## Chapter 1268 – ##05_God Mother Dorothy (2)
##17
1.
The apartment Siwoo prepared for Dorothy was actually quite different from the ‘commoner apartment’ Dorothy had in mind.
Its name alone was TheCheongdamRiverviewPrestigePrimeHighriseTower 1st.
Dorothy, like a child, wondered if there was some kind of ‘magical meaning’ in this long name, but any Korean adult would nod their head, saying, ‘Wow, that must be a really nice apartment!’ as soon as they saw the words ‘Cheongdam’ and ‘Riverview.’
Anyway, three women were gathered at a cafe across from this luxury apartment complex, TheCheongdamPrestige (hereinafter omitted).
“Sohee’s mom, I haven’t seen that bag before?”
“Oh, this? How is it? Does it suit me?”
“It’s pretty, it’s pretty. What is it? Did your husband buy it for you?”
“He went on an overseas business trip and bought it for me, even though I told him not to.”
These women, chatting away in a cafe in the middle of the day, were the power players of TheCheongdamPrestige community.
Furthermore, they were influencers who could sway the apartment community’s opinion with a single comment.
The reason was quite simple.
They were all full-time housewives and young.
They were real-life bourgeois young housewives with so much time to spare that they hired people to do the housework.
Therefore, they could devote their free time to socializing and lead the trends in the mom cafe.
“By the way, when is the newbie coming?”
“They said she’s arriving now.”
“Oh, oh, she’s coming over there.”
“I’m sorry~ Am I a little late?”
The person who appeared at the cafe was Dorothy, dressed in ordinary modern clothes.
Dorothy greeted them lightly, smiling warmly as she greeted each person, and the three young wives welcomed her with delight.
“Oh, you’re not late at all. Come on in, dear.”
“Here you go. Did you order a drink?”
After the Witch War, Dorothy decided to stay at TheCheongdamPrestige for about three days a week.
There was no particular reason.
If she had to say, it was a kind of self-realization?
Dorothy’s wish was to become the wife of a man, not a witch of enlightenment, and experience simple (?) happiness.
And it was a small (?) gift that Siwoo had prepared, understanding Dorothy’s heart.
And Dorothy’s self-realization also included naturally building friendships with the residents.
She had a romantic idea of sharing household tips with other young wives, taking cooking classes or Pilates together, and sometimes inviting each other to home parties.
How exciting is that?
“By the way, Dorothy, you’re really not a witch, are you?”
“How can your hair be so pretty? You don’t look like a real person.”
“Of course not~ Do you want to see this? I even have a resident registration card.”
Dorothy rummaged through her wallet and showed them her ID.
“Here you go~ I also got my citizenship recently. I’m Korean, Korean.”
“Oh my goodness, I’ve never seen anyone with such a pretty ID photo.”
The three young wives had been slightly suspicious due to Dorothy’s unique appearance and aura as a spirit, even though she had used perception-lowering magic to tone it down.
But they nodded their heads after seeing the four letters ‘Park Dorothy’ written on the resident registration card, which was still fresh.
Even though the barrier of mystery had been broken, witches were still just stories to ordinary people.
It was hard to imagine that a witch they had only heard about was a resident of the same apartment complex.
“Ah~ I’m sorry again for being late. It’s the day of the supermarket sale today, so I was a bit late because I was shopping for various things.”
Dorothy, who had put her ID back into her wallet as if she were keeping the most important thing in the world, made a rather careless remark.
Supermarket? Sale?
The three young wives exchanged glances.
It was a meaningful look.
In fact, Dorothy had no idea about the scariness of this situation.
The women she had happened to start talking to at the community center a while ago were, again, the power players of TheCheongdamPrestige.
Dorothy understood this meeting as just a place for new brides to socialize, but in reality, it was a new recruit interview.
They would assess her through natural conversation, and if they judged that Dorothy was ‘not suitable to get along with,’ the three women would naturally distance themselves from her.
Of course, there would be no direct bullying that was not elegant.
However, the group chat that included Dorothy would not have many messages, they would avoid her by saying they were busy today even if she greeted them warmly, and while thinking ‘Oh well~,’ she would find photos on social media of them at an expensive restaurant, excluding only Dorothy.
It was the lonely end of a commoner who could not share the habitus of the upper class.
“Wow, you even take advantage of sales? Dorothy, you’re very frugal.”
“Of course~ In these times of high prices, you have to save to live well. I even keep a household account book every day these days. Do you want to see it?”
“Ah, no, it’s okay. You don’t have to show us.”
“I wrote it really well…. Oops! I forgot to get a stamp for my cafe coupon.”
“Dorothy, there are no coupons here.”
“Really~? No point accumulation either? The cafe over there gives you one free drink for every ten you buy~ Should we meet somewhere else next time?”
“Dorothy, you’re a really funny person.”
They were all laughing, but a subtle current was already flowing.
A condescending or belittling atmosphere.
New recruit candidate Dorothy’s clothes were plain and ordinary, the car key she had glimpsed earlier was just an average domestic car.
Her tote bag was a luxury brand, but even that was a second-rate brand, not a high-end one.
Moreover, she was acting like a neighborhood ajumma, showing all kinds of frugality….
“Thank you~”
While Dorothy was slightly distracted while receiving the coffee that was being served.
The three women exchanged opinions with just their eyes.
‘She’s a bit… shabby?’
‘She’s a tall beauty, and since she’s a foreigner, I thought she might be someone we could get along with… Isn’t she just an Eastern European who succeeded in marrying well?’
‘-20 points.’
‘Still, we should watch her a bit. There are some truly rich people who are frugal, you know.’
Dorothy was second to none when it came to being quick-witted.
Originally, as soon as she sat down, she would have noticed everything in less than a second, thinking, ‘Ah? Is that how it is?’
“Everyone~ Do you have any household tips?”
“Should we register for the morning class of the housewives’ cooking class together?”
“It seems like there’s something called group buying. Does our complex not have that?”
But that was not the case with Dorothy now.
If Linne had seen her, she would have casually said, ‘It’s a flower garden,’ because her thought process was full of flowery scents.
Dorothy, intoxicated by the joy of the simple life she had only dreamed of, did not notice the quick exchange of glances at all, not even a little bit.
“Hahaha….”
The three wives, who had only been laughing without answering Dorothy’s questions, had already changed the subject.
“Ugh, it’s annoying. I was going to go to Monaco Fashion Week this vacation, but my husband said he can’t travel.”
“Oh my, oh my, why?”
“I don’t know, he said he doesn’t have time because he’s working on a newly approved project.”
“Sister, you should be grateful. Your husband runs a business. My husband is a salaryman, but I can’t even see his face because of his overtime.”
“Oh, come on, how can that be? Still, he works at a prestigious law firm, doesn’t he? Isn’t that law firm your grandfather’s?”
“It’s my grandfather’s, not my husband’s, is it?”
“You’ll inherit it all when the time comes. Sohee’s mom, is everything okay with you?”
“Me? Well, it’s the same. I’m jealous of both of you. I wish my husband would go out more. He doesn’t do anything, just collects rent and plays golf. What kind of man is that?”
The series of conversations seemed like they were just complaining, but they were not at all.
My husband is a real estate developer and he’s going to make a lot of money because his project was approved this time, my husband works at a big law firm and he’s going to inherit it from his grandfather soon, unlike your husbands, my husband is a building owner so he just collects rent and plays golf.
It was a subtle boast, and at the same time…
“So, what does Dorothy’s husband do?”
…it was a build-up for the in-depth interview of the new recruit.
“My darling?”
Dorothy, who had not noticed their intentions at all, just smiled brightly at the word ‘husband.’
But soon, her answer became awkward.
As long as she wanted to hide the fact that Dorothy was a witch and enjoy an ordinary life, there was no way to properly explain Siwoo’s job.
What could she say?
The head of the Hesed Society? A Grand Duke of Gehenna? None of them were suitable.
“Um~ well~ it’s a little difficult to explain….”
“Oh, come on, we’re all friends here, just tell us.”
“We won’t tell anyone.”
“Um~ he just works busily.”
The three women concluded from Dorothy’s inability to give a proper answer even when they kept asking her questions.
They thought that Dorothy’s husband was probably one of those people who had made a small fortune with cryptocurrency or a lecturer who sold lectures on how to make money, who had moved in with debt and were causing trouble, or if not, he probably had a rather pathetic job.
“What do you do, Dorothy?”
“Oh, I’m a housewife now!”
“You’re a housewife now, which means you used to do something before?”
“What was it? Tell us, I’m curious!”
The smile on Dorothy’s face, which had been bright, faded slightly.
There were memories that inevitably came to mind when she talked about the past.
The cold sound of rain mixed with the sound of crashing waves.
The fishy smell of iron that spread through the thick smoke of a strong cigar.
The scene of the traitor’s eyes, which had been burning like dying embers, becoming empty.
“I just~ had a small business.”
Dorothy shrugged her shoulders.
But she couldn’t stop the memories of that day from flowing back.
