D 01

Chapter 1. Prologue

The darkness spreading beneath the moonlight was as deep and vast as an unfathomable abyss.

It was a scene as if the shadow of heartless despair had silently swallowed the world.

Raindrops, beginning to pour without warning, fiercely battered the window.

The sound of rain, spreading coldly, echoed through the spacious area. Then, whenever lightning split the darkness, the silhouette of a wet woman momentarily glowed, tinged with blue.

The woman, mounted atop the man, brought her damp lips close to his ear.

“Is this why you brought me into this house? To do something this dirty, to covet my body?”

Whether it was because she had been caught in the rain, or because she couldn’t contain her surging emotions, the woman’s chin was trembling violently.

The rising sound of rain and the thunder that continuously tore through the sky, deafening eardrums, seemed to directly mirror the tumultuous fate of the two people.

“Hae-young.”

Tae-joon’s voice was low and calm, but within it lay a distinctly chilling warning.

“Watch your mouth.”

“You hypocrite…”

As she loosened her body and sat up, a teardrop forming on the tip of Hae-young’s chin plopped down and slid onto the man’s bare chest.

“Deceiving me by saying you’d save me, you dirty pervert who only wants my body.”

The corner of Tae-joon’s lips curved into a cold line.

Leisurely, he grabbed her wet hair in one hand and whispered lowly.

“Did I deceive you?”

“Ki Tae-joon. You want money too, don’t you? Approaching me pretending to like me, trying to take everything I have.”

Tae-joon gently stroked Hae-young’s hair. The gesture was enveloped in a strangely languid intimacy.

“What would I do with such petty cash? Even without that, I have plenty of ways to make money.”

The lips that touched her cheek were hot.

She wanted to touch him, she longed to embrace him desperately.

Hae-young hated Tae-joon for making her hurt like this.

“You’re destined to cling to me anyway.”

Tae-joon, beneath her, sat up straight, grabbed her hair, and pulled her head back. In his eyes looking down at her, only a cold possessiveness remained.

“So, behave yourself. Stop acting out.”

The arrogant sentence Tae-joon uttered in a gentle voice froze Hae-young’s heart.

“If I let go of your hand, you die.”

Flash, lightning split the darkness again.

Ki Tae-joon was someone who knew that threats were the most powerful weapon to confine a person.

In the eerie silence, the smile spreading across Tae-joon’s face slowly disappeared. At that chilling change, Hae-young felt her hair stand on end.

“You have to stake your most precious thing too. Your body, or your future.”

Tae-joon’s final words cut through the air like a honed blade and scattered.

There was only one reason he, who had raised her like a hothouse flower, didn’t treat her gently at this moment.

It was because he knew too well that only cruel threats and brutal warnings were the sole way to bind her to his side.

The fact that she had no choice but to cling to Ki Tae-joon to survive among all the people trying to kill her felt like it was strangling her.

The feelings toward Tae-joon didn’t stem solely from the desperate instinct to survive.

The emotions she felt for him were a little deeper, darker, and more complex.

So, the only thing she could do, since she couldn’t achieve anything she wanted, was to enter hell. The hell named Ki Tae-joon, who was her first love and her dream.

Her heart, which had been marked by anger and revenge, still ached painfully whenever she faced Tae-joon.

Amidst the tangled emotions, she decided to stop deceiving herself.

“I will have (possess) you.”

In Hae-young’s voice, resentment, desire, and her last remaining faith were all entangled.

There was no certainty that this was the right choice.

However, it was clear that if she backed down, she herself would eventually shatter.

So, to survive, or rather, to protect even a single thread of her life, she had no choice but to hold Ki Tae-joon’s hand.

“Me having Ki Tae-joon is my choice. So, what you said about staking something precious? It doesn’t apply at all.”

The smile slowly spreading at the corner of Tae-joon’s mouth was clearly a sneer.

“You think you can have me?”

“I won’t give you anything…”

I will make you give yourself to me. Not me giving myself to you.

Knowing it was a futile struggle, Hae-young clearly conveyed her feelings.

Tae-joon tilted his head slightly. Then he let out a low laugh.

He firmly grasped her chin and stared straight at her.

“Then go ahead. Try it.”

Tae-joon’s coldly settled voice dug low and sharply into her ear.

In the flashing light, a fierce gleam sparked in Tae-joon’s eyes they met, but Hae-young did not waver. No, she couldn’t waver.

She involuntarily caught her breath. But, calming her fluttering heart, she shook off his hand that held her face.

“So, you’ll just have to endure me.”

Hae-young’s voice was low, but the determination within it was as sharp as a keen blade.

She slowly leaned toward Tae-joon. With the distance narrowed so much, Tae-joon’s breath seemed about to touch her.

Words couldn’t prove it.

Hae-young met his gaze squarely and gently pressed her damp lips against Tae-joon’s. Her eyes were resolute yet precarious.

The moment their soft flesh touched, Tae-joon firmly pressed the back of Hae-young’s head, pulling her closer. His touch held her tightly and wouldn’t let go.

The moment their lips parted and breaths intertwined, Hae-young sensed she had crossed a line from which she could never return.

Roughened breaths wildly shook her heart, and ice-cold touches sought to completely dominate her mind.

Unable to discern whether it was twisted love or burning desire, Hae-young pulled his neck closer, embracing him more tightly.

Tae-joon explored her ruthlessly.

His kiss was not merely contact, but an expression of intense desire, as if to devour everything about her.

Hae-young did not define Tae-joon’s intense obsession with their relationship as love.

Ki Tae-joon undoubtedly wanted something from her.

Though anxiety that Tae-joon might take everything from her at any moment constricted her throat, she couldn’t let go of his hand.

Because she wanted to live. If she let go of this hand too, it would be no different from being abandoned alone in the world.

Hae-young’s hand gripped Tae-joon’s shirt. Like someone clinging to a lifeline just before death. Desperately, earnestly.

As their roughened breaths filled the darkness and intertwined, Tae-joon was driving her deeper into confusion and longing.

Hae-young’s lower lip was sucked into Tae-joon’s mouth as if being pulled in, then slowly returned to its place.

He clumsily pushed his tongue in first, but even just that was enough to make her excited face look excessively lewd.

Tae-joon, displeased with Hae-young, who knew nothing, thrusting herself at him with just her body, pushed her even harder.

“What would someone who’s never even done it properly know, acting all high and mighty.”

Within the calm voice was a clear mockery.

“…”

“Don’t pass out disgracefully. Acting cheap doesn’t suit you.”

Tae-joon lightly held her chin and lifted her head.

At the straight-on gaze, Hae-young’s blue eyes wavered faintly.

Unmoved. No, rather, seeming amused by her state, his attitude of pressing harder made Hae-young bite her lip and offer a feeble resistance.

At that petty defiance, Tae-joon’s mouth rather twisted upward.

“Well then, from now on, I’m going to try acting cheap.”

Contrary to him, Hae-young couldn’t stand the ease remaining on Tae-joon’s face.

Now that she had lost too much to run away, if taking one step beyond the line meant dying like a dog, she might as well fight back.

“You’re acting like this because I’ve been too lenient, you’ve lost all respect.”

The touch of someone who, though prickly, had always been kind, felt particularly persistent today. As his fingertips traced up her nape, her will cracked like thin glass.

“Don’t you know your place?”