Chapter 1

Seo-ha stepped into a shabby little shop that sold toiletries and sundries to the hostess bars.

“One pack of cigarettes, please.”

Her thin, trembling voice was lost among men who reeked of liquor. Grimy, leering eyes licked slowly over her, and the laughter of a greasy man trading filthy remarks with his friends turned her stomach.

“Aw, now. Give oppa one little kiss on the cheek¹ and I’ll do what you ask, y’hear.”

It was always like this.

Seo-ha clenched her small hands tight, and the hem of her filthy T-shirt went damp with sweat. Against that shirt, moth-eaten thin in places and slack at the collar, only her stark white skin stood out.

“The usual brand. If I’m not back soon the boss will be angry at me. I’ll get hit again.”

At that, another man beside the greasy one slammed down the poker cards he was holding and flared up.

“Hey. Worst he can do to a thing like you is kill you, ain’t it? So before you head off to the next world, us ahjussis here are offering to play with you² all you like.”

Without warning, a rough hand shot out to grab a fistful of the front of Seo-ha’s shirt.

“Hahh…!”

Her breath caught in her throat, neither going out nor coming in. Seo-ha reached out on reflex.

Something damp touched the back of her hand. Warm, soft heat closed around her palm at once, and she blinked slowly. Once, twice, three times. This was real.

The dream had been so vivid that even her breathing had gone ragged.

“Maybe the event later today got to me…”

She had buried that memory deep in her heart and piled stones heavy as iron rebar over it, again and again, a memory that painted the life she would be living now if she had never gotten out, without her needing to look. Not a fond memory. A foul one. The present wasn’t much different, to be fair, but here at least there were things she could do of her own will.

Seo-ha let out a long breath and whispered, soft and low.

“It’s all right. It was just a dream. A filthy, skin-crawling dream.”

A piteous whine echoed through the wide room, as if he had read the turmoil in her. Seo-ha did not cry with him; the days when something like this could make her cry were long gone.

“Thank you. For crying in my place.”

Until dawn broke, Seo-ha did nothing but stroke the warm, soft fur against her skin, desperately, as if letting go of even this faint warmth would pitch her straight back into the mire. She had to calm down quickly, or she would never carry off her plan properly later. Useless feelings were nothing but a luxury for the person she was now.

As someone was always saying.

The thin hand stroking Seo-ha’s shoulder was unusually affectionate today.

“Here, let’s put your medicine in first, so we don’t forget before we head out.”

Seo-ha tipped her head back out of habit, and Cha Mi-yeon, her adoptive mother, let the drops fall into her clear eyes.

“How have you been feeling lately?”

Seo-ha smiled, and a dimple showed in her left cheek, like a small star pressed into it.

“You already know.”

No one knew better than Seo-ha what face Cha Mi-yeon would make at so obliging an answer, knew it so well she had no need to strain to see it… She would be smiling, more radiantly than Seo-ha herself.

“All right. I’ll get you cured somehow, so don’t you worry. Just trust your mother. I love you.”

Seo-ha only smiled like a fool and said nothing.

“Anyway, why is my Seo-ha so lovely today? What if every young man out there falls for you? And you already have someone of your own waiting.”

Cha Mi-yeon chattered on, excited all on her own.

“Ready to stand in front of everyone? You’re nervous, aren’t you?”
“Not really.”
“That’s my girl. Bold, just like me.”

Everything in front of her would be a blur anyway, and on days like this, not seeing made things easier. Nothing in this world was all bad.

When Seo-ha rose from her seat, Dodam, the retriever who was both her companion and her guide dog, stood close at her side.

“What did you say his name was?”

Cha Mi-yeon tilted her head for a moment at the question, then answered.

“The older brother’s name is Han Jun-tae. But his family called, and apparently the younger one has to attend today instead. As long as the two of you make a good match, it hardly matters which.”

Seo-ha only just swallowed the laugh that threatened to burst out of her at her adoptive mother’s careless answer. Cha Mi-yeon, noticing none of it, went on.

“Still, pick whichever one you like better. The age gap is smaller with the younger one, too. Isn’t that better?”

Knocking a few years off a gap of fifteen-odd hardly made a difference, but Seo-ha didn’t argue.

“What was the younger one’s name… I can’t remember. I’ve been like this lately.”
“I’ll ask him myself.”
“Yes, that would be more natural. Good.”

The occasion had never needed the children’s opinions anyway. The whole event had been staged to bring together, as naturally as possible, the adopted daughter of Yun Jeong-hwan, who had his eye on the next presidency, and a son of Han Dong-pyo, founder and chairman of H Bio.

Loud applause rang out from outside.

“Sounds like it’s the star’s turn to go out.”

Cha Mi-yeon said it with a graceful air and linked her arm through Seo-ha’s, but Seo-ha stepped forward trusting nothing but Dodam’s pace.

Honestly, she was shaking. All she could do was hope that the man whose name and face she didn’t know would take pity on Yun Seo-ha, who would choose death in order to live.

It’s a contract marriage neither of us wants anyway. My offer should be tempting to him.

Seo-ha steadied herself. She had escaped once already; there was no reason she couldn’t do it twice.

A Clear Gaze, A Warm World

The Light Fund (Light-Sharing Foundation Youth Night)

Everyone had something to say as they drifted past the large banner mounted inside the gate of the old-fashioned detached house.

“Throwing a whole charity gala for the visually impaired, all for the sake of his adopted daughter. Our assemblyman really is something.”
“He’s been image-making off that daughter the whole time. That’s how he won the by-election last time.”
“I heard she isn’t completely blind?”
“Blind now or blind later, she’s a defective cripple either way.”

Open sneers went back and forth. Every one of them was the son of some well-placed family, yet the talk that followed could not have sunk any lower.

“Hey, still, word is she’s a natural beauty, a unicorn, the kind you don’t find anymore. Adopted or not, doesn’t she give off something like Cha Mi-yeon? Bit of an actress’s aura about her.”
“Which is exactly why I’m here. Do I look like the sort to kill time at a pointless event like this just because the old folks shoved me out the door?”

One man checked who might be watching and muttered with a snicker.

“Not even his real daughter, eyes busted on top of it. Honestly, too easy. What if I reeled her in properly and then hit it and quit it?”
“And look who’s arrived, the hit-and-quit king around here. You want to bet me on it? Only, no star candy.”

The mood had only just started climbing, all giggles and good cheer.

— Clink. The clear ring of one champagne glass striking another made the cluster of young men break off and flinch.

“Pardon.”

When they saw the man who had knocked his glass against one of theirs uninvited, not one of them said a word; they only drew their feet back. They had all heard someone mutter ‘F—k, the mad dog’ a moment earlier, yet they pretended otherwise and traded greetings.

“Hm. Been a while. Hear business is going well.”
“Thanks to you.”

Cowed, perhaps, by a man a good two hand-spans taller than any of them, they had all clammed up, nothing like a moment ago.

Jun-hyeok looked down at the lot of them, knocked back his champagne in one swallow, and jabbed a finger into the chest of the man in front of him, the same one who had been going on about hitting it and quitting it a moment before.

“That bet. I’m in. If you lose, you hand over both your eyeballs. How’s that?”

The tone was indifferent; the content was anything but. They all knew Jun-hyeok’s track record, and their faces went sallow.

“…Damn it, Han Jun-hyeok. First we’ve seen of you in ages and you make a joke that vicious?”
“Come on, come on, it was just words.”

Birds of a feather flock together, and this sorry lot was busy covering for one another.

The man, his mouth twitching awkwardly, muttered that another acquaintance of his seemed to have arrived, and hurried off. After that the group fell apart in an instant. Applause carried over from the front; the event seemed about to begin.

“We will begin with opening remarks from the host of this evening, Assemblyman Yun Jeong-hwan.”

At the emcee’s words, Jun-hyeok raked his hair back in irritation and picked up a fresh glass of champagne.

“Should mind his own dead-fish eyes instead of running his mouth…”

He never should have set foot here; then he wouldn’t have to see any of this. All of it grated on him. By any measure, the ‘mad dog’ was them, not him. The only difference was whether the foam showed at the mouth or not.

Then his phone buzzed inside his jacket. He pulled it out and answered.

“Han Jun-hyeok speaking.”

Even through all the noise, the voice on the other end drilled mercilessly into his ear. A deep furrow cut between his brows.

— Why do you answer your mother’s call so coldly.

“I’m here, so I’m hanging up.”

— Really?! Then you and Yun Seo-ha…

Jun-hyeok hung up on his mother mid-sentence and switched off the phone. Judging by how quickly her voice had brightened, he figured showing his face was enough, so he resolved to stick it out exactly ten minutes more.

The trouble with the world, though, was that it never did go as expected.