“Did you have a nice chat?”
Ye Sara returned to her original state faster than expected. After Sori was quickly taken off the spot and Sohee’s father settled down, he cleared his throat slightly and spoke in a calm voice.
Well, Sori’s cheeks had turned a bit red from the touching earlier, but anyway, it was as it was.
“Uh… about that.”
Sohee’s father pondered for a moment whether he should apologize for his second daughter’s actions, but he decided it would be better to let it slide. Since Ye Sara hadn’t said anything, he thought there was no need for him to bring it up first.
Sohee looked at Ye Sara with slightly anxious eyes.
In reality, Sori was still a young child. The act of touching Sara’s cheeks probably wasn’t the result of deep thought. Judging by how casually Sara had Sori sitting on her lap, it must have been Sori who asked to play first. It seemed like that innocent playfulness had now turned into an embarrassing predicament for her.
Being Sohee’s younger sister, she knew how to draw the line firmly, refuse babbling, or teach her a lesson when necessary, but Sara was nothing like that. In fact, even if the other person wasn’t a child, Sara’s defense was quite flimsy.
… Yoo Ha-neul, Lee Soo-ah, and even Sohee herself had crossed that low defense without a second thought.
And the reason for that low defense was Sara’s lack of understanding of human relationships.
Up to now, she had thought of it as a kind of opportunity, but… her thinking had been too shallow.
For Sara, it was a wound. Moreover, it might become a considerable weakness in forming relationships with others in the future.
For instance, if another guy approached Sara—
Just imagining it made her strength clench into a fist. Sara is pretty and has money too. It wouldn’t be strange for someone to approach her. I heard she might even have a fiancé.
If she becomes a maid, should I start reintroducing the rules of common sense from scratch?
… But my sense of common sense is quite different from the ordinary kind.
While Sohee was lost in thought, the conversation between Sara and her father continued steadily.
“Of course, I think you’ll be worried. It’s not just a simple part-time job; it requires you to stay here and be consistently around me.”
Yeah, that’s right.
It is worrying.
Sohee’s father thought so.
However, his concern wasn’t specifically about his daughter. Looking back, Sohee wasn’t a child who would fall for the word ‘love.’ Back then, after listening to the phone call, he couldn’t think straight as blood rushed to his head—but now that he saw the situation, the girl in front of him, Ye Sara, didn’t look ‘dangerous’ at all.
Of course, setting that aside, there were still things to worry about as a father. Even if Sohee liked this girl named Sara, it felt like the chances of opposition from Sara’s family were quite high. In fact, if she intended to become a maid, wouldn’t that lower the chances of a relationship even more? Until now, they had been equals as friends of the same age, but the moment she became a maid, the relationship would shift to a master-servant dynamic.
Of course, Sohee was a proud daughter he could show off anywhere… but that would also be true for Sara’s parents.
No, more than that.
What was even more concerning was how Sohee looked at Sara.
He was, after all, Sohee’s father. He trusted his daughter.
He believed, but—
“Dad.”
His daughter called out to him, pulling him from his thoughts.
“There’s nothing to worry about. And I’m not saying I’ll work for free.”
Is everything really fine…?
What if, just possibly, Sohee did something to that girl named Sara?
She might manage the maid work surprisingly well. Sohee had handled a lot of household chores while he was away at work. But would she really not do anything to her employer while following around the person she liked every day?
“Oh, wait.”
Sohee’s father exclaimed as something suddenly came to mind.
“Then, may I ask what’s going to happen about school?”
Since Sara said it would be a comfortable conversation, they decided to keep it casual.
Sara and Sohee exchanged glances before speaking again.
“I’m going to transfer to Sara’s school.”
“What school is that?”
In response to his question, his brows furrowed slightly, and Sara answered.
“It’s Hwayoung High School.”
Hwayoung High School.
He was familiar with that school. It was renowned for its high tuition fees. In fact, it was something that an uninterested person might not know about, but since he had lived in this neighborhood since childhood, he often heard rumors about that school being close by. Of course, he didn’t know all the details but had heard that the tuition was in the millions and it was difficult to get in.
He let out a light sigh.
Yeah, I could allow a part-time job like that. Transferring schools because of a first love was something I could think about and allow. However, the tuition at Hwayoung High School was just beyond what he could handle. He didn’t even know if Sohee’s grades were good enough to get her into that school.
“Sohee, I don’t think that’s going to work. With Hwayoung’s tuition…”
“Oh, I’ll support it fully.”
Sara interjected politely, maintaining her courteous tone.
“… Excuse me?”
He had just been thinking of speaking casually, but the moment he heard that, formal speech slipped out.
“The tuition can be covered as part of employee benefits.”
Employee benefits…?
Thousands of millions a year…?
“And if you think about the salary paid to the previous employee, I could have easily covered the expenses to go to Hwayoung High School even without my financial support. So you don’t need to worry about money.”
His mouth dropped open at what he heard.
*
In fact, many large corporations offer tuition benefits. Supporting the college tuition for employees’ children or covering training costs.
Of course, comparing that to their company doesn’t mean much. The people working here are either directly hired by the chairwoman, or I am personally hiring them. But I didn’t want to be stingy to the ‘people’ I would hire.
Well, it wasn’t exactly a faction, but I needed to make sure that the people under me didn’t harbor any dissatisfaction.
Simply throwing money wouldn’t be enough. Just take a look at the people working in this mansion. It has to be something that comes with a ‘merit.’ I still didn’t have an idea on that yet.
In that sense, if Sohee becomes my exclusive maid, that could be the first step.
I’m definitely not thinking of treating her lightly. Plus, Sohee was one of my friends.
“The previous employee’s salary was 500 million won. Removing medical insurance and taxes, it might be lower, but I’ll make sure it’s at least that level.”
With my words, Sohee’s father’s mouth dropped open.
And Sohee’s did too. It seemed she hadn’t expected such an amount to be proposed.
“O-Oh?”
And Sori, who couldn’t understand that reaction, simply tilted her head, repeating the words without knowing the meaning.
“Uh, no, there’s no need to give that much…”
“I told you, that’s what the previous employee was receiving. Of course, that’s assuming you receive proper training and do your job well. If you don’t meet my expectations, I’ll be cutting back.”
As I said that, Sohee nodded with a stiff face. Uh… I was joking.
In fact, it wouldn’t really be anything major. Yang Hye-in managed all the staff in this mansion, but Sohee wouldn’t have to go that far. Whether the servants in this mansion would actually listen to her was another question.
“And also, I will set the working hours within the legal limits. So you don’t have to worry too much.”
When I looked back at Sohee’s father while saying this, he fell into thought for a moment.
And then,
“Sohee, when does your work start?”
He asked Sohee.
*
“Sis, bye~!”
Surprisingly, Sori didn’t seem too sad about parting with Sohee. Or maybe she just didn’t understand the fact that she was moving away? Either way, she was a cheerful little girl, bright enough to keep a good mood.
Being alone felt a little frightening, though. She had casually climbed onto my lap earlier, catching me off guard.
“If you need to take care of your sister, you can bring her here. But you’ll have to keep her by your side at all times.”
“Uh, yeah, thanks…”
Sohee replied with a slightly dazed expression while still wearing her training outfit.
“And soon I’ll order a bed for you, so you can sleep there. After all, you can’t just live on the floor with a sleeping bag.”
Thinking back, it wasn’t such a bad thing that Sohee would be living in my room. In fact, if Sohee were to be alone, she’d probably be quite worried. There’s only one person in this mansion I could consider to call ‘my ally.’ I didn’t think the staff would openly try to harm me, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have ways to give me trouble.
… I feel sorry for Sohee’s father. I’ve skipped talking about this matter. If he knew the situation I was in, it would have been hard to get his approval for Sohee to work here.
“Uh, then.”
Sohee cleared her throat a bit exaggeratedly,
“W-Well then, Miss, this way—”
“You don’t need to use that kind of tone yet; you haven’t started working.”
I cut her off sharply.
“I told you, we have to do the handover… And you have to take care of your transfer too. You can’t just come to our school right next week.”
Today was still Saturday. I didn’t know how long the transfer process would take…
Ah, now that I think of it, this is pretty complicated too. Transferring schools takes a lot of work, doesn’t it? Should I change Sohee’s address to this mansion completely?
…
Huh, what a pain.
I doubt the servants in the mansion would help me with this.
“… But Sohee.”
“Yeah… Huh!?”
Sohee jumped in surprise when I suddenly called her, startling me too.
“Wh-What? What’s wrong…?”
“Uh? No, it’s nothing!”
She was smiling too much for it to be ‘nothing.’
I let out a small sigh and said,
“By the way, um…”
Speaking of which, what should I call her now? I had always just referred to her as a maid before, but now that she had quit… um, Yang Hye-in? … Isn’t that a bit awkward?
“Do you happen to have the contact information for the… ‘previous employee’?”
So in the end, I chose that ambiguous title.
