Bitter Smoke and Poisoned Eyes
A sharp, bitter tobacco scent mixed with a crisp, woody aroma slammed into me like a wall. His tongue was relentless, skilled to the point of cruelty, drawing slow, deliberate strokes that made my breath hitch in my throat. The kiss grew denser, more suffocating, until I could barely draw air. Instinctively, I tried to pull away, but his tongue was quicker, following me, twisting into the curve of my mouth with ruthless precision. The wet, sliding heat of our tongues grinding together right at the back of my throat sent a dizzying thrill straight down my spine. His aggressive momentum threatened to snap my neck backward.
Woo Je-hyeok’s massive hand clamped firmly around the nape of my neck, tilting my head exactly where he wanted it, while he drove his tongue deep into my mouth again and again. He sucked on my lips between thrusts, as if tasting me, devouring me. My own fingertips, trembling where they had stupidly rested against his chest, curled into loose fists.
“Ugh…!”
The feeling of being eaten alive, swallowed whole, made my body ignite in an instant—then shiver with something darker, something deeper. This kiss was nothing like anything I had ever experienced. It existed on another plane entirely from the ones I had known. My soul felt stripped bare, flayed open. A wet, guttural sound slipped from between my lips, thicker and heavier than the rain that had just stopped.
He finally dragged his tongue out of my mouth, and only then did he pull back.
“What’s the matter? You’re so tense.”
“…….”
“I don’t like amateurs.”
“…I wasn’t shaking.”
“You’re gripping your fists so hard your knuckles are white.”
I hadn’t even realized my knees were pressed together, both hands clenched into fists on top of them. Looking at those knuckles, no excuse came to me.
Woo Je-hyeok glanced at my hands and let out a low, mocking chuckle. Just then, a sharp honk blared from behind. The traffic light flipped. Cars on both sides surged forward.
The hand that had been cradling my cheek dropped away. Je-hyeok pulled the cigarette from between his lips and took another long drag. Our car inched forward a few meters, then stalled again.
“Guess I should let you out, Miss Shin Woo-yeon.”
He kept staring straight ahead, cigarette dangling lazily between his fingers.
“Changed my mind.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I said I changed my mind.”
He rolled down the driver’s window and flicked the cigarette butt out into the rain. The hiss of the downpour hit the pavement.
“I don’t want to fuck you.”
I could feel his gaze burning into me from the side. I refused to meet it.
“I told you not to cross that line.”
“…I have no idea what you’re even saying anymore.”
My voice stayed perfectly calm even as my fists dug deeper into my own skin. Je-hyeok’s mouth curved into a smirk.
“You’re imitating my dead mother, aren’t you?”
“…….”
“Was this the only time you ever pulled this shit before me?”
Something hot and mean flickered in his chest at the thought.
“If you really wanted to sleep with me, you shouldn’t have been sitting at that piano today.”
I hoped Shin Woo-yeon’s pride would be crushed flat.
“You should’ve shown up in those cheap outfits I see you in, sitting in my usual spot. Then I would’ve fucked you today instead of this.”
How pitiful. He murmured it softly, leaning his forearms on the window frame and resting his chin on his knuckles.
“Dragging this out for three weeks was so tacky.”
I wished his perfect glass-like features would contort into something ugly, something pathetic.
“Every time you showed up, your weakness was on full display. It was boring and you made me feel nothing.”
It would have been satisfying to watch her break down, crying, screaming, cursing. Or to see her face twist in humiliation, ugly and raw, the kind of face that deserved to be spit on.
“If you kept acting like a pathetic, heartless trash, I might have let you do it. Maybe even fucked you just to shut you up.”
He had picked me up in this car with the exact intention of this. His twisted bloodlust surged— the sadistic thrill of finally stepping on Shin Woo-yeon, who had been imitating his dead mother, sitting in front of his piano, and then being crushed under it.
“You’re useless. Playing the piano. Even kissing.”
I finally turned to look at her. That elegant, aristocratic face was ruined. Forehead creased in pain, eyes flickering with something broken, lips pressed so tight they were pale.
The woman who had been twisted by poison, twisted by humiliation. The sight sent a sharp, electric jolt of pleasure straight through me. For so long I had kept my face blank, and this was the only way to make me feel anything.
But it still wasn’t enough. The urge to torment her more surged up. How much worse could her face get? The curiosity burned hotter.
“I’ll let you out at the next light. Go home on your own.”
Even as I said it, my mind raced. How could I make her suffer more? I wanted to watch her cry. Maybe just fuck her and be done with it.
At that exact moment, she spoke.
“I’ll get out now.”
We were dead in the middle of Gangnam-daero.
“Open the door.”
Woo-yeon grabbed the handle on the passenger side and rattled it. Je-hyeok kept the cigarette in his mouth and watched her with cold, mocking eyes.
“You said you’re useless. You said you’re embarrassing to me. The traffic’s like this and you still want to stay here longer?”
“So you’re making a scene because I’m upset?”
He frowned, irritated, and blew out a cloud of smoke.
“I hate whiners.”
“I’m not whining. I’m just saying, stop dragging this out for no reason.”
He looked at her with pure cruelty. Woo-yeon rattled the handle again.
“Open the door, please.”
She said it a third time, voice calm now, eyes steady and quiet. Even her skin and hair were a pale, colorless shade, but those eyes were so dark they looked almost black.
Je-hyeok stared into those impossible eyes and unlocked the door.
“Fine. Get out, then.”
Outside, the eight-lane boulevard was hammered by a downpour. Trying to leave now would only make him look ridiculous.
What a ridiculous stalker with such a huge ego.
The way these women were, his feelings of fatigue were already creeping in. He turned his head and took another drag.
The passenger door opened. Rain hissed in. Shin Woo-yeon stepped out and started walking toward the opposite sidewalk, facing the traffic.
BAM! BANG! Honks erupted from every direction. Brakes squealed as cars slammed to a halt.
At the same moment, cars coming from the opposite direction roared past. Rain still poured from the sky in sheets. The woman crossed the street without a single glance at the chaos.
“Hey, you crazy bitch!”
“Are you trying to die?!”
The road exploded into chaos in an instant.
Je-hyeok let out a short, bitter laugh. The woman who had slipped between cars without hesitation was now frozen by a car barreling toward her from the opposite side. She stood in the middle of the road, taking the full force of every curse that rained down around her.
He watched it all with detached eyes. A stupid, fearless woman. He had no intention of helping.
Let her be hit by a car. Let her take the curses. Let the rain drench her. It didn’t matter. She was going to be kicked out anyway. Now that she had gotten out on her own, the hassle was almost over.
The light finally changed. He put his foot on the accelerator.
‘Sorry I got sick.’
‘It was worse than I thought.’
He leaned his head back.
“You’re really annoying…”
He muttered cruelly. At that second, a sedan roared up and slammed into Shin Woo-yeon— or just before it hit, the car stopped dead. The woman’s clothes whipped wildly in the wind and rain.
Even his own car was blasted with multiple honks. The traffic light had changed, yet the cars wouldn’t move. Everything visible and audible grated on his nerves unbearably.
He ran a hand through his hair in irritation, crushed the cigarette butt on the floor, and opened the driver’s door. He tossed the crumpled cigarette aside and started walking toward her.
The autumn rain clung to his skin, ice-cold against his flesh. The narrower the street got, the hotter his anger burned and the colder his expression became.
Cheap. Tasteless. Stubborn. And stupid.
An ugly, useless, arrogant, dull woman whose only redeeming features were her average looks and curvy body. Yet her body was ridiculously small.
He caught up to her in seconds.
“You…!”
“Don’t act like a bitch. Don’t make me annoyed.” He snatched her wrist.
He had planned to drag her back into the car. Since she had done it to get his attention, he figured she would simply follow his lead.
The moment his fingers closed around her wrist, she slapped his hand away hard. The sharp, unmistakable disgust in that slap burned like acid. The way she touched him filled him with revulsion.
What the hell is this?
Je-hyeok’s eyebrows slammed together. She brushed past him for a moment, then turned and ran without looking back.
His eyes traced the retreating figure. The soaked fabric clung to her body like a second skin. Watching those smooth curves made the irritation inside him explode again.
She no longer looked at him. She disappeared into the sea of colorless umbrellas like a ghost.
Curses flew at him from every side. Je-hyeok had to turn around too, but his feet refused to move. He kept watching the woman who had vanished like a hallucination. Rainwater pooled on the ground and soaked the hem of his trousers, cold and unpleasant.