“Aah, ah...!”

And yet, even as her climax struck like lightning, her pussy burned with fever. He tugged her nipple into his mouth again, sucking hard as he thrust up from beneath.

Yes, this... this was it... How didn’t I know...? How could I not have known this...? A flood of emotions crashed into her—relief, pain, agony, and countless others.

“Huuhk, hng, ah...!”

Her breasts bounced helplessly. Their tightly joined sexes collided with sharp, wet slaps, growing steadily more intense.

She couldn’t breathe from how relentlessly he drove into her swollen, taut pussy. He zeroed in on the point where all her nerves tangled like a live wire and pounded it with his cock over and over.

With no mercy, he rammed into her, churning up her insides. Her vaginal walls spasmed tight, and with a sudden gasp, he yanked his cock out and cursed under his breath.

“Haa, haa...”

His trembling started in the forearms planted on the mattress and traveled up to his shoulders. Lee Wooshin clenched his abs, holding back the urge to come. Pressing a finger against the head of his cock, he struggled to tilt his neck side to side.

“Fuck... huu.”

As he lowered his hand [N O V E L I G H T] again, he pressed on her clit once more. A sharp jolt of pleasure blurred her vision. His fingers flicked at the swollen bud, teasing it until her juices spilled freely.

“My leg—wasn’t injured badly enough to make a fuss. The surgery went well, I’m healing fine. I just stepped out earlier for a bit. I was looking for you, just nearby.”

Her vision blurred completely. The excuse of pleasure gave her a reason to hide her unraveling eyes and face.

He scooped fluid from her stretched entrance and rubbed it quickly over her clit. The sensation was like her pussy had caught fire—her toes curled tight. Hnnng, mm...! The moans slipped out before she could stop them.

Her stomach was sizzling with need, like she was about to come again. In a flash, she flipped over. A tear slipped from her eye.

Seoryeong bent her knees and raised her hips. In that moment, something hot splashed against her soft buttocks.

“Han Seoryeong, you fucking—since earlier, you really...”

“I’m actually fully separated from my husband. So—”

The ragged breathing he’d been letting out near her tailbone stopped cold.

“I just... wanted to be held properly by my instructor.”

“......”

“I thought it might finally be okay now.”

She wiped her damp eyes against her arm and looked straight ahead again. Not seeing Wooshin’s face somehow made it easier. But contrary to her expectation that he’d thrust in again, the weight of him instead leaned heavily over her back.

They lay on their sides, facing the same direction, silently.

Seoryeong took in the sound of his quiet breath pouring over the nape of her neck like a rain shower.

She couldn’t guess at all what he was thinking. Her heart pounded unpleasantly, so she spoke, as if to shake off the feeling.

“There’s no other reason. I just feel lighter now, really.”

“......”

But the moment she turned toward Lee Wooshin, her lips were swallowed.

“Mm...!”

Wet flesh smacked and clung together greedily. His hot tongue plunged deep into her mouth, tangling without restraint.

At the same time, his hands efficiently grabbed behind one of her knees and pulled it up. His fully erect cock drove into her again without hesitation.

“Hnnng―!”

It was a beast-like position, but the way he hit her climax dead-on made her eyes roll back. The earlier ticklish sensations shifted rapidly into something breathless—until only the wet slap of skin against skin echoed through the hospital room.

His large hands clamped onto her lower stomach and hips. Thud, thud—every time she crumpled under the violent thrusts, he caught her and pulled her back in.

Whether it was full-on doggy style or her lying flat atop him, the position changed constantly depending on how he pulled her.

Seoryeong-ah, Han Seoryeong—he repeated her name again and again as he drove himself in. Every ruthless thrust made her feel like she was going to black out.

The twist of heat in her belly felt almost like the urge to piss, but somehow... it also made her want to vomit.

“Mm... stop, stop...!”

“What, was I too rough with you?”

“Stop...!”

Every time he slammed into her, it felt like something inside was being torn away. But she didn’t know what.

His pelvis clapped against hers hard enough to burn, but Lee Wooshin kept fucking her like he was hammering in a stake. The endless stimulation finally triggered something in her body.

Her inner walls, which had been stretching and clenching in rhythm, suddenly began spasming uncontrollably.

“Instructor, sir...!”

She cried out in panic, but all he did was devour her lips. The pleasure that had begun in her abdomen shot all the way down to her toes. Even as her thighs trembled violently from the inner tremors, he pushed in deeper and deeper without pause.

“Aah... ah...”

Her vision burst white, and a face flashed before her. She didn’t know if it was Lee Wooshin’s or Kim Hyun’s. Like a watercolor washed out by water—it blurred until it was unrecognizable.

She sobbed for a long time. It was a brutal kind of ecstasy. A shiver she wanted to tear out of herself. Had she still been on top the whole time? A sudden wave of nausea surged.

If so—

If I open and close my eyes, let me be back on that freighter...

Let me go back to before I ever saw Kim Hyun...

“I’ll protect you from now on.”

Warm lips bit gently at her shoulder blades.

Lee Wooshin... was Kim Hyun.

***

She kept going up and down the stairs, banging on the neighbor’s door without rest. It must’ve been about a month after Kim Hyun had vanished. Unable to believe it was real, she pounded on the door of that empty apartment until her hands were raw and cracked.

No way. No fucking way... But just like the police had said, there was no response from inside.

How could so many witnesses disappear all at once, overnight? Had she really gone insane? Seoryeong kept climbing the spiral staircase in the dark, endlessly looping in circles with no end in sight.

“Hyun... Hyun...!”

She called his name without even feeling tired anymore.

Seoryeong didn’t know how to end the nightmare. Her legs screamed as if they were tearing apart, and her breath caught high in her throat. If only someone would hold onto me...

“Instructor—!”

She called for him again. If it were him, she was sure he’d catch her. Her instructor—he’d follow her into any swamp, any hell.

And then, the floor gave way beneath her. The stairs were collapsing. Seoryeong flailed her arms as another front door loomed right in front of her.

As she plunged endlessly into a bottomless pit of darkness, someone yanked her back. A man’s warm arms wrapped around her, and she clawed at his face.

It was Lee Wooshin’s face.

“Stop...! Stop it!”

She screamed, but the dream-version of herself wouldn’t stop. In the end, she tore down one side of his face—

“――!”

Seoryeong jolted awake, her upper body shooting upright.

“Huff... huhh, huff...”

Her nape was slick with cold sweat. She looked down at her trembling hands as her chest heaved.

The sensation of tearing someone’s skin off still clung vividly to her palms.

Half Lee Wooshin, half Kim Hyun. The face—like a sheet of paper ripped in half—fluttered grotesquely in her memory.

Seoryeong silently looked down at the sleeping Lee Wooshin, then gently touched the marks still lingering around his neck. Her eyes blurred without warning, but she didn’t feel the urge to put ointment on him.

Slipping quietly off the bed, she borrowed Wooshin’s hospital gown and slippers and stepped out of the room.

His private room was far from the main station, making the hallway long and silent. Seoryeong staggered like a sleepwalker, yet never once stopped walking straight ahead. The lights along the hallway flickered weakly.

Bang bang bang, bang bang bang—!

Just like in her dream, Seoryeong hammered her fists against the neighbor’s door. Each time she mechanically climbed the hard concrete stairs, the early morning cold pierced straight through her thin hospital gown.

“I live upstairs... is anyone home...?”

But no one answered. The deja vu made it feel like she was still stuck inside the dream.

Bang bang bang—! She beat on the front door until her fists swelled red, but no one came. The hollow sound just echoed off the wall and came back to her.

“......”

She stepped back out of the villa and blankly looked up at the ghost-like house where no one lived.

Even when Wooshin had moved back in, he’d said he hated how quiet it was here. Aside from the newlywed home she had once shared with Kim Hyun, this place still felt utterly empty.

Her pale face suddenly cracked into a wide, eerie smile.

In that case, good. That’s perfect... I didn’t want to see this place ever again anyway...

Back inside the house, Seoryeong went straight to the kitchen. Click. She turned on the gas and placed a large frying pan on the burner. Then, she grabbed two bottles of cooking oil—one in each hand—and poured them both in. Not a hint of hesitation.

She shook the bottles violently until the last drop came out, oil splashing over her slippers as it overflowed. And still, her face remained completely blank.

The home where she had lived with Kim Hyun. The place where she had waited without moving a single step. The house where time had completely stopped.

She dropped a burning piece of tissue into the pan of oil.

With a burst, the flames shot up and devoured the upper cabinets.