Side Story 1: A New Addiction
As far back as Han Yugyeong could remember, her childhood had been a harmonious one. She possessed an exceptional memory. Whenever life grew difficult, she would retreat into those recollections, savoring the happy moments of her early years again and again like a drug.
Her mother had been a rising young actress, her father the son of a powerful conglomerate family. Instead of the bride chosen by his clan, he had fallen in love with her mother, marrying her after she conceived Han Yugyeong. The price for defying the arranged marriage was steep. Her father was cast out of the family, and her mother’s acting career was destroyed. Even so, those early years had been happy. They owned almost nothing, yet their home was warm and full of love.
But at some point, her parents began to obsess over everything they had lost because of each other.
“If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be stuck living in this pathetic little house…”
“If your family hadn’t blocked my path, I would have become a top star!”
In that toxic atmosphere, the only thing left for Han Yugyeong was to study. She clung to the belief that if she succeeded, their family could return to the warmth it once had. She wanted to repay her parents for everything they had sacrificed by bringing her into the world.
With both a flawless memory and a brilliant mind, she claimed the top spot in every school she attended. Though they were poor, she endured through part-time jobs and scholarships. Then, when she was admitted as the top student to the Business Administration department at Korea University—the finest institution in the country—contact finally came from her father’s family, the Shinkang Group.
“You’ve brought honor to our family name by entering Korea University at the top of your class. We will accept you back.”
From that day forward, the fighting stopped. They had reclaimed what the marriage had cost them. They were no longer a loving couple, merely two people bound by a contractual relationship, but at least the arguments had ended. Her father regained his place in the family and its wealth. Her mother, still strikingly beautiful despite her age, was cast in a drama produced by one of the Shinkang Group’s broadcasting stations.
Han Yugyeong told herself it was a blessing. She believed it had all happened simply because she had studied hard.
But a few days before she was to return to the Shinkang fold, she overheard her father on the phone. Her illusions shattered.
“Father is trying to forge a marriage alliance with the Jeil Group. If we offer them the top student from Korea University as a daughter-in-law, wouldn’t that be enough to reach a family far above our station?”
The Jeil Group ranked among the top three conglomerates in the country. The Shinkang Group barely clung to a spot inside the top ten. They did not want Han Yugyeong herself. They wanted the label—“Korea University’s top entrant”—to use as a bargaining chip in a strategic marriage.
The shock was profound. She could have accepted it from distant relatives, but hearing her own father speak those words with a laugh while she still carried vivid memories of their once-happy home cut her to the bone. The realization that even he now saw her as nothing more than an object to be traded away left her devastated.
Before university could begin, she announced she was taking a short trip and fled the house. Having known nothing but school, home, and part-time work, Han Yugyeong had no understanding of how dangerous the world could be.
She wandered the dark streets of Seoul until a hand shot out from an alley and dragged her inside.
“Kyaa!”
Her scream went unanswered. The two men who had seized her moved with practiced confidence, their eyes cold and predatory.
“Whoa, shit—you were right. She’s a fucking hot little thing. Bet she doesn’t even smell if we strip her right here.”
“These golden eyes never miss a prime woman.”
Both men held knives roughly twenty-three centimeters long. They hurled crude threats as though they might tear her clothes off at any moment, but Han Yugyeong bit her lip until it bled, forcing down her terror.
“If you knew who I was, you would regret this. Let me go.”
“Hehehe! Crazy bitch. You think you’re the president’s daughter?”
“She might be some chaebol princess! But even if the president or a conglomerate boss shows up, they can’t stop us from fucking you. Hell, maybe we’ll become sons-in-law to a rich family after this.”
Reason was useless. These men were beyond words.
Then she saw a powerfully built man walking past the mouth of the alley.
“Help me!”
“Hehe. Nobody’s coming to save you.”
“We’ll help you, sweetheart. We’ll fill that hungry little mouth between your legs with my thick sausage!”
The muscular stranger was about to pass by when their eyes met. The expression on his face was strange—like he already knew her.
He stepped behind the two thugs and struck one in the neck with the edge of his hand. What followed was a storm. In the space of a few heartbeats, one assailant had fled and the other lay crumpled on the ground, unmoving.
The man who had saved her had not emerged unscathed; a knife had cut deeply into his arm. When she looked at him properly, she realized he was strikingly handsome.
In that moment, Han Yugyeong made a decision. She would use the excuse of bandaging his wound to take him to a motel. She would talk to him, tend to him—anything to stall until the last subway had stopped running. Then she would cling to him.
It was a simple plan. She knew her own beauty well enough to be certain that the man before her would not refuse her.
If she was destined for a political marriage anyway, she refused to give her virginity to some unknown son of a conglomerate family. It would be far better to give her first time to this handsome stranger who had saved her. Without him, she would have been brutally raped by those two thugs. She felt no hesitation about offering herself to him.
It was an impulsive thought, yet the more they spoke, the deeper she fell.
His name was Taira Ryuta, a third-generation Korean resident of Japan who had come to Korea for travel. His story was even harsher than hers. An illegitimate son of a conglomerate family, he had only learned of his father’s existence recently. After his father’s death, he had been brought into the clan. During his school years, he had been viciously bullied for being a Zainichi. Having seen documentaries on the subject, Han Yugyeong knew Japanese bullying was far more brutal than its Korean counterpart. It awakened something like maternal instinct within her toward this handsome man.
More than that, Taira Ryuta had an extraordinary body. It was more powerfully built than any man she had seen on television or online—raw, masculine, almost violent in its perfection. While her maternal feelings arose from his painful past, the sight of that body awakened something far more primal in her.
I want to be pinned beneath this man.
As they talked, the time came when the last subway would soon stop running. Following her plan, she shyly asked if he could let her stay the night. The faint smile that crossed Taira Ryuta’s face at her words sent a throb of heat through her lower belly.
Ah… he wants me too.
After that, everything moved like a swift current. They drank. They dropped formal speech. They kissed.
It was her first kiss. The sensation was like walking through clouds.
She had not deliberately saved herself; studying and working had simply left no time for romance. The moment their lips met, she knew she was fortunate to give her firsts to this man. The kiss itself was that perfect.
The intimacy that followed was even more overwhelming. The first time hurt, yet it felt good. Taira Ryuta’s burning length warmed her core and set her entire body aflame. That alone was incredible, but from the second round onward, she lost all sense of herself.
Pleasure she had never known crashed over her like a tidal wave. If the first time had merely heated her, the second was molten lava. The ecstasy threatened to erase her entirely. She shamelessly spilled moans, tears, and slick arousal from her body.
Taira Ryuta held her tightly in his powerful, solid arms. The more they joined, the more she desired him.
She spent the entire period she had claimed was a “trip” with him. Taira Ryuta seemed familiar with Seoul. He retrieved hidden items and gave them to her, along with several pills he called elixirs. She accepted everything without question.
Each night they made love as if by agreement, then fell asleep in satisfied exhaustion. Two days passed like a dream.
The last thing he gave her was a necklace set with a jewel that emitted a soft, mysterious glow. The moment Taira Ryuta fastened it around her neck with his own hands, Han Yugyeong realized the truth.
She had fallen in love with him.
Before he left, he told her the way they could remain connected: she must become the owner of the Shinkang Group.
Han Yugyeong made a silent vow. She would remove anyone who stood in her way—even her own parents.
With that new resolve burning in her chest, she returned home. The memories she would now crave like a drug were no longer those of her once-harmonious family. They were the memories of Taira Ryuta.