Chapter 05
#5
His large, rough hand snapped Hyunjeong’s head to the side, making her stagger. A flash of light exploded before her eyes.
It was a blow she hadn’t seen coming, caught off guard, so her head spun dizzyingly.
*Thwack-*
The indiscriminate blows rained down relentlessly on Hyunjeong’s head.
“Have you lost your mind? You must be insane! How could you stay out all night unless you’re crazy? And even ditch the person I had tailing you?”
Stumbling backward, trying to regain her balance, she reached out a hand. As her back hit the glass front door, it rattled with a loud noise.
“What were you doing outside, coming home at this hour? Where have you been and what were you doing until this time!”
“Honey, honey!”
It seemed like her stepmother, Myeonghui, was trying to stop Yeonguk, but she wasn’t being very assertive. It was just for show. The problem was that Hyunjeong was the only one who could see through it.
“A girl who’s supposed to go on her engagement trip with Vice President Jo this morning—how does this make any sense?”
Even after beating her head like that, as if his anger still wasn’t appeased, Yeonguk slapped Hyunjeong, who was standing with her head raised, across the cheek once more.
The dull sound reverberated through her skull.
This time, Hyunjeong couldn’t hold on and fell face down onto the floor.
Even if she was going to get hit, she hadn’t wanted to end up on the floor. Hyunjeong swept back her disheveled hair and let out a sigh, *Hoo*.
From a short distance away, Yerim was watching her get beaten as if it were a spectacle. As if it had nothing to do with her.
“Honey! Honey, please, use your words. Talk to her.”
“You, move aside. That one needs a beating to come to her senses. How old is she, driving her parents crazy like this!”
Even after hitting Hyunjeong like that, Yeonguk, as if his anger still hadn’t subsided, placed his hands on his hips and fumed.
By now, she was so used to being hit that a few blows weren’t shocking anymore. She just wished this situation would end quickly.
Seeing Yeonguk this angry over her transgression felt unexpectedly like a small, petty revenge against her father. Even while being beaten, she had to stifle the urge to let a laugh slip out at the thought.
Having been slapped multiple times, the inside of her mouth must have been cut; she tasted blood. She ran her tongue over the torn flesh. It seemed she wouldn’t be able to eat spicy food for a while.
“If a child does wrong, you have to scold them sternly to make them come to their senses. Tsk tsk, Seo Hyunjeong, you have no idea how much your stepmother worries about you. When will you ever grow up? When!”
Yeonguk called Myeonghui a wingless angel. In Hyunjeong’s eyes, she was a hornless devil.
After Hyeju, his first wife and Hyunjeong’s mother, died, Myeonghui moved in as if she had been waiting, bringing Yeonguk’s first child, Yerim, with her. She was the Myeonghui he had loved desperately but had to break up with due to family opposition.
Myeonghui, who was already raising a daughter of her own, had promised to care for Hyunjeong as if she were her own. Yeonguk believed her words as gospel truth. He believed she dearly loved and cherished Hyun
