I'm Your Guardian Now
"What exactly do you think you're doing?"
The voice was crushing, oppressive enough to press down on a man's shoulders. The wild energy that had been driving Dusup faltered and began to shrink.
"That's not it... My daughter's getting married. How am I supposed to just sit around and do nothing?"
Jung Dusup offered an awkward smile as he scrambled for an excuse.
"So I heard the news and came to see for myself."
"News?"
When Siheon asked as if to say what that was supposed to mean, Dusup cleared his throat with a forced cough and looked away.
"Never mind that. If you're going to take someone's precious daughter, you ought to get her father's permission first. Permission!"
Having seized what he considered a proper justification, Dusup jabbed his finger at Siheon again and again.
"Do you have any idea how carefully I raised our Jeong Dayeon? Afraid she'd blow away if I breathed on her, afraid she'd crumble if I held her too tight... How much I..."
Siheon let out a light laugh, as if it wasn't even worth hearing the rest.
"Y-you're laughing?"
Dusup rolled his eyes in confusion. Siheon asked in a near-whisper, his voice laced with ridicule.
"And that's why you tried to sell that precious daughter of yours for a handful of cash."
"That's..."
"And just now, you were about to lay hands on her, too."
"......"
"I think it's time you left."
Siheon said it coldly, as if there was nothing more worth seeing.
"Wh-who the hell are you to tell me what to do?"
Dusup deliberately squared his shoulders and stood his ground. If it had been just the two of them, it might have been a different story — but with the entire family only a few steps away, he calculated that Siheon wouldn't dare do anything rash.
Reading him perfectly, Siheon twisted his lips into a smile.
"If you keep this up, you're going to make things difficult for yourself. You're making me want to transfer the debt I hold on you to someone else."
Dusup was thrown by the sudden remark.
"What? Debt? I already paid that off to Boss Yoon..."
"That was the original plan. But I changed my mind along the way."
"......!"
"You're the kind of rabid dog who can't tell up from down, so I figured I ought to keep a collar on you."
"W-what did you just say? Rabid dog? Collar?"
"Look at you even now. You don't even remember who saved you, and you're lunging to bite your master's throat."
Suddenly treated like a dog without a leash, Dusup trembled with a rage he couldn't contain.
"You... you little...!"
"What if I put your debt up for sale at about half of what I paid for it?"
"......"
"I don't think there'd be just one or two people drooling to snap it up."
At those words, Dusup's eyes darted wildly.
He'd thought his debts had all vanished — but if the claim had been transferred, that was a completely different story.
If it fell into someone else's hands again... If I ended up in the clutches of Yoon Tak-su, or someone even worse, it wouldn't end with them tearing my household apart this time. This time, they might tear open my guts...
Having rapidly put his thoughts in order, Jung Dusup swallowed hard. Then he slowly lowered the hand he'd been jabbing and awkwardly worked his mouth.
"You should've told me about that sooner. I had no idea..."
When Siheon simply watched him in silence, Dusup quickly nodded.
"I'll, uh, come back another time. See you around, yeah?"
Like a dog with its tail between its legs, Dusup scrambled out of Seoyeongheon's garden. He didn't so much as glance at the daughter he'd claimed to have raised so precious.
Watching Jung Dusup's retreating back, Siheon finally let out a short sigh once the man had completely disappeared.
His gaze swept the surroundings, and among the people craning their necks to see what was going on, he spotted one person wearing a faint smile.
Uncle's been playing a fun little prank.
Between Jung Dusup claiming he'd come after hearing the news, and that reaction over there... this whole affair had clearly been orchestrated by Cha Taeho. Ever since Siheon had taken the Executive Director's seat, the man had treated him like a thorn in his side — and now it seemed he'd even dug into Dayeon's background.
Siheon turned his head with a light laugh, and his eyes found Dayeon a beat too late. She was trembling, her face pale with terror.
"Jeong Dayeon, are you all right?"
"Yes... but..."
Trailing off, Dayeon glanced around. Because of the commotion that had just erupted, everyone nearby was staring at her and Siheon.
The beautiful strains of string music, the warm atmosphere — even the children who'd been running around had stopped in their tracks to look at them.
Anxiety layered over Dayeon's gaze as she took them in. He could read what she was thinking without even having to look inside her head.
"Let's talk somewhere else first."
Letting out a sigh, Siheon took Dayeon's wrist and pulled her along. Dayeon followed behind him, leaving the stares of the crowd at her back.
Watching it all unfold, Cha Taeho smiled slowly.
"So even the great Cha Siheon has someone who gives him trouble."
The girl's father had been the only one in the dark about her marriage, so he'd simply been kind enough to let him know. And for the trouble he'd gone to, it made for quite the entertaining show, didn't it?
Gazing toward the place where Dayeon and Siheon had vanished, he wore a meaningful smile as he tipped his champagne glass.
Siheon headed for the back garden of Seoyeongheon — a place where no one else's footsteps ever wandered. Once they reached the secluded spot, he finally stopped.
"Teacher..."
At the small voice, Siheon turned around. Dayeon's shoulders were slumped, her expression looking as if she might burst into tears at any moment.
Slowly furrowing his brow, Siheon asked,
"Why are you making a face like that?"
"Because of me..."
She paused to catch her breath, then after a beat, forced the words out.
"Because of me, you've been put in an awkward position."
Dayeon hung her head low, trying to hide her contorted face.
She had wanted so badly to play the part of his wife. After everything he had given her, the one thing Siheon had asked of her was that — and that alone. She had never once imagined she would ruin it on the very first day.
Because she hadn't been able to stop her father. Because her only family was such a complete piece of trash. Jung Dusup's sins were not her own — and yet none of this would have happened if someone else had been standing at Siheon's side. In the end, it had all come about because she was not enough to be there.
I've even caused trouble for Teacher.
A problem she should have resolved and borne alone — and she had pulled him into it. Choking on the weight of her own shame, Dayeon couldn't even find the courage to lift her head.
After watching her bowed head for a long while, Siheon called her name.
"Jeong Dayeon."
"......"
"Look at me."
At the firm voice, the face that finally lifted looked on the verge of tears. Pity spread across Siheon's face as he watched Dayeon clutching her skirt, holding back her sobs.
Why did this child have to wear a face like that because of a man like Jung Dusup?
Siheon slowly took hold of Dayeon's shoulders. Then, forcing her gaze to meet his, he said,
"Listen carefully, Jeong Dayeon."
Startled by his unprecedentedly grave expression and tone, Dayeon looked up at him.
"Of everything that's happened because of your father, there isn't a single thing you need to take responsibility for."
"......"
"So don't blame yourself as if it were your fault."
He continued firmly, then narrowed his brow as he looked at her wet eyes.
"And don't try to bear it alone, either."
"Teacher..."
In that instant, Dayeon's eyes flushed red. The emotions she'd been holding back all this time trembled as if they might collapse.
How am I supposed to not love you when you're like this?
Dayeon asked herself inwardly, and gave a small nod.
Siheon was always like this. Cold, composed — sometimes he seemed full of nothing but mischief. But in moments like these, he became a sturdier support than anyone alive. And layered over that was the ache of knowing he still saw her as nothing more than a young student, while he himself had long since made every other person in the world fade from her sight. Tears finally slipped down Dayeon's cheeks.
The gathering, thrown into disarray by Jung Dusup's outburst, ended earlier than planned. No one knew exactly why the commotion had happened, but they all seemed to have guessed that it had something to do with Dayeon.
"Go on ahead. I'll follow later."
Siheon left to wrap up the unfinished situation, and Dayeon had no choice but to sit alone in the living room, anxiously waiting for him to return.
Nothing's happened to him, has it?
When Siheon still hadn't returned after several hours, every kind of terrible thought crowded into her mind. Deciding she couldn't wait any longer, she was just getting up to call for someone when the door rattled open and someone came in.
"Teacher?"
The head she had lifted, certain it was Siheon, froze in place the moment she saw who it actually was.
The ones who stepped into the room were Chairman Cha, who hadn't shown his face all day, and Butler Song, supporting him at his side.