The Cliff's Edge
Crash.
In an instant, the tower of beer crates toppled with a dull thud, cascading over the road like a collapsing wall.
Screech.
Hyung-woo, following close behind, slammed on the brakes and wrenched the wheel. The tires dragged over shattered glass with a grinding shriek, the car skidding hard.
Screeeech.
The tires lost their grip, letting out a sharp, piercing squeal of friction.
Bang.
The car slammed into the retaining wall at the mountain’s edge and came to a stop, its front bumper crumpled.
Pop. Pop.
Dozens of crates and bottles lay scattered across the ground. Burst bottles spun in place, spewing carbonation in every direction. Broken shards floated and drifted on a white tide of beer foam that blanketed the asphalt like a wave.
“Ugh.”
Hye-won’s body jolted from the impact. She opened her eyes only when she heard Hyung-woo’s groan.
He lay slumped over the steering wheel, bleeding. He must have hit the windshield hard after unfastening his seatbelt.
The horrific sight drained the color from Hye-won’s face. She squeezed her eyes shut.
Her hands trembled at the sight of him in pain. Just then, Hyung-woo’s phone, mounted on the dashboard, began to ring.
The screen lit up with “Managing Director.” Hye-won’s mind snapped into focus. It was a call from Jae-mun.
Through the shattered windshield she saw the truck driver climbing down from his cab. He stared at the mess on the ground with a helpless expression, then turned his gaze toward them. Without hesitation, Hye-won opened the car door.
Click.
“Ah—!”
A fierce pain shot through her fingers—she must have cut them—but there was no time to waste. Watching the driver walk toward them while talking on the phone, she scrambled out of the car in a panic.
She forced the image of Hyung-woo’s blood-smeared face from her mind and began to run, with no destination and no plan.
“Hey!”
Leaving the man’s shout behind her, Hye-won sprinted down the mountain road with everything she had—as if she had known this moment would come.
It was a night that swallowed even the breath of beasts.
The only light was a thin wash of moonlight filtering faintly through the low trees.
The sound of exhausted footsteps pushing through the undergrowth reached her ears.
“Ugh.”
Startled by the small noise, Hye-won glanced back and tripped over a root, falling hard.
She pushed herself up with whatever her hands could grab, not even noticing the blood seeping from her torn palms, and kept walking with a face full of terror, eyes fixed only ahead.
She had fled without a plan and had already been wandering the mountain for hours. The fear that filled her eyes made her forget even the sensation of her bloodied feet.
Human voices no longer reached her, yet a chill as if someone might seize her by the hair at any second kept her from stopping.
Her veil was long gone. The wedding dress, snagged and torn by branches, hung in tatters like rags.
She had no idea where she was or how much time had passed.
It had begun as an escape, but she was lost. She knew she was circling the same ground, yet she could not break free, as if trapped in a maze.
The October mountains felt like midwinter.
Bone-deep cold, hunger, and crushing fatigue piled on top of one another until sleep pressed in.
I can’t fall asleep. If I sleep, I die.
She forced her heavy eyelids open again and again, but her body no longer belonged to her.
Her legs simply followed her feet; she had no idea where she was going.
With dazed eyes, moving only by the drift of her fading consciousness, she finally stopped where the path simply ended.
“Ah—!”
A sheer drop of a thousand feet yawned open beneath her feet.
An endless cliff stretched out as if it had been waiting for her to arrive. Even in the dark she could tell the height was dizzying, bottomless.
A chill raced up her spine and froze her in place.
She was so terrified she could not even breathe.
One foot hung half in empty air. A foul wind whistled through the mountains, making the hair on her neck stand on end.
One wrong step and she would plunge over the edge.
The instant she realized life and death hung by a thread, pure terror flooded her.
It was a night when a person could die and no one would ever know.
Hye-won forced strength into her trembling arms and legs to hold herself steady.
The wind that had raked across her like claws cleared her head. Holding her breath, she slowly eased her body backward.
Even as the cold sank into her bones, sweat poured from her rigid body like rain.
Step by step, every nerve focused on the ground beneath her feet. She did not dare look down. With a bloodless face and eyes fixed on empty air, she inched her soles backward.
Again and again the image of losing her balance and toppling forward flashed through her mind.
The dangerous imaginings made her sway once or twice, but she concentrated only on shifting her stiff body back.
“Haa…”
She heard dirt and stones scrape. The moment both feet were fully on solid ground again, her legs—long past feeling anything—kept retreating until they snagged on a protruding tree root and finally stopped.
Cold, hunger, and exhaustion had been forgotten long ago.
She collapsed where she stood and simply stared blankly into the void.
Tears began to well in eyes that had gone dry and brittle.
Relief at having survived rose at the same time as the fear of having survived.
Even if she lived through this, she had nowhere to return to. Jin-sang, already out of his mind, would force the marriage to Jae-mun no matter what.
A reality more wretched than the cliff itself: for a girl with nowhere left to go, the night was pure hell.
Helplessness and exhaustion tipped her into panic. She gasped for air, drowning in extreme fear.
Her chest heaved with hyperventilation, ragged sounds tearing from her throat—when a man’s voice reached her.
“Han Hye-won.”
The voice carried on the wind. She flinched hard and clutched the hem of her dress. She had no strength left to run, not even to stand, yet her only thought was to flee.
But she saw nothing. She swept her surroundings with eyes full of wariness, yet only branches swaying in the wind met her gaze.
Had she misheard? She still could not relax. She clenched her trembling fingertips—
“Han Hye-won.”
The voice came again, as if mocking her hope. Every hair on her body stood on end. It had to be Jae-mun, or someone he had sent.
So this was how she would be caught after all. Thick tears spilled from eyes dyed with terror.
She could not be taken now. After everything it had taken to get this far, it could not end so emptily.
She had to stand. Driven by the single thought that she must run, she forced her body up with the last of her strength. The moment she limped forward, a rustling sound reached her.
“Ugh.”
Stepping back, she caught her tattered dress underfoot and fell. She turned her head toward the noise.
Slowly she lifted her terrified eyes. The man who had been standing in the darkness gradually stepped into the moonlight.
“I told you to be careful, you bastard.”
A silhouette that felt somehow familiar.
“…Got yourself caught.”
Her eyes adjusted to the dark, and the man’s face began to come into focus.
It couldn’t be—
The instant she recognized him, her legs gave out. Hye-won lost consciousness on the spot.
In the banquet hall where the wedding reception had been canceled, a party was in full swing.
In one corner of a sofa, a thoroughly drunk man and woman were tangled together, half-naked. On the opposite side, people were mixing bomb shots and passing them around.
Jae-mun, already thoroughly drunk from accepting every glass offered, fixed his gaze on a woman who came in carrying fruit snacks and set them on the table. An extremely young face. Looking at the pretty girl who seemed barely in her early twenties, he thought of Hye-won and yanked her toward him.
“How old are you? Want me to put your hair up?”
“What are you doing?”
When Jae-mun roughly flipped up her skirt and stroked her thigh, the woman recoiled in shock and shoved him away.
“All the other bitches acted just like you at first. Playing the demure, innocent type!”
“I’m not that kind of person.”
The woman refused in horror, but Jae-mun only laughed as if he had found an amusing new toy and pulled her tighter against him.
“You know what’s funny? Once girls like you get a taste of a man, they go completely crazy. Later on, just seeing a guy makes them spread their legs and lie down.”
“I’m a student who came here for a part-time job today. Let me go.”
She struggled with all her might to push him off, but he simply watched her frightened face with enjoyment.
“Part-time job? What’s the hourly rate? I’ve got money. I’ll pay you. Hell, I’ll give you ten times that—play with me tonight. Be good and you won’t even need jobs like this, so just stay quiet.”
When Jae-mun forced a kiss on the thrashing woman, she slapped his cheek.
“Stop it!”
Crack.
“You little bitch—how dare you lay a hand on me?”
Caught off guard by the slap, Jae-mun lost his temper and struck her across the face.
Rage boiled up. The thought that even a kid like this was looking down on him made his blood reverse course.
“Aaah!”
A slap to the face was not enough to cool his anger. Jae-mun began beating the woman who had fallen to the floor.
Even as he hit her, not a single person tried to stop him. Instead they laughed and cackled as if a fun new spectacle had appeared.