“Chef, could you please pass me the pepper?”
The Karas mansion is bustling from the morning.
The head chef has been looking at me with curious eyes for a while now.
It’s understandable, as it’s the first time I’ve rolled up my sleeves and made exotic food myself in this place.
I cut the chicken into large pieces and added various vegetables. The head chef made a face as if to say, “What is this?” when he saw the bright red sauce of the finished dish.
“Hyun, what exactly is this dish?”
“It’s jjimdak.”
“Jjim…dak?”
The blue-eyed chef struggled to pronounce the Korean dish. When the potatoes were cooked, I took a spoonful to adjust the seasoning and handed it to the chef.
With a doubtful expression, the chef tasted the tip of the spoon and then exclaimed in admiration.
Of course, it was a fusion dish made using tomato sauce to suit the taste of foreigners by removing the spiciness.
It was a dish that was very popular even in Chappelle, so it would fit their taste perfectly.
“Hyun, you seem to have an incredible talent for cooking no matter how I look at it. I thought Yooha was talented in cooking, but Hyun, your knife skills are different. It’s as if you’ve been cooking for a long time.”
Well, considering my previous life, I had years of experience living alone. I could make most Korean dishes, even the labor-intensive cheonggukjang.
As the chef’s compliments came to an end, Karas and Son Yooha appeared.
“Maestro, see? I told you my oppa Hyun is an amazing cook.”
“I see why Yooha praises you so much. The aroma of Hyun’s cooking was so tempting that I couldn’t resist. I even skipped my usual tea time and came straight here. I feel sorry for our head chef Mikel, but today I must indulge in Hyun’s food.”
Karas smiled at the jjimdak like a kind grandmother. Kang Hyun felt an inexplicable sense of dissonance in that expression.
The reason was simple. It was because of what he had seen in room ‘0703’ last night.
“This is really delicious.”
The popularity of jjimdak was extraordinary. It captivated not only Karas but also Maya, the usually reserved and quiet secretary.
To them, mixing the well-marinated chicken and vegetables with the sweet and savory sauce and rice seemed like a new kind of risotto.
How much time had passed? When the meal was over and Karas and Yooha had moved to another room for tea time…
“Maya, if you have a moment, could we talk?”
Maya’s expression was puzzled by the sudden call. The reason I called her was simple. It was because of what I had seen last night.
Maya nodded and spoke hesitantly after a brief silence.
“Last night, I went to room 0703 because of a strange noise. At first, I intended to just pass by, but someone told me to come in. When I entered, someone was sitting and sobbing. I didn’t know who it was at first. But when the moonlight shone through the window, I could clearly see. It was definitely the Maestro.”
At first, I was almost taken aback and fell backward. It wasn’t the usual kind and gentle face of the Maestro.
The Maestro I encountered last night seemed, how should I put it, possessed by a ghost.
Sobbing and gesturing at the empty air, it was hard to see it as the behavior of a normal person.
How much time had passed? Maya seemed to hesitate, then finally spoke as if she had made a decision.
Schizophrenia.
Known as “split mind,” it is a mental illness that causes various dysfunctions in cognition, perception, affect, and behavior.
In our country, it is commonly referred to as “schizophrenia.” What Maya told me was as I had expected.
“How is she being treated?”
Of course, I wasn’t a doctor, but based on Karas’s condition last night, it seemed likely that her schizophrenia had been ongoing for a long time.
Mental illnesses often have many aspects that modern medicine cannot explain, but in the case of schizophrenia, there were not a few cases where medication led to improvement.
Hadn’t I seen inmates suffering from mental illnesses rather frequently during my time at the Western Prosecutor’s Office in my previous life?
“The Maestro refuses treatment.”
“Excuse me?”
“She is aware of her symptoms but completely ignores her doctor’s medication and advice.”
I didn’t understand. Usually, the reason mental illness patients refuse a doctor’s advice and medication is that they think there’s nothing wrong with them.
But Karas’s case was different. According to Maya, she was already aware of her illness.
“The Maestro is not treating her illness because she wants to see her child.”
“Her child?”
“She is talking about the Maestro’s daughter, who passed away seventeen years ago.”
At that moment, I recalled the large painting hanging in the mansion’s entrance. It was a picture of a young Maestro and a beautiful child together.
“Room 0703 was the room used by the Maestro’s daughter. Nothing has changed there, not even the position of items, for seventeen years. Every dawn, the Maestro enters that room looking for her daughter. She believes she actually meets her daughter there.”
I couldn’t have imagined such a reason. Now, I understood the sounds Yooha had heard every night. Moreover, it made sense why the legendary Maestro suddenly announced her retirement.
“When did it start?”
By now, there must have been symptoms of the illness.
“It has been seventeen years.”
“Excuse me?”
“Ever since her daughter passed away and the funeral was held, she has gone to room 0703 every night and sobbed. The old maids of the mansion are not unaware of this. The head chef Mikel is the same. But we understand the Maestro. We, who have lived in the mansion with her, know best how much she loved her daughter.”
Good grief, so everyone knew about Karas’s illness. Now I understood why Maya had warned me not to approach room 0703 on the first day.
In the vast garden visible through the large window, Karas and Son Yooha were enjoying their tea time together.
The image I had seen in room 0703 last night was nowhere to be found. Moreover, wasn’t she a Maestro so famous that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she dominated the 20th century in conducting?
Many listeners and musicians were still waiting for her to conduct.
“Gerard was rejected?”
John Calvin, another vice president of Calvin Pharmaceuticals, looked puzzled. It didn’t make sense.
He couldn’t believe Gerard was rejected. Wasn’t Gerard superior in capital compared to himself?
Just looking at the inheritance left by their father made it clear. Gerard was the son of the first wife, and he was the son of the second wife.
“I heard that Vice President Gerard was quite furious. It seems he was greatly humiliated by the CEO of VH Company.”
“Isn’t the CEO of VH Company quite young?”
“Yes, according to the information disclosed, he is nineteen years old and already quite a famous musician in the classical world.”
John Calvin let out a sigh of frustration. It was only natural.
He had the power to influence outcomes. His fate was in the hands of a foreigner named Kang Hyun.
Moreover, Kang Hyun was not an elite who had systematically learned about investment. He was already a great success as a musician.
At first, he thought Kang Hyun was just a lucky young Asian, but if he had humiliated Gerard, he wasn’t an ordinary person.
Like a Russian doll, every layer revealed something surprising.
“How much capital can we mobilize?”
John Calvin’s expression darkened after hearing the executive’s explanation. It was because there was a significant gap in capital mobilization compared to Gerard.
If Gerard found out about this, he would likely try to buy VH Company with money.
“Can we arrange a meeting with the CEO of VH Company?”
“They said that they would not meet anyone until VH Company arranged the meeting themselves. Vice President Gerard ignored this and tried to make contact.”
“Hmm.”
John Calvin frowned. The same method wouldn’t work. But time was desperately short.
If he couldn’t bring VH Company to his side, the pharmaceutical company would certainly fall into Gerard’s hands.
If a layman who knew nothing about drug development took over the pharmaceutical company, Calvin’s future was bleak.
“I’ll go myself.”
“To the CEO of VH Company?”
“No, to Maestro Karas. Didn’t you say the CEO of VH Company is staying with her? I’ve known the Maestro since childhood.”
Of course, John Calvin was a friend of the Maestro’s only daughter.
“This is strange.”
Son Yooha wondered about the eerie cries that echoed every dawn. At first, she thought they were the cries of animals.
After all, wasn’t the Maestro’s mansion like a forest with its vast garden?
Surely, many animals must live in that dense forest.
“There it is again.”
It wasn’t an auditory hallucination or a mistake. Every time at the same hour, she could faintly but clearly hear the sound of someone crying.
She thought about going to Kang Hyun like before, but Son Yooha clenched her fists and shook her head.
Thud.
Wasn’t she the heir to the Jaegil Group? She had been told she was brave beyond her years since she was young, so a mysterious sound was nothing.
Yet, she was becoming sensitive to every step she took.
Gulp.
The louder the crying sound became, the more tense she felt. Eventually, she arrived in front of the door where the sound was coming from.
“0703?”
It was the number of the room the Maestro had emphatically told them not to approach. The expression was so significant that she could never forget it.
When she put her ear to the door, she could clearly hear the sound of someone crying. It was a sound as if someone was deeply mourning.
‘I’ll ask about it tomorrow.’
She thought it would be better to ask about the room’s identity tomorrow.
Surely the Maestro and Secretary Maya knew about the person making these crying sounds every dawn.
Just as the pajama-clad Son Yooha swallowed nervously and turned around…
Creak.
The door of room 0703 opened with a strange sound.
It seemed to have opened naturally due to the wind blowing in through the window.
She couldn’t take her eyes off it.
She scrutinized the slightly open gap. It was dark, but as her vision adjusted, a pale figure became clear.
“A child?”
The figure was about two spans shorter than her, with hair reaching down to the waist.
It was wearing a dress that looked like something out of a movie, and the face seemed oddly familiar.
She didn’t understand. According to Maya, no child was living in this mansion.
Son Yooha, having made up her mind, slowly walked.
She couldn’t understand why there was a child in a room that made crying sounds every dawn.
Moreover, the child in room 0703 seemed to be calling her. At that moment…
Grab.
Son Yooha almost screamed. A long finger gently covered her mouth.
Her deer-like startled eyes turned to look behind her. Kang Hyun had approached quietly and turned her head gently.
Meanwhile, the door of room 0703 closed by itself.
