CHAPTER 99: THE FINAL ACT

"Who do you think did that?"

Cheon Areum muttered, gazing out the open window. Lee Nari hurriedly grabbed the pen from the table and forcibly handed it to him, tightly clenching his hand holding the pen with both her hands.

"Cheon Areum. Sign the form."

"...."

"It will only take a few seconds to sign. Even if it is Yoon Seoyul, you still need to prioritize your brother’s safety. If Yoon Seoyul doesn’t care about you or your brother’s well-being, only then he will be able to do anything."

Squeezing his hand out of her cold grip, Cheon Areum emotionlessly broke the pen between his fingers into two pieces before glancing at Lee Nari, whose smiley face had molded into a serious expression.

"Why do you like me?"

"Are you attracted to my beauty? I’m sure you can find someone even more beautiful than Cheon Areum..."

"No, it has to be you."

"I like you."

Lee Nari confessed in an unhumorous tone. That’s when he felt Yoon Seoyul’s energy enter the building.

"If you’re scared of Yoon Seoyul, don’t be; once we are married, my family will do anything to keep us away from him."

"Lee Nari, the thing you like already has an owner. It was bought a long time ago, and only the owner can take care of it now. If someone else steals it from the owner, it’ll break."

Lee Nari’s eyebrows furrowed slightly. With a troubled expression, she didn’t appear intimidating at all. More like a child who had been denied a purchase. Not wasting any more time on her, Cheon Areum got on his feet, slowly walking to the one-seater couch.

"Cheon Areum?!"

Lee Nari shouted, panic rising in her voice as she realized her body refused to move. Her limbs were cemented to the couch. Only her head remained free of his control.

"Your plan would have only worked if I didn’t have the skill Mind Corruption. Actually, no, it still wouldn’t have worked."

Cheon Areum spoke calmly, his tone disturbingly casual as he bent down and reached beneath the table. His fingers closed around the cold metal of a double-action revolver. He brought it up, clicking open the cylinder. The chambers gleamed under the light—fully loaded. He flicked it shut, the sharp snap echoing in the room as he firmly gripped the weapon in his hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Let’s go to the rooftop."

At his words, Lee Nari immediately got up from the couch, following behind him obediently as he walked out of the room through the open doorway into the hallway. The stairs were right outside the room. Cheon Areum passed the stairs leading downstairs when a man ran up those stairs in a rush, seeing Lee Nari, he urgently came close to her as he spoke in an alarmed tone.

"Lee Nari, evacuate the building! We already told Yoon Seoyul that it was Cheon Areum who kidnapped you, but he’s not buying it! We can’t reason with him, so take Cheon Areum with you and run away for now."

The moment the man finished speaking, a loud bullet shot rang out in the hallway. Lee Nari’s head flinched, startled by the sight as blood oozed out of the hole in the man’s foot, but the man didn’t scream; only his eyes widened in horror as he stared at Cheon Areum, who lowered the gun in his hand before giving the man another command.

"If anyone other than Yoon Seoyul comes up here, I’ll kill them. Give the message to the others waiting downstairs."

The man quietly walked back to the stairs with a bleeding hole in his foot, which didn’t affect his movements at all as he rushed back down the steps. Cheon Areum turned back, making his way to the rooftop as Lee Nari silently followed suit.

"Don’t even dare to scream if you don’t want your ability to speak to be taken away too."

"Areum... can’t you give me a chance too? I might have been attracted to you for your appearance at first, but I really like you as a person too now."

Lee Nari began speaking in a low voice behind him as they climbed the stairs.

"What is it that Yoon Seoyul has that I don’t? I’m richer than him, I can buy his whole guild for you if you want. I will treat you much more preciously than him. You can quit working as a hunter too. You can just stay at home, you won’t even have to get out of bed, you’ll be provided everything you want with just a word."

"If you want kids, I can give birth to your kids! You can still spend your heat with me, we can just not use our pheromones."

Lee Nari rambled on and on. Cheon Areum irritatedly stopped in his steps, wiping the sweat from his chin with the sleeve of his shirt as he turned around and finally snapped at her.

"Shut up! Just shut up!"

He glared at her as she looked up at him from a few steps beneath him.

"If you want to compare yourself to Yoon Seoyul, then you have already lost! He never forced his feelings on me!"

Lee Nari’s facial features became constricted, her eyes losing any leftover warmth as she yelled out in frustration.

"What other choice did I have? I have already tried out everything I could think of, but neither of you were affected by it. If I just waited for my chance, I would be sitting at your wedding with Yoon Seoyul right now!"

"That’s right, you never had a chance to begin with."

Clenching her fists, Lee Nari glared back at him as Cheon Areum faced it head-on.

"And what about Rian then? His life will be in danger if you continue to act however you want."

Cheon Areum slowly raised his right hand, leveling the revolver with Lee Nari’s face. The cold barrel pressed against her forehead, parting the fringe of her bangs as it settled against the skin beneath. His gaze remained fixed on her with chilling precision.

"Let’s hear the details then. What will happen to Rian if I don’t do as you say?"

"..."

Both of them stared at each other in silence for a while, but Lee Nari had nothing to say in response.

"Didn’t you say his life will be in danger? How so? Are you planning on torturing the kid every time I step out of line, or taking his life if I go against your wishes?"

Lee Nari still didn’t speak. Of course she wouldn’t. She had never kidnapped Rian in the first place. Lee Dohyun and Lee Nari were only using him because they knew Cheon Areum would do anything at his mention. That’s why he never asked for proof and played along with them so they could think he wouldn’t use his abilities carelessly.

"Lee Nari, I can tell that you would never harm a kid to have your way, so drop the act."

"How can you tell that?"

"Because I can see that you don’t have enough negative energy to do it."

"That’s ridiculous! How can you see that?!"

"Why can I see it? Because I’m no different from the same energy, I am also clouded in the same negative energy, it runs through my every vein, it’s the source of my abilities."

Cheon Areum explained in a low voice before his eyes were distracted; he glanced behind Lee Nari. The explosions had stopped while they were talking, and he could feel Yoon Seoyul’s energy ascending the building. Yoon Seoyul was on the fourth floor now.

"Let’s go now before Yoon Seoyul gets here."

Cheon Areum turned on his heel and continued ascending the narrow staircase, his footsteps echoing against the concrete walls. Behind him, Lee Nari followed closely.

"What are you planning to do now? Go back to Yoon Seoyul, you don’t have a reason to stay holed up here."

Lee Nari asked, her voice laced with curiosity yet thoroughly disappointed, as if she had completely given up on convincing him.

"I’m going to end the story."

He replied, reaching the heavy steel door that led to the rooftop. Cheon Areum grasped the handle and gave it a hard tug, but it didn’t budge—it was locked. Letting out a tired sigh, he backed away a few steps and kicked the steel door like a madman. The steel groaned under the assault before crumpling inward with a deafening crash, the entire door torn from its hinges and sent flying onto the rooftop floor in a violent clatter.

The overcast sky stretched above him as Cheon Areum stepped onto the rooftop. This was the place—the final scene of the book. The low, weather-worn walls of the rooftop where Cheon Areum had stood with the gun to his head, taking his own life, and the wind that blew harshly, sweeping his body off the edge and into the void below.

"Are you looking for something?"

"I’m finding the correct angle."

The wall Cheon Areum had stood on. The rooftop door was on his right side where Yoon Seoyul had come up from with Lee Nari hand in hand.

"This is the one."