If she failed to seize this option, what remained was a guaranteed path to hell.
She stood atop an invisible cliff. Ahead, below the stretch of cliff face, red-hot spikes jutted out in dense clusters; behind her lay an abyss of impenetrable darkness. What made it more terrible than a real cliff was that falling either way would not bring immediate death.
She had to choose. Whether to leap into the visible cliff, or to fall into a labyrinth whose depths were unknown.
The answer was set. She had to seize the opportunity before her eyes. Behind her stretched another cliff, shrouded in darkness that could not be known without falling.
Seo Jaeheon.
He was entrenched in every corner of Han Yibom's life. No matter which moment of her past she plucked at, Seo Jaeheon was always there in the margins. Whenever she was in trouble, he would stand before her as if it were only natural.
Her father's friend's son, her private tutor, her popular senior…….
And now, as Vice President of Cheongsong Group.
He had existed before her in whatever form she needed.
This time, too, she needed Seo Jaeheon. To avoid the guaranteed hell, and to draw closer to the truth, she had to approach him once again.
"It's been a while."
The voice that broke the silence was calm. His black gaze was as dark as the inside of a bottomless pit.
Yibom faced him directly and opened her mouth.
"Yes."
"What is it?"
Seo Jaeheon, perched on the sofa armrest, pulled a cigarette case and a Zippo lighter from his inner jacket pocket. He clamped the white stick between his lips and brought the lighter to it. Ting, hiss. His long, straight fingers moved fluidly to light it. A slight hollow formed in his cheek before smoothing out again as he exhaled smoke.
Cold sweat formed on her palms. Yibom curled her fingers into a fist.
"I have a favor to ask."
He looked at Yibom with the cigarette held between his fingers. The lines of his eyes, sharper than before, relaxed slightly.
"Speak."
She had admired Seo Jaeheon's capabilities. There was a time when she had suffered the raging fever of first love and unrequited feelings for him together, and then a time when she watched him rise to unreachable heights and felt hollow.
The girl she had been back then would never have imagined she would speak these words in this way.
"Please go out with me."
Yibom slowly swallowed before continuing.
"I don't mean actually dating. I'm asking you to pretend. One year at most. I won't be a nuisance beyond that."
The die was cast. She could not know whether this move would backfire or save her, but she had to make it.
Seo Jaeheon curled one corner of his lips. A sigh-like laugh slipped through the filter between his teeth.
"Why?"
"You remember what happened between Jeong Cheonhu and me, don't you?"
"I do."
Yibom curled her hands into fists to stop their trembling.
"If things keep going like this, I might end up marrying him. I need someone right away, and you're the only person I can think of, Vice President."
Seo Jaeheon stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table and exhaled smoke slowly.
His answer was slow. Was it her imagination, or did his expression seem darker than before? Strength entered Yibom's hands. His black eyes, which rarely betrayed emotion, were calm.
"Why should I do that?"
"Goku-ri land. You're interested in it, aren't you?"
Only then did Seo Jaeheon's gaze fix on Yibom again. He narrowed his eyes, then curved his lips.
"Do you know what that land is?"
"It's useless to me anyway. If you just accept my offer, I'll give you that land for a pittance, Vice President. You only need to pretend to play along."
When her father purchased the land that had been tied up as green belt, everyone had thought it strange. Seeing that he had transferred only that land into Yibom's name before things went wrong for him, people gossiped and speculated that there was a gold nugget there, drugs there, attaching all sorts of rumors. But as time passed with no news, the rumors quickly died down, dismissed as a bad investment.
But this time, word spread that the green belt restriction on Goku-ri was being lifted. While she had forgotten about it, the land price had tripled.
Seo Jaeheon was certainly interested in that land too. If that land were to fall into someone's hands, it seemed better for it to end up in Jaeheon's rather than that man's. If she kept it, it would amount to a country house with fresh air, but if he took it and developed it, it might become a massive resort.
"That's disappointing. Is my body worth no more than that?"
"For old times' sake, please. It's the only thing I can offer right now. For what we share... you could do that much."
Her mouth was parched, her tongue rough. She had thrown the first stone, but that was the only card she held.
Jaeheon rose from his seat and walked toward Yibom. It took him merely three steps to stand before her.
A large hand cupped her chin, which had been facing downward, cradling it. She swallowed a hollow breath. Her entire body stiffened with tension.
"Our relationship."
"…."
"What exactly is our relationship?"
Yibom could not answer hastily. He wasn't asking because he didn't know. Too much time had passed. The distance between Seo Jaeheon and Han Yibom had widened to a gap that could not be closed even if that time were squared. Yibom was clinging to him using old ties as an excuse, and around him there would be no shortage of people neatly packaging their flimsy strings of connection to offer themselves up to him.
"Vice President, I—"
"Bom."
Jaeheon cut her off. The voice calling her name was intimate.
Long fingers slid deep beneath her jawline, slowly tilting Yibom's face upward. Their gazes met at close range.
Standing with his back to the dim light, his pupils were dark and deep. It felt as though she might stumble and suffocate under that heavy gaze. An unidentifiable fear slowly bloomed. Yibom had no reason to fear him. Therefore, the fear she felt was something closer to instinct than reason—similar to the feelings of a herbivore standing before a starving carnivore.
"You know what adult romance is like, don't you?"
"What's different?"
"It's different. For example, with these lips."
Jaeheon's thumb rested on her lower lip. As he traced it with his thumb, the lipstick smeared sideways. His gaze followed the trail of lipstick.
"We'll be doing far more than just eating and talking."
Something similar—haven't we done it? Understanding the implication of the trailing question, Yibom's face flushed red.
"I won't do that sort of thing."
"You know I never enter a contract that puts me at a loss from the start."
"…."
"If this contract is sealed, I intend to take your acceptance of it as consent."
The corner of his mouth curved.
Yibom had imagined only two possible reactions from Seo Jaeheon: acceptance, or refusal. His presenting such conditions was beyond anything she had anticipated.
"You knew. That I'm interested in you."
Dark pupils stared straight into Yibom's eyes.
It was those eyes again. The interest he mentioned was of a different dimension than the interest ordinary people spoke of. His gaze was closer to that of a beast toying with its fascinating prey than a man facing his beloved.
"...Please give me time to think."
Yibom turned her head to slip free from his hand and turned toward the guest room door.
Jeong Cheonhu was terrible, and Seo Jaeheon was frightening. Jeong Cheonhu might ruin only her body, but with Seo Jaeheon, a single gesture could trample her heart entirely. The truth behind all the events that had led Yibom here might have been mere delusion from the start. So maybe there was another option besides Seo Jaeheon and Jeong Cheonhu...
The moment she grasped the guest room door handle, a voice came from behind her.
"Jeong Cheonhu... they say he has a hobby of passing lovers around with his friends."
Yibom's movements stopped. The strength left her hand on the handle.
"Think carefully. Like you said, I am interested in the Goku-ri land. And you have many questions for me, don't you?"
Footsteps approached. A shadow fell around her. Jaeheon came right up behind her. The scent of musk enveloped her nose first, and then the smell of cigarettes intertwined. A large hand covered the back of Yibom's hand on the door handle. Cool body temperature touched her.
When she turned her head, a sharply defined jawline caught her eye first. Below it, the straight muscles of his neck were visible. Her gaze dropped to his impeccably neat suit as always, then she raised her head again. They were close enough for their breaths to touch.
"Aren't you curious how all of this happened?"
The eyes meeting hers at close range held a maddeningly obsessive gaze. A chill spread through her entire body. He had often looked at Yibom with these eyes. Suppressed emotions condensed to suffocating levels within his black pupils, swirling violently. In those moments, she often felt as if one misstep would cause her to fall into those depths, never to escape.
His hand, overlapping hers, turned the handle and opened the door.
"It's my job to play with our Bom."
"…."
"Thinking about playing with you again after so long... I'm looking forward to it."
A strong premonition flashed through Yibom's mind—that everything would ultimately flow according to Seo Jaeheon's will.
Yibom was an offering stripped bare and cast before a blue flame. Her body was destined to instantly ignite under that cool gaze. Finally, to Seo Jaeheon, who stood at the center of everything.
His lips drew a faint arc.