Vol 2 Ch 13

I hadn’t slept a wink for two days. I spent each day worried, wondering what would happen if he noticed beforehand and questioned me. But whether it was good or bad luck, he hadn’t contacted me since that day. And now, the day of my arrangement with Lee Hyewon had come.

I sat curled up on the sofa, nervously biting my nails, then I felt drawn to the window. I pressed my palm against it and looked down. His black sedan was gliding into the hotel parking lot.

Before long, the sound of footsteps echoed in the hallway. The rhythmic clack of his shoes struck the cold marble floor, the echo piercing my already heightened senses.

It’s him.

Every nerve in my body identified him. There wasn’t anything unique about his footsteps, but I just knew. The chills running down my spine told me: it’s him.

He was getting closer. Normally, he would’ve opened my door by now. But instead, he walked past and went into the room next door.

“…….”

I glanced at the safe. It felt like his gaze met mine. Was it just a feeling? Or was he really watching me through that tiny lens?

I called the front desk and asked them to prepare drinks and food. I told them I would deliver it to CEO Jang myself and to bring it to my room. The staff responded again that it would take about 20 minutes.

I washed up, standing under cold water long enough for my skin to sting. My hands trembled and a faint ringing sounded in my ears as soon as I hung up the phone.

It’s finally happening. The more I dwelled on the reality before me, the more my heart pounded painfully. It raced as if it would burst right through my ribcage, a small, fist-sized organ tormenting me relentlessly.

Slowly, I raised my hand and turned off the shower.

“…Hah.”

My body, exposed to the cold water for so long, shivered uncontrollably. I stepped back into the room and pulled out the uniform from the closet. It wasn’t a bad feeling to be wrapped in it. Though compared to the luxurious clothes CEO Jang had packed in the closet, the texture felt rough and poorly made.

I faced the mirror in front of the closet. The pale man in the square reflection stared back at me. I twisted my lips. Just like Lee Jinseok had said, my pale skin made the uniform look good on me. It suited me better than those expensive clothes ever did.

When I stepped out of the room, the tray I had ordered was waiting in the hallway. I pushed the tray to CEO Jang’s door and stood before it. I raised my fist to knock but hesitated. My clenched hand slowly dropped.

“…….”

Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure if CEO Jang would go along with my plan. He was so unpredictable that I had no idea where things might go awry.

But one thing was certain: CEO Jang had a deep interest in me.

That’s why he had asked why I had cried. …Even revealing his own past, which he could have easily kept hidden. I took a deep breath, recalling the scar hidden under his ring.

I clenched my fist once again and knocked on the door. 

“Room service.”

The door abruptly opened. CEO Jang stood there, not having even taken off his jacket. His somber, dark eyes were fixed on me. There wasn’t the slightest hint of surprise, as if he had already known I was coming.

Without a word, he turned his back and walked into the room. I quickly glanced toward the emergency stairs. I saw the same shadow lingering near the stairs as before. Then, I followed him inside.

I set the food and drinks on the table first, then placed the bottles of his preferred liquor one by one. The liquid inside sloshed with a heavy, steady sound.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a black wallet, placing it on the table. I quickly stepped toward him and took his jacket. As usual, it carried the stale scent of cigarettes and something musty. Instead of hanging it in the closet, I placed it on a hanger on the wooden rack nearby.

“…….”

The chandelier hanging from the ceiling cast a pale light over the table. The plates and glasses below glowed faintly, reflecting the light.

CEO Jang sat at the table, which seemed to glow even brighter with his presence. As usual, everything about him—his hair, his suit, his loosely knotted tie—was oppressively black. It was as if light didn’t stand a chance, absorbed by the darkness surrounding him. He leisurely surveyed the bottles on the tray, his nearly pitch-black eyes drifting over them.

“Tequila.”

I quickly opened the bottle and poured the liquor into his glass. Without looking at me, he downed the glass in one go. He drank, and I continued to pour. *Slosh, slosh.* The sound of the liquid filled the silence.

“CEO.”

His sharp gaze landed on me. The cold, emotionless look in his eyes startled me for a moment, but I quickly spoke up.

“I’d like to have a drink as well.”

He hummed lowly in his throat and tilted his head slightly.

“Do as you please.”

He plucked a few bills from his wallet and shoved them into my uniform. I, now carrying those bills stuffed in my chest, sat down across from him.

My eyes were drawn to the wallet lying haphazardly on the table. More precisely, my attention was focused on the small pill case buckled to it.

I swallowed hard, then cautiously reached for the wallet.

“It’s the same pill case I saw last time.”

CEO Jang watched me with the same detached eyes as usual, not giving away any sign of discomfort. Thankfully, his expression didn’t betray any irritation. With that assurance, I managed to unbuckle the wallet and retrieve the pill case. It was a small, thin case, slightly narrower than my pinky finger. It felt cold and lifeless in my hand.

“I’ve been trying to avoid taking medication more than twice a week.”

The white powder inside the transparent case shifted with a soft *srrrk* sound, spilling down slowly, like sand in an hourglass. It seemed to be counting down the time I had left, pressuring me with every passing second.

“…What does it feel like when you drink this?”

“A small commotion starts in your skull.”

The man tapped the glass lightly with his short fingernails in place of his skull. Inside the glass, a faint golden wave stirred. The wave repeatedly crashed against the glass walls, breaking apart again and again.

“Your temples will throb, and soon your vision will start to falter. You won’t be able to properly judge what’s right in front of you. Thunder will erupt in both ears, and your body will feel like a balloon floating in the wind.”

“…I see.”

“Once you reach that stage, logic becomes unnecessary. You discard it and act purely on instinct.”

“…….”

“Eventually, after a certain amount of time, you’ll collapse like a corpse and drift off into sleep.”

He picked up the bottle and slowly twisted off the cap. As I held the bottle in one hand and the detached cap in the other, the man spoke.

“Are you trying to make me an addict?”

“I know you’re not someone who would get addicted to something like this.”

His sharp eyes slid over toward me.

“It’s highly addictive.”

“…….”

“I ordered it to be made that way. It sells like crazy when it feels like it’s got wings.”

For a moment, his dark eyes gleamed at me.

“And you want me to swallow this?”

CEO Jang smirked slyly, as if he didn’t understand why he should follow my lead. He leaned back in his chair, crossing his thick arms in a display of ease. His muscular forearms were intimidating.

“Because you said you’d get drunk with me.”

His words were just as cold as his stiffened lips.

“Yes, I did say that.”

“…….”

“But right now, I don’t really feel like it.”

I had assumed he would take the d**g with the drink, but my prediction was off, and far too easily. My hands grew clammy with tension, and I kept wiping the sweat off on my thighs. My breath kept getting tangled, coming out in ragged gasps.

This wasn’t good. I was falling into the man’s rhythm again. He was a master at this kind of psychological game. It wasn’t just luck that he always won in card games; he dominated his opponents by outmaneuvering them psychologically.

I focused my gaze on his fingers. As usual, a silver ring wrapped around the base of his finger. It was only two days ago that I had gotten a fleeting glimpse of the man’s most hidden layer. The words that had spilled from his lips were almost too far-fetched to be believed. If it weren’t for the scar on his middle finger, I might have dismissed it all as a dream.

It was true that I was at a disadvantage, but that didn’t mean he was without weaknesses. The wealth he had accumulated was like a precarious castle built on sand. Besides, I had nothing left to lose. I forced myself to appear calm and composed. Smiling leisurely, I made him an offer.

“How about we play a game?”

I lifted the small bottle and poured it into the glass. The bottle dived into the drink with a soft plop. Powder leaked from the open cap and dissolved into the golden liquid.

Then I smiled the way I had practiced countless times. I softened my eyes and relaxed my lips into a gentle curve. The man watched me without blinking, then finally spoke.

“What kind of game?”

“A card game. Loser drinks.”

He tapped his forehead with his index finger.

“You want to start with this? It’ll give you a fever at best, and if you’re unlucky, you could lose an organ.”

I had already made up my mind. I answered without backing down.

“I’m fine with that.”

He narrowed his eyes at me.

“And why should I play this game?”

“Because if I lose, you’ll get to see something amusing.”

Amusing… The man’s throat rumbled with a chuckle as his eyes glimmered.

“…Deal.”

He stood up and headed for the sitting room, opening a cabinet where bottles of alcohol were displayed. He took out a fresh deck of cards.

Under his watchful gaze, I shuffled the cards. My fingers, tense with nerves, applied too much pressure. I couldn’t pull off any tricks, nor did I have the confidence to try. All I could do was deal the cards and hope that luck would be on my side.

Blackjack seemed the most appropriate for two players. The rules were simple: the player whose cards totaled closest to 21, or over, would win.

The cards moved silently across the table. At first, the game seemed even, but as time passed, I felt the tide turning against me. The more I tried to gauge the outcome between us, the colder I felt.

“…….”

“…….”

And finally, the game was decided.

An icy silence filled the room. Even thunder held its breath. Tick-tock, tick-tock. The second hand on the man’s wristwatch moved.

CEO Jang placed his cards down in front of him and removed the ring from his ring finger with his thumb. Without hesitation, he dropped the ring into my drink. Plop. The small piece of metal sank to the bottom of the amber liquid. I stared intently at the submerged ring, avoiding the man’s persistent gaze.

“What are you waiting for? Drink up.”

There was no more delaying it.

I wrapped my hand around the glass. My fingers trembled uncontrollably. I’d never touched d**gs in my life. Even when the neighborhood kids gathered in the back hills, inhaling glue or varnish-soaked tissues, I had never once tried it. They used to roll their eyes back and babble incoherently.

I gulped down the dry lump in my throat. Leaving only the ring behind, I drained the liquid from the glass. A sharp, tingling sensation spread throughout my mouth. I couldn’t bring myself to swallow, so I just held the liquid there. If I let this sit in my mouth too long, I would get high, so I quickly wrapped my arms around the man’s thick neck. His eyes widened slightly at my sudden move. To avoid bumping into his sharp nose, I angled my head and pressed my lips to his. Using my tongue, I poured the drink from my mouth into his slightly parted lips.

“…Hmm.”

He groaned deeply from his throat. Liquid leaked from the corner of his lips, trickling down his chin. Then, the man l**ked my chin with his tongue.

“Hah…”

My breath started to falter, and I pulled away. The man, showing no mercy, gripped my chin like he was about to crush it and pulled my face closer to his.

“…Hmph!”

He yanked me with such force that I ended up on his lap. I could feel his thick e**ction pressing against me. As our tongues entwined, he rubbed his c**tch against mine. Hoo, he groaned like an animal, burying his face in the nape of my neck. I wrapped my arms around his thick neck, staring out the window over his broad shoulders.

Outside, night was slowly falling.

CEO Jang s**ked my lips into his mouth. It was as if he intended to eat the flesh, chewing it thoroughly.

“Aah…”

Suddenly, a metallic taste spread across my tongue. He had drawn blood. The man s**ked at the wound with his tongue, savoring the taste. The sting made me tilt my head back. But the man was relentless, refusing to stop. He looked determined to drain every ounce of energy from me. There was no other explanation for his crazed, obsessive behavior.

“Hoo, haa…” He tightened his firm arm around my waist and rose from the chair. Instinctively, I held onto his neck with my arms, trying not to fall. This caused my chest to press firmly against his. His large chest, covered in a black shirt, heaved deeply. I could feel the pulse resonating beneath the skin of his neck through my palm. Thump, thump. It was a bit faster than usual. It seemed like the effects of the d**g were spreading through his body. That was good news.

“…”

“…”

As he strode forward, he glanced down at me, his pupils unusually dark red, like they had been aged in wine for days. His confident steps stopped in front of the sofa, and he placed me upside down over the sofa headrest. With my legs exposed to him, my head was buried in the ground. The unfamiliar position had me gripping the sofa tightly. His low voice urged me.

“What are you waiting for? Hurry up and undress.”

I unbuckled my belt and pulled my pants down. As my pants slid down to my thighs, his authoritative voice rang out again.

“Don’t take them off completely. Leave them around your ankles.”

Following his command, I let the pants hang at my ankles. Looking down at the underwear bunched up with my pants, I felt an odd sense of humiliation. I turned away from the thought, laid my waist back against the sofa headrest, and exposed my bare lower body to him. My face flushed hotly, unsure if it was because of the awkward position or the rush of blood to my head. I couldn’t tell.

He started inserting his already fully e**ct c**k. I tensed up, letting out a whimper as the brute force of him pushing inside felt overwhelming, as always.

“How is it? Is it better?”

CEO Jang smoothly rotated his muscular hips, his thick c**k stirring heavily inside.

“Better than that b**t**d who used to f**k you? Hoo, I don’t know, from the look of it, you seem to love it.”

“…Ugh, ugh, haa!”

“Hmm…”

Using the strength of his well-trained abs, he thrust hard into me. Blood rushed to my head, and my skull rang as if my frontal lobe were vibrating.

“Haa, hooh…”

“Hnnng, hnngh!”

My head was buried into the sofa, helplessly taking him. All I could do was scratch the sofa with my nails, clinging to it as the palms supporting my tilted body slowly started to curl inward.

“Ah, aaah…!”

He grabbed my neck and increased his pace. My lower abdomen tensed involuntarily, and the walls inside squeezed tightly around him. My body, already accustomed to the violent pleasure he gave, eagerly accepted it.

“…CEO…! Please, stop!”

My body trembled like a leaf in the wind. Thud, thud. I felt like something inside would burst. Unable to bear it any longer, I lifted one trembling leg onto the sofa headrest, bending my knee and trying to pull away from him.

Before my mind could register it, my body was instinctively trying to escape the danger. Sensing my movement, his hips stopped for a moment. In a deep, low voice, he spoke.

“…You’re at it again, huh?”

What’s he going to do now? I quickly j**ked my head back, looking up at him with anxious eyes. He gazed down at me with a frighteningly cold stare.

The veins bulging on the back of his hand gripped the knot of the tie wrapped around my neck and shook it roughly. As the knot loosened, he yanked the tie off his thick neck.

Gripping the tie in both hands, he cracked it, snapping out the wrinkles. The silky tie, now in his hands, looked more like a whip.

He wrapped the tie once around my throat, pressing it against my Adam’s apple, and gripped both ends tightly with one hand. I looked up at him, feeling like a dog on a leash.

He twisted his lips.

“Why are you looking at me with that expression in broad daylight?”

“….”

“Did I step on your face with my shoes, or put out a cigarette on your cheek?”

He resumed thrusting his hips, shoving two fingers into my mouth. His thick fingers cruelly pressed down on my tongue, pushing them all the way to my throat, as if trying to stuff them deep inside.

“Ahhk! Hhnngh…!”

He tightened his grip on the tie, my neck snapping back as my torso arched like a drawn bow. The thin, rolled silk bit sharply into my throat, causing sharp pain.

“Is something like this really painful?”

“Hrrrk! Nghh!”

He caressed my cheek lovingly with the tip of his thumb, tracing my thin eyelids as if drawing them. Then he slowly brushed down the bridge of my nose, leaving his mark on every part of my face. A sudden shiver of dread ran deep into my bones.

Meanwhile, his thumb slid down from my philtrum to my lips. He lowered his head, bringing his lips close to my cheek. I thought he would kiss me, but instead, he opened his lips slightly and let words spill out.

“Even now…”

CEO Jang paused deliberately, leaving me tense as I swallowed dryly. At that moment, lightning flashed outside. A thunderous crash shattered the stillness.

He trapped my hand within his large palm. As he clenched his hand, my fist naturally followed suit.

“Even now, when the weather’s like this, the spot where I had surgery still aches. It’s been decades, but it’s as vivid in my mind as if it happened yesterday.”

He slowly tightened his grip. Flash! Another bolt of lightning lit up the room, followed by the sound of rain pouring down.

“When the sharp edge of the knife sliced through the thin layer of skin… You can’t imagine how painful that was. If I could go back to that moment, I wouldn’t make such a foolish decision again.”

His voice was impossibly low, yet each word he spoke pierced sharply into my ears.

His eyes flashed like lightning. Consumed by madness, he drove me to the brink of destruction with his overwhelming pleasure. And with the tie choking me, I too was rushing toward him.

Hah, hnngh…

Boom! Lightning flashed again like a bomb.