All the hidden dust in the house

‘Study abroad…’
Even though it was a foreseeable event, the word felt so suffocating now that Selene was looking at him like a stranger.
“If you come back after five years, your feelings for me will have changed too, Theron Cox.”
“No, they won’t change.”
“Well. By then, the plan you and my uncle concocted will be meaningless.”
‘I wish five years would just fly by so I could prove my feelings with that.’
‘That after five years, the Rigus Coast would belong to the imperial family and I wouldn’t need money at all, but I still love you and want to marry you, and have children and spend my life with you.’
So perhaps what would change after five years was not his feelings, but Selene’s.
If she left like this, she would completely forget about him there.
“I’ll wait for you even if you go to study abroad, Selene.”
“Do as you please. It will just be a waste of time.”
That was the end of the conversation.
Selene, who had passed by Theron, got into the car parked at the main gate without hesitation.
The car quickly crossed the road and disappeared.
Theron, who had been left behind, staring pathetically at the back of the car that had left, belatedly came to his senses and kicked the lamppost in front of him.
“Damn it!”
‘How could I have spoken to Selene like that after finally meeting her?’

‘I should have held my head high and said confidently’

“I don’t care at all if you go to study abroad. I’m confident I can wait, so go as long as you want. I’ll always be in the same place.”‘

He couldn’t have been more pathetic, giggling at Selene after meeting her for the first time in a while and then hesitating in surprise at the mention of studying abroad.
“Was the giant fly hovering around the lamppost again today?”
Just then, a middle-aged woman’s voice from right behind him surprised Theron, and he turned around.
It was Gwendolyn.
Selene’s maid.
He had been caught kicking a trash can while waiting for Selene near here before.

“The reason I kicked this trash can just now… was because a ridiculously large fly was rudely flying around the ducal estate, so I was trying to shoo it away…”

‘I had just babbled on in a moment of desperation.’
“There are no flies. There was only Selene, who ignored me.”
Theron replied bluntly, feeling awkward.
After all, she would know it was an excuse, no matter what he said.
“Lies are bound to come back as deep wounds.”
Gwendold, who seemed to have come out to throw away the trash, was holding a long, cylindrical can filled with paper and dust.
“You seem to know what happened between Selene and me.”
“Yes, perhaps for a long time.”
“…That means.”
“I knew what you were hiding, Mr. Cox.”
At Gwendolyn’s answer, Theron’s eyebrow twitched.
Her words sounded as if she knew all about Orlando Ashcombe’s plan to make his niece a divorcee.
But what bothered him more right now was not how she knew, but something else.
“Then why didn’t you say anything to Selene? If you’re her beloved young lady, you could have given her a hint.”
In that moment, Theron became wary, wondering if Gwendolyn was one of Colonel Orlando Ashcombe’s people.
It was dangerous to have that man’s people near Selene.
However, Gwendolyn answered with a calm face, but without hesitation.
“There are many reasons, but I wanted the young lady Selene to feel a variety of emotions because of you, Mr. Cox.”
The bitter look that flashed in her eyes for a fleeting moment did not seem like she was lying.
It seemed she was not one of Colonel Orlando’s people, but her answer was not very convincing.
‘She just watched because she wanted Selene to feel various emotions because of me? And this is the result?’
It was an incomprehensible reason for Theron.
“Don’t you regret that decision now?”
Even at the serious question, Gwendolyn smiled sweetly.
“The beginning may have been intentional, but you genuinely love the young lady, don’t you, Mr. Cox?”
“Of course.”
Theron answered immediately.
It was a question that didn’t even require thought.
“Then don’t give up and show your sincerity to the young lady. Without hiding anything anymore. With the mindset of showing all the hidden dust in the house.”
“…”
“By revealing what kind of person you are and introducing yourself anew.”
‘Show her all the hidden dust in the house…?’
At those words, Theron first thought of his biological mother lying in the hospital room.
Besides that, the shabby past that he had not told Selene in detail, and the side of him that had tried so hard to fit in with the upper class also came to mind.
‘Would it really be helpful to confess such things to Selene?’
While Theron was contemplating, Gwendolyn, who had already emptied the trash can she was holding, was dusting off her hands.
“This is all I can say. Since the young lady Selene is so firm, I can’t take your side any longer.”
“I didn’t particularly expect anything.”
She had already helped him before.
He had only been able to make up with Selene because she had given him a hint that she was going to the piano shop in the city to buy a new metronome, so he was already indebted to her for that.
Besides, in a situation where Selene was so thoroughly ignoring him, he didn’t feel like getting help from a maid she trusted.
If it were to be revealed later, it would be another wound for Selene.
“Then be careful on your way back. And don’t send any more flowers. It hurts my heart every time I have to throw them away.”
Gwendolyn said that and disappeared into the mansion that Theron so desperately wanted to enter.
Theron took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and got into his sedan.
Although he heard that Selene was throwing away the flowers he sent every day, perhaps because he had expected it, it didn’t hurt his heart that much.
‘Since I sent them in a gift box, she must have ordered her maid to throw them away without even opening them.’
‘He had sent them as flowers because he was worried about the empty vase if he didn’t send a bouquet, but it seemed it had been a meaningless act.’

Theron, who had returned to his mansion, opened all the windows to the stuffy indoor air.
But instead of being cool, a dog-like smog crept in, and he had to close them immediately.
‘Damn Cantora.’
‘What’s the point of living a little faster with cars mass-produced in factories, when everyone is going to die early from this dust?’
‘Nothing was going right.’
However, as he closed the window, Theron had to wonder if he had the right to curse this smog.
Looking back, it was his company that was lending money to the car factories.
‘It’s a necessary evil to make money.’
‘And as a result of that, isn’t the second building going to be completed soon? Lysander and Gary were so excited that they were already choosing the main dish for the party that day.’
‘I wish I could be excited just by choosing a main dish too.’
Theron frowned and looked at the blueprint of the second building on the table.
Even in the dreary black-and-white drawing, the magnificent building was shining brilliantly.
‘Yes, it was actually something to be excited about.’
‘If he weren’t suffering because of Selene’s matter, he would have been as excited as Lysander or Gary and would have been choosing the main dish for the party with them.’
But now he couldn’t.
He could only think of this building as the root of all his problems, and Theron would become gloomy whenever he thought of the building that would be completed.
The symptom had worsened to the point where he now wanted to destroy it so that it would be out of his sight.
But suddenly, that crazy thought pierced his mind.
‘…Destroy?’
Theron’s eyelids, which had been staring at the blueprint with a sullen look, vibrated slightly.
Of course, it was a ridiculously crazy act.
How many things would he have to endure if he destroyed a building that was almost finished?
However, he felt that what he would gain would not be insignificant.
For example, the ability to show Selene his sincerity that money was no longer important to him.
That was an incalculable gain in Theron’s current situation.
Of course, it was not something to be decided impulsively.
He had to check in numbers what he would have to endure if he demolished a nearly finished building for the representative’s private reasons.
If he didn’t calculate it in advance, he would have nothing to say when Gary came running with a foamy mouth and questioned him.
‘Above all, I can’t let Selene starve later.’
Theron, who didn’t even realize that the main reason was also because of Selene, immediately brought a calculator and started tapping it.
The sound continued until the smog in the outside sky thinned and was dyed black.