Chapter 1.3
"Don't you even greet me?"
"I just saw with my own eyes that your body is fine."
"Look at how you speak."
"Hello."
"I can't say hello."
"What about Dad?"
My stepmother wasn't scolding me. She was using the tone of a wife complaining to her husband because she was bored and had nothing to do.
"He went on a business trip to the U.S."
"...."
Dad spent about half of every month in the U.S. Haewon and the stepmother both knew this, but neither of them ever mentioned it outwardly. It was clear that Dad had another household over there. The trips became more frequent, and whenever he returned, he treated my stepmother unnaturally well.
When she remarried Dad, my stepmother had been a woman as beautiful as a flower. Though she had lost a bit of her youthful glow, she was now completely accustomed to the role of a wife, giving off a completely different impression from when I first saw her.
An awkward silence passed between us, both knowing exactly what the other was thinking without saying anything. Haewon lifted his head, taking a sip of the remaining iced tea. He saw Haejeong coming down the stairs.