Chapter 1

“I like you, sunbae.”

She was twenty-two, and it was a drizzly night.

Rainwater streamed down from the eaves of the shop, and droplets pattered against the puddles gathered on the ground.

“I’m not confessing because I’m drunk.”

A heavy silence followed.

Danbi couldn’t bring herself to raise her head. The lack of a response was practically a rejection in itself.

Clenching both hands into fists, she stared blankly down at her toes.

“……Danbi.”

“Wait! Before you reject me, please think about it seriously one more time.”

She had said she wasn’t confessing because she was drunk, but alcohol had already soaked thoroughly into every inch of her body.

Inside the shop, the start-of-semester party was in full swing. The boisterous chatter spilled out through the crack beneath the door.

She wanted desperately to turn back time exactly ten minutes.

Back to ten minutes ago, when she had been happily drinking her fill inside. Back to before she had gotten up and spotted Moon Doyoung walking out of the shop alone.

“Danbi. Look at me.”

Doyoung’s low voice brushed against her ears.

Danbi slowly raised her head.

Her eyelashes trembled, and her vision was blurry, but she forced herself to meet his gaze.

“Do you…… like me?”

The words had already left her mouth. There was no taking them back.

Danbi pressed her lips tightly together and nodded over and over.

“How much?”

Even in this situation, her brain was working at full speed. She needed to figure out why he was asking such a question before she could come up with an answer.

Her eyes traveled over Doyoung’s face.

His long, narrow eyes were fixed on her.

The bridge of his nose descended in a clean, flawless line from his forehead, without a single imperfection.

His sharp yet strong jawline needed no further explanation.

When her gaze landed on his full, reddish lips, her throat went dry.

The correct answer was simple.

He’s handsome.

“Enough that I’d attend your liberal arts classes for you.”

“You know proxy attendance doesn’t work anymore.”

“T-Then…… enough that I’d do a ten-page report for you.”

“I can do that much myself.”

“Then…… then……”

How was she supposed to put these feelings into words?

While Danbi fidgeted uselessly with her fingers—

“Danbi.”

Doyoung took a large step toward her.

His broad, solid chest filled her entire field of vision. The faint scent of him drifting toward her made her head spin.

Doyoung lowered his head until their eyes were level.

They were so close that the tips of their noses nearly brushed.

Close enough that, if he wanted to, stealing a kiss would have been easy.

“Could you live with me?”

In that instant, a vivid scene unfolded in Danbi’s mind—sharing a home with Doyoung, living together, experiencing the little routines of everyday life.

Her heart swelled just imagining it.

Danbi kept her eyes fixed on his lips as they moved and nodded.

“Will you marry me?”

Danbi’s eyes widened as if they were about to fall out of their sockets.

“……!”

She had confessed that she liked him, and somehow she had received a marriage proposal in return.

The blood coursing through her body seemed to pool around her heart, leaving it burning hot.

She felt as though she were floating on air, as if she were standing on clouds.

Her two-year unrequited love seemed to be reaching a happy ending.

“At least for one year, until I leave to study abroad.”

But at his next words, Danbi wondered if she had heard him correctly.

She must have misunderstood.

“What?”

“There won’t be any problem on paper. We just need to formally draw up a marriage contract and have it notarized.”

Wasn’t marriage supposed to be about two people who loved each other deciding to build a family together?

A marriage contract? Notarization?

What on earth was he talking about?

“Thanks for listening to something so ridiculous.”

He knew it was ridiculous when he said it?

“It’s too late tonight. Let’s talk about it again tomorrow.”

The corners of Doyoung’s eyes curved gently.

Danbi was momentarily spellbound by his soft, melting smile.

He patted the shoulder of the dazed Danbi before running out into the rain.

His broad back slowly disappeared into the darkness.

“No…… No. No, ah…… no!”

Danbi abruptly sat upright and woke from her sleep.

Her hair clung to her forehead, drenched in cold sweat. Ragged breaths escaped through her dry, parched lips.

“Damn it…… Why did I have to dream about him today of all days?”

It looked like today was going to be a day of bad luck.

Even the sky outside was covered with thick, dark clouds.

“It may call itself a hotel, but it’s basically just a motel.”

Danbi grumbled to the person on the phone as she looked up at the building she had just walked out of.

[Is that really the problem right now? I told you to stay at my place until you find somewhere to live.]

Hyunseo’s voice was as sharp and no-nonsense as her personality.

“I’m fine. You have a huge family. Didn’t you say your grandparents and even your nieces and nephews live there?”

[That makes it even less of a problem. We just put out one more set of utensils.]

“I’m meeting the landlord today. I’ll explain my situation and see if I can work something out. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll take you up on your offer.”

As she spoke, Danbi gulped down the bottled water she had brought from the motel room.

Her mouth tasted bitter.

She had spent every last penny of the money her parents in the United States had sent her to help her become independent on a deposit for a rental apartment.

There was no way she could bring herself to ask them for more money by telling them she had been scammed in a real-estate deal.

Her parents currently believed their daughter had found a nice apartment in Seoul and was living comfortably.

The reality was that Danbi had lost every penny she owned and was now moving from one motel room to another.

[I knew there was something off about that Mincheol guy.]

“To be precise, he was an employee of Mincheol’s uncle’s business partner.”

[Same difference.]

“Mincheol and his uncle didn’t know either.”

[Introductions through acquaintances are the most dangerous.]

“I never imagined they’d even forge the property registry.”

[You think a con artist becomes a con artist for nothing?]

“Haa……”

Two weeks had already passed.

She had sought advice from anyone and everyone and given her statement to the police so many times that she had repeated the story hundreds of times.

And yet, every time she spoke about it, her stomach twisted with pain.

She could still picture the con artist’s face as he sweet-talked her with all sorts of lies, claiming that he owned several apartments in Seoul and that, because he was a friend of the niece of a business associate, he could rent one to her at a cheap price.

Who would have thought that such a kindly-looking face belonged to someone capable of preying on a fresh young adult just starting out in society?

“I’m the idiot for falling for it.”

[That part is true. You should’ve checked the documents yourself. Real-estate paperwork is incredibly important.]

She had never thought much of the heartbreaking stories about fraud victims she saw on the news.

She never imagined one day she would become one of them.

When faced with a situation so desperate it felt as though the sky itself had collapsed, people sometimes became strangely calm.

Rather than raging in frustration, she had to think practically and do whatever she could.

[So what are you going to say when you meet the landlord?]

“When I went there with the scammer, the place was empty. I’m going to ask if I can stay there until I can come up with the deposit, in case he’s planning to rent it out anyway……”

[Does that make any sense? I suppose it could if the landlord is a philanthropist.]

“If he owns several houses and happens to be sympathetic, maybe it’ll work?”

[Have you ever met a rich person that kind?]

Danbi tilted her head slightly at Hyunseo’s question.

……Oh.

After rummaging through her memories, one face did come to mind.

“I’ve only met a rich person once in my entire life.”

But he was rich, yes.

Kind?

Not so much.

So he was out.

[It’d probably be faster to catch that scammer who fled to the Philippines than to find a rich person with a heart of gold.]

Listening to Hyunseo’s sarcastic remark, Danbi trudged along until she stopped in front of a nearby café.

“I’m going to hang up for now. I’m already at the meeting place. I’ll call you again later.”

Danbi ended the call and slipped her phone into her pocket.

There was still some time before the appointment, so she decided to sit down first and wait for the landlord.

“Would you like to order?”

“I’ll order when the person I’m meeting gets here.”

She desperately wanted an iced Americano.

But after losing every penny she owned to the scam, even buying a cup of coffee made her hands tremble.

She had to save every penny she could.

“How should I start so I look as pitiful as possible?”

Resting her chin on one arm, Danbi tapped her fingertips lightly against the table.

Eventually, she took out her phone and looked at her reflection in the black screen.

She tried to make herself look as pitiful as possible.

She drooped the corners of her eyes, pulled down the corners of her lips, and hunched her shoulders as much as she could.

“This is never going to work.”

A hollow laugh escaped her.

Losing every penny she owned must have finally driven her crazy.

So absorbed in her self-loathing, she failed to notice the large shadow approaching her.

Someone tapped lightly on the table.

Danbi absentmindedly looked up.

“……!”

Her eyes flew wide.

She was so shocked that she could barely breathe.

There was no need to count how many years it had been since she had last seen that face.

“Sunbae Doyoung……”

It was the man who had appeared in her dream the night before.

“What do you want to drink?”

His low, deep voice made her heart pound.

His features had become even more defined and striking over the years, giving him an aura that felt almost untouchable.

“If you don’t answer, I’ll just order something.”

Doyoung pulled his wallet from the pocket of his slacks and turned toward the counter.

“Don’t!”

He stopped and looked back at Danbi with a puzzled expression.

Of all moments, why did she have to run into her first love again like this?

At a time like this?

In a place like this?

Looking like this?

Was the nightmare she had dreamed about last night some kind of omen warning her that she was about to face this horrific situation?

Danbi bit down hard on her lower lip and brushed her hair back.

“I have an important appointment right now. Let’s talk properly another time.”

It was a fairly polite and clean way to end the conversation.

She had given him his answer, so she wished he would simply disappear and leave her alone.

But he just stood there, staring at her.

Why wasn’t the landlord here yet?

Did he have any idea how much she was being tortured right now?

Trying her best to avoid Doyoung’s gaze, Danbi picked up her phone.

She called the landlord whose number she had been messaging and held the phone to her ear.

The moment the call connected, she urged the other person in a quiet voice meant only for them to hear.

“Why aren’t you here yet? Where are you? If you’re still far away, I’ll come to you.”

All Danbi could think about was getting out of Moon Doyoung’s line of sight as quickly as possible.

“Danbi.”

“Yes?”

“……”

“……”

A brief silence followed.

She was confused because she couldn’t tell whether the voice calling her had come through the phone or from directly in front of her.

And why…… was Moon Doyoung holding a phone to his ear?

“I’m the one.”

Doyoung’s voice flowed into Danbi’s ear through the phone.

“The landlord you’re calling.”

Her head went completely blank, as though she had just been struck with a blunt weapon.

“We haven’t seen each other in a long time, but you don’t look happy to see me at all.”

When a situation became this horribly tangled, there was only one person left to blame for setting it all in motion.

Mincheol, you fucking bastard.

That was the muffled curse trapped inside Danbi’s tightly closed mouth.