“So, you’re serious when you say you want to be my maid?”
“Yeah. And I mean it when I say I want to get paid too.”
Shin So-hee answered nonchalantly as she pulled something thick and rolled up from her bag.
It was a sleeping bag.
“I went camping with my family last year. We bought it for that trip and only used it once, but now I get to use it again.”
“…You’re planning to sleep on the floor?”
No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like Shin So-hee intended to stay in my room with me.
Last time, we had just slept in the same bed…
Well, if she plans to stay here longer, sleeping in the same bed every night would be unreasonable.
No matter how close you are with a same-sex friend, there are boundaries you need to keep.
Though I’m not entirely sure what those boundaries are yet.
“There’s a room for the staff…”
Honestly, I don’t know exactly where it is.
This mansion is so large.
But I know there was a room that Yang Hye-in used.
If Shin So-hee is going to be a maid, it would be better for her to stay in that room than to sleep on the floor here.
“No thanks.”
But Shin So-hee flatly rejected it.
“Why?”
I frowned and asked, and she shrugged her shoulders as she answered.
“Because… heating costs are high?”
The heating system in this mansion is indeed inefficient.
But it’s not so inefficient that it’s unbearable.
Besides, not the entire mansion is heated.
Even Yang Hye-in stayed in a different room.
Anyone could guess that, even if they didn’t live here.
Of course, Shin So-hee knows there’s a room she could use.
That means she has some other scheme I haven’t figured out yet.
I sighed deeply and sat on the bed, rubbing my forehead with my palm.
In the meantime, Shin So-hee was unpacking her belongings from her bag one by one.
Her stuff was piling up on the table in the room.
Toothbrush, toothpaste, various cosmetics, shower tools, thin everyday clothes, and her school uniform…
Oh, right.
School uniform.
“If you’re going to be a maid here, what about school?”
I asked her.
Sure, if Yoo Ha-neul or Lee Soo-ah made the same claim, that might be one thing, but Shin So-hee attends a different school.
In fact, it’s in the completely opposite direction.
My personal maid takes me to school every morning, sees me off at the front gate, and waits for me in the car when I leave through the main gate.
There’s no way someone could do all that and still attend school.
They’d have to be late or leave early every single day.
There’s no way she could have a normal school life.
“Oh, right. School.”
As she unpacked, Shin So-hee clapped her hands as if the thought had only just occurred to her.
“Yeah, the ‘expensive plan’ I mentioned? It’s related to school.”
“…What do you mean by ‘related to school’?”
Ah.
After asking, I think I already knew what Shin So-hee was about to say.
“If I enroll in Hwayoung High School, it solves everything, right?”
Shin So-hee smiled brightly at me as she spoke.
“So, if you could adjust my salary so I can afford to attend that school, that’d be great.”
“….”
I put my hand to my forehead.
*
Shin So-hee knew she was making an unreasonable request.
She didn’t know exactly how much tuition was for Hwayoung High School.
What she did know was that it was a lot—far more than an average family could afford.
It could be in the thousands, or, in the worst case, in the millions.
She had no work experience, and she wasn’t confident that she could do the job as well as Yang Hye-in, the previous maid. So she knew very well how shameless it was to ask for such a large amount.
But still, she thought, even if I’m rejected, I should at least ask.
That’s what she was thinking on her way here.
She read the will at the café and exchanged a few words with her companions.
They each seemed to have their own thoughts about the will, but none of them fully shared those thoughts.
Yes, they couldn’t.
Not because they didn’t want to, but because it was too complicated to sort through their emotions.
Shin So-hee wasn’t the type to read other people’s emotions easily, but when she looked at the troubled faces of Yoo Ha-neul and Lee Soo-ah, she could guess.
They had each made up their minds about something.
And what had Shin So-hee decided?
…She hadn’t decided anything.
Even after returning home, she lay in bed thinking for a long time.
What can I do?
No, what should I do now?
How can I face Sara again?
She realized she had been thinking these thoughts.
Shin So-hee liked Sara.
That was a definite fact.
Thinking about Sara made her heart race, and when she didn’t see her for a long time, she felt a sense of loss.
She even thought, pointlessly, that if she had studied harder in middle school and gotten into Hwayoung High, things would have been different.
Sometimes, she imagined herself and Sara walking down the aisle together in wedding dresses.
Of course, she knew those were ridiculous fantasies.
She was just an ordinary girl from a normal family.
She had never thought of herself as poor, but she had never considered herself rich either.
She lived like everyone else, and that’s how she thought of her family.
But Sara was… unfathomably wealthy.
It wasn’t just about inheriting an enormous fortune.
When Shin So-hee searched Sara’s name online, she learned that Sara was already one of the richest teenagers in the world.
In fact, excluding royalty, she was one of the wealthiest individuals in any capitalist country.
And that was the case even at such a young age.
Sara treated Shin So-hee as a friend without hesitation.
She invited her over to her house as if it was nothing, and she didn’t use difficult words or speak carefully around her.
So, being by her side, it was easy to think, “Maybe I could too…”.
Sure, Sara was wealthy, a little naive, and a bit clueless about the world, but deep down, maybe she was just like her—just living in different circumstances.
But,
But… that wasn’t the case.
Sara’s world was different from Shin So-hee’s world.
When she first heard that “Chairwoman” referred to “Stepmother”, she felt relieved.
She thought it meant Sara wasn’t being subjected to “those kinds of things”.
But unfortunately, the most crucial part of her imagination was pretty close to the truth.
That woman, Sara’s “Stepmother” Choi Na-kyung, definitely harbored sexual feelings toward Sara.
I can’t imagine how deranged she must have been or what her story was, but to Shin So-hee, Choi Na-kyung was definitely a “dangerous” person.
…Sure, maybe deep down, Choi Na-kyung wasn’t so different from Shin So-hee.
They both liked girls, and they both liked the same girl, even.
And that woman had almost driven Sara to her death.
Or maybe she already had, and Sara had simply failed by sheer bad luck.
“…I’m not asking for it for free. I know that no matter how hard I work here, it won’t be enough to cover the cost.”
As Sara swept her hand over her face, Shin So-hee spoke earnestly.
“So, for the part my work doesn’t cover… I’ll pay it back.”
Of course, that’s not money she could pay back overnight.
“…No matter how long it takes, I’ll stay by your side and pay it back, little by little.”
Would Sara ever love a girl?
Shin So-hee wasn’t sure.
Sara had told Choi Na-kyung she loved her, but it was likely she meant it in a familial way.
…If she had loved her as a woman, would Sara have wanted to end her life?
At first, Shin So-hee had thought that maybe, since she was going to throw her life away anyway, why not leave it in my hands?
In a romance novel she had once read, the male lead had said something similar to the female lead.
But soon, she dismissed the thought.
Shin So-hee wasn’t as bold as she appeared.
Like a porcupine, she kept her true feelings hidden deep inside and didn’t show them to just anyone.
She only revealed her feelings to Yoo Ha-neul and Lee Soo-ah to keep them at bay.
By openly declaring, “I like her”, she was warding them off, making sure they didn’t get too close.
But at the same time, she was selfish.
She wanted Sara to choose her of her own will.
Not out of pity or because she had nothing else to live for, but because she genuinely loved her.
Even though she was afraid of rejection, she still had the audacity to demand that.
So,
So.
She didn’t want Sara to give up on her life.
She wanted Sara to stay here, not just be content with this one week, but continue living her daily life.
…But unfortunately, Shin So-hee had no idea how to make Sara feel that way.
Up until now, she had thought she was slowly getting to know Sara, but in reality, she knew nothing.
She didn’t know what Sara truly thought, what kind of life she had lived, or how deep the pain in that life went.
She knew nothing.
Because she didn’t know—this was the only choice she could make.
The only idea she had come up with was a simple one.
After thinking of it, she impulsively left her house.
She took the ladder she had seen in the storage shed, packed her bag full of necessities, and impulsively climbed over the mansion wall.
And now she was here, saying all of this.
If Sara ever had a wrong thought.
Or if anyone ever tried to harm or hurt Sara.
Shin So-hee would stand in their way.
She would stick to Sara 24/7, right by her side.
Until Sara found the happiness that would keep her living, she would buy her some time.
That was the only “idea” Shin So-hee had.
…Honestly, the money didn’t matter.
She didn’t care how much money Sara had.
Even if Sara refused to pay for her school fees, it didn’t matter.
She didn’t need to go to school.
She could take the GED later or something.
Right now, all she cared about was not losing Sara.
She just wanted to protect her.
And that was why Shin So-hee chose this path.