Doberman

DM

Posted by Sid, Released on January 15, 2024

Chapter 4

Without respect for others’ lives, he could ruthlessly commit any fearful act. Red warning lights flashed in her mind. Reason whispered for her to just turn back and go to her own place. The dissonance between vaguely hearing about him and witnessing it directly made Sarin deeply regret speaking up.

“It would be better to talk now when I’m having fun.”

So the trap whispered kindly, “Come into this small box.” Her sister always told Sarin, “Whatever you choose, you always choose the worst, so be more careful.”

Now was the time.

She shooked her head. Kindness vanished from Owen’s face. When his expression turned cold, someone forcibly pushed Sarin into the elevator behind Owen.

She didn’t even notice the man who had been standing behind Owen was now behind her.

“When I’m speaking nicely.”

When Sarin was forced into the elevator, Owen spoke low and dangerously.

As soon as he let go, the door closed in front of her, and the only button lit up.

48th floor.

It took less than a minute for the high-speed elevator to go up. She felt a moment of dizziness, and as soon as the door opened, it led directly into the suite’s interior. The night sky was spread out on the high glass ceiling, and the snow piled on top quickly melted and flowed down.

Sarin’s mouth hung open as she looked up at the pouring white snow. And as soon as she could see the dark blue patternless carpet underneath, a man grabbed her by the back and dragged her down.

“Ugh….”

Owen was already ahead.

The man next to him grasped Sarin’s back and dragged her to his master’s desired spot.

“Let go. Let go of me!”

As they passed through the glass ceiling corridor, she came straight to the living room. The monotonous, spacious area was neatly arranged with no unnecessary items. The color of the sofa made of white Turkish marble and cowhide was a deep gray.

Owen, who was deeply buried in the sofa, crossed his long legs and loosely faced Sarin, who was being dragged by his subordinate.

Tap, tap.

The sound of scratching on the marble was heard, and in an instant, three Dobermans rushed to Owen’s side through the open door crack behind him. The largest dog, naturally, took the seat next to Owen’s sofa on the right.

As he reached out, he quickly brought his agile head and showed affection. The other two dogs sat on either side, gathering their front paws and eagerly waiting for their turn.

Sarin looked at Owen with two eyes, understanding why his nickname was Doberman. If the Dobermans became human, they would probably be Owen himself. Their jet-black hair resembled their glossy black bodies. The beasts with eyes close to yellowish were all staring at Owen, creating a strange sense of unease.

Without giving Sarin time to think, his subordinate grabbed her old crossbody bag. The strap broke off inexplicably, and the contents spilled out onto the floor in an instant. It contained only a passport, a wallet the size of a palm, and an old diary.

“What are you doing? Don’t touch it. It’s mine. Don’t touch…”

The man didn’t respond, instead he picked up the passport, wallet, and diary from the floor and handed them to their rightful owner. With one hand, Owen petted the dog, and with the other hand, he took the passport first from the items brought by the man.

He looked at the surface of the passport, and with his lips, he flipped through the cover. After glancing at the square and honest photo, his gaze scanned Sarin once again. The picture seemed haphazardly taken, with her hair not even neat. Through it, her deeply curious eyes were revealed.

Narrowing his eyes and staring at the eyes in the photo, Owen, who knelt down to pick up the dropped item, glanced at Sarin, who was still sitting there, and looked at her with a sense of distance. With the edge of the passport, he playfully tapped his lips.

“Where’s your phone?”

“…I was robbed as soon as I arrived at the airport.”

“Oh no.”

His lips turned slightly askew. With a look of frustration, he looked at himself as if to say, “I have

the worst luck.”

“You’ve come from far away. You’re Lisa Rin from South Korea.”

Lisa Rin. Owen casually called her by her nationality and name. When she mentioned her nationality, Sarin carefully observed his expression, but it was hard to read. In the first place, the man was not someone who could be easily understood by others beyond the face he wanted to show.

He brushed off the dog’s snout and put down the passport. Then, as he reached for the old diary, Sarin quickly said, “You won’t be able to read it anyway.”

It was written in Korean, so there was no way he could read it. Unless he brought a Korean to read it, Sarin had no intention of telling him the contents.

As she said, the inside was filled with characters he didn’t know, and soon losing interest, he put down the diary faster than the passport. Then he placed his empty hands on his knees.

“Okay. So, what do you want to tell me?”

As Owen’s question was directed at her, the gazes of the three Dobermans also turned towards Sarin, almost like they were lying.

Feeling like they might pounce on her at any moment, she shifted her hips back.

“If you’re not going to talk, can I ask what I want to know first?”

The suggestion was soft, but her actions were not. Owen got up from the sofa and approached her. Perhaps because she was sitting, he felt so enormous that she didn’t even dare to look up at him. As he came closer, he put his hand on the back of her head and bent her over for a moment.

“Ugh… Ugh….”

She could have told his subordinate to let go, but she couldn’t say anything. She could only struggle helplessly as she was dragged across the marble floor. She tried to grab his wrist with both hands to pull it off, but it was no use.

In a situation where she didn’t even know where she was being dragged, she sensed the door opening. Her scalp hurt as if it were being pulled out. When she forced herself to stand up, there was a mirror in front of her. Seeing herself reflected in the full-length mirror, she realized that she was inside a powder room connected to the bathroom.

“Stay still.”

He let go of the hand he had been dragging and said.

The reflection in the mirror was a mess. Her cheeks were flushed, and her breath was heaving, clearly visible up to her chin. The man who had entered the bathroom had brought with him a sharp razor made of silver.

“Eek.”

When he gripped the knife, Sarin, who had seen something happening in front of her, tried to flee with a gasp, but the man was faster. He grabbed her by the throat with one hand and pressed her face against the mirror.

“I told you to stay still. Don’t move.”

She couldn’t just stay still because he ordered her to.

The hand that had gripped her throat lifted her chin, and soon Owen’s short fingernail grazed her cheek, causing Sarin to tightly shut her eyes. She could feel the touch coming between her long hair and eyelids. The smell of whiskey, not yet washed away, hit her nostrils with each heaving breath.

She felt dizzy.

Sarin bit her tongue and hastily licked her dry lips.

“Please let me go, please….”

Square, square.

Her breath and something else mixed. Even without opening her eyes, she could feel Owen breathing close to her face. The sound of scraping and the cut hair being pulled away came from such a close distance that her nose almost touched.

“Open your eyes.”

He said, folding the razor in half to hide the blade.

Trembling, Sarin opened her eyes. Remnants of cut hair were stuck to her cheeks like stubble. And underneath the messily cut hair, her two eyes were revealed.

One was black, and the other was unmistakably gray.

A rare odd eye for a Korean. It was a habit she had from childhood to grow her hair long enough to cover her eyes. In a rural village with fewer than 30 students in the entire school, the odd eye was something to be hidden.

Conservative adults wagged their tongues, and Mom had to constantly endure suspicions about Sarin’s existence from others. It wasn’t until she went to middle school that she realized the mocking insinuations about being the child of a foreigner.

Owen’s eyes were curiously fixed on her two eyes. More precisely, the melanin pigment gazed at the faintly bluish-gray irises.

“Pretty.”

His cloudy gray, damaged eyes oddly pleased him.

So, unable to resist the urge to cut off this messy hair, she reluctantly acted on her impulse.

Owen was very satisfied with the result.

“Crazy…”

The words didn’t come out all the way. The thin thread of reason told her to keep her mouth shut if she wanted to survive here.

“You know the subject well.”

Knowing the unfinished sentence, Owen smirked right in front of her. There were many implications about Owen written in her sister’s diary.

Sarin realized once again, through this man, that her sister was a very rational person and a good person who had never spread rumors about others.

If she had written even one-tenth of the story about this man she had experienced in an hour in her diary, she would never have thought of taking a flight. No, if she had ended up here anyway, she should have at least taken the time to reflect on herself and the worst choice her sister had mentioned.

It was truly too late to think about it when she felt it was too late to look back.

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Translator Note: