It was just called a garden, but it wasn’t very well kept or beautiful. that dark place, the only thing you could see was the overgrown grass that grew wildly in all directions.

Lee Seol-won walked through it in silence, slowly, as if taking a leisurely stroll. There was not a single sound coming from the mansion, and the only sound captured in the video was the faint rustling of footsteps on the grass.

The battery was running low, so I skipped through the video at intervals. Even so, the screen never left the garden. Lee Seol-won stayed there for almost half an hour before he finally went inside the mansion.

I turned up the volume. Mixed sounds of music and laughter could be heard faintly, but the distance made it impossible to hear what was being said.

It didn’t matter. As long as I didn’t miss anything related to Lee Seol-won or anyone who interacted with him, it would be fine.

“I’ll take your coat and bag for you.”
“No need.”

He dismissed the approaching employee without hesitation. Without so much as touching another person, Lee Seol-won began to walk. From that point on, he returned to the gait I was familiar with – his pace quickened and his strides became longer.

From what I had seen, Lee Seol-won’s walk, with his tall frame and long legs, gave an impression of clarity and confidence. At times, however, it also seemed sharp and cold, as if designed to keep others at a distance.

With those long strides, Lee Seol-won walked straight up the stairs. He didn’t hesitate for a second. He didn’t meet or interact with anyone.

With an efficient route, he came directly to the room I was in and put down his bag.

That was it.

There was nothing – so much that it seemed almost absurd.

Even sound was scarce; he remained silent the entire time.

After sitting in a chair and resting for a while, Lee Seol-won checked the time and suddenly stood up.

This was the last thing the camera captured. His bag stayed in the same place until the camera turned off when the battery finally died.

My phone’s battery died at the same moment.

Everything that happened after that was just my memory.

He came down and grabbed me, drenched, panicked and staggering.

He shielded me from the group of junkies led by Lee Jae-kwang, took the drugs in my place, told me which room was the safest, and sent me upstairs.

The more I replayed each moment, the more stunned I became.

Was that really all he did today?

If that’s all, why did he bring me to the mansion in the first place?

If he wanted to play with me, he should’ve just stuck to that – but no, he gave me the poison and then the cure.

He’s not consistent.

No matter what words I use, it’s hard to accurately describe this tangled, confused mess of emotions.

He’s a terrible person.

A really strange person.

A really… I don’t know.

What I didn’t understand was myself – the fact that despite everything, I had unlocked the door that I had firmly closed and was now walking down the stairs looking for Lee Seol-won.

Hadn’t I always wanted to see that man in pain?

Compared to the torment Eun-sae was going through, what he was going through was nothing. There was no reason to feel sorry for him.

The wiser choice would have been to stay in my room until morning and focus on my own safety.

I knew all that – rationally, I did.

But the traces he left in the video left a strange impression on me.

Could there be something I don’t know? Some story I’m not aware of?

In the video, Lee Seol-won seemed deeply unsettled by the mansion.

Would a man like that really bring me here for no reason that I might not even know?

A doubt I had never considered before suddenly reared its head.

Then… was the man who caused Eun-sae’s death… really Lee Seol-won?

Where exactly did this unsettling aftertaste come from?

To get to the bottom of this new, nagging question, it seemed like the better option was to face Lee Seol-won directly and observe his every move with my own eyes.

“Lee Seol-won, what is it? What’s going on?”

But the moment I came down the stairs, I saw Lee Seol-won slumped against the wall as if he had collapsed, half unconscious.

One arm was resting precariously on his knee, which he had pulled up halfway, and his head was hanging low, as if he no longer had the strength to hold it up.

This was the same man who had maintained a perfect posture in front of Lee Jae-kwang and his friends.

Even when he sent me upstairs, although he looked pale, he was still standing firmly on his own two feet.

What the hell happened after I left?

“Pull yourself together!”

I knelt down and gently shook his shoulder.

The cold sweat on his face, the uneven sound of his breathing, and the way his forehead was furrowed with pain-it all came into focus.

“Can you hear me? My voice… Lee Seol-won, Lee Seol-won!”

I called his name, but there was no response.

Suddenly, a chill ran down my spine.

I remembered the dead woman I saw in the bathtub.

That damp, cold, pale-skinned woman.

Why now?

I felt completely lost.

What was I going to do?

The only first aid I really knew was how to press the pressure point between my fingers for indigestion – CPR was something I’d only heard about in theory. And even that was vague at best.

Should I call one of the staff downstairs?

But… could I even trust them?

“Ah-911!”

I quickly reached into his jacket.

I tried to find his cell phone and call 911.

Even if I didn’t know the exact address, 911 could track the location and send help.

“Don’t.”

As I fumbled through his clothes, he suddenly grabbed my wrist and held on to it, clothes and all.

Startled, I gasped for breath, but then I saw him slowly open his eyes, however faintly, and I let out a sigh of relief.

“Lee Seol-won, are you with me? Do you know who I am?”

“Hyun…”

He exhaled slowly.

“…Eun-sae.”

His answers came haltingly, but the fact that he recognized me meant that he wasn’t completely out of it.

Quietly relieved, I pressed him again.

“Lee Seol-won, don’t lose consciousness. I’ve never done CPR before, okay? I can’t take responsibility for what happens next. Where’s your phone? We need to call an ambulance now.”

“No calls.”

Lee Seol-won let out a ragged breath and rested his forehead on my shoulder. His skin was burning hot.

“What are you… You need to go to the hospital!”

“I’m fine. I’ll be better soon.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Why did you come down here? You should go back upstairs.”

“Is that really what you want to say?”

I was speechless.

He couldn’t even hold himself up properly, yet he insisted that he would be better soon, told me not to call 911, and wanted me to go back upstairs – it was stubbornness bordering on sheer nonsense.

And all the while, he remained perfectly still, his feverish face pressed against my shoulder.

“Get up.”

Either way, the two of us couldn’t stay here like this all night.

If he was going to be sick, he should at least go upstairs and lie down in a quiet room.

I helped Lee Seol-won to his feet.

Our height difference made it difficult, and I almost stumbled a few times myself.

When I realized that I couldn’t support him properly with my heels, I took off my shoes, held him in one hand and draped one of his arms over my shoulder.

“It’s not far, so walk slowly.”

I glanced sideways at his face as I started to walk. Lee Seol-won’s condition was clearly not normal, and it made me feel increasingly uneasy.

Was it really just codeine mixed into the purple lean?

The woman who died had taken several drugs at once, so it made sense that the worst side effects would hit her all at once. But codeine is a relatively mild drug – could it really mess someone up that bad?

“Do you have any underlying medical conditions?”

I wanted to ask if there was any other health problem that might have made his condition worse.

“I’m going to kill you tonight.”

Here we go again.

The drugged men in the rooms were making ridiculous boasts, and the women with them were screaming exaggerated moans loud enough to shake the hall.

“Ahh, ahh, yes, kill me, please, ahng!”

The filthy sound rang in my ears.

I bit my lip and held back a sigh.

Never before had I felt so clearly the truth of the saying that people are ultimately ruled by their primal instincts.

To be honest, people who’d lost all reason and were driven by nothing but lust were worse than animals.

Underwear was carelessly strewn around the hallway, and those with exhibitionist tendencies had deliberately left their doors open to have s*x where everyone could see. Even now, if I turned my head, I’d see n*ked men and women intertwined in one of the rooms.

They showed no shame at all for their explicit acts – and yet I, who only had to walk past them, felt like I was going mad with embarrassment.

I didn’t even dare to look at Lee Seol-won’s face.

I kept walking silently, checking him out of the corner of my eye to make sure he was still able to walk.

When he suddenly stumbled, I quickly caught him.

“Careful!”