The children of the Dunger family couldn’t cook, so they relied on raw food and poor-quality bread. Although sometimes Philip got food from somewhere as well.
“The day my brother brought meat, there were blue bruises all over his face and body. That’s why I really hate meat.”
‘Despite saying she didn’t like it, she ate a lot of it.’
Judging from Rwan’s story, Philip must have participated in some betting fights in the back of the alley. Then, would he in the future become the head of the dark organization?
The story of the two siblings of the Dunger Family was heartbreaking. It’s been a year since the maid, who stayed until the end, finally left the house. From what I heard, it seemed that the maid didn’t take care of these siblings sincerely even when she’d stayed all the way back before all this happened. I would have taught these children how to wash or even cook simple recipes.
Thomas Dunger, who used to run a huge business, was once betrayed by his partner. It was said that he fainted one day when goods brought from overseas with a large amount of money were trapped as demonic goods in the temple. However, I don’t think Thomas fainted from such a mere illness.
‘It seems like my mother used to talk a lot about curses.’
I was not a witch like my mother, so I couldn’t break the curse. I didn’t know how to cure Thomas Dunger as well. I just need to get simple household chores done as well as taking care of these kids until tomorrow and bring my mother here after she returns from the business trip. I couldn’t think of any other solutions.
After spending the night in the big house, I picked vegetables from the garden to make a simple soup the next day and did the laundry with Rwan and Philip. The morning passed by quickly.
“Unnie. Are you going to come back?”
Seven-year-old Rwan hugged me around the waist and didn’t even think about falling as she looked at me with a glimmer of sorrow.
“Yes, I’ll bring someone to treat your father later. I’ll be back today, don’t worry.”
It seemed that in the original work, I wrote about how Philip’s father died when Philip turned 22. It was about two years away from now. I couldn’t let these siblings go through such a difficult time after having suffered for as long as they could remember already.
I want to revamp the content of the novel as I want it to happen now. Unfortunately, the current me, who was reborn in the novel, didn’t have any extraordinary abilities.
I could just help the characters as much as I could. Whether it were the main leads or a minor supporting role. When I met the main lead for the first time, I just wanted to run away. After a while, such thoughts changed.
‘I created this situation, so I should also take responsibility. Trust me!’
With only a little money, I left the Dunger Family’s home and hitchhiked to catch an omnibus. In the future, running a newspaper company requires a lot of money, so I had to save up from now on.
When I got home, Gloria greeted me.
“Gloria. Is mother home yet?”
“Yes. She’s resting in the bedroom.”
“Oh, is that so?”
She stopped me from going into mother’s bedroom.
“Haley. What was your relationship with that boy yesterday? Were you two together last night? Oh, this kind of thing …. Would it be rude if I ask?”
“Huh? I already said it yesterday. We’re just friends. It’s our first time meeting each other.”
“Oh, really? Me too. You didn’t come home, so I wondered if he was your boyfriend.”
I was about to answer the weird question. However, a second question came out of Gloria’s mouth.
“You don’t have a crush on Claude, do you?”
“What?”
Gloria urgently tried to come up with excuses to me, who appeared confused.
“Oh, nothing. I know you guys were raised like siblings since childhood. Honestly, you two are strangers. Actually, I’ve liked your little brother since we were kids. So, ….if you have feelings for Claude, tell me first. I would give in.”
When she said that to me, Gloria looked to the side and her long eyelashes seemed to tremble. She told me that she was giving up her feelings, but it was obvious that she didn’t want to.
I never really thought of Claude as a man. However, I didn’t know what to answer in this situation. Love between nobles and commoners is hard to go through. However, what if Claude might be the male supporting cast in this novel? If Gloria, the female lead of this world were to love him, wouldn’t they have a happy ending?
To be honest, I was happy and excited to meet him again after such a long time. However, the pounding heart was purely the result of seeing his handsome face. Perhaps, Claude already felt comfortable with the female lead. In the fictional world, I couldn’t ignore the fact that he was a fan of the main lead.
‘Wait, if I continue the story of my novel, Gloria would hook up with the crown prince after becoming a widow, wouldn’t she? If I pair Gloria with Claude for no absolute reason, wouldn’t it be only my younger brother who was going to get hurt?’
It didn’t matter if she was my friend and the female lead in this world. The shirt is nearer than the coat. Then, a brilliant idea came to my mind, as if lightning had struck my head.
The thought about Claude and Gloria falling in love with each other, I thought they might be able to change the original story.
“Gloria. Do you want to be good to my little brother?”
Gloria turned her body as if she was embarrassed by my question and covered her face with both hands. Her ears were red.
“Yes, Claude is a wonderful man in my eyes. He’s my ideal type.”
Come to think of it, he was handsome, tall, and rich. My brother was the best man who met the requirements of the ideal type that Gloria told Charon a few days ago. I was surprised while momentarily wondering if the female lead had been telling the truth from the start.
Then, Gloria held my hand tightly.
“I mean it, Haley. Can you help me and Claude get closer?”
Was she usually the type to act so aggressively in front of the person she was interested in?
In the future, it seemed like the accident that befell Gloria’s family could have been prevented by someone who was as wealthy as Claude. That would have been better for the female lead.
‘But why do I feel so empty?’
I nodded slightly to express my intention to help her.
“Thank you. Thank you very much, Haley.”
“No, you don’t have to say that.”
I entered my mother’s room with an unsettled feeling. Uncle Thomas Dunger’s recovery was more urgent to me than Gloria’s love counseling right now. I felt a little afraid because of earlier.
When I opened the door and entered, a familiar body odor pierced my nose. It was the warm, nostalgic smell of mother. Mother was sitting on the bed reading a book.
“Mom, help me.”
At my sudden request, my mother closed the thick book she was reading. A mysterious light appeared in my mother’s eyes. I suddenly felt hesitant to make excuses.
“Does mother remember one of your words about how people were cursed? I saw someone with similar symptoms. I owe him a favor, so I have to help him. It was his father who was cursed. Mother, I’m asking you to do this. Please treat him. He’s so important to me…”
I have a habit of talking fast and rambling whenever I ask my mother for help. I felt guilty for no reason. Knowing this habit, my mother subtly raised her hand to cover my mouth.
“Shh. Haley. You’re hiding something from me, right?”
“What?”
Mom just stared at me. Back when I was young, I often fell for this kind of leading question whenever I forgot to bring cookies from my mom’s snack drawer. In my previous life as a journalist, I could lie better than anyone else. However, strangely, those lying abilities didn’t apply to my mother, who was also a witch.
I averted my eyes unsettlingly and wetted my lips with saliva.
‘Oh, did you get caught secretly selling mother’s collection? Though, you only took a few.’
Mother often said that she missed her late father, and often bought things that made her remember him. The frog statue with blue eyeballs,which were similar to my father’s eye color. And because the geometric figure had black hair like my father’s.
To be honest, mom even saved Claude who was almost dying when he was a child because he resembled father. Our warehouse is full of unnecessary figurines, which we didn’t even use in the first place. There were only a few things that belonged to mother that I sold. Maybe around six? I sold them to the pawnshop without mother’s knowledge because they had a lot of dust. Don’t tell me I got caught?
Come on, what if I get caught? As said by my mother who was my enemy in a previous life, that all girls are thieves. I decided to become brazen, lifted my chin and remained with my stubbornness.
“Nothing. What are you talking about? Oh, let’s go together. If you hold back any longer, he might die right away, mother.”
I acted like someone whom my mother owed money to. I proudly asked mom to go out immediately and said, “You should follow me right away.” Mother looked at me for a moment as I remained with my impudent attitude, and she immediately got up from the bed and packed all the necessary materials into the bag.
“What kind of curse did you see?”
When asked by mother, I told her honestly what I saw yesterday.
“Um, just a small red thread wrapped around the man’s neck and limbs, but I don’t think anyone could see it. There was something written on the thread, but it was too small to read.”
“But you could see it, couldn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my! You were born with witch powers because you took after me!”
Mom suddenly hugged me and said that she was proud of me. No, it was already hard for me to believe that my mother was a witch from the start. I’m just a writer of this novel, so I could see the contents above Gloria’s head or the curse on Thomas Dunger.
While muttering to myself, the two secrets I had hidden from my mother were now lingering on my mind.
I hadn’t confessed to my mother that this world was actually the world in the novel I wrote in my previous life. And we haven’t even talked about the letters above the main character’s head. No sane person could believe this story.
Just as we were about to pack up and leave, Gloria ran up and stuck behind us.
“Huh? What happened?”
“I, I want to come too. Is it okay, Mother?”
She took a quick look at the house and rubbed her hands together, rubbing against her apron as if something was bothering her. My mother easily allowed her to tag along.
“Yes. Right now, you should also learn how to heal sick people from me. I also need a disciple. It’s a good thing.”
Mother encouraged Gloria to learn the art of treating people and became a doctor. It was enough for a woman to be able to live on her own if she learned a skill properly. Gloria glanced at me and opened her mouth.
“Shouldn’t you pass on those advanced skills to your daughter as well?”
For some reason, Gloria looked guilty. I looked into my friend’s nervous gaze, and I shook my head as if I wasn’t interested as I shrugged. Then, my mother waved her hand.
“Her personality isn’t good enough to be a doctor. She often picks up fights with patients.”
Excuse me, mom? I could hear everything.
What mom said was not entirely true. Sick patients tend to be annoying, and they usually attack the person who was trained to heal them. Then I would also get upset and angry with the patient.
Even if I think about it, I have a bad temper to be a doctor. That was the reason why I was trying to open a newspaper to make a living as a reporter.
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