The Only Future That Could Save You
Even if I successfully persuaded my aunt, the game wasn’t over yet.
This wasn’t a game that ended with convincing just one person.
My aunt had two daughters.
Her eldest, Cha Ji-yeon, and her youngest, Cha Se-yeon.
The younger sister, Cha Se-yeon, was no problem at all.
No matter how I handled her, she always complied.
She had suffered so much that she depended on me and had zero issue with moving into our house with me.
In fact, she had actually wanted to live together.
The real problem lay with her older sister, the one I called my cousin since we were children.
Cha Ji-yeon had always been fiercely proud and stubborn.
She hated owing anyone money or even hearing a single complaint more than death itself.
Her looks were decent, so men had never been a threat.
But when it came to other women, everything changed.
She had pushed away every group of girls she had joined, claiming they were all jealous of her superiority.
Her own stubborn pride only made things worse between her and the other women.
Ever since she was young, she had been this way.
At university, she would have found herself with no place to stay in no time.
When the incident happened, the women who hated her had spread all sorts of rumors, isolating her completely.
Still, her appearance was fine.
She could have easily found someone willing to help her if she just bent a little.
Instead, she had chosen suicide over depending on men.
Cha Ji-yeon was that kind of woman.
Her personality hadn’t changed even when I was the one dealing with her.
The Cha Ji-yeon I had seen in my Future Sight never accepted anything without a fight.
From sharing a roof with me, to accepting even the smallest help.
She had never wanted to owe me anything.
She had basically said she would rather die than owe me.
And when I crossed her, she had followed through.
Even when I treated her too well, she had tried to kill herself.
She had tried when I scolded her.
She had tried when I ignored her.
Cha Ji-yeon was a walking suicide bomb.
The real issue was that if Cha Ji-yeon died, the rest of the family wouldn’t survive either.
If she fell first, it would be my aunt next, then Cha Se-yeon.
These three women were like dominoes.
One would fall, and the others would follow.
And Cha Ji-yeon was a villainous landmine that could detonate with the slightest breeze.
She was a bitch like that.
“…A bitch like that.”
“Huh? What did you say?”
I hadn’t realized my inner thought had slipped out.
I covered it up smoothly.
“It just looked embarrassing.
With how long it’s been since we last saw each other.”
Right now, I was standing in the underground parking lot with my aunt.
Her two daughters were due to arrive in a taxi any moment.
“Yeah.
I can guess what you mean.
Before I met you, Auntie was a bit awkward too.”
My aunt had interpreted my vague words however she wanted.
“But after seeing you, I get it.
Woo-jin is still the same old Woo-jin I knew.
Jiyeon and Se-yeon are the same too.
They’re exactly the people I remember.
So treat them normally, Woo-jin.”
“Yes, I will.”
She really was naive.
She had no idea how her own daughters would end up.
She still talked so casually.
Well, it was only natural that she had that personality.
That was why the whole family had been pushed to the brink.
But it was actually a relief to me.
“Oh.
They’re here.”
A taxi pulled into the underground parking lot.
I had already told security that a taxi carrying two female passengers would be arriving.
The taxi stopped right in front of us.
I handed the driver a few ten-thousand-won notes as a tip.
“Thank you.”
“Woo-jin oppa…?”
The rear door opened, and the familiar faces stepped out.
Cha Se-yeon, my aunt’s younger daughter, and Cha Ji-yeon, her older daughter.
“Se-yeon.
Long time no see.”
“Oppa!”
She was so happy that she threw herself into my arms.
I had already warned my aunt not to tell them the truth.
Once Cha Ji-yeon knew I was here, she wouldn’t even step foot near the place.
“Oppa! Oppaaa! Waaaa~!”
“Se-yeon’s still a crybaby.
Her body’s all grown up, though.”
“Eek!”
Cha Se-yeon was sobbing loudly.
Still, her figure had become quite womanly, and it felt good to hold her.
“That’s sexual harassment.”
With those cold words, Cha Ji-yeon appeared, glaring at her crying little sister and me.
“Long time no see.
Unnie.”
“Who’s your unnie?”
Her thin eyebrows shot up in anger.
Unlike when we were kids, Cha Ji-yeon hated being called “unnie” now.
“Mom.
Why is Lee Woo-jin here?”
“Jiyeon-ah.”
Cha Ji-yeon was already poisoned from the very first meeting.
My aunt sensed her daughter’s state and tried to speak.
“No way.
Is the person Mom mentioned who can help… Lee Woo-jin?”
Cha Ji-yeon had already picked my aunt as her target.
Her mother looked terrified by her daughter’s murderous glare.
“Correct.”
I jumped in before the explosion could ignite in Cha Ji-yeon.
“…Lee Woo-jin.
What the hell are you planning?”
It was still too early to explode.
Cha Ji-yeon didn’t fully understand the situation yet, so her anger had turned more into confusion.
I smiled faintly and changed the subject.
“Let’s go inside first.
Talking in front of everyone is awkward.”
I soothed crying Se-yeon and went inside the apartment with my aunt.
“Hey, wait a second.”
Cha Ji-yeon, left alone, followed right after.
This was the third gate: ‘Blackmailing Cha Ji-yeon’.
It was about to begin in earnest.
“Auntie and Se-yeon, sit down for a moment.
I’ll talk to Jiyeon-unnie for a bit.
You can take anything from the fridge.”
“Ah, uhm, okay.”
Sitting obediently on the sofa with her still-sobbing sister, my aunt spoke.
“Hey, Woo-jin.
Jiyeon really didn’t mean it like that.”
“It’s fine.
Leave it to me.”
Then, without saying another word, I walked alone into the room.
Cha Ji-yeon followed with angry steps.
She never entered when I told her to, but if I didn’t say anything, she just walked in on her own.
Dealing with such a mischievous woman was exhausting.
“What the hell are you trying to do?!”
“What?”
The moment I closed the door, Cha Ji-yeon raised her voice and confronted me.
I sat down in the chair with a calm face and answered.
“You already know everything, don’t you?
What I’m trying to do.”
Cha Ji-yeon closed her mouth and glared at me silently.
She was probably frantically thinking of reasons to blame me or find fault.
To use as an excuse to reject my help.
“Auntie said you cheated and got kicked out.”
I didn’t beat around the bush and went straight to the core.
Cha Ji-yeon reacted exactly as expected.
“So?
Did you bring me here to mock me?
You’re living in a nice house and rubbing it in our faces?”
“No.
I brought you here to help you and your family.”
At my straightforward words, Cha Ji-yeon snorted.
“Haha!
Help?
You?
Us?”
Her tone was sharp and prickly.
She had been the one who kicked me out of the house, yet now she was acting like she herself had been driven away.
“Of course I don’t mean I’ll help for free.”
“Tch.
So you want to demand my body as payment?”
She asked with deliberate sarcasm.
I answered with a laugh.
“You’re right.
Your head is still working fine, huh?”
“…What?”
Her mocking expression froze.
“What are you asking?
You said it yourself.
Are you going to demand my body as payment?
That’s what you said.”
She had said it first, but the moment I agreed, Cha Ji-yeon’s face turned bright red.
“Lee Woo-jin, you…!”
“What?
You said you’d demand my body as payment.
Do you really think I’d help for free?”
Her mouth was shut tight by my brazen question.
“Hah!
Sounds ridiculous.
Do you really think I would have forgotten the old days?”
This time I glared at her aggressively.
Cha Ji-yeon swallowed silently.
“I was kicked out empty-handed one day.
Just because I forced you to kiss me.”
“T-that…”
“No.
No need for excuses.
I did something stupid, and that’s a fact.
That’s why I was kicked out.
That’s why I had to live like a dog after that.
Nothing you say will change that.”
I stood up from the chair and stepped closer to Cha Ji-yeon.
She shrank back, as if she had been frightened.
“Auntie said I cheated and got kicked out?
Haha, how fun.
Is this karma?
Yeah?
Cousin Jiyeon.”
When I got right in front of her, Cha Ji-yeon turned her head away.
I grabbed her chin and turned her face toward me.
“How does it feel?
Now that I’ve been kicked out like that, you want to cling to me?”
“Khh…!”
“Even if you strip naked and beg right now, I won’t help.”
“Who!”
Cha Ji-yeon slapped my hand away roughly.
“Who would ask you for help?
Stop joking around!”
“Really?
Auntie said she would ask for help.”
I answered with a lewd smile to the trembling Jiyeon-unnie.
“You don’t mean…”
Her cute lips trembled with anger.
I smiled faintly.
“Yeah.
Exactly.
I plan to demand something from Auntie as payment.
Right now, she’ll probably do anything I say.”
“I-I won’t just sit there quietly?”
“If you don’t sit quietly, will you tell Auntie?
Just like you told Auntie back then?”
Her sarcasm made Cha Ji-yeon’s mouth shut again.
“‘Lee Woo-jin wants to do something weird to Mom!’
Will you really say that?
Haha, Auntie would believe it.
A lying bitch like Jiyeon-unnie.”
“L-Lee Woo-jin… you…”
“No matter what you say, only you will be treated as the crazy one.
And if only you disappear, the rest can do whatever they want.
Your auntie, and Se-yeon too.”
Cha Ji-yeon’s eyes grew even fiercer.
“You!
You wouldn’t… even to Se-yeon…?!”
“Haha!
Who said that was sexual harassment earlier?
Do you really think I would do something like that?”
Cha Ji-yeon really was a funny woman.
She wouldn’t soften no matter how I coaxed her.
No matter how I helped or pitied her.
She would keep walking straight toward suicide no matter what I did.
The only way to save such a Cha Ji-yeon was to take her family hostage and blackmail her.
I didn’t know what kind of twisted circuit in her brain led to that future.
But for Cha Ji-yeon, there was no other future except becoming my slave through blackmail.
This was the only future left for her.
“Well, even if Auntie doesn’t believe me and refuses my help, I don’t care.
Because you’ll end up wandering the streets and meeting a miserable end anyway.
I wonder how the crazy debtors will handle your family.”
There was no one left to help the auntie family under the sky.
They had become my last hope.
“Lee Woo-jin you…”
Cha Ji-yeon looked at me like she was staring at a monster.
If she left this house, the chase would begin again.
The victims wouldn’t let them go until all of them committed suicide.
Or they would be killed or raped.
Either way, it was the same.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“As expected, your head still works.”
I reached out and gently stroked her hair.
Her hair reached all the way down to her shoulders and felt soft and silky.
Cha Ji-yeon trembled as if my touch sent chills down her spine.
“We still have unfinished business from back then, don’t we?”
“…”
My hand that had been stroking her hair slowly moved down to her back, then her hips.
Her well-developed buttocks, shaped like her mother’s, kicked back against my hand.
But Cha Se-yeon didn’t resist when I touched her butt.
Instead, she murmured in a voice that had calmed down with arousal.
“If I just do as you say… I won’t touch Mom or Se-yeon.”
“Of course.
I’m not promising anything.”
“Lee Woo-jin… I…”
Her despair-filled eyes looked into mine.
Tears welled up in those eyes that held me.
“Sob…!”
Cha Ji-yeon finally cried in front of me for the first time.
I had never thought I would see the proud Jiyeon-unnie cry.
That alone made it worth bringing the auntie family into our home.
But I couldn’t watch a woman cry for long.
I quickly finished the conversation.
“We’ll talk in detail later.
For now, pretend to follow my orders in front of Auntie.”
“…Okay.”
She didn’t understand the logic, but she was smart.
She would handle it on her own without me explaining everything.
When I finished talking with Cha Ji-yeon and came out of the room, Cha Se-yeon was sitting in the living room massage chair.
My aunt apologized on behalf of her shy little daughter.
“I-I’m sorry, Woo-jin.
Our Se-yeon is so…”
“Oooopppaa! Thiiis is sooo strraaaangeee!”
Cha Se-yeon’s mouth produced weird sounds from the violent shaking of the massage chair she had taken without permission.
She laughed at her own voice, giggling.
“Did the story end?”
“…Yeah.”
Cha Ji-yeon was still sniffling, but my aunt seemed to think the tears were tears of joy from meeting after a long time.
She really still had flowers in her head.
“Se-yeon doesn’t… have anything to worry about.”
“Uuuuh? Whaaat is thiiiisss?!”
Cha Se-yeon was perfectly fine taking the massage chair without asking and would adapt without any issues.