Joo Cheong-gyeong was markedly different from Shim Tae-seong.
Everyone has their own way of trying to take hold of something, of course… But while Shim Tae-seong had a tendency to protect me unconditionally, Joo Cheong-gyeong sought to control not just my body but even my mind.
With false information, he deceived me. Even if it meant hurting me.
…How must he have felt when things went awry because of Shim Tae-seong yet again?
Did he continue tracking me after that?
I was on an isolated island with Shim Tae-seong, yes, but if the stay had been long enough, who knows? Maybe I left behind a trail at some point.
But I hadn’t stayed there all that long. I’d left to meet Jang Hee-gang.
And then…
“To think you would dare reject your own origin.”
“You will be made to forget your life as Cha Eun-soo.”
“You will return to the place you once escaped, with no memory of your second life whatsoever… and live once more as part of the original world.”
I had clearly said I wanted to remain in the world where I lived as Cha Eun-soo… and yet, my will had been completely ignored, and I was forcibly returned to the original world.
Abruptly. Meaninglessly.
Without even seeing a single familiar face one last time.
Just as this system had so firmly asserted, all memories of my second life were erased.
But if that’s the case… how on earth is Jang Hee-gang here, in this world…?
“…!”
I felt the sensation of someone stroking my hair. The soft touch of the bedding beneath me, too.
Didn’t I lose consciousness right after meeting Jang Hee-gang? Whether it was because I had to recover an overwhelming amount of memories, or for some other reason, I couldn’t be sure.
In any case, what mattered more now was—how is Jang Hee-gang here, and what situation am I currently in?
“You’re awake?”
Jang Hee-gang’s voice reached me.
Without realizing it, my eyelids twitched, then slowly lifted.
Jang Hee-gang came into view, seated at the side of the bed where I lay. He was quietly looking down at me.
Unlike when he had taken my soul, or when he had violated me, he wasn’t disheveled. His hair was neatly swept back, his face clean and composed—none of the seething madness from before visible anymore.
There was a tenderness in his pitch-black eyes that didn’t suit them in the slightest.
It was the air of someone who had finally captured the prey he had desperately hungered for. He looked completely at ease.
“You’re not in any pain, are you?”
“……”
“I was worried. You had a pretty bad nosebleed.”
Fuck, where the hell do I even start? I just stared at him blankly, stunned, unable to say a word.
“I liked your original appearance quite a bit, but… I definitely prefer you like this.”
Jang Hee-gang murmured as he cupped my cheek.
“…What are you talking about?”
I opened my mouth to respond, the words not quite landing, confused by his meaning.
That’s when I noticed the ceiling—peculiarly reflective, like a mirror. I caught sight of myself in it.
Lying there on the massive bed was…Cha Eun-soo.
My eyes flew open as I gasped. It wasn’t just my memories that had returned—my body had changed too. I was back in Cha Eun-soo’s form. Jang Hee-gang gently touched the corner of my eye, where the shock had frozen my expression.
“Looks like everything came back to you.”
He leaned down. Our foreheads touched. A terrible, distorted wave rippled through me. It was proof that even my powers as a Guide had returned.
“Same for me.”
“…!”
Both the resonance and his whisper sent chills down my spine.
Same—that meant…
“Here.”
Without warning, his solid hand slipped under my clothes.
I flinched violently and grabbed his wrist in a panic. But Jang Hee-gang didn’t even flinch. His hand slid effortlessly toward the spot he wanted. That rough palm pressed down over the part of my chest where my heart was pounding furiously.
“You were hurting so much, weren’t you.”
Fucking hell.
He remembered everything—from the moment I began targeting him through the game… quite literally, everything.
“I didn’t think you’d suffer that much, though.”
“……”
“Was it because the process of extracting your soul was too painful?”
No shit. Getting stabbed right in the vital point—who wouldn’t be in agony?
For an S-rank Esper like him, who had lived through torment so extreme that ordinary people wouldn’t even survive it, he probably wouldn’t scream even if something worse happened. But still.
I bit my lip, swallowing a curse.
Not only was I being forced to recall that moment, Jang Hee-gang was now pressing down on the very spot where I’d been mercilessly stabbed. It was more than enough to make my body start trembling.
“Tsk.”
The hand that had slipped beneath my shirt now gently patted my chest, like he was comforting a child.
“I only did it to survive too. Can’t you try to understand?”
As if he were recalling a time that had been hellish for him too, Jang Hee-gang’s face went completely blank. But his hand didn’t stop moving.
“You suddenly vanished one day. No matter how long I waited… you never came back.”
“……”
Well, that was because the route had ended. And the characters and the world inside the game had felt so vividly real that I’d immersed myself far too deeply.
The Cha Eun-soo I played. And the real me—Lee Eun-soo. There were moments when I even confused the two myself.
[You were Guiding without even realizing it, through the game.]
In the end, it was because that game wasn’t just a game—it was essentially another reality.
At any rate, I’d stopped playing after the route was complete. My physical condition in the real world had deteriorated, and one day I suddenly realized how addicted I’d become. So I didn’t continue with the next part of the game.
“I waited… and waited… then searched the whole damn world like a madman. Just to find the one person who’d saved me.”
[But in the form of a game, there were bound to be limitations. You didn’t log in again after the route ended, did you?]
[In that world, they would’ve waited endlessly for the you who disappeared.]
Jang Hee-gang slowly closed and reopened his eyes.
“When I was driven to the edge, the thing called the system suddenly appeared and tossed down a lifeline. Why wouldn’t I grab it?”
“……”
“It told me the world where we met—the one where you saved me—was nothing more than a fictional game. That you’d never show up again. So, I had to go find you myself.”
With his free hand, Jang Hee-gang gently stroked my cheek.
“But it said afterward, time would be rewound… for your true rebirth.”
Like a fly caught in a spider’s web, I couldn’t even think of resisting. I held my breath. The steady rhythm of his hand patting me, of all things, stirred deeper fear—because he was the one doing it.
“I didn’t care what it took. Even if I had to return to the time before I ever met you.”
Even if what the system said was a lie. Even if it meant only my memories of you would disappear. It didn’t matter. Because I couldn’t bear the thought of remembering you but not being with you.
“And then… I finally found you again, born anew in that world.”
A quiet note of self-mockery slipped through.
“Only for you to vanish again, just like that.”
His dark gray eyes deepened, like a bottomless abyss. The face that looked sculpted by an artist now seemed terrifying. He radiated the kind of aura that would make anyone freeze in fear the moment they faced him.
No—fuck. This is so unfair.
It’s not like I chose to come back…
My pale lips trembled.
“I…”
“But this time, I couldn’t remember anything about you. Not your face. Not your voice. Not even the fact that you’d left.”
With a forceful tone that demanded obedience, he said,
“Your very existence vanished without leaving a single trace.”
“…!”
“So why didn’t I just live on? Why did I try to find you again, and how did I come all the way here? I bet you’re wondering that.”
…I couldn’t deny it.
That was the very first question that had crossed my mind. Then, a deep voice, resonating as if from the depths of the earth, swept through my ears.
“But does any of that even matter?”
“Ah…!”
The hand that had been patting my chest suddenly twisted—painfully pinching my nipple. A choked moan burst from my mouth before I could stop it.
I instinctively thrashed, trying to pull away—And suddenly, a flash of white exploded before my eyes.
Jang Hee-gang had slapped me across the face with the hand that wasn’t touching me.
Biiiiiii. A ringing filled my ears.
My skin burned, flaring up like it had been scorched.
Wow. Just—wow. Did I seriously just get slapped? Why?
He’d probably held back his strength—that’s the only reason it didn’t go further. Still, the sheer shock of it left me reeling.
“Hhh… ugh…”
But if I really thought about it…
That was always how Jang Hee-gang operated. He’d pretend to be gentle just enough to throw you off, then get violent the moment something didn’t go his way.
It had been the same in those glimpses of his behavior before, and especially when he’d raped me.
“How I managed it. What this place is. Which world we’re in.”
“……”
“Sorry, but I don’t intend to tell you. It’s not something that matters to you anymore. What does matter, though—”
He seized my face, now turned away from him, and forced it to look straight at him again. His voice dropped into a dark, ominous warning.
“You’re going to spend the rest of your life living the guide’s life you ran from—that awful, exhausting existence you tried to escape.”
No, wait—that’s a complete misunderstanding. I liked guiding.
…Wait a second.
Don’t tell me… fucking hell.
Did he slap me because he thinks I ran away from it?
“You’ll never escape it again.”
His grip on my jaw tightened.
The fury and lust he’d kept carefully hidden until now… and a desire so bottomless it was impossible to measure—all of it surged to the surface of Jang Hee-gang’s face. The hand that had been tormenting my nipple began to slide lower. Past my ribs, his palm slowly caressed around my navel.
“You’re going to have to choke on my cum until this hole bursts.”
“…!! Nngh—!”
Jang Hee-gang yanked the back of my neck roughly and crushed his lips against mine in a violent kiss.
His thick tongue forced its way into my mouth, parting the blood-tinged taste that must’ve come from the slap earlier.
It rammed into my uvula without mercy, toying with it savagely—and slowly, my eyes began to fill with tears.
