Chapter 22
“Hey, about that…”
“You probably don’t want me to stay here either.”
“… ”
“With Yugyeom’s position already shaky, do you really want to add me to the mix?”
Lee Chan’s gaze sharpened at my words.
But that was just for a moment. He quickly softened his expression and ruffled his hair.
“I don’t know why he’s acting like this either. What’s he trying to accomplish…? I’ve never seen him express emotions like this before.”
He looked as restless as I felt, biting his nails nervously.
“You’re not even the top beauty here…”
“Should I tell Yugyeom?”
“… You’re like the most beautiful person in the world.”
Lee Chan hastily corrected himself with a puffy face.
And soon, his nails found their way back between his teeth, chewing anxiously.
Under the boss of the utopia where death was imminent, despite having successors, it was an intense and ruthless atmosphere where anyone could die.
In anticipation of the impending bloodshed, Yugyeom was also expanding his alliances.
In fact, Yugyeom didn’t really have ambitions for power or anything like that.
He just wanted to survive.
And to trample those who had ignored him.
“It seems like you’ve chosen the wrong side.”
“… ”
Lee Chan silently agreed.
With a tilt of my head, I smirked at Lee Chan, who was already lost in the sunset, unable to let go of his nails.
“Now, try to use that clever brain of yours, Chan.”
Before I cut the rope myself.
As I chuckled, Lee Chan gulped down the cocktail like it was water.
—
Before we knew it, it was sunset.
The golden light filled the room, casting its glow over Yugyeom’s hair.
Since that day, whenever this time came, it felt like my feet were tied, unable to do anything else.
Under the sunset, the moment she turned back as she was being held captive felt so vivid.
Yugyeom was sitting on a chair, staring at the empty bed.
It was a pity that I hadn’t seen her sleeping here yet.
Would she be as quiet when she slept?
The thought was so out of place that it made him chuckle.
“Yugyeom, if you’re resting, shall I come back later?”
As the sun set, casting its yellow light, Yugyeom’s hair glowed.
Yugyeom lowered his head and leaned back deeply into the chair’s backrest.
“It seems like you’re eyeing opportunities to leave multiple times an hour, but it hasn’t been a big issue. Lee Chan came and went earlier this morning.”
“Lee Chan?”
“Yes. He often comes by when he’s bored. Would you like more details?”
“No, just report back to me when there’s something risky. I’m not asking you to monitor their every move.”
I hadn’t planned to go this far.
I knew she wasn’t someone I could control.
But knowing that she was like that, I had no other choice.
“It’s okay. It’s just a nightmare.”
“If you wake up, it’ll all be over. I’ll help you.”
How could I let go?
That fleeting moment…
The moment when the suffocating feeling finally broke was so radiant that even if that statement was a lie, it was the only light that emerged from the endless nightmare.
If it disappeared now, I felt nauseous, as if I would be trapped in that nightmare forever.
“I can’t. I can’t let go.”
“…”
“I won’t let go.”
In that moment, I realized from the gaze I met that if I didn’t hold on with all my might, it would disappear.
Knowing that the darkness after the light would be even darker, I couldn’t let go.
In the darkness that would come next time, I might truly break forever.
“Cha Yeonbyul.”
Every time I called her name, it etched something deeper into my heart.
So I hesitated to call her name.
But since I wasn’t calling her name directly and facing her, I hoped it would be okay, and I called out her name like a habit, relying on a faint belief.
With each call of her name, what accumulated? Emotions, relationships, or expectations?
Although I had vowed never to have expectations about people.
“Yugyeom!”
That was when.
The door burst open as if it would shatter, and a man drenched in sweat came panting in.
As the man hesitated to speak several times, Yugyeom eventually looked up and spoke again.
Even though I had sworn not to expect anything, in the blazing sunset, that vow melted away like an illusion.
“We might need to call a doctor. The lady…!”
—
“Can you call Yugyeom?”
“No.”
When the phrase “It’s not possible” surpassed fifty times, I finally made a decision.
And I swiftly put it into action.
“So, do you mind if I go out and change clothes? I’ll sleep better if I change, and it’ll be better if you don’t come back in.”
“I’ll come back in five minutes.”
Nodding with a smile, they both soon left the room.
Alone, the smile on my lips vanished.
Normally, I would have insisted that five minutes was too short, but this time, five minutes would be enough.
“From tomorrow until the last day, the remaining construction will be done on Utopia’s property.”
“They really do everything.”
“That’s not important. Yugyeom must go there, no matter what.”
Recalling my conversation with Lee Chan, I grasped what he left behind in my hand.
“Here, Yugyeom reigns supreme. There’s no way out.”
I have to meet Yugyeom.
“If I went out with Yugyeom to enjoy the mountain breeze and got lost, Yugyeom wouldn’t be able to find me, right?”
Directly.
But I couldn’t break through those ten people and go out to find him myself, and even if he heard about me, he wouldn’t come to me.
“Is this okay?”
The determination I had made a minute ago wavered again.
But there was no other way.
If I could change Cha Yeonbyeol’s fate, this was my last chance.
Although my request to bring Yugyeom had been ignored countless times, genre-wise, this much was necessary for Yugyeom to come to me willingly.
Eventually, I reached out with trembling hands and grabbed the cocktail bottle on the table.
I never thought I would do something crazy like this.
Crash!!
As I smashed the cocktail bottle onto the table, shards of glass scattered with a loud noise.
It was quick.
The attendants who rushed into the room froze as they looked at me.
“Are you doing…!”
As my gaze met the sharp shards, the attendants, who were about to approach me, stopped moving.
“I guess you know more than just ‘It’s not possible.'”
“I thought I was some sort of surveillance robot.”
I smiled wryly and turned my head.
The man who had been stealthily approaching froze.
There was no other choice. Groaning, I tilted my head sharply and glanced at the door as if to say “What can I do?”
At the same time, I grabbed the broken glass with my hand.
Blood started dripping down onto the white marble floor along with the shattered glass in my hand.
Finally, I reached out towards the attendants who were desperately trying to approach me.
As blood trickled down below my wrist, staining the white marble floor, I said, “It hurts too much.”
“That’s why you should quickly put it down…!”
“This hurts too.”
Without hesitation, I brought the hand holding the shards closer to my neck.
The surroundings fell eerily silent.
“It must hurt a lot if it hits your neck.”
It was back then when I said with a half-smile, reading my Korean textbook.
“Hey!!”
Lee Chan rushed into the room, stopping abruptly as he saw my condition.
With a pale, horrified face, he shouted, “You… You! When did I ever, this crazy…”
Speechless, Lee Chan’s eyes widened to their limit.
Ignoring him, I threw the blood pack I had kept in my pocket toward him.
“What difference does it make if we try this ridiculous show again?”
“….”
“At best, they’ll just confine us to the room.”
I tightened my grip on Lee Chan’s jaw when he tried to intervene.
“Stop it! Stop it, you lunatic!”
As my hand moved closer to my neck, Lee Chan urgently raised both hands.
Shifting my gaze away from him, I addressed the dumbfounded attendants.
“You guys, that’s not allowed here.”
“….”
“Now it’s time to call for Yugyeom, right?”
Upon my words, they exchanged glances and a few of them rushed out of the room.
Only then did I notice the pain surging through my hand.
With every drop of blood falling to the ground, it felt like my consciousness was slipping away.
At first, I thought about bursting the blood pack Lee Chan gave me to create smoke, but I wanted to make sure.
Otherwise, I would just be dragged along, eventually dying as fate intended.
I had tried to find the best possible outcome all along, and here I was.
The moment I gripped the back of the chair, feeling like my body was draining of blood, came.
“You.”
The heated voice spat out through clenched teeth.
See, it’s effective.
Yugyeom, who arrived sooner than expected, looked even more disheveled than anticipated.
His usually neatly arranged hair was wet with sweat and tousled.
Seeing his face, pale and seemingly devoid of spirit, he seemed genuinely shocked.
Yugyeom’s pupils dilated at the sight of my hand, which continued to bleed uncontrollably.
“If I confine you to the castle…”
“….”
“Did you think I’d wait quietly like a prince?”
Approaching him, who could no longer come closer to me, I stepped forward.
Even when I stepped on broken glass, I didn’t stop.
Until I reached out to him, frozen Yugyeom could only follow my movements with his eyes.
As I grabbed Yugyeom’s almost loosened tie with a hand dripping blood, he groaned as if struggling to breathe.
“Kyum.”
At the affectionate call of his name, Yugyeom’s face stiffened.
Pulling him closer, the distance between our faces narrowed in an instant.
“If you really don’t want to lose me,”
I looked Yugyeom straight in the eyes and spat out the whispered words.
“Don’t try to make me kneel at your feet with such tricks.”
TELL HIM