The Black Stone's Secret
I had a dream.
I was sitting in an empty movie theater, watching memories from my childhood play out like a film.
The movie title was….
Around age five.
“Y-Yuchan…! Yuchan-ah…!”
My mother was clutching me as I lay in bed, sobbing her heart out.
She had never appeared in my dreams before, not even once.
Facing her like this, so heartbroken, left me with a strange feeling.
“…M-Mom….”
Meanwhile, I was sprawled on the bed in just my underwear, covered in crimson heat rashes blooming across my body and soaked in sweat.
Come to think of it, I seemed to recall suffering terribly from some mysterious illness when I was very young.
“I-I'm so hot….”
“Eek…! Yuchan-ah…!”
Just as my mother was wailing helplessly, the angle shifted to the master bedroom door, which suddenly burst open to reveal a welcome face.
“Yuchan!!!”
Tall stature, broad shoulders, and a face that looked like it had made plenty of women cry.
Kang Inchan. The 'uncle' who had once been my mother's boyfriend.
“Inchan-ssi…!”
“Sorry I'm late! Where's Yuchan?”
“I-I don't know. His fever's spiking so bad…! Wh-What do we do with our Yuchan…! Hic….”
“Damn it…! I should've come sooner…!”
The uncle, who looked like he'd rushed over, pulled my sobbing mother into a hug and examined my body closely.
“The fever's too high…. Potions won't work anymore.”
“Th-Then what do we do?”
He couldn't answer, just gripped my hand with a devastated expression….
And right then.
Rumble. I started convulsing on the bed, limbs twisting wildly.
The fever must have triggered a seizure.
“Kyaaah!!!! Yuchan-ah!!!!!”
My mother screamed and grabbed my legs.
The uncle, eyes wide in shock as he watched me….
“…This won't do.”
His face hardened with resolve as he suddenly rummaged through the bag he'd brought.
And pulled out something completely unexpected.
A flat, egg-shaped black stone embedded with an exquisite yellow gem.
The 'gem' he'd promised to give me when I grew up.
…Why does that look so familiar?
With a gravely serious expression, the uncle pried my mother away from my seizing body.
“Yunjeong-ah. No time! Get out!”
“N-No! I have to stay with Yuchan!!”
Of course, my mother, out of her mind, refused to budge.
“Kim Yunjeong!!!”
“!”
The uncle grabbed the startled mother and suppressed his grief as he spoke.
“I'll save Yuchan. Please, just go wait outside.”
“……!”
My mother glanced frantically between the uncle and the 'gem' in his hand.
Then, as if realizing something, she looked at me on the bed.
“Really…. Really…?”
Seeing the uncle nod solemnly, she burst into tears and fled the room.
“…Yuchan-ah….”
Left alone, the uncle….
“Ah…. …Sorry, kid.”
He tried to say something to my convulsing, eyes-rolled-back self but gave up, apologizing as he approached the bed.
Tears streaming down his face, he gathered mana in the hand holding the 'gem'….
…Huh?
And plunged it straight toward my heart…!
“Hngh!”
I jolted awake in shock, bolting upright and clutching my heart instinctively.
Wh-What kind of dream was that?
I couldn't remember clearly, but it had been intensely terrifying.
No matter how hard I tried to recall, it was like smeared paint—nothing came back.
My heart just pounded unpleasantly.
“…Hoo….”
As I calmed my racing chest and wiped the cold sweat from my forehead….
Huh?
I suddenly realized something was off.
Why am I in bed?
I'd definitely been on the sofa. Somehow, I was in bed now.
Ma Yeonseo's bed, no less.
“!”
Startled again, I turned to look beside me.
Sure enough, Ma Yeonseo was sleeping soundly next to me.
Damn it!
Guessing she'd carried me here, I slipped out of bed quickly, checking if anything was exposed….
Wait, hold on.
It hit me—this was my chance.
With Ma Yeonseo asleep, I could finally use my phone.
…Without waking her…!
Stealthily. Stealthily. I circled to the other side of the bed and reached for my phone charging by the headboard.
Almost there…!
Just as I carefully went to grab it.
“…What are you doing?”
“Waaah!!!”
The sudden voice made me yelp and fall flat on my butt.
Ma Yeonseo had woken up.
Damn.
Failure, after all.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
After realizing starving myself wasn't the answer, I'd meekly eaten breakfast.
Ma Yeonseo then led me to the second-floor terrace overlooking the garden and city.
A consideration for me, cooped up inside all this time.
I was so grateful I could cry.
This girl…. Is she staying in today?
Seated at the tea table, Ma Yeonseo seemed schedule-free, leisurely enjoying the clear weather with a book.
I needed her out of the house to try anything.
What now?
After racking my brain, I casually probed her plans.
“…Not going out today?”
She turned a page and replied indifferently.
“Canceled all my plans.”
“What?”
“To stay with you for a while.”
I was speechless at Ma Yeonseo, who didn't even glance up from her book.
Wasn't she always swamped day to day?
Canceled everything just to be with me.
Her all-or-nothing personality was as strong as ever.
No. This could be her watching me closer.
From experience, Ma Yeonseo's thinking far exceeded normal logic.
The girl who, when told not to talk, treated me like air while blatantly 'comforting' me.
Suspecting some scheme behind the cancellations, I narrowed my eyes and glared at her….
Glance. She met my gaze.
Her eyes, staring with a faint smile, dripped with honey-like sweetness.
Ugh.
Last night's sultry moans flashed back, and I looked away reflexively.
Memories of tumbling with her during our dating days clouded my mind too.
“Would you prefer I left?”
Ma Yeonseo bookmarked her page and set the book down.
I hadn't planned to chat.
Recalling I'd just lose if I snapped, I gave a vague reply.
“…Just asking.”
She chuckled softly and pulled something from her pocket.
“Planning to use this behind my back again?”
Th-That's….
The 'letter' I'd sent yesterday.
No wonder it went so smoothly.
Who said she had no informants? She'd been fully briefed.
“Good attempt, I'll give you that. I never imagined this method.”
Ma Yeonseo admired the letter with genuine amusement, grinning.
I couldn't laugh, though.
Idiot me for hoping.
Gazing at the letter with a soft smile, she suddenly conjured a small magic circle on the table.
From it emerged a familiar summon—a lizard monster she'd summoned at her first awakening.
“Say hi? It's your senior summon.”
The lizard on the table tilted its head, then struck a proud pose, flicking its tongue at me.
As if telling me to greet it.
“…You want me to?”
She giggled at my curt response and held out the letter to the lizard.
It snapped it up and—whoosh—burned it to ash.
My painstakingly written letter gone in an instant.
Fuck….
It felt just like my life, leaving me depressed.
“Yuchan-ah.”
After disposing of the letter, she gently stroked the lizard on her palm.
“Like I said, the only way out is to like me again.”
She spouted nonsense in a tender tone.
“We're one body now anyway. Might as well get along while we're at it, right?”
Her coaxing words sparked my temper.
“Why the hell are we one body?”
I wanted to shatter her smug composure, even for a second.
“I'd rather die than live suffocating by your side forever.”
She quietly dismissed the lizard and provoked me coolly.
“Try it.”
“…What?”
“Die if you can.”
“Think I won't?”
“You would. But…. Did you think I hadn't considered that?”
Ma Yeonseo said it casually, her face impassive.
“Go ahead, die. Not sure if you can, though.”
But that's what made it credible.
If she wanted, she could toy with me effortlessly—force violence, demand love, even rape me.
Yet aside from confinement, she imposed no real restrictions.
Why leave me free unless she knew what I'd do?
I wasn't even free to die.
…Scary bitch….
After a staring contest, realizing I was outmatched, I averted my eyes.
This won't work. That won't work. Can't even die on my terms.
I could move, but it was forced love in all but name.
I couldn't grasp the point of such 'love'.
“…You think I'll really love you like this?”
“Who knows.”
“What?”
“Just having you by my side makes me happy.”
Her bold affection shut me down effortlessly.
She fiddled with her cooling teacup and tossed out a random question.
“…Yuchan-ah. Do you know how I became S-rank?”
“How would I?”
I knew.
Ma Yeonseo, a C-rank awakener, shot to S-rank thanks to a high-tier summon from a chance encounter.
The news had blared it nonstop; impossible not to know.
…Or so it should have been.
“The day we broke up, I jumped off my apartment rooftop.”
“……Huh?”
An utterly unforeseen story unfolded.
“Died once there. Got lucky and survived, though.”
“What the….”
“You know how much it hurts slamming from the 30th floor straight to the ground?”
“…!”
“Skin shreds off, every bone shatters. If I hadn't awakened, I'd have died from shock.”
“D-Don't lie. Even if I…!”
“…Lie?”
Swipe. She met my eyes.
Her calm gaze held no deception as she recounted her death.
All true.
She'd really jumped after our breakup.
Wh-Why the hell….
Chills raced over my skin.
“Anyway, after dying and coming back, I could contract Siglu's Hand. Funny, right? If I'd died there, you wouldn't be summoned here.”
Ma Yeonseo sipped her tea with a detached smile.
“…….”
Watching her, my heart churned with confusion.
Creeped out by her willingness to jump, guilty thinking it was because of me.
If she'd died there for real….
Gulp.
The thought alone was dizzying.
…No. Kang Yuchan. Snap out of it. I'm Han Yeoryeon's boyfriend. We promised marriage!
Pity for Ma Yeonseo flickered, but I shook it off, thinking of Yeoryeon alone.
Three days summoned here.
Plenty of time for Yeoryeon to notice I was gone.
How anxious and distraught that fragile girl must be….
It hurt me just imagining.
Yes. I need to stay strong.
Now more than ever, I had to steel myself.
In the end, Ma Yeonseo became an S-rank living lavishly, and I carved my own path.
We should leave the past behind and go our separate ways.
Even if it meant being harsh to her.
“…Yeonseo-ya. No matter what, I can't like you.”
I said it, suppressing emotion.
“I have a girlfriend I promised marriage to. We've lived together a while. Even planning our newlywed home soon.”
Ma Yeonseo listened silently, unflinching.
“No idea why I got summoned to you…. But as you see, I can't help you much. Really. So if you truly like me, let me go now.”
Saying this to someone who'd faced death twisted my gut with guilt.
Felt like saying the unsayable; head spun.
But….
Can't weaken now.
I was an adult, a woman's man.
I had responsibilities.
“I see.”
Surprisingly straightforward, she looked away.
Sipped her tea and murmured.
“Sorry, but I can't let you go. Like I said, just you being near makes me feel good. Like a buff, maybe?”
“You….”
Thinking she'd dismissed my sincerity, I frowned.
But.
“Not just talk—my power's grown stronger since you appeared. Probably mana reacting to emotions.”
She hadn't brushed it off.
“As you know, I'm important. Dozens of mouths to feed in this house alone, countless staff working for me.”
Not as ex-girlfriend, but as 'S-rank awakener Ma Yeonseo'.
“Obviously, I need to earn big to support them. Me getting stronger means everyone lives.”
Weighing one man's life—mine—against hundreds.
Ruthlessly efficient logic.
“How could I let you go? Breaking the summon contract means one of us dies. I die, everyone dies. You die? What about that girlfriend?”
No rebuttal possible.
Checkmate the moment I was summoned.
Th-This can't be….
Overwhelmed by suffocating frustration after so long, I vented.
“So…. Just live like this? Like your dog, basking in your 'affection' forever? No life of my own?”
Ma Yeonseo tugged her collar boldly, flashing her chest.
“Hate living like a dog? Become my master then.”
If you hate being dominated, dominate instead.
She threw down the gauntlet shamelessly.
Absurd; words failed me.
“…Crazy bitch….”
“I know. I'm crazy.”
She smiled proudly, owning it.