Chapter 2

However, her burning determination lasted only a moment. The instant Raine looked at her own fist, a sigh escaped her lips as though she had never felt that way in the first place.

“It’s all because of these giant pot-lid hands…”

Raine examined her hands from both sides before she could no longer suppress her frustration.

“Is being fat a crime? If your lover is fat, does that mean you can exploit and beat her and still live your life so shamelessly?”

Her anger quickly disappeared, replaced by sorrow and a sense of injustice. Tears filled Raine’s eyes.

“What kind of world is this?”

Raine continued voicing her complaints without pause. Meanwhile, the music video for an OST from a movie starring Kim Ju-ha played across the billboard. When the music video ended, an image of him holding the Grand Bell Award for Best Actor in both hands appeared.

—It’s a beautiful night. And I’m truly overwhelmed.

Kim Ju-ha’s eyes sparkled beautifully as he went on and on about how he felt about receiving the award and expressed his gratitude.

His voice was gentle, his tone calm yet filled with joy. Then, at the end, Ju-ha turned his gaze toward a certain direction.

—A large part of how I was able to come this far was thanks to my beloved Hyena. I’d like to send her my love and gratitude.

Following his gaze, the camera soon showed Hyena wearing a beautiful evening dress. She smiled elegantly and waved at the camera.

The video Raine was watching wasn’t live. It was a rebroadcast of the highlights from last year’s Grand Bell Awards ceremony, a video she had watched hundreds of times because she couldn’t believe what was happening at the time.

As Raine stared blankly at it again, the anger she had felt only moments ago disappeared like smoke.

Instead, resentment toward herself, frustration, and helplessness took control of her soul.

She had no dreams, no hope, and no future.

No, she didn’t even have a future to speak of. She didn’t have enough money to live on right now.

This was the result of devoting herself to him, blinded by his sweet persuasion.

Once again, tears rolled down Raine’s cheeks.

It was utterly miserable.

She couldn’t go on living like this.

Of course, she didn’t want to live like this, either.

“Sniff.”

While she cried, the Grand Bell Awards video ended and an advertisement appeared. After that came a trailer for Ju-ha’s movie, followed once again by the Grand Bell Awards highlights.

Raine let out a huge sigh and spoke through her tears.

“Seriously. That award was from ages ago. Why are they still playing that in the middle of summer?”

Raine looked down at the ground again.

It was dizzyingly far below.

Should I… should I just try living?

But Ju-ha’s cruel voice ringing in her ears kept reinforcing her wavering resolve.

—A large part of how I was able to come this far was thanks to my beloved Hyena. I’d like to send her my love and gratitude.

Thanks to Hyena…

Feeling empty again, Raine directed her resentment toward the air, knowing Ju-ha couldn’t hear her.

“Mr. Ju-ha. At that moment, the person you should’ve mentioned wasn’t Yoon Hyena. It was Lee Raine, wasn’t it?”

Raine looked down at the ground again.

And she became certain.

If she jumped from here, there was no chance she would survive.

Be brave. It’ll be over without failure. It’s thirty-five floors, after all.

Raine clenched her fist and looked at the bag she had placed beside her shoes.

Inside were Lee Raine’s identification card, her suicide note, and a bottle of soju.

“You think I’m going to die alone?”

Once she jumped, everyone would learn through the suicide note just what a terrible bastard Kim Ju-ha was.

Of course, after Raine died and the note was made public, it might simply be dismissed as an accident.

But regardless, it could have a negative impact on Ju-ha.

“You bastard. Try living well after killing your devoted wife.”

Just as she was preparing to jump, a sudden question occurred to her.

“The suicide note… I put it in properly, right?”

She climbed down from the rooftop railing and checked the note in her bag.

The contents she had painstakingly written in an outpouring of blood and tears were safely inside the white envelope.

She hadn’t forgotten any of her preparations, either.

Reassured, Raine climbed back onto the rooftop railing.

The moment she climbed up, she came face-to-face with the happy-looking Ju-ha on the billboard.

Seeing him made tears surge into her eyes again.

She trembled with betrayal.

“Just you wait. I’ll become a ghost after I die and haunt you. Sniff!”

Like the tragic heroine of a movie, Raine spread both arms wide.

Yes… today is the day my world ends.

She was now ready to jump.

But…

“……”

She had definitely come up here with a firm resolve.

Yet as she continued looking down, she found herself somewhat frightened of dying.

Gulp.

Her throat tightened with tension, and she instinctively swallowed.

They say you fall headfirst… It’s going to hurt a lot when I hit the ground, right?

Even so, she gathered her courage and tentatively lifted one foot.

Everyone dies eventually. It’s all the same. I just have to move forward now. Lee Raine.

Her heart began pounding.

Her body started trembling.

Endure it. You made up your mind. Just take one proper step, Lee Raine.

Raine desperately tried to convince herself.

But the next thing she did was simply climb down quietly from the rooftop railing.

Once again, tears burst from her eyes.

She had steeled herself and prepared to die, yet even then, she felt as though she lacked the willpower to actually do it.

You weak-willed idiot! You worked yourself to the bone and handed over every penny you had, so why can’t you do this? Just close your eyes once and jump! It’ll all be over!

After berating herself, she buried her face between her knees.

“Ah, I really need to die. Then I could get my revenge.”

As she muttered to herself, she remembered that there was soju in her crossbody bag.

Raine’s alcohol tolerance was two bottles of soju.

One bottle wouldn’t get her too drunk, and she felt that it might make her a little braver.

She took the soju out of her bag.

Crack!

The sound of the cap opening felt strangely satisfying.

Using alcohol to find courage was a little pathetic, but this was a serious matter, so she had no choice.

She raised the bottle to her lips and drank straight from it.

The alcohol went to her head quickly.

“Ahh, now I really think I can jump.”

Raine gathered her courage once again and climbed onto the rooftop railing.

Looking at things from here, she even felt as though she were standing face-to-face with Ju-ha in the billboard on the H/N Entertainment building.

“Now I’m really, really going to go, so enjoy the huge middle finger I’m leaving behind for you. You bastard.”

Raine wasn’t normally the type to swear much, but with death right before her, it seemed all the curses she had been unable to say until now were freely pouring out.

Besides, she figured, what did it matter anymore?

“I’m going to be reincarnated, dump a piece of trash like you, and live happily ever after with a Mercedes-Benz man who’s more handsome than you and much better in bed!”

Raine raised her right hand and gave the Ju-ha on the billboard the middle finger.

“Here, have two.”

Raine raised the middle finger of her left hand as well, thrusting it upward with all her strength like a dragon ascending to heaven.

But perhaps she had raised her fingers with too much force.

“Waaah!”

She lost her balance and her body tilted backward.

“No, I have to go forward…!”

Just as she desperately struggled to shift her center of gravity forward—

A hand suddenly grabbed Raine’s wrist roughly and yanked her backward.

“What are you doing?!”

At the urgent voice that suddenly rang out, Raine turned around.

The first thing that caught her eye was silver hair glimmering in the darkness.

“Get down! Right now!”

A man’s arm wrapped firmly around Raine’s waist.

Raine resisted.

“What are you doing?! Let me go! I have to die so I can screw over Kim Ju-ha!”

“To hell with that! What are you doing in my building?”

My building.

At the words announcing that he was the owner of the building, all the strength drained from Raine’s body.

Eden didn’t miss the opportunity. He grabbed the hem of Raine’s clothes tightly and pulled her toward himself with all his strength.

Raine’s body lurched toward Eden.

At that instant, Raine became worried about the man who would be crushed beneath her weight.

“Argh! You’ll die if I land on you!”

“I know!”

Twisting his body, Eden didn’t release the wrist he had grabbed. Instead, he wrapped an arm around Raine’s head.

Thud!

Even if their entire bodies crashed onto the rooftop floor, the newly constructed building was so solid that it wouldn’t even suffer a scratch.

But to Raine, the reverberating impact of her heavy body hitting the rooftop floor sounded like the loudest noise in the world.

She squeezed her eyes shut from the impact, then opened them.

Raine saw an unfamiliar man sprawled over her.

“……”

The man was examining Raine, his eyes shaking violently.

Raine assumed that because he had grabbed someone attempting suicide and dragged her down, he must have suffered quite a psychological shock.

“I’m sorry… hic!”

She opened her mouth, thinking she should apologize first, but a hiccup came with the rising effects of the alcohol.

Eden brushed back the strands of Raine’s hair that had become disheveled and stuck to her face, then got to his feet.

The gesture somehow felt strangely gentle.

Before she knew it, Raine covered her face with her hands and burst into tears again.

“Are you hurt?”

“Sniff, hic! Sob! Hic!”

“Don’t move. Understand?”

Raine nodded.

After confirming that she understood, Eden went over to the control panel near the rooftop entrance and operated it.

As the streetlights installed on the rooftop illuminated the surroundings, his face became even clearer.

Good heavens. Someone like this actually exists?

Raine forgot to cry.

Dressed in a white suit, Eden was such a sophisticatedly handsome man that he instantly captured Raine’s attention.

His silver hair, styled in a soft perm, shimmered elegantly beneath the nighttime lighting, while his perfectly proportioned features exuded both intelligence and refined charisma.

The moment Raine saw Hayden, she wondered if the male leads in romance-fantasy novels looked like this.

At the same time, the standard for the most handsome man in her inner world changed.

From Ju-ha to this unknown handsome man.

But looking closely, she noticed a hint of blue in the startled man’s black eyes.

His thick silver eyelashes trembled slightly.

As Raine absentmindedly watched the movement of his eyes, she realized that he was also examining her closely.

“Gasp!”

Embarrassed, Raine buried her face between her knees.

After crying so much, her face must have been horribly swollen. On top of that, it was probably covered in tears, sweat, and snot.

Raine was certain that, in his eyes, she must look absolutely awful right now.

“Whew.”

Eden let out an exaggerated sigh, then knelt on one knee in front of Raine.

“Lift your head for a moment. Are you sure you’re not hurt anywhere?”

His cold, beautiful voice, seemingly tinged with anger, rang in Raine’s ears.

Raine shook her head.

“I need to see your condition before I can decide whether to call 119.”

“I’m not hurt.”

“Really?”

“I’m not.”

Eden picked up the crossbody bag lying nearby, then grabbed Raine by the wrist and pulled her along.

“Then let’s go downstairs first. Can you stand?”

Raine decided that there was no way she would be dying here now.

Having given up on everything, she stood.

Wondering if apologizing might settle things before the situation became more serious, Raine cautiously asked Eden,

“Is… is the police coming?”

Eden brushed the dirt off his white suit, which had gotten dirty when he and Raine had rolled across the floor, and sighed.

“I don’t know… Right now, both you and I are a complete mess, so I think you should wash up first. You’re terribly sticky.”

Raine was relieved that he didn’t seem to be planning to call the police.

However, his unpleasantly cold and utterly displeased reaction left Raine unable to say a word.

She simply allowed Eden to lead her away by the wrist.

Fifth Floor, Room 01.

The place the man took Raine to looked like a suite at a luxury hotel.

A sofa, living-room table, and king-sized bed occupied the same spacious area, while the dressing room, balcony, bathroom, and utility room were separate.

Before pushing Raine into the bathroom, Eden took out a basket and placed it by the entrance.

“Wash up. Put your clothes in here and leave them outside the bathroom. After you’re done, put on the robe inside.”

Raine did as he instructed.

Of course, once she finished showering, she intended to change back into her original clothes, even if they were dirty, and return home.

After her shower, Raine stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her dripping-wet hair.

She soon realized that her calculations had been wrong.

There were no clothes in the basket.