Chapter 1

Translator and Editor: Gina and Tea

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Chapter 1

“I like you…”

Yu-gyeom breathed heavily while kneeling in front of Hawon. His emotions overflowed as evidenced by the tears that slid down his cheeks leaving a wet trail. The eyes of the man looking down on him were deeper and darker than ever.

“I like you, Boss!”

Hawon’s fingers slowly combed through Yu-gyeom’s hair shining in the moonlight. Long fingers ran down the cheek that looked like it would burst if touched and lifted his chin. A tearful gaze met his eyes. Crystalline eyes that seemed they would shatter with a tinkling sound in the moment they met. Wrinkles formed on Hawon’s smooth forehead as he faced himself reflected on those eyes.

“Even though I know I shouldn’t do this… hyuuk!”

His lips were blocked from naming the emotions that had been denied, again and again, as a tearful cry leaked through the small gap between their fervent lips. Hawon roughly blocked his cry and pushed Yu-gyeom back. Further back.

“Ha…”

Leaning against the wall, the bodies tangled and writhed as if trying to inhale and swallow each other’s breath. The lips slowly parted with a breathless moan. Hawon’s gaze was still fixed on the lips glistening with saliva. In the darkness that filled the room, the man in Hawon’s arms shined provocatively.

“The first time, the first time I saw you–”

“…”

“I knew I would love you like this!”

Like a child’s clumsy confession, his words tickled Yugyeom’s ear.

“And when you pointed your gun at me I knew–”

Hawon tilted his head and smiled languidly as the two shadows overlapped again.

“That we would end like this.”

* * *

“Heeyuk…!”

The dream ended as if it was dragged out and evaporated into unconsciousness. Sunlight poured brightly on my heavy eyelids. Blinking my cloudy eyes a couple of times, my vision gradually became clearer. It didn’t take long for me to realize that this place, where I was lying, contained a large, luxurious bed that took up more than half the studio in which I had been living the last three years. At the end of my slowly moving gaze was the back of a hand with a needle inserted on it. Only then did some last memories come rushing in like a tide.

“Kiieeeeeh!”

“Milady? What’s happening?!”

“Who are you? Don’t say- is that a real gun?!”

“It’s dangerous, Milady! Get down from there!”

Literally, memories from some kind of pandemonium. I covered my mouth before I could scream.

‘What kind of crazy shit did you do?’

To find the cause for this mess, I thought back to the day before opening my eyes in this bed. Twenty-five years old. After taking a mid-study break, I was about to graduate. That day too, I had spent the whole day busy with assignments, but I was able to fit in a run in the morning.

“Let’s drink and die! Cheers!!”

Frankly, I may have gone a bit too far. Seeing that my memory was hazy, it seemed that the video record of my night was cut halfway through. And when I woke up, like a Princess in a strange land, I was lying in this place I had never before seen.

Five times the size of my 9-pyeong* small but cozy home, the room around me was so spacious that it was difficult to even call it a ‘room.’ At first I thought it was a dream, then I considered human trafficking. But then I touched a vase, knocking it accidentally to the floor, where it smashed into pieces. But the moment when the vase I accidentally touched fell to the floor and shattered–

“Milady, what’s going on?!”

When I saw men with guns rush through the suddenly burst open door, I screamed.

“First, can you come down from there… Milady, Please!!!”

I think I stood on the windowsill, holding onto the lace curtain, crying and screaming for a long time. Brutal scenes from noir films flashed through my mind, and dozens of stories with black suited men and guns unfolded. And then…

Why did I faint? I tilted my head forward and tried to wrest the most important part of the lost memory from my head, but I couldn’t remember anything else about the night before I passed out, much less that night when I partied like a wild thing. An important fact. I think I forgot something very important.

Knock, knock. Someone knocked. I quickly left the bed and headed toward the window where I had affectionately held my curtain while crying and shouting for my life.

“Heol~”

I had no intention of jumping. However, my heart skipped a beat upon noting the scenery outside the window that I had not seen before fainting. Beyond the large window where sunlight poured in, I could see the endless blue sea behind buildings with exotic structures. The sparkling jewel-like sea was a marvelous sight.

“The windows are locked.”

At that moment, I heard a strange voice. I felt as if my heart would sink. I didn’t realize that the knocking had stopped and the door was opened, because I was blinded by the outside view. I turned in surprise and a man was standing behind me and looking at me with a weary expression. He wore a black suit like one of those men in my memories before fainting, though, perhaps because of his warm aura, he gave off a different atmosphere from the others.

“Who are you?”

I felt a sense of incongruence at the high pitched voice that came off as if screaming, but I was not relaxed enough to think about it at this point. Startled by my question, the man’s eyebrows furrowed, but he spoke calmly as if he quickly had realized something.

“You might not know, my name is Ji-Woon. Although, you may recognize me as the Boss’s secretary.”

Ji-Woon? Boss? What the– He spoke calmly as if stating something familiar, but five trillion question marks flashed through my head in an instant. I almost asked what kind of bullshit was that, but, fortunately, that thought remained unspoken. I stared blankly at the poised eyes watching me for a moment. He was patiently waiting for my response. And at that moment, a ridiculous idea flashed through my mind.

‘…It can’t be!’ I shook my head hard before even a second had passed of having such a ridiculous idea. ‘If I ever drink like this again, I’m certainly not human!’

It’s really crazy. Just my imagination. However, as if I had found the missing piece of a puzzle, even though I knew it was utter nonsense, things that fitted this incomprehensible development began to come to mind. It was ridiculous. This… couldn’t be right.

“Ji-Woon, by any chance… are you good at shooting? Like, you pretend to be a smart secretary in charge of intelligence, but actually, you’re quite a frightening well-versed marksman.”

“What does that…”

The face of the man named Ji-Woon distorted greatly. His cool eyes convinced me that I would get hurt if I went any further.

“A bulletproof vest in your jacket.”

Nevertheless, once the idea was in my mind, the words that shouldn’t be said vomited from my mouth.

“And do you carry two guns?”

“Miss Yeonbyeol.”

I felt my face pale at the name that Ji-Woon uttered. Even if I didn’t hear any answers, his stiff face told me that it was all true. The man approached me hurriedly. Preoccupied with thoughts that threatened to make my head explode like a grenade, I didn’t even think about avoiding him.

“How did you know?”

It was only after a dark shade cast over my eyes that I realized he had come close enough for me to feel his breath. I lifted my head.

“My name is Yeonbyeol? Cha Yeonbyeol?”

“What the hell are you saying right now?”

Ji-Woon. Cha Yeonbyeol. And,

“Baek Hawon.”

It came to mind. Like a tsunami approaching land and sweeping away everything in its path. The memory of that night that I had forgotten. After returning home, I lay down in bed and looked for my cell phone. And like a habit, I went to the web novel page.

“Woah, really insane. Crazy…”

“No! Don’t die! How am I supposed to live if you die?!”

In the days of my misspent youth, I was half crazy about romance novels that were close to fantasy. I read, read again, and then I would take a break and binge read each all over again. It was the only joy in my life. Thus, I was reading that day as well.

“Milady? Where are you going now?!”

I forcibly ripped my IV off and ran from the room past Ji-Woon.

Baekcheon. On the surface, it was a financial company that entered Russia and Europe, mainly in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, and Taiwan, but the company with a size comparable to that of a large corporation was just a façade. In reality, from casinos to drugs and guns trade, it was an organization established over several generations that held the backbone of the world in its fist. The main base was located on an island that didn’t even appear on maps. In the building called ‘Square,’ in the center of the island, some executives and even the same Boss, Baek Hawon, lived there. Since there was too much hidden information about the main structure of the building, it was quite difficult to understand it and enter without getting lost. It was the same for the original ‘Cha Yeonbyeol’ who was Baek Hawon’s sibling only in name, but I was different from her.

Check. You need to check and confirm it. I ran along several paths recalling the descriptions I had read in the novel. The marble floor glistened in the sunlight cascading through the tall stone pillars aping a Roman temple. My heart tightened as I walked down the hallway. It was just as I had imagined.

The Boss had two offices. One was the official office known to all, placed on the first floor; and the other was the place where he actually spent most of his time, a room known only to those whom Baek Hawon trusted the most, such as Ji-Woon.

“Miss!”

Ji-Woon shouted from behind, but I didn’t stop running. Drops of blood fell from the back of my still unhealed hand, staining the white marble scarlet.

《Black hair with a hint of blue reminiscent of a vast night sky. Black eyes deep as the abyss. A sharp nose, craggy like it had been hewn by waves.》

《No one could have imagined that the cold-blooded head of Baekcheon, who was called a ruthless demon, would have such a beautiful appearance.》

I recalled the sentences that I had read and reread more than ten times. I was out of breath. Blood flowed dizzyingly from the back of the hand where I had ripped the needle out, but I couldn’t stop. I had to check. I had to confirm it.

So that I can understand.

I stopped in front of the plain white door, which could easily be mistaken as part of the wall.

“It can’t be. It certainly isn’t.” I wished for this to be a dream. But the cold touch of the doorknob was enough to wake me, and I turned it breathing raggedly. As I opened my closed eyes, I couldn’t help but cover my mouth with both hands.

“…”

The moment I saw the face of that person standing before me in the same space, I could deny it no longer. This was the world of a novel I read before. It was just as I imagined it and pictured it in my dreams. No, it was beyond that. To the point where the word ‘beautiful’ used in the novel fell short,…

Oh how insanely handsome this man is!!!

At first, I was dazed by a face that seemed to have been shaped by God Himself.

“…!”

However, the moment I saw the gun pointed at my face and blocked me from seeing his, the most important thing I had forgotten came to mind.

“How did you know this place?”

His voice was cold enough to send chills down my spine. His cool eyes flashed quietly like a wild beast ready to devour its prey. The gun, loaded so that it could be fired with the small movement of his finger, was not withdrawn even when our eyes met. As if ice water had been poured over me, I snapped back to my senses.

I didn’t possess the heroine of this novel like those female characters in the most common romance fantasy novels. Neither the villainess who will capture the male lead’s heart nor a supporting side character who would change her fate and take the place of the original heroine.

“There’s no way Ji-Woon would have told you about this place. Are you going to act coy now?”

Baek Hawon tilted his head crookedly and permitted himself a malicious smile.

The name of the body I had possessed was Cha Yeonbyeol. Villain woman #1 who dies at the first meeting of the main characters.

And the title of the novel was〈The Boss’s Man〉

It wasn’t a romance fantasy novel with a Prince,

It was a Crazy AF, Noir, BL novel.**

——

*Pyeong: Korean traditional unit of space. This is often used to measure the size of building space and the size of land space. 1평 = 3.3 m^2. So~ 9평 = 29.7..m^2 or something, I’m actually bad at maths

**Crazy AF and Noir: okay~ I want to say something about this. The word used here is 막장 (Makjang) which is a slang word that means something so insane, ridiculous, and dreadful that it can’t get any worse. Dramas with this tag are always stories with dark plots, mystery, murder, and so on. e.g ‘Did you read the ending? It was freaking insane-makjang-‘ And since we (Tea and I) couldn’t find a fitting word for this, well, we used the most common idiom to express it in English lmao. Also~ Noir is a subgenre of crime fiction. In this subgenre, right and wrong are not clearly defined, while the protagonists are seriously and often tragically flawed. Generally featuring a disturbing mixture of sex and violence.

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