The Male Lead’s Boyfriend is Obsessed With Me

Chapter 16

‘I’m screwed.’ Even if I ran, the wall was too far away for me to push through and put it back the way it was. From where I was standing, I could be seen right away after opening the door.

“How many times has that bastard been caught rolling around with a woman?”

In a flash, Yu-hwa’s question came to mind. I picked up the unicorn mask off the floor and put it on. I unbuttoned a couple of buttons on my shirt with one hand and ran my other hand through my hair to make it look messy.

“…Honey?” My voice sounded high-pitched.

It’s okay, let’s be natural. I’m very natural right now…

“You’re already here?” I forced the words out of my mouth, afraid of sounding nervous. “I have prepared a present for you.”

I moved my staggering feet and leaned against the wall. As I pushed the wall back into place, our eyes met. I felt my body stiffen by itself, overwhelmed by the intense gaze. Being born a woman raised to be the heir to an organization such as Utopia, I expected no less from the person in front of me. Her eyes—black as a bottomless void—reflected unbridled ambition. She was well over six-foot-two, which was accentuated by the way she was dressed from top to bottom.

“What’s that?”

A scar cutting her lips vertically caught my attention. She intentionally left a scar that split her mouth from the corner to the top of her lip. It was to deal with those who judged her based on her name and remarkable beauty. She resembled fire more than a flower.
[tl/n: Yu-hwa’s name was formed with the Chinese character that means flower]

My heart pounded so hard that I thought it would burst, but I smiled wider like a mad woman.

Yu-hwa gestured to the man who followed her, sweeping her short-cut hair to the side. The man’s face turned pale as he eyed me up and down with trembling eyes. I walked toward him, as if I were about to fall over any moment, and leaned on him as if I were collapsing.

“I went to all the trouble of putting on this pretty mask to show to my honey, but…”

“. . .”

“Can you play with me instead?”

As I ranted, the man tried to push me away, but I tightly grasped his arm and giggled like a virgin ghost.* Just then, a cold hand tightly grasped my wrist before flinging me aside with great force. I groaned softly and fell to the floor. I thought my wrist would break. With a cold gaze, Yu-hwa wiped her hand against her jacket.

“Get lost.”

She seemed ready to kill me in the cruelest way possible if I didn’t leave immediately. I forced a smile, making sure not to let the corners of my mouth droop, and stood up. I patted the man’s shoulder, and smiling again, walked past him toward the open door.

My back felt chilled, but I pretended not to care and walked as naturally as possible. Nevertheless, when I arrived at the door, my breath exploded like a scream. I was relieved that I didn’t scream out loud. Three knights lay dead outside the door, having been shot. The sound I heard earlier was likely a gunshot suppressed with a silencer. Seeing the thick blood on the ground made my stomach churn, but I tried to walk on nonchalantly. But before I could take a step away, I heard a low voice as I was grabbed by my ankles.

“Wait.”

Tap, tap— the sound of heels striking the ground mixed with a low chuckle sounded eerie. I froze, unable to even breathe.

“I wonder… what were you doing alone?”

“. . .”

“In my younger brother’s room, where even I can’t come and go as I please.”

I got caught. The moment I had that intuition, I started running without hesitation. I could hear the footsteps fiercely following behind me; I pushed myself harder to keep running without stopping. Fortunately, the hallway was circular. If it had been a straight path, I would have already been shot.

Bang–! The sound of the gunshot from behind startled me and cleared my mind at once.

Would I be able to leave the building? In the middle of winter, wearing nothing more than a thin shirt-dress, empty-handed, and wearing a unicorn mask? If someone finds me lurking around the first floor and deems me suspicious; if the person guarding the door interrogates me and I can’t answer, it would all be over.

There was no way they would leave Baek Hawon’s sister alive in Utopia. I had to find Yu-gyeom. At least, Yu-gyeom or Lee Chan wouldn’t kill me until I met Baek Hawon. But how? If what the man said was true, Yu-gyeom was participating in a poker game in the basement. I wasn’t sure exactly how many floors this building had—

But I’m positive it has at least 50 floors. If it was inevitable that I would run into someone, it seemed better to take the elevator than to wait for it. The elevator was on its way down. Instead of waiting for it, I ran down the adjacent stairs. When I got down to the floor below, I realized that Yu-hwa was no longer following me. Since I had planned to shake her off by running down the stairs, I decided not to go any further down and waited for the elevator. I tidied my messy hair and carefully put on the unicorn mask again.

I was very bothered by the rainbow-colored feathers, but I couldn’t remove them because if someone were to recognize Cha Yeonbyeol’s face, the worst-case scenario would unfold for sure.

Ding— The elevator door opened smoothly. Two men in black suits were chatting loudly in Chinese inside. Before their gaze could reach me, I quickly got on and pressed the button for the first basement floor making sure to position myself in front of the other buttons in case I needed to press them. Fortunately, this time I didn’t have to rely on instinct to guess which floor to go to, as the only option was the first basement floor. The high-speed elevator, with its cramped space, descended quickly. I looked up and watched the decreasing numbers and the men behind me reflected in the doors. Perhaps they thought it was only natural for someone from this place to leisurely ride the elevator. They didn’t even glance at me.

It was a relief, but then I began to worry about what would come next. The two men got off on the third floor, and within seconds I arrived at the first-level basement. I swallowed hard. With a ‘ding~’ the elevator doors opened. The corridor beyond the open doors was empty. I cautiously got off the elevator, fastening the buttons of the collar of my shirt. The short and narrow corridor was dark and damp.

Cheers and exclamations from behind the walls echoed throughout the corridor. It seemed like I had found the right place.

‘Please let Yu-gyeom or Lee Chan be here.’ I prayed desperately as I grabbed the doorknob.

“. . .!”

For a moment, I felt as if I was being engulfed in a burst of bright red flames. A scream resounded, tearing through my eardrums, and only then did I realize that the explosion heard earlier was real.

The situation quickly fell into place in my mind like a puzzle.

“It’s all planned, isn’t it?”

“Yes. It seems he was participating in a poker game in the basement as scheduled.”

Yu-hwa wasn’t accidentally sneaking in while Yu-gyeom and Lee Chan were away. Everything was part of a meticulously crafted plan.

It wasn’t easy for me to move in the opposite direction of the swarm of people pouring out like ants. I finally managed to get into the room.

Unlike the short and narrow corridor, the space beyond the door was so wide that the structure could not be seen at a glance due to the high ceiling. The bar full of bottles of liquor along the center of the first floor and the second-floor railing, and the cards and chips spread out on the tables made me think of a casino. The dim lighting to keep the mood flickered. The frantic music made it feel like a club. A few small explosions followed one after another, and the flames grew higher. My head hurt, whether from the smoke obscuring my vision or the pungent odor, I wasn’t sure. I threw off my mask, hitting and knocking over a bottle on the table with my hand. The liquor poured on someone’s jacket left in the chair. The strong smell filled my nose.

Inside the space, there were as many people as it was large, but the only exit was the elevator I came in and the narrow stairs next to it. In short, it was the worst condition for a quick evacuation. The severity of the fire wasn’t too great, but as the evacuation was delayed, the scene became even more chaotic.

It was a trap specifically set for Yu-gyeom.

“. . .!”

At that moment, someone grabbed my arm tightly. I turned around in surprise.

“Cha Yeonbyeol?” It was Lee Chan calling my name as if shouting. He checked my face as if he couldn’t believe it and asked, “why are you here?”

“What about Yu-gyeom? Aren’t you with him?”

“I don’t know. I was on the second floor. Hasn’t he already left?”

Yu-gyeom was really here. And even Lee Chan didn’t know anything about it. I started to get impatient. Staying in this poorly ventilated place for too long meant a high chance of suffocating before being engulfed in flames. I pushed away Lee Chan’s hand that was holding onto me. But before I could take a step, he grabbed me again.

“I’m losing my mind. Are you insane right now? What are you doing here?”

His grip on my wrist was so tight that I couldn’t even move. I hesitated briefly, not wanting to say something I couldn’t explain, but Lee Chan seemed determined not to let me go.

Yu-gyeom had a trauma related to fire. If he gets trapped in the flames that surround him, he goes into a state of panic and can’t walk out on his own. That’s why I was sure that he was inside, but I couldn’t just tell Lee Chan this information, since he seemed unaware of it.

In the end, I grabbed Lee Chan’s collar and pulled him close to me, my face almost touching his.

—