'd spread their legs for him.
'C-Could it be he feels something for me too...?'
Her thoughts began to drift in a strange direction.
Her face flushed hot once more.
Kang Ihyeon had been her first. She could never forget him, always thinking of him as a man, rationally.
Maybe Kang Ihyeon felt something similar?
She might not have been his first, but perhaps to him, she was something special.
"...Twisted thinking. But, but, you never know."
That delusion was so sweet, so convincing.
In her mind, her anger and contempt toward Kang Ihyeon faded, replaced by a dizzying sense of confused anticipation.
His rough demeanor hiding twisted affection for her.
If she could fix that emotion.
Her cheeks flushed again.
But this time, it wasn't from anger or shame.
Her head filled with sweet, dangerous fantasies.
But at the same time, she knew she couldn't let this abnormal situation continue.
'Whatever the reason... that act has to stop.'
His habit of satisfying his desires through the doll in Mother's form had to end.
Especially if it was truly twisted affection for her.
With trembling hands, she picked up a brush and wrote a short letter.
Then she headed back to his annex.
She folded the letter small and carefully slipped it through the door crack.
[1 AM, I will visit your room. I have important business to discuss.]
The young lady of the house meeting a strange man alone in the dead of night.
It was dangerous behavior that could spark a massive scandal in itself.
'What am I doing...'
She asked herself that over and over on the way back after slipping the note.
This was insane. But she couldn't stop.
Like a moth to a flame, she was drawn by that perilous curiosity and dizzying anticipation.
Finally, the deep night arrived.
Yoo Seolhyeon wrapped herself in black clothes and slipped silently out of her room.
A quiet night illuminated only faintly by moonlight. Dodging the servants as usual, she entered the secret passage.
When she stood before his door, she hesitated for a moment.
Should she turn back now?
But her feet wouldn't move. She took a deep breath and cautiously knocked on his door.
Knock, knock.
A low voice came from inside.
"Come in."
There sat Kang Ihyeon, changed into the silk robes provided by the Yoo family, sipping tea alone.
Thankfully, the mother's doll was nowhere beside him. She let out an unconscious sigh of relief and sat cautiously across from him.
Moonlight filtered through the paper windows, softly illuminating the room.
Silent stillness. Only the scent of tea lingered between them.
Kang Ihyeon broke the silence first.
"What brings you here so late at night?"
"I... Ah."
Kang Ihyeon smiled and gently took her hand. A warm, large hand.
At that touch, Yoo Seolhyeon's heart pounded hard again.
"You wanted to see me that badly?"
Her face flushed bright red at his sly question.
"Th-that's not it! Don't misunderstand!"
"Is that so? I thought you came because you missed me."
She cleared her throat, desperately changing the subject.
"I-I just came to talk about what happened earlier."
"Hm? What happened earlier?"
He asked back with an innocently clueless expression, as if he truly knew nothing.
Seeing that brazen face, anger welled up in her unbidden.
"Don't play dumb! I... I saw everything!"
Her voice rose without her realizing.
"I saw with my own two eyes what you did in the hot spring... with my mother!"
She cried out in a trembling voice, accusing him of his crime.
Tears of betrayal and disappointment welled in her eyes.
But.
His reaction was nothing like she'd expected.
"Ah, you were watching."
There was no panic, no shame, no apology in his voice.
Just a casual, indifferent acknowledgment. That was it.
At his brazen, composed attitude, Yoo Seolhyeon was at a loss for words.
It was the moment her romantic delusion shattered to pieces.
To him, she—and her mother—were nothing more than a one-night plaything.
"How... How could you?"
Her voice grew heavy with despair.
"After how I felt about you... You're really...!"
With tears in her eyes, she glared at him one last time and turned to leave the room.
She wanted to escape this pathetic, humiliating situation as quickly as possible.
But then.
A strong grip seized her wrist.
Kang Ihyeon.
"Where do you think you're going."
His voice wasn't the previous languid, sly tone.
It was a low, threatening growl, like a beast refusing to let prey escape.
He yanked her arm roughly, pulling her toward him.
Then, with a savage expression, he shoved his face close to hers.
"I asked how you felt about me. Answer."
Under that overwhelming masculinity, her body began reacting on its own again.
'Wh-why... Why do I respond to this brute?'
She should be disappointed, despise him, hate him.
So why was her body heating up at his savagery?
Like a helpless rabbit before a starving beast, she could only tremble wordlessly.
Then, as if reading her mind, he whispered exactly what she most wanted to hear.
"I missed you."
His voice turned gentle, like a lie.
"It's because of you. I missed you so much, but couldn't see you. So... I wanted to hold your mother instead."
Instinctively, she sensed it was a blatant lie.
He was no pure-hearted man like her fantasies. She knew that.
But. Her body thrashed wildly at that sweet falsehood.
Squirt.
Hot fluids soaked her underwear against her will, leaking out to leave a small stain on the cushion beneath her. Her heart pounded madly.
A primal female urge to throw herself into his arms threatened to paralyze her reason.
'Wh-what's this scent... I-I can't breathe...'
But she mustered her last strength to suppress that desire.
Forcing her trembling legs to stand, she pretended composure and said,
"If... if you want to continue the contract with our family... please refrain from such acts from now on."
"Hng, is that right?"
"Yes...! Don't sully our family name recklessly...!"
With those final words, she turned her back to him and hurried out of the room.
She didn't realize she'd left an embarrassing trace where she'd sat, but Kang Ihyeon had seen it all clearly.
He looked at the soaked cushion and smiled in satisfaction.
"Yeah. See you again."
Kang Ihyeon chuckled, watching her flee for just a moment.
She'd held out pretty well, but she'd come crawling back anyway.