She was finally crazy.
As soon as Baek Hawon was grabbed by the neck, Jiun, who pulled out his gun on reflex, rubbed the dark circles under his eyes in wonder.
“I’ll say it just this once, so listen up, Boss.”
Holding the boss so tightly that veins popped out the back of her white hand, she even poked a finger at his chest.
His eyebrows became just as wrinkled as his forehead.
“My heart is now out of here.”
“…”
“I’ll be independent within this week, so please prepare a farewell party.”
The heavy silence was crushed by a powerful voice.
Her bright brown eyes lit up in the sunlight and grew slightly larger. It was a small change, but this was a rare change for Jiun, who was accustomed to the monotonous sounds from the members of the organization.
The existence of Cha Yeonbyeol in The Hundred Thousand was not something that could simply be defined.
A woman who resembles his dead beloved wife, which made The Hundred Thousand’s ex-boss bring her in. She became his daughter.
She was not part of the organization, but at the same time, she had the second highest position after the boss.
The gang members called her Miss and did not treat her rudely. Rather than her position elevating her existence, it was her own words and actions that made her existence stand out.
An ignorant, immature fool. She had an atmosphere that was overwhelming enough for people who didn’t know better to believe that she was an executive of the organization.
Not to mention, she spoke to the boss like a madwoman.
Whether it be an animal or a person, if his gaze stayed on them for too long, she would kill them and confess her love by holding onto him with her blood-stained hands.
The more she did that, the more Baek Hawon hated her.
Nevertheless, the reason he kept Cha Yeonbyeol under The Hundred Thousand was because of the risk to the organization that he would have to take if she was placed elsewhere, and the irreversible will left by his former boss and father.
“I think this is a good thing for Boss, too, and it has to be gorgeous and luxurious. Possible, right?”
But finally?
Was she finally crazy?
No,
She’s changed.
Things that have always been boring have changed. She had changed so much that he couldn’t figure out why.
And Baek Hawon also felt that change.
Jiun noticed at once.
Those black eyes were like an abyss with a different light than before.
Baek Hawon just looked down at her with an indifferent expression until she, whose dazzling lips were curled up with her face full of anger, soon collapsed into his arms.
***
“The fever was over 39 degrees. Fortunately, it’s down to 38 degrees now, but it’s still dangerous. I think she’s gotten worse from last time.”
The line between dream and reality was blurry. I was dizzyingly sinking somewhere deep, just as the heat melted away my sense of reality.
“Are you out of your mind? You can’t do this when you’re out of your mind.”
On such a day, there was a clear voice that made me wonder whether I misheard and immediately opened my eyes.
Ah, I’m waking up.
I slowly blinked my heavy eyelids and finally closed them again. Looking back on it, I wondered if I had really heard wrong. Was there anyone who could talk like that to Baek Hawon?
“How could you leave a child so unsupervised that she faints twice.”
“What is this? I don’t remember the heir of Dho having to come here in person.”
“I’m here to see her. Do you have any complaints?”
The sound was followed by a thud. I’ve only heard it a few times, but the sound of a gun loading was unforgettable.
“You raised me nicely, yet I’m being so arbitrary.”
“Well. You’ve got no reason to be like that when you’ve grown up tough.”1
Indeed, this was too much for anyone to pretend to sleep more in a deadly atmosphere.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a picture of the ceiling that I had already gotten used to after seeing it a few times. It’s a separate room.
After opening my eyes, I was suffocated by a heavy weight like a large rock was being weighed on my body.
I thought about closing my eyes again to the helplessness that came over me like a wave, but I couldn’t move my eyes when I saw the person who had been on my side so far.
His hair was like the color of cotton candy.
Colorful cotton candy.
His fashion stood out along with his unusual hair color. He wore a blue jean jacket covered in colorful flower embroidery, red socks, yellow shoes, and bear-shaped earrings that dangled over his shoulders.
I turned slightly and saw Baek Hawon really pointing a gun at Cotton Candy.
That bastard was hot with a gun.
“Cotton Candy.”
I barely uttered the word.
Fortunately, Cotton Candy turned towards me and our eyes met.
At first glance, Cotton Candy’s evident boyish beauty suited his hair well. His face had both soft and hard lines that naturally melded with his excessive fashion and made up his personality.
If he smiled, he would be very pretty. Usually, a kid like that was a villain, but I was just thinking absurdly, and my face that day was blatantly distorted in perplexedness.
“Why do you look uglier?”
What?
I frowned further at the words directed at me.
There’s no way I’d forget a guy who throws a bomb with every word he says, is he an extra?
Judging from his face, he was at the same level as the main cast, but since Cha Yeonbyeol also died in the early stages, he had a good chance of not appearing as well if he was a different character.
“Call the doctor.”
“Yes, Boss.”
Baek Hawon glanced at me and kept his gun away. Cotton Candy frowned as if he was displeased.
“Boss is so old-fashioned.”
My awareness of Cotton Candy increased along with my likability. It’s hard to see that kind of mindset on this floor, so isn’t that favorable?
As I tried to raise myself up, Cotton Candy grabbed onto me and helped me lean against the head of the bed.
I never saw him in the book, so I didn’t even know three letters of his name. Considering what was said earlier about him being the heir to the Dho family, that would probably be his surname.
The Hundred Thousand was led by the Baek family, and five families followed them, dividing The Hundred Thousand into districts and managing them. One of them seemed to belong to Cotton Candy.
“Hey, Cotton Candy.”
“Cotton Candy?”
“What’s your name?”
Perhaps because of my fever, mindless words came through my mouth without a filter from my blurry mind.
Cotton Candy’s eyebrows furrowed as he made a serious expression.
“What. You’re still out of your mind.”
“Dho Siyoo. Get out of here.”
The answer came out of the mouth of an unwanted person.
Dho Siyoo.
I tried rolling the three letters over in my mouth, but nothing came to mind. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard that name.
Cotton Candy, no, Dho Siyoo’s face showed that he was still bothered, but he got up from the bedside as if he couldn’t disobey the boss.
I thought he would leave the room just like that, but he turned around and grabbed my shoulder, coming close enough for me to feel his breath.
His unexpected behavior made my breath hitch.
“Tell me anytime.”
“…”
“When you want to get out of here, tell me.”
Without responding to those incomprehensible words, I looked at him speechlessly, but Dho Siyoo left the room as if he didn’t see my gaze.
Want to get out?
There’s no way Cha Yeonbyeol wanted to get out of The Hundred Thousand.
When I came into this novel, I found it full of things I didn’t know. Or was that because I’m the villainess who dies on the first chapter in a BL novel?
My head was about to crack again. Still, seeing that he was close to Baek Hawon, there seemed to be no possibility of disguising or hiding his identity, so it was clear that Dho Siyoo wasn’t the villain who killed Yugeom.
I’m not sure what kind of relationship he had with Cha Yeonbyeol, but I was a little relieved that there was even one person who was kind to her.
As soon as the tension was gone, I was about to sleep more as the drowsiness came back, but then I made eye contact with Baek Hawon, who I thought went out with Dho Siyoo.
“Boss.”
His eyebrows twitched at my word.
I shrank back at those inscrutable eyes.
Baek Hawon’s face was like that of the sea at night, or a swamp. It looked quiet on the outside, but you wouldn’t know what was inside until you touched it.
It evoked a fear of being sucked in the moment you touched him.
“Aren’t you going out?”
Baek Hawon, who had been leaning against the door all this time, moved. Even if I measured my own walk with a ruler, I couldn’t have been more perfect than him.
“The party.”
His slow, step by step pace was imbued with an unfamiliar weight created from things he was forced to hold from when he was born.
The atmosphere felt akin to the arrogance of predators at the top of the food chain.
“Let’s throw a party.”
Baek Hawon’s white hands touched a rose on the table, which seemed unbefitting of him. The movement of touching a flower with petals as red as blood made me nervous, but I tried to ignore it.
I said I wanted to be independent and out of The Hundred Thousand. I had also grabbed Baek Hawon by the neck.
It was obvious that I was out of my mind at that moment, but on second thought, I wasn’t being that crazy.
If I leave this island, I won’t be kidnapped by Yugeom, who will sneak into this island, or die by Yugeom’s hands the day Baek Hawon, who goes to find me, meets him.
“I don’t believe I’ll be a part of this organization since I can’t shoot a gun, so I think it’s time for me to go out and live.”
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to ask Dho Siyoo for help after I gain independence. I don’t exactly know what kind of relationship he has with me, but at least it seems close to a ‘friend.’
I grinned as I looked at Baek Hawon. I thought I was close to being able to live, so the corners of my mouth naturally curled up.
“Boss also wants me to disappear from your sight, right?”
At that moment, Baek Hawon gripped the flower with one hand. Hard enough to draw blood, yet he remained expressionless.
The fragile flower snapped so easily in his hand that its red petals fell to the floor along with drops of blood from being pricked by its thorns.
I felt goosebumps at the sight, but I faced his gaze head on while holding tightly onto my blanket so as not to show.
I opened my mouth because the silence that weighed down on me while we looked at each other was too much to bear.
“Boss.”
Baek Hawon let out a cold laugh.
“Cha Yeonbyeol.”
As he said my name slowly, he drew closer to me. Red petals scattered like fresh blood around his feet.
The more I pressed down on my desire to run away, the bigger it only became.
Stopping right in front of my nose, Baek Hawon reached out to me, making me instinctively shut my eyes.
The coldness of his fingers as he touched my cheeks was a vivid feeling.
“…You keep doing things you’ve never done.”
I opened my eyes again as his voice came out.
I saw only his black eyes, which seemed to make me freeze. They were exactly as described in the book, which said that he had black eyes of unknown depth.
I couldn’t even fathom that depth.
“I think I know.”
‘The first time I saw you.’
‘I knew I would fall in love with you.’
As I fell deeper into his eyes, the more he seemed to overlap with his thoughts from the novel.
“But I also may not know.”
This unexpected development and lines made me want to cry.
I think I just raised a new death flag.