🔊 TTS Settings
Prologue
Why did it come to this?
Yeon-woo trembled as she met the gaze of the large man blocking her way.
Even in the dim light, those black eyes bore straight into hers. His Adam’s apple moved up and down at the end of a thick neckline, radiating a dangerous atmosphere.
At nineteen, Woo Jeong-ha’s gaze—once filled with kindness toward her—had changed. He had lost his memory and become a completely different man.
“You knew it’d make me feel filthy, but you provoked me on purpose.”
“…Heh.”
“To run away?”
The hand that slipped under her blouse was merciless. Red marks were drawn over her pale skin. From beneath his tilted gaze, Yeon-woo gritted her teeth as that hand slid up her flat stomach. A dangerous flame flickered in his black eyes fixed on her.
“…Ugh, let me go.”
“I don’t want to.”
It was a meaningless resistance. Their lips overlapped for a moment, then the kiss grew damp, obsessive.
Wherever lips touched, red petals bloomed. With every muffled moan, Jeong-ha’s eyes curved in satisfaction.
“Hhht!”
At last, his hand toyed with the strap of her undergarment. The threatening sensation sent tremors boiling through her stomach.
“You said you could handle everything.”
“Hh…”
“But this, you can’t handle?”
His low voice weighed heavily in her ear. Jeong-ha’s lips curled as she squirmed against him. In his half-mad eyes, only Yeon-woo was reflected.
She had to choose—would she push him away to the very end, or accept him?
“I… can’t handle it. Instead—”
“…”
“Think of it as me using you.”
At that, Jeong-ha let out a rough laugh. Passion blazed openly across the face he tried to mask with composure. In one swift move, he pulled her into his arms.
“Fine. Do that.”
“…Ugh!”
“Seo Yeon-woo, have it your way.”
Had she always known it would come to this, someday?
Yeon-woo’s eyes trembled as she lifted her head to look at Jeong-ha.
Even if he no longer remembered her, the man she loved—still loved—was right there.
Even if he had forgotten everything.
“Kiss me.”
A tear streamed down her cheek. She reached out, clutching his neck.
Haa—
With a gasp, he wrapped her small body in a fierce embrace. Their bodies pressed together as if becoming one, her slender legs parting as they drew closer.
“Seo Yeon-woo, open your mouth.”
Even if a ten-year-old love wrapped around her like fire, she had to leap in willingly.
Because on that day, by the sea, he had saved her life.
Part 1
Early February.
If you take the bus from Gojung-eup and get off at the last stop, you’ll find a small, desolate sea with no one around.
This place had no name.
Yeon-woo simply called it “the sea.” For her, this place was both a part of the world’s oceans and the whole of it.
Stumbling, she arrived and crouched down on the sand.
“…”
Slowly, she took off her shoes. The sharp sea wind lashed her delicate skin like a blade. Her worn school uniform skirt whipped about.
Cold.
The horizon was dark, and the sound of waves roared as if to swallow her whole.
She had made up her mind to die, but it still felt miserable.
Why did it have to be the winter sea?
“Ha… haha. Damn it.”
At last, her suppressed emotions burst out. Yeon-woo tilted her head back toward the sky.
She had endured, endured again, through a wretched life for nineteen years, but nothing had changed.
It was relentless.
Just as money begets money, debt begets debt. And in less than a year, all of it would be in her name.
“You’ll be screwed when you turn twenty.”
“You don’t think you’ll actually go to college, do you? Damn, who’s gonna pay for that? You think the loan sharks who want their money back will send you?”
The sneering voice of her drunken cousin, clutching an empty soju bottle, echoed in her small head.
Yeon-woo was barely nineteen. She thought if she endured a little longer, if she kept studying, she could escape her aunt’s house and finally have a place to lay her head.
If only her mother hadn’t suddenly borrowed from loan sharks and died.
But no.
With her hope crushed, death seemed closer.
Her frail body shook where she stood. There was nothing left that wasn’t terrifying.
Behind her was hell. Before her was the sea.
“I can do this…”
Her voice scattered into the waves. Even knowing sharp stones pricked her soles, she forced her small body step by step into the sea.
“…Hhh. Cold.”
Somewhere deeper, there would be a place for her. That thought brought a strange comfort.
“…”
Soon the water lapped at her neck. Her skin screamed from the searing chill.
Then—something brushed rapidly past her arm, splashing hard across the surface before sinking below.
“…?”
What was that?
Her dazed mind snapped back when the same thing brushed by again and plopped into the water.
A stone.
When the waves briefly pulled back, she glimpsed a small stone. Her head turned instinctively. Stones didn’t just fly into the sea on their own.
“…”
A man sat on the shore.
Not far away, a large, dark figure was watching. When he noticed her glance, he picked up another stone in his fist.
“…Who are you?”
“What are you doing?”
Plop, plop.
As the stone skipped across the water, Yeon-woo let out a hollow laugh. Was he seriously throwing stones at someone about to die?
“Ha.”
“I asked what you’re doing.”
With something—maybe a cigarette, maybe candy—between his lips, his voice was low but distinct. Even in this deadly cold, it pierced her ear.
“…”
His words were grating. That there existed someone who would ask “what are you doing” to a person who had stepped into the winter sea to die—ridiculous.
Yeon-woo let out another laugh. She glared at him, and he casually pulled the lollipop from his mouth, standing up with a lazy posture.
“Trying to die?”
“…”
“Too bad. Tide’s going out right now. If you really want to die, you’ll have to go deeper.”
Yeon-woo frowned, lowering her head. He was right. The waves that had nearly swallowed her throat were ebbing away.
“If you want to die, do it faster.”
“…”
“Or wait for next time.”
His maddening voice pierced straight into her heart.
