"What the hell. I told you to take responsibility, and all you do is sit there apologizing."
He took out a cigarette, muttering that if Oscar hadn't been outside the door, he would have seen blood here several times over. Watching this ridiculous spectacle made his blood boil, so he turned his back on the bed.
"Go find a place to bury that woman."
However, the subordinate, who had been cautiously watching his superior's sharp demeanor, paused for a moment and then carefully opened his mouth.
"Um, by the way, Senior."
"Why?"
"For some reason... it seems like she's coming to her senses."
"...?"
Just as Simon was about to light a cigarette, he turned around and met the eyes of a woman shrouded in a hazy light.
The brown eyes piercing her clear, white face instantly drew one's attention. The moment their eyes met, Simon felt the woman's awareness returning.
"I'm sorry, Miss."
The old prostitute of Felphe held and soothed the woman she had intended to sell off, and the stranger, ignorant of material things, was slowly regaining stability in the arms of the prostitute who had intended to sell her off.
Of course, Simon’s reaction to seeing it was consistently terrible.
"I can't understand it. What kind of mess is that?"
Even in the midst of this, the transparent brown eyes were becoming clearer moment by moment.
The woman who had become a living key was troubled whether she died or went insane.
Simon, looking at her with cynical eyes, lit a cigarette and thought.
Right. What does it matter how it happened? As long as it happened, isn't that enough?
Yes, that's enough for now, right?
Brown eyes were visible through the spreading black smoke.
Simon held a cigarette in one hand and gave a cynical greeting.
"Are you conscious?"
***
The suffocating shadow of the nightmare gradually faded the moment she felt the warmth and the touch of a hand stroking my back.
I'm sorry, I was wrong.
The moment the voice, which had sounded faint like a voice heard underwater, suddenly grew louder, Seo-a met the red eyes turning to look at her. The man, who had lit a cigarette and was exhaling smoke, opened his mouth.
"Are you conscious?"
The moment she heard the sharp voice, Seo-a realized that he was the subject of the chilling conversation. At the same time, she also recognized that he was the one who had been by 'that man's' side.
Men of equally burly physiques appeared from behind the man who was approaching her step by step. Then they pulled out the one who was holding her.
The warmth that had saved her from the surging memories suddenly slipped away.
"What? Why, why? Please save me, I'm awake!"
It took a little more time to realize that the warmth that had saved her was actually the very person who had pushed her into the abyss. It was only when the man with the red eyes was right in front of her that Seo-a realized the person being dragged away was the dignified innkeeper.
Heavy and intense presences swarmed beyond the briefly opened door.
She couldn't sit on the bed. As she hurriedly got out of bed and placed her feet on the floor, her knees felt as if they were about to give way. She tried to sit up, supporting herself with her palms on her trembling legs, when she saw long, slender legs in her line of sight. Black shoes with gleaming toes stopped just one step ahead.
"..."
As she placed her hands on her thighs to support herself and looked up slightly, a man with eyes as red as rubies was looking down at her.
"Can you walk?"
The tone was polite, but she felt like if she answered that she couldn't walk, he would tell her to crawl over.
"...Yes."
A hoarse, cracked voice came out, scraping at the throat. Then the man turned his back. The man, who had been walking with his long legs stretched out, reached the doorway and stubbed out the cigarette he was holding in the ashtray. Then he turned around.
As she took a step under the unspoken pressure to follow him obediently, her heart felt like it was going to burst.
Beyond the opening door, terrifyingly heavy presences were coiled up like venomous snakes.
Where could I be? Who is the person who said they were waiting for me to wake up?
The one who kept flashing through her mind was definitely that man.
A man who seemed to have been molded from darkness.
At the same time, her teacher's words came to mind.
A life that would become as precarious as a lamp in the wind the moment it was revealed that the key was in hand.
One, I am not afraid of a life in danger.
If the beginning of life is the beginning of sin, then isn't atonement ultimately death?
If there is one thing I fear, it is only one thing: facing death without any meaning, without being able to take my grandfather with me.
At the moment when the sound of her heart pounding like thunder struck her eardrums and jer exhaled breath felt as if it were covered in frost, the man with the red eyes disappeared beyond the door, and she also took a step beyond it.
The presence from beyond the layer surged in vividly.
A vast space with an exotic landscape unfolded. Brilliant light split and poured down from the rows of windows. Nevertheless, the reason this place felt dark was likely due to the men in black clothes filling the space.
A qualitatively different aura from that of the guards at Felphe Bank could be felt from each of the men standing here and there. Each one was as sharp as a finely honed knife and as massive as a renowned mountain.
One by one, eyes seemed to turn back, and soon everyone was looking at Seo-a. At that moment, she felt as though she were standing in the middle of a large and rugged canyon.
A rugged mountain filled with sharp piles of rocks. A place where a wind swirling with an eerie howl whips through the hair, and the spray from a waterfall plunging with tremendous force drenches the face.
Seo-a stopped without realizing it. But the man with the red eyes walked away steadily.
He crossed the room leisurely, like a beast in a canyon. As he walked, the men on the path stepped aside. As if moving to find their respective places, the scene inside the room changed with precision, like a picture slowly coming together.
Eventually, when they had lined up on both sides like the wings of a bird, the person walking across the room stopped. Then, with the utmost courtesy, he bowed deeply to the right.
Sunlight poured down upon the deeply bowed black back.
Everything flowed as it did, yet only the sound seemed to have vanished. Just when the sound of breathing seemed unusually loud, and the sunlight reflecting off the black back felt like it would blind one, a curtain of light so vivid it stung the eyes parted.
They said there was a saying in the ancient scriptures.
In the beginning, there was light, and darkness was born from light.
Revealing himself atop the back of the bent-over man, he was like the darkness born from light described in the scriptures.
The men standing spread out on either side bowed their heads toward him as he walked. Receiving the greetings of black beasts, the man approached as if crossing a dense canyon.
As the man with the red eyes straightened his back and took his place on the right, he stood leisurely in a spot among the men that anyone could see felt was a throne.
With men of immense presence, each like a named mountain, lined up on either side like a folding screen, he kept both hands stuffed into his pockets. Despite his attitude of almost lax ease, the combined presence of the entire screen was no match for that single man.
The moment she met his unusually deep blue eyes head-on, Seo-a lowered her head. She saw the hem of her skirt clutched tightly and the back of her hand, which had turned pale white. And the sound of her breathing, just as pale, and her heart pounding as if about to burst, shook her eardrums.
Her nerves, on a sickeningly high level, were completely preoccupied with groping for his presence.
He took a step.
She felt suffocated by the footsteps approaching her. However, like someone unable to avoid water rushing in from a distance, Seo-a had no way to stop the approaching man.
Before she could react, glittering black shoes and long legs suddenly appeared in her field of vision as she hit the floor. As his shadow traced a long line to the left of her sight, a laugh that sounded like escaping wind settled on the crown of her head.
"Don't just stand there, look at me."
The voice, laced with laughter, was surprisingly low.
At the end of the sentence, her chin involuntarily lifted. She cautiously raised her head with her lips trembling slightly, but from the moment her vision leveled out, she could not lift jer head at all.
A black jacket, broad shoulders that seemed several times jer size, and the low laughter she heard again— Seo-a involuntarily hunched her shoulders, when suddenly his face slid down from above.
"...!"
His face was imprinted on jer retina before she could react, perfectly aligned with her eye level without warning.
Black hair curly like an elegant swirl, a straight nose and long eyes contrasting with it, a chin that felt sharper when tilted, and eyes bluer than the autumn sky.
Under the brilliant sunlight, and having met him at such close range, he was astonishingly beautiful.
The moment her gaze settled on the corners of his red lips slowly curving upward, Seo-a lowered her head again, and laughter settled over her head once more.
The wonderful laughter, just to hear, tightened its grip on her throat.
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