DBEM ~ 01

Chapter – 01

She was a woman she knew.

“So… you already knew everything?”

His mistress did.

No—she knew far more than that.

She was the actress cast as the lead in his very first film. Using discussions about the movie as an excuse, she had visited their apartment several times.

Each time, Seolhwa had watched the two of them from inside her cage-like apartment.

She had already suspected the truth.

The way he looked at Ma Yu-gyeong was strikingly similar to the way he had once looked at twenty-four-year-old Jeong Seolhwa.

Even so, she desperately wanted to avoid seeing Yu-gyeong as his lover.

Because if she acknowledged that he had fallen for a woman who shimmered like grains of sand beneath the sunlight, or bloomed as brilliantly as a tulip in spring…

Then she’d also have to admit just how pitiful she herself had become.

“Of course, I’m sorry things turned out this way,” Yu-gyeong said. “But what can we do? We’re in love.”

“…Love?”

“Yes. We love each other.”

Was the meaning of a tulip fascination…

Or recklessness?

Yu-gyeong sipped her orange juice through a straw and smiled sweetly, like a tulip in full bloom.

Seolhwa was utterly stunned.

She hadn’t expected an apology.

But at the very least, she thought the woman might beg her through tears to let him go.

Instead…

She was shameless.

Feeling dizzy, Seolhwa widened her eyes, trying to steady her vision.

But the sight in her damaged left eye, clouded for years, remained as blurry as ever.

Afraid Yu-gyeong might notice the milky eye scarred by acid, she hurriedly adjusted the hair covering half her face.

Her jet-black hair concealed the melted side of her face and her ruined eye.

Only after confirming every scar was hidden did Seolhwa manage to part her dry lips.

“You’re… too…”

“…”

“You’re far too shameless. How can you steal another woman’s man…”

Her throat tightened before she could finish.

“Then maybe you should’ve done a better job keeping your man,” Yu-gyeong scoffed. “Though…”

Instead of finishing, Yu-gyeong slowly looked Seolhwa up and down.

Her gaze moved from Seolhwa’s tightly tied hair to her face.

She stared relentlessly through the long bangs that barely concealed one side of Seolhwa’s face.

Fear flashed through her eyes.

Then disgust.

Soon, Yu-gyeong’s pretty face twisted into a sneer.

“With your face and eye looking like that… you’re practically a monster.”

She never should have come.

Yu-gyeong had insisted she already knew about Seolhwa’s appearance and begged to meet her.

Seolhwa should never have found the courage.

The world she’d stepped into with everything she had to protect the man she loved…

Was unbearably cruel.

“I only heard about it from Oppa, but seeing it in person… wow, you’re seriously disgusting. How did such a famous actress end up like this? I heard you’ve been hiding inside your house without even coming out.”

Yu-gyeong looked at her as though she were staring at an actual monster.

Humiliation washed over Seolhwa.

She wanted to scream.

There was once a time when I shined just as brightly as you.

No…

I was even more beautiful than you.

She wanted to tell her that.

But she couldn’t.

Even if she argued, she knew better than anyone that her current appearance could never return to what it had once been.

As though she understood exactly what Seolhwa was thinking, Yu-gyeong’s flower-like lips curled cruelly.

“Oppa is going to break up with you.”

“…Gi-beom really said that? That… he wants to leave me?”

“Of course. Do you think he’d stay with you instead of me? He says now he can’t even look at you without feeling suffocated. Every time he sees your face, all he feels is guilt.”

Yu-gyeong casually dug her knife deeper into Seolhwa’s wounds.

“I can give him everything you can’t. Besides, you two never even registered your marriage.”

Her words struck Seolhwa like a punch to the stomach.

If they separated…

Legally, they’d become strangers.

Perhaps that was why she’d been so anxious despite forcing herself to come here wearing this ruined face.

At first, Seolhwa had continued acting to earn money and support Gi-beom.

After the accident, he kept postponing their marriage registration.

Their relationship had always been fragile.

If either one let go…

It would end.

But just because there wasn’t a single piece of legal paper…

Did that erase all her sacrifices?

All the years they’d spent together?

Grinding her teeth so hard they nearly cracked, Seolhwa watched as Yu-gyeong placed a small jewelry box on the table.

Inside sparkled a diamond ring.

The stone was no bigger than her little fingernail, yet it glittered brilliantly.

“He proposed recently,” Yu-gyeong said proudly. “We’re getting married.”

The word marriage hurt.

But what shattered Seolhwa even more…

Was the ring.

So Jeon Gi-beom… was capable of buying a woman a gift.

He had never even given Seolhwa a cheap copper ring.

The man who had always taken her sacrifices for granted…

Had bought another woman a diamond.

Rage surged through her.

Seolhwa clenched her trembling hands into fists and stared straight at Yu-gyeong.

“Does my permission matter for this marriage?”

“…What?”

Yu-gyeong frowned sharply.

“If I refuse to step aside, then you can’t get married, right? Isn’t that why you came to see me?”

“Hah! Are you threatening me?”

“Did it sound like a threat?”

Splash!

“Ah…!”

The instant she spoke, icy orange juice was thrown straight into Seolhwa’s face.

Cold liquid splashed over her skin.

The sensation instantly dragged her back to the accident.

Her shoulders instinctively shrank.

In that moment, her wet hair slipped away…

Revealing the melted half of her face.

Startled, Seolhwa hurriedly turned toward the café’s floor-to-ceiling window, desperately trying to hide herself.

Outside…

The year’s first snow drifted gently from the sky.

On the day her last shred of dignity was washed away…

The world turned completely white.

It felt as though the five years she’d sacrificed for love were being buried beneath the falling snow.

“Don’t you realize you’re the reason Oppa is miserable?”

The reason for his misery.

Had he really said that?

The man who had once whispered that only Jeong Seolhwa could make him happy…

That only she could complete his unfinished life…

Had he really said those words to this young woman?

She couldn’t believe it.

How could he?

“How can you still be so shameless with that face? Can you even see with one eye?”

No.

She refused to believe it.

“Looking like such a disgusting monster… don’t you have any shame?”

Shame.

That was the last word Ma Yu-gyeong had any right to use.

Just as Seolhwa clenched her jaw and turned toward her—

Knock.

A pair of polished black dress shoes stopped outside the café.

Right in front of where Seolhwa sat.

The shadow stretching across her body made no attempt to hide that its owner had stopped specifically because of her.

The man slowly turned toward the window.

His tall figure—well over six feet—cast a long shadow over Seolhwa.

Forgetting entirely that her scars were exposed, she looked up blankly.

Was he looking at his own reflection in the glass?

Or perhaps…

Had he recognized Yu-gyeong, the actress so often called every young man’s ideal type?

He was incredibly tall.

And his gaze…

Was intense.

The hand resting against the window slowly slid downward.

His features were so handsome they rivaled any actor’s.

Yet what stood out even more were his sharp, powerful eyes.

They weren’t looking at Yu-gyeong.

They were staring directly at Seolhwa.

His dark eyes carefully traced every inch of her face—

Her wet cheeks.

Her nose.

Her lips.

“What…?”

Across the table, Yu-gyeong muttered in confusion.

But Seolhwa couldn’t look away.

His gaze was neither curious nor mocking.

It was as though he were confirming something.

For the first time…

She forgot to hide the left side of her face.

It felt as though her very soul had been trapped inside those black eyes.

Snow continued piling onto his black coat.

Then…

His red lips moved.

Without realizing it, Seolhwa silently read them.

“Jeong… Seolhwa…?”

Warm breath fogged the air as he clearly mouthed her name.

She had never seen him before.

Had he remembered her from her days as an actress?

His eyes slowly shifted.

To the ring box on the table.

“…!”

At that moment, reflected in the café window, Seolhwa caught sight of herself.

Her twisted, blackened left cheek.

Her cloudy, lifeless eye.

An unbearable wave of humiliation crashed over her.

The man’s expression remained calm.

Unreadable.

Yet Seolhwa felt as though this complete stranger had witnessed every miserable piece of her broken life.

As a tiny crease slowly formed between his brows…

She made up her mind.

I have to run.

Before he looked at her again.

Quickly covering her face with her soaked hair, she stood.

“Hey!”

Ignoring Yu-gyeong’s lowered but furious voice, Seolhwa rushed out of the café.

The cold wind and falling snow lashed her tear-stained face.

“Haa…”

The bitter winter wind sliced through her clothes like knives.

Her breath disappeared into the freezing air.

The snowfall had become fierce.

Her entire body grew numb.

Her wet hair froze stiff against her skin.

Slowly, Seolhwa turned to look at her reflection in the shop window.

Between frozen strands of hair peeked the wrinkled, brownish skin scarred by acid.

The grotesque half of her face wasn’t cooled by the winter air.

Instead…

It burned.

Just as it had on that day.

As though she were sinking once more beneath freezing water while unbearable pain consumed one side of her face.

“Jeong Seolhwa…

Is this…

Really you?”

Time…

Was cruel.

The face that had once shone with confidence…

The love she’d devoted her entire life to…

Neither could survive the years after that merciless acid attack.

No one could turn back time.

Just as the tears she’d held back finally gathered in her eyes—

Footsteps approached.

Suddenly…

The heavy snowfall stopped.

“Jeong Seolhwa.”

A deep voice called her name.

Hidden by the glass before, she hadn’t heard it.

Slowly, Seolhwa lifted her head.

Had the snow really stopped?

No.

“…Ah.”

A large black umbrella had been opened above her.

She was too startled to turn around.

Then—

A large, warm hand covered the back of her freezing one.

It felt like the blazing noon sun against her icy skin.

At the same time, a firm umbrella handle was gently pressed into her palm.

The warmth…

Somehow felt strangely familiar.

She turned.

It was the man from outside the café.

His deep voice sounded beside her.

“Unfortunately…”

“I don’t have the power to stop the snow from falling.”

He paused.

“But…”

“I can stop it from reaching you.”

Though his voice sounded calm and almost emotionless…

His words were unbearably gentle.

At that moment…

The tears she had struggled so hard to hold back finally fell.