“Yeah. If you want to live, you have to stick around, even if you don’t want to. Next to me.”
Dabi, the only daughter of a dermatology representative with branches nationwide, has walked the elite path. Though everyone envies her, she suffers from a pathological stealing disorder due to her strict parents’ upbringing.
By chance, impulsively swallowing her friend’s ring, Dabi encounters a suspicious handsome man who claims the ring is his, and soon she begins to feel a chilling sensation spreading within her body…
* * *
Fear made my fingertips tremble, and eventually, heat gathered in my eyes. Tears welled up and flowed down my cheeks without pause. The man wiped my tears with the back of his hand and spoke softly.
“Crying won’t help you.”
“Ugh, I… I’m sorry. What I said earlier wasn’t serious. Please take me home.”
“I’m sorry too, but that’s not possible.”
“You crazy bastard… Seriously, why are you doing this to me?”
“Your attitude changes like flipping a palm. It’s charming.”
“You’re insane, ugh, ugh…”
The man didn’t seem likely to listen to me at all. Begging was useless, and fighting back seemed even less likely to help. The worst futures I could imagine began to unfold in my mind. Thoughts of being alive while having my abdomen split open without anesthesia, or having my eyes removed, or experiencing horrific things as a woman flooded my mind.
“I’m scared.”
As soon as I uttered it, a wave of fear hit me to the point of dizziness. My breathing became ragged.
“…I don’t want to.”
“If you stay still… Hey, are you okay?”
The man’s clear voice began to fade. A massive anxiety seemed to suppress all my senses, rising above my head.
“I said I don’t want to….”
“Can you hear me? Hey!”
It felt like something was boiling hot inside me. At that moment, I felt something wriggling and grotesquely emerging beneath my skin.
“I don’t want it, I don’t want it, I don’t want it!”
“Ha!”
Extreme anxiety crashed over me like a huge wave. The fear building in my chest grew larger as something covered my skin.
