Chapter 75
Jinseong smirked as he watched Lee Arin fall asleep instantly, like a beast that falls asleep as soon as it lays its head down.
"Um... Brother...?"
But Lee Serin couldn't laugh like Jinseong and spoke to him restlessly.
"Um, if we need to call Ella... No... Aren't you going to check on Ella...?"
It was a question loaded with multiple meanings.
Why did you put Lee Arin to sleep when she was trying to check on Ella?
Wouldn't it be easier to talk with Lee Arin present, so why did you do this?
Are you trying to secure our safety by using Ella as bait?
If that was your intention, why did you tell us Ella might be in danger?
A single question filled with doubts about Jinseong's actions.
Jinseong smiled brightly at her question.
Then he picked up Lee Arin's charging smartphone, tossed it to Lee Serin, and said:
"Unlock it."
"What...?"
"You know the password, don't you?"
Lee Serin reflexively caught the smartphone and unlocked it. Then she placed it on Jinseong's outstretched hand.
He took a few photos of the sleeping Lee Arin with the received smartphone, then sent those photos directly to Ella.
"Huh?"
And then he called Ella.
* * *
Loneliness was like cold air.
It was a feeling that made your hair sharp and hard like glass even when you were still, freezed your skin layer by layer, and burrowed into your bones. It was so cold that when you tried to move your body, the cold became wind and turned into pain that sliced your flesh bit by bit, feeling like needles digging into each pore and sharply stabbing your body and mind.
If you inhaled in that pain, air-like glass shards swept through your lungs and disappeared, and the void left by the cold that vanished without a trace to the little heat of your body temperature only gave emptiness. The feeling in your lungs that emptied after the pain was a desolately lonely sensation that couldn't be said to be good even as a white lie.
Ella was feeling such a chilling cold.
A cold seeping not into her body, but into her heart, in the dark, empty house.
There was a saying that deprivation comes not from ignorance but from awareness.
If she had been alone from the start, she might not have known, but she’d already become accustomed to human warmth while being close to Lee Arin. Because of this, the size of the house and the loneliness that had felt so natural when she first came to study abroad now became abnormal and approached her as pain.
Yesterday was so noisy...
What she recalled was the visit of Lee Arin's group the day before.
Lee Arin, who was always noisy but friendly to her.
The timid and kind Lee Serin.
And Park Jinseong, Lee Arin's brother whom she met for the first time yesterday.
She recalled the image of Park Jinseong, who had spoken to her gently.
A well-fitted suit and a height taller than hers.
And a cute and kind-looking face that matched his way of speaking.
He was a man who looked normal and handsome, unlike what one would expect from a sorcerer said to be full of eccentrics.
He looked like a Korean from a drama.
But despite his likable appearance, there was something that made her wonder.
Why is his surname different?
It was the fact that his surname was different from the Lee sisters.
The two had the surname 'Lee', but Jinseong had the surname 'Park'.
Could there be some secret about his birth?
She recalled the Korean dramas she had watched while in Germany.
And then she began to imagine stories about Jinseong.
Did his surname change after his parents divorced, and then they reunited in that state?
Or did a woman he was dating before get pregnant and disappear, and he found out later and brought them back?
Or was he a child born to a concubine, so he couldn't inherit the surname and had to live with a different one?
She let her imagination run wild with Jinseong as the material.
And as that imagination continued and was about to use even Lee Arin as material–
Meow!
"Eek!"
The custom notification sound she had set for Lee Arin rang out.
She had just been imagining a story related to Lee Arin's secret birth, so she couldn't help but be startled. It felt as if Lee Arin had read her mind with telepathy and sent a message at just the right timing.
She checked her smartphone while trying to calm her pounding heart.
And...
"Huh?"
She couldn't help but be puzzled when she saw a photo of a sleeping Lee Arin.
A photo of her sleeping?
Why was a sleeping photo sent?
How was the photo sent if she's sleeping in the first place?
Who took this photo?
Wasn't it Lee Arin who sent the photo?
Who takes a photo of the phone owner with someone else's phone and sends it?
So is it really a photo sent by Lee Arin?
In a brief moment, numerous questions, unorganized sentences, flashed through her mind.
And these questions were soon resolved.
♪♬♩
A phone call came in.
The jazz-style music that had been used in her favorite drama filled the silent house, and the words 'Arin Lee' were written largely on the smartphone.
"Hello? Frau Lee?"
Ella answered the phone like lightning and was about to ask Lee Arin why she had sent such a photo, and if this was some kind of joke.
[ Ah, is this Frau Winter? ]
But when she heard a soft, yet somewhat heavy male voice instead of the lively female voice she expected from the other end of the phone, she was momentarily at a loss for words. Instead of questioning as usual, she asked back in a voice tinged with confusion.
"W-who is this?"
[ This is Park Jinseong, whom you met yesterday. I'm Lee Arin's brother. ]
"Ah... Oh. Yes."
Why on earth was Lee Arin's brother calling from her phone?
And right after sending that strange photo, no less.
"What... is this about?"
[ Ah. That... Huu. ]
She felt anxiety at Jinseong's voice sighing heavily.
Yes.
Anxiety.
An anxiety that stimulated her mind and seemed to poke at one corner of her heart.
[ Did you see the photo? ]
"Yes? Yes... A photo of Frau Lee sleeping..."
[ Actually... ]
Jinseong's voice stretched out long as if stalling.
Then, as if gathering strength and striking with a hammer, he uttered words that shocked her head.
[ Arin is currently sleeping under the influence of sorcery. ]
It was a statement that completely wiped her mind blank of the various thoughts that had been swirling.
"What? Uh, that. So, what? Sleeping... What?"
Only words that couldn't form sentences, that couldn't make sense, kept coming out of her mouth.
And when a little time had passed and reason returned, when she could finally utter words that formed a complete shape outside her mouth.
"I'll come right now, so wait for me!"
This was the first thing that came out.
* * *
"F-Frau Lee! What about Frau Lee?!"
Ella shouted as she burst through the door as if she would break it down.
In her other hand, drenched in sweat, was a broom that was smoking from overheating. It seemed she didn't have time to properly dress, as she was still wearing a negligee-style dress, which although long enough to reach her ankles, was made of silk and looked like it might become see-through if exposed to bright light.
Seeing this, Jinseong picked up the thin blanket from the bed and draped it over Ella's shoulders, then wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her to where Lee Arin was.
"Frau Lee!"
Ella sat down heavily on the bed next to Lee Arin, who was sleeping in a strange posture as if performing acrobatics, and only after seeing several times that Lee Arin was fine did she seem to relax, letting out a long sigh.
When Ella seemed to have calmed down a bit, Jinseong sat down facing her and spoke.
"Frau Winter. You seem to have been quite startled."
"Yes, yes... I was so surprised..."
As she was answering Jinseong, she suddenly felt the sensation of the blanket wrapped around her body.
And she became aware of what she was wearing, what state she had run over in.
"Eek!"
Ella reflexively wrapped the blanket draped over her shoulders tightly around her body to hide the negligee she was wearing. Then, with a slightly reddened face, she looked at Jinseong and said:
"Th-thank you for the blanket..."
"Don't mention it."
He smiled brightly as if to reassure her.
"You can relax. Fortunately, she's just sleeping due to the effects of the sorcery, she hasn't suffered any injuries or curses."
"R-really?"
Thank goodness.
Ella relaxed her body as if relieved upon hearing Jinseong's words.
Then she glanced at Lee Arin as if annoyed at being made to worry, but seeing her sleeping so peacefully, even that feeling of annoyance disappeared, and only the thought of relief filled her mind again.
"I was worried because she was caught by a rather vicious sorcerer. It's really fortunate that nothing happened to her."
A vicious sorcerer?
Ella's eyes widened at those words that sprang from Jinseong's mouth.
"A vicious, sorcerer? Perhaps... the fortune-teller..."
What came to her mind was the fortune-teller who had tried to make inappropriate advances on her recently.
Jinseong nodded.
"Yes. It's probably the person you're thinking of. The fortune-teller who was doing business between the hotel and Frau Winter's house."
"That... strange person..."
"Huu. He was just disguised as an ordinary fortune-teller, but he was truly an evil bastard. If I hadn't come to Russia now, something terrible could have happened."
"Something terrible...?"
He picked up a piece of paper and held it out to Ella.
"Oh? This..."
A bizarre pattern drawn on the paper.
It was the picture she had seen every time she passed by on the street.
"I thought it was strange! It's the symbol of some evil group, right?"
"Hmm."
"I thought he was a suspicious person from the first time I saw him. So my feeling was right!"
"From the first time you saw him?"
"Yes. He said the fee could be paid later, and he used a tent with this strange pattern engraved instead of the patterns fortune-tellers usually use. Anyone would have found it suspicious. But Frau Lee was getting along with him so casually..."
Ella complained as if just seeing the pattern drawn on the paper made her irritated.
Jinseong watched her silently.
However, there was a small flickering flame barely visible inside his pupils.
Huh, was that so.
What he saw in his vision was her chest hidden inside the blanket.
To be precise, it was the trace of another human inside her chest.
Physically, it was a trace so faint that calling it a trace of a fetus would be an exaggeration, not even reaching the stage of a fetus.
However, the tiny soul sleeping within that trace was so similar to that of a certain woman he had known in the past that...
Jinseong could only let out a hollow laugh.