“…What did I say?
Just give me my clothes,” Yeonsu said coldly, clutching the slipping sheet.
“Jang Iseok,” Seunghyun pressed.
“I asked how you know that name.”
She fell silent.
Jang Iseok.
She had invoked the name to provoke Seunghyun when he was adamantly refusing her.
It was the most intense and harrowing moment in his memory; she knew it would get a reaction.
But she couldn’t admit that to his face.
Yeonsu bit down on her lip.
‘Ah.’ It stung where Seunghyun had bitten and sucked on it all night.
“I’ve been thinking about how you would know that name.
You couldn’t have dug into my past.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your ability.
It’s a mental type, isn’t it?”
It was a thought Seunghyun had been mulling over ever since he met her.
He had a hunch and needed confirmation.
He didn’t miss the way her dark eyes wavered at his words.
“So I’m right.”
His guess was correct.
The woman was a rare mental-type ability user.
The moment his suspicion was confirmed, he felt as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over him.
If she had used her ability last night while he was completely defenseless, lost in her body, he would have been in grave danger.
A detective, of all people, not only sleeping with a suspect he’d just arrested but also being oblivious to the peril he was in.
He had basically laid his life on the line for sex, and the thought was infuriating.
“Do you always clam up when you’re at a disadvantage?
You were quite talkative yesterday when you were trying to get what you wanted.”
His sharp words, reflecting his foul mood, rained down on her.
A small sound escaped her lips.
Yeonsu’s mouth snapped shut, her face turning crimson as she remembered how she had pleaded with him.
She wished the memory would just evaporate, but its vividness only tormented her further.
“Since you’re not denying it, I’ll assume I’m correct.
Let me rephrase.
Did you say the name Jang Iseok to provoke me?
Did you read my memories?
Is that your ability?”
She didn’t respond.
In Yeonsu’s averted gaze, Seunghyun read an emotion he had seen countless times while interrogating criminals: regret and self-reproach.
Her reaction was so transparent he could read it in an instant.
“If I’m right, then your ability is despicable.”
“…What did you say?”
His taunt got an immediate reaction.
Her large, angry eyes glared at him.
They were so different from the golden eyes that had shone so bewitchingly last night, tempting him.
Now, they even looked faintly tragic.
The contrast gave Seunghyun a strange, ticklish feeling in his gut.
It might have been the afterglow of their night together.
Despite his mind refusing to stop replaying their encounter, his face remained a mask of indifference.
“An ability that reads people’s memories without their consent.
Isn’t that despicable?”
“You used your power to restrain and arrest me, Detective.
I just used my power, no different from what you did.
Why should I be criticized for it?”
“It is different.”
“Oh, right.
Because you’re on the side of justice, and I’m just some ability user rotting away at society?” Yeonsu shot back, her voice laced with sarcasm as she grew agitated.
The tooth marks he had left on her chest were clearly visible through the gap in her parted robe.
“No.
That’s not the problem.”
‘Get it together.’ He forced his gaze away and pressed her further.
“You used a memory without knowing what it meant to the person involved.
Is it justifiable to use that to get what you want?
You must know that even for ordinary people, invading someone’s privacy is a punishable offense.”
He continued, “That’s what you did to me.
And you used it as leverage to use my body yesterday.”
Yeonsu could tell the man before her had never once walked in darkness.
That was why he was so confident, so unabashed in his criticism.
She hated him for making her—a woman who had lived like a parasite in the shadows—feel so pathetic with that characteristic self-assurance of his.
“…Don’t you dare judge me.
You have no idea how I’ve… how I’ve lived my life as an ability user.”
The words sounded like a pathetic excuse even to her own ears.
In her earliest memories, she had never received warmth, not even from her parents.
There were just endless days of shivering in the cold for reasons she never understood.
“Of course I don’t.
And I have no need to know,” Seunghyun replied.
Even when surrounded by people, she felt like she was alone on a deserted island.
She hadn’t even known that feeling was loneliness.
The only human warmth she had ever known was from the man standing right in front of her.
“Do you think that absolves you?
The fact that you’ve had a hard life?”
She hadn’t expected him to understand anyway.
The man’s lips moved once more.
“If you had explained things properly—no, I still wouldn’t have allowed what happened yesterday, but I could have helped you find a better solution than that crude method.”
‘Crude method.’ Yeonsu’s face flushed.
The memory of how she had helplessly succumbed to the new sensations made it impossible to refute him.
But could she convince this man that it had truly been a first for her, too?
But would he even listen?
After a torrent of thoughts, Yeonsu spoke, her voice laced with defeat.
“Fine.
You’re right about everything.
So let’s just stop.”
Seunghyun could feel her fighting spirit deflate, just as he had intended.
His strategy had worked perfectly.
And yet, seeing the small woman’s slumped shoulders left a bitter aftertaste.
He had never cared about the lives of those with special abilities; only the consequences of their actions mattered.
But now, he found himself curious about the rest of the excuse she had been about to make, the one she had begun with those desperate eyes.
This was a first.
He forced himself to swallow the question he had almost asked.
“…First, get dressed.
And…” Seunghyun held out the clothes he had gathered.
She made no move to take them.
He placed them on the edge of the bed.
“About yesterday.”
At the subject he finally broached, Yeonsu’s slender shoulders tensed.
“I don’t know how it was possible, but you were right.
So let’s be clear: what happened was nothing more and nothing less than unavoidable contact to restore your condition.”
“…I know.”
She had been the one to want it at first, but she remembered begging him to stop by the end.
It was Seunghyun who, whispering ‘just a little more’, had refused to let go until she was on the verge of passing out.
Yeonsu sat up, looked him straight in the eye, and spat coldly, “And I’ll keep my mouth shut about how you, Detective, enjoyed that ‘unavoidable contact’ far too much.”
Seeing a crack form on Seunghyun’s handsome face, Yeonsu felt a small thrill of satisfaction.
“That’s—”
Ignoring him, she gestured with her chin toward the clothes and held out her cuffed hands.
“If you have nothing more to say, undo these so I can get dressed.”
Seunghyun approached with an expression of disbelief on his face.
‘She’s putting on a brave front when her eyes are trembling.’ He held her gaze as he took the handcuff key from his pocket.
‘Click.’
Her freed wrist trembled faintly as she rubbed it.
‘Don’t tremble.’ Hoping she appeared calm, Yeonsu picked up the clothes from the bed.
“Could you step out for a moment?”
But Seunghyun only took a few steps back.
Understanding the question in her eyes, he smirked, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
“Why would I trust you?
You can go in there if you want.
If you don’t like that…” he said, “…then get dressed in front of me.”
Yeonsu’s face burned with shame, but she quickly lifted her chin.
She refused to ask this man for anything else.
“Fine.”
Having steeled herself, she grabbed one end of the robe’s belt and pulled.
The robe fell open silently, revealing her pale, naked body.
Her skin, marked wherever he had forcefully touched her, was intensely provocative.
Seunghyun regretted his decision to sit facing her.
The memory of the pleasure he had taken from that body was sending reflexive signals through his own.
An awkward silence fell between them.
Yeonsu’s movements were composed, but to Seunghyun, they felt agonizingly slow.
He wanted to turn away to suppress the rising urge, but he couldn’t.
If he looked away, she would surely sense his arousal.
Last night had been enough of that.
Gripping the handcuffs so hard they might break, Seunghyun slowly crossed one leg over the other.
“I’m dressed.”
Seunghyun didn’t reply.
“Detective.”
Yeonsu was now fully bundled in the clothes she had worn the day before.
“Let’s go.”
Seunghyun toyed with the handcuffs for a moment before rising.
The swell of his arousal was impossible to ignore.
Ignoring it, he led the way and opened the bedroom door.
‘Ah.’ He turned to look at her as if he had forgotten something.
“As of this moment, you are under arrest for violating the Special Act on ability users.”