However, no matter how long she waited, the answer she had been expecting never came. He had acted as if he was about to say something, only to close his mouth again, as if teasing her.
Realizing that further threats would be useless, Ina lowered the blade she had been holding to his throat. Her intent had been to intimidate him, but since it wasn’t working, it was better to give up quickly.
“What a boring bastard.”
At Ina’s muttered complaint, he merely laughed. His irritating chuckle made her eyes glint with renewed hostility, but he simply patted her shoulder, as if telling her to calm down.
He strode deeper into the garden and sat on a long wooden bench. Then, with a wave of his hand, he gestured for her to come over. After scanning their surroundings once more, Ina stepped forward, striding toward where he sat.
“Ina Shining, you said you wanted to become an elder of the Central District, didn’t you?”
The moment she sat down, maintaining a fair distance from him, he threw out the question. Caught off guard, her eyes widened slightly before she nodded. After all, that was precisely why she had aligned herself with him in the first place.
“May I ask why?”
His voice, uncharacteristically careful, made her pause. She wasn’t sure if she needed to explain, but when she met his red eyes, still fixed on her, she felt like this was something she had to lay bare.
“It’s really difficult for two Shining to even hold hands, huh.”
With a sigh, Ina leaned back against the bench, her head tilting slightly as she stared into empty space. Then, her gaze returned to him.
“My mother was the daughter of a Central Elder.”
His brow arched at this revelation. He had known that most of the district lords’ concubines were daughters of elders, but he hadn’t expected Ina’s mother to be one of them—let alone a Central Elder’s daughter.
—If you become a district lord, give me the position of Central Elder.
Ina’s goal was the seat of the Central Elder. That meant she intended to drive out her own bloodline with her own hands. There could not be two Central Elders.
Reading the seriousness in his eyes, Ina Shining simply shrugged, as if it were nothing, and continued speaking.
“It’s obvious, really. You already know how the elders maintain their positions. Do you think any of the mothers here are without their own tragic stories? They’re all the same. The exact same tale.”
Her mother, who had been sent as a concubine to the district lord, as if sold off by the greed of the Central Elders, had not lasted long. Within a few years, she had taken her own life.
Once a woman became a district lord’s concubine, she was never allowed to leave the estate. For her mother, who had lived freely until then, this place must have been nothing short of a living hell.
—Ina, no matter what, you must leave this place.
Whenever Ina thought of her mother, a dull ache settled in her chest. Unlike the other mothers, hers had never harbored the ambition of making her child the next district lord.
She had always told Ina to live a different life. And after she was gone, Ina made a vow: even if she escaped this wretched estate, she would take revenge on the one who had driven her mother to such a fate.
The simplest way would have been to kill the Central Elder. But that alone wouldn’t be enough. So she decided to take away what he valued most.
She would strip him of the Elder’s seat he had been so desperate to keep—even to the point of selling off his own daughter. She would make sure he lived the rest of his life as a wretched commoner.
Only then, perhaps, would this aching pain in her chest subside.
“I want the Central Elder to die in misery. And to make that happen, I have to take everything from him. That’s why I’m going after the Elder’s seat—the one he was willing to sell his own daughter to protect. A cliché revenge story, isn’t it?”
She tried to act as if she was fine, but sorrow was etched across her face.
He turned his gaze away, staring into the distance, as a memory of his own birth mother surfaced.
In his mind, Se-yeon had always been insane—though he did have rare moments of lucidity. There had been times when he had held him and danced with him, but if he thought about it, that had never really been love.
—It’s all your fault! If only you had never been born—if only it weren’t for you!
Se-yeon had despised him. He had believed, without a shred of doubt, that his life had been ruined the moment he gave birth to him. And he had died holding onto that belief, discarded like trash, his body tangled in a heap of filth.
But no matter how much he thought about him, he felt nothing. That was why Ina fascinated him. That she could make such an expression while thinking of the one who had birthed her. That she could feel sorrow.
The only person who had ever stirred his emotions was Seo-yul. Seo-yul had been the one to show him what light was, after he had spent his life in darkness. He had only begun to feel alive from the moment Seo-yul had opened that warehouse door.
“…You’re right.”
With a deep sigh, he leaned back against the bench. Through the glass ceiling above, the moon shone white and bright—a celestial body both cursed by ‘Night’ and revered by the people of District 1 as humanity’s greatest blessing.
“There was only one thing I discussed with the Apostle.”
He started speaking again. It annoyed him that he had to bare himself first before she did, but since he had gotten what he wanted, it was fine. Ina waited for him to continue.
“An exchange of desires.”
“Desires?”
Ina had suspected as much from the moment the Apostle was placed before her. Of course, there had been a discussion between them. The phrasing was vague, but in the end, it meant that they had joined hands.
‘Did I back the wrong horse?’
A wave of unease crept into her mind. For now, he was undoubtedly the next in line for the district lord’s seat, but if word got out that he had struck some kind of deal with the Apostle, the ever-capricious lord of the district could overturn his succession in an instant.
Sensing her anxiety, he smiled brightly. His unwavering composure slowly eased Ina’s nerves. He must have something planned. His vivid crimson eyes gleamed with certainty.
“I heard you have a private army.”
She wasn’t sure how he knew something that had never been publicly revealed, but there was no reason to hide it. Ina nodded.
Strictly speaking, they were soldiers assigned to her by the district lord for Omega clean-up. However, they were an anomaly within the estate—despite their original purpose, they followed Ina’s commands above all else.
“I need your help.”
This was different from when he had thrown the Apostle at her without a word. Surprised by the fact that he was formally asking for her assistance, Ina straightened from the back of the bench.
“For what?”
“Control the banquet hall.”
“The banquet hall?”
The final night of the Day of the District was when the next district lord was officially announced. It was the day District 1 would formally change hands. And now, he was asking her to mobilize her private soldiers for whatever he was planning that night.
Meeting her gaze directly, he spoke words almost too unbelievable to take seriously.
“I’m going to kill the district lord that day.”
***
Lying on the bed, Seo-yul must have dozed off at some point. The awkwardness of being alone with Choi Yeo-min had made him retreat into sleep.
The sensation of fingers lightly playing with his hair made his eyelids flutter open. As his vision cleared, he found himself staring directly into Vin’s eyes.
Vin looked slightly more disheveled than when he had left, but his uniform remained neat. His tie was loosened just a little, hanging at his collar as he bent down toward Seo-yul.
“You’re awake?”
His gentle voice brushed against Seo-yul’s ears. Before Vin’s lips could press against his forehead, Seo-yul turned away.
Vin paused for a moment, then simply stared at his back.
“Seo-yul hyung.”
“I want to rest.”
Seo-yul drew a firm line, but Vin acted as if he hadn’t heard him at all. Instead, he climbed onto the bed and pulled Seo-yul into his arms. The deep scent of flowers filled the space between them as Vin closed the distance.
“Then let’s rest like this.”
“This is uncomfortable.”
“I’ll hold you more loosely if you turn to face me.”
Vin clung to him like a stubborn child, his arms tightening until Seo-yul had no choice but to turn back toward him. His face was so close that Seo-yul instinctively lowered his gaze to avoid looking at him, but a firm hand grasped his chin, forcing their eyes to meet.
“Were you bored today?”
“…Not really. It was the same as always.”
Seo-yul tried his best to sound nonchalant, not wanting to reveal that he had gone out. Vin’s crimson eyes held their usual playful smile, but there was something about his gaze that made it feel as if he was seeing straight through him.
‘No way… Did he figure it out?’
Seo-yul had never been good at lying—past or present. Deceiving someone while being this close, without even the chance to avoid their eyes, was agonizing. And on top of that, Vin was incredibly perceptive.
“I don’t think I can live without you, Seo-yul hyung…”
Seo-yul’s brows furrowed slightly at the sudden words, only for Vin’s lips to land right there, smoothing over the crease. He pressed a kiss to Seo-yul’s forehead, then trailed down the bridge of his nose before finally placing a firm peck on his tightly shut lips.
Seo-yul opened his mouth to scold him for doing things like this without permission, but before he could speak, Vin pulled him even closer, tucking him into his embrace.
The rich floral scent surrounded him, and he had to clamp his lips shut just to keep from inhaling too deeply.
Silence stretched between them. Feeling uncomfortable, Seo-yul shifted slightly, and Vin let out a deep sigh.
The warmth of his breath tickled Seo-yul’s hair. When he finally lifted his head, those vivid red eyes were still fixed on him.
With a soft smile, Vin murmured,
“Han Seo-yul, I’ll take you to see him.”
