Chapter 15.
It was the first time I’d seen him in bright daylight.
Dressed in a flowing, loose-fitting white silk shirt, Yu gyeom resembled sunlight itself.
Especially her hair, which was long enough to brush past her eyelashes.
I thought it was the color of molten moonlight. But now it looked like it would melt and crumble in the afternoon sun.
“Is this your favorite?”
Yu gyeom took the mask from my hand and held it up to his face. What I thought was a funny mask was mesmerizing and deadly when superimposed on his face.
His lips, as red as the lace on the mask, twisted in a dizzying twist.
Yugyeom stared at me as if urging me to answer. The eyes behind the mask crinkled beautifully.
“Why are you so surprised?”
I blinked, wide-eyed, and slowly lowered my hands from around my ears. I hadn’t realized my mouth was still gaping open.
In my imagination, Yugyeom is still the protagonist of a dark noir film, so I guess I’ve unwittingly lumped him in with the moon, which is only visible at night.
Standing in the sunlight that washed over him like a wave, he looked even more unreal.
“I thought you asked me to come every day.”
“…….”
“You said you wanted to see me every day.”
That had been exactly 12 hours ago.
With no time and no hand, I decided to just go for it. I figured if it wasn’t going to work, I’d have to find another way, and if it was going to fail, it might as well be fast.
But I didn’t expect him to come so soon, and in the middle of the day.
“……I don’t know if he’ll come.”
I answered honestly, and Yu gyeom smiled his habitual smile and reached for my hand. His touch was soft but cold as he tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear.
“I guess I wasn’t lying when I said you and your brother are good friends?”
The words I spat out were more surprising than the man standing before me now.
“He warned me outright. You touch him, you die.”
I was dumbfounded for a moment, like a program with an error.
Baek Chun-yi? Baek Ha-won said that?
That couldn’t be right.
“My brother cares about me a lot.”
He smiled nonchalantly, as if he knew it was obvious, and asked me again about my relationship with Baek Ha-won. The answer came quickly.
Needless to say, Cha Yeon-byul and Baek Ha-won’s relationship had gotten worse, not better, after I entered this body.
So Yu-gyeom and Lee Chan are mistakenly thinking that Baek Ha-won is angry that I was kidnapped.
This is news that makes me want to clap for joy.
Yugyeom tied the red string at the end of his mask behind his head.
The red color stood out against his pale skin.
“Do you think this will make me look pretty?”
I almost lost myself in her smile, bright as a spring flower, even though I knew she didn’t mean it.
I wondered if she would fall for me first.
* * *
“Aren’t you crazy?”
Thump. Thump. Ichan yelled and slammed his head on the desk.
“I missed it, I missed it again!”
I looked at him with compassion as he pounded his fist on the desk in frustration.
The words WARNING! were splashed across the computer screen in red letters.
“How can you cover your tracks and run away when it’s so obvious you’ve been trapped?”
Someone had tried to access the server on Ichan’s laptop. And they’d left without leaving a trace.
Ichan used his genius to get into enemy internet servers and steal information.
The way he laid traps in cyberspace, deliberately exposing fake information to lure hackers into attacking and then analyzing them backward to defend against the next attack, was admirable and unique.
It was a strange sight to see a man whose talent had gotten him to Utopia, and yet he couldn’t catch them.
“Maybe you’ll get through.”
As he laughed and teased Yi Chan, Yugyeom pulled out a block of wood and the tower came crashing down in an instant.
“Ah! I win!”
Every day, no matter what time of day or night, Yugyeom would stop by the room and stay for up to two hours to play a game with me.
The game was something I insisted on to see if he would leave with just his face on. The winner would ask questions and the loser would answer truthfully.
But yesterday, the day before, and today. Not once did Yugyeom win.
“You’re not going to lose, are you?”
“Of course not.”
I looked into Yugyeom’s eyes, cautiously, but there was nothing to read. I leaned my face into my bent knees, trying to figure out what to ask.
It was kind of like a fan meeting, but I resented the fact that I couldn’t ask what I wanted to ask in peace.
The festival was already half over, and I was cherishing every moment I could get back.
One of the questions I got was quite a big opportunity.
I don’t know if Yugyeom is answering honestly, but it still means something.
But I couldn’t ask him a blatant question.
“…… Is this a kip?”
“Yeah, sure.”
I hesitated, looking at Yugyeom’s eyes, and he smiled and nodded.
Rubbing the red, dark marks around his eyes, Yugyeom stood up.
Even as they played games, made light conversation, and laughed, she couldn’t trust what she saw.
It’s unlikely that Cha Yeon-buyl would have been playing this game with Yugyeom in the original, but I’m not sure it would have changed anything.
“Good night, princess.”
Yugyeom greeted me in a soft voice.
I’ve told him several times not to call me that because it makes me cringe, but it’s no use, and I’ve half-given up by now.
Yi Chan stood up from his desk, clearing away the clutter to join him.
“Be quiet.”
Ichan said, holding the laptop carefully in both hands and staring at me intently.
It was his usual tirade whenever he left me alone. Today, my rebellious streak was strong.
“Yeah, yeah.”
I smiled broadly and waved.
Yugyeom followed me out of the room, Yi Chan turning around with a dubious look on his face.
Silence filled the room, leaving me alone. In an instant, the rebellion melted away, leaving only a heavy feeling of helplessness.
The overly peaceful and comfortable environment made me forget that I had been kidnapped.
It was Yugyeom’s way of dealing with people: soothe, tie, whisper sweet nothings, and eventually bend them to his will.
It was by design, I suppose, to keep me quiet and content with what I had.
“…….”
After Yugyeom and Ichan left, I lay on the couch for a long time, staring at the ceiling and racking my brain.
I’d searched every inch of this space whenever I was alone, and now I could see the layout with my eyes closed.
I realized that maybe I knew what was where in this room better than I did in my room in my world.
I expected it, given their meticulous nature, but there was nothing helpful.
“Maybe I should get some sleep…….”
I hadn’t slept well for days, and the fatigue was weighing heavily on me.
I crawled to my bed, but something caught at my feet.
“Phew.”
It was a unicorn mask that made me smile. I picked up the mask and was about to take a step.
I snapped my head around to stare at the door at the sound of the silence.
What was that noise?
The silence that returned was somehow more ominous. The air around me sharpened as if something was about to happen.
Yugyeom or Yi Chan wouldn’t be this quiet. I cautiously moved closer to the door and pressed my ear to it.
“A woman? There’s a woman? How many times has that bastard fucked a woman?”
“I don’t think it’s that kind of woman. Yugyeom, the owner of the room, is absent, and it’s suspicious that Yi Chan comes in every morning and leaves at night.”
The voice sounded familiar.
Yuhwa, and who?
“This hasn’t happened in three months. I haven’t seen him come in or go out, but I’m sure it has something to do with Bai Chen. He didn’t just take things.”
“You’re sure you’re prepared for that, right?”
“Yes. It looked like he was going to join a poker game in the basement as scheduled.”
“Gee. Why did you lock the door again, give me the key.”
“I don’t have it with me, just a second…….”
I couldn’t stand to listen any longer. I rushed out and started looking for a place to hide.
Because of its open structure, once the door is open, you can’t escape prying eyes unless you’re invisible.
There is only one place to hide completely: the secret room where I first woke up.
“Please, please!
My fingertips clattered to the floor, but I didn’t care. Something that would leave me alone, but also poke a hole.
That’s boring.
I’d been putting it off for so long, but it was the only thing that came to mind.
Desperately scanning the shelves, my eyes locked on the word I was looking for.
I finally found it. Romeo and Juliet.
Desperate, I grabbed the book off the shelf and waited for the wall to open.
“…….”
I put the book back in and pulled it out, wondering if something was wrong, but to my surprise, nothing happened.
…… Wow! This can’t be it.
This isn’t the book, this is crazy.
I racked my brain picked up the book and threw it.
The corner of the book landed with a thud against a picture on the wall somewhere.
“……?”
It hit so hard that I thought the picture was going to fall off, but with a rattling sound, the wall opposite the bookcase spun like a revolving door.
At the same time, the door swung open with the sound of a key being turned.
