Who could it be?

The unknown caller had called as often as every two or three minutes, and at most every ten or twenty minutes. Not even family or lovers behave this obsessively.

At the end of this relentless string of missed calls were several text messages. I took a deep breath and opened them.

— Hey, it’s you. It is you, isn’t it?

— Where are you? What are you doing?

— Were you sleeping?

— Were you sleeping, I said! You b*tch. Why don’t you answer?

— You b*tch. Are you really going to stab me in the back like that? Hyun Eun-sae, you b*tch. Are you having fun?

The writing style gave me a feeling of déjà vu. I quickly scrolled through the history of past messages.

—If you act boring again, don’t think I’ll let it go like today.

—You’ve lived in America, but you’ve never been really f*cked, right? If you don’t know, learn and bring it back.

—Still on your period? Fine, just come. It’ll probably feel new when I f*ck you after all this time with that bloody hole.

It was him. I was sure of it.

My heart dropped and crashed into my stomach.

***

“Seo-hae, is the food okay? Do you want another drink?”

I drifted off for a moment. Lately, this had become quite common for me. If I didn’t consciously force myself to stay awake, I would slip helplessly into complicated thoughts without even realizing it – while washing, eating, or just sitting on the bed before going to sleep. Hours could easily pass in this way.

“No, thank you. I think I’m a little drunk already. The meat is delicious, though.”

Because my name kept changing from Hyun Seo-hae to Hyun Eun-sae and back again, I was a little slow to recognize the voice calling me. I answered vaguely and quickly put another piece of meat into my mouth.

It was a banquet to celebrate the successful completion of the Gugak Festival. The members had kindly called to invite me, even though I couldn’t attend this time.

After stripping off my manicured nails, meticulously applied makeup, fancy party clothes, and sparkling jewelry, I returned to my original self, ordinary to the point of shabbiness.

It was as if the version of me that had worn thousand-dollar clothes and jewelry and experienced the hidden horrors of affluent drug, violence, and s*x addicts had never existed.

In my own way, I fought not to be consumed by the nightmares of that mansion. But despite my best efforts, the memories resurfaced unexpectedly.

“Eat up! When else can we enjoy Hanwoo beef to our hearts’ content? Meat always tastes better on the company menu.”

“That’s right, since it’s all from our hard-earned performance budget. By the way, Seo-hae, have you had a proper meal at home lately? How did you lose so much weight in such a short time?”

“Take care of your health. We are discussing updating our profile picture, and since you are the face of our group, Seo-hae, we thought you could help with it.”

“I have also created a new SNS account for broadcasting. I’m planning to arrange K-pop and classical music in Gugak and do live broadcasts. Seo-hae, you sometimes warm up with songs in the practice room, right? I’ve shared the ID and password, so it might be a good idea for you to try it out and broadcast your practice. What do you think?”

The colleagues offered their support and suggestions in their own ways. I nodded absentmindedly, pretending to eat while keeping my hands busy.

The attention of the members who had stayed to update me quickly shifted to other topics. I, too, put down my chopsticks.

— “You sl*t. Are you really going to stab me in the back like this? Hyun Eun-sae, you b*tch. Are you having fun?”

In truth, I felt like I was being stabbed in the back. At that moment, an unexpected new figure had appeared. No matter how many times I thought about it, I couldn’t shake off the shock.

Even when I was sleeping, the feeling of my heart sinking would wake me up in surprise, and no matter how expensive or delicious the food at the gathering was, I couldn’t taste it.

Who was this man?

What kind of face did he have? What kind of voice did he use? And with what intention did he send me this message?

Although everything was foggy and unclear, one thing was certain: Despite all my resentment, the person I suspected in the message wasn’t Lee Seol-won.

At the time of the early morning calls, Lee Seol-won had been lying down, drinking Purple Lean and writhing in pain from the effects of the medicine. Moreover, he hadn’t used his phone at all during the time we shared the same room.

Then Eun-sae revealed that Lee Seol-won was the one, the person I believed in without question – who could he be?

Eun-sae, who is this man?

Did Lee Seol-won, while discussing a political marriage with Heo Yeonseo after breaking up with Eun-sae, cause Eun-sae to meet another man in a fit of rage?

That was the most plausible possibility I could think of at the moment. If that were the case, it would explain the strange attitude Lee Seol-won had been showing me all along. It would also make sense why Eun-sae’s boyfriend had been quietly replaced by a random man without saying a word.

Of course, it was an incredibly dangerous and foolish decision. Trying to forget someone, or showing that you can live without them by rushing to meet another man, almost always leads to regret.

The men you meet in such situations are usually of poor quality. When you’re focused only on escaping immediate grief, your ability to judge someone’s character plummets.

The most harmful men tend to gravitate toward a woman at her most vulnerable.

In reality, by meeting this man, Eun-sae pushed her mind and body to the brink and ultimately chose death.

In reality, Eun-sae was pushed to the brink of her mind and body after meeting this man and finally chose death. Even I could see that he was nothing compared to Lee Seol-won – just pure trash.

How much could someone who made dozens of phone calls and immediately started insulting Eun-sae have done right by her?

I had always suspected that he wasn’t a normal person, but seeing it first hand made it even more horrifying.

The derogatory names he called Eun-sae twisted my heart with anger, and the words “b*tch” and “wh*re” were the words he used to refer to her.

Why the hell would our Eun-sae be called a sl*t or a b*tch? You son of a b*tch.

I can’t even tell you how much I debated whether or not to make a phone call right then. But a small voice of reason stopped me.

I didn’t fully understand the meaning of the message, and I didn’t even know who the person on the other end was. I wasn’t sure if I could properly pretend to be Eun-sae.

In order to communicate with him, I would have to convince him that I was Eun-sae, but I still didn’t have enough cards to play.

The decision to pretend to be Eun-sae in front of Lee Seol-won was based on the fact that I could imprint my face, which was so similar to Eun-sae’s, into his mind.

But with this man, I would have to rely only on the messages and my voice without such a possibility.

Besides, I had already made the mistake of misjudging someone once. I had to be more careful this time.

There was only one way to handle such a situation. I decided not to answer. I would remain silent and wait to see if the man’s intentions became clearer.

That day was the turning point. When I didn’t respond after checking the message, the man called again and sent another message.

— Hey, the reason I cut off contact was to give you time to reflect, not to leave you alone to do whatever you want. Don’t get it twisted.

So what? What should Eun-sae think about? The one who should think about it is the bastard who completely ruined the life of an innocent person.

As I kept silent, the man lost control more and more.

The more he did, the more I maintained my unresponsive stance, making sure to show him that I wasn’t reacting. I had all the time in the world. There was no need to rush.

I even tried to look up the number online, hoping to find some information about the person behind it. Of course, nothing came up.

“Oh, right. I heard something from an employee of the Songun Art Hall… You know, the way the Hani Dance Troupe acted a little cold towards us at the beginning, there was actually a reason for it.”

The members were still reeling from the recent Gugak Festival.

“What is it?”

“Gyujin is really something. He somehow hears all the rumors all by himself.”

“I guess I’m always out and about pretending to be friendly with everyone. Even though the Gugak Festival was originally planned to support Heo Yeonseo, we were invited as well, so I thought it was all for the best. But it turned out that Hani had already decided which gugak troupe they wanted to work with. They must have had some connections. But then, at the songun, Hani rejected the troupe they brought and decided to scout us instead.

“Really? How did the Songun even know about us?”

“Well, it’s pretty amazing. Of course, if you think about it, there are less than thirty gugak orchestras in total, including national, city, provincial, and private ones, so it wasn’t that hard to list and check them all. But for us to be chosen specifically… Wow, the more I think about it, the more incredible it is. How about we all go get our fortunes read sometime? Someone in our group must have had their fortune opened.”

“But surprisingly, I kind of like Heo Yeonseo. I was biased at first because she’s the daughter of a congresswoman, but she’s more ambitious and hardworking than I thought. During rehearsals, she was always the first one to show up and warm up.”

The mention of Heo Yeonseo’s name caught my attention. Without realizing it, I leaned in to listen more closely.