Chapter 139:

Lee-yeon frowned. “What?”

But Kwon Chae-woo was focused. His mind was thinking hard about that moment.

“No matter what the situation is,” she had told him, “Dangerous or urgent, do you really think I’m a woman who’s oblivious to the rest of the world? If I ask you to take me anywhere, could you do that?”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Every moment I live, I save you, I chase you instinctively. It may seem selfish right now but my world revolves around you, Lee-yeon.”

His heart was pounding. “Fuck.”

He shoved himself into her tight hole, going as deep and as far as he could go. His back tensed at the feeling. She squirmed against him, but his mind was now focused on something else.

His mind drifted to the little boy who had come to his home when he was thirteen, he had boycotted everyone. His family was careful and kind, they treated him like broken glass. He wasn’t familiar with his birth parents and his three older brothers. Though they acted like they were family, he couldn’t help but feel like they were actually wicked people who had split him and his mother apart.

As time went on, things stayed the same. His heart only grew colder and he became increasingly obsessed with the cello. He had rejected his family so much that he had come to a point where he would bite anyone who tried to touch him. He had become a boy who didn’t speak to others and played the cello in the dark.

He was isolated from the people he was supposed to be closest to and, in the end, they decided to send him abroad, hiding his identity from everyone else.

There was only one thing he wanted to say, but he never could. He missed his mother, but he knew that all she had been his kidnapper. Still, he missed her and he wanted to return to her.

He snapped out of the thought and grunted. “I’m really sick of all the fuss.” His thrusts were at their strongest now and his grip on Lee-yeon was tight and hard. She was almost there.

Suddenly, a wave of white overtook her and she writhed against Kwon Chae-woo’s body. Still, he continued to move.

Lee-yeon didn’t remember that he came.

***

“Spare me!”

Where was the man who thought he had all the power? Where was the predator now?

Kwon Chae-woo pulled the duct tape from the man’s mouth and untied the cloth beneath. He shoved it into the mouth of Lee-yeon’s cousin and glared. He was scared to death—which was understandable considered how he was covered in dirt and blood from head to toe.

“Were you burying?”

It was Jang Beom-hee who answered. “Yes, there were too many mountains around.” He bowed.

Kwon Chae-woo grimaced. “Are you saying there are more of these useless goons?”

The cousin flinched at the sound of his cold voice.

“Did they teach you nothing but how to bully others at home?” Kwon Chae-woo asked. He grabbed the edge of the trunk and looked at the man inside, curled up like a garbage bag. “Don’t be nervous.” He grinned, but it wasn’t truly a grin. It was a sickly thing that spelled danger. “I only learned how to use a knife and axe at home too. We’re pretty similar in that way.”

The frightened man’s heart was racing as he looked up at the man who loomed over him. Lee-yeon, who is this?

Kwon Chae-woo continued. “I’ll have someone follow you like a dog from now on,” he said. “Maybe for your entire life, they’ll follow you until you die.”

“Please!” Lee-yeon’s cousin screamed. “Spare me!” He had thrown all his pride away as soon as he was being pushed in and out of the ground.

But Kwon Chae-woo just continued. “You’ll see him when you get married,” he said. “When you have a kid, when you go on to live a happy life. At the wedding, at your child’s kindergarten, in front of your house, everywhere… he will follow you like a shadow you will never get rid of.” He watched as the other man struggled and tried to break himself from. “Try,” he said coldly. “Struggle.”

He shut the trunk again. Inside, a scream broke loose but he could barely hear it.

“It’s going to be a long night,” he sighed.

***

When she woke up, she was alone.

The only trace of Kwon Chae-woo having been there was the medicine on the table and the shower robe she was swaddled in. The robe fastened so tight that it took her a while to undo it.

She thought about calling him but didn’t. Since they put on a show at the lobby last night, she was sure others must have heard about it. She tried to put it all aside. Right now, Lee-yeon just felt sluggish.

“Hey, Director So,” Director Park greeted her when she arrived. It was the third day of judging. “You don’t look so good. Try not to push yourself, okay?”

“You’re telling me to be careless?”

“Not quite!” he laughed. “Don’t think like that.” He snuffed out his cigarette on the lid of his coffee and threw the remains on the ground.

Lee-yeon frowned. “Director, you can’t just throw things here like that.”

The man gave her a look. When he realized she was serious, he shook his head. “It’s already a dump, but I’m sorry. Sorry.”