Dad, who had been exceptionally busy this winter with frequent business trips to Europe, finally returned home.
Ever since he started taking care of me, dad had left most of the work to his employees, but there were still occasional instances like this where he had to go on an extended trip.
Since he mentioned that his busy streak was finally over, dad and Seojoo would be staying here with me for the time being.
Perhaps because he was returning after being away for nearly a month, the house was overflowing with vitality.
The moment Seojoo saw dad, he clung to him and refused to detach himself, and for the first time in a long while, the house was filled with the lively, noisy chatter of people living in it.
I deeply liked the bustling, chaotic energy of this space filled with my people.
Seeing dad and Hyung chat in the kitchen while preparing food was also a familiar sight by now.
Although the titles they used to address each other were still a bit awkward, they had grown to become quite comfortable around one another.
While having dinner with the family, I pulled out the flyer Seojoo had handed me earlier and informed them about the class.
Seeing me explain it so enthusiastically, everyone showed just as much interest in the class as I did.
“How fascinating. Haejoo, you used to constantly talk about wanting to learn how to make desserts so you could sell them at the cafe. This turned out so perfectly, didn’t it?”
“That’s exactly what I mean! I was actually contemplating whether I should head out to the mainland to look for an academy. But that would involve scheduling ferry times and be such a hassle.”
“Exactly, so you must absolutely learn it, Hyung. This is an opportunity!”
Seojoo actively encouraged me with sparkling eyes.
Of course, I fully intended to do just that.
No, I mean, how did something I wanted so desperately appear at such a remarkably perfect timing?
It was incredibly, wonderfully fascinating.
Was my life finally starting to experience a stroke of good luck?
As the saying goes, pleasure follows pain—things have been going strangely smoothly lately.
“Are you really that happy? Seeing Haejoo looking so full of life after such a long time makes dad feel so incredibly happy. Though, it seems you like that class more than your dad whom you haven’t seen in ages.”
“Oh, come on, dad. Those two aren’t even comparable. You know how much I’ve wanted to learn something like this. It would be amazing to have desserts I made myself at the cafe, but there was nowhere to learn. So isn’t it incredible that something like this popped up right now?”
I mumbled enthusiastically while chewing on the wrap Hyung had made for me.
Come to think of it, I really felt like it had been a very long time since I last experienced this kind of vitality.
Throughout that time, I had only been exhausted and worn down by the long life on the run and my medical treatments.
There were many days when I spent my time on edge, being extremely sensitive, continuously tense out of fear that Joo Minhyuk might suddenly spring out and drag away not just me, but dad and Seojoo as well.
Tracking down and finding the people who moved with me would be a piece of cake for someone like him, after all.
Yet, everyone has been completely safe and sound up until now.
As if he hadn’t even bothered to investigate, Joo Minhyuk gave off the impression that he had no idea who dad and Seojoo even were.
Given that he even managed to capture Hyunwook, he was a person who was more than capable of figuring out who the two were if he set his mind to it, so why was he staying so quiet?
It was probably because he had let me go.
Joo Minhyuk must have discovered the stamped divorce papers.
Therefore, he was able to formalize our separation and smoothly bring in a new Empress.
It seemed that to him, I had now become a person completely devoid of value, to the point that he wasn’t curious about a single thing regarding me.
The fact that I had lost my value also meant that I had become that much safer.
Because it meant I had gained the freedom of not being chased by anyone.
It also meant I no longer had to live in constant anxiety, worrying over whether dad and Seojoo might fall into danger.
It was for the best.
I glanced sideways at Seojoo, who was diligently grilling meat and piling it onto my plate.
Seojoo was a case where he had absolutely no memories from before our transmigration, only for them to return later.
He said that as Hyunwook and I kept appearing alternately, he felt a strange sense of déjà vu, and soon began to have dreams related to us.
Things he had never seen before yet felt familiar, things he kept thinking about, making him miss us so much that tears would fall…
He explained that while those incomprehensible situations kept repeating, the moment he saw dad, his forgotten memories began to flood back like an explosion.
And while meeting up with dad to catch up on lost times, he ended up getting entangled in my affairs.
Ever since his memories returned, Seojoo had been tailoring his entire lifestyle pattern to match mine as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Sometimes, a thought like this crossed my mind.
Seojoo must have a lifestyle and a life that he personally desired, so was it truly alright for him to just stay with me like this?
Was this acceptable?
How would Seojoo’s current family in this world view this entire situation?
My head was always tangled with these thoughts, and I worried whether all of this was merely driven by my own greed.
I had simply assumed that since Seojoo’s family is us, and since he is my younger brother, he should naturally be by my side.
However, that might not necessarily be a good thing for Seojoo.
Just as I didn’t want to let go of Hanbin Hyung—my family in the present—Seojoo might feel the exact same way.
The family members here whom he had spent a not-so-short amount of time with would surely be precious to Seojoo as well.
He would miss them because they couldn’t be together.
I worried whether Seojoo, caught between both sides, might be feeling conflicted, or if I was forcing him to sacrifice far too much.
I can’t just have everything all to myself.
Holding onto Seojoo, dad, and even Hanbin Hyung in both hands and refusing to let go of any of them made me feel like I was being far too selfish.
I worried whether I had dealt with things too complacently, blindly believing his words that he was fine just because I wanted us to be together.
This was something I would definitely need to talk over with Seojoo privately sometime soon.
“Hyung, what’s wrong? Do you have something to say?”
Perhaps because I was staring too intently, Seojoo asked with a gentle smile.
“Ah, no, it’s not that I have something to say… I just want you to eat a lot of meat. Stop just grilling it.”
“You worry about the strangest things. I’m pretty sure I eat way more than you do, Hyung.”
Looking at the brother who gave me a playful glance while placing meat on my plate, I asked him something I was curious about.
“Hey, Seojoo. By the way, how is Seoul lately? Do they still talk about me a lot?”
Even though I had left the imperial family and they had officially announced the Emperor’s separation, all sorts of speculative and comparative articles regarding the Grand Imperial Concubine had been surfacing non-stop for a while.
In truth, this was quite awkward and uncomfortable, and I wished to quietly vanish from people’s memories, but it wasn’t easy.
“Hmm… It hadn’t been too bad, but it exploded again recently. Since talks of the formal royal wedding are coming out, you naturally become an object of comparison. The figure of the Grand Imperial Concubine was a massive issue to begin with, after all. There were a lot of people who liked you, too.”
So that meant rumors were still circulating heavily.
Then when on earth would the name ‘Grand Imperial Concubine’ finally disappear?
My heart sinks like this at the mere mention of that title, so I truly wish it would vanish from people’s memories as if it had been cleanly washed away.
Then I would have nothing left to wish for.
At Seojoo’s answer, Hyung and dad couldn’t hide their anxious expressions either.
“I’ve only been looking at the articles myself so I can’t feel it firsthand, but my heart isn’t at ease because I worry those things might provoke His Majesty. Since I know His Majesty better than anyone else. I keep worrying whether this is just adding fuel to the fire.”
Hanbin Hyung lowered his chopsticks and let out a sigh.
Ah, that expression completely packed with worry.
I brought up a useless topic and ruined the atmosphere. I regretted it, but the direction of the conversation had already flowed that way.
“Dad was anxious about us settling down here too. Out of fear that someone might recognize you. Your photos were circulating heavily for a while, so your face became widely known. Just when things were quiet, photos taken together with His Majesty started surfacing too.”
“That’s why I thought going abroad might be better, but when you went out briefly, Hyung, you couldn’t adjust to it at all, so we had no other choice. Still, it’s a relief that there isn’t an age demographic here that would deliberately scour the internet to search for photos.”
Yeah. That was a massive stroke of luck.
The people who might have seen those photos back then had long since left the island, and now only those who have no interest in the internet, the Emperor, or the Grand Imperial Concubine remained here.
We were lucky.
We can just live quietly here, and when the time comes, we can look for another place.
I only hope we can live without any trouble until then.
“I’m perfectly fine now so everyone please stop worrying. Look, even a class like this opened up on an island like this, so my luck has been great lately, right? I’ll learn diligently so you guys never have to buy bread to eat again.”
“Yeah, let’s do that. Hyung will help out a lot from the sidelines too. Can’t you apply for the required documents listed there online?”
“Yeah. I can just issue them online. If I log onto the website, there should be a guide about the class.”
I put on the brightest demeanor possible to change the sinking atmosphere.
“Everyone is going to gain weight because of me from now on! Look forward to my bread!”
“Then dad will have to look into getting an oven quickly. You’ll need it to practice making desserts, right? I’m already looking forward to the smell of delicious bread, Haejoo.”
The smell of delicious bread, huh?
We haven’t even started yet, but everyone is getting way ahead of themselves.
I had merely played along with a bit of exaggeration to shift the mood, but dad understood my intention and played along beautifully.
Thanks to those efforts, the atmosphere fortunately turned pleasant once more.
The entire mood of the household shifted based on my single word and action.
It meant that the family members were reading my expressions to that extent.
I felt so incredibly sorry toward them for that.
Since everyone was being so deeply considerate of me, I shouldn’t let myself sag down into a gloomy state any longer.
It would be best to put effort into everything from now on.
If only for the sake of my family who sacrificed a portion of their own lives for me.
“Now I just need to print out the certified copy of my residency registration.”
Before heading to bed, I sat in front of the computer to print out the residency registration copy.
I was immensely looking forward to the new class I was about to start, and I was also curious about how my address had been processed following the divorce.
The registration copy would display details like my current address.
It had been weighing on my mind that I fled the palace without being able to properly organize my residence after the divorce, failing to bring a proper closure to the remaining matters.
Since this was the very first time I was pulling up a residency registration copy in several years, I had a lot of questions.
Currently, I was merely moving into and living in a building dad had purchased for us, so there was no need for me to personally worry about things like changing my registered address.
“Ah, I should have checked this kind of thing sooner, but I kept avoiding it simply because it was a headache. Even if the lawyers said they would take care of everything, this is something I should have paid attention to myself.”
Fear regarding reality and excitement over being able to learn something new intersected within me.
My mind was racing, but since it was my first time doing this, I followed the instructions and slowly accessed the website.
“Hmm, so there was a separate website for printing out a residency registration copy. I had to actually experience this to know. Since I need to print it rather than just view it, is this the right option?”
Everything about this was a first for me.
Throughout my life up until now, this was something I didn’t explicitly have to do myself, and they were matters I had no need to worry about.
When I was in the palace, the designated court maid handled it, and after leaving the palace, everything was resolved at dad’s level, so there was no occasion for me to step forward or do anything under my own name.
Perhaps because of that, doing this kind of work with my own hands felt quite fascinating.
Well, it’s nothing major!
It’s easy if you just do as instructed.
Watching the residency registration copy get printed, a smile spread across my face.
Soon after, the document finished printing completely.
Feeling a deep sense of pride, I checked the printed registration copy with a wide smile plastered on my face.
Let’s see here.
Head of Household: Joo Minhyuk.
……?
No, what on earth is this?
