The man who had just finished his entire cup of Purple Lean didn’t stop there – he grabbed mine as well.

All I could feel was the steady rise and fall of his chest through my cheek, still pressed against him.

“Thanks for the drink.”

He said dryly, crushing the now empty cup and pushing it into Lee Jae-kwang’s hand.

Through the narrow sliver of my vision, I saw Lee Jae-kwang’s hand clench tightly around the cup, his fist hovering in the air for a moment.

“…Ha. That stubborn bastard.”

Now that Lee Seol-won had drunk both cups of Purple Lean, there was no longer any excuse for them to fight.

The group of men led by Lee Jae-kwang exchanged a few snappy remarks before leaving. Words like “what we said earlier,” “our problem,” and “that woman” reached my ears, indicating that they were probably going to check on the woman they’d left in the bathtub.

I waited until the sound of the men’s footsteps faded before I raised my head.

“Are you out of your mind? Do you even know what…”

I was about to snap at him – how could he drink something without knowing what it was – but I stopped myself.

There was no way he didn’t know.

Just like me, Lee Seol-won had avoided the Purple Lean passed around by the staff, sneaking away from it whenever he could.

Why then?

Why now?

I couldn’t help but wonder if the day would ever come when I would truly understand what was going on in that man’s head.

“You’re crazy. Everyone here is seriously out of their minds.”

I didn’t know what to feel. Just a moment ago, he was someone I’d been so angry with that I wanted to slap him. A man I’d always felt hostile towards had suddenly taken my side and helped me in a terrible situation, and I had no idea what to say to him.

“What a ridiculous mess this is, really.”

I remembered that I had once heard that putting your feelings into words could help you calm down more than just bottling them up. So I deliberately mumbled to myself, trying to process the shock.

At the same time, I took a step back to put some distance between myself and Lee Seol-won.

I wondered if I was being too cold, especially after he helped me – but remembering what he’d done to Eun-sae, I knew I had no right to feel guilty.

Right now, everyone associated with that mansion looked dangerously suspicious to me. And Lee Seol-won was no exception. If anything, he made me feel even more uneasy because I couldn’t figure out what he was thinking.

Lee Seol-won looked at me calmly as I hesitantly backed away. Then he moved his lips.

“…Up.”

I didn’t quite understand what he was saying. I froze.

He repeated himself, this time in a slightly clearer voice.

“Go upstairs.”

“…Upstairs?”

Lee Seol-won gestured to the corner of the hallway.

Only then did I notice the stairs leading up to the third floor.

When I panicked and ran out of the room, it hadn’t even registered in my vision.

The stairs from the first to the second floor were right in the middle, clearly visible – but the stairs from the second to the third floor were hidden in a corner.

This mansion was really strange, like a maze.

“Go upstairs and enter the room at the end of the hall on the right.”

He didn’t say a word about being hurt or in pain.

Instead, he gave a small nod of his chin, nudging me forward.

“Stay there until morning.”

“What about you?”

I hesitated and finally asked the question when I noticed how pale his face had become in such a short time.

It seemed obvious that drinking such a large amount in such a short time had taken its toll on him.

I didn’t know how many cups the others here drank in a night, but surely they drank it slowly, over time.

If you compared it to alcohol, what he’d done was basically binge drinking.

“That’s none of your business.'”

Lee Seol-won said, drawing the line first.

“…Fine then.”

I had my own hands full worrying about someone else.

It would have been a lie to say that I didn’t feel any inner conflict, but in the end I turned away and left him behind.

After all, Lee Seol-won was more familiar with the mansion than I was, and he was Lee Jae-kwang’s relative.

He probably had his own plan to take care of himself.

I climbed the stairs and found the room he had led me to.

Even though I’d only gone up one floor, the atmosphere was noticeably quieter.

Then again, someone under the influence of this drug wouldn’t bother to find a staircase hidden in the corner just to climb all the way to the top floor.

The interior of the room wasn’t much different from the guest rooms on the lower floors – a double-sized bed, a small table that looked like it was there just for show, a single chair, and a bathroom with a similar layout.

Most importantly, the lock was intact.

The first thing I did was push the pin and lock the door.

“No cameras in here?”

Just to be sure, I scanned the ceiling.

Maybe because it was a rarely used room, I didn’t see the red light of a surveillance camera anywhere.

It seemed that cameras were mainly installed in places where people drank and had physical encounters – like the hallways or above the beds in the guest rooms.

“Oh—my bag!”

To my surprise, my bag was sitting neatly on the table.

I roughly folded and set down the coat he’d draped over my shoulder, then quickly opened the bag to check the contents.

Fortunately, both my phone and camera were intact.

“This should have been in my hands from the beginning…”

It was frustrating.

Because I had given my bag to Lee Seol-won and had just gotten it back, I hadn’t been able to record the murder that had taken place in the guest room earlier.

What had happened to that woman?

Lee Jae-kwang must have taken care of it by now.

How did he cover it up?

Was there still a chance for me to go out and secure video evidence?

But if I stayed near the guest room where the incident happened and ran into Lee Jae-kwang again, things could get even worse.

I wouldn’t be able to count on Lee Seol-won’s help next time.

Then… maybe I could at least film the drug-fueled party on the first floor?

But what if the drugged men downstairs were all out of their minds with lust? This place had probably turned into a full-blown animal kingdom by now. How could I be sure that I wouldn’t end up like the woman I saw earlier?

If I thought about my safety, staying in this room was the right choice.

My thoughts went back and forth.

I scolded myself.

‘Don’t rush – take your time to think this through. You have to make a careful decision, Seo-hae. There’s no one here to protect you.’

“…Wait a second.”

The person carrying the bag was Lee Seol-won.

This meant that it probably contained a record of his movements.

At the very least, it could give me a clue as to why he came to this mansion, what he did here, who he interacted with, and what they talked about.

Finally, I had a glimpse into Lee Seol-won’s daily life, something I’d been endlessly curious about.

I quickly pulled out the camera.

It was completely dead.

The nail salon owner who sold it to me had mentioned that it didn’t have much memory to begin with.

“She said I’d have to hook it up to a computer to view the footage…”

But there was no way there was a computer in that room.

After a moment’s hesitation, I connected the camera to my phone with the cable the owner had provided.

A smartphone was also technically a kind of computer.

But mine, having been carried around all day without a chance to charge, was already flashing a red low-battery warning.

Now the dwindling power had to be shared with the camera.

I couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of urgency.

I followed the file path and opened the folder.
Soon, the saved videos appeared on the screen.
I stared at the display, tracing his movements through the footage.

—“Are you going to inspect it?”

I searched for the point in the footage that started right after I put down my bag and went inside.

The first thing I heard was Lee Seol-won’s voice.

He was never warm to begin with, but now his tone was especially cold, enough to make even me jump.

—“N-no, sir.”

As expected, the staff didn’t argue and retreated quietly.

The footage clearly showed them bowing their heads slightly before hesitantly turning to leave.

Surprisingly, the footage was steady.

I had assumed that he’d just swung the bag around carelessly or left it somewhere, but Lee Seol-won had been carrying it carefully as he moved.

Unlike me, who had rushed into the mansion, he never entered the building.

Instead, the camera turned to the garden.

What followed was an endless, silent glimpse-no light, no people, just silence.

Now I understood why I hadn’t met him right away.

“What were you doing out here?”