I Don’t Want to be a Villainess

After searching for Yang Hye-in for quite a while, I eventually accepted the fact that she had quit when I didn’t receive any answers from the staff and went back to my room to lie on the bed.

Someday, a new staff member will come. Of course, they won’t be like Yang Hye-in. They might be kinder than Yang Hye-in, or they could be even more brusque. If they’re kind, they’ll be replaced sooner than Yang Hye-in, but if they’re brusque, they might stick around longer.

Thinking about it, Yang Hye-in was more of the brusque type. She usually only did her own work and only started talking to me or giving unexpected answers recently.

Yeah, today she looked even more unsettled than usual. If it was because she found the medicine and the will, that sort of made sense.

“……”

The wide room was silent.

In fact, it had been quiet for over two months. Only a few days of friends coming and going made it a little lively.

It’s strange to think about it. I’ve only known these kids for just over a week.

Is this normal?

Well, during the beginning of the semester, I used to swarm over to my friend’s house with other friends. Of course, even at the beginning of the semester, I wouldn’t just go to a friend’s house after knowing them for just a week… but, I guess girls might think differently from boys.

I tossed and turned in the silence for a long time. It was still far from night, but there was nothing else to do.

Without Yang Hye-in, I didn’t even know where my phone was or where my wallet had gone. Someone must have taken them, but none of the staff in the house were talking to me.

If they were threatened, I guess they would respond. But how could that be called a conversation?

There was no ally in this mansion.

The staff members who witnessed me, the highest-ranked owner of this mansion, getting fired would probably try even harder to make sure they didn’t lose their jobs.

I don’t think everyone working here is being paid as much as Yang Hye-in. But even so, they would undoubtedly receive a good chunk of money to keep quiet.

They wouldn’t want to give up easily.

“……Should I just buy them off?”

As I thought that, I decided against it.

It’s easy to save someone drowning in debt. As Han Garam said, the amount of money an individual can borrow is limited anyway. Even if they borrowed from a proper bank and even went to loan sharks, it wouldn’t matter.

It’s not easy for an individual to take on hundreds of millions in debt.

Speaking of which, there was a drama about that. They gathered a bunch of people drowning in debt and made them compete for a prize pot of several hundred million won.

Most of those people, whose lives had crumbled under debt, had debts in the tens of millions at most.

……Thinking about it like that suddenly feels so empty.

That several hundred million would be money I could make in less than a year.

Money makes money. If someone has a lot of money, they will naturally gain even more.

That’s why I didn’t have to watch the people around me crumble under debt.

But still, that’s as far as it goes. Just like how having a lot of money can save a person with less, beating someone who has more money with more is difficult.

It would be stupid to fight with Choi Na-kyung using all my trust assets. I can’t start a fight without knowing exactly what cards Choi Na-kyung holds.

If it comes down to money fighting, the first one to spend will lose.

……It would be a long and tedious battle.

*

After lying on my bed for a while, staring at the ceiling, I apparently fell asleep.

Knock, knock, knock, someone knocked on the door.

I opened my eyes, frowning. It looked like I had dozed off with the lights on in the room. My eyes were blinded by the light streaming from the ceiling as soon as I opened my eyes.

How long did I sleep? Well, it doesn’t matter how many hours it was. Anyway, I had fallen asleep on Saturday afternoon, and the next day was Sunday. Even if I had slept the whole day, it would still be early Sunday afternoon.

But looking out the window, it seems it isn’t Sunday yet.

Well, who cares if I sleep until Monday? Even if I skip a few days of school, I would still receive perfect attendance when I graduate. I might even get a graduation certificate without going to school at all. Thinking that way, I really wanted to try experimenting with finding out just how far I could push it.

The lead committee member would surely explode.

Once again, knock, knock, knock, I heard someone knocking on the door.

Could it be that the staff brought dinner?

Even if they don’t speak first, they definitely can’t let me starve to death. Even if it’s twisted, I’m still a being that receives Choi Na-kyung’s ‘love.’

But I wasn’t… hungry.

Thinking about just sending them away, I decided to eat instead. I had increased my meal amounts, now able to eat a bit more than two months ago; I couldn’t just shrink my stomach back down again. That would be a waste.

When I go to school, I’ll keep exercising… Well, I can’t know what would happen or what I’d say at school next week right now.

Knock, knock, knock.

The other person was quite persistent. Seeing them stubbornly knocking on the door means they probably weren’t someone who could just come in.

So, the only person who could come in here was Yang Hye-in.

It’s ironic that there’s no one to take over when the head staff is gone. Maybe this was a deliberately inconvenient system made like this. Showing that “if you act like that, if one staff member disappears, it will be this inconvenient and unreasonable,” without even saying it in words is a very Choi Na-kyung-like, sinister idea.

I only met her once, but they say first impressions are incredibly important. Let’s consider this a first impression of Choi Na-kyung.

I got up from the bed and headed to the door. Though there wasn’t a knock, if they had come to bring me food, they would be waiting patiently outside.

Or maybe they just left it by the door. Thinking about it, I didn’t know much about those people either.

Slowly, I walked to the door and opened it.

“What took you so long to open up?”

Shin So-hee asked, frowning, as she stood at the door.

“……Huh?”

Seeing her wearing training clothes that looked like she was ready to jump out any minute seemed quite out of place here.

Isn’t there no way to come in here unless I directly let her in?

“I’m coming in. I’ve been standing here for a while, and it hurts.”

Shin So-hee passed by me as if it were a matter of course.

“No, no, no, wait a second.”

I closed the door and followed her.

My head was spinning with questions and I was unsure of where to start asking.

Um, so…

“How did you get in here?”

“I jumped over the fence.”

That’s illegal!

Well, I guess if I say I won’t report it, it wouldn’t be a crime, but still, the fence is pretty high. It’s not something you could just climb over with bare hands.

Plus, Shin So-hee was carrying a large backpack right now. It looked stuffed with stuff.

“Oh, I used a ladder. I had one at home.”

……Did she just leave it behind?

“Well, I’ll just bring it back later and put it away.”

“Not that! That’s not what’s important… is it?”

As I mumbled, completely confused, Shin So-hee shrugged her shoulders and then set her backpack down. It thudded when it hit the floor, so it must have indeed been full of stuff.

It felt like a bag that screamed that she was planning to stay for a few days.

“…Are you planning to stay over?”

“Hmm? No?”

At my question, Shin So-hee tilted her head in confusion as if it were a strange question.

“Or?”

“I’m planning to live here for a while.”

“……What?”

I froze, momentarily speechless.

“I said I’m going to live here.”

Once again, Shin So-hee repeated it, her voice filled with assurance, as if she thought it was a given.

“……Um, so…”

I was looking for the right words and finally let out a long sigh.

Well, given her personality, that’s possible.

Since she could physically feel how I was living, she might be thinking of doing whatever she could to help. She probably thought she had to help me, to break through my grim emotions. That’s why she secretly came to my house like this.

“Well, as for underwear, I brought plenty, so there’s no need for concern.”

She said, poking her toes at the backpack she set on the ground.

“No, that’s not it. It seems like you don’t get the situation…”

Since the Head had been there to see the situation directly, there’s no way that three people, including Shin So-hee, could come into this house. Perhaps they could get in without being noticed for a day, but using a ladder to jump over the fence every day was unrealistic.

“No, I’m very clearly aware.”

But Shin So-hee’s response was far beyond my expectations.

“You heard that your exclusive maid got fired.”

“…Who told you that?”

“From that Yang Hye-in person.”

It seems they met when I wasn’t looking. Did she ask them to help me?

……No way.

The will. The sleeping pills.

“You—”

I widened my eyes and opened my mouth, but Shin So-hee spoke first.

“So, what I’m saying is that the ‘exclusive maid’ position is now open, right?”

Shin So-hee grinned as she said that.

“I came to apply for an interview. What do you think? Are you thinking of hiring me?”

“Uh…”

I couldn’t keep up with the pace of my thoughts as they struggled to catch up with the situation.

“Um, so, what do you mean by that?”

I ended up asking her what seemed too obvious.

“I heard this is ‘your’ house, right?”

Well, that was true. More accurately, it was under Ye Sara’s name, but right now, I was in her situation.

“Then naturally, it’s your authority whether or not to let anyone in this house, right? Your thoughts should be prioritized over that of the Chairwoman or whatever. So I thought about that.”

Shin So-hee said while poking her hands into the pockets of her training clothes and looking straight at me.

And she smiled as she said:

“So, what if I convince you to let me in and become one of ‘your’ people in this house?”

There was no sign of any darkness in her expression.

“What do you think? Want to hire me?”

And again, she asked me that.

“Ah…”

I stood there blankly for a moment, failing to provide an adequate answer, then nodded and said,

“Yeah.”

“See?”

Shin So-hee responded and then grinned at me again. And—

“Oh, but how much will my salary be? Thinking about my plans, it seems like I need a generous paycheck.”

She suddenly brought up a harsh reality.

“Ugh.”

Seeing me pull a face, Shin So-hee chuckled.

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