A House Too Good to Believe
My mind was reeling.
Some time ago, when I followed Lee Doyun around to look at Aphro River Park, I was honestly stunned.
I’d expected the house to be nice. It was a place worth several billion won, after all.
But even so.
I never imagined it would be this nice.
Only later did I learn that Doyun’s place was a special penthouse in Aphro River Park.
At this level...
I already knew, roughly, that Doyun had made it from the way things had changed lately.
That car alone was worth well over a hundred million won.
It wasn’t as if there were no rich people around me. My ex-husband had been one of them.
But I could say with certainty that even they...
weren’t as rich as Doyun.
If you stretched yourself, you could buy a car. But this house was something else entirely.
It must have been close to ten billion won...
Of course, a loan was probably involved, but even a loan was something only someone with the ability to pay it back could get.
Without even thinking about it, I found myself saying, How wonderful must it be...
I didn’t need many words to describe how I felt about the place.
It was simply a house I wanted to live in at least once.
I figured anyone would think the same.
And then my thoughts naturally went on to how much better it would be if my girls lived here too.
Every time they had to commute to work or go to school, the travel time alone was unbearable, not to mention the transit costs.
On some days, the round trip would take as long as three hours.
As my thoughts kept chasing one another in circles, I suddenly froze.
I needed to pull myself together. If I made a decision based on this alone, it would be terribly rude to Doyun.
I needed to step back, think it through properly, and then decide.
After asking Doyun if it would be all right to give him an answer later, I kept turning it over in my head every time I was at home.
And every time I thought about it, I came to the same conclusion.
“...What should I do?”
There was only one answer. It might be a big imposition on Doyun, but I wasn’t in a position to be choosy.
If there had been even the slightest hope of getting away from here, I would have refused, simple as that.
But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t see any way to leave this place.
If anything, things could get even worse.
Because the moment Doyun moved, the living expenses he gave me would disappear too.
It had only just given me some breathing room, and now I’d be going back to how things were before...
Just thinking about it was horrifying.
I even asked my eldest daughter what she thought. If even one person in the family felt uneasy or opposed it, I planned to think again.
“Big girl, what do you think about staying at Doyun’s place? I went to see it, and just like he said, the living spaces are definitely separate.”
“...I’ll leave it up to you, Mom. If I’m being honest, I’d like to stay there, but I also feel embarrassed deciding for myself when I didn’t really take care of Doyun much when he was staying at this house.”
“Hmm... I understand. Mom will think it over carefully and make a decision.”
“Okay. Anyway, whatever you decide, I’m on your side.”
“Thank you.”
My eldest said she wanted to stay, but that it felt embarrassing for her to be the one making the decision.
As for my younger daughter—
“I like it. Getting to school from here is too hard. And that place has much better transportation...”
“Really?”
Maybe because she was a little closer to Doyun, she was actually in favor of it.
I had made up my mind.
As expected, it wasn’t that hard.
I met with Doyun.
And, despite my shame, I asked him.
With all the desperation I had for getting out of here.
Thankfully, Doyun agreed readily.
“I’ll make sure I repay your kindness.”
“...What I’m getting from you now is already more than enough.”
“I just can’t accept that.”
“...”
And then he went even further, saying he’d do more to repay me.
My heart felt lighter all at once.
At the same time, my affection for Doyun only grew. I could feel he was a truly good man.
If it were Doyun...
I think I could honestly approve of him marrying any one of my daughters.
In fact, I thought I might welcome it.
***
In the end, Aunt had decided to accept it.
The feeling in that moment was...
“What a relief...”
It really was no exaggeration to say I was relieved beyond words.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I’d been worried about what I’d do if Aunt refused.
Now even that worry was gone.
And on top of that, the way Aunt thanked me was...
far more stimulating than I expected.
Usually I was the one expressing my gratitude, so now, for once, I was the one receiving thanks.
To make sure Aunt’s decision wouldn’t waver, I decided I’d do everything I could to keep my sister and Sihyun from even thinking about leaving the house.
First of all—
“Secretary, please renovate one side of my house in Banpo so it’s more comfortable for the women to live in. Sofas, various electronics, and so on. And in addition, one room should be for storing women’s clothes and accessories...”
I gave instructions for the interior redesign.
It didn’t take long at all.
The house had already been built with excellent materials to begin with, so there was no need to tear the whole interior apart.
As expected, the renovation didn’t take long.
Everything was finished within a week.
During that time, I also helped organize all the belongings in Aunt’s house.
“What are you going to do about the house?”
“Well. Just in case, I’m thinking of leaving it for now.”
“I think selling it wouldn’t be a bad idea... If something comes up later, I can wait as long as you need. I won’t put any pressure on you.”
“...You really know how to put me at ease, Doyun. Honestly, I’ve been short on cash lately, so I did think selling it was the right move, but I hesitated because I was afraid it would feel like too much of a burden...”
“You don’t need to worry. Besides, once you move, all the hard things will disappear. I’ll help as much as I can, wherever I can reach.”
“Ah, but this is my business...”
As expected, Aunt still seemed to think she was struggling under financial hardship.
I’d been giving her a million won a month for living expenses, but there was no way that would ever feel like enough.
Even if I offered more, she would stubbornly refuse, so I hadn’t pushed it...
But now that she was coming to live with us, there was no need to be so careful anymore.
I intended to make sure she never lacked for anything. I would not let her ever go back to the way things were.
Once the interior of our house was finished.
I even assigned people to help Aunt sort through everything quickly.
“I-It’s fine, really.”
“Might as well get it done quickly if we’re doing it anyway. You won’t have to worry about it anymore.”
“...”
“It’d be better to throw away as much as you can. Unless it’s something important. Most of the furniture and electronics are already over there.”
“...Right. It might just end up being more baggage.”
“You should think of it as a fresh start.”
“...Yes, that’s right. A fresh start.”
A truly complete fresh start.
One that was different from everything that came before.
I found myself looking forward to life in the new house more than I could say.
***
When Lee Seolhyun heard we were moving, she asked the younger sister she was closest to about Lee Doyun.
Common sense said that creating this kind of situation meant he was even richer than she’d imagined.
It was the sort of thing that even self-made success usually couldn’t pull off.
“Sihyun, you know, don’t you? You traveled with him, so you must’ve talked a lot. From what I heard, he didn’t even fly economy—it was business class.”
“...Why?”
“I’m just curious. If he’s really stretching himself too far, then we should refuse again while we still can.”
“Th-that’s not it. Doyun oppa is really rich.”
“Exactly. I don’t really know what that means, so if you know anything, explain it to me.”
It was easy to think most working adults were rich.
Back when I was a student, I’d thought office workers were unbelievably wealthy too.
But once I entered the working world myself, I realized that wasn’t true at all.
Everyone was just surviving day by day.
That was why I asked. I wanted to get some sense of it from my sister.
“Well... you know he bought luxury gifts after the trip, right?”
“Of course. I looked them up, and they were well over several million won... At that level, he definitely is rich. But there are degrees of rich.”
“That’s just the tip of the iceberg. When we went to the department store, an older employee came out and guided us through everything. There were even two or three people attached to us the whole time.”
“...That sounds like a drama.”
“It was even more intense on the trip. We rode a helicopter, took a cruise, stayed in a place that cost tens of millions of won per night...”
“Th-that much?”
“From everything I experienced? Doyun oppa is seriously rich.”
I knew my sister wouldn’t lie, but...
I still couldn’t accept it in any normal sense.
Just a few months ago, Doyun had been working part-time...
How could he have changed that much in such a short time?
Just hearing all that made it seem like he was basically a chaebol.
Even someone worth tens of billions of won couldn’t live like that.
Not unless they were planning to burn through their entire fortune in a single year.
And he even had multiple cars, and according to Mom, the house we were moving to was a penthouse...
No, seriously, was this even possible in a sane world?
I was seriously starting to suspect the world was playing some kind of hidden-camera prank on me.
“Aren’t you mistaken? That makes no sense.”
“I had the same reaction as you, but... how am I supposed to explain what I experienced myself?”
“...I guess I won’t be able to believe it until I see it with my own eyes.”
“I know. Me too.”
I meant that sincerely.
It was hard to believe until I saw it for myself.
After about two weeks, the moving preparations were complete.
Apparently this house had been sold too.
And then, for the first time, we headed to Doyun’s place.
“...”
It was huge. So huge my jaw practically dropped on its own.
I’d been to plenty of housewarmings while working, but I’d never seen a place like this.
Not even something close.
“You can just put your clothes and everything in this room... By the way, do you all have driver’s licenses?”
“A driver’s license...?”
“I have way too many cars, so getting into and out of each one individually was becoming a real hassle. But if you don’t drive them enough, that’s apparently bad for the cars too... so I thought maybe you could use them whenever you need them. I’ve already got insurance on all of them.”
“...”
What...?
Now this really did seem like a chaebol.
As for the cars...
There was some kind of display cabinet in the room.
And inside it were accessories and car keys.
At a glance...
I couldn’t see any of the German three.
Not even domestic cars.
They were all supercars.
“...”
My mind was completely blank.