Chapter 04

Eunjo stood wandering around in front of the Troyple at dawn, utterly devastated as she watched the ambulance carrying her own body drive away.

Where are they taking it?

Will they perform a proper autopsy?

No, there was no way Kang Jinwoo would allow an autopsy. He couldn’t risk drugs being detected in her body.

“Wait, her body is completely shattered. There’s nothing left to perform an autopsy on. They’ll probably take it straight to… the funeral hall.”

Eunjo got into a taxi and headed straight to the funeral hall at Yonhui University Medical Center.

Kang Jinwoo would hold her funeral there. Since CX Soft donated a substantial amount of money to the institution every year, it would be easier to control things in various ways.

After arriving at the funeral hall, Eunjo spent the morning in its courtyard.

It was mid-September, and the morning air was cold, but not unbearably so.

She rubbed her arms with both hands and watched as one familiar face after another entered the building, unable to bring herself to step inside the funeral hall.

Every one of them wore black and wore a solemn expression.

Her university classmates, seniors and juniors, artists from the same gallery, neighbors from her apartment building, CX Soft executives…

Sitting curled up beside a flower bed, Eunjo carefully examined the faces of the people who had come to her funeral.

She felt strange.

No, it simply didn’t feel real.

Even after seeing her own corpse with her own eyes, its remains so mangled that they were unrecognizable, she still couldn’t believe it.

Even the white blouse she had been wearing before she fell was soaked in blood and looked as though it didn’t belong to her.

Not a single thing looked like it belonged to her, yet they were hastily piecing everything together, insisting that the remains were hers, and holding a funeral in her name.

It was so absurd that she couldn’t even cry.

She wasn’t angry, either. She simply felt dazed and, somehow, strangely empty.

Still, seeing her classmates and people from the art world crying for her made something deep in her chest ache.

On the other hand, watching the CX Soft executives leave the funeral hall with solemn expressions made her feel sick. They were nothing but a bunch of bats who had flocked to Kang Jinwoo the moment her father died.

“What despicable people.”

Muttering curses under her breath, she followed the executives’ retreating figures with her eyes. Just then, a taxi pulled up and blocked her view of them.

Someone whose face she knew all too well stepped out of the taxi.

Her face was pale and bare of makeup, her expression seemingly stunned by the shock. She looked so innocent and delicate that she instinctively stirred a man’s protective instincts, making him want to shelter her.

But to Eunjo, she was nothing but a devil.

She was Kim Nain, the woman who had an affair with Kang Jinwoo and driven Eunjo to her death.

After getting out of the taxi, Nain covered her face with a handkerchief she had prepared in advance and began to sob.

“Unnie… What do we do? Sob…”

Nain repeatedly wiped her reddened eyes with the handkerchief, staggering as she walked. Drawing everyone’s attention to herself, she eventually disappeared inside the funeral hall.

The sight was so utterly shameless that Eunjo could hardly believe it.

“Crazy…”

Unable to unleash the curses she wanted to hurl at her, Eunjo bit her lip so hard that it nearly bled.

That was when it happened.

A long shadow fell across her face.

The heavy sound of slow footsteps echoed against the ground.

“Ms. Na Eunjo?”

Na Eunjo.

Was it because they shared the same name?

Even though he wasn’t calling out to her, her gaze instinctively shifted toward the voice.

At the end of her gaze stood someone looking down at her with the sun behind him. He was a tall man with long legs to match his height.

She slowly raised her head to look at his face, narrowing her eyes. His face was obscured by the shadow, making it difficult to see him clearly.

“Who…?”

She regretted asking the moment the words left her mouth.

As if telling her his name would mean anything to her.

Pressing her lips together, she simply frowned and waited for whatever awkward answer he might give.

“Ms. Na Eunjo, are you feeling unwell?”

The man shifted slightly into the shade. As he did, his features, which had been hidden from view, gradually became clearer in the reflected light.

The moment his face came into view, her expression stiffened as well.

She knew him.

“Park… Juheon?”

His appearance and demeanor had changed slightly, but the man speaking to her was undoubtedly Park Juheon.

Her father’s favorite student, who had once been an adjunct professor in the engineering department at Hankuk University, and the man who had learned painting from her…

Her first love.

Did Park Juheon know Na Eunjo? How?

“Ms. Na Eunjo.”

Juheon’s voice was sharp.

A deep vertical crease appeared between his brows as he spoke coldly.

“Even so, isn’t it basic courtesy to address an investor in your agency with an appropriate title? I’m not your friend, am I?”

For a moment, her mind went completely blank.

She had no idea what to do or what to say.

While she stood there flustered and unable to utter a word, Juheon spoke again.

“What brings you here?”

His voice remained just as sharp.

“Don’t tell me you came here to… see me?”

Juheon’s gaze briefly landed on the funeral hall before returning to her.

His dry eyes swept over her coldly.

After a brief, icy silence, Juheon spoke again.

“If this is about what happened last time, we’ve already settled everything. Didn’t you understand when I told you I had nothing more to say?”

His words were as sharp as a freshly honed blade.

“If you keep acting like this…”

“Me too.”

She didn’t know exactly what kind of relationship the owner of this body had with Park Juheon.

But one thing was certain.

At the VIP building of Yonhui University Medical Center, there was no other funeral hall besides hers today.

“I knew the deceased, too.”

In other words, Juheon had come to pay his respects to the late Lee Eunjo—to her.

“Me too…”

Eunjo slowly straightened her hunched body and answered without meeting Juheon’s eyes.

“I knew her, too.”

At that moment, it felt as though a cold wind had blown from Juheon.

His lips tightened, and he stared at her without even blinking. His gaze was so piercing that she felt as though she could hardly breathe, even without looking directly into his eyes.

“You… knew her? Na Eunjo knew Lee Eunjo?”

Was it her imagination, or had Juheon’s voice cracked ever so slightly as he uttered her name?

She was curious.

Was Park Juheon truly mourning Lee Eunjo’s death?

Eunjo raised her gaze to look at him, but immediately regretted it.

The whirlpool of emotions contained in Juheon’s dark eyes seemed ready to swallow her whole.

She hurriedly lowered her gaze and looked at the tips of her shoes before opening her mouth.

“Yes, we knew each other.”

For some reason, her throat tightened.

“I heard the news and came to pay my respects, but…”

A single tear fell onto the sneakers she was wearing.

“My clothes are like this.”

She couldn’t say anything more.

It felt as though something were lodged in her throat, leaving behind an uncomfortable, rough sensation she couldn’t hide.

“I should get going.”

And so Eunjo fled the scene as though running away from him.

After leaving the hospital, Eunjo had no idea where to go.

She could no longer return to Troyple in Seoul Forest, which was registered under her name. Lee Eunjo no longer belonged to this world.

Then should she return to the home of Na Eunjo, the owner of this body?

Do you even know where it is?

A hollow sigh escaped between her lips.

Early that morning, when she had fled Na Eunjo’s home, she had never imagined she would have to return there. No, she hadn’t had the time to think about it.

Confirming the state of her mangled corpse wasn’t something that could be done as easily as it sounded.

Besides, she didn’t even know Na Eunjo’s address.

She remembered the sound of the ambulance siren as she fled the house, as well as the high-rise apartment complexes of Seoul Forest rising between the buildings.

She had run straight to Troyple, so all she knew was that the place must have been somewhere in Seongsu-dong.

She could go back to Seongsu-dong and try to retrace her steps, but she had already spent all the money she had on the taxi fare to get here.

Letting out a long sigh, Eunjo covered her face with both hands and sank to the ground.

What am I supposed to do now?

She had agreed when asked whether she wanted to intervene in fate, but how was she supposed to change her destiny if things were going to turn out like this?

Then, a thought suddenly struck her, and she quickly lifted her head.

That’s right. It asked whether I wanted to intervene in fate.

In the confusion, she had completely forgotten about the one being who could explain this extraordinary reality to her.