Chapter 12
The touching lips felt as if they were burning. In the warmth of the gentle breath, my mind went blank for a moment. A large hand that brushed down my cheek suddenly pulled me close, wrapping around my waist snugly. I remained frozen, with my eyes still tightly shut, unable to move a finger.
“You came at such an inopportune time, didn’t you,” a mocking voice remarked, causing the heat to dissipate. Yugeum slowly withdrew from me, and as I opened my tightly shut eyes, his face filled my vision. The intense heat lingered in his light-colored eyes as shadows.
But it was only for a brief moment that I seemed mistaken. A light laughter promptly concealed his expression flawlessly.
“What’s this? You should have let me know in advance so I could prepare,” Yugeum chuckled, wiping my lipstick-stained lips with the back of his hand, smudging the lipstick even more.
With the lipstick smudge and his bare upper body, coupled with his characteristic languid atmosphere, it seemed as if we were engaged in some illicit activity.
I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but the kiss just now was undoubtedly a maneuver to avoid a crisis.
However, I couldn’t help but feel my face heat up every time I saw him above me.
“You can’t fool blood,” he said.
“…”
“Isn’t that right, little sister?”
Without any attempt to conceal it, Yugeum openly teased, while I stared him down with tension, but his face remained smiling without a hint of hesitation.
“Well, when I see sister and father, I do get that feeling,” I replied.
It felt like being a shrimp caught in a whale fight. Even though it was clearly a jest, watching the fight was like being sprayed with blood.
Yugeum’s words narrowed Yuwha’s eyes sharply, and Yugeum laughed heartily, tilting his head towards me.
“Since you seem to have nothing else to say, should we finish what we started? You can keep standing there; it doesn’t matter to me.”
What? No way!
Without being able to keep my mouth shut, I conveyed with my eyes, but Yugeum still looked at me with an excessively seductive gaze.
Then, he reached out and began to unbutton what seemed to be his shirt on me.
The slow movement felt like suffocating slowly.
“Hahaha!”
As Yugeum’s fingertips touched the third button, suddenly Yuwha burst out laughing like a mad person.
“Haha! Hahaha… Anyway, it seems like our thoughts on cheap blood are different.”
Blatant mockery.
Yugeum was already aware of the reward received from Utopia, but seeing it in person was different from reading it in words. Whether it was disgust or perhaps an emotion called sympathy that made my heart flutter, I was confused.
Yugeum’s face, seemingly unchanged with even the slightest variation, only made me more unsettled. Yuwha left the room laughing loudly, and only then did Yugeum slowly descend from above me.
Without a word, well, he did say something. Anyway, in a situation I hadn’t anticipated, my still shocked heart struggled to calm down as I pretended to be calm and rose to my feet.
“Y-you… you madman!”
I shouted the words I wanted to say to Yugeum, my face pale and frozen with disgust.
But Yugeum, completely ignoring it, casually put on his shirt and asked, “Father is calling?”
“Huh? Oh, right!”
“You’re watching the princess here.”
“What?”
With a disgruntled face, I exclaimed, but Yugeum didn’t bother to respond. I, like a pufferfish brimming with venom, glared at Yugeum as if I wanted to burst. Even if he was far below Yugeum in rank or in any other aspect.
As Yugeum finished buttoning up and put on a black jacket, he turned around.
“…!”
Our gazes met properly, and I instinctively covered my mouth with my hand.
Insane.
Why am I covering my mouth?
The laughter in the lazy gaze looking at me was teasing. I felt intensely resentful towards my hand that had instinctively reached out.
Yugeum, walking towards me, painted a dizzyingly beautiful smile.
“But…,” Yugeum lowered his gaze and tilted his head, his husky voice spreading in my ear.
“It’s not your first kiss, is it?”
At the following light laughter, my face flushed again.
—
“Ilchan.”
“…”
“Hey, Ilchan. Why are you ignoring me?”
I spoke with a dying voice towards Ilchan, who was sprawled on the sofa wearing glasses and looking at documents, which didn’t suit him at all.
Even though it seemed like Ilchan couldn’t hear me at all, he completely ignored me, but I clearly saw it. His legs trembling with dwindling patience.
“I can see you’re annoyed enough to shake your legs.”
“Why, why, why are you doing this?”
Eventually, Ilchan exploded and abruptly stood up, his poodle-like hair messy.
“You’re making yourself too comfortable with me, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, way too comfortable. Like childhood friends, huh?”
At my response, Ilchan burst into a bewildered laughter.
Although he was just a character in a book, having watched reruns several times, Ilchan felt very familiar to me.
Perhaps it was because he was a character I liked, being on Yugeum’s side in the book, or maybe it was because of his personality that made any barriers nonexistent.
I shouldn’t be feeling this way, but Ilchan just kept getting more comfortable with me, leading to the current situation.
“But where did Yugeum go?”
“Ugh! You’ve said that damn line more than twenty times already, haven’t you? Try it one more time, seriously.”
To be precise, it was the 26th time.
Even though Ilchan shouted with his face contorted, I felt no sense of urgency.
Facing Baek Ha-won, Ilchan was just like a fierce cat to me.
“So where did Yugeum go?”
It was already the third day today.
Since I last saw Yugeum.
And my favorite…
“But… it’s not your first kiss, is it?”
“No, it’s not!”
The gaze that looked at me. The heat that felt like lips melting, and the cold touch that brushed my cheek.
Though I shouted as if nothing was wrong in front of Yugeum, I was on the verge of going insane every time his face popped into my mind.
Yet Yugeum, after leaving me in Ilchan’s care like that, never came to see me even once.
“Is it okay to kidnap someone and leave them like this?”
Thanks to Ilchan, who never left me alone for a moment, I was living as a hostage without taking a single step outside of Yugeum’s room.
Though it was a bit ambiguous to call it hostage-like.
“Hey, Ilchan. I want chicken.”
When I said what I wanted to eat, it was delivered to me within 30 minutes.
“Hey, Ilchan. I’m bored.”
I could see the magazines filled with stunningly handsome men, which had become tiresome to look at.
The days as a hostage were relatively peaceful, almost to the point where I could have enjoyed my hostage life.
However, there was a huge time bomb for me.
On the last day of construction, the destiny doomed by Yugeum’s hands, Cha Yeonbyeol.
My plan to win Yugeum’s heart to change that fate was rendered impossible since I couldn’t even meet Yugeum.
Meanwhile, time was quickly passing, and my anxiety and fear were growing with each passing day.
Should I try to escape?
Escaping from the 66-story building full of Utopia members seemed almost impossible, but I couldn’t just sit idly by and wait for the day of my death.
“Sigh.”
As a habit, I touched the bandaged neck. They said the wound was shallow and wouldn’t leave a scar.
The wound inflicted by Yugeum’s knife was now healing rapidly.
—
When I blinked open my eyes, the quiet darkness filled the room.
When did I fall asleep?
I got up with a stiff body, and as I did, a small piece of paper fluttered down in front of me.
<Going out. Please be quiet>
The frantic handwriting was undoubtedly Ilchan’s, even when looked at upside down.
No, why would this guy leave this on my face before going out?
Thinking of Ilchan leaving with this stuck to my forehead, I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. I crumpled the paper and threw it away.
And just then, realizing Ilchan wasn’t here, I started searching every corner of the room.
In such a spacious place, isn’t there anything helpful?
I couldn’t just sit still and wait for an opportunity anymore. It would be good to have something like the building layout or even a gun.
If Yugeum keeps not coming to see me, I’ll have to attempt an escape.
“Ha. That cunning bastard, Ilchan.”
If there was anything, the drawer of the table where Ilchan always sat was all locked.
But I didn’t give up and meticulously searched every nook and cranny.
Damn it, it was too spacious. It was more like a house than a room.
Checking the doors intermittently and searching wherever my hand reached, I noticed a clean wall that caught my eye.
“There…”
I remembered the space where I first woke up was around there. It seemed unremarkable at first glance, but thinking back now, it was strange.
There was no need to hide an ordinary room like that.
Was there something else I didn’t see? Like a secret passage to the outside.
As my thoughts went that far, I found myself unconsciously pounding the wall with my fists.
“How do I open it from the outside?”
I picked up and put down the flower vase on the table in front of the wall, and tilted the framed picture hanging on the wall. Leaning against the wall, I swept my gaze around the room, and the bookshelf filled with books next to the bed caught my attention.
Do I need to take out books from the shelf to open it from the outside? I hoped not.
As I saw countless books filling the gigantic bookshelf reaching up to the high ceiling, a sigh escaped me involuntarily.
It was a moment of contemplation whether I should pull out all those books whenever I was alone.
“That’s too cliché.”
A mellifluous voice, like singing, sharply cut through the quiet air.
Startled, I turned my head towards the direction of the voice, and at that moment, a flash like fireworks streaked across the black night sky beyond the glass window.
The brief moment of brightness, like hope crushed in an instant, was followed by an even deeper darkness than before.
The darkness somehow sent shivers down my spine, making me swallow hard.
Crack—!!!
Despite the logical anticipation of thunder following, the sensation of my heart plummeting to my toes made me dizzy.
Perhaps that sensation wasn’t solely due to the thunder.
“…”
Beneath the black shadow, red liquid dripped down, creating chilling stains.
As another bolt of lightning flashed, illuminating the entire room, the face hidden in the darkness was revealed.
Even though I had expected it, my heart stopped.
Covered in entirely red, standing proudly in the light, Yugeum smiled at me like a doll.
