Chapter 28 - Chapter 26: Episode 25 - The Call (4)
Seon-ah drifted in and out of consciousness, exhausted by Yu-rin's relentless sexual draining.
Even while she was washing him, any sign of an erection would trigger her to start rubbing him again, forcing him to wake up as his body continued to produce semen against his will.
He had caught a snippet of her voice earlier.
"It's not coming out anymore."
She toyed with him like a plaything, her tone laced with a hint of disappointment.
Now, he lay in Yu-rin's room, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Though he had used his healing ability to mend his physical body, the mental toll remained.
Tears leaked from his eyes.
He thought to himself that even a cow being milked wouldn't feel this miserable or dehumanized, but since Yu-rin wasn't the type to listen to reason, he simply endured it once again.
"Seon-ah. I think it's about time for our parents to arrive."
Yu-rin said, hanging up the phone.
"Got it. I'll head to the entrance to greet them."
He kept his true feelings hidden.
If he rebelled for no reason, she'd only nitpick him later, and he'd suffer an even worse fate.
"And there's something else I want to say... Seon-ah. We've been dating for a long time, ever since we were kids, right?"
"Yeah?"
Yu-rin spoke with a serious expression, pausing for a moment.
"Let's get married."
She held out a marriage registration form.
Every blank space was already filled in.
It included his information, his parents' details, and even the names of two witnesses.
It was ready to be submitted the moment their seals were stamped.
"This is so sudden. Why now?"
"I'll be starting my mandatory service at the Hwaryong Guild, and you'll be working at the medical center. It just makes me uncomfortable thinking about other bitches hitting on you..."
It was just Yu-rin's jealousy.
The reason was simpler than he'd expected.
"For now, I need to think about it a little..."
He was about to suggest putting it off, but he stopped when he saw her expression.
She was looking at him with eyes that seemed ready to devour him, and he was terrified of what she might do if he kept pushing back.
"Wouldn't it be better to have a formal family meeting first?"
When he changed his tune, her expression softened into a pleased smile.
She was smiling, but her eyes remained the same as before, and she nodded silently.
As if there wouldn't be a next time.
"I have about four months left until my service. I think it would be good to set the wedding date, send out invitations, and plan the honeymoon during that time."
Yu-rin said, as if she had already mapped it all out.
"Still, I think it would be better to do the marriage registration... on the day of the wedding or the day before."
He had to delay it as long as possible.
It was obvious that once they were married, she'd drain him dry, calling it their 'first night.'
He needed time to build up his stamina and steel his heart.
"Why?"
She stared at him with dead eyes—the kind of look that made a frozen fish seem lively by comparison.
"I'm just not mentally prepared yet... Some things just can't be rushed..."
He didn't know how she'd react, but he stood his ground.
Yu-rin pondered for a moment, then spoke.
"Fine. Since you're going to be my husband, I should respect your opinion."
If only she showed that same respect in bed.
Clutching his chest to stifle a sigh, he felt a wave of relief that it had ended there.
When Yu-rin's parents arrived, she and Seon-ah went to the entrance to greet them.
Seon-ah felt a bit awkward waiting for the owners of another house, but since the couple treated him like family, his anxiety quickly subsided.
When Yu-rin told her parents the truth about his kidnapping, they looked at him with pity and offered words of comfort.
They had agreed in advance to omit the parts about him being raped and the situation with Minji, focusing only on the kidnapping, the near-death experience, and how Yu-rin had beaten the two assailants to death and broken the legs of the woman who had orchestrated it.
Yu-ra spoke up after listening to the story.
"Don't you want to know what happened to that woman whose legs were broken?"
Curious about the aftermath, Yu-ra had investigated the stalker who instigated the incident and uncovered the full story.
She had even heard about Seon-ah being raped, but she considered that a trivial detail.
The only thing that mattered was how much her daughter wanted Lee Seon-ah.
Because of that, she couldn't forgive the woman who had touched him.
The culprit was the granddaughter of the Daesan Group Chairman, and the case had even reached her, the second-in-command of the Hwaryong Guild.
Since the girl had harmed her future son-in-law, Yu-ra had not only taken legal action but also severed almost all hunter-related business connections with the Daesan Group.
Rare resources from Gates were always in limited supply.
Guilds were the suppliers who harvested those resources.
General companies, no matter how large, were ultimately at the mercy of the suppliers.
The scarcity of these resources gave the suppliers the upper hand.
Processing technology was important, but securing the resources themselves was the priority.
In an era where supply dictated the market, if the supplier pulled out, the processing company would face ruin.
Yu-ra decided to redirect most of the rare resources scheduled for the Daesan Group to another company as soon as the current contract ended.
It was just a matter of canceling a contract, but for the Daesan Group, it meant losing 40 percent of their supply.
Their stock price would plummet, and chaos would follow.
At that point, she intended to have the media expose exactly what the chairman's granddaughter had done.
It would be a miserable end for the girl, likely driving her to suicide.
Though others didn't realize it, Yu-ra and Yu-rin were remarkably similar.
They both possessed a natural talent for persistently tormenting their enemies.
They kept this side of themselves hidden, but it was clear the trait had been inherited.
Yu-ra was so proud of her revenge plan that she struggled to suppress a laugh even after arriving home.
"No. Mom, I've decided to put that in the past."
"Me too, Mother-in-law."
Yu-rin and Seon-ah spoke as if they were no longer interested in the matter.
'It must have been a painful and shameful experience.'
Yu-ra decided to find even more ways to torment the Daesan Group family.
After the talk of the kidnapping subsided, the conversation turned to the wedding and the formal family meeting.
There was no opposition.
It was as if everyone had expected them to get married eventually.
They decided to schedule the meeting after the couple visited Seon-ah's parents.
After dinner, Seon-ah was given a guest room, and Yu-rin stayed in her own.
They woke up early the next morning to prepare for the trip to Seon-ah's parents' house.
Seon-ah's parents often spent their weekends at home.
The couple preferred to spend their time quietly together.
The two lovers packed their bags and headed out.
Seon-ah could feel, in real-time, that Yu-rin's personality was becoming increasingly impatient and violent.
He had thought the marriage talk would wait until after his service, but it was clear she was trying to shackle him to her through marriage so he wouldn't drift away.
The kidnapping incident had clearly left a deep trauma.
He had been in shock for a while, unable to process it properly, but he was finally starting to recover.
Yu-rin, however, seemed trapped in that moment.
She used to listen to him, but now she was becoming stubborn both in and out of bed.
And it was changing for the worse.
He had considered suggesting psychiatric treatment, but he was too afraid of the social stigma.
Awakened individuals with mental health histories were viewed as dangerous, so most ignored their problems.
He had passed his own mental evaluation by giving standard answers, but if he had been truthful, things would have gone very differently.
Regardless, the situation was grim.
Yu-rin's mental instability was a ticking time bomb.
The moment their parents noticed, everything—from her abuse to his rape—could be dragged into the light.
His mother, Lee Min-ah, was particularly sharp and had excellent intuition.
If she found even a single clue, she would expose everything.
For the sake of peace between the two families, he had to keep it hidden.
If he was the only one who had to suffer, then everyone else could be happy...