Chapter 2
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 2
“Ughhh…”
A groan leaked from his lips.
Ugh, my head…
The back of his head throbbed heavily, as if it had been struck with a hammer.
Rustle.
As he shifted slightly, he felt his body sinking into something soft. Dokyun realized he was lying on a bed.
Did I fall asleep? What time is it? I have to get to work…
His eyes wouldn’t open. A crushing pressure, as if his whole body were pinned beneath steel bars, made it nearly impossible to even stir.
To make matters worse, a nauseating sensation had been rising from his stomach, urging him to vomit.
“Guh…”
Trickle.
His stomach contracted, and bitter bile surged up his throat, trickling from between his teeth.
Shit… what did I do yesterday…
His body was a wreck.
Either he wasn’t fully awake, or his head just wasn’t working right. A heavy, hazy sensation had dominated his body since he’d regained consciousness, making him feel as if he were drifting through a dream, interfering with his thoughts.
Dokyun forced his mind to recall the previous day’s events.
Came home from work. Chicken and beer…
Right. To soothe his sorrow over his favorite niche novel getting discontinued, he’d set himself up with chicken, beer, and a story he’d been saving.
Took a bite of a chicken leg…
He remembered the taste—crispy and still hot from the fryer.
And then…?
He recalled what came next.
The moment he had been chewing on that chicken leg. The dull impact that had slammed into the back of his head. And, reflected in his vision as he fell…
A person. A person’s shadow.
A chill.
For a brief moment, a chilling sensation seized his body.
Just as his body began to tremble, gripped by fear, Dokyun felt a soft cloth touch the cheek stained with his own bile.
“Who… who’s there…”
His voice trembled, a dry, cracked sound emerging from his lips. His mind was still foggy, the words slurred and hard to understand.
Wipe. Wipe.
As Dokyun spoke, a small voice overlapped with the sound of the cloth brushing against his skin.
“Heehee… Are… are you awake…?”
“Urk…”
A person. There was a person here. Dokyun grimaced, struggling to force his heavy eyelids open.
At last, through his slowly parting eyelids, the silhouette of a person came into view. The room was too dark to make out the surroundings easily, but he could tell that the thin form swaying before his eyes was a person.
“Goo… good morning. No, afternoon…”
A faint, trembling whisper seeped into Dokyun’s ear.
As his eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, Dokyun focused his gaze in the direction of the voice.
What he saw there was…
A woman?
A woman he’d never seen before in his life. She had a gaunt frame that seemed more withered than simply thin. Long, unkempt hair was splayed messily over her body.
He raised his gaze slightly. Above her neck, through the curtain of hair that covered most of her face, he could see one eye and the corner of a mouth, both twitching as they curled upward.
She was a woman who might have seemed delicate, but upon closer inspection, her sunken cheeks and the deep, dark circles under her eyes gave her a more sinister air.
The moment Dokyun registered the figure before him, he understood at once why his body had felt so heavy.
That unidentified woman was sitting astride his stomach, looking down at him.
“Aaaaargh!!!”
Startled, Dokyun frantically tried to buck his body upward and throw the woman off.
But.
Clank! Clank!
Huh?
Clank! Clank! Clank!
His body wouldn’t move. No, to be precise, his body could move, but its movements were restricted.
Dokyun turned his head to look at his arms.
What the… shit…!
Cold handcuffs were fastened around both his wrists. As Dokyun stared in disbelief at the restraints, the woman, who had been watching him with a faint smile, began to speak.
“Nooo… you’re not better yet… Eun-ah will take care of you…”
The woman—the woman who called herself Eun-ah—spoke and reached out, placing a hand on Dokyun’s cheek and beginning to stroke it in a slow tempo.
Stroke. Stroke.
“Goo… good boy~?”
Dokyun felt as if the icy touch of her hand on his cheek was seeping all the way down his spine.
“The… there are no bad bu… bugs here…”
You can relax.
Their eyes met. The twitching corners of her eyes, the bloodshot, glistening pupils, and the deep, dark circles beneath them all merged to create a visceral sense of dread.
Meeting Dokyun’s gaze, Eun-ah’s cheeks flushed red as she let out a small laugh.
“Heehee…”
What the hell is this situation?
He was bewildered. There were too few clues to be certain, but it seemed the woman in front of him was the one who had tied him up here.
Gulp.
He swallowed nervously, his throat dry.
“Uh… excuse me…?”
Dokyun summoned every last ounce of courage he had and spoke to the woman.
“That’s… that’s not my name…”
“Huh?”
“Eun-ah… I’m Go Eun-ah…”
The woman, Eun-ah, pouted as if she disliked how he’d addressed her.
Fuck, is this introductions time?
“Aha…! Right! Uh, Eun-ah?”
“Ehehe…”
He said my name…
Seeing Eun-ah mutter that to herself, Dokyun felt a fresh wave of goosebumps crawl over his entire body.
“Yeees~” Eun-ah replied with a bright smile.
Calm down. Seriously, fucking calm down, Chae Dokyun. First of all, she’s human, right? She’s not an orc in heat, and she’s not an arachne who traps people in cocoons to pickle them in liquor, right? Let’s just try to talk.
A strange person in a strange place. Handcuffs binding his body. All of it amplified his fear, but there was too much he didn’t know. Deciding to assess the situation first, Dokyun forced the corners of his mouth into a smile and posed a question to Eun-ah.
“So, who are you…?”
“Hmm…? Ehehe… My, you’re such a tease…”
He felt a surge of bile, but he held it back.
Does this look like a fucking joke?
His throat tightened, a vein throbbing in his neck.
However, the power dynamic between them was far too clear for him to rashly start cursing.
Bound like this, any form of resistance would be meaningless.
Dokyun wasn't brave enough to unleash his anger on someone who so clearly had the upper hand.
Though his lips trembled, he managed to restrain himself and asked again.
“Look… I’m asking because I really don’t know. Have we… have we met somewhere before…?”
In that instant.
“You don’t know?”
In a flash, all expression vanished from the face that had been smiling just a moment before.
Holy shit.
Her bloodshot eyes were widening as if they would tear.
“You don’t know? Really? Really, really, really?”
Squeeze.
The hand stroking his cheek tightened, her fingernails beginning to dig into his flesh.
“Agh!”
“Lies… it’s a lie… a lie.”
Where did that emaciated body get such strength? The pressure of her grip grew stronger, creating a pain that was impossible to ignore.
“You… you said… you were happy today… b-because of me…”
His cheek, squeezed and crushed, throbbed with pain.
“You said… you were so deeply moved…”
He wanted to curse, but seeing those red, glistening eyes staring at him, he couldn’t find the courage to speak.
“You said… you’d always be waiting…”
He had no idea what she was talking about.
“You said… my… my writing was the best!!! So… so I worked so hard on it!!!”
Rrrrip.
The sensation of skin tearing.
“Aaaaargh!!”
He felt something wet on his cheek.
Fuck, blood!
The crazy bitch was trying to tear his face off.
As an agonizing pain shot through his cheek, Dokyun’s mind raced.
When did I say that? Where? Did I even say it at all?
His head was spinning. The chilling pain spreading through his body shocked his sluggish mind fully awake, urging him on.
Eun-ah’s voice grew louder, turning into a shriek.
“WHY DON’T YOU KNOOOOW!!!!”
Think. Think. Just fucking think, you son of a bitch!! he screamed internally, his thoughts accelerating.
Happy, waiting, my writing, the best.
Ah, shit. No way.
He had. He had said those things. The last time had been relatively recent.
“Agh… Go… Goni?”
The niche novel he’d been championing until last month, the one he’d dragged into the light.
The pen name of The Girl Who Catches Bugs.
Abruptly.
The screaming stopped. The hand that had been pinching his cheek, as if to tear it off, went limp.
Did I get it right…?
Dokyun cautiously opened his eyes and looked at Eun-ah.
Life was returning to her face. A blush bloomed on her cheeks, and the corners of her mouth curled into a gentle arc. Her eyes crinkled softly as a smile spread across her entire face.
“Ehehe… Wha… what is this… you knew all along… You’re so mischievous…”
Beaming with happiness, Eun-ah looked down at Dokyun.
“B-but still… if you play tricks like that… it makes Eun-ah so sad…”
“S-so don’t do it…”
As she said this, Eun-ah met his eyes.
For a moment, a dangerous light glinted in her gaze.
As she spoke, her face flushed bright red with a satisfied smile. But then, her expression suddenly crumpled, twisting into a miserable pout as if she were about to shatter.
“Oh… what happened to your face…”
Seeing the scratches she had made on Dokyun’s face, Eun-ah looked as if she were about to cry. She leaned her face down toward his cheek.
Then, so close he could feel her body heat, her tongue slipped out from between her lips and began to lick his cheek.
Lick.
“D-don’t worry… Eun-ah will make it better…”
A chill.
What… what the fuck…!
Goosebumps erupted all over his body. He couldn’t follow her emotional swings.
Her emotional state was in a realm he had never experienced, a place he couldn't possibly comprehend.
Eun-ah, who had been licking the wound she’d made, lifted her head slightly.
She stopped, her eyes level with his, with barely a finger’s width of space between them. Their gazes locked.
The corners of Eun-ah’s eyes curled up again.
“Heehee…”
Goosebumps covered his entire body. Fear returned, this time taking a slightly different shape as it reared its head. If his previous fear had stemmed from the unfamiliar situation, his current fear was of a completely different nature.
The fear of the incomprehensible. An instinctual dread of a being he could not understand began to consume him.
Dokyun stared at Eun-ah, who was pinning him down, her eyes locked on his from inches away.
The faint scent of soap from her skin, the fragrance of shampoo that fell with every shake of her head, all of it invaded his nostrils. The cool temperature of her skin against his, its soft texture, the light whisper of her breath. Everything told him that the person before him was undeniably human.
But those very sensations only served to expand his fear to an infinite degree.
Her emotional state was something he couldn't possibly attribute to a human, yet his five senses insisted that she was human. This dissonance made him feel as if the woman before him was something else entirely, merely wearing a human mask.
He didn’t know what was happening, how he’d ended up here, or where “here” even was. He knew nothing.
There was only one thing Dokyun could be sure of in this situation.
I’m fucked.
The situation he was in now. It was a horrific predicament he never could have imagined he'd face in his entire life.