* * *
Granny walked slowly, leaning on her cane.
‘Ah, I didn’t notice that.’
Are her legs uncomfortable?
‘Is it congenital or from an accident?’
When she was in the study, she was sitting, so I didn’t notice.
No matter what I thought, Granny’s gaze was very sharp.
‘Wow, if I were a normal baby, I would have cried.’
But unfortunately, I am not.
I smiled brightly.
I swayed my shoulders and sang.
“Hippler, hippur, hippupu!”
Granny’s gaze remained sharp. I kept shaking my body.
‘It’s just baby babble.’
So please stop doubting. Granny. If you do, you will be saved.
The suspicious look in her eyes faded a few minutes later. Granny sighed and said.
“Well, a baby wouldn’t know about Hitler.”
I know.
I sang calmly with a smile.
“Hipua! Ppaa.”
Only then did the grandmother’s expression soften. She took a few more steps closer and hung her cane on the cradle rail. She pulled a nearby chair and sat in front of me.
‘Hmm, she’s a bit different.’
Maybe it’s because she’s sitting in the yellow pumpkin chair where Auntie An used to sit when she played with me. She didn’t look like a demon king today.
I stared intently at the grandmother.
‘Now that I look closely, she resembles mom.’
It makes sense since they’re mother and daughter, right?
‘But why did she come? What’s her purpose?’
Being the lady of the Sungjin Group, she must be busy and wouldn’t come without a reason.
As I was pondering various things, a white hand suddenly reached out and lightly pinched my cheek.
“Hmm, hmm.”
The grandmother continued to touch my cheek, making strange noises.
“So soft.”
Of course, it is. It’s a baby’s cheek.
I reached out to grab her fingers. Watching me, she said,
“Your fingers are tiny too.”
That’s also very natural.
But, grandmother, is your purpose just to touch me?
“Is that why Soo-jung brought you, because you’re so cute?”
She abruptly withdrew her hand and sighed.
“When you grow up and lose some of your baby fat, will she abandon you?”
What! This grandmother!
I opened my eyes wide, and she frowned at me.
“But, I think you’ll look similar even when you grow up.”
Wow.
“So, were you Laozi?”
No way.
“Baow ba!”
No!
‘Though I may be Kongja, calling me Laozi is too much!’
The grandmother said while twitching one cheek.
“You feel unpleasant.”
What?
‘Why!’
This perfect face, how can you say that!
“You look like computer graphics. Too perfect, making your expressions not human.”
Isn’t that a good thing?
“That’s why there’s something oddly unsettling about you.”
Oh, no!
I was silently shocked. The grandmother continued to look down at me, unfazed by my surprise.
“Some people might like this face, but eventually, they’ll get tired of it.”
What the heck!
I couldn’t listen anymore.
I hurriedly looked at the mirror. The moment my eyes met my reflection, I understood exactly what the grandmother meant.
‘Damn it!’
She was right.
I put my hands on my cheeks and froze.
‘I understand why she said that.’
My expression was a bit off.
‘How should I describe this.’
I needed to confirm.
I tried acting as I was best at.
‘Let’s do Thug No. 3.’
It was a role where I usually threatened the female lead and then got beaten up by the protagonist.
‘Lower my gaze and smirk.’
In the past, my bug-like face synergized with this expression, making anyone want to punch me.
‘Ah, crap.’
But the baby in the mirror was different.
‘When I lowered my gaze, all I could see were my eyelashes.’
Maybe that’s why. Instead of looking sneaky, I appeared holy. Moreover, due to my perfect jawline, it wasn’t a sneer but rather a distorted smile.
The conclusion was simple.
‘I’m not used to this face.’
I needed to relearn how to move my facial muscles.
‘That’s why all my expressions look weird. Damn it. How did I not realize this?’
I removed my hands from my cheeks and sighed.
Unfortunately, I knew the answer.
‘I was too busy admiring my looks to notice.’
I lightly tapped my thigh with a small fist.
‘I lack the attitude of an actor, Lee Hanjoo, no, Ma Kongja!’
But it was too perfect a face to not admire!
I looked at the mirror again. Maybe because it was too pretty, the disappointment disappeared, and I felt good again.
‘With this face, I could drink all night without snacks.’
At that moment, I heard the grandmother’s voice I had forgotten about.
“What are you doing?”
Oh no.
‘I forgot.’
I babbled as if nothing had happened.
“He, ppu! Hipu!”
The grandmother lifted her butterfly glasses. I smiled broadly and did the ‘jam jam’ motion with my hands. It was a special service for the grandmother who liked my hands.
She muttered while looking at my hands.
“Well, you’re a baby after all.”
Ah, I guess it worked. Thank you.
“You’re kind of cute, but why did Soo-jung bring you? Doesn’t she worry about giving shares to Marie? What if the Sungjin Group gets tainted by a mutt?”
Wow.
‘So cold-hearted.’
I looked at the grandmother again. Her eyes and mouth were similar to my mom’s.
‘But very different.’
Mom, Ma Soo-jung, was known for her fiery personality in the film industry. But this grandmother was very cold.
‘It’s natural that she doesn’t like me. But calling me a mutt is too much.’
So cold.
‘Like ice.’
An ice-cold grandmother and a fiery mother. Their personalities didn’t seem to match.
‘The emotional gap between them might be deeper than I thought.’
It felt like aged kimchi.
Whether she knew my thoughts or not, the grandmother clicked her tongue while looking at me.
“Bringing in a black-haired baby, what was she thinking.”
Unfortunately, my hair is brown, grandmother.
“You’re no help to Soo-jung. I should take you and throw you away.”
Hmm.
‘Well, it’s natural she doesn’t like me.’
The grandmother was a hundred percent right.
‘I’m a minus to mom.’
She probably wants to get rid of me as much as she loves her daughter.
‘But still, I don’t want to get on her bad side.’
The lady of Sungjin Group and my mother’s mother.
‘The problem is, I’m at a disadvantage.’
She won’t easily like me.
‘Usually, one would give up here.’
But I have a coin.
‘The question is how to use it.’
The grandmother spoke to me.
“Don’t think you can stay here just because of your face.”
Grandmother kept grumbling. It seemed she didn’t like me very much.
“When the time comes, I’ll make sure to get rid of you myself.”
Ah, how brutally cruel.
“Should I just do it now? Better to get rid of you before getting too attached.”
Oh dear.
“Hmm. It’s already too late for that. Word has already spread that you’ve been adopted. If we abandon you now, it’ll cause a lot of noise both inside and outside.”
The situation was bleak. I took a quiet deep breath. But perhaps because I was a baby, my breathing sounded a bit loud.
‘Stay calm, Lee Han-joo. No, Ma Kongja.’
Let’s think this through step by step.
This person dislikes me. But I need to get close to her.
How can I do that?
* * *
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