A Delusional Confession and the Weight of Old Guilt
The thought flickered through Yusom’s mind—maybe it would be less humiliating to be remembered as a shameless slut by Baek Eun-geon for the rest of her life.
“There’s a ton of guilt involved. You’re the one who fucked me, remember?”
Of course the one who had started touching her while she was still asleep was Eun-geon. But because Yusom had uttered those lewd words and delivered such an obvious provocation, the man believed the wild frenzy that had crashed over him had been her doing.
“That’s not… I wasn’t trying to do it for that reason…”
“Where the hell did you even learn a line like that? Boyfriend? If you’re sane, just break up already.”
“That’s my private life. Don’t involve yourself.”
Yusom decided she no longer had any reason to listen to Eun-geon’s words. She had no idea what misunderstanding he was stuck on, but the only thing that came to mind was to flee as fast as possible.
“Bring that bastard right in front of me.”
Eun-geon growled low, but Yusom didn’t answer. She had to grab her bag and get out of here first. Everything was a mess anyway.
“Yah, Lee Yusom.”
Just as she was about to turn away, Eun-geon seized her wrist. The grip was so tight that blood seemed to have stopped flowing through it. He was probably so angry that he couldn’t control his strength at all.
“Answer me. If you’re not a boyfriend, what the hell are you? A fuck buddy?”
“……”
“There must be a reason you can’t bring him.”
Eun-geon’s gaze burned into her. He hadn’t forgiven Yusom for four years of silence, but the fact that she had met some perverted bastard with a twisted kink was something he simply could not accept.
“……Oppa is right.”
The words that slipped from Yusom’s lips were short and dry, but their destructive power was enormous. Eun-geon’s mind went blank for an instant.
His dark, translucent eyes swayed without focus, as if he couldn’t even process what he had just heard.
Right? A fuck buddy?
Eun-geon was speechless.
Last night’s lewd words she had gasped in her dazed state, the way she had clung to him calling him “oppa,” and now this Yusom standing right in front of him, calmly acknowledging the existence of a “sex partner.”
This wasn’t the Yusom he knew.
In Eun-geon’s mind, a panorama of young Yusom unfolded.
The little girl at ten who cried when a worm fell on her shoulder, the middle-schooler who first wore her uniform and smiled bashfully, the high-schooler with a surprisingly serious expression while worrying about her future—each memory flashed past in an instant.
Yusom, who had lived right next door since they were toddlers, had always followed him, calling him “oppa” and “oppa.” She had often been annoying, but she was always there beside him.
Only four years had passed. Four years of no contact.
Who the hell, which bastard had ruined such an innocent and naive little girl in that short time? Eun-geon’s jaw clenched.
Within the swirling storm of complex emotions, the strength in the hand gripping Yusom’s wrist slowly slipped away.
Yusom didn’t miss the moment. The instant she pulled free, she snatched the pink cake-shaped Echo Bag from the floor without looking back and bolted toward the front door like she was escaping hell itself.
“Yah, Lee Yusom!”
Eun-geon called after her belatedly, but she had already vanished.
Thud!
The sound of the door slamming echoed through the empty penthouse.
“……”
Eun-geon stood there, hollow and empty. He stared blankly at the front door she had left open.
He dragged his heavy feet to the living-room sofa and collapsed onto it with a thud. His head throbbed.
Leaning back against the cushions, he looked up at the ceiling. Then something small and soft dropped right at his feet with a tiny plop.
“A phone?”
It belonged to Yusom—a cute pink-cake-shaped case, the kind of ordinary smartphone that seemed made for girls.
Eun-geon picked it up with an expressionless face.
Tap, tap. A password prompt appeared on the screen.
He hesitated for only a second before entering it without a moment’s thought.
Eun-geon knew that from the time they were children, every password she had used had been the same as the house door-lock code.
Since they had been like siblings, running in and out of each other’s houses, both Gang-bin and Teo already knew Yusom’s password by heart.
“As expected.”
The lock opened on the first try.
The background screen was a cute cat photo. Yusom’s fingers moved straight for the gallery app from the plain home screen.
Because all her secrets were there.
Eun-geon wondered what kind of reckless, twisted things she had been doing in those four years of silence.
“Crazy… Lee Yusom really lost her mind.”
Eun-geon’s eyes widened in disbelief.
The screen was filled with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of photos—none of them ordinary daily life or friends’ snapshots.
They were all lewd, provocative, and shameless.
Eun-geon scrolled up and down like he was hypnotized. Pictures in lace and sheer lingerie appeared, followed by ones where she had barely managed to cover her breasts with just her hand.
And… full-nude photos as well.
The problem was that the bodies in every single picture were identical to the Yusom he had seen yesterday—same curves, same proportions, same everything.
The faces had been cleverly cropped or blurred, but Eun-geon recognized her body’s unique features in an instant.
“Haa… fuck…”
Every pose in the photos was daring and lewd.
Each one was so explicit and slutty that Yusom’s hopelessly vulgar taste was laid bare for everyone to see.
The further he scrolled, the worse it got.
Garter belts, fishnet stockings, corsets… it was so disgusting it felt like actual sin.
And finally, Eun-geon found the photos that would confirm his worst suspicions.
In them, Yusom knelt on the floor wearing only a black leather collar and metal handcuffs.
Her head was bowed, so her face was completely shadowed, but the atmosphere was far more than just lewd—it carried an unmistakable air of violence and humiliation.
“……”
Eun-geon could no longer scroll.
This… this wasn’t just lewd photos.
They were staged for some twisted fetishist. Photos specifically taken to send to that sex partner.
---
In the heart of Gangnam’s glittering building forest stood the Legacy Enterprise headquarters, the one that always drew the most attention.
Inside the cutting-edge conference room, the air was thick with suffocating tension.
Seven staff members from planning, marketing, and styling teams sat crammed around a long table.
Their eyes were fixed on one person: the woman seated at the head of the table, legs crossed, idly twirling a long cigarette between her manicured nails.
“So, for this album’s overall concept, I was thinking of adding a slight girl-crush vibe to the existing pure and lively image…”
The planning team leader pointed at the presentation screen, speaking with passion, yet his voice trembled with unease.
His anxious gaze kept drifting toward the woman sitting directly across from him—Yoon Se-ra, leader and center of the hottest girl group in Korea right now, Purple Sparkle.
Before the planning team leader even finished, Se-ra suddenly brought the thin cigarette to her lips.
Click. The sound of the lighter striking the cigarette cut through the silence.
A flicker of embarrassment crossed the staff members’ faces, but no one dared stop her.
Se-ra was Legacy Enterprise’s undisputed ace—alongside national swimmer Baek Eun-geon, one of the biggest sources of income that kept the company thriving.
Her arrogant, unreasonable behavior was already an everyday occurrence for every staff member.
Puff—
Se-ra blew a long plume of white smoke straight into the planning team leader’s face as if daring him to complain.