Forever My Wife
Jeeon cut the yacht’s engine and turned to face her. Heeseo refused to trust the loose smile hanging at the corners of his mouth and kept her guard up.
The yacht was no small vessel, yet Jeeon closed the distance in a couple of strides until he stood right in front of her. Heeseo carefully shifted her hand toward her back pocket, ready to strike back at any moment.
“Of course, I’m not one of those childish men.”
But Jeeon seemed to read her thoughts. A strange smile curved his lips as he gently cupped her shoulders. Then he turned her body so she could look out across the river.
Standing behind her, Jeeon pointed to a spot in the distance.
“There.”
“……There, what?”
“Where that crane is. Do you see it?”
At the tip of Jeeon’s finger, a massive crane rose between the buildings. Beside it, steel frameworks that would become the building’s pillars tangled together, thrusting toward the sky.
Beneath the thin blanket, Jeeon softly stroked her shoulder and whispered,
“In three months, that building will be finished.”
“……Did you bring me all the way out here just to brag about a building?”
In the middle of the night? On a yacht, no less?
As if he’d caught the sharp words she hadn’t spoken, Jeeon buried his face against her shoulder and swallowed a low chuckle. Then his lips moved to her ear, murmuring softly,
“You haven’t forgotten our deal, have you? That if you uncover my identity within a hundred days, I’ll leave this body of my own accord.”
“How could I forget that? Just… say it from farther away.”
“I’d like to add one condition. No matter how I look at it, I seem to be the only one taking a loss.”
“……You’re attaching a condition now?”
Heeseo twisted her face into a scowl and turned to look at him—forgetting for a moment that she was still held in his arms. The instant she spun around, his lips were right in front of her nose.
Jeeon brushed his thumb along the widened corners of Heeseo’s eyes. The dangerous smile deepened.
“If you fail to discover my identity within a hundred days……”
Jeeon’s deep eyes caught the light and glittered for an instant. The sight of him was so like a flower steeped in poison that Heeseo’s lips parted of their own accord. He lowered his head, brushing a kiss near her mouth as he whispered,
“You become my wife forever.”
“What?”
A voice that seemed to bewitch, the gentle rock of the waves, the solid hands of the man holding her and the scent of him—Heeseo felt as though she were drifting through a hazy dream.
Jeeon traced a finger along her furrowed brow and murmured,
“Until the day I completely disappear… you’ll remember me, hold me… and become mine.”
The moment she heard his whisper, a chill raced down Heeseo’s spine.
There was power in Jeeon’s voice. It felt like a spoken curse—or a prophecy.
Dangerous.
This was dangerous. The same sense of crisis she’d felt on their wedding night stirred her instincts awake.
Without a second’s hesitation, Heeseo shoved hard against his shoulders—and in that same instant her eyes flew wide at something she’d spotted behind him.
“……No!”
As Heeseo tried to leap forward in alarm, Jeeon reflexively locked his arms around her. Startled by the sudden movement, his gaze followed hers.
What had seized Heeseo’s attention was a person standing precariously on the Han River bridge.
And then—
Splash!
A great spray of water erupted as the figure who had stood on the bridge only a moment before plunged into the river. It was a fall without hesitation.
Jeeon instinctively tried to cover Heeseo’s eyes, but the blanket slipped loose from her shoulders. Everything moved as if in slow motion.
Jeeon stretched out a hand toward the woman diving into the Han River. All his fingertips caught was the fleeting brush of her long hair. Without the slightest pause, she plunged into the black, deep water to save the jumper.
In the blink of an eye, Jeeon was left alone on the yacht. A chill wind swept across his blanched cheek.
It wasn’t a season for cold, yet the river water felt icy. Heeseo knew why.
It was the energy of the dead. That was why those who possessed spiritual power avoided the Han River.
I just have to get that person out of the water as fast as I can.
Fortunately, the jumper had fallen where the current wasn’t strong. Because she’d marked the exact spot of the fall, finding the right direction to swim was easy. Heeseo cut swiftly against the water.
As long as Kim Jeeon didn’t move the yacht just to screw with her, she could save the jumper. And just as she expected, it wasn’t long before she found them.
Whether the impact of the fall had knocked them unconscious, the jumper hung limp. Heeseo seized them and stroked hard for the surface.
With a gasp she expelled the breath she’d been holding and hooked an arm around the jumper’s neck. A quick glance showed a young face—high-school age, maybe.
Why would a kid this young……
The bloodless face tore at her, but she couldn’t waste time. Holding the child against the current was growing harder by the second. When Heeseo scanned her surroundings, she was relieved to see Kim Jeeon’s yacht still in the same spot.
She waved and raised her voice.
“Here! Come this way!”
She’d pulled the child out not long after they’d gone in, so the odds of survival were high—unless they’d hit their head first. She needed to get them to a hospital and check their condition right away.
Yet despite Heeseo’s shouts, Jeeon stood motionless on the yacht, simply watching her.
……Idiot. Of course he wouldn’t help me.
Was it because of the words she’d heard right before diving in? Without meaning to, Heeseo had assumed Jeeon would come to her aid. At the very least, saving a life—no matter what he thought of her—should have been the natural thing to do.
As if a ghost would help save a person. Lee Heeseo, what the hell made you think something that stupid?
You become my wife forever. Jeeon’s voice still rang clear in her ears, but instead of waiting for him she clenched her teeth and swam toward the yacht. Cursing her own foolishness, she kicked harder; even with the child’s weight she picked up decent speed.
As Heeseo drew closer, Jeeon’s expression came into sharper focus.
His face was as cold and blank as a frozen corpse. He looked angry, or perhaps stunned.
Either way, Heeseo didn’t want to care.
“Hah… hah… Hey, Kim Jeeon!”
But shoving a waterlogged, limp child up onto the yacht was beyond her strength alone. The kid felt like a soaked cotton bale, and Heeseo herself had burned through every scrap of stamina from dawn until midnight.
“Hey, are you seriously just going to stand there? Grab the kid already! You want to rack up bad karma watching someone die and go straight to hell?!”
At Heeseo’s furious shout, Jeeon finally stepped toward her. With all expression still wiped from his face, he almost looked like someone else.
But the way he hauled the child up with his leather-gloved hands—as if picking up something filthy—made it clear it was still him.
Even now he’s being a neat freak. A ghost, for crying out loud. Seriously……
Heeseo huffed and forced her anger down. If it weren’t for the bastard right in front of her, getting the child to a hospital would be nearly impossible; losing her temper further wouldn’t help.
After dumping the child onto the yacht floor like a piece of luggage, Jeeon stretched a hand toward her. Heeseo glanced at the wet glove and was just about to take it when—
“Uh—uh—mph……!”
An unknown force seized Heeseo’s ankle from underwater and yanked hard. Panicked, she thrashed and clung to the yacht. In an instant Jeeon caught her hand.
Confusion flickered across the face that had tossed the child aside like cargo; he was reaching to grab her clothes when—
“Lee Heeseo-ssi!”
“Let go of my—! Ugh, mph!”
But it had her locked tight and dragged her beneath the surface. It was as irresistible as being swept away by a massive tidal wave. Leaving nail marks across Jeeon’s leather glove, Heeseo vanished into the black water.
It happened in a heartbeat. Behind Jeeon the child coughed and vomited water, yet Jeeon remained rooted in place, staring at the river.
The water that had swallowed Heeseo flowed on in perfect silence, leaving no trace.
Just now……
He’d been holding her hand only a moment ago.