Prologue

Noisy footsteps were heard, and the sound of a lock turning was followed by the door bursting open. A small, hunched figure flinched and slowly raised its head.

“Eat your meal.”

The clatter of a tray being placed on the floor was rough. The woman chewing gum indifferently pushed the tray further inside with her foot, even as thin soup spilled onto the floor. Then she placed a single spoon on the tray.

“Eat it all. You need to gain some weight to receive guests. Tsk, why did they hit her face again?”

The woman clicked her tongue, looking at the red bruise under the girl’s eye. The small figure, who had half-raised her head, bowed it deeply again.

“So don’t throw it in the toilet; you just get beaten.”

The tiny thing wouldn’t eat, even when starving. Indeed, the food on the tray brought to her was pathetic, hardly a meal for a human. It was just a child’s fistful of rice, thin soup, and a few scraps of kimchi. Recently, to make her gain weight due to her extreme thinness, the rice portion had increased to an adult’s fistful, but even the woman bringing the tray always frowned.

What a bother, the woman clicked her gum and went out the door, locking it.

The figure, who had been bowing her head, slowly raised it and blinked her large eyes at the tray. The amount of white rice seemed to have increased. If she couldn’t eat it all, she’d be beaten again. A sigh naturally escaped her throat. Her scalp and face, where her hair had been pulled, throbbed.

She raised an arm to brush back her long hair, and her joints creaked. Her whole body was stiff from the cold rising from the floor. How did they know she threw the food in the toilet like a ghost? Even as she hunched her body further, there was no warmth.

The figure, who had lowered her head again, listened to the sounds outside. It was too soon for them to come check. Outside was noisy. Her head slowly lifted at the commotion, different from the usual sounds she heard. Her large eyes trembled with fear at the violence that might approach her. The lock rattled, hitting the door a few times, then a brief silence fell, and then—

CRASH!

The door shattered, and the loud noise instantly ceased.

Ki Shin-je, who had entered the room in dress shoes, saw the woman’s face, on the verge of fainting from shock. She seemed to have even stopped breathing from how startled she was, just blinking her eyes. Was the room even three pyeong? The woman, curled up in the empty room, was so small she looked like a child, despite having been told she was twenty.

Ki Shin-je looked at the woman, then his gaze shifted to the tray at his feet, and his eyebrows twitched. Even a pet animal would fare better than this. It was March, but the weather was cold, and her thin, worn clothes, combined with her appearance that suggested continuous exposure to violence, were so unexpected that even the formidable Ki Shin-je was dumbfounded.

“If you don’t breathe, you’ll die. Breathe.”

At Ki Shin-je’s dry voice, the woman, as if unaware she had been holding her breath, exhaled roughly with startled eyes.

“Good girl.”

The woman’s pupils dilated as wide as they could. Her large eyes seemed about to spill from her fist-sized face. Even in this state, she was beautiful, a born beauty. With only fear and terror visible in her eyes, the woman wriggled her body, with nowhere else to retreat, pressing herself against the wall.

Seeing her bloodless, pale face from the cold, Ki Shin-je took off his black coat and wrapped it around her.

“Your name?”

“...”

The woman, spellbound by the coat draped around her, squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them. Was this a dream? The warm coat smelled good. She kept wanting to smell it, so her head drooped.

“No name?”

He knelt on one knee to meet her eye level and asked again, and the woman startled, meeting his gaze.

“...Sa-ya.”

Confirming her name, Ki Shin-je curled one corner of his mouth and stood up.

“Sa-ya.”

Her eyes seemed about to spill again. Why was hearing her name called so surprising? Ki Shin-je chuckled at her gaze, her neck craned back as if it would break, looking at him. Sa-ya’s red lips parted like a blossoming flower bud.

“Your pretty face is all bruised.”

Where was there to hit? Those pathetic bastards.

The wariness in Sa-ya’s eyes faded. Her expression, exploring Ki Shin-je, was so innocent it was almost trivial.

“Want to come with me?”

Ki Shin-je extended his arm, offering his hand. Sa-ya alternated her gaze between the outstretched hand and his face.

“...You won’t hit me?”

Her faint voice trembled.

“That’s not my preference.”

At his dry words, Sa-ya easily nodded. A slender arm slowly reached out from beneath the coat, her fingertips brushing lightly against Ki Shin-je’s hand. One hand gripped Ki Shin-je’s coat tightly, as if afraid to let go.

“I’ll go.”

“Good girl.”

Sa-ya bit her red lips. Then she quickly curled her fingers that had brushed his and hid them back inside the coat. A satisfied look gleamed in Ki Shin-je’s eyes as he watched the woman, who was clumsy and only gentle even when trying to be sharp. Once he got what he wanted, he could give her freedom. Whatever it was, it would be better than now.