The White Envelope
The white paper bag in Min Soyeon's hand kept catching my eye. It looked thick, clearly stuffed with something inside…
Yet the person responsible, Min Soyeon herself, simply said she was going to change clothes and disappeared upstairs. Left alone in the living room, I tried to figure out what she had brought.
“Hmm…”
It definitely wasn’t documents. No matter how you folded them, a stack of papers wouldn’t be this bulky. It couldn’t be cash either. I didn’t know everything about her, but I couldn’t imagine her carrying around that much money for any reason. So it had to be some other object…
From the size and thickness I’d glimpsed, maybe a small box? Medicine, perhaps…?
…No?
I was racking my brain, seriously debating whether to just ask her directly, when—
“…Let’s talk for a second.”
Min Soyeon reappeared in the living room, now in comfortable clothes. One hand still held the white paper bag.
Her face was stiff, as if she had something serious to say, and I found myself tensing up without meaning to. I obediently followed her to the kitchen table. Sitting across from her, I quietly stared at the white bag in her hand.
That was clearly the key to all this…
…
The heavy atmosphere tightened around my throat, making it impossible to speak first. I was watching her expression, waiting for the right moment, when she slowly lifted her head and met my eyes.
Her gaze held a firm resolve, like she had made up her mind about something. Then she pushed the white envelope toward me and spoke, her voice low.
“…Take this.”
Huh? I hadn’t expected her to hand it to me so suddenly, and I was caught off guard.
“What is this…?”
She let out a short sigh.
“…Money.”
“…Why are you giving me money all of a sudden…?”
“Take it and quit your job.”
S-suddenly…? If this was because she saw how hard I was struggling, it felt far too abrupt, but no other reason came to mind. Flustered by the unexpected suggestion to resign, I carefully studied her face before speaking.
“…Soyeon. Can you tell me why you’re doing this all of a sudden? The money, telling me to quit… I just don’t understand.”
But Min Soyeon gave no answer. She simply stared at me with those determined eyes, lips moving as if she wanted to say something. I waited quietly for her to speak.
Since she had even prepared money, there had to be an important reason.
As if responding to my patience, Min Soyeon slowly parted her lips. The more they opened, the more the bright light in her eyes began to tremble.
Then—
“…Hic…”
“…S-Soyeon?”
Tears began streaming down Min Soyeon’s face.
Whoa, whoa—? Startled by the sudden tears, I quickly moved to sit beside her.
“Soyeon, what’s wrong all of a sudden… Did something happen? Hm?”
I gently placed a hand on her to comfort her, but the more I stroked her back, the harder she cried.
“Huu… Hic, huuu…”
“Soyeon, what could possibly make you this upset…”
“Y-you… you… Hwaaang…”
…Me? I wondered what I had done wrong, but no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t recall making any mistakes.
Unable to find the cause, I decided to calm her down first and gently pulled her head toward me. She came limply, collapsing into my arms.
“…Ugh, huu… Huu…”
She buried her face in my chest, clutching my collar with her slender fingers as she sobbed bitterly. I patted her back, waiting for her to settle.
…
How much time had passed? Eventually her sobs quieted. She sniffled, carefully lifting her head to look up at me.
Her eyes were still watery, the tip of her nose red. For a moment, she looked exactly like she had as a child. I used to hold her like this all the time back then… and now she had grown so much.
To push down the complicated emotions rising in my chest, I brushed her bangs aside. At that moment, she leaned her head against me and spoke softly.
“…F-from now on… don’t do weird things for money… I’ll give it to you… I-I have lots of money…! So… just… stay by my side…”
Her desperate, childlike words hit me like a hammer to the back of the head. I was stunned.
Ah… This was my fault.
I hadn’t been considerate of Soyeon. I hadn’t taken care of my child. It was clearly my mistake.
She had already suffered a massive wound. Abandoned by her parents—the kind of scar that could never truly be erased. And yet the person who was supposed to protect her had thrown her aside to run around outside. How anxious she must have been.
I had thought things were getting a little better and let myself become complacent. Soyeon needed attention and love. No matter how unavoidable it was because of my wife, their situations were different. Comparing a fully grown adult with a child who had just entered puberty was a mistake in itself.
Once I confirmed my wife’s condition had improved, I should have focused entirely on Soyeon.
This idiot… Not even noticing how his own daughter was feeling…
Lost for words, drowning in guilt, I held Soyeon tightly. Then she suddenly lifted her head.
“…F-from now on… because of me… y-you… don’t have to do… weird… huu…”
“Hey, d-don’t cry…! It’s okay, you can take your time and tell me slowly…”
She squeezed her eyes shut as if trying to hold back the tears, desperately fighting them off as she continued.
“…You don’t… have to do weird things anymore…”
…Huh?
As I quietly patted her, something about her words felt off. From the beginning, the nuance had been strange. Not “hard” things, but “weird” things…?
It was oddly irritating, like a thorn stuck in my throat. Why specifically say “weird” instead of “hard”?
Sensing something subtle, I carefully probed.
“…Soyeon. I don’t do anything weird. So…”
At that moment—
“…Again?”
She shoved me away from her chest and shouted.
“…How long did you think you could keep fooling me? I know everything! You… you’ve been… with that auntie… doing… ugh…”
Her furious, huffing words delivered another shock.
…Me… with an auntie… what?
“N-no, Soyeon! It’s a misunderstanding!”
“…Misunderstanding my ass. I heard it all. How hard it is to make five hundred thousand won a day…!”
Oh no. Unexpected evidence had just surfaced. I had inflated the number a bit so she wouldn’t suspect it was too low, but apparently she had picked up some strange information somewhere.
“…That’s all wrong information. It is a lot of money. But I haven’t been doing what you’re imagining.”
I did have a close relationship with my employer, but it wasn’t the impure one Soyeon was thinking of. No—could there be any relationship cleaner and more upright than ours? We’re married, for crying out loud!
But I couldn’t reveal my relationship with Ju Yeonhee. Cursing this cruel twist of fate, I gently tried to soothe Min Soyeon.
“The auntie part is true, and the part about me getting a lot of money is true too.”
Yeonhee… I’m sorry…
“But there’s nothing between me and that auntie! I just work hard around the house, and she said I was like a son to her, so she paid me a bit extra. It’s the truth!”
After my passionate explanation, Min Soyeon’s sharp gaze finally softened a little.
“…Really?”
“O-of course! Why would I lie to you…”
“…Then quit the job.”
“H-huh?”
While I was still reeling from the conversation that had somehow circled back to resignation, she glared at me.
“Who’s more important to you? Me, or that auntie?”
Good grief. Like mother, like daughter? How could even her tone be exactly the same? I never dreamed I would hear this question from Soyeon.
To her, it was some nameless auntie. To me, it was my rabbit-like wife and my daughter. Both were unbearably precious. How could I possibly choose between them?
At that moment, Min Soyeon glared at me fiercely and growled in a low voice.
“…Why can’t you choose? You must like the rich auntie better, right? You’ve gotten close to her… ugh…”
She grew angry at her own words and glared at me, eyes welling up again.
“Hey, no! It’s not like that, Soyeon. Of course you’re the most precious to me! Why would I ever choose that auntie…”
“…Then will you quit the job?”
Oh no… I was completely cornered. I had to make a decision.
…This… there’s no way around it…
My wife’s condition had improved a lot anyway, and since we were now in Seoul, we could see each other even on weekdays. She might feel a little disappointed, but since it was for Soyeon, she would understand.
“…Alright. I’ll quit.”
“…For real?”
“I told you before. You’re my number one.”
Min Soyeon’s face flushed red, and she gave a small nod.
“But in exchange, I’ll only work until this weekend.”
“…What?”
“I signed a contract, and there’s such a thing as trust. I can’t just quit out of nowhere.”
Min Soyeon’s expression turned icy in an instant. She pressed her lips together tightly and glared at me. It was clear she was unhappy.
…How could she resemble her mother in even this?
While I was trying to come up with a suitable excuse, a thought suddenly occurred to me and I spoke carefully.
“…Actually, that madam was apparently quite famous back in the day. I was trying to score some points. I don’t have anything else going for me, after all…”
It wasn’t exactly a lie. She had once been called the Strongest, after all.
I watched Min Soyeon’s reaction as I spoke. She was still staring at me with that cold expression.
“…Stronger than my mom? Is that auntie stronger than the Sword Empress?”
Why the hell did your mom suddenly come up here?!
“Uh… n-no, that’s not it…”
“…Then quit right now.”
“…I’ll work just until this weekend and then quit.”
I hadn’t expected her to bring up my wife, but I absolutely couldn’t quit immediately. After several rounds of back-and-forth, Min Soyeon finally took one step back.
“…You promise?”
“I promise.”
“…If you lie again, I’ll kill you.”
Was it my imagination? In that cute threat just now, I thought I caught a glimpse of Ju Yeonhee as a child. Ju Yeonhee back then had been a little fiercer and more prickly than the current Min Soyeon. If I compared them at the same age, Soyeon was actually the gentler one. Maybe half my personality had mixed in?
As I gently soothed Min Soyeon and recalled my wife’s younger days, a thought suddenly struck me.
The way Soyeon had been acting lately was remarkably similar to how my wife used to behave. The way she couldn’t be honest, the clumsy way she expressed herself… they were so alike…
Nah, it couldn’t be.
But the moment I recognized how eerily similar my wife and Soyeon were, that horrifying suspicion I had shoved deep down floated back up.
…It couldn’t be, right?
I stared at Min Soyeon intently, half in doubt. She turned to me with a pouty tone.
“…Why are you looking at me like that?”
“No reason. You’re just… pretty.”
Her face turned bright red and she whipped her head away.
Yeah… it couldn’t be… right?