Chapter 27
Kang Joo-hyuk approaches me.
A hulking, menacing man made of muscle, with even a knife scar on his shoulder.
Without releasing the butt he's gripping, he lowers his head and brings his lips to my ear.
“‥I’m not going to do this kind of thing anymore, so let’s live together. You’d like having a butler at home too, wouldn’t you?”
“Hey, let go already‥!”
No matter how hard I try to escape him, he holds me in place so I can't get away and rubs his face against me.
His cheek was smooth yesterday, but it has grown rough in just one day.
That prickly sensation torments my skin as though trying to frighten me.
“If you keep doing nothing but ordering takeout every day like this, you’ll get scolded. Your younger sibling said something about it yesterday too. …I’ve lived on my own for fifteen years, so I’m good at cooking, you know? I can plan meals well because I was an athlete. And I’m even offering to pay your rent, so why do you keep avoiding me?”
“You, you think I don’t know you have some weird ulterior motive…!”
“You can just keep your guard up. If I force myself on you, report me. I’ve never forced myself on you, have I? I only did it because you said it was okay.”
“When did I ever…!”
“Do you really want to hear it again? Should I play it? The sound of you moaning like crazy while you got off.”
As he brings up the recording I deleted with my own hands yesterday, he keeps pressing me without pause.
Contrary to his claim that he wouldn't do anything strange, he presses his bulging underwear firmly against me and gropes my entire body.
“If you really hate it, I can’t help it…. Then I can’t help it either, Ha-eun.”
“Are you threatening me right now…?”
“How is saying I can’t help it a threat? …I didn’t say I was going to do anything.”
Even if I died and came back to life, I would never want to live with a man who chewed on my ear while spouting frightening words.
If I spent even one day with a man like this, I definitely wouldn't be able to sleep properly.
I wouldn't even know when he might barge into my room and force himself on me.
“If you just say you’re okay with it, I’ll never touch you first. Promise. Want to record it too?”
“You can’t say something like that while biting my ear…!”
“I’m offering to pay off your debt for free, and you still won't take it, so am I not supposed to resort to something like this? …Am I really that scary?”
“Of course you’re scary, you fucking bastard!”
“What are you afraid of? That I’ll force myself on you? If I do, report me. Can’t you even report me?”
I shouldn't have fallen for the devil who wickedly grinned while scraping my pride raw.
But yesterday's memories, still lingering throughout my body, torment me without end.
“…Or are you afraid I won't force myself on you?”
I shouldn't let myself be provoked by something like that.
Unlike my rational mind, my heart was rebelling with all its might and egging me on.
Why wouldn’t I take it when he was offering to pay off my debt for free?
As long as I didn't just give him a drunken yes like yesterday, I could report him at any time, so what was there to be so afraid of?
Was I really so easy a woman that I would be bewitched by a man like that and give him my body?
“First, let go of me…!”
“You’re going to let me live here for two million won a month?”
“I said let go for now…!”
“Answer me first. Yes or no.”
“Fine, I get it…!”
In the end, as though intoxicated by the devil's scent and falling under his spell, I kept nodding and ended up accepting his proposal.
…Kang Joo-hyuk's ulterior motive was obvious, so why had I done that?
Was it because I had gained the confidence that I wouldn't fall for a man like that a third time?
Because I hated my younger sibling, who never even mentioned paying back the debt but looked down on me whenever they were bored?
Or because I believed that if I stayed with a man like that, I wouldn't have to worry about being stalked or anything like that?
…You idiot, he's the stalker.
What was I thinking, letting a stalker into my house just to get rid of some guy who kept pestering me?
“You agreed, right?”
“Wait. It’s….”
“What do you mean, wait? No take-backs. Ah, play the recording on your phone first. We need to leave some evidence.”
“Hey, you lunatic, not again…!”
“You don't sign a contract without writing one, do you? If it’s on paper, you could secretly throw it away, so let’s do it verbally. Verbally.”
Whenever I saw him shamelessly exploit my weakness the moment he let me go, I couldn't help picturing an ominous future.
A future where Kang Joo-hyuk somehow schemed his way into holding me in his arms and grinning.
For some reason, I couldn't erase that image from my mind.
“All right, I’ve started recording on my phone too. You record it as well. We should both have it for things to be fair.”
“….”
To shake off that horrible future and seize on even one word I could use against him, I turned on the recording.
I put two steps between us, held my phone straight out in front of me, and adopted a defensive stance that made it clear I would scream if he came any closer.
…I should have done this from the beginning.
If I had played the recording yesterday like he did and shown him a few times that I disliked it, he wouldn't have been able to push me around like this.
“Hmm…, first of all. Exactly who owns this house?”
“…My younger sibling.”
“Then I’ll explain it to your sibling later…. Regardless, you’re the tenant. You agree to live with me in this house for six months, right?”
“Six months….”
“Two million won a month, six times, makes twelve million won. Exactly six months. I’ll pay the living expenses too. How about it?”
“….”
“Don’t just nod. Speak. Use your words.”
“…Before that, something else.”
“What is it now?”
If I obediently followed wherever he led me, it was obvious he would cut out the context before and after and use my words however he pleased.
Before committing the terrible act of bringing Kang Joo-hyuk into my home, I needed a safeguard in place first.
“Absolutely, absolutely don’t touch me. Don’t lay a finger on me. If you do, I really will report you.”
“I told you I won’t touch you first.”
“Take ‘first’ out too! …First or not, don’t touch me.”
“Why? What if you were thinking of touching me first?”
“I’m saying that because I’m not!”
His intentions to sweet-talk me into clinging to him were so blatant that they were frightening.
…I had already fallen for it once.
No matter how firmly I vowed never to be fooled by a man like that again, I couldn't feel at ease.
“I can’t agree to that. If you touch me first, I have no intention of holding back.”
“….”
“It’s a problem that can be solved if you just don’t touch me first. Hey, honestly, do you think anyone could hold back if a woman with breasts that big touched him first?”
But with that man constantly claiming I would touch him first, my heart was getting irritated even as my anxious mind was consumed by unease.
Did I really plan to cling to Kang Joo-hyuk just because he pulled a few tricks?
He kept poking at my pride.
“…First, don’t touch me first. And don’t try anything weird.”
“What exactly does ‘trying something weird’ mean?”
“Getting me drunk and doing that kind of thing like yesterday!”
“You drank it all yourself even though I didn’t even give you any. Honestly. Fine.”
In the end, I backed down and accepted his proposal, laying down the minimum safeguards.
…It’s okay, it’s okay.
I’m only anxious because I’m a little keyed up right now.
“And the room. The room too—the spare room over there. Don’t come into my room.”
“Which spare room?”
“The one at the very end. Sleep there. There’s no bed, but that’s for you to deal with.”
“I’m paying two million won a month, and you won’t even provide a bed?”
“Bring one from your house! And that story about being kicked out after living with someone must have been a lie too!”
“Ah, you caught me. Fine, fine. I’ll use that room.”
Until yesterday, I had let my guard down because I mistakenly thought this man was normal, but from now on I would suspect his every move, so I wouldn't be fooled again.
If I kept the recording on whenever Kang Joo-hyuk was nearby, he wouldn't be able to rape me on the sly like yesterday.
And even if he did, I could report him.
“Then we’ve drawn the boundaries roughly like that…. Since today is March 16, we agree that I’ll pay two million won a month and live here with you until September 16, right?”
“….”
“Answer me, answer me. …What, do you need a deposit? Should I transfer twelve million won right now?”
“Forget it. …I said I understand.”
For six months—a period that was anything but short—I trembled as I signed a dangerous contract that could turn my life upside down.
…Praying that I would get through those six months without anything happening to me,
I let a fucking pervert, piece of trash, blackmailer, rapist, and devil into my home.
“Okay. Good. As for dividing the chores and all that, let’s just have each person clean up after themselves. I’m good at cooking, so I’ll do that. Got it?”
“…Got it.”
“And unless there’s some special reason, we have to go to the gym together. If either of us has an appointment or something to do, we have to tell the other person….”
“Hey, wait…!”
“Why? Living together without deciding things like that gets fucking annoying, you know? If you don’t contact me, how am I supposed to know whether you got hurt or passed out drinking with a friend?”
“….”
For a devil, the conditions he listed were strangely practical, which made him seem increasingly suspicious.
I had definitely gotten a firm promise that he wouldn't touch me first,
so why did I keep feeling as though he was about to do something?
“Ah, and we need permission from the owner of this house. I have to introduce myself to your younger sibling as your boyfriend, you know that too, right?”
“…I know. I know that much.”
“Okay. Ask them to make some time for me later. I need to register my residence too, and there’s a lot to do.”
“….”
As he smoothly laid out our future arrangements, like a snake slithering over a wall,
I still had no idea what kind of scenario he was writing in his head,
or what role he intended me to play.
…All I could do was
pray that I wouldn’t become one of the characters in it.
As for any novel written by that man,
it would obviously be nothing but sleazy, filthy porn.