‘This house is insanely huge.’
Once Jung Hwangyu, who’d been making a scene while sprawled on the sofa, went out as well, I was left alone in this enormous house. I stood there blankly, looking around the interior. What I needed to do now was probably clean this whole place. First things first—figure out what was where.
In novels, the background changes with a snap of the fingers, but reality didn’t work like that.
From the moment I became Park Gyumin, this place became my reality. Which meant I’d have to walk it myself to learn where everything was.
I started by making a full sweep of the first floor. Even the first floor had several rooms. The kitchen and living room, Park Gyumin’s room, Jung Hwangyeong’s room. The rest were either guest rooms or completely empty. Judging by how one room was packed full of various cleaning tools, that must be the storage. I picked up the vacuum first.
‘I’ll just do a rough clean of whatever dust I can see as I go.’
After finishing both the tour and cleaning of the first floor, I went up to the second.
“Oh, the second floor’s different too.”
It was even bigger than the first. With an explorer’s mindset, I opened door after door and went inside.
Even after checking quite a few rooms, there were still more left. What kind of house even had this many rooms? On top of that, most of them were empty.
“This one looks like a workout room.”
A room noticeably larger than the others held all kinds of exercise equipment. It seemed to be Jung Hwangyu’s space. It was set up like a proper gym, surprisingly nice to look at.
I stared at the machines with interest, then closed the door and came out. The room right next to the gym was a mess of clothes strewn everywhere. Flashy outfits that only punks would wear were piled up all over. They were the same kind of gaudy styles as the floral-patterned shirt Jung Hwangyu had been wearing when he left earlier.
What a sense of fashion….
‘Anyone could tell this is Jung Hwangyu’s room.’
I roughly folded the clothes and put them up, then looked around the room. Strangely enough, there wasn’t a single book in sight.
Wasn’t Jung Hwangyu a college student now?
I could practically picture what his campus life looked like without seeing it. Clicking my tongue, I left the room. There wasn’t much else to see. After sweeping through the entire second floor, I headed for the final third floor. The third floor probably held the rooms of the eldest, Jung Hwanhui, and the second son, Jung Hwangseo.
I recalled the contents of the book once more. The main male lead of this novel was Jung Hwanhui. A cold, urban man, but warm only to his woman. A gangster boss who ran a massive organization, so busy that he came home only two or three times a month at most. But once the female lead entered the house as a housekeeper, he started coming home constantly.
The second son, Jung Hwangseo….
‘Hmm… this one was a pretty problematic character.’
All the men in this household were problematic, but the second son was by far the worst. Slightly unhinged would be putting it kindly. The third son, Jung Hwangyu, was hot-tempered and nasty, but he was the same inside and out. Straightforward to deal with—perfect material for a gangster lackey.
But Jung Hwangseo was different.
The person the female lead found hardest to handle, the only one who never fell for her and instead toyed with her to the very end, was Jung Hwangseo.
A mentally unstable aberration.
A freak. A psycho. Someone you should absolutely never get involved with.
That was Jung Hwangseo.
‘Well, that’s only when someone catches his interest….’
He was utterly indifferent to people he didn’t care about. In other words, someone like me—an extra—had nothing to do with him. In fact, in the novel, Park Gyumin barely had any interaction with Jung Hwangseo at all. Occasionally, if Jung Hwangseo ordered an errand, Gyumin would take care of it. That was the extent of their purely businesslike relationship. So there was no need to worry too much. Besides, Jung Hwangseo wasn’t someone who came home often either.
With a relaxed mindset, I started wandering through the rooms. The third floor was clearly different from the first and second. Starting with a study, each room was fully furnished. The most eye-catching among them was a room filled with weapons. Swallowing hard, I was drawn into it as if hypnotized.
‘There’s everything here….’
Knives of various sizes, bricks, wooden clubs—anything that could be used as a weapon was gathered here.
I examined and evaluated the weapons one by one, only realizing after quite some time had passed. Regretfully tearing myself away, I left the room. There were still many rooms left to see. I couldn’t afford to linger here too long. As I continued exploring room by room, one room caught my eye—clearly the best-looking of them all.
Even the doorknob looked ominous.
That must be the room of the gangster boss, Jung Hwanhui, right?
I slowly approached it. What kind of room would the main male lead have?
Curious, I turned the doorknob.
Click, click, click-click.
‘…Figures. No way it’d be left unlocked.’
If it was the room of a gangster boss, it’d be full of confidential documents. Even if it was his home, there was no way he’d leave it open.
Annoyed at the firmly closed door, I clicked my tongue.
If I really wanted to open it, I could….
I ran through dozens of ways to pick a lock in my head. One of my subordinates had been especially skilled at that kind of thing, so I’d picked up a fair bit myself. I could probably open it if I tried. But I wasn’t curious enough to go that far, so I let it go and turned away. It’d be troublesome if I went inside and ended up causing some weird misunderstanding.
“Huh?”
What is that smell?
As I turned to leave, a pleasant scent suddenly stimulated my nose, making me stop and look around.
Where was it coming from? I’d never smelled anything like this in my life. A deep, penetrating fragrance I couldn’t describe in words. Without thinking, I walked toward where the scent seemed strongest.
‘It feels like it’s coming from this room….’
A room I hadn’t checked yet. Located at the far end, directly opposite Jung Hwanhui’s room.
“Haa…, ha.”
The closer I got, the clearer a thick moan became. As if possessed, I turned the doorknob. I’d expected it to be locked, but the door opened smoothly. Stepping inside, I froze, staring blankly at the scene before me.
A naked man.
Inside was a pale man, completely unclothed.
Black hair falling to his shoulders, a pretty face you could mistake for a woman at a glance, and especially those hazy black eyes with clearly defined double lids—they were strikingly beautiful.
And his body….
There were scars here and there, but even those felt like part of a sculpture.
A muscular body that contrasted with his delicate face. On top of that, his flushed face and body, reddened with arousal. The raw sexuality spilling from him made it impossible to look away, even though we were both men.
‘Obscene….’
The man’s languid gaze cut through the air and landed on me. His lips, red to the point of being vivid crimson, parted as he spoke.
“Who are you?”
A lazy, playful voice. In that instant, my mind snapped to attention. Red warning lights blared wildly in my head. It might have sounded teasing, but the killing intent within it was no joke. An aura that felt like he could tear me apart at any moment. Pure pressure.
I instinctively knew who he was.
The one person in this book you should never get involved with. The most deranged psycho in this world.
Jung Hwangseo.
“I clearly told everyone not to come in….”
I hadn’t heard that. It felt unfair.
I’d only possessed this book today, after all.
As Jung Hwangseo staggered to his feet, that same dense scent I’d smelled earlier surged from his body again. A fragrance so strong it made my vision swim.
‘…Don’t tell me this is that?’
Jung Hwangseo’s clearly unstable state, and his aroused body that forced itself into my vision whether I wanted it or not. There was no doubt about it.
A rut cycle. An alpha’s heat.
But wasn’t that scent something only omegas could smell? I should be a beta, shouldn’t I?
Before I could even think through the questions filling my head, the distance between Jung Hwangseo and me kept shrinking.
“…Well, I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. Anyone’s fine. Come here. Let’s play.”
‘Get a grip.’
I started thinking fast. In the book, it was said that alphas in rut weren’t in their right minds. Which meant there was a high chance Jung Hwangseo couldn’t recognize me right now.
If that was the case…. there was no need to bother running away.
It wasn’t like he wouldn’t chase me after already spotting me anyway….
A quick solution came to mind.
I closed the open door and stepped further inside. Now, inside this room, it was just me and Jung Hwangseo. His beautiful face filled my vision. He slowly licked his crimson lips with the tip of his tongue as he looked at me. His eyes burned with uncontrollable lust.
Bracing both hands against the wall, he caged me in and asked,
“…Up close, you’re really pretty. Pretty thing. What’s your name?”
With eyes that looked ready to pounce at any second, he still pretended to be sane enough to ask my name. It was almost funny.
Normally, there was no way he wouldn’t recognize me, the housekeeper. This was clear proof he wasn’t in his right mind.
Watching him, I clenched my fist tightly.
‘Which means I can beat the hell out of you until you snap out of it, and you still won’t know it was me.’
Every time Jung Hwangseo appeared in the novel, his deranged behavior was described in detail—and it had been infuriating to read.
If there were no repercussions, I’d always wanted to beat him at least once. Who would’ve thought the opportunity would come like this?
‘…Yeah. Who told you to grab me?’
Looking at Jung Hwangseo, far younger than me, I leaned in close to his ear and whispered softly,
“Baby, clench your molars tight. You’re gonna lose some teeth.”