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Chapter 2
From the very start, everything was strange.
Snow suddenly fell in April, and then the building she had gone to investigate exploded.
Her flesh tore, burned away, and in an instant the world disappeared. What followed was suffocating darkness that swallowed her whole.
For a moment, she thought she heard sirens. Maybe urgent car horns, too. But all the sounds of the world were faint, fading into nothing. The only thing that rang clear in her ears was—
Beeeep—
The mechanical tone that declared her heart had stopped beating.
In the pitch-black void where even herself and others could not be distinguished, a thin white line of light began to glow faintly.
Still hearing that ringing beeeep— like tinnitus, she reached out with her fingertip and tapped the line.
At that instant—
The narrow line squirmed, like a caterpillar crawling, twisting this way and that, and then slowly began to take shape.
“Letters…?”
Yes, letters.
The white line was forming words.
[You have been invited to a game.]
[Would you like to start the Mafia Game?]
What… is this?
A mafia game? What are they talking about?
Was it a dream?
Or the afterlife?
She didn’t have time to think carefully. The moment the words appeared, a darker, deeper pit opened beneath the void.
A gaping hole, swirling like a vacuum cleaner, began pulling her down.
Gasp.
Her instincts screamed that being dragged in meant the end. She stretched out her hand, clinging desperately to the glowing letters.
That she could hold on to them was strange enough. But even as she grabbed, the letters continued forming endlessly.
[Invitation to the Game]
The kindhearted you have received an invitation from □□□.
Accept the invitation and try to turn back the twisted wheel of fate.
Would you like to start the Mafia Game?
YES or NO
※This invitation will automatically expire in 10 seconds. If you do not accept, your body will be automatically discarded.
“…What?”
Your body will be discarded? What kind of nonsense—
[10, 9, 8…]
She panicked, but even in that fleeting moment she forced her mind to race.
There had been an explosion.
The building collapsed, flames engulfed everything.
That must have been when she died.
Yes, survival had been impossible. Which meant this must be the afterlife. Nothing else could explain such madness.
So then, that hole beneath her…
Hell?
Wait.
It said that if she didn’t accept, her body would be discarded.
Does that mean… I’m not fully dead yet?
Could accepting mean survival? If so—
I have to live.
She still had unfinished business.
I have to find out who did that to my family.
She had chased the truth for three long years, endured heartbreak and lived only for that goal.
I can’t just die meaninglessly here.
Grinding her teeth, she stretched out her hand.
Struggling not to be swallowed by the vortex, she tapped the words.
“Yes! Yes, I’ll do it!”
[You have accepted the invitation. The game will now begin.]
At once, the darkness was consumed by white light.
…And then, she opened her eyes.
Because nothing about this was normal, she thought she must be dead—or dreaming. That seemed the only rational explanation.
Even the first man she saw upon opening her eyes was so perfectly handsome that he lacked any trace of warmth or humanity. Yes, it had to be a dream.
“Didn’t you hear me? I said let’s break off the engagement.”
She blinked in a daze, recalling the man who had left the hospital room just ten minutes earlier.
“This whole thing happened only because you lost your sight. But now that you can see again, our agreement should end too.”
Each word he spat was sharp and icy, as if tipped with frozen thorns. They were only words, yet they stung her whole body.
“You were the one who said it. That unless the sky split in two, your eyes would never heal. And so I should take responsibility forever.”
The sneer curling his lips was vicious.
“But it looks like the sky really did split. After all, you can see now.”
The look in his eyes when he said that… If she had reached out, she was certain she would have been cut.
“Let’s never get involved again.”
Even his farewell stung.
He shoved a bouquet of flowers into her arms as though discarding them, then turned his back without hesitation.
“What a ridiculous dream…”
Thank goodness it was only a dream.
A man like that existing in real life would be absurd. And to be despised so deeply by such a man—it would wound her.
“At least it’s only a dream… What a relief.”
…Because she wasn’t Yoo Hae-in.
Still holding the bouquet, she stared at the door through which the man had left.
It was a dream, and yet the scent he left behind tickled her nose.
She didn’t know him, yet the fragrance felt oddly familiar.
And then, suddenly—
“Wait a second.”
Yoo Hae-in?
That woman.
The one who told her to come to the training center if she wanted to hear the truth.
Heiress of the Ino Group.
As her thoughts swirled, a memory resurfaced—the voices she had heard while trapped in the void.
“Who is this patient?”
“She’s the fiancée of Seo Do-woo, the second son of the chairman of Seohyun Group!”
…What?
Instinctively, she lowered her gaze to the hands clutching the bouquet.
White, delicate hands.
She turned them over, and her breath caught.
They were different. Not subtly—completely.
The shape of the nails, the curves of the fingers, even the palm lines were unfamiliar.
Turning her hands this way and that, her lips trembled open.
She dropped the bouquet and staggered off the bed. Her legs, weak and unfamiliar, gave out beneath her.
“Wh-what is happening to me?”
Clinging to the IV stand, she somehow forced herself upright again.
“A mirror. I need a mirror.”
Dragging her shaky legs, she stumbled into the bathroom.
Switching on the light, she gripped the sink for support.
She couldn’t bear to look at the mirror yet, keeping her head lowered as she tried to steady her breath.
Her chest quivered with unease. Every exhale trembled.
This was just a dream, right?
“But still… What kind of insane dream is this?”
There had to be limits to shock value.
Her knuckles whitened on the sink as she braced herself.
After a long pause, she finally lifted her head.
Slowly, she opened her tightly shut eyes.
And in the mirror… a woman’s figure looked back at her.
A woman with gauze and bandages covering her face.
Her hand rose, trembling, and touched her own cheek. Her plump lower lip. Her sharp nose. Her perfectly almond-shaped eyes.
“N-no way…”
The skin beneath her fingers, the sensation against her hand—too real, not an illusion.
“This… can’t be real.”
She traced her reflection again. The pale hand in the mirror was too beautiful.
Shaking her head, she touched her face more roughly this time—pressing until her cheek reddened, until the bandages nearly peeled off.
Clutching the sink, she squeezed her eyes shut.
She had to be mistaken.
Yes, mistaken.
But when she opened her eyes again—
“M-me… I’m Yoo Hae-in?”
No matter how she looked, the woman in the mirror wasn’t her.
It was Yoo Hae-in.
The woman she had chased for three years.
The woman who held the key to everything—
No, the very cause of it all.
She was staring back at her from the mirror.
